michael lambe's scrapbook

Last Christmas, at home, my old friend Mike Potter (aka Big Lanky Geordie – even though he’s not a Geordie!) introduced me to the music of Rachel Unthank and the Winterset. I immediately fell in love with them and their music and ordered myself a copy of The Bairns. These are lovely, smoky, earthy songs sung in haunting harmonies, backed by fiddle, cello and piano and also sometimes their stomping feet.
This next one is my favorite song. Click the audio button to hear it (if the button doesn’t appear after a few seconds right click on the Mp3 link to hear it on a separate page). I’ve posted the lyrics below.

Audio Mp3

Blackbird

I know why the blackbird sings
A song so pure that comes from his heart
He sings for his love who won’t come back
He sings because he is sad

He sings because he is glad
He sings because he is free
Free to love somebody else
Now he has abandoned me

I know why my baby cries
She cries for the love she’ll never have
The love that will take her far away
So far she never comes back

Come back, come back, come back
Come back, come back, come back
Come back, come back, come back

We are just a break in the waves
We are just a feather in the storm
Windward or taken by the tide
To places we call home

I know why the blackbird sings
A song so pure that comes from his heart
He sings for his love who won’t come back
He sings because he is sad

I can listen to that time and time again… Anyway, in recent months they have been both nominated for a Mercury Music Award and today, no less, they are on boingboing – which effectively means they’ve gone global! Not bad for a group of clog-dancing Northumbrian folk musicians. I wonder when they are coming to Japan?

Here are some more (downloadable!) mp3 clips from The Bairns.

You can order The Bairns on CD from amazon.com, amazon.co.jp, or amazon.co.uk.

First some links. On Deep Kyoto tonight, there’s a fresh post up on boogaloo cafe and deli. And on Japanese Reboot we have a couple of expressions relating to Koubou Daishi, a heroic figure of Japanese buddhism.

The weather changed suddenly over the weekend and caught my immune system by surprise it seems as I have succumbed to a sneezy virus. I sniffled all the way through my Saturday night class and then spent all of Sunday and most of today in bed. Still it’s perfect weather for a sick day – raining. I love listening to the rain from my nice warm futon when I know I don’t have to get up and go out in it. Saturday night, by the way was the private group class I started up in July with six ladies of my aquaintance, and despite my sniffles it’s going nicely. I usually use all my own materials but I found some good downloadable stuff on this site: www.bogglesworld.com. All very easy to use or adapt.

I was interested today to hear that Jack White & Alicia Key’s theme song for the new OO7 movie Quantum of Solace has entered the charts (the first ever duet sung for a Bond movie!). So I did a quick search and listened to it and thought “Ah yes! There’s Jack White’s trademark barebones sound! There’s Alicia Key’s soulful soulfulness! There’s a bit of old-style big band Bond-tastic bombast! ” And then I thought, “God! That’s really bad!” What a dreadful mishmash it is! Really it sounds truly awful. I keep listening to it and I can’t bring myself to like it. A shame, as I did like Chris Cornell’s song for the last movie You Know My Name a lot. Listen for yourself here. The producers would have done a better job if they’d hired Joe Cornish with this:

Still for every Shirley Bassey there’s a Lulu I suppose. And hopefully, this is no reflection on the upcoming movie which I’m really looking forward to and which irritatingly won’t be released in Japan until January. Still the trailer looks good. LINK Here are some mp3 clips from the classic Bond soundtracks:

Which one’s your favorite?

This is both funny and terrifying at the same time.

You can watch it on a bigscreen here: LINK

The problem with blogging is that unless you are an anonymous blogger and the peeps that read you are total strangers, there is no way you can write about the really juicy stuff that happens to you day by day because if you did you’d land yourself in a whole heap of shit with a whole lot of people. If I were to tell you about the really nice chap I met today IN ANY DETAIL AT ALL  (as to why I met him for instance and what we talked about) I would be getting it in the neck from several quarters. Again, if I were to tell you anything about the two hour phone conversation I had this evening in distressingly difficult Japanese, I would get it in the neck from a whole set of different directions. Neither am I at liberty to tell you that much about the really fun stuff either – there’d be hell to pay. I guess what I’m saying is it’s difficult to COMPLAIN and WHINGE when I want to, or indeed to BRAG and GLOAT on other occasions and get away with it. So instead I talk about the news. Or rather I link to other people talking about the news far more proficiently than I ever could.

But believe me behind the scenes in mikeylambeland – total madness.

Anyway, until I have grown and nurtured a nice, safe life (with nothing but mutual respect and understanding on all sides) that I can actually talk about publicly, here is Charlie Stross’s take on the current financial crisis and the Bush administration’s ridiculous answer to it. Of everything I’ve read he puts it most succinctly: SHIBBOLETHS

And here is yet another clip from the Daily Show, showing in awesome clarity the Bush administration’s use of fear as a tool to manipulate the masses.

