When an album cover features a gang sign on it, one would reasonably assume that the music on the CD would be mostly gangsta rap. In the case of 3OH!3’s new album, Want, the gangster songs are all supposedly sarcastic. Indeed, the Boulder, Colorado duo (composed of Nathaniel Motte and Sean Foreman) have openly stated that their music, with misogynistic lyrics that talk about booze and booty, is satirical. However, on Want, 3OH!3 fails to make obvious the satirical aspect of their music and end up becoming exactly what it tried to make fun of.
Now, Want is not another generic rap album. No, in fact, the synth-heavy music is on the borderline of being classified as techno. Also, the best songs on the CD are the ones that feature the pair singing. All of this would seem to point towards the fact that Want is not a hip-hop album at all, but the truth of the matter is that the song-content is undeniably hip-hop based and the delivery is very hip-hop as well.
The minute long instrumental introduction to the album prepares the listener for the rest of the CD well. The song starts off with a pleasantly original enough electronic rhythm, previewing the heavy dosages of drum machines. Then the synths kick in... and for roughly half a minute play the exact same note with a rather boring rhythm. After those 30 seconds, however, variations in the notes occur. Overall, this one minute intro is pretty monotonous... and yet somehow catchy, foreshadowing the upcoming music. Yes, even without lyrics, the intro - entitled Tapp - epitomizes the mix of monotony and catchiness that make up the album that you will listen to feverishly for a couple of months, and then burn because you are so sick of its songs. (No, I don’t mean burn a copy for your friend.)
Want ends up being a guilty pleasure CD. The wise listener will acknowledge that the song-content is boring, but they will still listen to it because the good songs are addictive. Yes, good songs like Punkb*tch. This track, the second on the CD, is a fitting example of 3OH!3 music: from the song-title you can correctly assume what the lyrics will be like (the chorus goes like this: Punkb*tch, 'Cause I've seen it before, Punkb*tch, And I don't care anymore, Punkb*tch, And I just want you to know that we datin' mad models and poppin' mad bottles tonight), but the synth chord progressions are catchy, as are the heavily modified vocals. Sure, their intention might be to make fun of the lifestyles of hip-hop stars, but 3OH!3 actually help glorify that which they tried to shun.
Other stand-out songs on the album are Don’t Trust Me (on which the pair sing, “don’t trust a hoe, never trust a hoe” but also includes some original lyrics like, “tell your boyfriend, if he says he got beef, that I’m a vegetarian”); Starstrukk, with some more lyrics that are degrading to women but also with a rhythm you can’t deny; and Can’t Do It Alone, with great vocal syncopations but more crappy lyrics.
In the end, Want would be a remarkably good album if it weren’t for the irony that the singers’ irony doesn’t stand out. If they work harder on making their satire more obvious on the next album, it will definitely be worth buying. If you like hip-hop based electronica, you will no doubt enjoy this album immensely. Finally, I will admit that writing this review has been like therapy to remind me not to get too addicted to Want. Like I said earlier: the CD is a guilty pleasure where you know you shouldn't want more, but you will.

I realize that it’s not so easy to imagine the season of spring as the temperatures and snow fall here in Sapporo, but bear with me as I review Jon Foreman’s third seasonal EP. Yes, I know you’ve been dying to read it, so here it is: a song-by-song review of Spring.

Track 1) March (A Prelude to Spring) - Already from the title Foreman’s clever use of language is established yet again, as “March” is indeed both a prelude to the season of spring and this very EP of Spring. The song itself is a short one and a half minute sing-along. By this I mean that the track sounds like it could be found on a toddler’s first CD; the blended vocals of Foreman and guest singer Molly Jenson are quite playful, and the backing horns sound like they’re right of the soundtrack to a child’s TV program. By itself, this song doesn’t stand-out, but as the “prelude to Spring,” it does its job by setting up more hopeful and upbeat tones than in Fall and Winter.

