Blog - March 2013 Archives

March 2013 Archives

Index

.31 Weekly revue: 2013 week #13 (March 23 to 29)
.23 Weekly revue: 2013 week #12 (March 16 to 22)
.16 Weekly revue: 2013 week #11 (March 9 to 15)
.09 Weekly revue: 2013 week #10 (March 2 to 8)
.03 Weekly revue: 2013 week #9 (February 23 to March 1)

March 31, 2013

Weekly revue: 2013 week #13 (March 23 to 29)

Food: - Agneau Pascal found at Dean & Deluca
- Sakura (Hatsune) Miku anman from FamilyMart
- Tarte Rose Jasmin from Pierre Hermé
- Coffee break and bread at Breadworks (next to T.Y Harbor), Tennōzu Isle

Exhibitions: - Went to see the "Side Core" exhibition at Terratoria (Terrada Sōko) on Tennōzu Isle. Included are works by QP and EYE (Boredoms). QP's huge piece was "no photo", so those who can should go see it.

- Also, I dropped briefly by the UT (Uniqlo) pop-up shop located on the old platforms of Tokyu Tokyo line in Shibuya station

Encounters: - Street artist ESOW was saying on Instagram that he's going around Harajuku to sell handmade leather keychains, so we went after him and got some.
- We got to meet a local tattoo artist, and spent a while talking about street art. He was very friendly and told us a lot of interesting things about his work and passion, despite that it's not likely that we'll ever be his customers. We'll drop by again!

Photos: It was the right time for sakura (cherry blossoms) watching here and there, almost over now. Here are a few photos I took.

Music events: - On March 24, I went to see Takako Minekawa and Dustin Wong! I won't write more here, go see my report. I'll go to their next show on April 16 too!

- And on Friday March 29, I went to an event on JICOO Floating Bar (the "Himiko" boat designed by Matsumoto Leiji (Galaxy Express 999, Captain Harlock, Interstella 5555)) featuring Ookawara Izumi of Qypthone! I took video of the show, which you can watch on YouTube (5 songs!)! The show and DJing was fun, and of course the Himiko ride!

Music release news: "The Selection of DE DE MOUSE Favorites performed by Rokugen Club with Farah a.k.a. RF vol.01", Predawn, Takako Minekawa & Dustin Wong

Playlist: Miyauchi Yuri, MoliquL, HNC, Denki Groove, Chiroline ver.2, Kavinsky, frenesi, Nakatsuka Takeshi, Hosaka Akane, Dorian

Tech: I always felt that editing video isn't easy. Lately I found what seems to be a good free editor, VideoPad. But whatever editor I use, video encoding seems to overheat my CPU which makes the computer shut down suddenly after a few minutes. I wonder what hardware change could fix this... Hmm. This time I gave up and just used YouTube's built-in video editor instead, but I want to become able to edit video more freely.

This week's video:

Izumi Ookawara (QYPTHONE) live on JICOO Floating Bar (5 songs!)
(I took this video. :))

Predawn "Keep Silence"

March 23, 2013

Weekly revue: 2013 week #12 (March 16 to 22)

Last weekend was rather quiet, except that a friend gave birth to a baby girl on March 14, and we went to see her at the hospital! Congratulations! :)

Food: - Lunch at Réfectoire (Le Petit Mec), Harajuku
- Curry at Curry Ohio, Nishi-Ogikubo
- Also, Wednesday was a national holiday and cherry blossoms were already showing up, so we went to have a great picnic with Sunday Bake Shop and friends, at Shinjuku Gyoen. Towards the end it got a bit windy but otherwise the weather was nice and we had a great time! :)

Picnic Picnic

New music: I got Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's new single "Ninjya Re Bang Bang" (digitally this time, for now anyway). I like the lead track, which is full of 8-bit goodness. I'm not yet too sure about the B-side ("Unite Unite"), but I'm happy with the extended mix of "minna no uta", a song that I like a lot from her album. I like how it's a song about getting everyone to clap together, but yet she sings in a voice that sounds a bit uncertain.

