Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
“Choi’s voice simply astounds, proving that you really never know who has an amazing talent.” Okay, you may have heard about this story already, and perhaps seen the video. What no one can deny is that Korean Song-bong Choi does have an amazing voice, and most of his personal story is tough and heart-rending to hear. But, as is sometimes the case with these talent shows in various countries, the singer’s story is not as straight-forward and upfront as presented on TV. Choi, for example, didn’t just walk off the street from his day laborer’s job and start pumping out opera-quality vocals. He attended a high school for the performing arts, where he received vocal training. This fact was conveniently edited out of his conversation with the judges he spoke to on Korea’s Got Talent. Not a huge controversy, but enough to give us pause yet again when considering how seriously to take TV talent shows. (Huffington Post – Hard-luck Korean Songbird) Additional details about Song-bong Choi from TIME Newsfeed: Korean Singer Had Training. [youtube]KOWL_UFA-lI[/youtube]
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Super Cool “Daylight Savings” in Tokyo “Under Japan’s corporate culture many workers feel obligated to work until it is dark outside—no matter what their starting time.” Last week we reported on the Japanese government’s “Super Cool Biz” business clothing campaign, which encourages office workers to dress in cooler business attire for summer instead of the traditional heavy suits and skirts which have become the symbols of salarypeople in Japan. This week, Tokyo’s city government is taking things a step further by establishing summer hours, under which some employees report for work an hour earlier to take advantage of cooler morning working conditions, and to save costs related to air conditioning. And, of course, these workers get to leave an hour earlier, effectively creating a sort of daylight savings time without actually changing the clocks. But establishing actual American-style daylight savings time is also under consideration, much as the Japanese have traditionally very much disliked the idea. (National Public Radio – Japan’s “Daylight Savings”) The Guardian UK report has some extra details on summer hours in Japan: 10,000 on Tokyo Summer Hours. Australians Consider Japanese Quiet on Trains “Vomiting salarymen on late night trains aside, Tokyo journeys are largely a silent experience.” Have you ever made or received a cell phone call while on a train in Tokyo, Osaka or Nagoya? Bad foreigner, bad. In Japan this is considered bad etiquette, taboo even. It violates an unwritten Japanese social contract. Well, in some states and cities in Australia, government officials would like to write that Japanese contract down in ink. In Queensland, for example, there are already cell phone quiet zones at the front and the back of all trains. Officials in Sydney and in New South Wales are mulling over a similar implementation. Although there currently are no plans to impose fines for quiet zone violations, the zones on trains would ban not only cell phone conversations, but also playing music and interpersonal conversations above a certain acceptable volume. It seems like a very considerate and civilized move in a country known for boisterous and larger-than-life behavior. (CNNGo – Australian Quiet Zones)
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Rick Nielsen, Eddie Van Halen, Prince–Michio Kurihara too has a custom guitar pick. You might recall seeing them packaged as a bonus with his excellent Sunset Notes CD when he toured with Boris and Damon & Naomi way back when. These days he’s selling them to benefit safe energy in Japan. Too bad the shredder’s paperwork got stolen in the U.K.and he was stopped at the border coming over to the U.S. with D&N, but he sent picks along with the acid folk duo with the hopes of raising some money nonetheless. Look for them at D&N’s merch table as well as at his future gigs with everyone’s favorite psychedelic ambient doom rockers. More on Damon & Naomi to come…
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“Americus has the ideal type of wood for making chopsticks. The abundant forests of poplar and sweet gum trees in the area strike the perfect balance between hardness and softness.” Now, we’re pretty sure some clean-cut good old boy in a nice suit didn’t visit a delegation of stern Chinese government officials with a beautiful display case of Georgia-made chopsticks and say “What do ya’ll think about these fine, hand-crafted specimens”. But it’s fun to think about exactly how the ironically-named town of Americus, Georgia ended up supplying millions of these essential eating utensils to the world’s largest communist country. In truth, it has everything to do with Korean-born American entrepreneur Jae Lee, who founded Georgia Chopsticks in Americus last year and has made the chopsticks exporting business an amazing and surprising success. (TIME Newsfeed – Georgia Chopsticks for China) The Center for American Progress has more about Jae Lee and his company’s rapid success: Korean-American Opens Doors to China.
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I first met Raghunath Cappo in 2002. A couple of hours before he played Chain Reaction, we sat on parking blocks in the parking lot and talked about his evolution from fronting the hardcore band Youth of Today to becoming a monk at an ashram in India to forming Shelter, which combined youth crew energy with Krishna consciousness. His energetic, outspoken demeanor onstage is unchanged off it, and his unflinching honesty and true excitement make him a very likable guy. We not only kept in touch afterward, but I asked him to contribute articles about everything from attending Muay Thai camps in Thailand to sharing raw food recipes. Sometimes we’d meet at Govinda’s for lunch just to catch up, and often I just ran into him there. I haven’t seen Raghu since he moved to New York to become a full-time yogi, so I couldn’t miss yesterday’s Youth of Today show at the Glass House. It was the band’s first L.A. show since 1989. First up was Outspoken. The well-respected Orange County band from the early ’90s is bolstered with many new members, including a young singer who probably talked too much about listening to the band when he was in high school and it being his second show. Even so, everything was fine when the music started. I was super psyched to hear “Survival,” the first of a few anti-meat songs to be played in the evening… Mouthpiece was next and was way more aggressive. A super burly and fun set that got the pit going, culminating in “Can We Win.” They’re from New Jersey but paid tribute to the local straight edge scene by busting out Chain of Strength’s “True Til Death” with singer Curt Canales (not above) for a bonus song. Finally, Youth of Today. I love it when Raghu sings for Shelter but YOT is a totally different animal with less melody and way fewer hooks. It’s straight-up riffs, shouts, and singalongs, and Raghu’s fresh diet and regimen of yoga means that he can still jump around with the best of them–not to mention throw in a handstand. The set had everything fans wanted to hear (“Positive Outlook,” “Make a Change,” “No More,” “A Time We’ll Remember,” “Break Down The Walls”…) plus some well-chosen covers (“Minor Threat,” “Young Till I Die”) and all the reminiscing and explanation you could handle. I didn’t get a chance to talk to Raghu amongst the sold-out craziness but he threw me a shaka from the stage, which was good enough. It seemed like there were members of bands left and right (Chain of Strength, Strife…), not to mention two of his sons appropriately singing along to “Youth of Today.” It was like a straight edge family vacation, reunion, and raging pit all in one! The drizzle felt good as the sweaty masses exited into the streets of Pomona’s Arts District, where I heard that hardcore punks came from as far as Malaysia, Singapore, and Korea. One more show in Pomona...
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