During these 8 years in Tokyo, I have sometimes just wanted to quit the music business in frustration. I guess most musicians go through that. It has nothing to do with Tokyo. It could be any big city in the world. It's really tough to enter any music scene. There are more musicians now than ever. Actually sometimes I feel extremely lucky that I can make a living as a musician considering how many people are out there trying to do the same thing. As I teach more and more young people, I wonder how some of them will survive in this business 5 or 10 years later.
Fortunately, I have been busy the past 3-4 years in Tokyo. Sometimes people ask me when and why did that happen. I remember telling my Dad (on the phone) July 1, 2002 that I was going really go after it here. I told him that I was going to be very aggressive and never give up. Around that time I started my own website. And I also started to create my own circle, my own music community. I started being less and less influenced by "the scene" in Tokyo and the frustrations and too much thinking and all of the self-doubts. Much of my time has been spent on creating my own projects and trying to open my own path. So, that leaves little time for thinking too much about what I don't have and on and on. I read a quote this morning by Ghandi.
Maybe it sounds like I have become "cold" and "jaded." Maybe I have. But, I don't think so. I just realized that I don't want to waste energy in certain directions that are not productive for me. I only have so much energy. I want to use my energy wisely. So I want to use my energy to create. Creating is what makes me happy. When I was 23-25 and living in Washington, D.C. (a great music city). I wanted to be accepted by the "musical community." Maybe that was more important to me than creating. Now I know that to be accepted or to try and change the music scene is very far off course of my goals. My goals are to study and learn as much as possible, create and pass along what I know to others who have similar interests.

HELP WANTED:
I'm looking for some staff to help me with my projects. I need some people who are interested in helping me to promote some of my events. I'm also looking for some people that may have an interest in sales, artist management, music education, recording (audio/video), graphic design or website design/master. Maybe you have experience using computers, experience in sales, or education. Maybe you are a musician or just a person that loves music and wants to be involved in some music projects around Japan. Maybe you have a lot of time or maybe only a couple of hours a month. It's Ok! Let's talk.

(Japanese)
東京に来てからこの８年、挫折感にまみれて音楽活動をやめてしまおうかと思ったことも一度や二度ではありません。同じような時期を経験するミュージシャン は多いと思います。東京に限りではありません。世界のどの大都市でも同じだと思います。どんなミュージックシーンでも受け入れてもらえるまでに時間がかか るものです。昨今はミュージシャンの数も今までより多いですし。同じ様に音楽だけで食べて行こうとがんばっている人達がどれだけいるかを思えば、自分は何 とラッキーなんだろうと思う時もあります。若いプレイヤーを教えれば教えるほど、５年後１０年後、この子達がこのビジネスでどうやって生き残れるんだろう か、と思います。幸運なことに、この３〜４年はここ東京で忙しく活動してくることができました。それは、いつどうして起こったのか、と人に聞かれることが あります。２００２年の７月１日に、父親に電話し、ここで何とかこのビジネスに懸けていく、と宣言したのです。攻撃的なほど積極的に、そして絶対にあきら めないと誓いました。そしてホームページを立ち上げたのもその時です。自分だけの友達の輪、音楽関連のコミュニティーを作り始めました。その結果、東京 の”ミュージックシーン”に惑わされたり、挫折感や、自分の才能を疑うような感情などに悩まされることがどんどん少なくなって来ました。私の時間の大部分 を、自分のプロジェクトを創り出すこと、自分の道を切り開くことに費やしてきました。そうすると、自分には何がないのか云々を考えているひまはなくなって きます。今朝、ガンディーの言葉を目にしました。「世の中を変えたければ、あなた自身がその変化そのものになればよい」ひょっとしたら、私が”冷めて”い るとか、”擦れて”いるように聞こえるかもしれない。ひょっとするとそうかもしれない。でも、私は違うと思う。ただ、何も産まれて来ない方向にエネルギー を費やしたくない、と気づいただけなのです。一定のエネルギーしか持ち合わせていないですし。ならば賢く使いたいものです。私は創造に費やしたい。創造こ そが私の幸せです。２３歳から２５歳の間、ワシントンＤＣ（素晴らしい音楽都市です）に住んでいましたが、”業界のコミュニティー”に受け入れられたかっ た。創ることよりそっちの方が大事だったかもしれない。でも今は、受け入れられることや、ミュージックシーンを変えようとすることは全く自分の目標外のこ とだとわかっています。私の目標は、できるだけ多くを勉強し、学び、創り、そして同じ事に興味がある他の人々に、学んだことを伝え譲ることです。


スタッフ大募集！！
私のプロジェクトのお手伝いをして下さるスタッフを募集しています。イベントのいくつかの宣伝のお手伝いに興味がある方を求めています。セールス 営業、アーティストマネージメント、音楽教育、録音（オーディオ／ビデオ）、グラフィックデザイン、ウェブデザインに興味がある人達も探しています。コン ピューターに強い方、セールスの経験のある方、教育関係に携わったことのある方、大歓迎です。同じミュージシャンの方や、ただただ音楽が大好きで、何かし ら日本各地での私のプロジェクトに関わってみたい、という方もいらっしゃるかもしれない。たくさん時間がとれる方も、ひと月にほんの何時間かしか割けない 方も、歓迎します。お話しましょう。


明日のライブ！！７月２７日
ケニーズ・バー（池袋）にて。
ニール・ストルネイカーカルテット
スペシャルゲスト：ポール・フライシャー（ts）　　　　

Recently I've felt kind of silly writing in this blog titled, Tokyo Nights. I've been spending so much time at home working and haven't been going out at all. I've temporarily lost track of tokyo nights. I know there is so much going on but, I just felt a need to spend time at home and regroup.

Have had some trouble with my website this week. Four years ago, I registered the site with hostonce.com (please don't use that company!). In June, I decided to change the host of my site. However, I was never given any information about the domain registrar that has been holding my site name (neilstalnaker.com). After a lot of searching on the net, I found the domain registrar for my site. It has taken many emails to the registrar and to hostonce.com to motivate hostonce to transfer my domain name out of their account with the registrar to a new account I opened this week. In the meantime, my domain name has expired. So, I have had to renew the domain, also. Such a pain in the butt. Hostonce couldn't have been less helpful. The positive side of this situation is that I have had a good opportunity this week to learn about the world of domain names.

Tonight, I'm writing this blog on ZOHO. Do you know about Zoho Virual office?
It's so cool. It's like having microsoft office for free. I simply opened a free account with Zoho Writer, Zoho Creator and Zoho Sheet. Zoho Sheet is a web-based option to traditional spreadsheet applications, like microsoft excel. So, if I'm traveling and don't have my computer near, I can still access a lot of my files. It's a really
interesting time on the internet. I have my websites and cms all stored at the host, my blog is updated online or from my cellphone. And if that's not
enough, I'm able to store tons of info at .Mac and iWeb.

I can't believe it! I love the Brazilian soccer team. I love their style. Playing at such a high level yet, smiling, laughing and enjoying the game so much. Their technical skill is so high but, they never let that get in the way of how they use improvisation in their game. Their passion for soccer is so obvious. That's what I love about some musicians, also. People that are obviously highly skilled but they don't feel like they have to constantly prove it. Instead their skill is simply used as a tool to improvise....to create.

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