I am also probably one of the only people under 40 who actually owns a 5-cd changer stereo in addition to an iPod. Oh, and a best of David Bowie LP set. With a knitting Hello Kitty. With Greek pop cds. With feather fascinators. And mountain biking gloves.

I’m confused now.

The real news is this baby:

My new Janome sewing machine! I sold my trusty Singer on craigslist to someone who needed it more than I, and upgraded to a machine that’s a lot more heavy-duty and can work with the weird projects I’ve been making lately. Seriously seeing this on my doorstep was the highlight of my Friday.

I also went to Martha’s Vineyard for a weekend and it was really lovely.

… Can you tell that I love flickr? Heh.

For the past few weeks I, like so many other Greek diaspora, have been completely consumed by news of the wildfires there. Most of my family lives in the northern part of Greece—Macedonia and Chalkidiki—but I do have a cousin living in Kalamata, which was affected by the fires, and I have wonderful memories from a summer spent in the Peloponnese. It’s a starkly beautiful place and I’m heartbroken to think of the devastation that’s been wrought there and how many peoples’ lives have been ruined this past summer. The only silver lining in this entire disaster is that all of the ancient sites put at risk by the fire, such as Olympia and Mistras, managed to escape the blazes, in large part thanks to the absolutely devoted Greeks that wanted to protect these sacred sites at all costs.

Next time I can, I’ll try to find my photos from my trip in the Peloponnese, as I’d visited many of the villages that have now been completely destroyed. Who knows how many years, if not decades, it will take for those areas to return to something resembling normal.

On a brighter note about Greece, I was recently contacted by one of the co-organizers of JMusic.gr: “Where Greeks Turn Japanese.” These guys in Athens are doing what I’ve always wanted to do—throw a giant J-rock party. They’ve invited me to drop by next time I’m in Athens to hang out with them, and I definitely will. I’m excited as hell that there’s a healthy contingent of Greek J-rock fans, partying as only Greeks know how to the music that I love so much!

Finally, I’m thinking of embarking on a little project that might excite a few Gackt fans. Back in October 2001, the Gman went to Madagascar to record a documentary for NHK (which is the PBS of Japan to put it simply). I think it was originally supposed to be a documentary about the country, with Gackt simply being the celebrity vehicle. Instead, it ended up being a really fascinating portrait of him as an artist in transition. He was on the cusp of big-time success at the time, and he himself said in an autobiography that he wasn’t really sure what was going to happen to him. That trip to Africa, for him, was at a very opportune moment musically and emotionally for him.

Now, this documentary has never been subtitled in English, so most non-Japanese fans of his really have no idea what’s said in it. It’s a shame, as it’s probably the most interesting Gackt-related piece of media I’ve ever seen. So far removed from the celebrity trappings that generally define him in Eastern media, we, as you might expect, see him in a totally different, remarkably sincere way. I think I want to take it upon myself to subtitle this documentary so more fans can enjoy this piece of “Gackt history” as it were.

To quote from Gackt’s autobiography “Jihaku” (“Confessions”), as translated into English by my awesome friend Ger:

When I really look back at my own life, I completely think that the trip to Madagascar was the second great turning point for me.

Madagascar was a very poor country. There is only about 2-3 percent of the country’s population which can afford education. But the people there are overflowing with smiles. At that time, I happened to think, “I wonder if I can smile like that.”

At the same time, I was keenly feeling my own lack of strength. My existence felt very small. And so, I felt that I couldn’t be rescued by the people who were around me.

That feeling hasn’t changed even now.

What is the most necessary for people? I think that is the fact that people have to wake up and realize change is inevitable.

For example, because we say Madagascar is a poor country, there are people who give 100,000,000 yen to their cause. One village can probably live affluently on that money for a year. However, after a year, conditions return to what they were previously. And so, there is no meaning in doing that.

No one makes you bring food to your mouth to eat; if food is set before you, then you will pick up chopsticks and eat of your own will. That’s the same way I operate.

I dine on my own intentions. The things which are seen to be moved by my intentions and purposes are, to people, the most precious things, the most important things. If that’s not the case, nothing will change about people.

I want you to make me act on my intentions. I want you to change. I am not going to make anyone change of my own will.

Though this was something that I had thought about many times before I went to Madagascar, going to Madagascar refined it, and I felt then that the things I was thinking about were definitely not a mistake.

—From Section 5 “Creativity”, Chapter 7 “An Unending Vision of the Future” from Gackt’s “Jihaku,” 2003

This snippet alone to me justifies trying to translate this documentary, I think. My Japanese is really not as good as it used to be, as I’m sorely out of practice, but I’ll keep you guys posted if I make any progress .

