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CULTURE / Music
Oct 13, 2006

Scritti Politti "White Bread Black Beer"

With his punk roots, 1980s pop hits and hip-hop beatmaking, you could never accuse Scritti Politti's Green Gartside of being musically limited. Yet with just five Scritti Politti albums over 25 years, this 51-year-old Welsh recluse is hardly pop's most prolific son either. On "White Bread Black Beer,"...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 13, 2006

Ensemble puts a new spin on the traditional

The Roppongi-based International House of Japan will hold a concert on Oct. 20 to mark the completion of the renovation of its new hall. The music ensemble Ora-J will perform as part of the IHJ Concert Series, "The Traditional & Contemporary in the Present," that features Japanese music performed by...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 13, 2006

School's out for Oreskaband teens

'I don't think being high-school girls is an important part of our band," says 18-year-old Tae-san, drummer with Osaka ska band Oreskaband. And with mere months until their graduation, we're about to find out if she's right.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 13, 2006

Mayra Andrade "Navega"

Mayra Andrade's debut of acoustic world music sounds a bit like fellow singer from Cape Verde, west Africa, Cesaria Evoria. Mayra, though, has her own uniquely joyful and lovely voice. Recorded last year at just age 20, she sounds as if she's already had a 20-year career.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2006

Silent consent to lawlessness

NEW YORK -- It is time to end the fiction that Vladimir Putin's "dictatorship of law" has made postcommunist Russia any less lawless. The murder last Satur- day of Anna Politkovskaya, one of Russia's bravest and best journalists, a woman who dared to expose the brutal murders committed by Russian troops...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 13, 2006

Dedicated to dance

A hundred years old this month and still an active dancer, "Kazuo Ohno Photo Exhibition" captures on film one of the most famous Japanese performing artists in history. The exhibition, comprising 100 images of Ohno taken by 42 photographers, runs Oct. 14-23 at Konica Minolta Plaza in Shinjuku, Tokyo....
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 13, 2006

Kabuki in Ginza at half the price

The International Theatre Institute is currently offering half-price tickets to foreigners living in Japan for its November 2006 Grand Kabuki, titled "Kaomise Kabuki (Show True Faces)," taking place Nov. 17-19 at the Kabuki-za Theater in Ginza, Tokyo. The program brings together four living national...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 13, 2006

'New York freaks me out!'

With the development of the Internet, indie musicians could finally make do without the benefit of a large organization behind them. Even so, it wasn't until the Philadelphia/Brooklyn-based quintet Clap Your Hands Say Yeah released their self-titled debut album in the summer of 2005 that the Net's full...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 13, 2006

Sound and vision

Visual artist and musician Masakatsu Takagi is not the first to liken his work to "drawing on canvas." The difference with the young multi-media artist is that his canvas is his personal computer. Takagi performs at the Laforet Museum in Jingumae, Tokyo, for four shows on Oct. 27-29.
BASKETBALL
Oct 12, 2006

Kashiwagi changes teams but not style in bid to be better

KAWASAKI -- Here's a youngster who has a huge desire to become a better basketball player.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 12, 2006

Hammies relaxed as second stage starts

SAPPORO -- Enough standing around, say the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. Waiting for last weekend's first-stage Pacific League playoffs to take place may have been a bit unnerving for the PL's No. 1 seed, but if it was, the team's attitude did not reflect it in the practices leading up to Wednesday's...
SOCCER / World cup
Oct 12, 2006

Bando bags two on full debut as Japan beats India in Asian Cup qualifier

Ivica Osim might just have found a solution to Japan's goal-scoring problems.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 12, 2006

Darvish excels vs. Hawks

SAPPORO -- Messing this one up will be pretty tough.
EDITORIALS
Oct 12, 2006

A step up toward better ties

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has taken a successful first step toward more constructive relations between Japan, on the one hand, and China and South Korea, on the other, by visiting the capitals of both countries and holding summits with their leaders less than two weeks after he took office. By making...
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2006

North Korea: Asia's pouting paper tiger

LOS ANGELES -- One mustn't make too light of the presumed North Korean underground nuclear test, but the fact is that whenever instruments detect a lot of ground-shaking in North Korea, it could be because of almost anything.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2006

Restoring our connections with the world

"The cloud-seas of the heavens are riled by waves.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 12, 2006

Artist sees it upsidedown

The new exhibition at the Zenshi gallery in Kiyosumi is a breath of fresh air. Mikolaj Polinski's "One Day in Paradise" does not attempt to overwhelm the viewer with scale or new media technology, rather it operates from the simple but increasingly overlooked premise that good honest communication can...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 12, 2006

Sony's battery fiasco a symptom of bigger woes at legendary firm

It was a fine day at Los Angeles International Airport on Sept. 16 when a passenger's ThinkPad laptop, containing a Sony Corp. battery already recalled by other companies, was suddenly wreathed in smoke and started emitting sparks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 12, 2006

Fumio Nanjo's vision comes to the fore

The departure of director David Elliott from the Mori Art Museum to take over the Istanbul Modern in Turkey is the first major leadership change at Japan's largest privately endowed cultural institution. Though it was not without controversy, Elliott's tenure saw the 3-year-old museum develop into what...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2006

Telling another side of the story

James Bradley wrote the book "Flags of Our Fathers," on which one of Clint Eastwood's new films is based. "Flags" tells the true story of what is arguably the most famous photo in warfare, taken as his father and five other marines raised the Stars and Stripes on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima in 1945.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 12, 2006

A triple threat in contemporary dance

In recent years, the contemporary dance scene in Japan has grown both in audience size and in the diversity of high-quality, small dance companies. Thirty-one year-old Jo Kanamori, artistic director at the Niigata Ryutopia arts center, is widely considered a trigger for the movement. Kanamori's dance...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji