Neil Young with Linda and/or Nicolette (7): Unplugged

"Unplugged" is the last album which Nicolette Larson sings with Neil Young, recorded at Universal Studios, Los Angeles on February 7, 1993. VHS tape is available in U.S. I will get it after I arrives at Atlanta. In this MTV program, Young covers his electric songs like "Mr. Soul" or "Like A Hurricane" and from old songs like "Mr.Soul" at Buffalo Springfield to new songs from the latest album "Harvest Moon" at that time.

1. The Old Laughing Lady
2. Mr. Soul
3. World On A String
4. Pocahontas
5. Stringman
6. Like A Hurricane
7. Needle And The Damage Done
8. Helpless
9. Harvest Moon
10. Transformer Man
11. Unknown Legend
12. Look Out For My Love
13. Long May You Run
14. From Hank To Hendrix

Berkeley Country Club

Yesterday I was invited to Berkeley Country Club in Nikko City in Tochigi Prefecture by a member of this club. It took about two and half hours by my car. Too far away from my home and total toll to use highways were JPY7,400 (US$64!!). The golf course itself was not too bad (greens were so fast!), but it costed too much.

My score? I didn't keep it yesterday, but front nine was more than 50 and back nine was 43 or 44. My driver shots dramatically improved and got 4 pars on back nine. Approach shots and putting were also very well, I got pars with 1 putt on both 17th and 18th which has about 400 yards.

Guitar Legends J.J. CALE AND ERIC CLAPTON Unite For an Epic, Soulful CD Release “THE ROAD TO ESCONDIDO”

Guitar Legends J.J. CALE AND ERIC CLAPTON Unite For an Epic, Soulful CD Release “THE ROAD TO ESCONDIDO”

J.J.Cale and Eric Clapton will release "The Road To Escondio". I don't need to comment anything about both guitar legends.

Amazon.com: Live at the Fillmore East: Music: Neil Young

Amazon.com: Live at the Fillmore East: Music: Neil Young

Neil Young starts to release his Archives. They say his Archives will not issue as a box set. It may be something like Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series.

Related link

Google AdSense

Google AdSense

I put Google AsSense to sidebar on my blog. It took some time to be approved and I still don't know how it works. Anyway, now I have Google's services below;

AdSense
Calendar
Finance
Gmail
News
Personalized Homepage
Personalized Search
Picasa
Reader
Spreadsheets

Regarding other Google's services, I like Earth, Maps, Sightseeing and writely...

Tony Joe White - Swamp Music: The Complete Monument Recordings

Tony Joe White - Swamp Music: The Complete Monument Recordings

Rhino Handmade has just released only 5,000 copies of Tony Joe White's "Swamp Music: The Complete Monument". I must order this! But I will be leaving Japan for United States on October 9. So I have some problem of timing when or where it should be delivered. Tony Joe White's 5,000 copies may not be sold out soon, I hope. See Nicolette Larson's Live At the Roxy. It's still there.

Sitemeter

This is a pie chart of country share of visitors to my blog, provided by Sitemeter. 59% from Japan and 29% from United States. Foreigner's share is gradually increasing. However page view is still not much and visit length is still so short. Not only does Sitemeter display the number of visitors to my web site, it also keeps statistics on the number of visits each hour and each day. Good tool for blog.

"American business idioms" by David A.Thayne

I have finished to read "American business idioms", which was written in Japanese by David A. Thayne and published by Nikkei Business Library in 2003. Title is also in Japanese, so this English title is my translation, sorry. Japanese students are learning English at least from junior high school to high school for 6 years, but teachers or school textbook doesn't teach phrases like this. The author puts business idioms at various situations into one volume. Only 200 pages pocket edition is easy to bring everywhere and turn pages from time to time. It also has some explanations of difference of culture between Japanese and American.

