My dearest Mick!

After a week of busyness trying to finish translating a few interviews with a spice of a big typhoon hitting Tokyo - and my busyness still continues cos I often get one interview or two right after I've finished one - I finally have time for reading this weekend. I was away from books for some months just because I wasn't in the mood for reading. But one book delivered a couple of days ago changed it.

He is Mick Karn. My all time bass hero that I cannot stop loving since the age of 14. The band JAPAN opened my eyes to a different kind of music from poppy ear candies at the time. They were so unusual and, as a matter of fact, so beautiful back in late '70s. All the members of the band are still very unique and cool to this day playing interesting music for us.

Mick wrote and published this autobiography some weeks ago. I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it but I ordered one copy anyway. I just started reading it yesterday. It's very interesting from the beginning, really. You sense his honesty and openness all over - just like how he was when I was at his interview some years ago.

There are many things revealed in his book that none of JAPAN fans have known or read before. His childhood, how JAPAN was formed, how they got to the style they had at the time, his relationship with Angie Bowie, etc. (that's where I read so far.) I've read David Sylvian's biographical book years ago to see if it was good enough to publish in Japanese asked by a Japanese publisher. That book was also interesting but the thing is it was written by a journalist. This one seems written by Mick himself and that makes a huge difference. Of course, it's difficult to be and stay objective when it comes to your own life but because of that, true feelings at times - in other words, the true feelings you now think you felt at the time - are there for us to relive the feelings of his.

I actually told one of the executives of the publisher I signed to with about this book yesterday. He, who is the same age as me, a fan of Japan of course, and more like a fellow editor to me than just an executive, shows an interest saying it might be a good idea to serialise it in one of our magazines before deciding to publish the Japanese version of the book. No surprise at all since he needs to consider the business side. But I think he misses my point. It's not about publishing it in Japan, I just wanted to give him this information as a friend. Ugh... I don't like it when they instantly take it as an idea for business whenever I tell the executives about something interesting. Needless to say, however, it would abso-fxxking-lutely be great if we could publish it and... if I could translate it... but I don't know if that's what I want to do...

Anyway, all the JAPAN fans out there, you should read this book! If you don't read English, don't worry. His English is as nice and communicative as his great personality, never like some bigheaded journalists. Even with a help of dictionary, his words get through to your heart directly. Trust me and just try it!