Playlist: Vanilla Beans, CTO LAB., hitomitoi, Petset, Cornelius, Minekawa Takako, Perfume, Arasawa Fumika, Hamada Mari, Tarte Tatin, the hair
- I relistened to all of Minekawa Takako's CDs I had on hand ("Roomic Cube" and "fun9" are in Canada...), as I'll be seeing her live this weekend for the first time! Can't wait! "Cloudy Cloud Calculator" still sounds as wonderful as it used to, and I like "Telstar" more than ever.

ARASAWA Fumika "Boxing Bubble Bubble"

Music release news: Tucker & Emeson Kitamura, BUBBLE-B feat. Enjo-G, Misola, Kirinji

Gig report: Event "Monochromoon!" w/ Tabuchi Jun, Nosa Lena, Nacional, DeliciouSweets (March 6 at tsukimiru kimiomou)

Tech: I've been confused about what to do since Google Reader will be closing soon (damn!). After trying a bunch of feed readers, the best option seems to be Feedly (thanks to Jean for recommending it!). Feedly also adds a social sharing feature to Firefox and Chrome (a mini toolbar in the bottom right of the browser), and I noticed that it didn't have a mixi Check button so I made a UserScript that adds it in there. Those who want the UserScript can get it here.

This week's video: Old Monk "Telephone Bones"

March 16, 2013

Weekly revue: 2013 week #11 (March 9 to 15)

Food: - Thai and Myanmar curry at Bamii, Kōenji. The old café is full of records, and the curry was good too!
- French bistro Organ, Nishi-Ogikubo
- Homemade red velvet cake!

Red Velvet

Exhibitions: - Julie Watai's "My Computer Magic" at P/I Gallery, Shibuya Parco (Part 1 6th floor). Displayed are various photos by the photographer/model/tech geek, and also a figure of herself created with a 3D printer, and a costume with lightings controlled by an Arudino board. All photos can be downloaded for free via QR codes! Until March 18.

w/ Julie Watai

- Went to a sugar sculpture exhibition by artist Ameshin aka Tezuka Shinri. There are many of the small and precise sculptures. This is held until Sunday March 17 only (until 20:00) at Tensai-sansūjuku in Asakusabashi. Entrance is free but you must order a drink (¥500). Event Facebook page here.

Music events: - I went to Enban to see electronic artist Akane Hosaka, who released new album "pikkonoco" towards the end of last year. I have seen her many times before, which was usually made of songs from her albums, but she now does an improvised show using a Pocket Piano, a modified TR-505, and a looping.

- And on Wednesday I went to see Denki Groove at Zepp DiverCity in Odaiba. That was a big show! The first part of it used projection mapping on large 3D face sculptures on the stage, that was really awesome! The two first appeared wearing hospital clothing, with Ishino Takkyu sitting on a trolley with an IV stand, and Pierre Taki pushing him. They played over 20 songs in total. I had a great time! This show is expected to be released on DVD.

Set list (partial): The Big Shirts / Missing Beatz / Shameful / Zoo Desire / Mononoke Dance / (mc) / Slow Motion / Oscillator To Arpeggio / Disco Union / Hi-Score / B.B.E / (mc) / P / Prof. Radio / Oyster / Upside Down / (mc) / The Words / Flashback Disco / Shangri-La / Shonen Young / N.O. / Asunaro Sunshine / Reaktion / (encore) Denki Biribiri / Cafe de Oni

New music: Forgot to mention it last week, I got a 7" split single by keyboardists Tucker & Emerson Kitamura. 4 instrumental nice good-feeling tracks. Availability online had been flaky, but it just showed up again on Jet Set so I wrote it up here. Highly recommended!