Track 2) Love Isn’t Made - This is one of the best songs of the entire EP. Even if there are only six tracks in total, this song still stands out by managing the difficult task of sounding mellow but hopeful. Foreman’s formula for success (simple acoustic guitar, cello, and drums) is employed yet again, but this time with vocal tracks from his wife and sister-in-law.
In the chorus, Foreman sings “Love isn’t made / Love doesn’t sell or pay / But we buy and sell our love away,” criticizing the lack of unconditional love in the world. Even though the lyrics can sometimes be dark, the overall tone is positive with lines like, “So I arrive at the conclusion,” where Foreman sings about finding answers instead of asking questions like he did excessively on Fall and Winter. Love Isn’t Made sets up the theme of resolution and rebirth for the rest of the EP.

Track 3) In My Arms - Lyrically and musically simple, In My Arms strengthens the theme of straightforwardness over complexity. Indeed, after the contemplative songs of his previous two EPs, songs like In My Arms provides a much-needed refreshing break. However, the problem is that that is all the song does; it is more of a column that holds up the structure of Spring than an intricate stained glass window. The purpose of the song is just to build on theme. Like Love Isn’t Made, In My Arms also provides answers instead of questions with the line “I think I figured it out” in the bridge.

Track 4) Baptize My Mind - The jumpy guitar riff in the intro creates an uplifting and uptempo mood that remains for the whole song. Again, this works with a theme that accompanies the season of spring (rebirth), but the song itself is not exactly one of Foreman’s best as it is keeps repeating a riff that isn’t exactly ear-candy to begin with. What saves the song at the end is the metaphorical lyrics.

Track 5) Your Love Is Strong - Considering that this is the best song from all of his EPs, how remarkable is it that Foreman probably spent the least amount of time on lyrics for this track than on all his others? The reason Foreman didn’t really have to strain over the words is that the lines come directly from the Bible. Yes, the verses are composed of lines from the Lord’s Prayer. Of course Foreman puts the biblical words into contemporary language, and adds his own lines here and there to make the Prayer fit into song-form.
Besides the fact that it’s pretty dang cool how Foreman put such a traditional piece of world history into song, the music itself amazing. The entire guitar part is constructed of only eight chords, but those eight chords work amazingly together to create a catchy riff that doesn’t get old. The chords in the chorus keep progressing up the scale - fitting in with the theme of spring that is rising out of the dead of winter. The song also shows off Foreman’s vocal flexibility as it goes from low and rough sounding in the verses to high-pitched but powerful in the bridge. You should definitely check out this song.

Track 6) Revenge - Revenge is a good EP-closer for Spring, as it somewhat progresses out of the simplicity of the previous five songs. More abstract in its lyrics, the song previews the theme of growth culminated on Summer. It also returns to a more depressing mood, made obvious by the opening lines of “I’m the failure / I’m everyone’s fool / And I’m losing my cool at the end.”

Anyone who watches movies on a regular basis would have heard about the new Bond film by now. Yes, Bond... James Bond (that’s 007 for those of you who are more mathematically inclined). That’s right, on October 29th, 2008, Quantum of Solace enjoyed a highly-attended and highly-commended premiere at the London Film Festival, and this weekend the movie broke Bond film records at the North American box office by taking in more than 70 million dollars.
Quantum of Solace is the sequel to 2006’s Casino Royale, which saw the replacement of Pierce Brosnan as the leading man with then-rising-star Daniel Craig. Casino Royale was a popular success, and many movie critics were pleasantly surprised with Craig’s ability to dig into the spy character that movie audiences all over the world love so much. However, by receiving so much critical acclaim, the movie set a high-standard for it’s sequel. After only a couple of weeks of being on the big screen, most of Quantum of Solace’s reviews have been positive. As with any Bond movie, there still seems to be plenty of guns, girls, and glorifying of the espionage business in Quantum, but one thing many reviewers noticed is that the film is considerably shorter in length.
Indeed, whereas the last 007 film was 144 minutes, Quantum only runs for 106. One can only presume that this film is much more packed (who knew that was possible) than the other Bond films. Of course, we will not know just how packed the film is until it is released in January of next year in Japanese theatres. (Alas, we Japanese-theatre-attending-persons are again punished by the late releases in this country.) Hopefully, the film will be worth the wait - and judging by new Bond girl Olga Kurylenko’s looks, I can say that it probably will be.
Find out more about the new Bond film at the IMDB website.

