October 8, 2008 by Christopher Born.

This time of year I tend to get nostalgic about my fall semester in Osaka, back in 1997.  It’s been over ten years now and I still remember the crisp fall days as the summer heat and humidity dropped off into the night.

I used to smoke Mild Seven cigarettes and walk from the small two-story home I was staying at to the bus stop at Korigaoka Go-chome.  It was on the Keihan line that would take you all the way to Hirakata station.  I lived not too far from Hirakata park, but never really wanted to go to the amusement park.  I tended to like going to Kyobashi when I had free time.

Every time the weather gets like it is now, I reach for my outmoded MD player and pull out a disc of Marie-Claire Alain’s renditions of Bach’s most famous chorales.  I used to listen to these just about every day on my way down to the station.  In fact, I am listening to them right now!  Pure sunlight and sharp days are so well complemented by MC Alain’s renditions of these amazing pieces.  As a good Shiraz to a sharp cheese, so does this music match the fall days.

The think I enjoyed most about my Aiwa MD player is the fact that it always produced such excellent bass response; it was almost as warm as an analog recording.  When I attempt to enjoy these pieces of my iPod, something is lacking sorely.  These pieces, like the weather and smoke they accompany in my mind, meet up perfectly with the MD of the late 1990’s.  It is no mistake then, that when I put these chorales to my ears, all the memories come flooding back.

I never thought I’d be writing about these things on an old Dell running Ubuntu!

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October 3, 2008 by Christopher Born.

I’ve decided to recycle this site and use it primarily for my musical and theological journeys and discoveries.

Musaic did not have much to do with J-Pop culture originally, but evolved into it.  Hence, I moved the content over to Doshiyo.com and am about to return this site to its original purpose.

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May 29, 2008 by Christopher Born.

Any of you who have heard my piece, Denpato, will note the heavy, analog, fatness of the piece.

I’ve written a few things about it in the past, so I’ll post a picture finally: The NTT tower in Hirakata, Osaka.  My digital camera couldn’t capture it well, but my low-light setting on the DV camera worked great.  I exported some stills from the camera, so here they are.

Ein feste Burg ist unsere Gott…

強い塔

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May 28, 2008 by Christopher Born.

I remember watching shows growing up in the 80’s like Tales of the Gold Monkey, the A-Team, and Black Sheep Squadron. Some of these were fair, well written, and had a well-researched understanding of Japanese culture at the time. Others were just terrible! For exhibit A, I give you Tales of the Gold Monkey. It reminded me of those awful 1950’s African exploration shows complete with old white guys from Brooklyn in blackface.

But Black Sheep Squadron was different. The deft writing of Stephen J. Cannell attempted to look at the war from both sides, both that of the American and Japanese pilots. I just watched Season 1 Episode 6, wherein a Nisai (American-born Japanese) was piloting a zero and was shot down by American forces. There was initially a lot of bad feelings and violent intentions on the American side, but after discovering that the Japanese pilot was raised in America, playing ping-pong,

hanging out and just getting to know him, the American guys befriended him and wished that they could be friends outside of the war. They all seemed to agree that war was hell and was based on fear. This was not some PC or schmaltzy attempt at pacifism and international friendship, it seemed genuine. Cannell also captured the Japanese understanding of honor and a bit of the idea of the furusato or “long-gone hometown” that many Japanese pine for. Later in the series, the main character, Greg Boyington got into a sort of personal 1-upsmanship with a Japanese pilot, and they both were looking for mutual understanding.Of course, these things are not entirely accurate, but I do appreciate the efforts! Black Sheep Squadron along with Gregory Boyington’s autobiography, Baa Baa Blacksheep, helped me begin to look into the human picture of the Japanese side of the war. I came to realize that it is important to always realize the humanity of the other side of the war. Boyington was captured by the Japanese during the last year and a half of the war. While he did suffer some mistreatment, he also told stories of a great number of kind Japanese who looked out for him and treated him with human kindness. (Showing jin to an American pilot!) You could say that Boyington’s book became an American Furyo account, comparable in some ways to Ooka Shohei.All this is to mark how much media can influence our ideas and thoughts. I think today’s shows like The Unit and Numbers attempt to do similar things, and I would encourage us to use media to explore deeper matters than political soundbites and the status quo.

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April 18, 2008 by Christopher Born.

今日、朝４時３８分に起かせられた。セント・ルイスにすんでいる間で最初の地震があった。先週日本人の友達と一緒に昼ご飯食べながら、なんとなく地震の話題になった。僕は地震の経験がないといた。それは変えた、震度５．４で家の全体が縦揺れて窓の音で目がさまれた。面白い具然ですよ。

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January 19, 2008 by Christopher Born.

I tend to say that I hate winter…it’s just so cold and dead.

But I do have SOME good things to say about it - yes, even outside of Christmas. I like the color of the sky as the sun sinks down; midnight blue meets its persimmon complement as the dark hands of the leafless trees reach up in praise to the King of the frozen sky.

Right now, I am listening to Richard Souther’s “Dream Suite” off of his 1985 debut album, “Heirborne.”

Typical of many of the trips we took, I remember listening to this cassette on my Sanyo (Fast-forward only!) walkman in the back of the family 1982 Impala station wagon, staring at the blueish shadows on the purple snow at 11PM as the stars twinkled at us. The broken down corn stalks and golden uncut grass showed an undulating silver wash as we sped on by at 55 MPH. This was on the way to my grandmother’s house for Christmas break. I was eight at the time. Dad was listening to cassettes of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, but at that age, I wanted to drink this music in as much as I can. This was the first time I had ever experienced nine chords, and rich, fat synthesizer pads.

Years later, I would find the Meadowlark collection released on CD’s for about $7 a piece in a Borders near Roosevelt Field mall in Long Island, and would buy everything they had. Meadowlark was Sparrow records’ answer to New Age, godless music. It was “New Age” in its style, but was done by and on Christian themes. Richard had 4 albums in this series, 2 as Richard Souther, 2 solo piano albums, released under his middle names, “Douglas Trowbridge.” How cool is that, I loved all these albums and had no idea they were the same guy. Check him out at http://www.richardsouther.com.

Sometimes, I long to sit in the back of that Impala again, on the way to Warsaw, NY. Through the cold night, warm inside the car with my family, on the way to see more dear people who I still love and miss very much.

My life tends to imitate itself. Years later-it was 1999, when I was done with college-we still were making that same trip over the Christmas break. This time, we stopped in Rochester, at a Borders again, and there I bought Ken Ishii’s “Jellytones” album. There is a piece on that disc called “Endless Season,” which I listened to over and over again, in the back of Dad’s minivan, this time on a Sony Discman. It has a great portamento lead and shiny pads that also signifies winter to me, but this time it’s when the sunset sky is all pink and purple, making the snow seem like a faded blanket of made of fuzzy peach skins. Fat flakes come plopping down on your windshield and everything outside seems so silent and still. Wait a second, I’ll go cue it up in iTunes.

Ken Ishii soon became my subway ride buddy. Still I can close my eyes and see that snowy road…

Yes, I do actually have a few good things to say about winter.

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