Music release news: Sloppy Joe, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

Playlist: "kui tan" soundtrack (Konishi Yasuharu), Denki Groove, Kavinsky, Vanilla Beans, CTO LAB.

Tech: I made a userscript for use on mixi. It changes the "イイネ" (like) links to "イイニャー", and when clicked it plays the sound of a cat meowing. :) It can be downloaded here (works with Chrome, Firefox and Opera).

This week's videos:

BUBBLE-B feat. Enjo-G "Yo! Sexy Girl"

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu "Ninjya Re Bang Bang"

Akane Hosaka album "pikkonoco" sampler (I made this! :))

March 9, 2013

Weekly revue: 2013 week #10 (March 2 to 8)

Last weekend was an arty one, dropping by several good exhibitions!

Food: - Club sandwich lunch set (with chocolate cake!) at Jean-Paul Hévin, Tokyo Midtown
- Coconut chicken sandwich and chestnut pudding, at Réfectoire (restaurant by Le Petit Mec), Harajuku

Exhibitions: - "Design Ah!" (Tokyo Art Beat) at 21_21 (Tokyo Midtown).
We went there on Saturday March 2 in hope to catch a special live show by Cornelius, salyu x salyu, Ohno Yumiko (Buffalo Daughter) and Chocolat. We got there around opening time in the morning to try to get places for this, but there were only 150 tickers which ran out before our turn. Anyway we checked out the exhibition which was quite fun! And at 6pm we came back for the show, but we stood far behind the stage and couldn't see anything. Still we were able to hear it and it was really good! The set was mostly songs from the salyu x salyu album, with some from the "Desigh Ah!" soundtrack. The exhibition is on until June 2. The exhibition and the TV show is based on has music by Cornelius.

- "Kyary Pamyu Pamuseum" at TV Asahi, Roppongi Hills. While waiting for the "Design Ah!" show I went to check out this small exhibition of a dozen of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's stage outfits! Most costumes are placed in very small rooms in which you peek from small windows. Fun! There were all of her costumes from the videoclips, Kōhaku, and more that I couldn't recognize. There's an option to rent headphones of narration by Kyary herself.

- "Paint It Love", an exhibition by painter Manabe Tarō (aka Picaro Taro), at Gallery Wa2 in Aoyama. Shown are many of his latest cute and classy paintings of various cats and dogs. Free! On only until Saturday March 9 at 5pm.

- And last, we ended up at Soup in Ochiai for a solo exhibition by artist KaToPe who is close to the graffiti scene. KaToPe does some very detailed and impressive paintings, often using gold colored touches. It was the opening night and there were a lot of people, and about 10 minutes later it got dark and there was a hip-hop show by, I think, PPC and friends. This was free too, but the exhibition was short and it's already over though.

Music events: - "Monochromoon!" at tsukimiru kimiomou (aka Moon Romantic), Aoyama. This was a show I wanted to go to for several reasons: 1. Nosa Lena (a band featuring singer Nosa Reina), 2. Tabuchi Jun's solo act (singer of Love & Revolution), and 3. I hadn't been to this place before and it has a huge moon screen over the stage. As a bonus, there was a show by DelicioSweets, a strange band with 6 girl singers/dancers. I'll try to write up this show, but meanwhile here are a few photos!

- Nakatsuka Takeshi in-store at Tower Records Shibuya. This was a special acoustic set, with Takeshi just singing (usually when I've seen him he always plays piano), accompanied by guitar (Ishigaki Kentarō who usually plays bass in his band), and with his regular saxophonist (Ishikawa Shūnosuke) who played 2 saxes and flute, and drummer Suzuki Kaoru. That was a really fun show, and I got an autograph too! :)

Set list: Cold Passion / A Piece of Dream in Teardrops / Sea's Theme / Miracle of Time / Love, Solitude / Young, Alive, in Love (Flipper's Guitar cover) / Make Her Mine (Hipster Image cover)

Music release news: naomi & goro, Nona Reeves, Yakenohara

- And a big music news! Minekawa Takako is back!!! New album in collaboration with Dustin Wong coming in May! Shows in Tokyo in March, April & May too. Can't wait! Details here.

Playlist: Cornelius, Aira Mitsuki, Luvraw & BTB, Denki Groove, Tucker & Emerson Kitamura, FPM, Pizzicato Five, Kavinsky

Denki Groove digest video of the DVD from the new album's limited edition

March 3, 2013

Weekly revue: 2013 week #9 (February 23 to March 1)

Last weekend was a little trip to Yokohama!

Food: - Went for dinner with Gangpol/Sylvain and friends at an oden & Okinawan restaurant in Shinjuku
- Ice cream at Boboli, Nishi-Ogikubo
- Stocked up menchi-katsu at meat shop Toraya, Nishi-Ogikubo
- Curry lunch at Tapir, Shin-Ōkubo
- Gyōza at Shandong (山東), China Town, Yokohama
- Oahu Island Avocado BBQ Burger at Kua'Aina, Shibuya

Shopping: - Went to Kichijōji to visit Luvri, a friend's girl accessory shop (mainly self-imported from France). It used to be "Lyly-Pad" just a minute away.
- Suzy Wong, the souvenir shop ran by Crazy Ken Band's leader's parents!, in China Town, Yokohama. It was my first time there, and Crazy Ken's parents were both there at the counter. They were very nice and even treated us a handful of candies, saying "Ken-chan"'s favorite is the strawberry milk one. :) I got a cool yellow Yokohama/CKB T-shirt!
- Bought a stool with a cute cat drawing at B:Ming (by Beams), in Yokohama

Music event: - On Tuesday, February 26, was an event at Saravah Tokyo in Shibuya, featuring friend Ōkawara Izumi (Qypthone), and also guitarist Saigenji.
It was my first time at Saravah, a small seated venue owned by the Japanese wife of French singer Pierre Barouh. The event was a "showcase", inviting anyone to perform what they want on stage, with Izumi and Saigenji being the two main acts. The other performers were also quite good, I especially liked an oldish couple who played sanshin and guitar, while their young son came to shout comments. There was also a cello player who wasn't especially very good, but he had a distinctive style, he was called back for an encore at the end.
I hadn't had the chance to see Saigenji before, but seeing this short set instantly convinced me of his genius. His scats are wonderful!
As for Izumi, she did a set of about 5 songs, accompanied by guitar (Qypthone's Ishigaki Kentarō), woodbass and drums, with sometimes a backtrack. This was a really fun set that reminded of Qypthone's sounds. There was also the good news that she'll be singing again on March 29 at an event on Jicoo (the bar on Matsumoto Leiji's Himiko futuristic boat).

New music: - Kaji Hideki's new album "Sweet Swedish Winter", fun and pop, a bit short at 30 minutes (despite containing 10 songs!). His fans shouldn't hesitate to grab this! I'm looking forward to an in-store live on April 5 at Tower Records Shinjuku (starts at 19:00).

- Denki Groove new album "Human Beings and Animals"! A bit less techno, more non-genre new wave/80's/funky sounds, lots of singing, all danceable! I love the panda artwork by Sunahara Yoshinori is great too! The "Tour Panda" will hit Tokyo on March 12 and 13. Can't wait! :)

- A brand new track by Konishi Yasuharu, titled "Are you looking for something?", is available here for free!

Music release news: "NHK CD dai! tensai terebi-kun MTK the 17th" (The Aprils, Omodaka, Takanami Keitarō, Kamomiya Ryō, Okii Reiji, etc.), Crue-L Grand Orchestra vs TBD (12"), Crystal (12")

Playlist: Breakbot, Nomiya Maki, Vanilla Beans, Qypthone

Tech: I've been playing with UserScripts and HTML5's <audio> element, using it to play sounds when clicking certain links. I know this may seem annoying, but it can be fun too. :)

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