9.3.16

time is never time at all

time.

it keeps going by, minute by minute.

in my experience it's always just day by day

by day

by day...

when the sky moves and the stars are suddenly in a different place, when i observe my shadow at the exact same time on two totally separate days, when i visit old friends that i haven't seen in months and months, and they tell me exactly how long it has been since the last time - 180 days, two years and two days exactly, etc... i feel like no time has passed and yet something irretrievable has been lost.

no time has passed because in that moment of reuniting the elements which were separated, whether it be two humans in the same room again after years or the same being at the same place on two different dates, what is said to have occurred in the space between those two elements might as well have not existed at all. what memory remains after the time has passed is only in the mind; a fickle place full of fickle and disparate ideas, intangibles.

are we all just living the same day over and over, and the only change that occurs is in us?

is there such a thing as linear progression, degradation, and are we all feeling it at the same rate? are we feeling it at all?

~ ♪ ~

i present to you one of the single most influential albums to my life, as well as one of the most beautiful i have yet heard in this life.

please enjoy!

森田童子 - A Boy (1997)



you will become my memory

4 comments:

  1. Morita Doji is one of those artists that should be brought to greater attention in the west; I even feel like maybe someone with talent (or Morrissey) should do an entire album of good English-language covers of her work. But on the other hand, what I love most about her is that she was the ultimate anti-rockstar. With her huge aviator sunglasses, hair obscuring her face and puffy red parka -she could sit next to you on the bus today and you'd never know it was her. Because for Morita Doji, it was never about the fame. Indeed, notoriety was an unavoidable (and perhaps even unfortunate) consequence of her craft, her genuine need to write for her own catharsis. And then, all of a sudden, she was gone. She had said what she had to say and then left on her own terms. Would she have done it any other way?

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  2. Thanks for the comment! I agree, it seems like to her that her reason for making music was simply to make it, to convey something, to express expression, to get it out of her. I did not know that she suddenly disappeared, at least from the music scene, but it makes sense.

    Do you like any of her other albums aside from A Boy? I have not heard any of them but am really eager to try, just don't know where to start.

    I'm not a huge fan of Morrissey >.< But I'll admit his voice is deep and that has its own merits. Are you sure English covers would be the best route to go, as an homage to the great Morita Douji? The vocal flow would naturally be different, but I suppose any meaning the lyrics held for an English listener wouldn't have to suffer too much because most likely they were listening not to understand lyrical meaning but to hear the emotion behind the words.

    I'd love to try to do it - the vocals that is. I need a skilled guitarist and cellist!

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  3. I first heard of her through the great '90s psyche-rock band Angel'in Heavy Syrup. They did a few Doji covers themselves and then their lead singer was in a side-project called Slap Happy Humphrey that ONLY did heavy acid-psyche versions of Morita Doji songs.

    I love all of her albums; most are full of hidden gems. Try "Good Bye" (her debut -and what a title for a debut album) and "Wolf Boy", which has some light electronic influences and even a great semi-happy song, "Can't You Find Me?".

    I was a Smiths fan, not a Morrissey fan, so I get you. I think these songs could be done well in English by a folksy group that really cared about the artist and the material. It would be interesting to hear a different interpretation of her work and it might help introduce her to a wider audience. I don't think she's particularly well-known even in Japan outside of "Our Failure", which was used as the theme of a TV miniseries.

    If you have trouble getting any of her stuff, let me know. I may be able to help.

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  4. Thanks, I'll try to get ahold of the others you mentioned and let you know if I can't find anything. I'm a little worried they won't be as great to me as the one I linked up there was but who knows. Maybe I'll like them even more...

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