Neil Young with Linda and/or Nicolette (6): Harvest Moon

Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" was released in 1992, just 20 years after his No.1 album "Harvest" in 1972. Young played with the Stray Gators on his back, Kenney Buttley on drums, Tim Drummond on bass, Ben Keith on steel guitar and Spooner Oldham on keyboards. Almost same band as in Harvest's Stray Gators. Harmony vocals are Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Nicolette Larson, Astrid Young, Ben Keith and Larry Cragg. It is said "Harvest Moon" is one of Young's trilogy with "Harvest" and "Prairie Wind".

Linda and Nicolette freaks must have this album. They appears at:

1. Unknown Legend (Linda Ronstadt)
2. From Hank To Hendrix (Linda Ronstadt & James Taylor)
3. You And Me (Nicolette Larson)
4. Harvest Moon (Linda Ronstadt)
5. War Of Man (Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor & Nicolette Larson)
6. One Of These Days (Linda Ronstadt & James Taylor)
7. Such A Woman (Nicolette Larson)
8. Old King (Nicolette Larson)
9. Dreamin' Man (Nicolette Larson)
10. Natural Beauty (Nicolette Larson)

Linda, Nicolette and James, Wow! Who can make an album with harmony vocals of these three of greatest singers in California ? And is there any other Young's songs with these three on harmony vocal at one song ?

Omigawa Tokyu Golf Club

X day is almost fixed. I will be leaving Japan for Atlanta on or around October 8. I can play golf in Japan maybe two or three times more. Today I went to play at Omigawa Tokyu Golf Club. The course was very good, but my swing was so terrible again. However, back nine was not so bad, 46 strokes (according to my friend, I didn't keep my score). Omigawa is relatively flat, not hilly, not long course ,but large green is difficult to read.

Listened today: Heart of Mine:Love Songs of Bob Dylan/Maria Muldaur

YouTube - Nicolette Larson - Lotta Love

YouTube - Nicolette Larson - Lotta Love

"Lotta Love" of Nicolette Larson is now on Youtube. I can't find any official video sources of Nicolette, only in bootlegs, so this is very valuable.

Skype

Yesterday I installed Skype to my laptop. Today I got my colleague's address. After the dinner I made a call to him and I was surprised to hear its very clear sound. It's also very easy to make a call. During my stay in the U.S. from next month I will use Skype. As I will live in the U.S. alone, I asked my family to install skype to their PCs too. But it's a bit sad that they don't have any interest.

Samsung YP-U2X on sale in the US - Engadget

Samsung YP-U2X on sale in the US - Engadget
Samsung Japan started selling YP-U2 through Samsung Direct. I have been using Toshiba gigabeat for more than 2 years. 20GB gigabeat is very good for me because I am on the train for about 3 hours a day to my office in Saitama-City. I can keep hundreds of CDs on gigabeat. But actually I usually listen to selected CDs such as Neil Young, Bob Dylan or other classic rock. Samsung YP-U2 has a built-in USB plug and doesn't need special software, I can just drug and drop music files. Now I think I'm OK for 1GB only. So I bought one, which is my first gadget in a long time.

Living in Atlanta

At the beginning of this year I planed to read at least 50 books this year. I have done 32 books so far. Last week I have read two, both in Japanese. One is "Living in Atlanta" by JETRO. I can go to Atlanta anytime as I got visa yesterday. I have to have information of Atlanta as much as possible, but this book was written 5 years ago. The other is "English for Sales & Marketing" by Hisamichi Yajima. This is not bad for me because I will be a sales manager in Atlanta.

What is mixi?

Mixi is a social networking serivice opened in February 2004 for the first time in Japan. Now it has more than 5 million members. I wondered why nobody invited me to mixi before, but last week finally a friend of mine in my company invited me. I still don't know very well what I can do on the site. There are too many people. Too many.

firehills got L1A Visa to the United States

Just a few minutes ago around 8:50pm I have recieved a mail from U.S. Embassy in Japan. I thought it was too early to receive my passoport because on Thursday's interview the consul told me it would teke about a week to recieve the visa. But it was my passport coming back from the Embassy. On page 14 on my passport it was there, my L1 visa!

