Dear readers, Tokyo Calling is gaining momentum and attracting more people, and I think it would be nice if we introduced ourselves. So if you are so inclined, please tell us who you are, where you live, your interests and passions, and what you are looking for in this experience.
Ideally, Tokyo Calling should become a sort of community, so feel free to tell everybody if you have a website, Substack, or you are working on a project. I’m sure everybody would love to hear about it.
Please use the Comment space to write about yourself.
Great to have you all aboard, and thanks for your interest in Tokyo Calling.
PS If you don’t know yet who I am, you can check out my About page.
Greetings, Gianni. I last printed an updated version of my "Japan Jaunt" zine in August 2017. Because I was going to visit there again in September for the Jazz Festival at the Red Brick Warehouse in Yokohama. Donald Fagen was set to perform solo as it was, but between his engagement and the performance, Walter Becker, his established partner in Steely Dan, had died. His concerts were quite personal and touching.
I have not been in Japan since then. It appears ~58% of the populace *does not want me there* anyway. |,=(#
The issue is actually one large WordPad-scribed .rtf file. It exists on storage media here at the abode and can be electronically sent anywhere. But (again), Japan does not want any foreign visitors in 2022.
It was _soccer_ which originally got me to Japan in the first place. I discovered that F.I.F.A. (yes, *that* F.I.F.A.) had expanded what had been the 'Toyota Cup' one-off match between Europe and South America's club Champions to include all of its Confederations, and was one of only a handful of people from North America requesting media credentials. U.S.S.F. in Chicago was familiar with my soccer zine "Incendiary Words" (I always sent it a copy.), so I surmise that is why I was approved.
A lot went wrong on that first trip, Gianni. A highlight was meeting you at the Landlords(?) Pub in Shibuya - that I managed to find it was itself an accomplishment, and that it did not take an afternoon break. I took _every remnant copy_ of every prior issue of "Incendiary Words" and dumped them on the 7th floor of Tower Records in Shibuya. Riding trains in Tokyo & Yokohama was fun. The matches I covered were solid. The Club World Championship Final was the top story in the next issue of "Incendiary Words". Back then, my bookmark pages links to Japanese urabon photobooks were near the top of the English-language search results. When visiting Akihabara, *I managed to find* an underground shop offering the photobooks and uncensored Japanese adult videos (on VHS and DVD). I did not buy any of the uncensored videos; I wrote down the names of the companies producing them. They were all in the U.S.A., but I had not managed to find them.
Mom died in August 2009. Dad died in October 2015. It is just me and my cat Mirko here at the abode. I have not travelled anywhere since April 2019 because I sunk too much of my money, including what I inherited from dad, in annuity accounts which could not be easily accessed. They are now finally paying out. Some fora do not want me to mention my name (an anti-doxxing rule), but it is pretty much out here. It is in the metadata of my World-Wide Web pages if people view the source, along with a valid e-mail address. Every issue of my zines has my _real address_ at the foot of the first page. I was | am too cheap to get a post office box. It has not changed.
For 25 years, I was on a v.92 dial-up Internet connection. _This finally changed in September 2021_ when I got a good deal on not just any broadband, but One GigaByte Fiber Broadband from AT&T. So I now scream along the Internet @ ~940 MBytes, still on this 2013-built Windows 7 x64 desktop computer. I used to have to go out to download browser updates and OS patches with my Windows 8.1 x64 laptop & 32GB flash drive on a venue's wi-fi connection. Now it goes the other way. I download them to a flash drive here and later install them on the laptop. One Gigabyte Internet is available to only 15.93% of addresses in Chicago, but this abode is in that tract. How swift is your connection?
I have not caught COVID-19, and I like my odds that I will not. I have gotten three vaccinations, in April, May, and November 2021, all Moderna. I believe I have an enhanced immune system, due to a certain regular practice of mine. Dad was issued a bunch of surgical face masks in 2014, not that he needed them, but it was standard procedure. Those were never trashed, so they have been put to use. I have a more sturdy cloth mask from a cat shelter which is my primary mask. I think that is it. 8=D#
Hey Steve, it's great to hear from you after all this time, and sorry for my late reply. There are times when Tokyo Calling has to take a back seat to other gigs that help me pay the bills. Especially since the pandemic has crashed the party, freelance writing has become a tough proposition.
I think my last zine came out in 2016, but I should check my files. Everything earlier than... six months ago?... is now lost in the fog and open to interpretation.
Glad to hear you haven't caught the beast. Hang in there!
I've moved away from zine making in the last four years - life gets in the way sometimes - but will return to creating my zine, Astrobabble, when the time is right. In any case, always interested to know what the zine community is up to ...
My writing gig with Ciao magazine finished in 2019 and has been replaced with a local history project close to home - The Italian Migrants of Ryde. Most of the stories are in their final stages and we are looking for a publisher and much-needed funding. DIY can be a lot of work but definitely rewarding.
Dear Gianni - I have known you for quite awhile now. In the first decade? I can’t remember. I am still the doodling colour freak you first met. Retired now. Sending lots of mailart, writing radio shows when the urge strikes, and getting my socializing with two bowling leagues.
Hi Theo, your colorful postcards are some of the best mail I ever received. I remember I once invited my mail art friends to contribute works to distribute with my zine Kairan and you sent me a ton of your postcards. Opening your package was like entering an itinerant museum.
Now, bowling is a completely different thing. The best I can do is managing not to throw the ball into the next lane.
Me. Former self: Full time 24/7 caregiver, at my own expense. Unpaid volunteer researcher / translator for community / political affairs programming (pre-internet). Collect books and magazines on pop music theory. Need to learn Japanese
Thanks David, for being the first. Hopefully, other readers will join the party. I already know several of them and I know they have interesting things to say.
I have a couple of questions you may care to answer:
1) I'd like to know a couple of pop music-related books you particularly enjoyed.
Greetings, Gianni. I last printed an updated version of my "Japan Jaunt" zine in August 2017. Because I was going to visit there again in September for the Jazz Festival at the Red Brick Warehouse in Yokohama. Donald Fagen was set to perform solo as it was, but between his engagement and the performance, Walter Becker, his established partner in Steely Dan, had died. His concerts were quite personal and touching.
I have not been in Japan since then. It appears ~58% of the populace *does not want me there* anyway. |,=(#
The issue is actually one large WordPad-scribed .rtf file. It exists on storage media here at the abode and can be electronically sent anywhere. But (again), Japan does not want any foreign visitors in 2022.
It was _soccer_ which originally got me to Japan in the first place. I discovered that F.I.F.A. (yes, *that* F.I.F.A.) had expanded what had been the 'Toyota Cup' one-off match between Europe and South America's club Champions to include all of its Confederations, and was one of only a handful of people from North America requesting media credentials. U.S.S.F. in Chicago was familiar with my soccer zine "Incendiary Words" (I always sent it a copy.), so I surmise that is why I was approved.
A lot went wrong on that first trip, Gianni. A highlight was meeting you at the Landlords(?) Pub in Shibuya - that I managed to find it was itself an accomplishment, and that it did not take an afternoon break. I took _every remnant copy_ of every prior issue of "Incendiary Words" and dumped them on the 7th floor of Tower Records in Shibuya. Riding trains in Tokyo & Yokohama was fun. The matches I covered were solid. The Club World Championship Final was the top story in the next issue of "Incendiary Words". Back then, my bookmark pages links to Japanese urabon photobooks were near the top of the English-language search results. When visiting Akihabara, *I managed to find* an underground shop offering the photobooks and uncensored Japanese adult videos (on VHS and DVD). I did not buy any of the uncensored videos; I wrote down the names of the companies producing them. They were all in the U.S.A., but I had not managed to find them.
Mom died in August 2009. Dad died in October 2015. It is just me and my cat Mirko here at the abode. I have not travelled anywhere since April 2019 because I sunk too much of my money, including what I inherited from dad, in annuity accounts which could not be easily accessed. They are now finally paying out. Some fora do not want me to mention my name (an anti-doxxing rule), but it is pretty much out here. It is in the metadata of my World-Wide Web pages if people view the source, along with a valid e-mail address. Every issue of my zines has my _real address_ at the foot of the first page. I was | am too cheap to get a post office box. It has not changed.
For 25 years, I was on a v.92 dial-up Internet connection. _This finally changed in September 2021_ when I got a good deal on not just any broadband, but One GigaByte Fiber Broadband from AT&T. So I now scream along the Internet @ ~940 MBytes, still on this 2013-built Windows 7 x64 desktop computer. I used to have to go out to download browser updates and OS patches with my Windows 8.1 x64 laptop & 32GB flash drive on a venue's wi-fi connection. Now it goes the other way. I download them to a flash drive here and later install them on the laptop. One Gigabyte Internet is available to only 15.93% of addresses in Chicago, but this abode is in that tract. How swift is your connection?
I have not caught COVID-19, and I like my odds that I will not. I have gotten three vaccinations, in April, May, and November 2021, all Moderna. I believe I have an enhanced immune system, due to a certain regular practice of mine. Dad was issued a bunch of surgical face masks in 2014, not that he needed them, but it was standard procedure. Those were never trashed, so they have been put to use. I have a more sturdy cloth mask from a cat shelter which is my primary mask. I think that is it. 8=D#
Hey Steve, it's great to hear from you after all this time, and sorry for my late reply. There are times when Tokyo Calling has to take a back seat to other gigs that help me pay the bills. Especially since the pandemic has crashed the party, freelance writing has become a tough proposition.
I think my last zine came out in 2016, but I should check my files. Everything earlier than... six months ago?... is now lost in the fog and open to interpretation.
Glad to hear you haven't caught the beast. Hang in there!
Hello Gianni,
I've moved away from zine making in the last four years - life gets in the way sometimes - but will return to creating my zine, Astrobabble, when the time is right. In any case, always interested to know what the zine community is up to ...
My writing gig with Ciao magazine finished in 2019 and has been replaced with a local history project close to home - The Italian Migrants of Ryde. Most of the stories are in their final stages and we are looking for a publisher and much-needed funding. DIY can be a lot of work but definitely rewarding.
I hope you are going to resume your astrology-related writing sooner than later because Astrobabble was a lot of fun and highly informative.
In the meantime, good luck with your book project. Being an Italian migrant myself, I'm very interested.
Dear Gianni - I have known you for quite awhile now. In the first decade? I can’t remember. I am still the doodling colour freak you first met. Retired now. Sending lots of mailart, writing radio shows when the urge strikes, and getting my socializing with two bowling leagues.
Hi Theo, your colorful postcards are some of the best mail I ever received. I remember I once invited my mail art friends to contribute works to distribute with my zine Kairan and you sent me a ton of your postcards. Opening your package was like entering an itinerant museum.
Now, bowling is a completely different thing. The best I can do is managing not to throw the ball into the next lane.
Me. Former self: Full time 24/7 caregiver, at my own expense. Unpaid volunteer researcher / translator for community / political affairs programming (pre-internet). Collect books and magazines on pop music theory. Need to learn Japanese
Thanks David, for being the first. Hopefully, other readers will join the party. I already know several of them and I know they have interesting things to say.
I have a couple of questions you may care to answer:
1) I'd like to know a couple of pop music-related books you particularly enjoyed.
2) Why do you need to learn Japanese?
Thank you, Gianni!