“Don’t pick up your guitar aimlessly. Act with a sense of purpose. Be of the mind that you’re going to DO something– even if you don’t know what that is yet. Prepare yourself to play… Remember, the guitar is an instrument– a thing by means of which something is done. Keep this in mind every time you reach for it. When you pick it up, pick it up.” ~Philip Sudo, Zen Guitar.

We all get stuck in ruts, or hang out too long in our comfort zone. Deep in a rut is where I found myself last summer… happily grooving away playing rhythm guitar with the occasional fills and riffs. 

That is until a friend on my favorite guitar forum put a call out for participants in a new group project he was crafting. Since he made it a point to invite players of all skills and styles, I decided to jump in. Each player was to submit two or three solos that would later be combined into a song– and in this particular project, the song would be part of a superhero themed video. 

All of the players in this project were well practiced in writing blistering solos… all except me, that is. Time to break out of my comfort zone, and push my skills. Armed with my guitar, laptop, Zoom G3 effects & amp simulator as my USB audio interface, and the Sequel LE DAW included with the G3, I spent the next week picking up my guitar with a purpose– to write & record original solos. 

Our leader, “X-Mann,” reflected on the project after it was completed; “The team is what makes this song SO great too… It’s funny that I’ve never met or played with any of these Carvin players, we were NEVER in the same room together & ALL come from different locations, backgrounds & playing styles… yet… we sound like we all got to gether one after the other & laid these tracks down with our cool Carvin guitars… but we didn’t!” 

Working on this project was challenging, rewarding, and a lot of fun! Using the recording software to practice, and craft these solos was very helpful, and a major reason I enjoyed the process. Just as major league baseball players watch film to improve their skills, using the recording software allowed me to listen to what I was playing and identify what was sounding good… and what wasn’t.

I encourage you to participate in your own “on-line jam” as they are becoming more common with the affordability and ease of use of basic recording software. Of course, nothing beats playing in a live situation, but these on-line projects will help you grow as a player, and learn new skills.

“It doesn’t matter what style you play in at all… recording yourself & your own tunes can really develop your guitar playing in a great & musical way.” ~X-Mann

Check out the video, keep an eye out for Randy– a.k.a. Rip Curl, and share the video with your friends. This recording venture was one of the main motivations for my decision to learn the bass guitar as well. My next recording will include not only my guitar work, but a heavy dose of bass-guitar as well. With a little luck I’ll have something completed before week-10. Stay tuned!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Carvin Guitars League of Justice: Invincible

How does a convicted killer go from being declared legally insane in the membrane to becoming  a published comic book writer amongst other things in Japan? Easy.  Really helps too if you happened to have been a cannibal who because of some rather interesting legal issues checked himself out of the padded room in 1986 and has been a free man since. In the decades since he has become something of a minor celebrity in Tokyo,Japan so without further adieu let’s meet your freak of the week,Issei Sagawa.

The Crime: In 1981, while attending Sorbonne in Paris,France; he invited a classmate over on the pretext of discussing French literature instead he shot her with the intent of having lunch. She was to be the entree. While, the rest of the crime needless to say is too gory to discuss he was caught when attempting to dispose of the evidence in a lake simply because someone saw him.

The Celebrity: Because of a number of issues when he was returned back to Japan with the French paperwork there was no way to hold him legally in custody other than the metal hospital which he checked out of in 1986. He became a speaker on the lecture circuit strangely enough and even stranger than that is the fact he is a contributor to a food magazine of all things. In addition he has written books about what he has done, had a comic book issues, appeared in films of a decidedly sadist nature and as recently as 2009 he was documented on the History Channel. He is considered evil,violent, more than sightly crazy,but, people eat up what he has to offer hence the nickname ” The Cannibal Celebrity.” Why then does Japan have such an interest in this man? Well,he got away with for one thing and the other thing he has done the one thing that freaks us out as a public and that thing is cannibalism. It grosses us out. It gives the willies. We need a bath in bleach after hearing about the graphic details,but, we are again staring at the train wreck.

The train wreck that is Issei Sagawa was/is in the annuals of crime perhaps the most weird because of the amount attention he has gotten with only one crime,but, it is that whole creepy cannibal thing again. What is surprising is the amount of lectures he gives as well as the website he runs with oh so delightful artwork of ladies tushes. Which he seems to have a thing for and yet, Japan goes the lecture to listen to him speak about the crime that horrify us. My take on it is this,we rarely as a public get to hear a criminal speak about their crimes and never in such grisly detail either. He happens to be nuts and free which is,also, appealing because even rarer is a cannibal than is free to begin with. In Japan, considering how rare this type of murder is to begin with it would almost instantly elevate him to cult status. So the train wreck rambles on and it is the human condition to look  no matter which country you happen to be in.

