English Blog

A Movie – The Whistleblower 8/11/11 August 12, 2011

It is a real serious movie. Inspired by true events, Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz) is an American police officer, divorced with a daughter, who takes a job working as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia. Her sincere expectations of helping to rebuild a devastated country are dashed when she reveals dangerous reality of corruption, cover-up and intrigue amid […]

A Positive and Encouraging Quote by Gregor Piatigorsky from “Hitler’s Emigres and Exiles in Southern California: A Windfall of Musicians” by Dorothy Lamb Crawford 8/9/11 August 9, 2011

I have been reading a book ” “Hitler’s Emigres and Exiles in Southern California: A Windfall of Musicians” by Dorothy Lamb Crawford, and found a wonderful quote from a great cellist, Piatigorsky. This is from P. 64 to P. 65 in this book. -You don’t have to be a genius to know your shortcomings, because […]

“Art in the Street” at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA 8/1/11 August 1, 2011

I have been meaning to visit this exhibition for a while, and finally I found the time to go! And I must admit I was very lucky. Mondays are free admission so there was a line to enter the museum. The group of visitors approached me and offered the special VIP admission. So I saved […]

A Movie “Point Blank” 8/1/11 August 1, 2011

If you want to have breathless 90 minutes, you should watch this movie. It is non stop action and thriller movie with great casts. Since it is a French movie, I could not recognize any actor and actress, but everyone did an excellent job. I would say casting is actually too good (?).  Bad guys look […]

4 months after Tsunami Disaster in Japan 7/26/11 July 26, 2011

It has been more than 4 months since the devastating earthquake happened in Japan. It has been a very slow recovery and it will take for many many more years. 4 pianos have been donated to one of the school districts in Iwate prefecture. One of the small cities in Iwate is Ohtsuchi-machi, and I will […]

A Movie – Project Nim 7/25/11 July 25, 2011

I did not know about this project at all. Nim is giving us many important questions in human’s life. Nim was a chimpanzee who was separated from his mom when he was 2 weeks old for human’s egoistic experiment. He made human friends in his way to grow as a part of human’s life, he lived […]

A Movie “Tabloid” 7/13/11 July 15, 2011

I went to the preview of “Tabloid” at Laemmle Playhouse 7. Huh— it is an interesting documentary film by Errol Morris.  It is no doubt that Joyce Mckinney is the center of fascination in this film. Besides McKinney, there are several tabloids people, a pilot and a Mormon youth man who are interviewed around the famous abduction story (she […]

A Trip with Amtrak Train 7/8/11 July 8, 2011

As a typical Japanese myself, I grew up riding trains and buses from the very young age. Our family was living in southern part of Japan, Yamaguchi Prefecture, when I was born. We lived there until I was 5 years old. My parents are from Tokyo so we went back to Tokyo with sleeping trains occasionally. […]

Yellow Magic Orchestra Concert at Hollywood Bowl 6/27/11 June 27, 2011

Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) has not performed in LA since 1979. The Hollywood Bowl was packed yesterday! I usually go to Hollywood Bowl for classical concerts. This venue in summer is really great for non-classic concerts. Noise from the outside or inside does not matter. Some acoustic imperfection does not matter. We just enjoy the […]

A Movie (DVD) – “Tony Takitani” 6/25/11 June 27, 2011

This film is based on Haruki Murakami’s novel, and directed by Jun Ichikawa. And the music is done by Ryuichi Sakamoto. Murakami and Sakamoto’s collaboration! I can’t miss it. It is somewhat in unrealistic situation, but it depicts the human emotion realistically. Eri Miyazawa is as beautiful as always, almost unrealistically beautiful, like a fairy. […]