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stormsewerMy interview questions from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
margrietta (a little late, but I've been out of town):
1) Why Japan?
Oh, man. I get asked this a lot, and it's really hard to answer. I'll quote something I wrote to Shi-chan:
"What do I like about Japan? I love the humility inherent in the language, as well as its richness and complexity. I love the strong sense of community that they have. I love their trustworthiness. I love their genuine generosity and earnest patience, and if they expect to get as well as they give, well, I don't think that's a bad thing. While they do tend to take it a little too far for my taste, I truly respect their industriousness and their skill at team work. I love how they can be one of the most modern nations in the world (in some ways THE most modern nation in the world), while at the same time carefully preserving their heritage. (The oldest continuously practiced musical tradition in the world is Japanese court music, gagaku. The Imperial family is the longest continously reigning royal family in the world, perhaps the longest in the history of the world. The oldest wooden structures in the world are found at the Houryuuji temple complex in Nara. Shinto is an ancient polytheistic/animist religion similar to the aboriginal religions in most of the worlds cultures that almost everywhere else were supplanted by Christianity, Islam, or Buddhism, but the Japanese have faithfully maintained it. While it's not always perfect, Japan walks the line between modernization and tradition better perhaps than any nation in the world.) I love their animation and their comics. I even love their food. Perhaps my two favorite things about Japan are their sense of aesthetics and their approach to metaphysics. There are innumerable other things I can't quite put words to, things that I imagine will become much clearer once I go back to the U.S. (I have a feeling that reverse culture shock is going to hit me pretty hard). Broadly speaking, I just love Japan's quirky uniqueness. In my opinion, there is no other culture in the world even remotely similar to Japan. It is a special place, and I feel lucky to have the opportunity to be here."
How's that?
2) I know you love your last name, but what name would you hope for if you had to take your spouse's name when you got hitched (if that makes sense)?
Oh, man. I swear I encountered a name once that was so cool that I just thought, "If I had to change my last name, that's what I'd want it to be." What was it? I can't remember. It sure was cool, though.
For now, let's go with "Lovecraft," then.
3) Of all the albums you bought lately, which has stuck with you the most?
Tough question. Honestly, I think I'll have to give first place to Franz Ferdinand. Catchy and evocative. But it got a head start, arriving a week or two before the rest of the pack. Of the main group, I'd have to go with Want Two by Rufus Wainwright. It may be on track to becoming my favorite Rufus album, actually. (And him and Ben Folds are going on tour together in the US soon, and I won't be there for it. At least I've already seen both of them live...)
Arriving back from hitchhiking today, however, I found the new albums by Ben Folds, Eels, and The Decemberists, as well as Green Day's American Idiot, waiting for me, so...
margrietta (a little late, but I've been out of town):1) Why Japan?
Oh, man. I get asked this a lot, and it's really hard to answer. I'll quote something I wrote to Shi-chan:
"What do I like about Japan? I love the humility inherent in the language, as well as its richness and complexity. I love the strong sense of community that they have. I love their trustworthiness. I love their genuine generosity and earnest patience, and if they expect to get as well as they give, well, I don't think that's a bad thing. While they do tend to take it a little too far for my taste, I truly respect their industriousness and their skill at team work. I love how they can be one of the most modern nations in the world (in some ways THE most modern nation in the world), while at the same time carefully preserving their heritage. (The oldest continuously practiced musical tradition in the world is Japanese court music, gagaku. The Imperial family is the longest continously reigning royal family in the world, perhaps the longest in the history of the world. The oldest wooden structures in the world are found at the Houryuuji temple complex in Nara. Shinto is an ancient polytheistic/animist religion similar to the aboriginal religions in most of the worlds cultures that almost everywhere else were supplanted by Christianity, Islam, or Buddhism, but the Japanese have faithfully maintained it. While it's not always perfect, Japan walks the line between modernization and tradition better perhaps than any nation in the world.) I love their animation and their comics. I even love their food. Perhaps my two favorite things about Japan are their sense of aesthetics and their approach to metaphysics. There are innumerable other things I can't quite put words to, things that I imagine will become much clearer once I go back to the U.S. (I have a feeling that reverse culture shock is going to hit me pretty hard). Broadly speaking, I just love Japan's quirky uniqueness. In my opinion, there is no other culture in the world even remotely similar to Japan. It is a special place, and I feel lucky to have the opportunity to be here."
How's that?
2) I know you love your last name, but what name would you hope for if you had to take your spouse's name when you got hitched (if that makes sense)?
Oh, man. I swear I encountered a name once that was so cool that I just thought, "If I had to change my last name, that's what I'd want it to be." What was it? I can't remember. It sure was cool, though.
For now, let's go with "Lovecraft," then.
3) Of all the albums you bought lately, which has stuck with you the most?
Tough question. Honestly, I think I'll have to give first place to Franz Ferdinand. Catchy and evocative. But it got a head start, arriving a week or two before the rest of the pack. Of the main group, I'd have to go with Want Two by Rufus Wainwright. It may be on track to becoming my favorite Rufus album, actually. (And him and Ben Folds are going on tour together in the US soon, and I won't be there for it. At least I've already seen both of them live...)
Arriving back from hitchhiking today, however, I found the new albums by Ben Folds, Eels, and The Decemberists, as well as Green Day's American Idiot, waiting for me, so...
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Date: 2005-05-07 02:26 pm (UTC)I love your answer to the "why Japan" question. It makes me understand completely why you seem to feel so at home there.
Let me know what you think of the Ben Folds and Eels once you've had a chance to digest them. I've got the Eels on on right now, actually. Also, I hope you enjoy the Green Day -- while I liked it from day one, my opinion of it just keeps getting bigger and bigger as time goes on. Fantastic stuff.
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Date: 2005-05-08 03:13 am (UTC)The Eels... I had thought from listening to the samples linked on the website that this album was something of a retread of old ground, but having listened to it once I think they just picked the songs that were most like the old stuff in order to convince long time fans to go out and buy the record. There's some instrumentation on there that I haven't really seen them use before, and the lyrics are surprisingly personal and specific. But I'll have to listen to it a lot more before I really know what I think. I'll let you know.
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Date: 2005-05-08 02:08 am (UTC)Thanks, Peter!
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Date: 2005-05-08 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-08 03:30 am (UTC)"In the autumn I gathered all my sorrows and buried them in my garden. And when April returned and spring came to wed the earth, there grew in my garden beautiful flowers unlike all other flowers. And my neighbors came to behold them, and they all said to me, 'When autumn comes again, at seeding time, will you not give us of the seeds of these flowers that we may have them in our gardens?'" -Khalil Gibran