ben frost tokyo weblog
jan 2004 1 2
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above are some photos from various things earlier this month. went to milk at ebisu last night with adam and scott. was cool. lots of alright people. the japanese music aesthetic leaves a bit to be desired. stockholm film group were great. after pauls dj set the music switched to dodgy drum and bass, which everybody seemed to be more into. sad really. gelbison cover is giving me some headaches, but it should work out ok. got some great new images to make paintings of. am hanging out to get back to australia from that perspective to paint some more.
beers in the park with grant, luke, adam and andrew. good cop bad cop photo shoot on low exposure - some nice shots. can't help but think was one of the last nights im gonna spend in the company of these guys like this. all good. all good.
kinshicho park - the breeding grounds for silly after work activities. i cant believe though tonite i got on my train and it was the wrong train. i did this last week as well - even though i have been getting on the same train every night for the last year. so bizarre. had to get a taxi home from oshiage cause i was on the last train . ..
stockhom film group are playing tomorrow night - i really want to see them. in ebisu at milk. should be good. need to pay my air fare tomorrow morning for san francisco. gelbison cd cover is giving me a headache but i think im ok to go witrh the sketches ive done so far. time. time is a fickle beast that gives and takes as it damn well pleases.
nice photos tonite. i love these guys to pieces.
im gonna miss them . .
saturday night we played at vanity/la fabrique. we started around 12.20 at night. a few minor problems but overall it went though well. i guess there were about 60-70 people there when we played. they were all kind of taken aback but it went ok. was a crazy night. stocholm film group were great.
im really into eating tomatoes at the moment. with some salt and pepper i could perhaps eat up to 5 per day. a tempting summer treat all the family can enjoy. have bought my ticket to san francisco leaving september first and returning september 14. should be crazy.
work is killing me. if i have to explain another stupid situation about how english people act im gonna stab someone in the eye with my biro. i guess its not so bad.
finished recording two songs onto kitaro' 16 track recorder. 'comatose baby' isn't finished yet but will appear on the vanity 12 inch vinyl hopefully soon. 'what's your name?' is complete and sounds great. tatsumi's after effects are awesome. is good to hear it all so clean.
am ready to split japan now. am off to california in 5 weeks for a fortnight to do a show with a bunch of cool artists including mark mothersbaugh from devo.
saturday night abikyokan plays a gig at la fabrique in a 30 minute set. should be awesome. paul from stockholm film group has been great. doing this has been crazy.
have been making some cardboard cutouts for the san francisco show which im really happy about.
will have to get back into making some more as i have only completed 2 so far - but they dont take so long to make.
have started work on the new album cover for gelbison with cyril from antipoda. see gelbison's site here and check out their music video clips. the concept for the cover is awesome - its about a headless guy shopping for a new head, and then he meets a heartless woman who is shopping for a new heart. its great that the headless theme fits well with my past headless people work.
i want to try and climb mount fuji also before i go but im running out of time - - -
i guess i could do it when i get back from california.
have been reading a lot lately - finished 'high fidelity' by nick hornby, 'leviathan' by paul auster, 'the most beautiful woman in the world' by charles bukowski (my second read - a classic), 'notes on a scandal' and 'everything you know' by zoe heller. all pretty good.
am backing up a lot of my files tonite as my machine is glutted with movie files and other assorted shit thats getting in the way of it performing.
rehearsed again last night. tatsumi was busy but we managed to belt out some great new stuff, and practice some of the older stuff.
new songs are about a vincent van go tv game show, another about recruiting girls for porn sites, and another which is a bit xiu xiu inspired - its your bread and you have to toast it, its your cake and you have to ice it, its your car and you have to drive it - have a nice day. last one doesnt make any sense but it came out of nowhere and the beats grant has been doing are so great.
have been working nearly every day in the last 2 weeks - is kind of exhausting but not so bad. going to see shonen knife tonite in shibuya. bought a truckload of coloured card on friday to make new work for the san francisco gig in september.
still not too sure what kind of performance art to do for the night. have been thinking of doing something about oil, but that sounds messy. also the assassination attempt of pope john paul the 2nd - but thats kind of not sitting too well in my head. anyways.
photos here from our last rehearsal that pamela took. some really cool shots
heres photos from my trip to melbourne. had possibly the strangest night of all time at brooke and dave's amazing new place in prahran. hands down i like to party and we had such a silly night. jacko - i don't know what the hell is going on with this man but he took off his pants and his teeth at any chance - you dont want to see the videos. .. sasha and i started the world's first stool club. very exclusive - but all you need is a stool and the confidence to stand on it - and you're in. we went into a pub on our way out and went straight to the bar and stood on their stools - they weren't into the stool club but we showed them. so damn silly. was awesome.
