Show me your Petix

Life is Bear Pond Espresso.

Life is Bear Pond Espresso. I spent two hours searching for this tiny over-hyped coffee house in the heart of Tokyo’s hip Shimokitazawa neighborhood. I went in with my Handsome Coffee Roasters shirt from downtown LA thinking it might spark a conversation with the owners. Alas, the only interaction was them yelling at me twice. Once for taking a photograph without permission and again for not clearing my own mug. I have to say though, even though I’m not a huge fan of the stuff.. it was probably the best espresso I’ve ever had.

(Source: vimeo.com)

Dead Sushi is the Japanese “Killer Tomatoes”

I love the idea of animals having revenge on humans for eating them.

Maybe George Clooney will be in the sequel?

(Source: bloodydisgusting.com)

Japanese Emo Goes JPop in Transformers Theme

In the year 2000 I made a trip to Tokyo, Japan to do a documentary on underground music there. At the time the newest style of rock hitting the indie clubs was emo. Not a lot of bands were doing it, and the bands that were considered themselves on the cutting edge.

In the film the musicians talk about how JPop (Japanese pop music) infiltrates every corner of media there. Every commercial, movie, tv show had a sugar syrupy JPop song accompaniment to go with it. Emo was the farthest thing away from JPop and the bands liked it that way. Many of them expressed that they were making music for themselves and not to sell out.

Funny that twelve years later even the most underground music has been assimilated into the mainstream. In the closing credits to the newest Transformers anime we hear the band Clutcho performing a pretty syrupy pop song. Check it out above and then find out more on the roots of Japanese emo music by watching my documentary short, Tokyo Below.

Tokyo Below: A Documentary of Independent Rock Music in Japan from James R Petix on Vimeo.

(Source: tfw2005.com)