Happy New Year2012/01/01 03:12

My holidays officially started on Thursday 12/29. On that night I met an old friend ( she’s actually young and quite attractive at that) and we plus another friend ended up at Ivy Café in Medaimae. Thursday is open mike night at Ivy. So the 3 of us played music and had a great night. My 2 friends are also music players. It was a memorable night.
And I just arrived from Yoga shrine a couple of hours ago. It’s 3:00 am right now. I usually ring in the new year at midnight at Yoga shrine. Right now I’m having some New Year’s sake (rice wine) and getting very tipsy. Won’t you join me!

おみくじ2012/01/07 00:31

My computer crashed one again and I lost some data but not much. I had most everything backed up. By the way if anyone is in the market for kimonos I’m selling them now I’ll put the pictures up soon with some prices

So do you go to the shrine at New Year’s? Do you get おみくじ?I get one every year. I suppose you don’t believe in them. Well I believe them to some extent. Like one year it said “you should visit a doctor this year” so 3 months later I had a physical exam. The doctor told me I had gall stones. I stayed in the hospital for a week and had them out. Well how about that. Maybe you should おみくじ more seriously next time. After it’s the energy in your hand that influences which fortune you choose.

English Village2012/01/08 23:29

I’ve been researching some English school prices recently and I was astonished to find that English Village, a group of independently owned schools all going by the same name and system I guess, are charging only \2000 for private lessons. I’ll bet nobody can beat that. How they stay afloat is hard to imagine. With most other schools like Berlitz and Gaba charging close to \7000 for the same service. English Village does only private lessons as well so it’s quite more simple to run without the hassle that you run into with groups sometimes. Do you any of you involved in learning, teaching or owning no of a better deal?

You can disregard that last entry. After close scrutiny I found out that one lesson is 20 minutes. So 1 hour is \6,000. 40 min is \4000. It’s the going rate.

The 27-club2012/01/10 00:53

Do any of you know about the 27-Club? Well here’s a clue: Amy Winehouse just became a member last month I believe, or was it November. Other members are Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones (he was a Rolling Stones member), Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the old blues guitar player that every modern day blues man respects, Robert Johnson. All these people are members of the 27-Club. You must have guessed it by now. Yes that’s right. They all died at the age of 27. Morrison, Joplin and Hendrix in the same year. All of these people lived hard and died young. But like Michael Jackson, maybe dying at the height of their fame is a good thing. Like I’ve said before, A lot of good musicians don’t know when to quit and keep going till they falter and then are remembered in a bad light. I don’t mean this for every one who is getting up there in the years. Mick Jagger is still singing strong. But Daryll Hall an excellent singer in his day is now pulling the mike away from his mouth when he unsuccessfully tries to hit high notes. Anyways, I wonder who the next member to the 27-Club will be. Any guesses?

one hit wonders2012/01/15 23:53

Today we did a song by the Doobie Brothers in my From Music to English class. The song is sung by Michael McDonald and is called “What a Fool Believes”. It’s a one hit wonder for him. I’ve never heard any other song that he sings. I saw him on TV a couple of months ago and he was still singing that song. One hit wonder bands must get awful tired of singing/playing the same songs year in year out. A band called Stealer’s Wheels had one hit I believe called “Stuck In The Middle With You”. Not a bad song. Another one is “Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes” I think that’s the name. I don’t know the artist. Anyways, those artists probably made enough money from that one hit to live on easy street the rest of their lives. So I guess it’s not so bad playing that one song until you die.