Philip Brasor - The Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Jul 11, 2004

The annual archipelago-length steamroll tour by New York's famous all-male classic ballet parody troupe, Les Ballets Trocadero de Monte-Carlo, which is in the middle of its 20th visit to these shores right now, has probably stolen some of the limelight from its namesake, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, which...

CULTURE / Music

Jul 4, 2004

The Offspring

Though Berkeley's Green Day still holds the now tattered standard for the mid-'90s pop-punk revival, their Southern California cognate, The Offspring, better represents the commercial realities of that revival over time. Formed in the late '80s, The Offspring were a staple on the underground punk and...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jul 4, 2004

Imaginative filmmakers shed light on dark side of humanity

At the end of May the Cine Pathos movie theater in Ginza was scheduled to run "Concrete," which is based on a "nonfiction novel" that itself is patterned after an incident that took place in Tokyo's Adachi Ward in 1989. Four teenage boys abducted a high-school girl and kept her prisoner for 40 days,...

CULTURE / Music

Jun 27, 2004

Kelis

So which hip-hop couple do you like? Beyonce & Jay-Z, or Kelis & Nas? Given the brittleness of celebrity engagements, either pair might have split as of this morning, but the choice is pretty distinct: penthouse-paid-for vs. prove-it-all-night.

CULTURE / Music

Jun 27, 2004

Conrad Herwig: "Another Kind of Blue"

On "Another Kind of Blue," leader/trombonist Conrad Herwig and trumpeter/arranger Brian Lynch update, into Latin jazz, what is Miles Davis', and perhaps jazz's, most listened to recording, "Kind of Blue." Latin jazz has often taken cues from Miles Davis, but this collection of New York's finest Latin...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jun 27, 2004

Korean wave may help erode discrimination

Though a lot of people are tired of the guy by now, there's something encouraging about the inexhaustible, Beatlemaniacal attention being paid to Korean star Bae Yong Joon. Bae's popularity is merely the most prominent feature of the current kanryu (Korean wave) boom, but the attraction that many Japanese...

CULTURE / Music

Jun 20, 2004

Big in Japan, without really trying

Eugene Kelly released his first-ever solo album, "Man Alive," in December. So far, it's only available in Japan, which isn't unusual. Japanese record companies are famous for taking chances on unknown artists no one else is interested in. But Kelly isn't exactly an unknown artist. He was part of the...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jun 20, 2004

Talent agencies enjoy the biggest laugh

Yoshimoto Kogyo, one of the biggest talent agencies in Japan, recently announced that it plans to build a new 1,000-seat comedy theater in Shinjuku. The company already operates a 458-seat theater in the Shinjuku Lumine building, and like that one the new venue will present only Yoshimoto acts. The company's...

CULTURE / Music

Jun 20, 2004

Badly Drawn Boy: "One Plus One Is One"

One of the great things about Damon Gough's 2000 Mercury Prize-winning debut, "The Hour of Bewilderbeast," was its efficiency. The economy of the sound combined with the sophistication of the writing and arranging set a benchmark for bedroom music-making.

CULTURE / Music

Jun 13, 2004

Ludacris

'Flow" is considered the basic skill of an MC but if you asked any rapper to define it they'd probably have a hard time. It has something to do with cadence, alliteration, internal rhyme and tone; but in the end it's about conveying the impression that the rapper has total command of the words being...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jun 13, 2004

Murakami's job guide for teens lights the pipe of dreams

In mid-May, NHK's nightly news feature "Closeup Gendai" looked at the current post-university recruitment situation from the viewpoint of the recruit. For the past decade, the main story with regard to this issue has been the difficulty of finding work as more and more companies restructured along nontraditional...

CULTURE / Music

Jun 6, 2004

Move your butt and your mind will follow

Nic Offer and John Pugh, the vocalist and drummer of the New York dance-punk band who go by the moniker !!!, are on a mission to liberate butts everywhere, but right now they're hungry. It's a sunny spring day and they're sitting in an Ebisu bar and promoting their debut album, "Louden Up Now."

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jun 6, 2004

Japan is back to the Stone Age when it comes down to transplants

Is Japan still in the medical Stone Age? A look at American depictions of the medical profession might make you think so. Last Tuesday, NHK had a bunch of celebrities sitting around and rapturously discussing the American hospital soap opera "ER" and its mature take on the physician-patient dynamic....

CULTURE / Music

Jun 2, 2004

Out of the 'hood

Pop music has become hip-hop, which dominates the charts in practically every country that has charts. It's become so ubiquitous that some American presidential candidates went out of their way to show they dig it. Dennis Kucinich employed a rap in his campaign song, Howard Dean used Wyclef Jean, and...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

May 30, 2004

Media leave Imperial family forgotten, lonely, and in a corner

The excitement last weekend over North Korea's release of some of the Japanese abductees' children overshadowed another news story about prisoners of the state -- the Japanese Imperial family. Crown Prince Naruhito returned from his whirlwind wedding tour of Europe to a tense Imperial Household Agency...

CULTURE / Music

May 30, 2004

PJ Harvey: "Uh Huh Her"

These days, when inspiration strikes, musicians can utitilze the flexibility and affordability of home-recording technology. Polly Jean Harvey, whose songs are the aural equivalent of manic-depressive episodes, goes the whole DIY hog on her latest album, not only playing all the instruments (except drums)...

CULTURE / Music

May 23, 2004

Challenger

When Al Burian and Dave Laney disbanded Milemarker several years ago, they left a curious legacy. With a lineup that went from three to five and back again whenever the wind changed, the band became notorious for never doing the same thing twice. Though fundamentally a hardcore punk band, Milemarker...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

May 23, 2004

Foreign markets fail to grasp soul of anime

If, as many people claim, Japanese pop culture is sweeping the globe, then anime is the hand that wields the broom. A number of recent big-budget Japanese animated features, including Mamoru Oishii's "Innocence," currently in competition at Cannes, have attracted funding from Hollywood without the usual...

CULTURE / Music

May 16, 2004

Avril under the skin of consumers

Walking out of Shibuya Station on May 12, you couldn't help but be aware that Avril Lavigne's second album, "Under My Skin," had just gone on sale. There she was, belting out her new single, "Don't Tell Me," up there on the big screen above the 109 Building. Tsutaya had a booth set up with Avril's kohl-eyed...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

May 16, 2004

Shooting politicians in a barrel more fun than addressing pension problem

In the past two weeks the pension scandal that has touched so many lawmakers has progressed from a political embarrassment to pure farce. The offered reason for regret is that the people's "trust in politics" has been damaged, a suggestion that's risible even under normal circumstances.

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