sleep

Recently I have been needing less and less sleep. Part of it is the shifting of my life to late night DJing and having to maintain my day job, but part is Tokyo summer and a cat that likes to be fed at 5:30am. When I started regular all night DJ/clubbing it was hard, but now I have shifted so much that I am actually needing very little sleep almost every day. At first it was very disturbing since western thinking calls this pattern "sleep deprivation" or "sleep disorder". But it doesn't feel like a problem to me, just different.

One of my spiritual teachers lived on almost no sleep. I think she told me that she usually gets 4 hours every night but does meditation and other practices during the day. She is an amazing woman, super energetic and in her 60s I believe. She was convinced that 4hours of sleep + meditation + balanced life was more healthy than the 8hr sleep western medical thinking.

But traditional western thinking is the 8hr sleep doctrine. Maybe that makes sense for western life styles: work long hours at stressful jobs, demanding family life and social schedule. Maybe 8hrs of sleep makes sense to counter balance that kind of stressful waking life.

But maybe healthy life can be attained along many different paths of waking and sleeping practice. I know many yogi friends will do daily morning, 5am/6am practice (real ashtangi do this), and I am almost certain many yogis have deep but short sleep patterns. Life is about balance, and there are many ways to achieve that balance.

Wouldn't it be strange if becoming a DJ and doing regular all night clubbing actually helped me place more healthy boundaries on what my day job can demand of me, become a more spiritual person, and helped me become the kind of daily practice ashtangi I have been trying to become the last 8 years of yoga practice. What a wonderful paradox that would be.

looking back

In general I always try to live my life in the present as much as possible. It is something I learned from yoga and from one of my best friends from uni.

When we live too much in the future, there is a tendency to be unhappy with what we have and always reach for things that may be unattainable. But future is where our dreams live and we can not live without dreams. It is where the creative spark for music and art lives.

When we live too much in the past, there is a huge tendency to crave what was "lost". Past events become nicer and more perfect and the present and future always tends to appear bleak and hard. The classic "back in the old days" sort of personality. But without our past we have no raw material, no experience which we need in order to feed our creativity.

But looking back can be so wonderful sometimes when we are happy in our present. It can offer a wonder contrast to help us see how we got here, and maybe appreciate even more what we have.

As I am being inspired by my dearest friend to write more blog entries, I am also going back and reading what I wrote. Amazing, this blog is 8 years old, but so few posts and so few readers. But really I am more a musician at heart.

What struck me today was the huge difference between my England years (2004 to 2006)and my Japan years (2007 on). I only had 6 posts in my pre-Japan time, and over 50 posts after starting my Japan journey. I guess Japan is my Muse, my inspiration, my touchstone. And maybe that is why I am finally able to let my inner artist/musician/dj grow here.

A seed needs fertile soil to grow. And I am certain, without doubt, that Tokyo is my soil.

to see with artist's eyes

Last weekend two of my DJ friends were performing at the same party and another DJ friend was going to join. Great chance to see some friends, go clubbing, and possibly make some new good connections. I was really tired though so I was not so genki(energetic) most of the night. It was a new party for me, but at one of the clubs I regularly DJ at. I was really enjoying the early night and just dancing to the music. The main guest DJ came on around 2:30am. By this time I was really tired so it was hard to keep dancing, so I ended up just listening and enjoying his music and DJ. Well I was surprised when a track came on that I DJed in one of my sets a few weeks ago, and then another. It was a nice feeling, but it also gave me a chance to hear what he would do with the tracks (since I know them really well).

Well to my surprise he really didn't do much with those two tracks. Even the mixing in and out of those tracks was not to surprising. And he used no effects on those tracks to tweak them at all.

I enjoyed his DJ set, the tracks he picked were really good. But I kind of was hoping to be awed by something a bit more. I actually enjoyed the two DJs before him more. Well one is my friend and I love her style, and the other is a friend of hers and my friend loves her style.

But I guess I am really seeing other DJ's performance now from the point of view of a DJ. It is good and bad at the same time. It means I can appreciate it more when I really love it (like with my friend's sets), but it also means I can be a bit critical without really wanting to be.

to see the world through artist's eyes.....

The beat of a different drummer

Last night a very dear friend and I went out to a British-style pub in Ebisu for chatting, drinks, food and later a live band. It was a cover band who played all sorts of genres from 60s R&B to 80s pop, to beach music, to 50s rocks. The crowd was mostly in their 30s and 40s. Once the band started playing, the crowd got absolutely insane. I rarely see that kind of wild dancing when I go out to house/techno music clubs. It was very fun, but not the kind of music I crave or would seek out.

As we were going home my friend asked me if I still preferred clubbing, and I do. She asked me why? My first answer was well some people like vanilla and some like chocolate. But I am curious why, and the question has been stirring in my head.

Now of course everyone likes different things for different reasons, (different drummers). But I think I see a little why I like house/techno. I think it is a little of the same reason why I like Tokyo and not England. I feel England and cover-band music is more about living in the past, while Tokyo and house/techno is about surprising differences and changes. When we listen to cover music we actual crave the original, and if the cover is too different we usually don't like it. But with house/techno/dj it is all about the remix, how the remix/dj surprises us with different twists. And the whole point of the modern DJ is to live-remix during the performance. A little like jazz improv, there are patterns and ideas, but even the performer can be surprised what is created during the performance.

Now one trick with clubbing and DJing is to get a good balance of familiarity and surprise. If I am at a house music party and the DJ plays an entire 60s rock track it will generally not work. But if the DJ grabs a 60s rock sample, breaks down a house track to throw the sample in for a few measures and then does a very cool blend of the house and 60s rock, then that is really surprising and what a remix is all about. Like Amen by Chrizz Luvly

But if an artist can create a cover that somehow twists their own essence into the original then it can become really amazing. Classic example is Jimmy Hendricks cover of "All Along the Watchtower" (original is by Bob Dylan). This cover is so powerful that most people don't even know it is a cover and many think of it as defining the Hendrick's style. When I hear cover bands, most don't do this, they try to be faithful to the original, and most people want that.

But this sort of remix/twist is everyday in the club music scene. I guess that is why I like club music.

"If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away. " - Henry David Thoreau