honeyee.com ｜Web Magazine「ハニカム」

Gnarls Barkley
Who's Gonna Save My Soul
"Crazy" DNA gets transmogrified into a ballad.
Sophomore what? wha? I'm sorry,
I can't hear you over these awesome tunes.

Wilco
Impossible Germany
Strange/beautiful, transcendent.

Annie Lennox
Through The Glass Darkly
Recently dropped by her label. In the words
of William Hurt in A History of Violence,
'How do you f*ck that up?!"

Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown
No Air
What a song. What a song. Put it up against any style,
in any era, this is as good as pop music gets. Rare is
the radio song that sends me to a guitar. I must
tell you... G, Dm, Am, C are four great chords in a row.
Grammy this one up.

JM
Say
Why can't I? Huh? It's my blog. And anyway, I'm proud
of this song. I think pop choruses sound more like grocery
lists lately, so I wanted (to try) to bring it back to that clean,
classic payoff...and the lyrics take their own advice.

Guy Who Has No Idea About Baseball Calls the Game

Tokyo Dome shot in "Dirtylensoscope"

See? Baseball in Japan is just as it is in America.

Right down to the hotdogs,

and the fried octopus balls.

Can't complain about the seats, except that this guy in front of me wouldn't sit down.
(Turns out he was the umpire.)

I have to root for Boston, having spent some of my best months of my life there...

"FRANK, LOOK OUT!!!" "Hold on, Marty, I'm reading this sign. Looks import-"

Thanks to the Red Sox staff for letting me get inside their mascot uniform. And the
usual mascot boy for not getting out of it first. You are a trouper sir!

Fun with hydrochloric acid

“We live in a country that seems to be in this massive state of delusion, where the idea of what you are is more important than you actually being that. And it actually works as long as everybody's winking at the same time. And then if one person stops winking, you just beat the crap out of that person and then they either start winking or they go somewhere else.”
Branford Marsalis
"Another thing I love, which I've learned from someone over the years, was, you know, this is a unique moment. This encounter, as unpleasant as I'm finding it, is unique. It's never going to happen again in exactly this way. And maybe I'm glad of that but I don't want to waste this moment because it's never going to happen again, just like this. You know, this is—this is the only time I'm ever going to experience this. So let's taste it, smell it. “
Pema Chodron

“I think people who can truly live a life in music are telling the world, "You can have my love, you can have my smiles. Forget the bad parts, you don't need them. Just take the music, the goodness, because it's the very best, and it's the part I give most willingly.”
George Harrison

"Don't eat anything that your great-grandmother would not recognize as food."
Michael Pollan, "In Defense of Food”

There is no single instrumental Jazz performance more revered and respected than John Coltrane's "Giant Steps". It's like a thousand sided Rubix Cube. It's like a tree falling in the woods amongst a crowd of people wearing earplugs . It's like a jigsaw puzzle where the image is a pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces.

So it's no wonder it's been the center of so much analysis and investigation:

Reproduct.

Reproduct

"ReProduct™ offerings include greeting cards, invitations, annual reports and marketing collateral. They are made from materials that are healthy for both humans and the environment. Each product includes an integrated postage paid method to return the item to its next use
partner. Our partner then uses 100% of the product to create a new product or
product component."

I worked with Reproduct a few years ago on a holiday greeting card.

Click here for a demonstration on the life cycle of a Reproduct greeting card. It's smart stuff.

Cool Bag.

From time to time, I ask my Mac to do a few too many things at once and an application locks up on me. When it does, it asks me if I'd like to report the incident to Apple. It always strikes me as unnecessary, like filing an insurance claim on a fender bender that doesn't leave any damage. "I don't see any reason to make this harder on us", I say.

Lately, though, I've been wondering what would happen if I did file a report, and it is out of sheer curiosity that I decided to click on the blue button instead of the white one...

