Cultural exports and the anime wingman

Anyone who knows anything about me knows I happen to be a a mild fan of Japanese culture.

Okay, I'm a BIG fan.

It's no secret, especially for anyone who might wander by my desk at work and wonder why there's a mirror with a smiling cat face staring at them. I like Japan. There. I said it.

So it may come as surprise to people that although I perhaps began my flirtation with Japanese culture through anime, I've little less than forsaken it for the last three years. ("What! She likes Japan, but doesn't like anime? What's wrong with her!") But actually that's not it at all.

I don't dislike anime in any way. It introduced me to Japan, as a sort of wingman. Yeah. Anime is Japan's wingman. But I do kinda of dislike the stereotype that fans of Japanese culture must love every facet of every Japanese exports beginning and ending with anime. I too began with anime, and I truly respect it as a pervasive and intelligent medium and art form. But I also love exploring the many other just as engaging elements of Japanese culture.

For one, I love music. I myself play bass and occasionally guitar in a chronically disbanded cover band. It helps me unwind, and it feels great to sorta of recreate something -- even if it's just broken riffs or remix versions of other people's music. But for a few years, I've found myself now engulfed in the wake of specifically Japanese music.

It makes sense, really, if you think about it. Behind the US, Japan is the number two producer of music globally. Yes, Japan. That's beating out even England and makes a great piece of trivia to whip out to your friends one day. But it shouldn't be too surprising. After all, Japan has historically been a culture that respects the arts, whether auditory or visual, far more than, for instance, we in the US could probably legitimately claim (particularly given its waning attention as part of education. But I digress). 

Many people when they think of Japanese music, think more of traditional songs represented on shamisen or some other uniquely Japanese instrument. Traditional music is great too and culturally unique. But what I'm talking about is Japanese hard rock. Jrock.

This ain't your daddy's Japanese music.

This is music that sounds more like something off of Coheed & Cambria's Year of the Black Rainbow and sometimes harder. If you're a fan of anime, particularly subbed, you've no doubt heard themes from bands which are outrageously popular in Japan and yet virtually unknown anywhere else. Bands like Orange Range, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, L'Arc~en~Ciel, and Nightmare (the band pictured above) are all fairly well-known in Japan. The band screaming over the second Death Note Opening Theme is  called Maximum the Hormone. (A little too hard for me, personally.) Interestingly enough though, more and more Japanese bands seem to be cautiously stepping out to explore the American market and trying to carve out a following, even if it does mostly consist of fans of anime and manga. Just a couple years ago, bands like VAMPS, Glay, The Pillows, and X-Japan all played stateside. And this year even more big name Japanese bands seem to be taking the plunge even for worldwide tours. One of my favorite bands L'Arc~en~Ciel just played Madison Square Garden on Sunday. That's crazy. And amazing.

Of course, many of these bands likely don't have delusions of grandeur of hitting it really big in the US, at least not any time soon. The American Music Industry is a brutal, killing machine, even without the challenges that come from singing primarily in Japanese. But it's still interesting to consider how music might be evolving some day, irrespective of culture or language. I know I'm a little biased in this regard, but I hope it continues. ~Tet

The first of spring

It's spring here in the States! With the new season brings a new chance to reflect on the past, evaluate our present, and focus on the future. It also brings bunnies.

<Obligatory bunny pic>

     Lots and lots of bunnies...

(A new litter in their natural laundry basket habitat.)