Heart of Mine: Love Songs of Bob Dylan

Maria Muldaur was born and raised in Greenwich Village. She appeared in my favorite book about Dylan "Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan". I didn't know exactly about where thier ways came across. But I know now. We can also see her in Dylan's "No Direction Home". She wrote in liner notes of her new album "Heart of Mine: Love Songs of Bob Dylan", "Bob's song were different. Very Different. With great poetic skill and prophetic vision he brought a deep, fervent, compassionate, and amazingly perceptive overview to the many social issues he addresses". She fell in love with a song called "Moonlight" in Bob's "Love and Theft" and she wanted to record it. It takes some time for recording but finally it released. There are hundreds of covers of Dylan's songs recorded by various musicians like Byrds, PPM long time ago. I am surprised again that Dylan's songs are so beautiful when somebody else sings them. People may easily misunderstand Dylan's songs due to his throaty voice, but I believe his love songs themselves are so lovely and have eternity.

Dylan tops worldwide charts with new album - Music - MSNBC.com

Dylan tops worldwide charts with new album - Music - MSNBC.com
I went to Bob Dylan's concert at Compaq Center in San Jose, California (HP Pavilion now) at October 12, 2001. At that time I found that he actually became old, to be honest. But now he still records the album and performs live. He is now 65!

firehills went to the Embassy of United States

I went to the Embassy of United States Japan this morning for the first time. I got E2 visa before in 1999 but I didn't come here because travle agent submitted the application on behalf of me and there was no interview at that time in 1999. This time I have to get L1A visa to stay in Atlanta for my new assignment for the subsidiary of our company in United States.

They had a heavy security. I had an appointment at 9am and arrived at 8:40am at the gate. But there were already long cue there before the gate. We had to take the pet bottles out (I didn't have), mobile phones out, MP3 players out (I bought Samsung YP-U2 this week, the second MP3 player for me after Toshiba gigabeat). It was almost same as security check at the airport. It took almost 15 minutes for me to get in. Then I submitted the documents and entered into the waiting room, where more than 100 people were waiting. I was called at 9:40am to fingerprint both of my forefingers. What the hell was 9am appointment? I was called for an interview just 5 minutes later. I expected the consul would ask something to me but he didn't say anything at all. Anyway my application was approved and the consul told me my passport with visa would be sent out in one week.

Shinchiba Country Club

I played at Shinchiba Country Club Tsukumo Course yesterday. This course has 54 holes, huge golf course. It is said Asagiri Course is a championship course and very good. Today's Tsukumo Course has out of bounds lines on both side in most of the holes at back nine. I hit 4 out of bounds. Yesterday's private tournament was arranged by the owner of a bar in Shinbashi. I donated a winner's trophy and alarm clocks for prize. My tee shots was terrible yesterday but I scored just below 100 with extreme difficulty, and my net score was around 79, 21th places among 32 players. More than 30 degrees celcius, still very hot, but breeze through the course was fresh and I could feel Autumn approaching for certain.

The Early Asimov Book 1-3

I have finished reading "The Early Asimov" Book 1-3 in Japanese. The stories here was written from 1939 to 1948. Last story is " Mother Earth", which looks like prototype or model of " The Caves of the Steel" in 1954. I have read Asimov a lot in these 5 months. So I will take some rest for a while, start to study English again and read books about the United States, etc.

PS: Yesterday I had a dinner with my friend at a bar in Shinbashi, Tokyo. This is my favorite place to have a drink. Very small (counter only, full if 7-8 customers) and cozy bar where I can enjoy good beer, Japanese sake and Japanese shochu. Tomorrow I will attend the golf tournament which is arranged and organized by the owner of this bar.