michael lambe's scrapbook

Koichi Yoshida had his spring recital at Zac Baran Jazz Bar last night – and the place was packed! I like what he does with his recitals; inviting many other musicians, playing different genres, and generally mixing it up. After an initial honkyoku (traditional shakuhachi) tune to gives us some roots, he warmed us up with a nice jazz combo (quite a bit of swaying and foot- tapping to the Girl from Ipanema) and then a spicy Okinawan set with sanshin player Karura. This was followed by 鹿の遠音 (shika no tone) in which two shakuhachi players emulated the call and answer of two deer in the mountains, by playing across the room to each other. And then an interesting collaboration on a traditional piece with a sitar player (interesting because it totally worked). The final set was a group of original pieces largely by Koichi himself and very trance inducing and meditative in tone. Which was maybe why Mewby fell asleep! Here’s one of the Okinawan songs. I forgot to add the percussionist in the credits because he wasn’t on the original schedule for that song, but his name is 薫 (which unfortunately I don’t know how to read). Thank you, Koichi, for a wonderful musical experience!

You can also see the shakuhachi & sitar piece here.

Remember this?

Well, here’s the sequel. I almost had a hernia laughing at this.

I love this new song from Michael Franti:

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Listen to it in the morning and it’ll put a spring in your step and a smile on your face. This from his website:

Michael Franti and Spearhead return with their eagerly-awaited album, All Rebel Rockers, on September 9, via Anti-Records. Recorded in Kingston, Jamaica, with reggae’s most prolific production teams, Sly & Robbie (No Doubt, Alicia Keys, Sean Paul, Bob Dylan), this new release deviates from Franti’s previous sound and comprises a hybrid dub-infused soul flavor with some hard-hitting dub rock production. LINK
You can download the mp3 here: Say Hey (I Love You)

Can’t upload any pictures from South Africa today, I’m afraid. Bubbleshare just aint behavin’! So instead I bring you a new addition to my net empire! Japanese Reboot is my attempt to rekindle enthusiasm for my long neglected Japanese studies:

Japanese Reboot is a study journal in which I will review whatever items of Japanese language I learn in my everyday life that I would otherwise immediately forget. This blog is primarily intended as a vocabulary builder but I will also be adding textbook reviews, seeking out other useful websites and offering occasional study tips… LINK

The idea is to post a little something to it each and every day. No matter how small. In theory it’s easy. I do pick up interesting new vocabulary every day… Posting a new word or two every day isn’t going to be so difficult…. is it?

This piece from the Daily Show on U.S. Republican hypocrisy is a classic.

Makes you want to laugh and cry, eh?

And finally, here in the Empire of Cute it was only a matter of time before this happened: Cell-phone is a Teddy Bear.

Here are some pictures from Gion Matsuri I’ve been wanting to put up all week but bubbleshare has been acting up lately so… Anyway, the first set are from last Sunday, I got a couple of tickets to go and look inside two of the festival floats which was pretty cool. I went a day early to avoid the crowds. Still had to wait though.
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The second set are from Monday, Yoiyoiyoiyama when the festival really gets going and the streets are littered with impromptu street bars and stalls selling chocolate coated bananas, tako-yaki, fried chicken, all kinds of crap. We all put on our best yukata and jimbei and strolled around and soaked up that special festival atmosphere.Thankfully it had rained earlier in the day, so it was relatively cool for us.
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These last couple of pictures are from 3 am Thursday morning when I encountered a friendly group of riot police on my way home…

Not sure what they were up to. Didn’t stick around to find out.

Before I sign out for the evening, here’s a link to Joss Wheedon’s latest creation, a three act musical super-villain comedy which you can watch for free until Sunday when it is due to vanish from the net like the snow in springtime. I watched the first two acts yesterday, and was entranced. The third and final act goes up tomorrow. Watch it while it’s free! Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog

Baby Rowan

Congratulations to old pal Rik Abel and Adrienne Copithorne on the birth of their new baby Rowan Alexander on March 19th, which coincidentally also happens to be Rik’s birthday. Hurrah!

Deep Kyoto is back!

It’s spring and time to bring Deep Kyoto out of hibernation with a new article on Cafe Proverbs [15:17], the new vegan phoenix that has risen from the ashes of Cafe Peace. I went down there at the end of last month and having mentioned my blog, was introduced to the owner, one Marre, a charming fellow and quite a Rennaisance man (that’s him on the right with his wife). While talking to Marre I was overheard by another customer, who was courteous enough to introduce himself as a reader of Deep Kyoto by the name of Thomas Bertrand. As it happens, Thomas also writes a blog on Kyoto by the name of la riviere aux canards (Kamogawa sounds awfully romantic in French, don’t it?) which he has been writing for a good three years now and as a result he has been employed by a French publisher to write a travel guide to the city. It just goes to show what’s possible if you stick at something… Anyway, his blog is worth a look if your French is up to it. Or like me, you could just look at the pretty pictures. LINK

The 12th Japanese Beer Tasting 2008

Paul Sparks held his twelfth and final (?) Japanese beer tasting at Chez Sparks in Ichigaya, Tokyo last Saturday evening, thus ending a long run of enjoyably exhausting parties that first began in Fukushima-ken back in 1995. 48 beers were tasted, blind taste-testings held, quizzes quizzed, buzzers buzzed and a heck of a lot of cheese was consumed. I love cheese with beer! As usual, my old friends Chris Cotter and Graham Chave were also present as well as a host of other regulars : drool-worthy Mayumi of Beer Bar Bitter, big Mark of the massive leather jacket, some newer good-characters such as Henry and Sean who I hadn’t met before and my team-mate Rei who was a total star in the quiz. And my team won! Amazing. I forgot to claim a prize in the end but I don’t really care, it was so much fun. And I got two taste tests right too (!) – correctly identifying four beers each time in a blind tasting. As Paul took pains to point out I’ve always been utter crap at these in the past so I was super pleased with myself on this occasion. I shall miss the annual beer tastings, they were a great event and a good opportunity to catch up with old friends, and I shall miss Paul too, one of my oldest friends in Japan (I first met him in a Tengu izakaya in Koriyama city back in 1997), he has gradually gained status over the years as one of my bestest (and most supportive) mates. He and his wife are moving back to Australia later this year so I think I a wee Lambe-tour of Australia may be on the cards in 2009! Anyway, a big お疲れ様 to Paul and Kaori, they obviously worked super hard to make the beer-tasting a really great night. Here’s some piccies (the one of big Mark making team-mates Rei and I look like hobbits is worth waiting for), there’s some commentary on most of the pics if you hover your mouse over them, or you can click on them for a closer look.

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UPDATE (March 21st): Just got a mail from Paul today which reads: Absolutely poptastic having you stay for a couple of nights. Sunday night was very natsukashii. Baeren’s winter ale Ursus, which is a weizen bock won with 14.2 points and Sankt Gallen’s barley wine came second with 14.1. Those points are out of 20. Paul told us on the night that Baeren’s future is in doubt however as there was an explosion at the factory recently during which the owner was killed, and prompting me upon tasting the beer to declare it “dead good”.

Holy Crap

I saw this video on the imminent collapse of the U.S. dollar today and thought “Holy Crap!”. “U.S. balance of payments deficits is so strong and irreversible, that we must accept that at some future date there will be a run against the dollar. Probably the kind of disorderly run that precipitates a global financial crisis.” Dr. Paul A Samuelson (Nobel Prize winner in economics) said that in 2005. Obviously some big changes lie ahead…

GOOD.

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I hope you all had a very nice Valentine’s Day. I got a rather splendid chocolate cake that filled me with feelings of universal love for my fellow man.
I’m quite keen on the girl who made me the cake too. Yowza!

G’night.

My flight home started promisingly with the Captain announcing that we would be arriving at Heathrow early but about thirty minutes into the flight a flight attendant came running down the aisle shouting “A doctor or a nurse!” Shortly thereafter we had to fly back to Tokyo for an emergency stop and some poor chap got taken off on a stretcher. And then we were off again, a full three hours behind schedule but the food was pretty good for airline food (JAL incidentally), I did get to see Shoot Em Up which is exactly what it says it is (and features a heck of a lot of carrots) and I wasn’t even phased when another poor chap fainted on the floor beside my seat (air-conditioning a bit too hot for the poor lad). “What’s going on today?” says the flight attendant who comes running up to help. However, I made it here in one piece, have been relaxing and enjoying my sister’s cooking (will have to go now actually – she’s getting the dinner out) and am now sipping a Tiger beer with my brother-in-law John. The Pogues tonight, which will be drunken and raucous and inevitably misty eyed and nostalgic to boot. I got my docs ready. Gonna step on some toes.

Wednesday I had my last classes with 3:4 and 3:2 and so naturally took some pictures of which you can see below. (下の写真をクリックしたらもっと大きく見えるよ！）

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In the evening I met up with Chris Cotter in Umeda. Chris was over in Kansai on business and so we spent a very pleasant evening chatting and imbibing and covering various topics from bookish (The Best American Short Stories), to nerdish (the five best scenes from Doctor Who). And Chris told me that I look especially Irish when I’ve just come out of the Gents. So that was nice.

Finally, here’s a link to a twenty minute animation called The Story of Stuff. It’s very good, but to save me the bother of explaining it to you, here’s a synopsis from the web-page.

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Going away for a few days… Back Friday.

Ciao.