Say Ramen, Somebody!

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The world lost a food pioneer on January 5. Momofuku Ando, 97, the self-professed “Noodle King,” was the man who invented instant ramen — the low budget dining delicacy of college students everywhere.

Long before sushi, there was another and more profound Japanese food invasion in the United States. Since the mid-1970s, instant ramen has been bringing Asian culinary subtlety (OK, so it’s not exactly subtle) to young American palates for mere pennies a bowl.

Ramen may be an ubiquitous presence in US grocery stores today, but it was only introduced in America in 1972. It took several years and some marketing savvy — the inexpensive packages of fried and dried, boil and serve noodles didn’t catch on until they were sold in the soup aisle in the supermarket — before ramen caught on as a dorm room staple. Although ramen is a relatively young food in America, it has a long and distinguished history in Asia. Continue reading →

And now, for music that’s something completely different

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… Well, maybe not completely different, but music that you most likely haven’t heard.

It’s been a long time since pop music has been a unifying force for an entire generation (or two, or three). Now there are too many genres, too many listeners with too many tastes, too many subcultures, too many niches (it’s like the Web, no?).

For myself, I listen to a wide variety of stuff but not nearly as much new music, either pop or alternative, or hip-hop or whatever, than I used to when I was a rockcrit. I do my share of iTunes downloads, and back in the halcyon early Napster days, I did my share of file-sharing (or stealing, I know, I know). Most of the music I seek out these days, however, is music within proscribed genres like jazz, world music, blues, “Americana,” singer-songwriters or — gulp — crass baby-boomer oldies. I seek out very few new bands unless someone recommends an act to me.

I manage to keep somewhat current by listening to some music that’s offered online for free (and copyright free). Here are three sources downloadable via RSS feeds. Continue reading →

Go, Red Sox! Go, Daisuke! Go, Daigo!

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A friend of mine just got some nice news to finish out the year. Daigo Fujiwara is a Japanese-born journalist, graphic artist, Web dude and baseball fanatic who now lives in Boston and works for the Boston Globe and Boston.com as a graphic artist.

Yesterday, Boston.com announced that it had cut a content partnership with “an established Japanese baseball site” called Go-RedSox.com. It turns out the man behind that Japanese language Web site for the Sox is none other than Daigo Fujiwara. Continue reading →

Long live the Godfather of Soul

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James Brown died on Christmas day, a typically dramatic move for the 73-year-old, self-described “Godfather of Soul,” who was known for dramatic endings in concert.

The news of his death caught me off guard, because I hadn’t heard much about the performer in years. Although Brown’s music career was in its sunset years, he was still touring and singing regularly. He was hospitalized with pneumonia just a couple days before, and died of heart failure not long after telling a friend he would perform in Times Square for New Year’s Eve.

The man earned another of his many nicknames, “The hardest working man in show business,” to the very end. Continue reading →

Why can’t I be on TV?

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Note: The blog I just posted got me to thinking about a column I wrote way back in the day, before blogs were a twinkle in some developer’s eye, about Asians on TV. It’s posted in the archives of my Nikkeiview site, but I thought I’d re-post it here. I wrote this after seeing the final “Seinfeld” episode.

Like a zillion other people across the country, I tuned in to the final episode of “Seinfeld,” and I gotta say, I was only mildly impressed. Oh, I liked the show whenever I caught it, but I was a casual viewer, so the nasty humor that the characters reveled in didn’t connect with me the way they may have for diehard fans.

What the show did, especially with its segments making fun of foreigners, was get me thinking about Asian faces on TV. As a Japanese-American kid enchanted by American popular culture of the 1960s, it never occurred to me growing up that there were very few people like me on the shows I watched for hours on end. Continue reading →