And finally, speaking of “Jihaku”—the translator Ger just moved up here to the Boston area, barely a few streets away from me! I couldn’t be more excited as I’ve known Ger for many many years. Welcome to Boston, Ger! Glad to have you here :)

The usual praise for any major artist certainly apply with this guy: he’s talented, charismatic, and entertainment-biz gold. I enjoy following what he’s up to, be it a TV appearance or a new album, and his antics are usually pretty entertaining. Many people at some point in life latch on to some sort of writer or band to fawn over—for some reason, during my formative years in Ex-urbia, Massachusetts, I found this Japanese rock star.

Now, for the meat of this post: A good friend recently introduced me to IMEEM, a service that allows you to upload music files so you can share and listen to them (streaming!) via a flash player later, kind of like a YouTube for mp3s. IMEEM also allows you to embed the flash player in your blog (again, like YouTube), so it’s made sharing music with friends by blog post really easy.

Just for kicks over lunch today, I looked up one of my favorite songs of Gackt’s, his first from when he went solo in 1999, called “Mizérable.”

In 1999, the band Gackt had just left was a gothic-rock style band called “Malice Mizer,” so I believe the purposeful misspelling of “miserable” is a thumb of his nose at the old band. (In the end, they floundered and broke up while his career continues to flourish, ouch.) So, to me, “Mizérable” is a song about ambition, regret, anticipation, hope, longing—all that lovely melodramatic stuff.

It’s still considered one of Gackt’s best tunes simply because it perfectly encapsulates that feeling of finally striking out on your own, all that anxiety and defiance.

Here’s the original recording of Mizérable, from his very first mini-album, released in 1999.

If you’ve never heard Japanese rock or pop music, this may sound very strange to you, so just listen for 2 minutes if that’s all you can take, haha.

In the summer 2004, five years after Gackt went solo, he released two retrospective albums, playing his classics either acoustically or entirely re-recorded and even re-scored. (Gackt releases at least one album a year with several singles, so even just five years into his career he had a large repertoire to choose from for a “best of” set.) “Mizérable” was one of the songs on the hard rock album called “The Sixth Day.”In this 2004 version, his voice is more mature, the sound is fuller and more polished, the composition more complex:

It’d be deceptive to say that the sophistication of this version is the result of making it big, as Gackt and Malice Mizer were already somewhat “big” when Gackt went solo. But certainly it is worth wondering about what’s lost when an artist goes from big to huge in their music and then re-records some of their old hits.

(And no, I’m not one of those fans who thinks an artist loses “cred” or soul when they go big or sign a major label. Artists need to eat, and nobody joins a band aiming for mediocrity.)

The newly re-recorded “Mizérable” has higher production values and sounds more sophisticated than the original. But if the original “Mizérable” has the spark of defiance in it, what does that defiance become five years into a wildly successful solo career? Gloating? Melancholy?

I’m curious to hear what you think. Does the motivation behind a song matter if it is performed well? Or am I just completely over-thinking this?

You can see some of my vacation photos here: San Francisco & the Bay Area, Pacifica, I-5 North, and Long Beach & Los Angeles. Up top is one of my favorite shots from Pacifica, just south of San Francisco. (see:Pacifica pier)

I got an exclusive tour of the Googleplex, too, but of course no photos were allowed. Said hi to the guys working on Google Maps, got a free lavender melon milkshake, played some old school arcade games, saw the dinosaur skeleton, even checked out the on-site gym. It’s as cool a corporate campus as everyone says it is. Definitely made going back to the ol’ cube a little more difficult—good thing I love my job ;)

And yes, for anyone wondering, the S.K.I.N. concert at Anime Expo was as amazing as I’d hoped. OK, it was several hours late and I got a severe sunburn from waiting in line to see it, but still it was absolutely one of the best experiences of my life. You can’t top being 10 feet away from some of your favorite musicians ever. After nearly a decade of seeing those guys on a TV of computer screen, the first thing I thought when I was right in front of Gackt was “damn, the framerate on this is really high…” Once a geek, always a geek.

I’ll link a more formal review of the concert a little later, but a brief review will be in the summer issue of purple SKY magazine for those of you that subscribe, and there will be a follow-up article on the four main musicians of S.K.I.N. on SKIN-Online soon (I’m a staff writer for them now, too!) Major congratulations to the SKINOnline team, which worked tirelessly at this year’s Anime Expo to get the word out about the band and the fansite, they did a fantastic job.

A special thanks to Misha of the SKINOnline team for inviting me to co-host a Japanese rock panel, it was both fun and nerve-wracking to be an “authority” on Japanese rock music in front of a room of curious listeners. Apparently I fooled some people into thinking I knew what I was talking about ;) Still, I wish I had some photos of the panel—if you have any, please send them my way.