I'll let you know if I get a response from anyone at Apple. I wonder if somebody on the other side is really going to read it ... I can hear it now, the squeak of a chair pushing away from a desk as a man grinds his cigarette into an ashtray, stands up waving a printout over his head and screams "WE GOT AN iTUNES CRASH OVER HEEAH!!!" Because in my mind everything looks like a '60s era spy movie.

I can't imagine how much my quality of life would improve if I were to begin every day with this video projected on my bedroom wall. It's great on so many levels - not the least of which involves two music legends - but most notable is the song's chorus; the payoff becomes a visual experience, but it's no less musical for it.

When was the last time you had a truly pure moment? The simple order of you, the enjoyment, the happiness, the end.

Without that nagging arithmetic of what the moment must look like to others, what it might read like tomorrow, and if it bears any significance in the long term...

When was the last time you heard the voice in your head over all the noise?

Simple happiness is at a premium... and I can't think of anything more valuable I want to own right now...

Self consciousness is toxic... And it's everywhere...

I have not learned anything from fame and success that I wouldn't have wanted life to teach me without it...

From Kyoto, in the rain...

Stopped by the Fragment Design office in Harajuku...

To see my friend Kazuki Kuraishi, who designs for FENOM, as well...

the man responsible for this - the upcoming VISVIM x NUMBER NINE

I don't give guitar lessons very often... But for Kazuki, I'm glad to...

Then it's off to the NEIGHBORHOOD offices...

To see Shin and grab some new gear...

Including the best vintage Rolex cuffs around...

Brings a certain something to the Mayer Dial...

If there's anything my fans know, it's that I love using my blog to communicate directly to certain people in my personal life. Call it one of celebrity's great perks. Who can forget such entries as "Please Pick Up More Yoplait" and "Hey Gary, Good Workout"?

I thought I'd send one more message out to a very special person. You know who you are, babe. I'm sure I could call you to tell you this, but I might as well wait until you stumble on a blog tucked deep inside a Japanese language website.

"The more space I get the better I write
(Oh) Never I write, but, if, ever I write
I need the space to say whatever I like..."
Jay-Z

I'm not a big fan of justifying my thoughts to people. I've known since grade school that my take on things is not for everyone, and that those who do understand how my head works seem to have a deeper connection with me for it. (Those who don't are still welcome to use the facilities.)

I wouldn't traditionally take to a blog to explain a blog, and it begs the question as to whether or not anyone who didn't understand the first one will make any sense of its follow-up, but when it involves the possibility of hurting someone else, I'll tuck my tail between my legs and explain my intentions. Even though it makes my teeth itch.

The blog - copied from my lyric/idea journal, is all about the P.S. - it's a writing technique called "deceptive resolution"; you think the story is going one way, only to find that it twists around at the end, using all its momentum to swing in another direction. In this instance, the writer of the missive is saying in as many certain terms as possible that he does not want to see his ex anymore. At the end, the P.S. leaves that all too common contradiction in terms that makes love so messed up. I call it "I wish you were here so I could tell you to leave".

This actually has some pretty far-reaching ramifications. How will I write an entire record of lyrics when one small blog passage incites so much curiosity? Can I write a song because of somebody but not about them? By way of my experiences but not as a sordid retelling of them? Because if I can't, I need to rewrite the last line to my new song "Boning you on my helicopter".

Doin' The Right Thing Like Mookie,
John

I was sitting in the airport lounge this morning when I started scribbling out lyrics and such...
Don't read too far into this on a personal level. (There are no hidden messages)... I just thought it sums up how crazy love can be.

Dear Ex Lover,
Perhaps you didn't understand the last time I told you to stop contacting me, so I'll do my best to spell it out for you. I do not wish to have you in my life anymore. I don't know how much more clear I can be about it. It would serve you best to move on with your life and find someone who can put up with you, because I'm done trying.
I hope this is enough closure for you.
Goodbye.

P.S. If you need me, you know how to find me.