Here is this week’s track-by-track review for Jon Foreman’s Winter:

Track 1) Learning How to Die - Just like Foreman began Fall, the second acoustic EP in his seasonal series kicks off with a mellow guitar-and-vocal-melody based song. The guitar is accompanied by simple strings and horns to build on the simple guitar riff and create more atmosphere in the song. The simple drum beat allows the audience to focus more easily on the lyrics, about the notion that human lifetimes are spent “learning how to die.” Foreman’s interesting perspective on how to “live” inspires the listener to craft their life considering how they want to exit this world.

Track 2) Behind Your Eyes - Inspired by the famous line in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, about how the only way to truly understand a person is to crawl into their skin and walk around in it, Behind Your Eyes sees Foreman wanting to escape from the confines of his body to fully appreciate the whole experience of “understanding” someone else. Musically, the song is more upbeat than the previous track, but it is also quite simple, consisting only of an acoustic guitar riff, a steady beat, and Foreman’s voice. Because it concerns the end of one’s life, it is appropriate for Winter as the season deals with endings.

Track 3) Somebody’s Baby - This wistful song triggers images of a cold street where snowflakes are softly falling on an already white ground. The lyrics paint in an homeless person on the curb of this street as they commentate on the life and death of a neglected and unappreciated outcast from society. The point of the song is that even homeless people were once considered a beautiful blessing into this world. Foreman epitomizes this point in the chorus where, after singing about a specific homeless woman, he says, “She’s somebody’s baby, somebody’s baby girl, and she’s somebody baby still.” The last part of the chorus is to reflect on the idea that there is a divine being who still values the homeless woman.
The winter imagery is not only crafted by the lyrics, but also by the guitar’s ambient sound and the effective violins in the chorus. Considering lyrical and musical complementation, this is the best song on the EP.

Track 4) White As Snow - This song progresses the EP from depressing winter mode to a peaceful winter mood. Again, guitar and strings make up most of the instrumental section of this song. The one noticeable change is that the drums play a slightly bigger role with more beats per bar. Jon plays harmonics on his guitar to replicate the sound of Christmas bells, and the theme is very much Christian. The song is a plea to God to have mercy on his soul and “create in [him] a clean heart...” by washing him “white as snow.” The snow aspect of this song makes it obvious why it belongs on Winter. The bridge of this song is an exceptionally nice listen.

Track 5) I Am Still Running - On this song Foreman changes the mood from peaceful to relaxed (yes, there is a difference; this track sounds lazier.) The lyrics, however, talk about Foreman’s insecurities - creating a contrast between the words and the music. This is not the best song on the EP, as it can become repetitive, but it is still an enjoyable part of Winter.

Track 6) In Love - Perhaps the most experimental song of all four seasonal EPs, In Love replicates an Asian string sound. Although it was probably played on the guitar, the strings sound like they could be those of the koto or shamisen. Instead of a cello, it sounds like a bassoon is used to create the deep bass sound behind the atmospheric notes of the strings. Foreman applies the rule that “simple is best” lyrically. In fact, half of the words are identical; Foreman follows a pattern that interlaces the words “in love” and “my love” among words that talk about his willingness to sacrifice. It’s kind of like a very repetitive, but deliberate Mad Libs. Musically it is very repetitive as well, without a climax, but this song still makes for an interesting listen as it is so different from Foreman’s usual recipe of acoustic guitars, violins, cellos, horns, and drums.
Again, the atmospheric sounds trigger winter images... and the simplicity of the song triggers the simplicity of white snow everywhere, closing Winter in a reflective mood. Maybe it’s a good time to start working on those New Year resolutions.

