author

 
 

Meta

James Hadfield
CULTURE / Music
Sep 28, 2007
PJ Harvey "White Chalk"
From blues punk to Brechtian chanteuse, FM-friendly femme- rocker to feral screecher: Polly Jean Harvey has been many things during her career. All the same, "White Chalk" is a real curveball.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 21, 2007
Back to Roma
Gypsies are one of music's great cross-pollinators.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 24, 2007
The Caribbean Magic Steel Drum Orchestra
In 19th-century Trinidad, drumming became so synonymous with gang warfare that the British colonial authorities outlawed hand drums altogether. Seeking an alternative, the island's denizens turned first to bamboo before happening upon an ingenious use for discarded oil drums. The resulting instrument,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 17, 2007
Girls have all the fun
If there was a festival anthem to this year's Summer Sonic, it was "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." The overflowing crowd at Cyndi Lauper's Sunday set on the Sonic Stage was mostly made up of women who mouthed every word to her string of hits. And when she finished with her biggest hit, the female members...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 22, 2007
Tha Blue Herb "Life Story"
Tha Blue Herb are the Company Flow of Japanese hip-hop: uncompromising, fiercely independent and more apt to induce chin-stroking than booty-shaking. When their debut album dropped in 1998, it was unlike anything the local scene had heard before. Central to their appeal was Ill-Bosstino, the trio's lone...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 21, 2007
Soundtrack of the summer: Audion
The latest in a long line of influential techno producers to emerge from Detroit, Matthew Dear has wasted little time becoming one of the club world's hottest commodities. In the past few years, he's scored widespread acclaim for records released both under his own name and the aliases Audion, False...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 25, 2007
Rapper Madlib's mad assortment
Sometimes you wonder how Otis Jackson Jr. even finds time to sleep. The Californian hip-hop producer and rapper, better known as Madlib, churns records out at a rate so furious, that even dedicated beat heads struggle to keep up. His discography on the Stones Throw Records label Web site lists over 50...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 15, 2005
We are the robots
EXPO 2005 Aichi, now entering the fourth week of its 180-day run, is providing visitors with thousands of thrilling glimpses of the future. With all manner of advanced technology on show -- from humanoid robots to next-generation transportation systems -- the world of tomorrow has never felt so close....

Longform

The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo is a popular place to foster curiosity in the natural sciences.
Can Japan's scientific community rebound from a Nobel nosedive?