In the 20th century, adding or replacing band members was a common practice. Nobody made a big deal except some hardcore fans. In the 21st century, things have changed. We had to replace irraplacables because they were dead or unavailable, but many fans resisted the idea. So, we carefully came up with a better concept.…

When I discovered the Beatles, in my early teens, the legendary British band had already disbanded. Initially, I thought they were a comic act. Think about it. The name of the band was the Beetles (カブト虫). Their members consisted of John Lemon (レモン), Ringo (りんご) Starr, Paul McIntosh (マッキントッシュりんご), and George Harisen (張り扇). Their record…

Fun Fact: “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” was on the “Rubber Soul” album by the Beatles, released in 1965. “Norwegian Wood,” the novel by Haruki Murakami (村上春樹), was published in 1987. Hiroyuki Takahashi (高嶋 弘之), who was the Project Manager at Toshiba EMI for the Beatles at the time, officially admitted that he purposely…

One of my favorite YouTubers, Rick Beato, made an insightful video regarding AI. He is a music guy, but also has an engineer’s mind. He pointed out my blind spot. “What you eat is what you are,” literally. I Fried ChatGPT With ONE Simple Question In summary, the outcome from AI is limited by the…

Betel Nut Beauty (檳榔西施) is a term used to describe young women who sell betel nut leaves on the roadside in Taiwan. The betel nut leaves are addictive and keep you awake. Typical customers are male taxi drivers and truck drivers. After their consumption, they spit the red fluid on the road. It’s disgusting. Betel…

I forgot to tell my son about the days of the week in Japanese. It relates to the planets in the Solar System: Sunday = 日曜日, Monday = 月曜日, Tuesday = 火曜日, Wednesday = 水曜日, Thursday = 木曜日, Friday = 金曜日, and Saturday = 土曜日. In the English translation, Sunday = “Sun Day”, Monday =…

Japanese media often lack understanding of retained earnings (内部留保) and mislead their readers with a distorted perception. 企業の内部留保、６００兆円　１２年連続で過去最高―投資や人件費、活用に課題・２３年度末 (Retained earnings reach 600 trillion yen, the highest level in 12 consecutive years – Issues remain regarding investment, labor costs, and utilization – end of fiscal year 2023) They portrayed it as the cash in the assets…

I was watching the interview with 堀江 貴文 (Takamumi Horie) on YouTube. Mr Horie, also known as ホリエモン (Horiemon), and たかぽん (Takapon), is a smart individual and a successful entrepreneur. He started On the Edge (later, Livedoor) and has been my hero.【前編】堀江貴文/福岡の田舎町に誕生した神童/超短期間での東大逆転合格/プロ野球参戦潰してきた巨人ナベツネ/楽天・三木谷と直接対決で敗北の理由は老害の機嫌 1995 was remembered as the year the Internet was born for us. (ARPANET…

When my son and I were dining at Sushiro, I proclaimed that “we are coming back here again, not only because of the quality of sushi, but also because of their clever ordering system that makes the dining experience fun.” He did not buy my hypothesis, but that’s ok. It’s usual. My point was that…

田中星児 (Seiji Tanaka) sang 「すてきなサンデー」 (Beautiful Sunday) in 1976, and the song became a smash hit in Japan, 4 years after the hit of its original version, ‘sang’ by Daniel Boone in 1972. It was also the number one 洋楽 (Western music) hit in Japan, selling 1.92 million copies. According to Wikipedia, the song was…