| THIS WEEK |
Friday
Concert
Catch up with seminal rocker Ritchie Blackmore at Shibuya
Kokkaido
Stage
Laugh your, um, head off with the Tokyo Comedy Store
at Roppongi's Bar Isn't It?
Bazaar
Find that hidden gem at the Antique Chinese Furniture
Fair in Setagaya
Club
Groove to house and techno at the M-flow Release Party
at Ageha
Saturday
Activity
Get sweaty for a good cause at the Run for the Cure
in Marunouchi
Sport
Cheer on a doubleheader of American football with X-League
games at Yokohama Stadium
Concert
Hear authentic Okinawan music from the Shirayuri Club
at Harajuku's Laforet Museum
Club
Catch DJ Takahashi's Sound Enforcer night at
Shibuya's Ruby Room
Sunday
Dance
Catch the last night of the Russian ballet Raymonda
at the New National Theatre
Lecture
Hear fabled Tokyo author Edward Seidensticker speak
about his memoirs at Good Day Books in Ebisu
Fair
See cutting-edge technology on display at the Tokyo
Metro Industry Fair at Tokyo Big Sight
Festival
Revel in the anarchy of Setagaya Art Town, with street
performances, art exhibits and fod stalls
Monday
Exhibition
Take in some Impressionism at the Henri Matisse show
at the National Museum of Western Art
Concert
Hear legendary funk/fudion keyboardist George Duke at
Blue Note Tokyo
Movie
Watch Johnny Depp struggle with his demons in Secret
Window
Club
Beat a path to club Air and check out trance DJs Chikama
and Yoshica
Tuesday
Exhibition
Check out a retrospective of actress Hideko Takamine's
films at the National Museum of Modern Art, Film Center
Stage
Get cultured with an international line-up of artists
at the International Performing Arts Festival 2004
Movie
Take in a reprise of Tim Burton's classic The
Nightmare Before Christmas, in wide release
Concert
Delight to the sounds of the Bruno State Philharmonic
Orchestra at Bunkamura Orchard Hall
Wednesday
Concert
Hit the pit with punk rockers Lars Frederiksen and the
Bastards at Shibuya's Club Quattro
Exhibition
See the wondrous strokes of Chinese Calligraphy and
Relics at Akasaka's Suntory Museum of Art
TV
See what all the talk is about with the American spy
thriller Alias on NHK 1
Club
Part with the Metropolis staff at our annual Halloween
bash, Glitterball, at Velfarre in Roppongi
Thursday
Club
Chill out with DJs Daikei, Sanche and more at Sonic
Fuse Nishi Azabu's Yellow
Exhibition
Raise your cultural IQ at the Picasso Metamorphoses
show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Concert
Head on over to Shibuya AX to see on-the-rise Japanese
jazz act Ego-Wrappin'
Movie
See longtime Coen Brothers collaborator J. Todd Anderson's
directorial debut, The Naked Man
|
By
Dan Grunebaum
concert
Slipknot
credit: Courtesy of Roadrunner
Their masks may have changed since they escaped suburban
hell in Des Moines, Iowa, but one thing has not: the nine-piece
(individual players remain nameless, using only numbers to
identify themselves) remain one of the heaviest bands around.
Slipknot's latest, Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses),
produced by the legendary Rick Rubin, is a gut-wrenching roller-coaster
ride of visceral drum beats and dark melodies that nevertheless
somehow manages to remain accessible. The single, "Duality,"
found heavy enough rotation in Japan to justify two successive
nights at the cavernous Makuhari Messe convention center,
which should be aglow with the sound and fury of special effects.
Makuhari Messe, October 30-31. See
concert listings for details.
art
Tadanori Yokoo
credit: ©Tadanori Yokoo
When Pop Art master-turned-oil painter Tadanori Yokoo was
approached by Tokyo gallery Scai The Bathhouse about holding
an exhibition, he took his inspiration directly from the hoary
building's former incarnation as a public bath. The
result is "Yokoo-in the bath," consisting
of eight playful new canvases depicting geisha-like women
washing, soaking and gossiping. First acclaimed in the '60s
for his Pop Art posters that combined psychedelia with elements
of traditional Japanese art, Yokoo has since the '80s
reincarnated himself as a painter who combines aspects of
naturalistic and abstract art to depict familiar subjects
in a new light.
Scai The Bathhouse, October 19 through
November 27. See exhibition listings for details.
exhibition
Ché Guevara: The Motorcycle Diaries
credit: Courtesy of Japan Herald
Nearly 40 years after his death, the personality cult that
has arisen around the revolutionary leader only seems to gain
strength. This month, the film The Motorcycle Diaries opened
in Ebisu, depicting a youthful Guevara and his friend Alberto
Granada, who completed an epic journey around South America
by motorcycle in the '50s. Based on Guevara's
diaries, the film illustrates how his observation of poverty
and suffering in the region transformed him from a medical-school
graduate to a potential revolutionary. With the movie not
being shown in Tokyo with English subtitles, this concurrent
exhibition of photographs of a young Guevara and film materials
provides an alternate window into the life of one of the 20th
century's most enduring icons.
Parco Museum, through November 7.
See exhibition listings for details.
antiquity
The Ancient History and Culture of Jordan
credit: Courtesy of Jordan
Archeological Museum
An ongoing exhibition at one of Tokyo's more pleasant
museums, located in leafy Kinuta Park in Setagaya, provides
a chance to look beyond the Middle East's current troubles.
Surrounded by Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Israel, Jordan
has been a crossroads of civilization and culture since ancient
times. This exhibition presents sculpture, pottery and other
artifacts from the Paleolithic Age (starting around 500,000
BC) to the Umayyad Dynasty (661-750 AD), which laid the foundations
for today's Islamic society. Objects from the Hellenistic,
Roman and Byzantine periods point to the myriad cultural and
religious influences that have woven the complex fabric of
the current Middle East.
Setagaya Art Museum, through November
7. See exhibition listings for details.
theater
A Doll's House
credit: Courtesy of TIP
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Elli
Tomizawa and David Sedgwick
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Tokyo's longest-running expatriate theater troupe
offers a modern look at an old classic. At the world premiere
of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House in 1879, one
critic compared it to the "dropping of a bomb into
contemporary life." Nora is seemingly the ideal wife,
while Torvald, her husband, has just landed a job that will
give the family financial security. But when characters from
the past enter the happy family home, cracks begin to appear
and an intense struggle develops between love and truth. Directed
by Robert Tsonos, with Elli Tomizawa and David Sedgwick.
Tokyo American Club, October 28-November
7. See stage listings for details.
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