Hans, Waka and Rob discuss the Discovery Channel's Shark vs Hippo faceoff, Hans's camera goes up in smoke and Alex wakes up to join the conference call. He promptly plays a Beatles song--sort of--then he and Hans reminisce about an Adam Sandler Thanksgiving. Alex critiques Waka's conversational English development, noting how she has incorporated the phrase "to give one shit" into her repetoire. Hans then promotes the champagne of beers, the lady in the moon, Miller High Life. Rob briefly explains happoshu and Chu-Hi. And then our connection breaks up--sorry! I left the tail end on, as annoying as parts of it are, because there might be some redeeming qualities there, and it might inspire someone with some remixing ideas! Or not. Collage by Rob. Posted by Rob.

What started out as a solo podcast ended up with three people: Hans, Waka and myself. This evening (Wednesday here) I'll be DJ'ing in Roppongi, Tokyo, at a place called Gromp. It'll be my first time there. Doors open at 7 p.m., and I'll be starting right away, even though things won't really kick off much later till later. So if you need a place to unwind after work, come on out! Posted by Rob.

"Here is another mp3 from the Hemp Bark workout. This one is bigger and more stand alone than Goodbye Ghost Hat. This one is la Stish. Let's see if the satellites will allow it to fly to your ears. Test test test. Happy Thanksgiving, by the way. Thanks, Jerry." From Hemp Bark with John & Maki 17.11.06. More info coming soon. Posted by Rob.

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Patrick was in town, explained fig crumbs and recited Ivor Cutler. Listen to his latest poetry podcast Carnivale or read 3 years' worth of his poems at ukauthors.com. I'll try to post a few of the other links we talked about later. Food art photo by Makiko. Posted by Rob.

Filmed and edited by Rob and Makiko.

Posted by Rob.

Subscribe to our food channel, Prapatang Kitchen, on iTunes

I find it uplifting when entertainers challenge us to ponder the profound... Posted by Rob.

Learn to talk like Alex's grandma (Queen Elizabeth)! Alex thinks that, just because he's a native speaker, and because he can teach Japanese, that he can teach English too. Whatever! If I wanted to talk like Posh Spice, I'd marry David Beckham! Posted by Rob.

It's been a while since I posted any music but here is my latest offering which is called Prapatang groves (Ted Haggard mix). I've been bust recently in the Nakatsu recording studios here producing some mixes for Beb, Sae and for myself. I hope to be posting some new toons up here soon. With the amount of music that has been posted up here I think we have a seperate music show in the making. Keep sending in your music pureezu !

Okha a.k.a. Flying Koala listening to music and talking with her friend Heyeon on the way to the top of Bukbawi Mountain in Chungbuk, Korea, Sunday, 5th November 2006. Interesting background music. Wonder what they're saying! Makes me wanna learn some Korean... Posted by Rob.

For more info about Charles's upcoming show, opening party, etc at Gallery Flou in Osaka. And here's another collaboration of Jerry's and his. Posted by Rob.

Video by Okha a.k.a. Flying Koala, starring Alex and Rob. Filmed at Cafe Barbes in Minami Horie, Osaka, and outside Chove Chuva music store in Higobashi, Osaka. What is all this song and dance about? I'm not sure I can explain it, but maybe you can look for clues at Prapatang.com. Posted by Rob.

Charles Billard has another artshow coming up soon in Osaka. We'll post more info about that later today. I also have more of Jerry's and his music to upload, but for now, please enjoy this .mp3 of an anonymous Englishman and an American trying to translate the Englishman's "favorite" French word into Japanese at an event held at l'Institut Franco-Japonais awhile back. Because sometimes things just get totally F%$#ING lost in translation. Posted by Rob.

Take a deep breath. Turn the volume up and listen to the voice, or watch it without sound. Don't bother to read the comments on YouTube. You already know what the wiseguys will be saying about this soothing sunrise. Posted by Rob.

Yet another ALT Rap remix by longtime Osaka resident Jerry Gordon. You don't have to look back too far to find his recent collaborations on projects such as The Smouldering Door with Charles Billard and others. The ALT Rap entertained and annoyed at expat parties and bars for nearly six years before finding a digital home on Alex Brooke's Learn Japanese podcast. Thanks for the remix Jerry! Vocals by Rob. Credit for the lyrics (fragmented as they now are) go to John Sanders and Rob, and for the recording of the vocal track to Alex. Collage by me. Posted by Rob.

Interested in next month's QuickFlickWorld at SuperDeluxe? Contact David: david@qfworld.tv. Tonight is the closing party for "Horumone" Sekine's exhibition "Amore Azzurro" at Bonobo. Wednesday nights are usually my DJ night there, but someone else will be DJing tonight, although I'll still be there for the party. See you there? In this podcast we also explore the dark side of the artist who calls herself Flying Koala. This darkness is starting to surface in her artwork, as you can see by the link to her homepage. Posted by Rob.

A Report is precisely that. We were someplace and recorded ourselves telling about it. Here's a classic example of one Alex sent me a little over a year ago from Fukuoka called i've got the sea. Now, a Report differs from one of our Talk Show programs in that it is usually spontaneous, sometimes on location and is recorded alone more often than not, although it might sometimes contain a spontaneous interview of sorts. Alex's and my Talk Show series usually involves very little preparation or scripting (often painfully obvious), but we've recorded it long-distance many times now, and it has become a sort of routine where agree beforehand more or less what we're going to talk about, and cue up new ideas through a Skype chat window, or edit later. Sometimes there are guests. Anyway, once I moved to Tokyo, I found it necessary to talk about things which couldn't wait, so I did my first solo podcast or report called Panic Living and Alex followed shortly thereafter with his One Man Ramble from Nakatsu, Osaka. Our portable recording device of choice is the tiny iRiver, which we take with us everywhere, even on bike rides, which is when Alex recorded Sunset Ramblings from Miyakojima Sports Island. Unfortunately, Alex finally lost it all, in Fukuoka by the sea one night after one too many English interview tests, but luckily for us, he left this farewell message. Let's enjoy podcasting! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. Photo by Alex taken someplace else in Japan, maybe in Aichi Prefecture?

Posted by Rob.

Another song from Charles Billard in Osaka: "Here is the edited version of one of the recordings I did with Kurochi on the machine he made himself : The Voist." -Charles. Posted by Rob

This was one of my favorite places to spin in Osaka, unfortunately, I sometimes had to choose between taking the last train home, the first train home (sometimes crashing out on a couch for a bit), or a taxi, as it was just a bit far to cycle with all my records.  If we had a good crowd, sometimes Dan, the owner, would spot me the cabfare which wasn't cheap!  When I wasn't DJing, it was also a fun place to just hang out.  Dan was open to the type of music I tend to play, and Shawn was a master at concocting beverages from my most random word associations.  One example:  "Sex in the rainforest, without a mosquito net"  (you know, a tropical drink that's refreshing, and not too sweet) and he'd know exactly what I meant.  Now, put your headphones on, if they aren't already, and click here while you watch the slide show.  Posted by Rob.

Some more tunes have arrived from The Smouldering Door (Jerry Gordon & & Charles Billard) in their latest incarnation, PlinkPlonkCongress (with Zunko, Takezo "Tabo" Aoki, Daiki Murakami, Masao Hasegawa and Akiko Itoh).  Recorded live at Osaka Castle, this is the first of two songs we will be posting from their CD Mega Raga. 

Here are new pieces of art created by B Chan's 8 year old nephew.

 

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This idea from a video on YouTube is probably going to get copycatted more than a few times! Scouted by Alex. Posted by Rob.

Last night, as I was approaching the foot of the hill in Ichigaya where L'Institut Franco-Japonais is located, there was an opening party spilling out onto the sidewalk in front of Gallery Space Pause. Inside, you could hear Korean, Japanese, French and broken English being spoken. The artists were students from the Ulsan University College of Fine Arts in Korea. My communication with the artists and Korean staff members was minimal, but luckily the title cards were in English as well as Korean for all their artwork and there was a catalog showing most of the artwork in the exhibition as well. I had been walking all over Meguro-ku earlier in the day, so I wasn't quite my usual genki self... Photo of Lee Jin Wook with untitled work. Posted by Rob

Makiko and Rob try to channel Alex and acheive some degree of success. Prapatang, prapatang, go fry an egg (some religions say the egg is the symbol of the soul. Ichi, ichi, ichijiku, ichijiku, nanba-wan! Chanting Prapatang will summon his spirit, while feeding him the sacred fruit will satiate his divine appetite, keeping him close for your comfort. Also, checkout NFTOS superstar Flying Koala's fan club on mixi. The NFTOS pantheon of living and passed swells as with one consciousness! And, don't forget to check out the various Peter Morris projects: HaloEffect and DEM. Posted by Rob.

If you were an eikaiwa teacher listening to Broken English's first podcast, you would probably want to go out and drown your sorrows, except that the hosts in their wisdom craftily placed the ALT Rap at the end, so the listener will instead leave all this futile thinking behind with a big grin on their face. Well done! I was guided to Broken English by the departed spirit of Alex Brooke. Posted by Rob.

By the time I arrived there in 1990, the members of Deus Ex Machina were already icons of alternativity on my college campus--a place where it wasn't hard to be different. Hence I chose the "No Heroes Mix" of their track 'Domination'. The band, which consisted of the two Jims and Peter Morris, was a bit too late to be "new wave" and not scary enough for me to call them "industrial," although the influence of both genres should be obvious. Peter's has worked with a lot of people on a variety of projects since then, some which you can see in the discography section of his project called HaloEffect. I particularly recommend "Fear of Flying" from the single "Burn it Down." We've also posted some of his stuff before on this site, such as a remix of the ALT rap and some artwork for an event at Chove Chove back in April of this year. We'll be trying to get permission from the powers that be to share more collaborations with you in the near future. 1992 photo of Jim Mac & Peter by Gerik Parmele. Big thanks to Peter and the DEM posse for letting us host this track. Posted by Rob. Enjoy!

I was eating a fig, or ichijiku, and someone thought it was funny. Someone thought I was funny! Ha ha. Posted by Rob.

You can see Abdul Qadim Haqq's photos from Tokyo and from the rest of his Japan trip with UR DJ James Pennington on Third Earth Visual Arts website. I'm looking forward to their next event, which might be sometime next spring... Posted by Rob.

Taking News from the other side to new depths I recorded a suicide podcast.  Did I go too far this time? Well, I guess it is a first. Posted by Alex?
p.s. What kind of 'gun' was it? -Rob

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Hey everyone, remember the reason for the season. It's time once again to let the pagan out! Happy Halloween from Tokyo, Japan. Wanna see Halloween photos from Japan? I didn't take many, but Bikeclubosaka.com always has tons of photos and the occaisional video.

Posted by Rob.

In the park one afternoon in October: Makiko is making a coaster. I'm recording with my iRiver. A guy is working out on some vertical bars where I fell back in May and left a big indentation in the sand with my head (photo). Posted by Rob.