Category Archives: Me

Donald Richie

My first encounter with Donald Richie, who died earlier this week at the age of 88, was a pleasant surprise, since it was he who approached me. In late 1995, about a year after I started my Media Mix column … Continue reading

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Fuji Rock 12

I’ve attended the Fuji Rock Festival every year since 1998 and worked for the Fujirockers web site every year since 1999. I won’t say this year’s was the best but it was definitely the most fun I’d had at the … Continue reading

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Levon Helm changed my life

The Band was the first rock group I paid any close attention to. While growing up in the 1960s I was as obsessed with AM radio as any other white suburban American kid was; or maybe even more so. At … Continue reading

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Fountains of Wayne play to the choir

Yesterday I attended the first of Fountains of Wayne’s two-night stand at Ebisu Liquid Room in Tokyo. Though not sold out, the show was suitably packed to provide the sort of sweaty love-in the group tends to enjoy from its … Continue reading

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Media Mix, Feb. 19, 2012

Here’s this week’s Media Mix, which is about changing attitudes toward hospital care for terminal patients. In the column I only used the statistics I needed, but the issue is quite interesting in what it says about the government’s approach … Continue reading

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Anniversaries

Today is the 30th anniversary of the Hotel New Japan fire, which killed 33 people. It is also my 30th wedding anniversary. Here is an excerpt from a letter I wrote to a friend some years ago describing that day. … Continue reading

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Seidensticker’s Tokyo, and ours

Several years ago while writing a column about life in Tokyo I realized how little I really knew about the history of the city I had lived in since 1994 and worked in since 1986. On Amazon I sought Edward … Continue reading

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The end

Seems like a good idea to start with an ending. Yesterday I signed off on my last movie reviews for the Asahi Shimbun/International Herald Tribune, for which I’d written since 1996. This, in fact, is the second time I’ve been … Continue reading

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