Cut comments, #2, Masao Kida
Another comment I wrote up on the M’s and didn’t submit for the BP2005 Mariners chapter. Remeber, there’s a reason this didn’t get in, and after the comment, I’ll comment on the comment–
Masao Kida
Kida appeared in Seattle with little fanfare, a waiver claim from the Dodgers. On hearing him introduced in relief, a couple times I heard a fan say “who?†followed by some variation of “he must be pretty goodâ€. With the high-profile success of some Japanese imports (Hideki Matsui, Ichiro! for instance), the hype preceding and lack of follow up on the failures, there’s a predisposition to look to these guys as something exotic and valuable.
But it’s the same with baseball players as anything else. Take a random Japanese musical act: it could be someone awesome and undiscovered here, like Shena Ringo, or it could just be the Japanese version of the Backstreet Boys, singing vapid lyrics over pop hooks, as ultimately unremarkable and valueless – but in a different language! The probability, picking at random, is much higher that you’re going to get a nondescript generic bad reliever.
That would be Masao Kida. Shena Ringo may be the Ichiro! of Japanese music, if you’re wondering. The Mariners brought back Kida on a minor-league deal for 2005, showing that at least they are not dazzled by the import tag and know they’re shopping the bargain bin.
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First, it’s way too many words to spend on Masao Kida. I’d much rather spend a lot more time talking about someone else.
Second, I did hear fans say that a couple of times, but I think the comment makes it seem like the import=good sentiment it’s a much larger feeling than it is.
Third, Shena Ringo is cool, but I don’t know if she even wants overseas success, and I wish there was a way to get cool world CDs without spending a fortune — “椎名林檎” (Shouso Strip) cost me $30 to buy a legitimate copy (and it was worth it, which is more than I can say about most CDs I buy for $15)(and the newer one maybe doesn’t rock as much but is also really good). And because there’s always problems doing Japanese names in English, there’s the question of [Shena/Shina/Shiina/Shiiana] Ringo or Ringo in front (I went with what’s on the CD).
I’ll stop gushing over her.
Okay, except — she can speak English and sing it too, she’s funny and smart, and I’ve seen her do the same song slow and kinda catchy-sing-songy and then almost as metal, and it was awesome both ways. I totally, totally dig her.
And at this point, I feel obligated to say that I understand that there’s this weird baseball writing-music thing I don’t get and don’t want to be a part of, where every article by Gammons has three or four random musical recommendations and many baseball discussion threads end up with people wondering if baseball fans are disproportionately into Wilco.
Anyway. I listen to anything good I can get my hands on, and I like Shena Ringo. That’s all.
Comments
24 Responses to “Cut comments, #2, Masao Kida”
That’s one of the things that spooks me to some degree. Baseball writers, by and large, are fairly into good indie music, and I’m fairly certain that if baseball ever goes on strike again (knocking on wood here), Peter White (Mariner Musings), Brad Dowdy (No Pepper) and I (plus whomever) could probably collaborate on a decent music blog.
Which is not to say I’m fully immersed in that whole thing. I’m still waiting on the Wilco CD from KCLS and I know I have a few other outer fringe tastes that aren’t quite on the norm.
More once I get my top CDs of 2004 list together 😛
Of course, $30 is a typical price for a CD in Japan. In the UK they’re still running over $20, even on sale at a Virgin Megastore.
And actually, not to be an editor, but if you dumped everything before “Take a random Japanese music act…” and rewrote the last line of para 2, you’d be fine for length, I think.
Here’s the thing: I had x words for all comments, with a minimum per-player and some guidelines for maximum length (which is really high). It works out to say… y words/player.
In my first draft of the chapter, I was at 2x. So I had to cut players and then cut length, and chopping Kida’s comment in half (say) wouldn’t have done me much good.
Derek – I don’t know if you’re into MP3s, but at [edited as apptly people like Corcoran would buy from these guys] you can download albums for about $.50 each. I found Shena Ringo’s “Karuki Zamen Kuri No Hana” there.
That seems… impossible to be legitimate.
(after investigation) I would place the chance that Shena Ringo ever sees any fraction of that 50c someone spends on her album at 0%
Possibly lower.
Who cares about ethics! 50 cents for an album is good, regardless of WHO gets the money.
Is file-sharing actually illegal in the US? It’s expressly permitted by Canadian law (since 1999 – copying for personal use).
Pursuant to the transliteration of the Japanese, there are pretty strict rules about that. I can’t read the script you’ve posted, though (and I have no idea why – I can normally read Japanese online), so I can’t help you this particular name.
Evan:
Yes. It’s the subject of much prosecution. I’d argue that file-sharing should be legal in the U.S. under.. actually, no one cares, so I’m going to let this go by.