(Yes, the reviews for Jon Foreman's EP project will not be on a weekly basis as I promised before... are you really bummed out about this?)

Baseball and Politics

In modern day politicking, where no subject of a candidate’s life seems too private to be untouched, we have seen the media pry into people’s history, families, and lifestyles. Of course most of this is simply to fill up the time of 24-7 television broadcasting; what else would you do when you already know everything about a politician’s track record and policies? Cars, houses, and high-school life are all aspects of the 2008 US Presidential Election candidates that have been examined by the media, but now a new topic is being discussed: which baseball teams do the candidates support?

On Tuesday, Senator John McCain (Arizona, republican) accused Senator Barack Obama (Illinois, democrat) of supporting both of the Major League Baseball teams that have made it to the World Series this year. Campaigning in Pennsylvania (home state of one of the baseball teams in questions - the Philadelphia Phillies), Mr. McCain said, “Now, I'm not dumb enough to get mixed up in a World Series between swing states.
"But I think I may have detected a little pattern with Senator Obama. It's pretty simple really. When he's campaigning in Philadelphia, he roots for the Phillies, and when he's campaigning in Tampa Bay, he 'shows love' to the Rays.
"It's kind of like the way he campaigns on tax cuts, but then votes for tax increases after he's elected."

Both baseball teams are from states considered key battlegrounds for this election - the Philadelphia Phillies from Pennsylvania and the Tampa Bay Rays from Florida - but does McCain really have a strong argument here? Has it really reached the point that Americans will not vote for a certain candidate because they support two baseball teams? Of course the importance of baseball in America is not to be underestimated - the last televised presidential debate lost a lot of viewers to the MLB playoff game that was showing at the same time... but will this baseball fiasco with Obama really affect Americans? Are we going to need a separation of Sport and State? Or is John McCain getting desperate in the final weeks of his campaign to slow down his rival’s momentum.

An interesting side-note: Barack Obama has stated earlier that he is a fan of the Chicago White Sox from his home state of Illinois, and coincidentally enough the Tampa Bay Rays beat the White Sox out of the league playoffs. Hmm... resentment anybody?

As promised, here is this week’s review of Jon Foreman’s first EP project. Appropriately, we begin the series of reviews with Fall (even though it definitely was T-shirt and shorts weather today). Before I review… let’s play a little word association. Ready? Fall! Leaves… Bright colours… Pumpkins… Somberness… Coldness to come… These are only some of the words I think of when I imagine autumn, and Jon Foreman examines all of these aspects of the season along with some more original and insightful aspects of fall as well.

Track 1) The Cure for Pain ¬– No saving the best for last here; Foreman starts Fall off with the “catchiest” song of the EP. This is simply strategic planning considering that a lot of listeners probably wouldn’t bother to listen to the rest of the EP if it started off with a bad song. However, this is not to say that the other songs are bad… no, it is simply that the other tracks just require more time to grow on you, whereas The Cure for Pain is an immediate favourite.
The strumming pattern of the guitar, the use of ghost notes, and the soft trumpets set this song apart from your usual acoustic hit. Foreman’s vocal talent is that his voice manages to merge roughness with malleability, and he uses this perfectly on the track to solidify its poignant tone. The lyrics are very Foreman-like as well: “I've spent ten years singing gravity away / But the water keeps on falling from the sky” (a reference to his band’s last album? It was titled Oh! Gravity). The sentimental tone of this song does a pretty good job of setting up the “autumn” theme for the rest of the EP.

Track 2) Southbound Train ¬– Here the EP progresses from the somewhat depressing acoustic rock of The Cure for Pain to a more hopeful folk sound with the use of harmonicas. Violins are used as well – but not overused like in a lot of recent pop songs that attempt to sound graceful. The accompanying string section plays an intro that succeeds in sounding like a train’s engine chugging along – painting a picture of train tracks in the countryside where the leaves just started changing colour. Of course good songwriters provide imagery through lyrics, but through instruments? Speaking of lyrics, here’s the best line in the song – “Or maybe I’m just feeling old / Like a lawyer with no one to blame.” That’s going to be a common idiom in the English language starting now.

