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CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 11, 2001

Charles McPherson

As keeper of the bebop flame lit by Charlie Parker, Charles McPherson is a tremendous alto saxophone player with his own style-within-the-style. Thoroughly saturated in Parker's rhythmic and melodic innovations, McPherson has honed an individual sound with a gleaming sharp edge.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jul 11, 2001

Pottering in a forest of memory

"A magnificent sunset burns beyond the horizon. Trees are ablaze against the fiery sky. The beauty of the dark silhouettes left an everlasting sensation." These are the words of potter Moriyoshi Saeki from a book published in 1995 titled "The Vibrant Potters of Tochigi."
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 11, 2001

'The Invisible Band': Travis

There used to be a time when the Brits made all the heavy rock, while the Yanks turned out winsome, countryish pop-rock. Now all the heavy stuff comes from the States, while the U.K. is reduced to turning out the slow-fi, introspective rock typified by Mogwai, Radiohead and Coldplay. This new state of...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 11, 2001

Petagine lifts Yakult past Giants

Yakult slugger Roberto Petagine belted his Central League-leading 24th and 25th home runs as the Swallows edged the Yomiuri Giants 7-6 at the Tokyo Dome on Tuesday.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 11, 2001

Kusuma's demonic dots, in glorious monochrome

Two years after the triumph of "Love Forever," the large-scale American-curated retrospective that earned Yayoi Kusama long-overdue recognition here at home, Japan's premier visual artist is back with an intimate and wonderful Tokyo gallery show.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 11, 2001

Nick Currie

Nick Currie looks like a B-movie villain with his wicked black eye patch and ever-so-slightly menacing gaze. For a certain segment of Japan's music-buying public, however, he is a hero.
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 11, 2001

Renegade samurai lead first revolution

Executives of Japan's top 200 corporations were recently given a survey in which they were asked the following question: "Who in the past millennium of world history would you choose to help Japan solve its present financial crisis?"
CULTURE / Art
Jul 11, 2001

Where dreams of the future met the feminine zeitgeist

According to a song popular during World War l, every cloud has a silver lining. In the case of that exercise in mechanized butchery, the silver lining may have been the improvement in women's social position. With so many men going off to fight and die in the trenches, women played a key role by replacing...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jul 11, 2001

Please re-release me

Are you tired of hearing "Ashita ga Arusa"? This venerable kayokyoku pop classic (originally recorded by the late Kyu Sakamoto in 1963) has been revived not once, but twice so far this year. In mid-March, those wild and crazy guys from Osaka, the Ulfuls, released an upbeat, lighthearted cover. And, of...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2001

Sense, censors and sensuality

Romance Japanese title: Romance X Rating: * * * * Director: Catherine Breillat Running time: 99 minutes Language: FrenchNow showing Caroline Ducey in "Romance" As anyone who's seen the provocative poster for "Romance" (a woman's hand placed between her thighs, with an electric "X" branded...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 11, 2001

'Discosis': Bran Van 3000

Bran Van 3000's 1998 debut, "Glee," was a clever and confusing patchwork of hip-hop, disco and pop-rock signifiers. The album produced one underground hit, "Drinking in L.A.," whose sardonic take on the snarky side of the music biz endeared the mysterious Montreal consortium of artists and musicians...
EDITORIALS
Jul 10, 2001

Northern Ireland trembles

The Northern Ireland peace process is in crisis following the resignation of Mr. David Trimble, the province's first minister. Mr. Trimble gave up his office earlier this month, blaming the Irish Republican Army, which has failed to give up its weapons. Mr. Trimble is not alone in blaming the terrorist...
SOCCER / J. League
Jul 10, 2001

Jubilo downs Marinos to wrap up first stage

YOKOHAMA -- After failing to collect any domestic titles last year, Jubilo Iwata got back to winning ways on Saturday, wrapping up the J. League Division One first-stage crown with a 2-1 extra-time victory over the Yokohama F. Marinos at Yokohama International Stadium.
COMMENTARY
Jul 10, 2001

