My 2008 Japan Tour!

Posted on March 16, 2008 by Alicia Bay Laurel in Art Exhibition, Blog, Concert Tours.

Rainbow7-ABL Fusan Daichan.jpg

Alicia headlines at the Rainbow Festival, Aso Mountain, Kyushu Island, May 2007. That’s Futaro on lead guitar, and Daisuke on bass.

I’m heading back to Japan April 9 for my third tour in less than 18 months. This time I’m having an art show of the original drawings from Living on the Earth, including the cover layout, displayed in handmade frames of sliced driftwood, crafted by Yuji Kamioka, who created the wooden signs at Kurkku Environmental Arts Center in Shibuya, Tokyo, where the exhibit will be held, May 10 to June 1. At the gallery opening May 9th, the beautiful women working at Kurkku will model the spring fashion line illustrated with drawings from Being of the Sun created by Aya Noguchi for her fashion company, Balcony and Bed. Other Tokyo locations where the drawings will be shown and sold will be the Balcony and Bed main store in the Daikanyama fashion district of Shibuya, and at Utrecht, a bookstore in Ginza. Hiroshi Eguchi, the owner of Utrecht, will be creating and publishing a catalog of the show.

Here’s the invitation to the Kurkku event:

I’ll be making music at the art opening, as well as at ten other occasions during my tour, and I’ll be leading two art workshops, one on the island of Oshima and the other on the island of Okinawa (two of my favorite places on earth). I’ll also be recording two songs by Donto for my next CD with his widow, Sachiho Kojima, and her band Amana in Okinawa, where I will be their guest. (For those of you not familiar with Shuntaro Tanikawa‘s works, here is a sample.)

Here is my schedule:

April 13 Rock on the Rock Festival in Hazu, just outside Nagoya, on the beach
April 20 Earth Day Festival in Saku, Nagano Prefecture. Festival site is near Sakudaira Station and adjacent to the Jusco Shopping Center.
April 21 Cafe Gonza concert in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, at 6:30 PM. 2000 yen.
April 25 House concert in Aiki, Nagano Prefecture, at 2 PM. 1000 yen. For more information, please call Kyoko and Ta-Bou at 0267-77-2485.
April 26 3 PM Concert at Kuraya Greens (natural food store) in Kobuchizawa, Yamanashi prefecture. 1500 yen. For more info, phone 0551-36-4789 or call Asako Fujito at 080-6684-4477.
May 3 and 4 Oshima Island Spirit dream shirt workshop co-lead with En Ando at Alohana Gardens
May 3 Solo concert on Oshima, 5 PM at Alohana Gardens.
May 9 Art opening party and concert 7 PM to 9 PM at Kurkku, Shibuya, Tokyo. Art show runs May 10 to June 1, 2008 in the Jingumae Lab at Kurkku.
May 12 to 15 Okinawa, recording session for two Donto songs for new CD with Sachiho Kojima and her trio, Amana (Sachiho on bass, Yoko Nema on harmonium, and Hiromi Kondo, African percussion. All three sing.)
May 16 to 18 in Donto-in Hakkakudo (octagon), Tamagusuku, Okinawa, spiritual, art and music retreat, co-lead by Sachiho Kojima. Concert by Alicia and Amana on May 17.
May 23 7 PM Solo concert, including my telling the story (with translation) of the creation of Living on the Earth. Matsumoto Performing Arts Centre, Small Hall, 3-10-1 Fukashi, Matsumoto, Nagano 390-0815 Japan. Tickets 2500 yen pre-sale, 3000 yen at door.
May 24, 10 PM, Interview and music from the May 9th art opening concert on AP Bank Radio, Tokyo, broadcast all over Japan.
May 30 9:30 PM, Yukotopia Dead Heads Land Night Club, Umejima, Tokyo. Four acts:

18:30~19:30 RaBiRaBi (avant garde/tribal stomp with great singer)
19:30~20:30 ha-za-ma (rock band of club manager Roku Uehara)
20:30~21:30 satocough (Sato, singer-songwriter from Big Frog band)
21:30~22:30 Alicia Bay Laurel (solo psych folk, Hawaiian, blues and jazz)

