Where have I been?

I kind of wanted to apologize about starting this blog, writing a few posts and then disappearing for over a month.  I have an excuse, whether it's good or not, it's the only excuse I have:

I was unexpectedly laid-off from my job and have since then been thrown into a rush of decision making.  I had to decide if I wanted to dig my heels in and find another, similar job in Japan or try for something different.  Given my almost hatred of being a wastrel assistant English teacher, I decided that the 'something different' sounded best.

BUT

My current apartment and car and pretty much everything else is provided by my company so I was given a month to find a new job, pack, break up with my boyfriend (when the best part of the relationship is the sex, long distance isn't going to work), move, etc.  I've been a very busy girl. 

On top of all the stuff I had to do I've been rushing to attend a few last concerts of favorite Japanese bands before I head back home for a much needed vacation.  It's been a wild past few weeks, full of long-ass goodbye parties nearly everyday and concerts in both Tokyo and Osaka (neither of which are super close to where I live nor to each other).

I actually don't take pictures at most concerts because it's annoying, so this is a really old photo from one of the first lives I attended in Japan--the band is UnsraW, a now defunct band. 

Hopefully I'll be back to being terminally bored and full of blogginess very soon.

First Times

Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons.  You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Since starting this blog I've been thinking a lot about my previous concert going experiences.  I believe that a lot of people would agree when I say that your first concert is kind of a deal breaker.  If it's a good experience you will keep going to concerts for the rest of your life, but if it isn't very good you will just be left wondering why people make such a big deal about it.  I can't particularly remember my first concert.  I grew up being dragged to the local college symphony and band concerts.  My brother was in band and my sister was a singer.  I went to their concerts regularly.

I think my first truly memorable experience with a professional orchestra was the London Symphony.  I had been traveling in London with several of my fellow students and a couple of professors and we stopped at the Music Hall.  They played several impressive songs, but the final song was Beethoven's famous 5th Symphony.  I've heard it a million times and, so, probably have you.  But live, it had an incredible impact on me.  The rows of violins on the left side all bowing in tandem to the powerful line, duh-duh-duh dum.  It was something like magic because suddenly something I had heard every day I could now see.  I had somehow never thought too much about the visual impact of a song, but after this concert I've never thought about music quite the same. 

I recently (if you consider four/five years recent, some days I do, some days I don't) discovered a Japanese musical movement that they call Visual Kei.  The exact nature of the scene is somewhat argued (a lot), but I think can most basically be boiled down to music and visual expression combining to make a single experience that provokes ALL the senses.  I'm thoroughly fascinated by the idea and am hoping that through this project I will get to explore the idea further.  I had at one time even thought about going to graduate school and doing my thesis on a related idea (I'm still open to this, but later in life. Not yet.).

Some of you may have heard of Alexander Scriabin, the romantic/modern composer.  He was a little crazy and believed that his last song, a piece he titled Mysterium and believed would last 7 days, when performed in the foothills of the Himalayas would harken the end of the world.  He also created a preliminary piece, Prefatory Action, to help prepare people for the final apocalyptic piece.  He not only wrote the notes of the song, nor simply the normal directions, but also wrote directions for the visual aspects of the piece.  He considered them just as important as the sound being created.  He never finished the piece and I suppose that's good, just in case playing it really will bring the end of the world.  We don't have to live in fear of some orchestra picking up the piece and playing it through to the double bar at the end. 

Many artists have at some time described the relation between vision and sound.  And I think it is why so often we claim we like the music for the music, but still spend hours commenting on musicians looks, fashions, cd art, or flyers.  Humans are visual creatures just as much as we are auditory.  Perhaps more so. 

My first 'rock' concert was also in college.  It was a local concert with local bands at an all ages venue.  I was, quite possibly, the oldest person besides some of the staff.  But I remember the last band, My Paper Camera.   They were dressed in typical indie band attire: skinny jeans, Chuck Taylor all stars, floppy hair cuts, and big Harry Potter style glasses.  I don't suppose the music was particularly unique either, as the band has since split up, but I will forever remember their front man.  He was standing behind a mic, a keyboard, and a synthesizer and he was having the time of his life performing.  And through the music and his sheer joy at being able to create music the audience was able to tap into his happiness.  It was the first time I felt that kind of connection with strangers.   We were all living in that moment completely unaware of the past or the future.  Just the peace of the here and now. 

Do you guys remember your first times?  Were they good or bad?  Incredible?  or just OK?  Who was the band?  Tell me your stories!!  I want to hear from you.