Anatida Blanco

One day in 1989, while in a drug store, I saw blank 20-second cassette tapes that played on a loop, used for outgoing messages on old phone answering machines. This was ye olde pre-digital days, so I was recording music on a Fostex X15 Series 2 multi-track recorder—with four whole tracks!—and mixing to a standard

Exceptional Children’s Television Shows in Japan

When I was a boy, I used to watch Schoolhouse Rock, a Saturday morning television series of short animations produced in the 1970s that taught children about grammar, science, multiplication, and American history with the use of catchy songs. The “Hey Little Twelve-Toes” segment (multiplication by twelve) included an explanation of the base 12, or

Roadtrip Playlist

I’m about to embark upon a nearly 1100 mile road trip.  To where?  I’m going to keep that a secret for now, except to say it’s one-way.  😉  To keep me going, I’m taking some CDs along.  These aren’t necessarily my all-time favorite albums, but these will keep me energized, alert, and happy on the

An alternative to Kouhaku?

For the past seven years or so, I’ve watched Kouhaku Uta Gassen  (紅白歌合戦 literally, Red and White Song Battle), Japan’s big annual New Year’s Eve musical extravaganza. Kouhaku runs from about 7pm to midnight in Japan, which is roughly 2am to 7am California time. Usually it’s a lot of fun, but the 2018 edition seemed

New Music from Japan – January 2015

Artist: Himuro Yoshiteru Location: Tokyo 東京 Soundcloud Title: Beats Log 20150114 Genre: electronic Artist: OYMS + Kyosuke Takayasu (Totokoko label) Location (of Totokoko): Saitama さいたま Soundcloud / Twitter Title: Inside of a Wind Genre: pop Free Download Artist: Hizmi (Bunkai-kei label) Location (of Bunkai-kei): Tokyo 東京 Soundcloud / Twitter Title: Nue Genre: electronic Free Download

Spite and malice, Siouxsie-style

INTERVIEWER In the last ten years of your existence, you’ve had to endure a lot of criticism. How do you deal with that? Is it something you learned to live with? SIOUXSIE No, I think partly why we’ve lasted for ten years is pure spite. If you think about being a better adversary than your

R.I.P., Macintosh Performa 636CD

Finally, I got rid of my old Macintosh Performa 636CD, which I bought in the mid-1990s. On it I had Mark of the Unicorn’s Perfomer software, version 5.5. With Performer I recorded all of my albums beginning with 1994’s Oleanders through 2010’s Swing ‘n’ Swive (The Jogovision Song Contest 2011 was recorded with Cakewalk). The

“A total performance!”

Exciting news, everyone! I received two emails from NHK World, about Haruka Matsumoto’s video (“Kanashii Uta”), which was featured on NHK World’s recent “We Love Japanese Songs! 2013” earlier this month. I was informed that Haruka’s song is featured on NHK World Radio Japan’s broadcast (hosted by Michelle Yamamoto and Jeff Otto) and can be

Haruka Matsumoto makes her debut on NHK World!

Out of over 200 videos received from 36 countries and territories, Jogovision Song Contest 2011 winner Haruka Matsumoto’s video for her song, “Kanashii Uta” (A Sad Song), was one of about twenty featured on NHK World’s We Love Japanese Songs! 2013 program! And as far as I could tell, Haruka’s was the only original song

Haruka Matsumoto will appear on NHK World!

I just received the following email: Dear Haruka Matsumoto, Thank you for sending in your video to “We Love Japanese Songs! 2013”. Your signing was so impressive that we decided to show it in our show! You can watch it on January 2nd (Wed) @ 2:10, 6:10, 10:10, 13:10, 17:10, 21:10 (UTC) on NHK World.