May 31 9:30 PM Yukotopia Dead Heads Land Night Club, Umejima, Tokyo. Four acts:

18:30~19:30 Blue Moonstruck (haven`t heard them yet)
19:30~20:30 Electric Building (husband/wife folk/rock band. Fun!)
20:30~21:30 The Great Rolling Flower (not sure what genre)

21:30~22:30 Alicia Bay Laurel (solo psych folk, Hawaiian, blues and jazz)

I will fill in the exact times and locations of the events as I receive this information. My three CDs and two books will be available at all events, and I’ll sign (almost) anything you put in front of me, whether you bought it from me or not.

Here are the front and back of the flier for the concert on May 23!

Flier for Nagano events, created by Satomi Yanagisawa, who is organizing the first four Nagano events for me.

Flier for Dream Spirit Shirt making workshop and solo concert on Oshima Island, created by En Ando, my co-leader in the workshop. The drawing is from Being of the Sun.

An Evening at Tangier

Posted on March 5, 2008 by Alicia Bay Laurel in Blog, Friends and Mentors.

On February 27, 2008 I met my friends Gwendolyn and Brandon at Tangier Restaurant in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles to hear them and their friends play in two bands. I’m the second from the left. On my right is Shereen Khan, fiancee of Douglas Lee, whose band would perform first, and back-up singer in Brandon’s band Quazar and the Bamboozled, which played last. The alien princess on the right is Gwendolyn, wife of Brandon Jay (aka Quazar), and a star singer/songwriter/guitarist in her own right. She was substituting for another back-up singer who was not feeling well that night.

Tangier has loads of ambiance, including a patio wall imported from the city of Tangier in Morocco.

I turned on the flash so I could see the details of the wall.

Warming up for the bands, a lovely young singer/songwriter/guitarist. The bar crowd listened and cheered.

Douglas Lee plays the glass harmonica, an arrangement of crystal goblets in a wooden box; the goblets are pitched by adding specific amounts of water.

Inside the glass harmonica. Douglas told me he keeps his hands extremely clean to play this instrument. I’ve owned and loved a classical recording called Music For Glass Harmonica since the 1970s. Previous to hearing Douglas in Gwendolyn’s band at the release party of her Celtic psychedelic folk CD Lower Mill Road at the Bordello Bar last August, I’d never heard a glass harmonica played live before.

Imagine my surprise when Douglas played an entire set of jazz standards (plus one bluesy original), starting with “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,” and “Caravan.”

His instrument gave an otherworldly cadence to these tunes, even as he was surrounded by a jazz instrumentation of upright bass (Robert Petersen), piano (Scott Doherty), drums (Brandon Jay)…

…and saxophone/flute/clarinet (Paul Pate).

Brandon’s drum kit was no ordinary drum kit, but a melange of “found percussion” along with a floor tomtom, a timbale, and a set of bongos.

In the midst of the set, Douglas switched to musical saw, played with a violin bow, from which he produced “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” and “In the Still of the Night.”

Douglas also played a set of jaw harps on a couple of other tunes, beautifully. I don’t think I’d ever heard that instrument in a jazz setting, either.

When Brandon returned to the stage to front his ‘60s rock band Quazar and the Bamboozled, he had donned a frilly formal shirt, a stovepipe hat, and sparkly silver platform shoes! Even his piano had sparkling mirror tiles on it. He sang and played all original songs, in the vein of Elton John, Dr. John the Night Tripper, the Rolling Stones, and Leon Russell. Considering that he and the rest of the band were BORN at the end of the ‘70s and in the early ‘80s, it was astonishing how they captured the sound of ‘60s rock, and made it even more fun and funny.

Gwendolyn, now a go-go dancer from Mars decked out in white platform boots, eight ponytails, space alien facepaint, hot pants, rainbow serape, and multi-megawatt personality, blazed in the stagelights. Hiding in the shadows behind the singers, playing crunchy rhythm guitar, is art dealer Matt Chait.

Paul Pate turned up the volume on his saxophone next to the screaming back up singers Gwendolyn, Shereen Khan, and Jonathan Underle.

