[Not resorting to cliché] usually means telling a specific, dynamic story. The other is to discover or conceive of a subject that hasn’t been trampled to stereotype. Do both and you’re a genius.

It’s something I think about a lot in my work and my hobbies, heck, even in my blog posts. As a hobbyist photographer, when I snap a photo I try to think of a perspective other people may not have – not the easiest thing to do when you’re at a frequently-touristed site. As a writer, I recognize the impulse to rely on a cliché as my laziness manifest.

The blog post I linked above talks about visual clichés in photography, and boy there are a lot of them. Just think of bad stock photography: The bespoke-besuited-businessman–arms crossed. (That’s how you know he Means Business.) The comely, smiling customer service rep on the phone. (That’s how you know We Mean Service.) Or my favorite from my B2B journalism days, the multi-ethnic handshake.

It made me think of an avant-garde film class I was lucky enough to take at UMass Amherst back in the day. While in that class, the professor (Prof. Levine) wanted to make sure we students understood a bit of the avant-garde film mindset, especially when watching and deconstructing more mainstream movies and then trying to film our own avant-garde film shorts.

And one of the comments he made after we had a class film critique was something like (paraphrasing as my memory allows here): “There is nothing more cliché in this world than a sunset.”

He didn’t mean just in film – he meant in real life. Pretty colors, Nature, but I’ve seen it before. Basically. And I was struck by this comment at the time, so much so that I remember it today, because it was unabashedly cynical and completely true.

I look back on the photos I’ve taken and the sunsets I’ve seen and while they each have meaning and depth for me, I realize to anyone else it’s all a lot of cliché-sameness. Observe, and try not to yawn:

Sunset @ the Pacific Island Club, Saipan, CNMI USA 2010

Sunset @ Jardin de Luxembourg, Paris, France 2006

Sunset @ Ikebukuro west, Tokyo, Japan 2008

Sunset @ Methoni, Greece 2010

Yeah. I mean, as much as these photos really do mean to me – great memories associated with each, I could blather on and on about the story behind each of them (but I won’t, and you’re welcome) – but seriously, if you spent more than 1 second looking at all of them you were being generous.

Of course this got me thinking about cliché in everything. Cliché in movie trailers (*deep voice* “In a world…”), cliché in writing – specifically in my daily life, cliché in business. We all think our product and our services are the best ever but business writing mired in Ye Olde Business Promise Clichés convinces no one that you’re worth real consideration. Especially when you rely on meaning-empty jargon, like these gems:

• “Best-in-class” (or, weirdly to me, “best-in-breed”)
• “Leading provider of” [anything]
• [Convoluted bloated description] “solution” or “space”
• [Business-y noun] management — or — I’m looking at my fellow social media nerds here — [target audience descriptor] engagement

Seriously, whenever one of those phrases appears on a corporate website, you might as well replace it with a picture cross-armed businessman at sunset. It’s about as meaningful.

Honestly, I’ve never been able to get a seat at Diesel, let alone a table or (gasp) a booth. And I feel bad hogging a big space as I’m usually only accompanied by one other person when I’m not writing entirely alone.

Mr. Crepe is usually also too busy for me to find a seat, and it still doesn’t have that sit-and-write vibe of the coffeeshops down the street… probably because Mr. Crepe isn’t a coffee shop! (Duh!) Though I have seen some folks biding their time with laptops near the windows, that’s not a common sight there.

Normally I can find a seat at Starbucks, even in the busy hours between 6pm and closing at 10:30pm. And the small tables by the window let me take a seat with an outlet without hogging tons of space. I’ve been able to write for hours uninterrupted there without other patrons glaring at me for being a space-hog. I don’t get the same feeling at Diesel — mainly because I’ve given out a few glares-of-death myself. But I do feel bad that I’m not supporting a local business, so I’d like to try alternatives if I can.

Are there any other spots I’m missing? Where do you go to write in the Davis area?

I live a stone’s throw from Redbones so all these Davis locations are a minute or two walking distance, ideal for me to just pick up my laptop and keys and bop on out of the house for a few hours. (And lack of free WiFi is actually a plus! I don’t have the discipline to abstain from surfing if access is free…)

[[Once Sacco's Bowl Haven is converted into a Community Center -- which is thus far named the unfortunate and cringe-tastic "Connections Center," eww -- I might not have this dilemma anymore.]]

Two friends of mine (Boston-area!) just left after spending an evening chez moi just watching hours of J-rock and the Nana movie. I hang my head in utter shame to admit this was the first time I’d ever seen Nana! I knew the premise, I knew most of the characters, I knew a lot of the music, but I’ve never sat down to watch it.

It’s as good as people say. I hesitated to see it all this time because of all the hype around it, which I admit is a really lame reason to not see something. But Nana‘s definitely the movie for J-rock fans everywhere, as I think a lot of people will recognize either themselves or a lifestyle they want to emulate in this film. (And yea, the all-important kohl-eyed and skinny-pantsed J-rock dudes are in there too.)

Nana and Hachi’s friendship was so beautiful in how it transcended stereotype, these two girls were so genuinely kind to each other that they could understand and support each other as friends despite their wildly different personalities and lifestyles. Ah, writing it sounds so cheesy! (I don’t want to spoil the movie for people just coming through, so sorry for the purposeful-vagueness here.)

And is there anything better in the world than walking around Davis Square on a warm Friday night when the Red Sox are winning a game 8 to 1? Don’t think so!

