Saturday, June 17, 2006

Rolling Coconuts

And now for some content......

Rolling Coconuts is a freebie magazine available at some shops that sell ukuleles here in Japan. In some ways, the magazine is a bit like ukuleles--small, kind of fun, and it is mostly enthusiasts that take it seriously.

Physically, this little quarterly is about 12x16 cm and has about 26 pages per issue. About half of the contents is advertisements for the shops where you can lay your hands on it.

The other half has interviews with famous Japanese or international ukulele player. Interviews I have read include Herb Ohta, Herb Ohta Jr., Daniel Ho, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, and several others as well. Iwao, probably the most domestically famous Japanese uke player, pops up in all the issues I have seen. He is often the interviewer for international players.

There is at least one or two playing tips and a song of some sort included near the back. These can be anything from Japanese folk songs to "We are the Champions".

Yamaha ukulele schools also get some sort of write up. They are probably at least partially bankrolling the pubication.

Having a peek at their web site (link above) will reveal Rolling Coconuts TV. RC TV presents short ukulele videos, usually with some connect to the present issue of the magazine. In case you can't read Japanese, the "remote" for the TV is in the lower right corner fo the opening page. When I looked at it a few minutes ago, they had Channels 1-7. Just below that was a link that pops up previous videos. That link was in red just under Channel 7.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanx Man - the record company does the website and promo mostly. I found your blog by searching for Rolling Coconuts Magazine - can you get the mailing address and email it to me? warpcox@hotmail.com is good.
I like your blogs - as far as I can tell you are doing it right - write what you know and want to write about - it doesn't get any better than that.I guess you live in Japan - how?why?
the website tornadicukulele.com has music clips on the music page - photo's on the photo page...etc I like the idea of a Japanese translation - I am sponsored by RISA MUSIC in Germany - I should contact them and ask how they did their site.
Anyway - if you can get the RC Mag address that would be great - and please email any idea's you have - I am going to tour Europe, but want to tour Japan

Anonymous said...

Lost your email man - I'll be in Rolling Coconuts in Feb I hear - they said they would send me a copy in March - also at whatever CDBaby Japan is - write so I have your email again
tornadic@tornadicukulele.com