Thursday, May 29, 2003

comedy

I'm stalking one of the Comedy Store guys, per his request. This means that, after the British Embassy Choir's Friday concert in Kamiyacho I have to do cartwheels all the way down the Hibiya line to Footnik in Ebisu for the stand-up show Tokyo Cynics. Stalkee assures us that the show is now much better than when I first saw it well over a year ago, which I assume means that there will be more laughing and less cringing. Whoo hoo! And now that I've told you all this, you can stalk me stalking him. How exciting is that?

Even more exciting, both shows are free, so you can use your hard-earned yen to support your notorious drinking habit.

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

photography

I love looking at other people's photographs. Did you know that June was Photography Month? Me neither.

To commemorate that, from May 30 to June 1 (just over the weekend) the Photographic Society of Japan will be exhibiting photographs by 1000 people in the center plaza of Yebisu Garden Place [access]. Admission is free, of course, and it's not much of a time commitment, so we could just wander in after brunch.

(I could have sworn "they" said it was going to rain on Saturday, though. Be prepared for postponement or a slight location change.)

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

dandy

Does this template make me look fat?

There are some screwy things going on with BlogSpot right now. So please excuse the mess while they get their shit together. I've been meaning to add Tokyo Comedy Store and Tokyo International Players to my "Check List." So here they are until BlogSpot starts accepting my changes.

I'm kind of a comedy snob, so it's taken me a while to warm up to TCS, seeing as how their shows are usually a mix of amateurs and pros. They also tend to be stand-up and improv-heavy, virtually ignoring my favorite comedy form, sketch. That said, I still think it's interesting to watch people feel their way through a scene, either playing off of each other or totally ignoring each other (as the case may be). And just remember that even the Kids in the Hall used to bomb every so often at The Rivoli. There's something gratifying about watching people earn the funny, because when they're good, they're really good. And when they're bad? You remember that drinks are only 500 yen.

Monday, May 26, 2003

theatre

Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate,
And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,
Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore.
Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore,
And in the doubtful war, before he won
The Latian realm, and built the destin'd town;
His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divine,
And settled sure succession in his line,
From whence the race of Alban fathers come,
And the long glories of majestic Rome.

Virgil,
The Aeneid

I almost forgot. Intrigue Theatre's production of George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man is sneaking up on us like...like a big sneaking-up thing. (Note to self: get a thesaurus.)

Starring a lot of the same people as the last two plays (and probably the same set), I'm sure this production will also manage to show its strengths in quality acting, directing and, of course, material. I don't doubt that the decision to stage this show was influenced by recent world events; unlike Virgil's poem, which glorifies war, Shaw's play mocks that institution, demonstrating "the flimsiness of military and heroic romance, in contrast to the sober and prosaic work of peace." Take from it what you will.

The show runs from June 2-8 at Studio Akasaka Playbox with matinée shows on the weekend. Tickets are 4000 yen each. See the site for details.
music

Since I figure that I'm too old to be sitting in the wilderness, sharing portable toilets for days on end with a bunch of younger, sweatier, no-deodorant-wearing music lovers, and tending to my bee stings with my homemade emergency kit, I'm probably more of a Summer Sonic person than a Fuji Rock person. Summer Sonic sounds like Fuji Rock-lite. Half the fun, sure. But it's also less of a commitment.

This is just a reminder that the box office officially opened for Summer Sonic yesterday. Tickets are 23000 yen for two days (p-code: 149-001) or 13000 for just one (p-code: 149-000), and the event takes place at Chiba Marine Stadium (number 100 on this map, if that helps any).

Since I'm only really interested in seeing Radiohead, I'm only going on the 3rd, which--with the exception of Radiohead--looks a bit ass-like. Let's hope I'm wrong.

Friday, May 23, 2003

hi there

Yeah, uh...if you came here from the Metropolis article, I suspect they've got the wrong blog. There's no art or photography here, just suggestions for things to do around town, some of which may or may not have already been reported in Metropolis or some other widely available publication. Read my shoddily assembled FAQs if you want to know more.

Might I suggest esthet? She seems much more in the know. Plus? Better links.

