OK, this one is just way cool and a ton of fun. In our continuing expose of All Good Things Namba, Jackie and the Cedrics finishes off the Kaiju Surf Battle at Namba Rock Rider in fine, destructive style. Everybody gets involved, the audience does the crowd surfing, and the house is very effectively brought down! Tarentino look out, this has got to be the best surf band ever!

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In our third installment of All Good Things Namba, we will explore  one of Japan’s most famous shopping districts, the Namba District of Osaka, Japan. What really makes this shopping area so special is  Namba Parks which is integrated into the buildings.

Namba Parks is a really amazing piece of architecture, a place where you’ll spend half your time shopping and the other half admiring the design. It stands where Osaka’s baseball stadium used to be until 2003, and consists of a 30-floor skyscraper, Parks Tower, and 120-tenant shopping mall which includes many restaurants and a cinema. The eight floors of terraced gardens, boutique stores, big brands and trendy dining have been an instant hit in shopping-mad Osaka. In addition to providing a highly visible green component in a city where nature is sparse, the sloping park connects to the street, welcoming passers-by to enjoy its groves of trees, clusters of rocks, cliffs, lawn, streams, waterfalls, ponds and outdoor terraces.

Beneath the park, a canyon carves an experiential path through specialty retail, entertainment and dining venues. Namba Parks creates a new natural experience for Osaka that celebrates the interaction of people, culture and recreation. The project was so successful that Namba Parks was extended in 2007 - almost doubling the facility.

 Finally this project is so amazing, that personally I would include it as the 8th wonder of the world.

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Second in our Namba Gear series of other cool and interesting All Good Things Namba that we have discovered, is Austin Namba the skateboard wizard. This guy is so good he is just “sick”. The soundtrack is “Everyday People” by Sly and the Family Stone, which seems very appropriate as Austin makes it look so easy that everybody should be able to to it. Again, simply enjoy. Peace.

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We thought that we were so clever when we came up with the name of our company, Namba Gear, based on the travel essay about the two Namba tribes of the South Pacific island of Vanuatu. You can read the full story by going to one of our earlier blogs, The Danger of Reading Travel Essays When You Are Trying to Name Your Company.

Since then, we have become aware that Namba is not so unusual a name after all, and in fact there is a  plethora of Namba’s in this world. So, we thought we would bring you our little series of All Good Things Namba.

First up is a clip from the South African Gospel Music Complilation DVD. It’s by Mthunzi Namba, one of my favorite mzansi gospel artists, with Joyous Celebration.  If you are in need of a translation, “thina sithi amen…” means “we are saying Amen…” Enjoy!

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I recently received this email notice from Music Connection Magazine. Check it out.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the untimely death of pioneer rocker Buddy Holly, and to commemorate it Music Connection’s website is featuring a remarkable mp3 for your listening pleasure: it’s a fascinating long-distance phone conversation between a then little-known Buddy Holly and the president of the label that had just dropped him. Bottom line: the ever polite but persistent Holly is heard getting the old heave-ho from The Man. The conversation (recorded by Holly on his own reel-to-reel tape machine) is heartbreaking (considering Holly’s impending death in a plane crash), supremely ironic (in light of the legendary heights that this artist would soon attain), but ultimately inspirational today to any struggling artist who hears it.

Take this opportunity to eavesdrop on this incredible piece of music history by going to http://www.musicconnection.com/. In the upper left of our Home Page you’ll find the Holly clip on the “Music Connection Channel.”

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At the recent NAMM show in Anaheim, CA, one of our Namba Gear neighbors were the guys from IMSTA. The International Music Software Trade Association (IMSTA) is a nonprofit association which represents the interests of the music software industry. IMSTA’s primary goal is to change end-user behavior in order to reduce the demand for pirated software. I had some lively discussions with IMSTA’s executive director, Paul Fattahi about why people and especially musicians might feel perfectly warranted about using cracked software.

This got me to thinking about a visit to Buenos Aires with my friend and associate Chris Adams of Studio Sound International. One day we had lunch with a very famous Latin American drummer, whom I was surprised to learn was also on the forefront of technology. I was surprised that he was technology fluent not because he was from Latin America, but because he was a drummer. (OK, I promise, no more drummer jokes.) As we talked about various music software, it seemed that our drummer had just about every piece of music software on the planet. When questioned about this, he boasted that he had cracked versions of everything and had paid little, if anything, for the majority of his software collection.

Now I wouldn’t claim that I was “without software sin” in my past, but his attitude just pushed my buttons. I couldn’t help myself and confronted him by asking if it would be OK if I distributed a pirated copy of his latest CD? Or if I came to one of his shows, took a line out of the main console and recorded the show, then made a CD of their live show and distributed it or posted it on the Internet for anyone to download for free? Now I had pushed his buttons and you would have thought that I was Dr. Evil by his reaction.

You get the point I’m sure. Whether you are a songwriter/performer or a software developer, everyone would like to be reimbursed for their labor (even if it is a labor of love). It’s not right for someone to steal your songs or your performances and it’s not right to steal software.

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