19
CLEAR
Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s private disco featured not only aspiring showgirls performing striptease acts as sexy nuns and nurses, but one woman dressed up as President Barack Obama and a prominent Milan prosecutor whom the billionaire media mogul has accused of persecuting him, ...
Tonkatsu is comfort food, gourmand grub — not a gourmet delicacy. So what are those hearty, unpretentious deep-fried breaded pork cutlets doing in an elegant little bar-style restaurant above one of Ginza’s temples to high-end consumption? Katsuzen has come a long way from its ...
Life in Japan just seems tailor-made for certain foreign residents, who slip into the fabric of this society as smoothly as a hand slides into a glove. American Curtis Patterson, a professional koto player and music teacher, is a case in point. Not only ...
It is a tricky deal being an authorized biographer. Charles Moore’s big advantage over those who have previously tackled Margaret Thatcher is that he has been provided with material denied to them. Of the arrangement that he was offered by his subject, he writes: ...
Unbelievable energy. Splendid self confidence. Never-wavering faith in his abilities or his teammates. Those are ingredients to success for Draelon Burns, the Yokohama B-Corsairs’ super substitute. Burns buried a remarkable three buzzer-beating shots to close out the three final quarters, and his team needed ...
The Tokyo Rocks festival, which had been scheduled for May 11 and 12, was an ambitious attempt to bring big-name overseas artists such as Blur, Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine together with a range of Japanese acts. On March 31, it was announced ...
Spring is here and May is the last month before festival season really swings into gear. Before you start saving money for Fuji Rock or SummerSonic, there’s a few shows you may want to check out. One of the most highly sought-after tickets is ...
At a time when stories about declining music sales are frequent and major labels aren’t investing in new talent, hearing about an indie label like Playwright is music to the ears. The young jazz label’s first release came out in October, and in the ...
“Before the gig, we were quite intimidated: a lowly rock band performing in front of a god. After, we found we could do it, and that was the turning point for us.” Going back to at least when Paul the Apostle saw the light ...
Odds are, Japan Times reader, that you do not like Kis-My-Ft2. Maybe you’ve been unable to escape the bleating “Wanna Beeee!!!” while out strolling in Shibuya, or maybe they lost you at, “From the people who brought you SMAP and Arashi!” So this review ...
The first song I ever made — and I’m willing to wager many who graduated high school in the mid 2000s share this experience — was using Apple’s GarageBand, a software application that lets people make music on their computers. “I made a killer ...
Tokyo Symphony Orchestra has returned to its home at Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall. The orchestra was homeless for two years after the hall in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, was severely damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011. On the afternoon of ...
For a music fan wanting to explore jazz for the first time, an ideal starting point may be the current chart-toppers, which includes Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding and Jose James. Alternatively, he or she may choose to start with the classics, diving into the ...
Japan surpassed the United States with the world’s largest combined sales of physical and digital music in 2012, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said Monday. Japan marked $4.3 billion (¥425 billion) in sales of CDs and music downloads, trading places with the ...
For two decades, it’s entertained, educated and — on more than a few occasions — polarized electronic music fans. As Barcelona’s Sonar festival enters its 20th year, it’s still as contrary as when it first started: an event with equal space in its heart ...
While station-surfing on my car radio several years back, I chanced upon a program about Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. The disc jockey said Page’s solo in “Stairway to Heaven” was among his best. The familiar strains of the Zep classic soon filled the air, ...
Nicolas Jaar, the precociously talented American-Chilean underground electronic artist, makes music that defies conventional description. Of course, that is exactly what the 23-year-old Ivy League graduate aspires to. “For me, it would be boring if you could say to me ‘you make this type ...