Mr. Corcoran:
Next time you go buy a stereo, be sure to wipe the blood off it before you set it up, because those components get pretty hot and I hear smoking off the blood’s unpleasant.
I’ve argued at length in favor of file-sharing before (in fact, I wrote a huge essay on this) but to give money to support someone in the business of ripping off other people… come on now. Don’t financially support people who do bad things.
But let’s not get into this ethical argument.
You know, you could probably get Thai Toshiba-EMI/EMI copies of Shiina Ringo for about half the price. They float around here in Japan at various record stores. They’re legit, just not from Japan. I think YesAsia.com carries them.
I’m a Yaida Hitomi fan myself, but Ringo’s not that bad either.
Oh, yeah… She started a band named Tokyo Jihen, BTW.
On Kida… But you can occasionally strike gold with your Otsukas and Takatsus… Japan’s a great place to find bargain parts, and that maybe the case with what’s-his-face that the A’s got. I’d encourage the M’s to go find them, whether it be starters like Igawa or Matsuzaka or relievers like Otsuka and Takatsu, since it’s obvious that they’re underpriced and will probably have more upside than Kris Benson or Billy Koch, but for the same money or less.
Yaida Hitomi, eh? Tokyo Jihen, eh? Thanks, you probably just cost me a huge chunk more money.
Tokyo Jihen is Shiina Ringo’s band, if that wasn’t clear.
Yea, Japanese music costs way to freakin’ much.
Then tell them to cut a couple of teams from the book. Why not the Brewers and the Exponats? I mean, would anyone notice?
And while I’m thinking about it… if you look at the fanbase for MLB, you’d understand why Wilco keeps getting mentioned — it’s mostly white men between 25-50. You’re just not going to see a baseball writer do a Gammons and drop a “the new G-Unit album is a straight up testamonial to da streetz” between column blurbs.
Usual DMZ-pacifying qualifications to above generalization apply. And the new Wilco album was really disappointing. I wish they’d stop trying to be Sonic Youth Mark II.
http://www.shiina-ringo.com has a brief bio, from her childhood up to joining her new band.
Shiina Ringo’s WRITTEN a lot of good songs but honestly, they sound much better when performed by someone else IMO. (I seem to recall Tomosaka Rie used to sing a lot of her stuff back in the day; at least a bunch of her hit singles like “Cappucino” were all written by Shiina Ringo).
Yaida Hitomi’s pretty good… her voice is funky.
(I have two CD towers full of legit Japanese music CDs, but I also tend to buy them used for around 250 yen in Book-Off stores when I’m in Japan, so that’s a little different.)
Anyway, I don’t think people can reasonably compare Keiichi Yabu and Masao Kida, if that’s what started this all. Yabu’s been a decent starter his whole career and Kida was a decent reliever his whole career — I’m not even sure the guy ever started a game in his entire time in the NPB. But Kida’s got a pretty big fan base in Japan from his time with the Giants, or at least he used to, which might account for any hype. I’m not sure I can say the same for Yabu. Of course, any Giants player probably has a larger fan base than any other team. Yeah. Uh, comparing apples to ovens, or something.
Canadian file-sharing was made legal by the imposition of a levy on all recordable media. We pay a tax for the priviledge of file-sharing.
And I like reading BP’s entries for lousy players on lousy teams. They’re often quite scathing. The Expos chapter should be a gold mine.
Shonen Knife was great, back in the day, but if you want crazy, eat-your-brain Japanese music, you want Dokaka. Google him and you can find his stuff, and find it legitimately (free, legal downloads from a subscription website). I won’t advertize the site that carries him, in case USSM objects to that sort of thing.
He’s a Japanese beatbox artist who loops himself to come up with these amazing tracks. Look out for his cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit: very fun, exciting stuff.
The Expos chapter is pretty awesome, but then, I’m sorta biased.
I hear the Brewers player comments are pretty good this year, too.
I just liked Kida because he’s the only guy I know of who almost has the title of a radiohead album on the back of his jersey.
Gammons’ musical references are so frequent and forced that they feel like column filler.
I remember playing in a band that mentioned Dave King Kong Kingman in one of its songs and, as a one time thing, it was quirky and amusing. To mention Dave Kingman in every song would have been downright frightening.
I love Shiina Ringo! She’s very talented (as she writes her own music and plays many instruments), and her style is very distinct (unlike most j-pop artists, whom you can’t really tell one from another juding by the music alone). So yeah, you just became cooler in my eyes.
Agree about Ringo.
And I think Gammons released a CD earlier this year: Hot Stove, Cool Music.