1984
DecemberBest tunes
Wow, Japan could have been the Smiths, Run DMC, or countless other great records I picked up here. But sitting in the jazz bars (no bands, just playing records) in Tsukuba, it was this reissue of Chet Baker that was everywhere. Chet Baker Sings I brought back with me. It only took about 10 years to catch on in the US, I guess I should have opened that record store? Think of the stuff that still hasn't caught on and its 20 years later.
September
Took off a year from Kansas City Art Institute, went off to Kansas University to both take a summer intensive Japanese course (this woud be my 3rd year studying Nihon Go and use their foreign exchange program to head off to Tsukuba University. They even have a english language website, odd. So thanks to Ronald Reagan and the fed, Japanese currency is at 250 to the dollar. This makes for a pretty good time for me, since tuition at KU is a couple hundred bucks and Tsukubas room and board is about the same (state sponsored). I originally thought to continue my work in ceramics, natch, but there was a lot more going on in Japan in terms of architecture, media, product design and general culture.
While I did not quite get my Japanese in shape, I did meet up with a fellow artist Pinaree Sanpitak who helped me get by. I did some tutoring and most famously had a set at the local club DJ'ing. Famous in the way I would either be great or auful, depending on the disks I suppose. I also tended to be a bit lax in my schoolwork, instead endlessly bike riding to town to check out the departo stores Seibu and such (Tsukuba isn't on the train route for some reason). Fortunately, this is not uncommon, and they all seemed to give me a 'B' after it was all said and done, which I appreciated.
Tsukuba was designed to be a research town, cut off from the 'world' - athough about an hour north of Tokyo in Ibaraki. Among the university were many science labs, the idea that if you put the brains all in one town, they could talk, create, etc. For some weird reason, they decided to disturb everyone by building and holding EXPO 85 there (a sort of worlds fair) which I can only recall brought in bunches of Swedes to man these Clock hamburger joints...
I also began my switch from ceramics to sculpture, specifically light sculpture, probably from the great architecture and plays with nature, especially paper.
This is the end of the story, I won't mention Arts Magnet in Dallas, the first three years of college, being born, etc. so move on, nothing more to see.