A few cool things coming up:

Wednesday (07/20) – Japanbloggers Meetup – Zest, Harajuku

A group of people from all horizons and many countries, brought together by a common love of blogging, tech gizmos and cheap somewhat reasonably priced beer.
Newcomers always warmly welcomed.

Thursday (07/28) – Laurent Garnier – Yokohama Museum of Art [Note: I got the date wrong initially. This is taking place next week, not this week. Thanks to Martine for pointing that out!]

Reels of silent early-century B&W movies, with live instrumentation by worldwide famous, veteran techno DJ and producer: Laurent Garnier.
Sounds very experimental, but the man is insanely talented, should be interesting.

Update (also playing on 08/06):

Friday (07/22) – screening of Bondi Tsunami – Super Deluxe, near Roppongi Hills

An indy surf-movie about a bunch of crazy Japanese and their adventures in Ozland…
Miss Tracey blogged about it a few weeks ago. Turned out last week-end that my friend, the awesome Stacia, is going steady with the lead actor… It’s a small, tiny, star-studded, world, after all.

今週の面白なイベント：

水曜日 (07/20) – Japanbloggers Meetup – 原宿のZest

毎月にブログを書く人がバルで合う。外人と日本人も来る。誰でもきてもいい。

木曜日 (07/28) – ロラン・ガルニエ – 横浜美術館 [注意：さっきに日付は間違えた！来週ですよ。]

有名なフランスのDJ／producer、Laurent Garnierは古いな映画間中ライヴ曲を作る。彼は８０年のMandchesterで始めた。可笑しくて面白いでしょう。

金曜日 (07/22) – Bondi Tsunami　（ボンダイ津波） – Super Deluxe Club, 六本木ヒルズの近く

オストラリアでサーフィンが好きの日本人は車で旅行する。本当に楽しみ。友達は映画の役者と一緒にです。先月にTraceyは見に行った ブログで 書いた

About Laurent Garnier:

Laurent Garnier was one of my first real encounter with that music commonly called “Techno” by appreciators and “noise” by everybody else, back when my virgin ears still listened to the Beach Boys and Miles Davis to rock themselves to sleep.

As a senior high-school student in Paris, his Thursday night residency at one of the only club that actually cared to play proper music, was responsible for many a difficult Friday mornings. Most other “nightclubs” in the city were happy playing endless strings of cheesy 60’s and 70’s disco hits to an appropriately motionless handful of suit-wearing parisianites carefully selected at the door for the thickness of their wallet. The Rex club, on the other hand, carried some of the crazy Madchester vibe Laurent Garnier brought along with him (he started as a resident at the legendary Haçienda as DJ Pedro). Those mornings where I would show up in class straight from the dancefloor after a quick shower, were definitely not my most productive…

Ironically, my tastes and his interests have evolved at a similar pace in the past 10 years. Originally playing insanely hard (for the time) house and techno beats, Laurent has progressively turned his attention to more instrumental production: still unmistakably his, but more versatile and more organic.

Among his old tracks, the perfunctory proto-Trance anthem, Wake Up, on the A bout de Souffle EP and Coloured City on the eponymous EP, are probably my personal faves. Coloured City also has one of the best music video ever made (in fact, his videos have always been pretty amazing. miles above that MTV crap they call a clip nowadays).

Unreasonable Behaviour did a complete musical U-turn, yet managed to be one of the best album of the past decade: I saw him in a small club in SF, right around this time, and the slight disappointment at learning he would only be playing his productions live, with no DJing at all, quickly faded for one of the most memorable electronic music performance I have ever heard. On the other hand, I am no real fan of his über-experimental jazzish new album, The Cloud Making Machine, but I may just need to give it another chance and a longer listen.

All in all, ought to be worth the 2,000 yens to hear what he’s up to on Thursday.