Thursday, May 22, 2003

theatre

If you are me (and let's face it, if you're reading this blog, you probably are) you missed Hamlet last night. But instead of paying the 5000 yen to see the Kichijoji performance, you could see one of the less-publicized university performances for half (or 1/5) the price. There's a list on the One World site of all the shows throughout Japan, but there are only two shows left in our area. Sort of. If you count Chiba. (If not, then there's just one.)

22 May, 5:30 p.m. Kanda University in Chiba (Millennium House)
[useless map][Japanese map of campus]
advance 2000 yen/at the door 2500 yen

26 May, 5 p.m. Tokyo Women's Christian University near Kichijoji [map]
1000 yen (general public/students )

Wait. 5 p.m. on a Monday? Okay, I'm screwed.

Wednesday, May 21, 2003

film

How about I just move into the Uplink Factory? That'd be okay, right? No one would mind? It's spacious, conveniently located, has lots of chairs and plenty of booze. What's more, I wouldn't need cable.

Up until now, I have failed to mention that they've been showing the award-winning documentary Promises for weeks. Shot between 1995 and 2000, the film is a study of the Middle East conflict through the eyes of seven Palestinian and Israeli children, ages nine to thirteen. From the site:

Though they live only 20 minutes apart, the seven children exist in completely separate worlds; the physical, historical and emotional obstacles between them run deep. The ability to have dialogues with anyone, in a way that breaks through prejudices, is surely a prerequisite for peace in the region. And yet hardly anyone has such conversations. PROMISES explores the nature of these boundaries and tells the story of a few children who dared to cross the lines to meet their neighbors.

This month, Promises will be showing at 11 a.m. from the 23rd to the 25th and the 29th. It is also scheduled for the same time on every Thursday of next month. The 1300 yen admission includes one drink. (1000 yen for students.)

Also worth mentioning, Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in our Times is scheduled to run a few more times next month. (I thought they were done with Noam.)

And after the May 23rd screening of Promises, there will be a small Festival of the Disgruntled and Generally Surly (my title, not theirs), starting at 2 p.m. The three films shown will be Clerks (Kevin Smith's only good film), Happiness (kind of gross, but it has Philip Seymour Hoffmann!) and Welcome to the Dollhouse (painfully good) with a special guest speaker before the first film. Sure, you could just rent these titles and save money. But then, how else are you going to meet like-minded malcontents?

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

film

Bring on the Eurotrash.

As part of Uplink Factory's Eurotrash festivities next month, they're dedicating one night to horror films. Whoo hoo! On June 28th, the "Splatter Movie Archives" will be featuring Terror Train and Communion (aka Alice, Sweet Alice), only one of which stars Jamie Lee Curtis. And both so bad they've gone past good and back to bad again. (Apologies to Ghostworld.)

If the idea of seeing low-brow horror makes you feel dirty (as well it should), you can brush up on your Laura Mulvey ahead of time and pick apart the instances of scopophilia, phallocentrism and trans-sex indentification. Then you can feel all smart and psychoanalytical again.

The Eurotrash event runs from June 28th to July 4th. More info to come at a less ridiculously early date.
play reading

TIP Reads is a side project for Tokyo International Players to hold informal play readings at a member's house. The program is run by a professor at Aoyama Gakuin's English department, and the plays he chooses tend to be of the sort that TIP shies away from--quirky plays, political plays, lesser-known classics, or plays that are brilliant but might not draw a crowd.

So perhaps it's a good sign for the group that the reading this month is for one of next season's shows: A.R. Gurney's The Dining Room. Details:

The Dining Room, A. R. Gurney's witty look at that meeting place of upper-middle class lives, the dining room. Love is lost, found, and generations come and go in a play with some 60 different parts though played by only 6 different actors. At turns, touching, and comic, this play, a hit on Broadway, is by one of America's master playwrights and scheduled for TIP's 2003-4 season.

The reading will be orchestrated by David Neale, past director of one of TIP's biggest hits,
Godspell, and director of The Dining Room next spring.

This reading will be held May 31st, Saturday, at 7:00 pm, and everyone brings food for the group (snacky food is okay), and a bottle of wine, or another beverage. Roles are usually assigned at the reading and you don't have to have any experience to volunteer. You can also just come to listen if you're feeling shy.

(E-mail me if you want details on how to get there and to RSVP; I can't post phone numbers and maps to someone's house on a website.)