Track 3) Lord, Save Me from Myself ¬– This song is proof that the momentum was building in the first two tracks as it is the most upbeat song of the EP so far. A guitar riff with plenty of hammer-ons and a liquid rhythm kick off the song – and although musically this is not Foreman’s best, the lyrics should definitely not be overlooked: “My mind is dull and faded / From these years of buy and sell / My eyes have seen the glory / Of this hollow, modern shell.” Employing the common idea of tiredness associated with autumn, Foreman’s lyrics paint himself as a man who is not impressed with modern society.

Track 4) Equally Skilled – The lyrics of the song come directly from the Bible… Micah Chapter 7, in fact. Of course, Foreman puts the verses into his own words, singing about his desperation; how he feels like “a fruit-picker who arrived here after the harvest.” The bleak lyrics run along the theme of the death of nature during autumn. Musically, the track is better than Lord, Save Me from Myself. The guitar part includes a lot of sliding, picking, hammering-on, and pulling-off. During the instrumental breaks, the scratchy steel of the guitar strings produces a chilly sound while the vocal harmonies (all oohs of Foreman’s voice) also add an eerie sound to the song. However, where the instrumental parts may seem slightly cold, the vocals manage to sound warm – like a fireplace in a cold house: signaling the coming cold. Again, Foreman uses musical imagery to convey autumnal scenes.

Track 5) The Moon Is a Magnet – The shortest song of the EP (it’s only one minute and fifty-four seconds long), this song is also the most abstract; musically and lyrically, it is one hard nut to crack. A complex guitar picking pattern (with a unique choice of notes), vague words, and an abrupt ending leave a lot to the listener to decide. Although the song sounds experimental, it is definitely enjoyable. The fuzzy sound of the accompanying horn triggers mental pictures of the golden leaves… ahh…

Track 6) My Love Goes Free – The only song on the EP that doesn’t have any guitars in it, My Love Goes Free keeps a simple piano progression throughout. It ends the EP with the familiar sentimental tone as in The Cure for Pain, but it is presented differently… the former track previewed autumn but this song sets the stage for winter. The song content is quite appropriately summarized in one of its lines: “If you love her let her go.” This is perhaps the easiest song to understand, and it closes the EP by returning a sense of confidence to the listener after the abstruse The Moon Is a Magnet. Although it does not exactly use any musical or lyrical autumnal imagery, it concludes the EP nicely by previewing the sound we will be hearing on Winter.

Concept albums are not a thing of the past! Although they are widely considered to be a spontaneous but temporary fascination of the 1970’s, in reality concept albums have survived into the 21st century music business. Sure, the ‘70’s may have seen the peak of the release of concept albums with records like Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, but consider one of the top selling albums of 2004: American Idiot. The CD, by punk rock trio Green Day, is without a doubt a concept album (it follows the story of a troubled youth who moves into a city, falls in love, and becomes a villain) and it sold 3,840,000 copies in that year alone, only to go on to sell more copies in 2005 when it was the fourth most purchased CD.
Okay, so we have established that concept albums are still influential today… but how about concept EPs? Has anyone even heard of a concept EP? Okay… has anyone heard of EPs? EP stands for Extended Play and is the word used for CDs or records that are not short enough to be a single (which usually consist of ten minutes of music) but not long enough to be considered an album (anywhere from thirty to eighty minutes). Usually, EPs have ten to twenty-eight minutes of music on them, and a concept EP would try to explore a theme within that limited time. Sound hard? Well, Jon Foreman definitely knows how to do it, and he showed us how through his four concept EPs released every season since last fall, aptly named, Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer.
Jon Foreman, more commonly known for his involvement with his San Diego alternative rock band, Switchfoot, undertook this mission of releasing an EP every season when his wife told him that she would like him to make a CD of worship songs. At first he thought he would simply cover already existing contemporary Christian music, but evidently Mrs. Foreman was dissatisfied with that idea and so he started writing his own. If that weren’t enough, Jon Foreman decided to give each set of six songs a seasonal theme. Apparently Foreman really loves his wife because these four EPs are perhaps the best collection of subtly beautiful acoustic songs.
In the upcoming weeks I will publish my cross-examinations of each EP (starting with Fall next week), complete with song-by-song reviews. Come back next week to see how Foreman successfully and creatively captures the sights, sounds, and smells of autumn through his acoustic guitar, piano, signature voice, and masterfully carved lyrics on Fall.

