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Malikon

Clown Prince of Fiddlin'
3 Jul 2013
6
1
13
Hello all,

My name is Malikon Ryan and I'm a musician currently plying my trade in Chicago.

I've been somewhat in love with Japanese culture, history, food, and the people since I was a kid. ..personally I blame James Clavells Shogun mini-series for showing me a world far away that just seemed,.....amazing, .. and beautiful.

Never considered myself otaku, always far too busy studying music, writing and performing, teaching,..many things music related.

But I've always loved Japanese 'stuff',..from some of the guitars (Like Tokai and Burny) to Robots/Transformers,..Japanese horror movies, traditional Japanese music which I studied and began using in my own personal music (though of course I gave it an aggressive american twist)...and yeah,..I'm one of those sad suckers who's always thought Japanese women were the most beautiful women on the planet. ( mostly due to the stereotypical image of the Japanese woman being polite and feminine instead of the average loud and brash american woman )

A couple years ago I started teaching music lessons over Skype, and I was happy to discover I had some Japanese fans of my music. Eventually I started teaching some students that live in Japan and consider myself lucky to have made what I consider to be a real friend, an ex-pat who's lived in Japan most of his life. He's been my portal into understanding and getting a glimpse of the average japanese life.

He's always inviting me to come there, but money is difficult at the moment and I don't have a passport anyway. (the life of a full time musician in America is basically not a rich one. ..you "suffer" for your art it would seem.)

But I look forward to teaching and talking with him every week.

More and more in the past year I've started paying more attention to Japan, following the news, subscribing to sites like .... actually I'm not sure if links are allowed to other Japanese sites and don't wish to break rules with my first post. But 2 sites I like to visit basically are just daily news. One is more serious and one is more entertainment oriented. Movies, music, books, etc.

So today I decided I'd look and see if there were a Japanese message board I might enjoy. I generally only go to two message boards, my own, the Malikon Message Board, and another one that is specifically for people who play/collect/ and love Les Paul style electric guitars. ..which I very much do.

Thank you for having me here and I look forward to learning more about 'real' life in Japan.

If anyone is interested in my music there's a link in my signature to one of my songs (Your Scars are Beautiful) which links to my Malikon1 Youtube channel which is all original music. There is also a Malikon13 channel that is guitar lessons and gear reviews/demos.

So,..this is my 'Introduction' I suppose. The best way to get to know me is talking to me or listening to my music, which I hope you enjoy.

Respectfully,

Malikon Ryan
 
James Clavell's one of the culprits in my case, too. Welcome to the forum, Malikon!
 
Hey, Sensei! ;)

Thanks for the link to this place.

cj

Hahaha, that was fast. I didn't know if you'd stop by.

I took a look around before joining and it seemed like a nice board so thought I'd let you know about it. :D


(to anyone interested, Charis is the friend I referred to in the original post)


Thomas I bet a lot of peoples first exposure to Japan was that mini-series or book. I've read the book twice now and really like it.

I keep trying to read his other books but they don't seem to hold my interest.

Perhaps "location is everything."
 
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