     Sure, each day technically brings this opportunity -- for reflection, that is (and bunnies!) -- but I'm just a sucker for using seasonal milestones as a marker. Anyways, I thought I'd share a poem I wrote a couple years ago about just that. Please enjoy. ~Tet

---------

day 

we were children

living in our fantasy world

of ice cream and candy pops

and rainy days and snow angels

we longed for the day

that school was out

we made friends with strangers

and enemies into friends

we were

carefree

careless

carefree, can i go out to play

be home before dinner

out and about, not of war, not of drought

grownups living in a child's world

children

yesterday

but today

we are mature

we see

with different eyes

men

living in our changing world

there are war fields by our flowers

there are flowers by our graves

we make strangers into enemies

we turn enemies into war

we longed for the day

the sun was out

we long for that day

we are

careful

careless

careful

we are 

restless in the morning

we are 

weary at night

we are

the very epitome of everything we hate

hated

as children trying to live a child's life

in a grownup's world yesterday

we are 

in bondage

we are free

we want to love

we love to hate

we hate to sin

we sin to live

we live for love

we long for life

we sin for sin

we strive for strife

we see our selves

set aside,

human-ity,

which up and died

you want what's best for your children

you want what's worst for mine

and in this world, this changing world

where love and hate 

and sin and dreams

and all that captured in between

all topple under misery's weight

a victim of their own misery

we see our sons

and realize

the human game is still alive

we may live for nothing

and still yet

we will live.

To Kyoto... and beyond!

So like pretty much everyone on the West Coast in the US, I'd like to consider myself a world traveler. Unfortunately my world traveling experience has thus far only been localized to a single business trip to Argentina and one two-week adventure in Tokyo (I suppose I could also count a tag-along trip to the Bahamas, but I was like ten).

Now available in purple, salmon, and fuchsia this spring.

Anyways though, since visiting Argentina in my adult life, I realized one thing -- I really love traveling. And since visiting Japan, I realized one more thing -- I really love Japan.

Well in truth, just about anyone who knows me would have called this second revelation a no-brainer. I was known as a bit of a Japanophile in my old stomping grounds and not just because I relished in the usual imports of anime and manga. I also love Japanese music -- rock music, to be precise. I minored in Asian Studies in college, and I regularly brought Japanese candies and snacks to the office to give away. I led two  Japanese study groups in college and beyond, and I even play bass in a Japanese cover band. (Okay, yeah. I'm a bit of a fan.) Half of my electronics are even in Japanese.

Darn you, Apple, and your staggered roll-outs!

So I finally made it to Japan in 2010, and let me tell you -- two weeks of just me and my sister blowing through greater Tokyo, climbing Tokyo Tower, nerding out in Akihabara, getting lost in Roppongi, checking out Makudo (McDonald's), and visiting every Book-Off within a 200-square mile radius...it was amazing.

But if there's one place I've been told over and over again that I must visit, it's Kyoto -- for its beauty, for its tradition -- and I've so wanted to take those people up on their recommendation. But as you may know, as many things as Japan is, cheap is not one of them. I saved up for a few years to make my first trip over, and not break the bank, and now here I am less than two years later trying to make another attempt.

But I was thinking lately -- you only live once, and you can't take it with you anyways. So why worry? (How's that for a string of platitudes?) Anyways, what I'm trying to say is live a little. I used to always be the one with a plan, eternally careful with every spend as I knew it could impact my future dollars and cents. I rarely took vacation, I never took sick days, and while I had a reputation for diligence and hard work, that was much of all I had. But I've come to realize, everybody needs a day off from time to time, whether they think they do or not. And travel, as strenuous and time-consuming as it is, can also be refreshing. It also opens your eyes and broadens the mind to new cultures, new perspectives, and an overall different way of doing things.

Maybe you're like me and have shied away from those vacay days, planning vigorously for tomorrow. Well to that I say, take the above advice, and give yourself a day off. You deserve it.
Maybe you're nothing like me and take vacation and refresher days a plenty. Well, in that case, you'd probably be the one giving me this advice anyways, and to you, I tip my proverbial hat.

Now, of course, I'm not advocating shirking responsibility. Don't go blowing off your rent payment to buy that gorgeous new axe you just saw, regardless of how jaw-breakingly happy it would make you.

Not even if it's this gorgeous monstrosity of a lake placid blue
gloss Fender jazz bass with maple fretboard. Don't give in!

