The Old New Thing

Raymond's excursions into East Asian pop music, episode 4: Yuki

October 16, 2006 Oct 16, 2006 10/16/06

Raymond Chen

When my story left off, a colleague of mine had dedicated himself to finding some good Japanese pop music, and what he found was this music video of the song JOY by Japanese pop star Yuki Isoya, who performs under the stage name YUKI. The video was mesmerizing. The Flash Gordon extras. The dance steps. The blinking. The hyperventilating...

Raymond's excursions into East Asian pop music, episode 3: Morning Musume (モーニング娘)

September 13, 2006 Sep 13, 2006 09/13/06

Raymond Chen

It really all started with Katamari Damacy (塊魂). The music for that game is so darned infectious, and it was my fascination with that music that prompted my colleague to loan me the CDs his wife bought while she traveled through Asia. I already mentioned China Dolls (中國娃娃). Another of the CDs in the ...

Raymond's excursions into East Asian pop music, episode 2: China Dolls (中國娃娃)

August 22, 2006 Aug 22, 2006 08/22/06

Raymond Chen

The wife of one of my colleagues took a trip through the Far East as part of her work. One of the things she did was buy a bunch of music CDs from the various countries she visited. But not just any CDs. To decide which ones to get, she used a very scientific method that didn't require knowing how to read or speak the local language: She would...

Katamari Damacy: The most screwed-up video game ever

October 4, 2005 Oct 4, 2005 10/4/05

Raymond Chen

As I already noted, I went down to Los Angeles a few days before the PDC to spend time with friends and relatives. I stayed with a cousin who works for a major video game manufacturer, and his boss gave him a homework assignment: He was told to go home and play a specific video game. (Unfortunately, it wasn't a particularly good video game, ...

How to act like you know Chinese even though you don't

February 14, 2005 Feb 14, 2005 02/14/05

Raymond Chen

I was riding in a car with a friend when a Chinese pop album spun up on the CD. I made a remark about the song, and my friend, knowing that I was studying Mandarin, asked me, "Do you know what she's singing about?" I immediately replied, "She's singing about love." "Wow," my friend responded. "Your Chinese is quite good." "Nope," I said. "...