People say things have little meaning, and it’s just the person or the emotions that the thing reminds you of that have meaning. Sometimes they are one and the same thing because if you have something for more than 40 years, that certainly means something, and that thing has a meaning of its own. People leave, taking off from this world and going somewhere very far. But the thing stays. And it continues to tell us what that person means. Because that person never really leaves. He is always here, just like, or even more than, that thing. This is the fourth in a series that follows this third piece, which has a link that connects to the previous pieces.
Actually my teacher told me it’s against the rules to let a flower that broke off float in the water, when I did it. But when he took the photos at the end of the class with all the lighting set up, or actually another student and me holding them up, he took the flower, dropped it in the water and took this photo. He is a nice teacher. Although allowed in other styles of Ikebana, Ikenobo did not, seeing fallen flowers as death, and his works are about life, purity and our eternal connection to the spiritual. It made me sad that death is so beautiful. And I like this photo.
The ambulances are screaming. We look up and see a big tear in a steel fame right by our apartment building. We wonder but figure it’s not a murder because we don’t read about it, and there aren’t that many murders in Tokyo. Every time we see the broken frame, we wonder who it could have been. And what might have driven this individual, whom we don’t know and never will know, male or female, young or old, happy or unhappy, probably unhappy, literally over the ledge to a dark deep definitive leap of death. It does not make us feel very good. Every time we see that broken frame. A few weeks later, the frame gets fixed. And we stop wondering.
Featuring Tea on vocals and the YURICANE band with Hideyuki Asada (guitar, arrangement, audio mastering), Hiroshi Tokieda (bass) and Takuma Anzai (drums).
Photo by On Lim Wong.
I started working on this song in February 2019. It’s finally finished in 2023, as a recording, with singing and music. The piece is about how people like to talk about “what’s happening” or what’s going to happen. But most of the time, nothing happens. And nothing needs to happen. If anything, it can be a good thing when nothing happens. With the pandemic unfolding, the song became for me more pertinent than ever. I reworked the song to reflect that. In June 2020, I added the rap section in Japanese that refers to the death of George Floyd. We must not forget how precious those moments are when horrible things that can happen don’t happen, and we can just sit back and enjoy the passage of time, when utterly nothing happens.
Nothing happens なにもおこらない
_ a poem/song by Yuri Kageyama
(1)
Nothing happens
Bombs no longer falling
Nations aren’t
killing
Nothing happens
^___<
(2)
Nothing happens
Women aren’t
screaming
Children
aren’t starving
Nothing happens
^___<
(BRIDGE)
なにもおこらない
このきもち
なにもおこらない
しずけさ
^___<
(4)
Nothing happens
The stars will
shine
Behind clouds
that hide
Nothing
happens
^___<
(5)
Nothing happens
Birds, blossoms remind
The passing of
time
Nothing
happens
^___<
(rap section)
Nothing
happens
We took it for
granted
Nothing is
boring
Nobody up to
no good
Looking for something
Something to
happen
Before the
coronavirus
Now we wake
up to numbers
Pray the curve gets flattened
Pray it’s no
one we know
Waiting for
a vaccine
Scared by
the sirens
Italy, New
York, Spain, Wuhan, Tokyo
Now nothing
else happens
Nothing else
can happen
Now you know
it:
Now you wish
you didn’t wish it
Now you know
for sure you like it
When Nothing
happens
Yeah, Nothing happens
なにもおこらない
死ぬまえ
のこる生命で
えらんだ言葉
息ができない
彼のおもい
アメリカの差別
歴史のおもい
すべてすごくて
言葉がない
息ができない
息ができない
You know
that’s the view:
No news is
good news,
It’s so
quiet you can hear it
Silence is
the music
When NOTHING HAPPENS
^___<
なにもおこらない
このきもち
なにもおこらない
しずけさ
^__<
Nothing
happens
The Virus descends
Like a stranger
of death
Nothing
happens
^___<
Nothing happens
We can forget
the rest
How we miss
those days
When Nothing happens
^—–<
And this is how the song all started; the clip below is from while it’s in the works (Artwork by Munenori Tamagawa):
I still like this Story I did for The Associated Press some time ago when I interviewed a former kamikaze pilot. It was still online at The Detroit News.
