Greglog

Cool Music Shopping and Listening

Do you love music? I want to tell you about a couple of excellent websites for finding, listening to, and buying music. The first one is towerrecords.com. Tower Records' slogan is "No Music No Life". I agree. When I don't have music to listen to, I become depressed!
At towerrecords.com, you can listen to samples of most songs on most cd's before you buy! This way, you don't have to worry that you won't like the cd after buying it.

Hint: try the "Bestselling Music" section on the right side of the home page. Also, you can watch new music videos and VOTE on which is the best. (That's at the top: "Next Big Thing".)

Please also listen to my recommended bands: Pinback (trance rock), Weezer (indy rock), Mos Def (indy rap), Reeve Oliver (indy rock), and Elefant (rock). Reeve Oliver and Pinback are San Diego bands, by the way! To find albums by these bands, just type the name into the search window at the top of the page. You can also search by album or song title!

Have fun!
PS, use your headphones!

Busy

Wow, it was a busy week last week. I went to see a wadaiko drum performance in the town of Shuzenji. The group performing was one of the best in Japan. I really like taiko drumming, so I am joining a local group in Mishima! I will practice with them twice a week (I hope).
Seems like I am always rushing around to take care of business. Buying things for my apartment, sending money by mail, preparing my classes ;-), cooking, cleaning... then there is no time to study kanji!

Hey, finally a picture of me at school! Thanks to Oguri-san for her camera-phone. This shows that you can publish your pictures using your cell phone. Everybody, let's try.
In the office

James Brown

Why do I like James Brown? I will tell you. His music is the best for making your feet move! His band was one of the best ever. The bass playing of Bootsy Collins and the guitar of his brother Phelps was an incredible combination. They created the groove that makes millions of booties grind. You can't listen and not want to move. If you don't feel anything, you must be dead!

!! Earthquake?

**News flash: It's Wednesday morning, about 11 am. I just felt an earthquake! Did you feel it, too? I would like to find out where it happened.
In California, of course, earthquakes happen pretty frequently. But it's still a little scary anyway.
Check this out: there is a webpage where you can get recent earthquake information AND post your own report if you feel an earthquake!
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_xrav.html

Great first blogs!

Well done, everybody: you did it! My students made their first weblogs yesterday. They look great!
I hope you will continue to write your thoughts, opinions, and news about your life on those blogs.
I'm going to do my best to do that, too. Come back here to find out what's going on in MY life.

busy

I spent my weekend mostly indoors, recovering from some nasty intestinal bug. I had wanted to go to Tokyo, but it was good to chill out, watch the videos I got from Tom. Tom is a video rental shop, not a person! Well, I do have a neighbor named Tom, actually. He doesn't have videos, though. The two movies were "Orange County" and "Finding Forrester". I didn't know before I got them, but both movies are about young, aspiring writers. Totally different kinds of movies, though. I recommend both for my students. (Check out my favorite movies in my Profile for other recommended flicks!)
On Sunday, I actually got up enough energy to go for a bike ride. While riding past some gardens, I met an interesting group of people. They are members of an international garden group called GROUNDWORK. They try to make cities better and friendlier places by planting community gardens. I'm hoping to get out and help them with the garden near my house.
Check out these sites:
http://www.gwmishima.org/english/eindex.htm
http://www.groundwork.org.uk/