Monday, May 19, 2003

film

(If you aren't/have no intention of becoming an Athénée Français Cultural Center member, don't bother with this one.)

It's at times like this that I wish I wasn't afraid to speak Japanese on the phone.

The Athénée Français Cultural Center will be holding a Leçon de Cinema from June 24th to July 5th focusing on silent film classics. The greats of silent film will be represented, of course--Cecil B. DeMille, D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin. But the film I'd most like to see is Erich von Stroheim's Greed.

Based on one of my favorite novels, McTeague by Frank Norris, the original version of this film was said to have been between eight to ten hours long. Von Stroheim was so obsessed with the book that he wanted to film every single page and had assembled a cast and crew that was just as dedicated as he was in the task. The original version--all 42 reels of it--was only ever screened once and was reported to have been brilliant, but way too long. After several edits, MGM settled on a 2-hour version that focuses mainly on McTeague, Trina and Marcus, but leaves out virtually all of the tangential stories. The remaining footage then went missing and has since come to be considered a holy grail of film restoration, with film historians hoping that all of the missing reels will somehow turn up in a mislabeled box or something. (Apparently, a 240-minute version of the film was made available in 1999 with some "long missing footage" and still photos to fill in the blanks. Sounds like a hoot.)

My point? Oh yeah. I'm not sure that the original titles for these films will be shown. The site seems a tad confusing in that respect. I mean, it does say that Japanese jimaku is included. But when talking about silent film, can't jimaku also mean the main titles and not just subtitles? I could very well call them to make sure, but I am a linguistically retarded coward, thank you very much. Moreover, I hate phones. Let's just assume that the answer is yes. (It looks like Christus will only be in Japanese while the others will be in two languages.)

Greed will be shown on the 5th of July at 3:10 p.m. One-day tickets are 1000 yen. As mentioned above, it's open to those with membership. They have quite a few of these events, so if you're a film geek like me it might be worth it.

Friday, May 16, 2003

film

There's something you should know about me. I usually think in terms of either video games or movies. For example, if I'm wandering around an area that is even remotely maze-like, you'll probably hear me exclaim "This is just like a video game!" You may even catch me searching for treasure and contemplating ways to replenish my HP.

Likewise, when faced with the prospect of queuing for ninety minutes at Disneyland, I'll balk and say, "I could see a whole movie in that time." Or after buying a shirt for about 4000 yen, I'll walk out of the store claiming, "I could have seen two movies for that much."

This is all just so we understand each other. There's a reason I post about film more than anything else.

That said, the Fifth Short Shorts Film Festival will be taking place at La Foret Museum in Harajuku from June 7th (Sat.) to June 11th (Wed.). Advanced tickets for one program are 1200 yen each, or 1500 at the door (roughly half the price of admission for a Tokyo club or half the price of two hours of nomihodai karaoke, whichever you prefer).

Unfortunately, the site doesn't tell you exactly what will be shown in any of the programs, but it does give a brief rundown of the highlights. Of note are some early works by Roman Polanski and Pedro Almodovar. Per the website, "The short film is a resume for a film maker to show his ability, much like a sketch is proof of an artist's ability to paint." So it should be interesting to see how accurately their early works have reflected what we know of their talents today.

You can see a schedule in Japanese on the pia site (p-code 500-033). But here it is again, just for kicks. (You have to specify the program and time when buying your pia ticket.) Note that doors open 30 minutes before show time.

War & Peace: June 7 at 1:50 PM, June 9 at 6:30 PM
Academy: June 8 at 6:30 PM, June 10 at 6:30 PM
National: June 9 at 1:50 PM, June 11 at 11:30 AM
Program A: June 7 at 4:10 PM, June 9 at 4:10 PM
Program B: June 7 at 6:30 PM, June 10 at 11:30 AM
Program C: June 8 at 11:30 AM, June 10 at 1:50 PM
Program D: June 8 at 1:50 PM, June 10 at 4:10 PM
Program E: June 8 at 4:10 PM, June 11 at 1:50 PM
Program F: June 9 at 11:30 AM, June 11 at 4:10 PM
Closing Ceremony: June 11 at 6:30 PM

Thursday, May 15, 2003

music

Again, didn't feel like writing today. I took some non-drowsy medicine for my cold, and it's making me really sleepy. Note to self: do not trust labels.

