Alfa, a Supergirl Rockstar

NEW YORK, August 4 – Alfa Garcia joined other singer/songwriters at the Bitter End (147 Bleecker Street) for a mellow evening of unplugged tunes. The event was called the Songwriter's Circle, and its purpose is the promotion of local indie musicians in the vein of James Taylor and Norah Jones. The format of the event was basically a round-robin. Each performer played a song and passed the spot light to the next performer. Alfa managed to perform three songs including “Supergirl" and "Isabelle".

The striped down nature of the event played to Alfa's strengths as a performer and a songwriter. Despite some of her modest comments about her own music, Alfa masterfully performed everything from a sweet candy pop tune to a rustic familial love song. Her engaging musical stylings revealed an honest emotional vulnerability which was very refreshing. In addition, Alfa's vocals are amazingly understated. They gently demand your attention and proceed to slowly envelop your senses. She was pretty awesome.

Alfa recently released her debut independent LP, "Second Skin". It is now available on iTunes and Amazon.

Check alfa-music.com for more information and performance dates. She is playing several dates in New York and a single date at the Kollaboration's Acoustic 3 Concert in Los Angeles.

Related Links:

• Alfa: Second Skin « Born In Chinese (Album Review)
• Alfa's MySpace Page
• Alfa's Facebook Fan Page
• Alfa's Twitter

All Points West Festival 2009

JERSEY CITY, August 2 – I came for the Echo and the Bunny Men and staid for the Coldplay and MGMT.


Outdoor Music Festivals = Mud


Echo and The Bunnymen performing "The Killing Moon"


Coldplay performing "Yellow" (with large yellow balloons filled with confetti)

Related Links:

• All Points West Music & Arts Festival

Vertical Vednesday: The Hard Sell for the Light Novel

NEW YORK, July 29 – I attended another installment of a discussion series hosted by Ed Chavez, Marketing Director for Vertical, Inc. The event was being held at Kinokuniya (1073 Avenue of the Americas). (See a prior post about the Vertical Vednesdays series.)

The topic of discussion was the humble Japanese light novel. Light novels are essentially novellas written for the young adult market in Japan. Some of the more successful titles in this genre are The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱), Vampire Hunter D (吸血鬼ハンターD), and Scrapped Princess (スクラップド・プリンセス).

The group talked about many aspects of the light novel, but the main focus of the discussion was centered on the difficulty of marketing them to an American audiences.

The real problem is the lack of an existing American market for the light novel. Perhaps the only comparative literary market to the light novel in America is the pulp fiction boom between the 1920s until 1950s. The dime store novel. However, since the collapse of the pulp industry, there has never been a resurgence of the pulp format.


In the case of the Japanese light novel, publishers need to build a market from the ground floor. This can prove to be herculean task.

One of the major obstacles is penetrating the American fiction market. The majority of light novels are localized and marketed by manga companies, and many retailers tend to shelve them with manga titles instead of the prose fiction. This can prevent market growth due to the lack of exposure with non-manga readers. Some publishers understand this reality and try to avoid any marketing connections between some light novels and their manga ties.

It will be interesting to follow the development of this market in the next few years.

Related Links:

• Vertical Vednesday In NYC: Lighten Up! By Serdar Yegulalp

Part IV: Otaku War Journal: Tuesday Night Anime

Location Bravo, Somewhere in the Arabian Desert – This is my fourth installment of the Otaku War Journal. If you want to read the other posts, click here.

In the sands of the desert, my old school otaku social behaviors resurfaced again. (Is that an oxymoron “social otaku”?)

After talking to other people at the base, I discovered a small cluster of anime fans. I thought that it might be a good idea to set-up a series of weekly anime showings. The idea harkens back to old anime clubs which usually consists of one fan with a huge cache of anime organizing regular local screenings. In my case, I brought a sizable amount of anime with me to the war.

Before I could begin event planning, I needed to choose a name for my little endeavor. I originally wanted to call it “Friday Night Anime”. It was reference to an old 80s television show called “Friday Night Videos”, a program that showcased a two hour block of music videos on NBC.

I tried to schedule “Friday Night Anime” in the local projection tent. I found out that Friday nights were booked solid, and it was impossible to reserve. Tuesday Nights were the only open block of time. So, I had to change the name from “Friday Night Anime” to “Tuesday Night Anime”. Hence, the name…

Your results may vary. I never established any consistent number of people. It was difficult attracting a regular audience.

The full feature anime movies attracted the largest audiences (e.g. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (バンパイアハンターD), Tokyo Godfathers (東京ゴッドファーザーズ), and Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa (劇場版「鋼の錬金術師　シャンバラを征く者」)). Movies are easier for non-anime fans to watch. They don’t require any background knowledge or prior character development, and they are mostly standalone narratives.


The largest number of people showed up for my screening of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ). Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎 駿) always seems to draw the biggest crowds. It was an English dub which also helped non-hardcore anime fans.

Any viewers that I gained from the Nausicaä screening were quickly lost when I showed Cromartie High School (魁!!クロマティ高校) the following week. Most of the audience walked out completely baffled. The worst received anime were: Cromartie High, Spirit of Wonder (スピリットオブワンダー), Mind Game (マインド・ゲーム), and Nerima Daikon Brothers (おろしたてミュージカル 練馬大根ブラザーズ).

I had a few regulars. They were mostly ardent anime fans prior to the war and familiar with some of the shows that I was screening. I met some people who you wouldn’t suspect of being an anime fan. Others were even more surprised that there was even an anime fan group in a warzone. After my tour was over, I even managed to pass on the Tuesday Anime Night event to two viewers to host.

In the end, I enjoyed hosting Tuesday Anime Night. It kept me occupied on my down time and gave me something to “look forward to” every week. Regardless of the daily stress of living in a warzone, I could always say to myself: “Tuesday Night Anime is only a few days away.”

Obon Festival in Bryant Park

Akiko Hiroshima sings for the Matsuri Dancers
NEW YORK, July 12 – The New York Buddhist Church held their 60th Annual Obon Odori in Bryant Park. The Obon Festival is a unique Japanese take on the Ghost Festival, which is celebrated throughout Asia.

This year's Bryant Park celebration was colorful and lively with performances by the Soh Daiko Drum Corp and Happyfunsmile. The event created a festive family oriented atmosphere with food, street odori dancing, and matsuri dancing.

I especially enjoyed the performance by Happyfunsmile. They displayed their amazing skills at getting the audience to dance. Their special brand of Okinawan pop and folk brought scores of people to the dance floor.

Happyfunsmile is playing a few Obon festivals in Los Angeles (July 25-26), and everyone should check them out. See the Happyfunsmile website for dates and times.


Related Links:

• Happyfunsmile (Myspace)
• Soh Daiko (Myspace)
• Soh Daiko Taiko Drum Corp, Last Number, NYC Obon Fest 2009, Bryant Park, Sun. July 12th (Youtube)
• New York Buddhist Church's 60th Annual Obon Dance Festival (flickr)