For further reading:

http://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/sagawa-issei.htm

 

 

The other day, I talked about Japanese sushi culture. So, I researched about American sushi to know how different they are. As most people know, in Japan there aren’t the rolls like California rolls, Spicy Tuna rolls, and so on.

 

I wondered the reason why these rolls like California rolls became famous in America, and I found one of the answers. Interestingly, the seaweeds have the reason. Before Japanese foods were popular in America, most Americans had never had seaweeds. So, they tasted strange when they had seaweeds first time. However, Japanese chef who wanted to keep Japanese food culture thought and tried to make sushi with seaweeds. And, he made California rolls which was made by outside rice and inside seaweeds. In this case, people who had the rolls didn’t taste seaweeds directly.

Before I knew this fact, I was sometimes mad at people who think main sushi menu was California rolls, because they weren’t austenitic Japanese foods. However, now I change my mind, and I think it is okay that there is new food cultures as an Asian American culture to protect Japanese foods culture.

I’m researching the issues with the beauty standards in Asian cultures.  I don’t know anything about this, so it is going to be interesting to learn, however, I came across an article on CNN.com that was called “Asia’s Ideal Beauty: Looking Caucasian”  It’s written by Dr. Anthony Youn who is a plastic surgeon.  In this article he is talking about how in Asian culture plastic surgery is very common.  Apparently, a lot of the influence for people to get plastic surgery is because of the older generation.  Parents are telling their children that they would be prettier or more handsome if they got plastic surgery to ‘fix’ their features.  The problem is that they aren’t just getting surgery, according to this article, to look more attractive, they are trying to look more Caucasian.  One of the passages in this article that really struck me was, “Then, I received a request from a mom to perform an Asian eyelid surgery on her son. “‘He really wants the surgery done,” the mother said. “He wants to look handsome.’” Then I found out her son was only 8.”

First of all, when it comes to plastic surgery, I don’t necessarily think that it is a bad thing.  If getting something you really hate about yourself changed will help you to be happier and more confident, then why not?  However, I think that that is only true if you are doing it for you, and not because someone is telling you you should.  I think that everyone is different, and no one is perfect.  This is easier said than done, but I do think that more people need to believe that they are pretty in their own way.

Tying this into makeup, as I have said, I love makeup and think it is beautiful etc. however, about a month or so ago I was scrolling through facebook, again, and I saw this picture.  

 

 

 

 

The label on this picture was, “Makeup is worse than photoshop”  This didn’t piss me off because I like wearing makeup and was personally offended; it pissed me off because this girl is beautiful with or without makeup, and this was obviously posted by some stupid person that needs to put others down in order to feel good about themselves.  Okay, so yes she does look a lot different with makeup, but that’s because she has really bad acne, so she is going to look different.  Also, it’s because she does wear a lot of makeup.  She happens to be one of the people I watch on youtube sometimes, and yes she does layer her makeup.  But that’s her choice.  If a girl has acne, and wants to cover it up, more power to her.  Who cares?  This is one of the things I hate about the stereotype of girls wearing makeup.  It’s just an excuse to try and put girls down.  What I like about this girl, is that she knows she wears a lot of makeup, and she doesn’t care.  I think that is what is important.  I don’t know how I feel about Asian girls changing themselves yet, but I am going to keep looking into it.

 

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/25/health/asian-beauty/

http://cheezburger.com/7962215168

After much squabbling over what “obsession” I should cover and talking about ideas with my friends and classmates, I have finally settled to a topic I can settle for: video games. I cannot deny that it’s probably the most consistent thing I ever do. Games I’ll cover on for Asian American influence or influence from Asian pop culture will be ones I’ve played or hear plenty about. I don’t know if this topic is very broad, but if it is I can narrow it down to a specific brand of games, genre of games, or video game systems. I already have an idea for the first rock post that isn’t this post or the one before the previous one. I hope I can pull this off in finding connections in those games that relate to what we’re learning or about to learn.

 

I obsess on Korean pop-music, especially ‘BIG BANG’ as I mentioned on last post.

‘BIG BANG’ is a South Korean male group formed in 2006, the group consists of G-Dragon(my feve..haha), T.O.P, SOL(Taeyang), D-LITE(Daesung), and V.I. Big Bang is known for their unique urban-originated music and fashion style.

 

 

From 2009 to 2010, Big Bang expanded their endeavors to Japan, and were voted “the Korean group that Japanese fans wish to see the most”.

The photo above was taken at their Alive Tour 2012 in Japan.

They held world tour in 2012 :Seoul, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, Lima, Peru, the UK, London , and England.