Breaking the Kyoto impasse

At the Japan-U.S. summit held June 30, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reportedly told President George W. Bush that to curb global warming it was important to respect the spirit of the Kyoto Protocol. Koizumi also said Japan and the United States should continue discussions on the issue.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 10, 2001

Swallows blank Dragons 6-0

Alex Ramirez homered twice and Hirotsugu Maeda pitched his first career shutout Sunday as the Yakult Swallows routed the Chunichi Dragons 6-0 to retain the Central League lead in winning percentage.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 10, 2001

Fiji captures Pacific Rim rugby title

Fiji's rugby team showed that any internal problems were behind it, when it beat Samoa 28-17, in the final of the Pacific Rim Championship on Sunday at Tokyo's Chichibunomiya Stadium.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 10, 2001

Where pachyderms on the run find haven

A thumping makes the banana-flower curry shiver in the bowl. The cutlery rattles, and there is an excited rush of diners to the second-floor windows of the restaurant. Bellows and borborygmus* rise from below. The air is pungent with a dusty, thunderous aroma.
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Jul 10, 2001

Troussier has no room for hanky-panky and circus animals

Its official: Philippe Troussier is not running a circus. The Japan coach was, in tabloid-speak, "gobsmacked" last Wednesday when he was quizzed about his team selection moments after Japan had defeated Yugoslavia 1-0 to win the Kirin Cup.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 10, 2001

Bolick's grand salami gives Marines 'sayonara' victory

Frank Bolick blasted a grand slam off Rodney Pedraza in the bottom of the 10th inning, giving the Chiba Lotte Marines a 10-9 "sayonara" triumph over the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks Monday at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 8, 2001

High-rise to the occasion

When talking about dancing at the Apollo, Americans who grew up in New York during the golden age of jazz tend to wax nostalgic. A smile might spread across their faces as they recall swinging to the sounds of Louis Armstrong and Chick Webb.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 8, 2001

In the pink

When Yokohama hosts the final and three other games in the soccer World Cup next June, foreign visitors will be spared a full-frontal view of the city's sleazier side by the waterfront, where a campaign to lessen any shock to their systems has been under way since last year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 8, 2001

Girls know what girls want

At first glance, it looks like a small shop filled with hundreds of colorful fancy goods.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 8, 2001

Overcoming Manic depression

The summer festival season is very much about the adventure of youth, as teenagers escape from parents and home comforts for a few days to develop a little independence. For those of us in our 30s, however, it comes as something of a shock to realize that one of this year's Fuji Rock Festival headliners,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 8, 2001

Wright the dealer, not the builder

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AND THE ART OF JAPAN, by Julia Meech. New York: Japan Society/Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001, 304 pp., 229 illustrations, including 89 color plates. $49.50. Toward the end of his long and successful career as an architect, Frank Lloyd Wright remembered Japan, the scene of so much of...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 8, 2001

Fashioning jewels of enlightenment

KATMANDU -- Suman Ratna Dhakawa spills a tray of rings onto a bench and runs his fingers through the mass of metal as if it were a liquid. "My family all have been jewelry-makers, craftsmen or artists," says Dhakawa. "I have jewelry-making in my blood."
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2001

Survey offers solid treatment of history

THE MAKING OF MODERN JAPAN, by Marius B. Jansen. Harvard University Press, 2000, 896 pp., $35 (hardback). "The Making of Modern Japan," Marius Jansen's last work, is a reliable, solid and authoritative interpretation of Japan's recent past. It is a fitting testament to a learned man whose scholarly...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 8, 2001

Love town where time stands still

OSAKA -- Osaka Mayor Takafumi Isomura repeatedly says he wants to turn the city into an international tourist destination. But camera-toting foreigners snapping pictures of Tobita, one of its oldest and most famous neighborhoods, are probably not what either he or the local business community have in...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 8, 2001

Midnight at the oasis

The first time Takahiro Maeda saw his senpai Magsam dancing hip-hop style in a club, he knew that's what he wanted to do. He also realized not long after trying the moves himself that he could never be a professional dancer. So, instead, he busied himself organizing events where Magsam and his friends...

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic