Miki's Fat City

It's sometimes interesting and inspiring to work with music magazine people. When I was chatting with my coworkers in my office a couple of weeks ago, Miyoshi suddenly started talking about a kind of human voice he named "Jacaranda voice." Jacaranda is also called Brazilian Rosewood which was often used for acoustic guitars. It has become a rare wood material that acoustic guitars built with Jacaranda wood are extremely expensive these days. As I don't play the guitar, I don't know how it sounds and how it is different from others. But the word "Jacaranda" just hit me. If he said Brazilian Rosewood, I wouldn't be interested in it. I don't know why but the sound of that particular word sounded very interesting. Miyoshi mentioned a couple of Japanese actors' names to explain what voice he uses Jacaranda for and they are Akira Nakao and Toru Emori. His definition of Jacaranda voice is a mixture of low, deep, fat sound with a sharp edge to it. ...

At last, I could listen to and see the video of one of my favorite songs from 1985! This particular song by Dokken was somehow on MTV whenever I read letters from my friends in Japan when I was living in Colorado. Their letters -- no email/internet at that time -- made me feel far away from my homeland although I never became homesick because of all the lovely people there I became friends with. I still cannot figure out why it was always this combination of the "Alone Again" video and the letters from Japan. But this memory stays in a special place in my heart that often reminds me of the basement of the house I lived in and the chair I usually sat on. A part of the basement was a TV room. I had no idea of what life I would live in the future at that time. Never thought of working in the music industry. It all happened by accident and I never quit once I found my work interesting and unique. I guess a huge seed of my life was sown in Colorado that eventually led me t...