Rocket-propelling Quazar and the Bamboozled, the rhythm section: Robert Petersen (this time on electric bass), Dusty Rocherolle on drums, and Spidey on lead guitar. Too much fun!

Puffy Wears Living on the Earth Clothes

Posted on March 4, 2008 by Alicia Bay Laurel in Blog, Friends and Mentors, Illustration commissions and licenses, Living on the Earth book.

Posting from Jodi Mitchell, who lived at Wheeler Ranch commune when I did, in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s:

I have a new part time librarian gig staffing the groovy Teen Zone at
the downtown Oakland Public Library. I love this job, as I am
surrounded by teens and pop culture. We have a wonderful periodical
collection, and I love looking at Japanese fashion magazines, as they
are so much cooler and more creative and cutting-edge-trendy fashion
wise than we are in the dowdy old frumpy US of Ass. One of my favorite
mags. is called Cutie: it has the best ever fashions, and I get ideas
for my thrift-store outfits from it. They always spotlight a latest
rock band in each issue.. I can’t read any of it because it is all in
Japanese, but today I was reading the October 2007 issue and on page
118 they spotlighted the popular girl rock group Puffy wearing none
other than Alicia’s Living On the Earth fashion line. It is so awesome
to see this trendy, Japanese, teenager, contemporary fashion and pop
culture magazine with a very popular girl pop group wearing Wheeler’s
Ranch motifs . LOL! I love it. It made my day to see this. Thanks
Alicia. When I land my ultimate, high-paying librarian gig_I’m going
to buy one of these dresses! They are so cute!

Comments fellow commune alumna Judith Gips: Japanese cutting edge meets ‘70s California rural hipdom meets urban Oakland teens inthe fashion Zone…hoowee…

Alicia comments: If only they knew where I buy 90% of my fashion wardrobe:

The Goodwill!

Now Madonna, she knew…

Cuteness is a quality greatly cherished in Japan, in women, in kids, in animation, and in advertising and manufacturing. Perfect name for a teen mag.

The Real Alice in Wonderland

Posted on March 2, 2008 by Alicia Bay Laurel in Blog.

Photograph of Alice Pleasance Liddell, taken in 1862 by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll), three years before the publication of his fantasy classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (title shortened in film adaptations to Alice in Wonderland), of which she is the protagonist. Collection of the New York Public Library.

My Short-lived Career as a Fashion Model…or so I thought

Posted on January 9, 2008 by Alicia Bay Laurel in Blog, Concert Tours.

So, in spring 2007, when I was on concert tour in Japan for seven weeks, I not only was the subject of a TV documentary on Asahi Broadcasting, but did some magazine interviews. Here I am on page 11 of the August 2007 issue of Switch Magazine, which is a hip arts and culture color glossy, in my Living on the Earth dress and scarf (created by Tokyo fashion designer Aya Noguchi of Balcony and Bed), and playing my Pro Series Traveler Guitar. I was photographed in the living room of Aya’s house, on a hill overlooking the sea, a few miles from Tokyo.

A photo taken with my camera at this, at this point my one and only modeling session of my entire life (at age 58!) I swear I do not eat, sleep and shower with that black hat on, but it seems to appear in every one of the magazine photos. It’s one of those flexible recycled paper and plastic hats that fold up in a suitcase and resume their shape afterwards.

Ecocolo Magazine appeals to environmentally conscious young women.
Here’s the September 2007 issue.

Ecocolo also ran a feature article on the Living on the Earth clothing line, with a photo taken during my concert at the Natural High Festival in May 2007, while I was being filmed for the TV documentary.

Also in the September 2007 issue of Ecocolo: an interview with me by Dr. Keibo Tsuji Oiwa, an anthropologist, teacher, author and translator who teaches International Studies at Meiji Gakuin University in Yokohama. I read with fascination The Other Japan, a book on Japanese environmentalism, civil rights and national identity, that he co-authored with David Suzuki.

However…(!) My fashion modeling career continued with a group outdoor modeling session
for Murmur Magazine in Yoyogi Park, in Tokyo, on October 12, 2009 (belowz0.

