JAPAN TOUR-DAY #7, SUNDAY, YAMAGUCHI, Y-CAM
IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS FOR THE ARTIST! THE DREAM REALIZED!

After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we dash to a 5 hour drive to Yamaguchi-Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media. Great drive, catching up on sleep. Made a-million attempts to contact Deb, starting the night before to an early wake up to try to call her at 5AM, no luck, tried on the road, no dice.

Great drive, but i really wanted to get her before she left US to meet up with me.

We ate great road food. The rest stops here are fantastic! The roads are smooth as silk too. Better be too since some of our hard earned dough went to one toll-was about 100bucks USD for each car (2) on the tour, yikes!

We get to Yamaguchi, beautiful city. The weather got so nice. Sunny, hot and the blue sky. Great after all that rain.

We have to sound-check. So we see Y-CAM. It is the greatest art and media center, I have ever seen-possibly, THE WORLD!

My films are going to be projected on a screen about 50Ft diagonal. AMAZING!

Y-CAM allowed me to contact Deb from there. So great to talk to Deb. It has been about a week since we last spoke to each other. I can't believe I'am going to see her Monday. We catch up, and much love all around.

Seiichi Yamamoto-mystic guitarist and ex-Boredoms member. He opened for us in Kyoto, in a power trio that was smokin'. He played solo for the Y-CAM show. Amazing sensitivity to electricity and sound. I enjoyed listening to him-I felt very relaxed, almost too relaxed. Y-CAM took great care of us, great staff and sound crew.

We play very "out". Opening with crazy solar sound heat before the curtain opens. I am to signal to mike with the "thumbs-up" for the curtain to open to the screen. We are playing another space cord opener, the audience is dumbfounded and I keep signalling inbetween blowin'-mike is no where to be found.

Turns out that he is trying to usher the people in-during the set change the audience when to hit the beer. Mike got them back in to receive "the signal".

So off we go into the strata. I really liked the set we did. Hungry, passionate, expressive, aggressive, sensitive, poetic. In the beginning of The Green Lion, I felt we were all in our own individual space, but gradually got to meet in a great head space.

I love Marshall's keyboard work and I really felt like we were complimenting each very well while bob kept the glue going.

The audience was into the program, and the visuals-to see my work projected on the largest scrren with the best rear screen projection facilities in the word-what a dream. So happy to see such support. I felt very connected and humbled. Yamamoto came up to me on my way out and said simply, "you are mysterious!"

Y-CAM hosted an after party in our honor with special posters made for the event. It was held at a restaurant/club called FRANK, with an F for the sign. They served some mean Egyptian food. Lotsa youing people, I felt another kind of "lost in translation" moment since Marshall and Bob decided not to come, but it was very cool to just hold court with many interesting people. Abe, the Executive Director of Y-CAMtold me he really enjoyed the program and had a-million questions. Yamamoto has many questions too. Very interesting man, kind and intense. Gifted. I made another new friend. Would love to do work with him down the road.

Y-CAM made a great poster for the show which they wanted us to sign for the office. Marshall made the joke, "Jamie, remember what Sun Ra said, first comes the glory-then we say in unison-then come the shame!" We crack up.