Takako Minekawa | Dog Eaters

It’s a beautiful…

Posted on 08.23.16 under Anekona, Cloud Hands Project, Dustin Wong, haleakala, Matt Papich, maui, Pekelo Cosmos, Predawn Voices, Takako Minekawa

Summer!

But I like to think that all summers are beautiful…

Aaron Boothe in Historic Wailuku Town. Son of Pekelo Cosmos, Aaron plays a mean guitar and sings a pretty but gritty song.

“Predawn Voices,” a Cloud Hands Project song recorded in August 2016 features Aaron on electric.

The Sugar Company is getting their last crop in. Hopefully, they will replace the sugar with hemp, but I’m guessing that housing and commercial developers have different plans.

Yes, that’s a commercial jet landing at OGG…

Ah yes, the ripening fruit.

Home grown pineapple and lilikoi. Lilikoi has been scarce this summer. Lack of bees…

Let’s blame Monsanto for that.

Making a ti leaf skirt is quite labor intensive and time consuming.

Junko will be making her own, soon! As soon as I bring back 200 ti leaves…

The controversial observatory on Haleakala. Give them an inch and they’ll take the summit.

Tourists bring a drone to the summit. The ranger did not like that. Not at all.

They quickly played the conspiracy card: “Secret stuff up here they don’t want you to see, right?”

Kahuna Bula picks noni leaves and camphor to make a poultice for Takako’s leg injury.

Dustin and Takako were at Anekona with Matt Papich (he played with Dustin in Ecstatic Sunshine a few years back before Ponytail) to mix Dustin and Takako’s new album.

The famous silver sword.

Tourists leave rubbish. I turned it into an Iichiko Shochu homage.

This is one of the real posters.

“Coming down, from the mountain. My lady waits for me…”

Matt pounds ulu (breadfruit). This is a superfood that could end world hunger. Yeah, right…

This was a Budweiser, but is now “America.” If you drink enough, it could end world peace… Yeah, right!

Make America great again! Because this beer sucks…

Subtle. Subliminal. No one cares. It’s all about the money.

Matt is the sonic director adding depth and oomph with side chains.

Here’s to a successful album!

Beach House & Takako Minekawa and Dustin Wong

Posted on 01.29.16 under Beach House, Dustin Wong, Graham Hill, Skyler Skjelset, Takako Minekawa, Victoria Legrand

At O-Nest, Dogenzaka, Shibuya. A medium-large venue, groups like Blondie have played there.

Shibuya has been a mess — under construction for a few years now — and it looks like it will be a few more years before it’s completed. Hopefully, within my lifetime…

Full house at O-Nest.

Everyone stares at an illuminated board.

Everyone…

Skyler Skjelset, who was a founding member of Fleet Foxes and is playing bass on this tour, opened the show. He played multi-textured drones over a simple beat.

Dustin and Takako played next. New songs comprised of cascading waves of beats, looped guitar riffs, samples and vocals.

Beach House tours with their own lighting. Cases of it. Mostly back-lighting the band, the effect is more meditative than celebratory. Dream Pop drenched in reverb, it’s mysterious, not self-aggrandizing.

Takako Minekawa, Dustin Wong, Victoria Legrand

Graham Hill, Dustin, Alex Scally

Saturday Night in Tokyo

Posted on 11.29.15 under Dustin Wong, Junko Wong, Mamoru Sato, Nakano, Takako Minekawa, Tokyo, Uncategorized

It started in Nakano, a place known for Nakano Broadway, a mecca (wait, is that still a positive description?) for Otaku with its vinyl figures, manga, anime cells, maid bars, maid costumes, and all that good stuff.

Nakano Sun Plaza reminds me of the Tyrell Corporation in Blade Runner.

Not nearly as majestic, though — and where are the flying cars? It’s almost 2019…

We had dinner with Jessie, the daughter of my mentor, Mamoru Sato, a sculptor professor at the University of Hawaii, Manoa that advised me to become an art major. This was one of the biggest turning points of my life. We babysat Jessie and Dustin together — they were born just a couple of months apart.

I worked on Mo’s commissions throughout the years I was a student at UH.

Peter Brown (1955-1981) did jump through hoops, but not the usual hoops… I took this photo with his camera, turning the tables.

Signage in “ura” Nakano. The “ura” parts of the major centers (Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku, etc) can be some of the most interesting.

Then I drove Jessica to her hotel in Shibuya and Dustin and Takako back to Wakabayashi, Setagaya.

I think they used this intersection in “Fast & Furious — Tokyo Drift.” Obviously, not going to race in this part of town. There would be more than a few traffic fatalities.

Hachiko intersection. Very interesting on weekends.

This party bus was empty. Kinda sad on a Saturday night!

When you pretend

Posted on 09.06.15 under Cloud Hands Project, Cornelius, Milo Oyamada, Takako Minekawa

New song by Cloud Hands Project, “When You Pretend,” featuring the guitar of Milo Oyamada, son of Takako Minekawa and Cornelius.

Milo tends to business…