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Linguistic choices can be an artistic or cultural statement for Japanese musicians
by Ian Martin

Special To The Japan Times
May 30, 2013

On May 14, singer-songwriter Satoru Ono released a vinyl single titled “All My Colours.” Anyone who knows Ono’s work would have found themselves on familiar ground with the two tracks, in their mix of 1980s U.K. indie and ’90s Japanese neo-acoustic pop, delivered with a classic pop craftsman’s hand.

The difference is that Ono’s back catalog has been predominantly sung in English, while these new tracks feature him singing in his native Japanese for the first time.

The English lyrics often found in Japanese music can sometimes seem baffling to native English speakers. When sung imperfectly (which is often the case), I find listeners tend to think of them as either charming or annoying. However, for Japanese musicians, this linguistic choice can be a serious one, with both cultural and artistic implications.

the rest at:
Linguistic choices can be an artistic or cultural statement for Japanese musicians | The Japan Times

but this article, although pointed at the scandal about Minegishi shaving her head, outlines pretty much what I can't stand about certain kinds of fandom:

AKB48′s Minegishi Minami’s Public Shaming: Rebutting The Excuses

I still feel weird when I think about last march. sometimes I think it was a weird dream. I know very much what kind of anger Nara-san meant when he worked n those figures. sometimes the sadness & the anger comes back. especially when I talk to people who didn't learn anything. sometiimes just because I was and still am helpless. coward. that's a word sometimes popping up in my mind.

Yoshitomo Nara puts the heart back in art | The Japan Times Online:


"To be honest, for the six months after the quake, I couldn't make anything — not sculpture or painting," Nara says.

Asked to elaborate, he explains that the disaster made him question art's role.

"If I had been a singer or comedian, then I could have just stood up in front of people and given them joy. But with art, it's different. Art is something you can enjoy once you've got your life back in order, once you've got enough food to eat," he says.

Nara eased back into his creative work only after realizing that making sculpture, which is more physical than painting, might prove therapeutic.

"I couldn't make pictures on a blank canvas, but I found I could confront a mass of clay," he says. "I wouldn't think about it with my mind. I would just attack it, like in sumo, with my body."

Thus Nara's response to March 11 gradually fell into line with his original desire to remind viewers that his works were personal, and not the product of a machine or theory. He would sculpt in clay with his body, and then use the resulting shapes to make molds from which he could cast sculptures in bronze.

In the current exhibition, those sculptures fill one gallery, and they are as expressive of their subject matter — heads of young girls with the usual enigmatic expressions — as they are of the sumo-like tussle by which they were made.

They are covered in hand and finger marks. Often you can see where the artist has scraped his hands across their surface in what appears to be an angst-filled swipe.

full article @ Yoshitomo Nara's "No Nukes Girl" joins the protest

this is a column I really am fond of. I learn a lot, about kanji, society and Japan - this time it's educational as well as funny again - like you know, it's a bout comedy and the reason Japanese peole don't laugh in public... O_o... mah, whatever, Arashi is in this article - even if it isn't really worth mentioning, I am in fact a bit proud, they start using them instead of SMAP - but on the other hand, SMAP are really no boys anymore and hardly do any variety besides their own shows...

You think you're funny, but really you're not | The Japan Times Online

Happy Thanksgiving ^__^ here's my present and share:

What's wrong with talking a little turkey? | The Japan Times Online


I never ever celebrated it - not that I'm not thankful for MANY thinks - but it isn't a feast or something like that here in Germany and I guess I never will (only if a nice soul living on the other side of the ocean is willing to cook and invite me ^O^)...*blows kisses*