10-12-09-Japan-Yoyogi Park-modeling session

Then I began modeling for Kaoriko Ago Wada’s organic fiber, fair trade fashion company, Little Eagle, in December 2010 (at age 61), and continued through 2019 (age 70).

10-14-19-Japan-Kobe-Modernark-Alicia on stage w guitar modeling Little Eagle dress
Modeling a gauzy black ensemble by Little Eagle, while performing a concert
in a stage set created by Kaoriko Ago Wada, at Modernark Pharm Café
in Kobe, Japan on October 14, 2019.

Sally French: “Fuzz and Fury”- Art Show on O’ahu

Posted on January 4, 2008 by Alicia Bay Laurel in Blog, Friends and Mentors.

My dear, amazing friend Sally French is having another of her mind-bending art shows. We met at Wheeler Ranch, the commune where I created Living on the Earth, in 1971. Shortly after, we both moved to Hawaii, she to Kaua’i and me to Maui, and then Hawaii Island. We’ve not seen each other all that often, but we are sisters all the way.

Here we are visiting our cherished friend, artist Ira Ono, in Volcano Village, on Hawaii Island, in the studio of fiber artist Pam Barton. That’s Ira, Sally, me and Pam, left to right.

Aya Noguchi's new Being of the Sun clothing line!

Posted on December 30, 2007 by Alicia Bay Laurel in Blog.

Aya Noguchi, the Tokyo fashion designer whose company, Balcony and Bed, brought out the Living on the Earth clothing line last September, is releasing a new line in April with featuring illustrations from Being of the Sun! Above, a tote bag emblazoned with the “vision quest” illustration, with colors added by Ms. Noguchi. $145 plus $10 S&H (USA), or $20 S&H (outside USA). Please order by January 31, 2008, since Balcony and Bed manufactures in small quantities and prefers having exact advance orders. Please email me from this site with your order. You can pay me via Paypal or send me a postal money order.

Here’s the “vision quest” illustration in white on black, as an organic cotton tank t-shirt with a slanting hem. $85 plus $10 S&H (USA), or $20 S&H (outside USA).

Here’s the “wedding under a tree” illustration printed in brown on a cream colored scoop-neck short-sleeved organic cotton t-shirt. $85 plus $10 S&H (USA), or $20 S&H (outside USA).

Here’s another version of the “vision quest” organic cotton t-shirt, longsleeved, and long enough to wear as a mini-dress, with colored illustration on a cream-colored background. $145 plus $10 S&H (USA), or $20 S&H (outside USA).

Year End Poems by Verandah Porche

Posted on December 24, 2007 by Alicia Bay Laurel in Blog, Friends and Mentors.

HEART TO HEARTH

Old-fangled snow is the stuff of yarns:

The saga of our sagging barns;

The sled run down to kingdom come;

The ox roast when the twins got home;

Those purple finches on the branch

whose wings could launch an avalanche.

Myths are throws crocheted near stoves

as the Town truck garlands icy roads.

Verandah Porche

Winter Solstice, 2007

Note: I wrote this poem as a stocking scroll

for the elders in my town. The Town truck

driver’s name is Dickie Garland.

——————————-

ANAGRAMS

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Aphids’ holy yap

Shy hip payload

December observances un-anagrammed: Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Eid ul-Adha, Posada & Underdog Day

SOLSTICE

Is closet

        Cite loss

Lice toss

        Sect soil

Lies cost

        Set coils

Sit close

º

CHRISTMAS

Scarsmith

         Sacs mirth

Art schism

         Arch mists

Rich masts

        Stir chasm

Cram this

        Scam shirt

Hits scram

        Chi smarts

Cash trims

       Its charms

º

BOXING DAY

Bind gay ox

       Axing body

Bag id onyx

        A nix by god

º

NEW YEAR’S EVE

A weeny verse

        We eye ravens

Serve any ewe

        Seven-eye war

Say we’re even

        Wave ye sneer

Every sea new

        We reweave yens

We erase envy

º

VERANDAH PORCHE

Coven harp heard

         Preach overhand

LOVE-VOLE