In an attempt to actually make some money from my unhealthy blogging obsesson, I’ve been tweaking this blog (and Deep Kyoto also) a lot recently; adding an extra column and a lot of amazon stuff, mp3 players etc… Let me know if it get’s annoying. Up on Deep Kyoto tonight there is a fresh post on cafe and cake shop Sugary. And on Japanese Reboot there are some foxy phrases here, here and also here.

Japan Focus has posted a nice piece of non-fiction manga (in English!) by Mizuki Shigeru the creator of the famous youkai series “GeGeGe no Kitarou“. Entitled War and Japan it starts off explaining how it was for Japanese people in general during the war and then tells of Shigeru’s own experiences serving overseas (he lost an arm and many many friends). I read it yesterday and found it very interesting indeed. There’s quite a long introduction to it by Matthew Penney, but you can skip that and just scroll down to the cartoon if you want to. Shigeru tells his own story better than anyone else can. LINK

This news today in the Independent and the commentary on Worldchanging that we are all effectively doomed, (I mean even more certainly doomed than we already thought we were) was quite depressing.

Finally, I found this video of bad-ass Taro Aso on boingboing this morning and it made me laugh despite being doomed, so here you are.

Being foreign in Japan, one is often told one resembles famous foreigners whether one does so or not (because, you know, we all look alike). During the last eleven years I have been variously told I resemble Gary Oldman and (titter ye not) Johnny Depp, and (somebody did actually say this) Brad Pitt. However, a full 6 years since Philippe Troussier left his job as coach for Japan’s national soccer team, people are still saying that not only do I resemble him but that I am ソックリ!!! i.e. the living spit! I’m beginning to think there might be something in it. What do you think? For your persusal, below left: Philippe Troussier, and below right: Michael Lambe.

Nah…

It looks like Taro Aso is the new Prime Minister. Here’s today’s BBC article on his selection as leader of the ruling party: LINK For some reason in every BBC article they talk about “Mr Aso’s brash straight-talking style and charisma – he is known for his love of adult manga cartoons”… Why does liking adult manga cartoons (hardly an uncommon trait in Japanese adult males) represent charisma? The BBC also has this interesting piece on Japanese popular discontent with the leadership selection process – the Japanese people rarely get to choose their leaders… LINK

The Mainichi quotes Aso as saying: “Is there any party other than ours that is capable of pledging to solve various problems that the people face, those involving their lives, concerns about their future and security that protects the country and its people and implementing them?” Aso said in his speech. “It’s never the Democratic Party of Japan. The Liberal Democratic Party will fulfill that duty.” LINK

Cocky, isn’t he? And Japan Probe has some interesting background information, this little snippet gave me a smidgin of hope:

He has been called a hardliner/conservative, but it isn’t exactly fair to label him just another conservative. Aso has suggested giving up the territorial claim to some of the islands Japan disputes with Russia, and he is in favor of un-enshrining Class A war criminals from the Yasukuni Shrine. He’s also said that he’s open to discontinuing the MSDF mission in the Indian Ocean. LINK

Let’s see how long he lasts then, eh?

Just a quick word from Avaaz.org:

The global financial crisis is spilling over into our lives, threatening jobs, savings, pensions and public services everywhere — worldwide recession could be next, while the public bears the cost. It’s time for citizens around the world to raise our voices and demand that the fundamental causes of this crisis are addressed — we need tough rules to stop the financiers’ folly, and a new framework that better serves the public interest.

Our campaign will be delivered by Denmark’s former prime minister to European leaders next Tuesday, then to US and world leaders as they grapple with this crisis: sign the petition and spread the word! LINK

This interview with Tony Blair on the Daily Show tickled me tonight, particularly the following exchange when discussing Blair’s post-premiership decision to convert to Catholicism:

Tony Blair: …In many ways that was a private decision because my wife’s Catholic and my kids are all brought up as Catholics so…
Jon Stewart: My wife’s Catholic. I’m Jewish.
Tony Blair: How does that work?
Jon Stewart: It’s very interesting. We’re raising the children to be sad.

You can see the second part of this interview, with all the meaty stuff on the decision to invade Iraq and Blair’s icky relationship with Bush on the Daily Show website here: LINK

Post 101 on Deep Kyoto tonight is on a really nice cafe called Cafe Kocsi.
And there are two fresh posts on Japanese Reboot; one is a review of the vocabulary studied so far and the latest is a simple kanji lesson: 瓦.

Lately I’ve been highly entertained by the newly animated version of David Rees’ Get Your War On comics. If you’re not familiar with the strip, it features clip-art like office workers having insightful discussions on contemporary politics in general and the War on Terror in particular and being damn funny in the process.

Now 23/6 have animated it and I’m thoroughly hooked.

Here’s the link to the comics on David Ree’s website.

Here’s the link to the animated Get Your War On on at 23/6.

The book Get Your War On is available at amazon.com, amazon.uk or amazon.co.jp.