The “Yellow” Restaurant

Not sure why the Japanese restaurant is called “Kiiro” meaning “yellow”, but that does not matter as everything on my visit the other night was quite OK with my “not-so-easy-to-please or is it just my imagination” guests being very very happy.

Gochome Sen Kiiro

Music! & Movies! in the Month of July, 2015

Music in the month of July was mostly jazz with one great rock band of the ’60s thrown in.

Tropical Jazz Big Band @ Tokyo Bunka Kaikan

The Zombies @ Duo Music Exchange

Kaori Kobayashi @ JZ Bratt

Bobby Caldwell @ Billboard Live Tokyo

Toshiko Akiyoshi & Monday Michiru @ Blue Note Tokyo

Kaori Kobayashi In-Store Event @ Jam Spot, Yamano Music Ginza

And the various films I saw

Kidnapping Mr. Heineken

Mad Max: Fury Road

Winter Sleep

Skylight

Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me

Selma

Force Majeure

Walking on Sunshine

Child 44

The Lovers on the Bridge

The Price of Fame

John Rabe

Stuck in Love

Rhino Season

The Whales of August

Gemma Bovery

My pick is another “National Theatre Live” play/film Skylight starring Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy.  Brilliant.  I love Bill Nighy.

Music! in the Month of March, 2015 ♪

Surprised at the number of music films that were available and that I went to see during March.  That added to actual music events I was at, came to be quite a few.

The Pop Group @ Liquid Room

Kishi Bashi @ Billboard Live Tokyo

Hiroko Kokubu @ the Jam Spot @ Yamano Music Store Ginza

Annie, the film

Bob James @ Blue Note Tokyo

Films Les Miserables and The Producers, seen on different days.

Hiroko Kokubu @ JZ Brat

Fried Pride @ Billboard Live Tokyo

Victor Rock Festival @ Makuhari Messe

Alan from the Irish restaurant The Giant’s Stew House

Gyze @ Tower Records Akihabara

Begin Again, the film

Rudderless, the film

Rio Yanase @ the Norwegian Embassy

Song One, the film

Alexandra Stan @ Ebisu Garden Hall

Springroove 2015 @ Makuhari Messe

Found a totally different kind of Alexandra Stan here.  Silly but quite good.  Enjoy.

Music! in the Month of February, 2015

Some jazz and jazz-y stuff plus alternative rock and classic punk.  In chronological order…

Halie Loren at Cotton Club

Nice display for Halie Loren at Yamano Music Store in Ginza

OK Go at Tsutaya O-East

The OK Go crowd as seen from the balcony before the sold-out show

Marcus Miller at Blue Note Tokyo

Diane Schuur at Cotton Club

Adam at at Tower Records Shibuya, an in-store event

Ditto

The legendary Pop Group at Tower Records Shinjuku, an in-store event

Ditto

Jill-Decoy association at Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall

Here is OK Go’s truly impressive video for “I Won’t Let You Down” shot in one single shot in Japan with a Japanese director, choreographer, staff, etc. etc. using Honda’s Uni-Cub as their vehicle.  Yes, quite literally.

Music! in the Month of January, 2015

Mainly live music but a couple of music-related films, one a documentary and another a film viewing version of a West End musical with music by Elton John, both enjoyable although I had not planned to see either of them when making plans about which films to see last month.

Anyway, the list, in chronological order.

A documentary film, Alive Inside. See the trailer at the end of the post.

Europe @ Club Citta Kawasaki

Cross Vein @ Astro Hall

Akinori Nakagawa @ Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall

Billy Elliot the Musical

Hiroko Kokubu @ Yamaha Ginza

Julia Fordham @ Billboard Live Tokyo

Karen Souza @ Blue Note Tokyo

Hiroko Kokubu @ Yomiuri Otemachi Hall