[edit 9/22] This is kind of old news by today, but it’s so awesome that I have to post about it:

B’z is going to be “inducted” to the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame! The very first Asian artists to be on there, and what better band than B’z? Top grossing Japanese artists of all time, record number of #1 hits in a row — 39 so far. News of their induction (there must be a better word for it…) comes on the heels of their 20th anniversary! Hard to believe these guys have been around for roughly 2 decades now, all the while they keep topping the charts. This is pretty epic and definitely well-deserved. (Here’s the news in Japanese from the B’z official website.)

Oh, and for those of you who have been waiting since the late 1990s for VIOLET UK to release something on disc, that momentous day has finally arrived. Sort of.

JRock Revolution is selling the soundtrack to thriller-movie Catacombs, which has one VIOLET UK song on it. (The man himself Yoshiki put the soundtrack together.) So there’s finally going to be some VIOLET UK in your hands if you buy this soundtrack and — barring some major natural catastrophe — nothing can take that away! Dunno about you guys, but I remember being really psyched about VIOLET UK way back when, so I jumped at the chance to pre-order this, even if for just that one song.

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 :)

This is going to be a very quiet weekend for me—car woes demand that I spend the next few days negotiating with mechanics. Who knew it’d be so complicated to just get a fresh injection of freon in my AC?

In my off-time this weekend I hope to pick up where I left off with some personal writing. Yes, like most folk in any kind of writing/reporting profession, there’s a book in the works; however, I don’t intend to get the book* published, so that takes a lot of pressure off for, you know, “elegant” prose, “gripping” plot and all that nonsense.

;)

* Somehow I already have a nascent soundtrack for my work-in-progress, all thanks to a great friend and his band The Spangle Maker. I’m not sure how I got so lucky. Thank you, Derek!

Now, let me brief you on my background and let me know what you think.

If you read my bio, you’ll notice I spent two years at Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. I was a very frazzled Fu Fighter. My major was computer science, I took intensive Java classes on top of an engineering curriculum of physics labs and high-level math like 3rd level calculus (which I flunked), discrete math (which I passed and loved), and ordinary differential equations (which convinced me to leave computer science).

So, yes, I have some programming and math under my belt. Before college I took a few classes in high school on C++, BASIC and Pascal, even. I tinkered on my own with HTML and was designing sites in Notepad by the time I was 12 or so—back when almost everyone used Geocities or Tripod. I still code HTML, CSS and PHP fluently, and now that I have access to my own SQL database, I’m tinkering with that as well. Javascript makes sense to me, I play with it, but I can’t really code it beyond the very basics.

So the on-going discussions about reporters coding confuse the hell out of me. I’m not sure where I fit, or where I should.
I love doing production-side work for fun and work—website tinkering and video editing are labors of love for me—and I’ve always wanted to learn more PHP and SQL so I can do neat applications. That’s why I get DigiDave’s post about coding for journalists. It’s grand that there will be programs on journalism for programmers, but seriously, what about the other way around? Should we just fend for ourselves?

There are a lot of geeky journalists. Way more than I thought there were at least a year ago, at least. And I’m glad to know that I’m not alone in my confusion about the future of geekery in journalism (i.e. journalism in general).

What’s next? I’ll keep plugging along, learning as much as I can about reporting—and I do have a lot to learn there—but there are a lot of conflicting messages out there about what freshly-minted journos should or shouldn’t be doing.

So that’s my long, boring, confusing story. Advice is always welcome and appreciated.

Please please, just buy the magazine. It’s quarterly and it’s six bucks. Give up your green tea frappe and you can afford this publication. For the love of all that is good and holy in this world, don’t post scans of every issue in its entirety.

Sorry if I sound bitter, but the fact that there’s a professional magazine for Jrock enthusiasts in the US that’s actually viable is amazing. This was unthinkable only 10 years ago. There really weren’t any fansites in English, let alone print resources with interviews.

Of course I’m totally biased here as I write for this magazine*, but I’m a Jrock fan above all. So yea, I get why people post mp3 rips or photo scans from FOOLS MATE. I was there once, in middle and high school, no money and no way to buy anything. Especially because in the past, it’s been really hard to get your hands on the music and the magazines.

In the past.

But Jrock is now, finally, gaining a steady foothold in the US. We’re finally getting artists to tour here and take the fan scene here seriously. We’re starting to show the producers and managers that there’s money to be made here. So let’s not completely mess it up by expediently smashing a good attempt to showcase the best of US Jrock fandom.

It’s not like we’re asking you to blow $90 on a Gackt Platinum Bible. It’s six bucks. It’s lunch money.

And it’s at your local Barnes and Noble or Hot Topic — you don’t even need to order it from Japan and wait three weeks for it to arrive. And best of all, you can actually read the interviews and articles, as opposed to just drooling over the pretty glossy photos. (I know how Jrock fans do, I used to do it too.)

On that note, I am interviewing Audrey Kimura, founder of Benten, this weekend. Somehow I completely missed the Japan Nite Tour when it passed through Cambridge—I even saw the posters at Porter Exchange, wrote the date down, and totally flaked.

Ms. Kimura, my apologies. It was an awesome lineup—GO!GO!7188 and Oreskaband are two of my newer favorite groups. Thankfully there’s a new East Coast tour soon in August, so I’ll be sure to ask her about it.

Also, if anyone has any good Jrock blog links I should add to my blogroll, hit me up. I’m on the lookout but I can only think of a few off the top of my head.

*for free, in my off-time

[edit] Strangely, I went to my local Barnes and Noble over lunch break and was unable to find a copy of purple SKY magazine on the magazine rack. In addition to wasting fuel and my lunch break to do this, this was a sad exercise in futility. Let’s hope it wasn’t available because local readers had already sold out stock?