IAWE Conference in Cebu

Spent a thoroughly enjoyable few days at the 15th IAWE conference in Cebu. Luckily, and for the first time in my experience of presenting at conferences, I was down to give my paper on the first day so I was able to get it out of the way and enjoy the rest of the conference to the full.

The schedule was quite forbidding at first glance, but the quality of the material on offer was such that it was perfectly possible to go to the majority of sessions and not be disappointed. It’s unfair to pick highlights, but Edgar Schneider’s two papers opened up a lot of new avenues for my own research and Jocelyn Pinzon’s look at the Filipino singer Yoyoy Villame was of great interest for my Global Issues Through Music course. One small quibble was the relative lack of representation for African Englishes, something which will surely be rectified next year in Vancouver, although one of the keynote speeches was by Dr Eyamba Bokamba of Uni. of Illinois, who spoke on Chinua Achebe.

Despite dire warnings of typhoons in the Japanese weather forecast the skies stayed blue for the duration and I was even able to fit in a trip to the beach on nearby Mactan Island, though I decided to pass on the conference tour to Bopol with its 0500 start. It was also nice to sample some of the local brews, with San Miguel’s Strong Ice and Red Horse Stallion being very much to my taste.

Oktober

Yes, October is with a K this year in honour of my oldest friend and fellow record fiend  visiting Japan (he’s the one on the right in the picture). We first met at a Hawkwind show near on thirty years ago and although he lives in Europe we still get together when we can.

Two weeks … a wedge of records from the dustiest crates in Japan … fine food and ale … a few late nights and even some films, too. Shame we couldn’t have gone to the Scotland-Japan game together, but the trip to Yamagata made up for it.

Haste ye back, sir!

Golden Edinburgh

Was most pleasantly surprised to find this in Niikura, my old favourite place for beer and wine in Musashi Sakai. This little beauty weighs in at 7.0% and is as smooth as silk. Truly a new standard in Japanese craft beers in my opinion, and a worthy successor to Tamanomegumi in my fridge.

I also picked up a bottle of their standard Edinburgh ale at 4.5% and was less impressed, though it was certainly highly drinkable. Looks like I’ll need to make a few more trips to stock up before the crowds cotton on to the goodness in store.

More info here

The best films are like dreams you’re never really sure you had

Got to the cinema to see the new Jim Jarmusch film The Limits of Control. I was worried beforehand that it was going to be a retread of Ghost Dog (hit man who does Tai Chi, pigeons everywhere), and then during the film it got to a point where the seemingly endless hotel rooms were merging into one another and I felt like I was locked in one of those retro furniture shops in Naka Meguro. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised in the end, though it definitely works better if you know that the title comes from William Burroughs.

Trailer here

Silver Week

The five day holiday ended up being quite productive for me. I finished my chapter for the forthcoming EUP collection Scottish Literature and Postcolonial Literature: Comparative Texts and Critical Perspectives and near as dammit finished my paper for the IAWE conference in the Philippines next month. Just to keep me busy though, the postman brought some new reading material in the shape of Out of History by Cairns Craig, the Berthold Schoene edited Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature and Pascale Casanova’s World Republic of Letters. I’m a wee bit dubious about the last one already due to the basic factual errors revealed by a cursory skim through last night.

The Sharks’ game on Sunday at YCAC was cancelled, but a few of us managed a trip to the Ishikawa Brewery restaurant for a pleasant few hours in the sunshine tasting their Tamanomegumi range of ales. This afternoon was spent up on Mt Takao for a brief hike and a lengthy sampling of the delights of their Beer Mount beer garden, with its spectacular views across Tokyo.

PALA 09

Spent a few days in the historic Dutch city of Middelburg for the PALA conference. My paper wasn’t until the Friday so I had a few days to get over the flight and explore the city.

Middelburg

Middelburg is in the south of Holland, near the Belgian border, which naturally means great beer and seafood. The conference itself was excellent, and opened up a lot of new possibilities for my research. Of course there was also a fair bit of socialising, including a memorable garden party hosted by the City Council.

After PALA I hopped over to the UK for a research trip to Bristol, Birmingham and London. It was a good chance to catch up with some old friends and especially to sample the Scottish beers on tap at Ye Old Mitre and The Market Porter in Southwark. I was very impressed with Black Gold in the Mitre (not to mention their Scotch eggs) and Armada Ale in the MP.

Had a day in Amsterdam on the way back and managed to take in a few record shops as well as visiting the Filmmuseum. I hadn’t spent any time in the Dutch capital since my early 20s and it was a nice change to be able to walk everywhere and not have to deal with trains and buses.

