michael lambe

Luka (The Alan Quatermain of Kyoto)

So some time ago I was sitting in Pagode (http://www.h3.dion.ne.jp/~pagode/ - a very nice bar on Kiyamachi with a superb view and not enough customers) chatting with Luka (the Alan Quartermain of Kyoto) and Luka said he was going to a free music festival in Tokyo and I said “What kind of music is that then?” and he said “Who cares? It’s free.” And then I said “Right… er, can I come?” and he said “Sure, why not?” So around 5 o’clock last Saturday morning, myself and 7 other characters I barely knew (then) piled into a van and drove to Tokyo. The music festival turned out to be Earth Day at Yoyogi Koen (http://www.earthday-tokyo.org/2006/message.html) and I had a top weekend all round seeing old friends, enjoying the festival atmosphere and of course LIVE MUSIC… Of course there was a rich assortment of hippies, idealists and pure wackos there to be appreciated too, like these guys: http://www.retired.jp/ who I actually quite liked because they gave me some sunflower seeds, and were super enthusiastic about it, and then there was another chap in a penguin suit representing a vegetarian organisation that seemed suspiciously religious so I said “So is your organisation… religious?” and he said “No! No! It’s not religious at all! Nothing to do with religion!No!” And I said “Who’s this Supreme Master Ching Hai then?” To which the penguin advised me to check out this suspiciously religious website: http://www.godsdirectcontact.org.tw/eng1/index.htm (featuring a fantastically unremarkable anecdotes section). I said thank you and then immediately went and had some takoyaki.
(Learn about Takoyaki here: http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia14/whata02.html)

(Learn how to make it here: http://www.bento.com/tr-tako.html)

(Learn about “Gimme Gimme Octopus” here: http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/LG/Octopus/Music_Video.mp4 - Thanks Bridgie!)

Anyway, about the music, I have to say the best thing about this kind of event is that you have a chance to sample all kinds of music that you wouldn’t normally listen to, and expand your horizons blah blah blah… I have to say that, but sadly I’m an old bore who sticks with what he knows, so I saw Love Psychedelico (http://www.lovepsychedelico.net/english/pro/index.html -not to be confused with Love Psychedelica) who were fairly pleasant and whose singer, Kumi, has an infectiously minx-like smile; Razoku (http://www.razoku.ne.nu/) who played some nice guitar funk and had the crowd kicking; Bonnie Pink who I like a lot ( see how cute she is on the “So Wonderful” video here: http://www.bonniepink.jp/); and finally UA. Previously all I knew about UA was that she was a funny looking actress on an intriguing DVD I watched a while back: 水の女　DVD (http://www.hmvjapan.jp/product/detail.asp?sku=1998510). She was the last to perform on Sunday and there was a long wait between acts during which some drunken twats got all rambunctious and one old drunken twat got a little bit too back to nature and started waving his wee skinny lad around. Then UA skipped pixy-like on stage and started singing and everyone stood there in the rain and shut up and just listened in pure awe. What an amazing voice! At first I thought “Hmmph! A bit arty for me…” but her music gradually started affecting parts of me I didn’t know I had. Finally she sang this song about how the sun was going down this one time, and it was getting dark and gloomy and the crows were gathering in the trees and about how she had this somewhat unnerving presentiment of doom so she went to see an old fortune-telling lady and the old fortune-telling lady said “Don’t worry dear. You’ll be fine”. Which sounds fairly dumb when I write it but when she sings it… she has an ancient soul I reckon. http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/ua/uauaua/index.html I might even spend some money buying her CDs.

After that, one of the highlights of the weekend for me was meeting up with Takako and Reiko who I used to teach way back when they were high school students in Fukushima. Takako is off to Belgium soon to pursue her dancing career and also to be with her new Belgium boyfriend (lucky sod) and Reiko is working away at her art and you can check out her gallery here: http://www.mmp-n.com/~vitamin/vcm/kamiyama/gallery.html (I like the lion). It’s always very refreshing to talk with those girls because they seem so clear minded in their pursuit of their dreams… even if it that means not always taking the easier path… Kind of inspiring.