Lemchaheb
9 years ago
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
nEW YORK LIFE 2009 - now in the city of my birth #3 - AFROBEAT FESTIVAL #1
the knitting factory in SOHO kicked off a kickass festival unfortunately slightly unpromoted but still with great intention. I'm not sure is NYker's are tired of afrobeat signs but regardless if they can shake their ass they shouldn't be. Cause straight up all of the indie shit permeating through brooklyn does stink to high heaven and a little soul or a shake never hurt a soul. Though the festival started on JUNE 2nd (i was unable to attend), some of the more forceful acts were not in attendence: them being ANTIBALAS and AKOYA. Both amazing groups in their own right. I actually received a flyer promoting Antibalas AFTER!! the festival. AnyWAY..... the one night i was able to attend was the last night properly ended with FEMI KUTI. Here he is.
Friday, June 5, 2009
nEW YORK LIFE 2009 - now in the city of my birth #2
I'm very much in love with film, filmmaking and filmviewing. When i first came to tokyo, i was frustrated by not being able to understand any of the movies due to my lack of linguistic ability. Now that I am fluent, I have no interest in watching Japanese movies. How ironic. Because of work and other obligations as well as interferences, I don't watch as many movies as I want. Also watching movies at home is just not so much fun. There is also no one to talk to about different types of movies available. Luckily seeing this as well as other films recently has renewed some of my faith in the actual experience of watching, enjoying as well as supporting film. These pics were taken while trying to find the knitting factory in SOHO. I happened upon a film set but it was just a video prod. for a south american band. Another guy watching said there were a lot of NICE women there. Of course I arrive after that. Anyway the pics show film is alive.
NEW YORK LIFE 2009 - now in the city of my birth #1
part of the life of the city is the musicians that play for free but ask for donations:busking. In tokyo, too many musicians labor in obscurity having to conform to the invitation-- invite friends so that you can pay the base pay of a club. no one comes and you pay from your pocket. The actual love of hearing, listening and enjoying music is quite changed. So it is with great relief that music can be free and supported directly by the public. Here I came across AFRO-ANDES, a nice band playing at penn station on this day.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
AMP CAFE 2009 - gallery show - LIVE VIDEO!!!
check out special video from the AMP CAFE. LA BRUHA LA NEGRA gallery show - ho ho!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
new exhibition @ koenji, tokyo AMP CAFE!!!!
each of these flyers were made by myself. check em out. more to come! using every last breath to make this enjoyable to the eye and a kind of success. if you are in the tokyo area, please come by---the next posting will be live gig information as there is a event planned for this gallery show on the 10th of MAY!!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
in celebration of new BOREDOMS/ YOSHIMIO cds: BOREDOMS live 2004
the boredoms, an eternal force of nature with each new activity are quite porely documented. I am quite angry at the avant-gardes resistance to good documentation of their activities. I only wish I had been more aggressive about documentation when in the early 2000's the boredoms had a secondary group called 7vo7. In actuality, it was the boredoms with a different name but the same intensity. Fantastic music. To make up for this error, I later documented all of the concerts I went to as much as I could. Hence this gem. Done at the new liquid room in EBISU, TOKYO and starting with AEO and then moving on to the boredoms. It's a perfect companion to their DVD sunflandisco. For those familiar with this era of performance, pay special attention to the end, when they jam! the boredoms sometimes DO do encores of slightly different music so catch that. Be aware that the SUPERROOTS 9 live CD is in fact: INCOMPLETE as the boredoms went back on stage for a little more jamming and then segued into EYE doing a dj set. I was probably one of the few non-japanese in the audience. For note, that event was a huge venue on christmas especially rented by the boredoms. there was another room for a different DJ and it was not a concert but really an EVENT. I do believe though that attendance was not high enough and they may have lost money. They haven't done such a ONLY boredoms concert since in tokyo. Since then venues such as the liquid room or festivals have been prefered. I do hope they do this again though. Please enjoy this classic. --check the comments. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
please also check out the great VOORDOMS article from www.sfbg.com/blogs/music/2008/03/post_16.html
Monday, February 9, 2009
quezalandrali - LA BRUHA LA NEGRA (recorded 2008
this is a special song. it hasn't found a CD home yet but when i'm ready, it'll be together with other songs as a CD album/collection. As always this is live and only I. please download. please enjoy.
http://rapidshare.com/files/196235150/12_quezalandrali.mp3.html
a genius and his treasure - MYTH OF TOMORROW by Okamoto Taro
The history of this painting is quite amazing but I will let people discover the finer details of this by themselves. To put the history of this painting simply, Okamoto went to mexico to make this painting and it was given to a place or hotel(not sure about the specifics myself). Regardless it was scheduled to be put on display in mexico some time in the 60's I believe. From there the history gets strange for such a humongous painting as the actual painting got lost. Over 30 years later, Okamoto's wife went about trying to finally recover the painting. She did not do this alone but with the help of a great many others. Again whether she found it or it was found after her death I am not sure but it was found and it was found quite damaged and partially in pieces. Since then some of the best restorers of artwork helped put the piece back to together piece by piece and then sent it back to it's homeland, japan.
After hearing about this piece it was with great relief that I was finally able to see it in Tokyo over 1 year ago.
Let me explain 2 things. First who is okamomo? Okamoto Taro is actually one of the best artists in Japan and one of it's most famous but for some strange reason, quite unknown out side of japan. In the 60's, Okamoto had the friendship and adoration of Picasso (okamoto wrote a book about this relationship to Picasso) and was equally loved in japan. He already has TWO museums dedicated to him. Okamoto, for those who remember or have seen, is the man responsible for the monument made for the OSAKA WORLD FAIR in the 60's that opened Japan to the world and established japan as an equal country.
Second, MYTH OF TOMORROW (shinwa no ashita) is indeed a HUGE work. Most graffiti artists would drool to do something this big. The pic i've included is of only one or two panels. Altogether I believe there are maybe 10 panels. Though the scars can be seen, the work is awe-inspiring. The work originally shown only in a museum is now on display for free in SHIBUYA, one of the youth centers of Tokyo. I've visited this walking area many times so it was with great surprise that the owners of this space won the right to present the work. This is especially surprising as japan has much graffiti but most of it of course illegal and in unseen places. This massive work was of a visionary who deeply disliked the anti -art attitude which was and is still now common throughout the country. Though public sculptures can be found, actually paintings on a massive scale are rare. Though japan produces truly great art, the society is quite ANTI-ART. Art is not bought or seen on a massive scale. The common idea of a mural though popular around the world and also in japan in the 60's has died a death only to be replayed by lawless graffiti that can also be replaced anytime by white paint.
Plainly speaking, the work is great and for any person who ever has the chance they should experience it.
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