While at Anime Expo, I also got to meet pop-rock star Anna Tsuchiya (the singing voice of Nana!) as I attended/recorded/asked questions at her press conference. She’s a fascinating person, very sophisticated, engaging, and spunky. I didn’t know much about her before Anime Expo but now I’m a fan. She really is an artist to watch with a very interesting story.

Digg dismay

I just thought I’d chime in with a growing number of news aggregator users and say that I’m quitting Digg. Not that anyone will miss me, and not that my departure will in any way harm the growth of this otherwise extraordinary tool, but I thought I’d take a moment to explain my decision.

I’ve been using Digg for over a year now, since March ’06. The quality of stories hitting the frontpage has decreased gradually as the site has gained in popularity. In the past few months I’ve removed political pages from my site preferences, just to be spared the endless political flamewars, but this hasn’t filtered out all the bile. Here’s a blog post that gets right to it: Digg marred by racism, sexism.

I was pretty proud that I held out for so long, over a year even, and just brushed off some of the dumber front page items without second thought. I’m not a PC soldier, so jokes at women’s expense about bad driving habits or garrulousness don’t bug me. (After all, in closed quarters women make jokes about male habits as well.) By no means am I an internet toughguy, but I’m not a total lightweight when it come to internet, er, misbehavior, either.

Spend a few minutes reading the comments on Digg, and you’ll see high-voted comments that go well beyond the pale, that no one I know, male or female, even in private company, would find funny.

After one post too many in this vein, I’ve decided it’s time to leave this site behind me, despite its great premise and fantastic potential. A year ago, I was really excited about what Digg could do, but truly the declining quality and maturity of its userbase is dragging the rest of the site down with it.

Let me make this clear: I do not advocate censorship by any means, so I would never call for action to be taken to stop people from commenting or submitting stories worded as they wish. (Google “misogyny on digg” and you can see that some folks have already tried.) And yes, the internet is full of bored, anonymous folks who take out their passive-aggression on the world by trolling or spewing hate. This is how the internet has been and always will be, and I won’t be a crusader in trying to fight that, as it’s an un-winnable battle.

The Digg system works in that people vote up or down comments they agree with; however, a site where gross (and incorrect!) generalizations about race, gender, nationality or political affiliation get hundreds of thumbs up of support is not one I want to visit.

I say this as a word of caution to many publications that seek to drive traffic to their websites by gaming the Digg system. Granted, Digg traffic is a boon to ad revenue, but do you really want your content associated with a site whose userbase approves of a story called “Tell girls to shut up, it’s good for them“? Associating with this in a business setting is not only very inappropriate, it’s damaging.

So before jumping headlong into the joys of news aggregators and the mystique of Web 2.0, consider carefully the potential audience you’re working to attract.

Disclaimer: If you have never heard of Yoshiki or Japanese rock in general, the rest of this post will be utterly confounding. Apologies in advance!

Last year at Otakon in Baltimore Yoshiki announced he was teaming up with Gackt (my favorite J-rock artist). At the recent J-Rock Revolution festival in L.A. (which he produced) he finalized the line-up for his new supergroup S.K.I.N.

Now, not only is Yoshiki producing S.K.I.N., he’s in it. This man has some serious business acumen.

The line-up as we know it thus far is as follows: Yoshiki, the (de-facto?) leader of the band and pianist, much like he was in X Japan. (And perhaps not too coincidentally S.K.I.N.’s new iconography of sorts parallels X Japan’s a lot). Gackt on vocals. Sugizo and Miyavi on guitar. It’s a bit hard to compare or describe how big this is if you’re not already kind of a part of this scene, but this line-up is huge.

For one thing, all four of these men were once in bands and then split off to very successful (and ongoing!) solo careers. And all four of them have rabid legions of fans around the world.

So not only is there enormous name recognition with each of these artists, but there’s major appeal for both “old geezer” J-rock fans like me who have been in the ‘scene’ for a long time, as well as younger and newer fans who are still learning about the artists.

(What did I tell you, Yoshiki is a smart, smart man.)

The formal announcement of S.K.I.N.’s first performance was also at (Yoshiki’s) J-Rock Revolution, and this group’s very first show will be at Anime Expo in Long Beach, Calif., which I am attending. And yes, I’m already salivating at the thought of seeing this group live, I admit.

The only taste of their combined musical sound comes from this official promo video, released less than a week ago:

That photo’s from Yoshiki’s myspace profile.

I’d recognize that eye anywhere! That’s definitely Gackt, I think from around the time he released Diabolos? (Someone correct me on this. I know there a gazillion Gackt fans reading this right now!)

Anyone recognize this Sugizo photo? I have been looking for the original and can’t find what this might be from.

And of course, that kohl-lined eye is most definitely Miyavi’s. I can’t find the source photo for this either.