JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

This pic is captured from some video footage taken during a recent street festival. One couldn’t help enjoying this local getting down to some rock ‘n’ roll cover songs being played by a local band.

(Click on image to view large size)

This is a photo of one of the North American lizards.

(Click on image to view large size)

For those of you who were at Bar JET towards the end of July, the “documentary” that was being filmed is supposed to be airing on NHK at 8:00 a.m. Sunday, 20 August 2006, according to the info told to Taki. For those of you who were not at the bar during the filming, here is some background info. NHK, the Japanese version of PBS, was filming the musicians of the local music scene in the Okinawa City area last month. From what Taki was told, it was supposed to be a documentary. Therefore, we had an entire production crew at the bar. Normally, I would not care much, as long as the crew was filming from the observational perspective (without interfering with business as normal). Unfortunately, usually that is not the case. What does usually happen is these “documentaries” end up with a choreographed sequence of events (similar to promotional films) that have nothing to do with the real weekend to weekend bar scene.

It should be noted that you should not be seeing me in the documentary for several reasons:

1) The manner in which the documentary was explained, in order to get approval to film at the bar, was that the documentary was supposed to be about the band, not me or the club.
2) I was cured of the “fame” bug a long, long time ago (almost 25 years ago in fact)….after I did a local TV commercial for butter cookies that ran on the airwaves for many years, but I never received even one yen for. (As far as I know, the local agent that booked that gig and never paid me, is no longer in business for having the same business ethics with other people that she booked gigs for.) Therefore, I straight out told the crew prior to filming that I was not giving my permission to be filmed or recorded – which Taki had already explained to them earlier. (Of course, that did not stop them from filming and recording things (such as me and the counter) that they were told were not to be included in the “documentary about the local musicians”, despite the producer previously agreeing not to.)
3) The behavior of the crew described above just reinforced my NOT wanting to be filmed or recorded despite several other attempts made by the crew to change my mind. (I tried my hardest to conduct business as usual without ending-up in the film crew’s floodlights that lit up the club as if it was an awards show.)

Anyway, for those of you who were at Bar JET those weekends, and want to see how the “documentary” turned out, do not forget to put the time and date on your calendars.

Some more of the flowers found in the neighborhood.

(Click on image to view large size)

It’s that time of year when the annual two days of music will be hitting the island’s sound waves. It’s been a long time since that first Peaceful Love Concert. It was held up north and we all sat, or should say baked, in the sun as the participants and viewers of the concert were strewn across a sea of makeshift seating on the freshly weed wacked hills. (By the end of the day, I looked like a freshly steamed lobster). This year the concert is being held on the Fourth of July weekend, July 1 and July 2, at the Okinawa City bull ring outside Kadena AB Gate 5. From what I understand, the J Pop-rock day, July 1, is about sold out. However, the heavier Hard and Classic Rock day, July 2, should still have some tickets available.

Having been married to a musician for over thirty years, I can tell you that the music just HAS to come out. With New Orleans being the home of so many musicians and music styles, I’m not surprised at the continutation of one of the city’s more well-known events, the New Orleans Jazz Fest. It will take more than a blow hard to keep these guys and the city down.

I recently ran across a site that had this interesting post about the Japanese pop (J-pop) music scene. Finding the perspective of the student who wrote the essay to be fairly insightful, I delved a little further into the overall site. For anyone interested in foreigners’ views of life in Japan, the blog covers many different aspects and might be worth your time. Also, although written a little while back, this thread offers some candid opinions of the life.

Well Cute Overload does it again. They recently posted about another amazing pairing of extremely unlikely friends brought together by an act of nature.

It’s been a while since I’ve written about goings-on in the local music scene. There are two items of interest this week. First, a prerecorded radio interview by Nakao Akira with the members of JET will air on Saturday 21 January at 5:00 p.m. The Japanese language interview will be broadcast on the RBC AM radio station 738 program Okinawa Jikan. Second, the former lead singer of Marie with Medusa, Marie, opened a new place on B.C. Street. Although I haven’t been there personally, I have been told it is a compact-size club with a piano bar type of atmosphere. So if you get the chance, check these two happenings out.

(Click to view large size)

It’s that time of year again for the annual S.K.p Bonenkai Bash.

If you were to choose the top entertainment icon of the century who would it be? Variety has made their choice for their 100th anniversary edition.