Some friends of mine in the British Embassy Choir are getting ready for their summer concert, coming at the end of this month. As usual, admission is free, but they'll be taking a collection for local charities. Details:

Friday, 30th May at 7.30 pm - St. Andrew's Cathedral, 3-6-25 Shiba Koen, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 105-0011

Saturday, 31st May at 6 pm - Rikkyo All Saints' Chapel, Rikyyo University (Ikebukuro campus), 3-34-1 Nishi Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 171-8501

The music includes "sacred choral works by Bach, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Britten, Schutz and favorite spirituals." Normally, this would sound like highfalutin' Jesus-love to me. But then again, my heart is black and tiny like that.

No, they're really good. I swear. Some of them could even be professionals. (Some of them probably are professionals.) They could use a few dozen more male singers, but other than that I was really pleased the last two times I saw them. And having studied classical voice myself, I can get really bitchy about these things. Hell, if you want, we could go together, and I could get bitchy right there in the audience for you.

Anything for charity.

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

by the way

Apropos nothing, those "reading" links to the right are more for me than for you. I actually do like reading those blogs and just wanted to have them all in one place. It's not some weird attempt to get reciprocal links or draw traffic to this page. I'm not a traffic whore and I don't even tell my non-Tokyo friends that I do this. So, uh, yeah. If you're on the list and don't want to be, let me know. It wouldn't pain me to go back to using my browser bookmark. Must...click...dropdown...menu....

The "check list," though? I guess that is partially for you. I really do go down the list and scan those sites (except for Box Higashi Nakano, which is there for sentimental purposes). But I can't very well do all the work myself, can I?

Speaking of which, cheers to lil who sent me info on 66b/cell before Golden Week. It takes place on the 15th and 16th at Goethe Institut Tokyo and looks like eye-and-ear candy, despite the snarky write-up it got in Tokyo Time Out. I thought I could go, but I sort of overbooked myself, so I'm going to miss out. Poor me. My life is so hard.
film

Did you know that EU-Japan Friendship Week is several months long? Me, I had no idea.

On top of the bajillion other events listed on the above page, there is also a film festival going on at the Goethe Institut, Institut Franco-Japonais and Istituto Italiano di Cultura from May 11th to the 28th.

If your English, French, Dutch, German and Italian skills are all intact, I suppose you can go to whichever film you damn well please. Likewise if you can keep up with the Japanese subtitles. But for those of us poor schmucks who can barely handle one language much less two, here are the two films in English.

East is East (UK, 1999) at Goethe-Institut Tokyo
Friday, May 23 at 7 p.m.

Country (Ireland, 2000) at Istituto Italiano di Cultura
Wednesday, May 28 at 7 p.m.

There's no ticket information for these events, but according to the Institut Franco-Japonais site, they're all gratis anyway.

Monday, May 12, 2003

sports

Do you like American football? Me neither. But my friend Sara is a huge fan and, as much as she dislikes Tokyo, is willing to trek all the way over here from Osaka to attend the game between the Jets and the Buccaneers at Tokyo Dome on August 2nd.

There are still plenty of tickets available (surprise, surprise) ranging from 2500 yen to 50000, and you can buy them online through Ticket Pia.

I am a good friend, no?

No?

Oh.

Friday, May 09, 2003

audition

The bitch is back.

It's a busy day and I don't feel like writing, but here's a casting notice that's been sitting in my inbox throughout Golden Week. Sorry it's a bit last-minute.

Filmmaker Junji Sakamoto is looking for 30-40 extras for his film Out of this World, which depicts occupied Tokyo after the Japanese surrender in World War II. He's seeking both men and women, and the first crucial date for shooting with extras is on May 11th. However, they'll be shooting throughout May and June, so if you miss this Sunday, it might not be too late to contact them for other scenes. Experience is not essential.

Apparently, neither is pay.

It's on the website, but you get reimbursement for transportation, an invitation (for you and a guest) to a preview, and possibly your name in the credits. Also, if you want to play one of the GIs, you'd have to be willing to cut your hair and to face mockery/disdain from your friends and neighbors.

If interested in mockery/disdain, contact Walter Roberts (wroberts[at]gol.com) or sign up via the website.