More pics on my Flickr page

KLM had a good selection of films so I managed to catch The Wrestler, Watchmen, The Class, and the Bunuelesque Dutch film The Last Days of Emma Blank, as well as the rather poor The Boat That Rocked

Akron/Family @ FEVER

It feels like a long long time since I was at a club gig that wasn’t Jazz, so going to see Akron/Family at Fever in Shimokitazawa was almost like taking a step back to my Uni days. Two support bands were also on the bill and I got there in time to see the end of hununhum’s set, which was interesting enough despite the fact that they were very much wearing their Soft Machine/ Boredoms influences on their sleeves. The second band M.A.G.O. were much better, especially the dramatic almost kabuki-like movements of the woman playing drum pads/ sampler.

We were treated to a fine and uplifting mix of soul and reggae before the headliners came on, though the only song I recognised was Roland Alphonso’s version of Song for My Father. Whoever picked the tunes put everyone in fine fettle for Akron/Family’s mix of bliss out effects and hand-clapping singalongs. Even slimmed down to a trio they managed to keep raising the energy level and seem to have found a winning formula in their revitalisation of what could easily have just turned into a collection of stale rock/funk riffs in lesser hands. We even got treated to some fireworks and inflatable dolphins. Looks like
the new album is next on my shopping list.

Melancholia

Made a return visit to my old ‘hood after the Ikebukuro Record Fair to catch this show by Suizokukan Gekijo under canvas at Kougenji. Borrowing substantially from Terayama and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, it was certainly an interesting night out, though I know one friend who would have described large parts of it as “antedeluvian shouting”.

The first 20 minutes or so were played outside with buckets of water and much smoke, after which we all trooped into the theatre and squeezed into some of the most cramped seating I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter. Luckily the performance was engaging enough until the last half hour when my legs started cramping up.

I guess that for anyone who’s never seen a Terayama play it would have been quite a spectacle, but while one part of me is glad that someone is still doing this kind of stuff and introducing it to a new audience, I’m also inclined to wonder seriously how much more mileage can be got out of it. In the same way as Shibusa Shirazu are now a parody of their old selves these folks must be running the same risk. As my partner pointed out when I  said how much I enjoyed their stagecraft, “well they’ve been at it for 20 years so they should  be pretty good at it”. All in all I’d certainly recommend them, but don’t expect to be blown away … and make sure you have short legs!

Yet more finds (is there no end to this madness?)

Finds from the Ikebukuro Record Fair and a secret shitamachi location:

The Thing With Two Heads Nice to have the Bongolia and Bongo Rock tracks for cheap

Vincent Gemignani – Modern Pop Percussion A fairly ubiquitous LP I’d been meaning to pick up for ages. Glad I did as it has some cool percussion and nice effects

Martin Denny – Quiet Village Many years ago I missed the chance to pick up an entire collection of exotica and I still have nightmares about what was in there. Rereading the Re:Search Incredibly Strange Music books recently put me in the mood for a revisit, now that the hype has blown over. Some great stuff on here.

Various – This is Black Lion Cheap Japanese comp, worth it for a live Stanley Cowell track

Dirty Dozen Brass Band – My Feet Don’t Fail Me Now What’s not to like about this? Good time party sounds from the South

Mike Gibbs – Only Chrome Waterfall Orchestra Possibly the find of the day. At last an affordable copy! Now for Tanglewood 63!

Dizzy Gillespie & Mary Lou Williams – Giants Having been outbid several times on Black Christ of the Andes I decided to take a punt on something else with the lady herself on piano. A keeper.

Also picked up a bunch of 45s, including the Westworld theme, Hugo Montenegro – Man From Uncle, The Clee-Shays – Secret Agent Man, Van Der Valk theme, and a rather bizarre Toyota Motors promo by Manu Dibango called Toyota Makossa (“Toyota … Corolla … C’est Fantastique”). Also got the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble album (what’s with that cover?) and the stunning Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou – The Vodoun Effect through the mail. Now I understand why the old Benin 45s go for crazy money online.

More Spring finds

Seems I spoke too soon. Cashed in some store credit at Mezurashiya for a copy of Idris Muhammad – Kabsha, purely for the Pharaoh Sanders connection, but it actually turns out to be a decent LP in its own right. A trip to Disk Union yielded Skin Alley – Two Quid Deal, Keef Hartley – Battle of North West 6, David Thomas – Blame the Messenger and a repro of Stackwaddy’s second LP. I was especially happy with the Hartley LP, as it was one I’d passed on when I saw it in Kashiwa Disk Union for ¥5000. Nice to get an original on Deram for a fifth of that. Loving the Skin Alley LP, too. In a sane world they would have made it big.

Speaking of prices, Disk Union is getting a bit eccentric these days. ¥147,000 for an OG Pretty Things – SF Sorrow? ¥14,600 for Skin Alley – Pagham? ¥48,000 for the Assagai LP? These are all on the wants list, but not at silly prices.