But life is unpredictable and made to live, right? Even the best-laid plans can end up in ruin, so sometimes it's best just to through the plan aside for a moment. Don't burn it all in flames (though sometimes this is called for too), but at least don't deprive yourself constantly of happiness you know you can claim.

Chances are, you deserve a little. So find a little.

As for me, hopefully by the end of this month I'll have a plan cemented to visit Japan and to finally see Kyoto, because it'll make me happy. And my new bass might have to wait until next year... unless I see one in Japan. ~Tet

A small glimpse

You may have seen me comment on occasion (okay, on fairly regular occasion) that I'm currently in the process of editing the sequel to Chronicle of Angels and Men. And as everyone knows, sequels mean more of what you love.

Also more of what you don't.

But if you dug book one of The Circuit Angel Chronicles, chances are you'll really dig the upcoming book two, tentatively titled The Circuit Angel Chronicles: Crisis of Man. I wanted to give everyone a small glimpse into what's forthcoming by revealing the opening to chapter one.

So go ahead -- gaze into your future, and see what awaits you in June 2012.  Go on. Dare ya. ~Tet

<Visual representation of your future>

The Circuit Angel Chronicles : Book Two | Crisis of Man

Chapter One [Opening Excerpt]

     Man was comprised of three parts – body, spirit, and soul.  This was the simple formula which defined not just life, but specifically Human life. 

     The spirit, also known as the mind, was what gave man his individuality, or personality, so to speak.  It was what separated beast from Man, and Man from one another.  A Man’s spirit was uniquely his, and so it labeled him as a person as meek or kind or vengeful or complacent.  It was what gave him confidence or humility or placed within him ideas of love for his fellow man or holocaust.  It was passion, compassion, or antipathy.  And in many ways, it was the most telling part being Human.

     The body was Man’s physical self – his flesh.  It was what where he felt pain and what taught him how to inflict it on and upon others.  It experienced ecstasy in the height of sexual contact and despair when it was torn away from the respite of bone.  It provided Man tactile interaction with the world around him and through this, the ability to subjugate that world.  The body was the basic building block for any who sought to create life.  It was the temple for the soul and for the spirit, without which could not be joined into a single conscious being.  And for this reason, the body was pivotal in developing life.

     But many were mistaken in their understanding of the soul and of how it helped comprise three-part man.  They often confused the soul with the spirit, or vice-versa, or failed to separate the two at all.  It was oft thought the possession of a soul was what distinguished man from animal.  This was in part true, though, reliance on this distinction alone was both a common and critical error.  The soul was the center of Man.  It was the binding force what linked Man’s spirit with Man’s body and formed him into an individual.  Most would agree the soul had no form tangible or visible, save for those cursed with such gifts.  However, the most pressing distinction between the spirit and the soul was this: The spirit belonged to Man.  The soul belonged to God.

     It was this characteristic which made Man so unique and so uniquely loved by God.  No other creature on Earth could make such a boast – animals with spirits but no souls, plants with souls but no spirits, and those Heaven-born Angels with spirits and souls, but no bodies.

     So it should follow that upon God’s banishment of certain Angel-kind to this Earth, there should remain some differential between that creature which He created as Man and that creature which He created as not.  And with their newly granted bodies made flesh, it would serve to reason that they must have been deprived of one of the other two elements of Man – spirit or soul.  The trick was in discerning just which of these two crucial parts of Man was missing. 

     When the Angels were fell to earth, they divided themselves naturally into two factions – those which identified with Man and those which identified with God, known respectively as the Peace-Mongers and the Separatists.  But what if the presence or non-presence of soul or spirit also played a part in this division?  Had the Peace-Mongers the coveted spirit of Man but lacked souls?  Had the Separatists souls but lacked the individuality and earmark  blessed by the possession of a spirit?  It was a grave consideration either way, particularly for creatures such as we, who so longed to gain either the attention of Man or the pity of God.