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November 26, 2024

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Japan Times

CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN

Jul 10, 2002

The Sept. 11 Care Bear Bunch

By Monty Dipietro

Cleveland-born, New York-based Dan Asher lives and works in an East Village apartment/studio. Although the 54-year-old artist didn't actually see the hijacked jetliners crash into the Twin Towers on Sept. 11 last year, he has followed -- with not a little consternation -- the many changes that struck...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 10, 2002

Seigen Ono: 'So Peaceful, Simple and Strong'

By Tom Bojko

Last month, when Marc Ribot was playing Aoyama Cay, one of Seigen Ono's people proffered an advance copy of "So Peaceful, Simple and Strong" to him backstage, saying, "It's good, Marc. It's really good." Ribot, heavy-lidded with jet lag and fatigue from touring Europe, grimaced and dropped the disc onto...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 10, 2002

Skist: 'Ellipsis'

By Philip Brasor

If the purpose of abstraction is to get as far away from representative forms as possible, then the ultimate abstraction is something that's totally unrecognizable as anything. In the 1950s, Abstract Impressionists went to such lengths to avoid even suggesting the use of paint that judgment of their...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE

Jul 10, 2002

Summer sees ceramic talents in full bloom

By Robert Yellin

Crunchy powerhouses of protein and vitamin E, sunflower seeds are much consumed in the West though their health benefits have never really been appreciated here in Japan. When it comes to pottery, we sometimes see himawari (sunflowers) painted on porcelains, but I've never come across a ceramic one complete...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE

Jul 10, 2002

A card-carrying regular guy

By Steve McClure

One interesting aspect of Japanese meishi (name-card) etiquette is that entertainers never give them out. It took me a while to figure out that one. Several interviews with musicians I thought had begun inauspiciously when I handed the artist my meishi only to receive nothing in return.

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 10, 2002

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band

By Michael Pronko

All jazz groups ultimately descend from the brass band. The legendary Buddy Bolden, often credited with being the first true jazz musician to improvise freely, led the most popular brass band in New Orleans at the turn of the 19th century. A few years later, Louis Armstrong learned trumpet in a reformatory...

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 10, 2002

Azure Ray: 'Burn and Shiver'

By Jason Jenkins

Somewhere between heartbreak and happiness lies a mist-shrouded land of limbo, where it's always raining softly and people stare pensively out windows, contemplating love and life over steaming cups of Earl Grey. Wherever this place is, it seems Azure Ray are permanent residents. On their new CD, "Burn...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC

Jul 7, 2002

And the beat goes on

By Simon Bartz

After locking myself in the garage for ages, banging my head against the wall and screaming the merits of the latest Japanese band that sounds remotely like Stooges brawling with MC5 in a wind tunnel, it seems logical to kind of get away from it all -- open that door, stroll outside for some fresh air,...

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Jul 7, 2002

They say that love is blind

Ingenue Ryoko Hirosue finally returns to the TV drama series fold after a year of milking her French-language movie debut opposite Jean Reno in "Wasabi." The image she cultivated in that movie -- punky, cynical and a year or two behind the fashion curve -- is exploited to a certain extent in her new...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 7, 2002

You don't know us, but . . .

By Suzannah Tartan

The new live album from psychedelic folk duo Damon and Naomi recalls a bygone era. One can almost imagine them sharing a double bill with the Baez sisters in a smoky Greenwich Village coffee house: he hunched over his guitar, she dwarfed by her bass, her dark hair and white complexion looking naturally...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 7, 2002

Violinist who plays off the scale

By Masami Ito

Most people expect the kind of music played on a violin to be classical. Unless they're listening to internationally known violinist and composer Taro Hakase, that is, whose violin demonstrates melodies that can't be easily pigeonholed into any one musical category.

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Jul 7, 2002

Japan's diplomatic balancing act

By Brad Glosserman

JAPANESE FOREIGN POLICY IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC: Domestic Interests, American Pressure and Regional Integration, edited by Akitoshi Miyashita and Yoichiro Sato. Palgrave, 2001, 208 pp., $40 (cloth) Japan is frequently criticized for "punching below its weight" in international affairs. That is another...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.

Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat

By Greg Dvorak

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

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