Only a week after returning to the States, I was already back into my routine of spending the summer nights watching MTV to check out music videos. I was just about to switch off the tube after twenty minutes of Katy Perry’s I Kissed a Girl when a soft acoustic sound started emanating from the speakers. I took my finger off the power button on the remote and watched as a teenage guy with a guitar sang about very commonplace teenage boy stuff: girls.
However, there was one fundamental difference between this singer and other teenage musicians - this guy’s voice was much more mature. No, he didn’t have a very deep bass sound, but he had a raspy tone that was way beyond his years. And not only did his voice make him sound older, but his lyrics and song content as well. What was more, when the video ended and they flashed the artist’s name there was one thing that stood out above everything else: the guy had a Japanese last name… Nozuka.
So I sat on the couch awhile, slightly startled by the Japanese name, but I never bothered to get off my butt to run a search on this Nozuka character. I would later regret this when, weeks afterwards, I finally found some time out of my dreadfully busy summer vacation schedule to check out this guy’s music. Due to my terrible memory I could not remember the guy’s name. With my general knowledge that his first name was Western and his last name was Japanese, I could only run very general searches like “half Japanese, half American musician” or “teenage acoustic singer.” After maybe an hour on Google (remember, I could only spend an hour searching for this guy because I was so busy), I finally stumbled across… “Justin Nozuka.” The name clicked - it was without a doubt the same guy whose music video I had seen on MTV a couple of weeks earlier. Inspired by my find, I started frantically clicking on anything related to the name. After ten minutes of my reading (and the infinite supply of information on the net) I had already found out that Justin Nozuka was only 19 years old and half-Japanese, half-American, albeit being raised in Canada. He had evidently started writing his own songs at age 12, foreshadowing his success as a young musician.
After skimming through his biography, I accessed the iTunes Music Store to listen to samples of songs from his debut-album, Holly, named after his mother. It sounded like he drew influences from the likes of Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz, and James Morrison – generally musicians that play soft rock laced with acoustic guitars, piano, and strong vocals. However, Nozuka’s voice is completely unique; and this is one of his strongest points. Lucky for him, he doesn’t have one of those generic teenage singer voices, but instead he carries a signature sound that sets him apart from all other artists.
Lyrically, Nozuka covers a lot. Although he usually sticks to the theme of love, the songs he writes explore the theme deeper than most other artists - asking questions and uncovering brutal truths instead of just being romantic. Perhaps, the best example of this is Save Him, the tenth track off of Holly. On the song, Nozuka sings about a couple that seems to have the perfect relationship until their child comes along and the father cannot deal with the fact that it is no longer just him and his wife. The mother sacrifices herself, taking the beating from her frustrated husband so that her son doesn’t have to suffer. Obviously, this song is not your typical “I love you” song. However, the album is not all this dark and moody. After Tonight (the first single from the CD), for example, is much more musically upbeat and lyrically happy-go-lucky.
For fans of acoustic rock, Justin Nozuka completely satisfies the need for poignant melodies and substantial song-content. And even if you don’t particularly like this genre of music, I still recommend Holly because it succeeds in being more musically universal than other albums of the recent music scene. Do yourself a favour and check Justin Nozuka out right now, right here. You won’t regret it.

Travis Barker, former drummer for all American punk trio supergroup Blink-182, was rushed to a hospital on Friday after he suffered from burns in a plane crash in West Columbia, South Carolina. Barker was scheduled to fly into Van Nuys, California, when the Learjet he was aboard crashed into a road soon after taking off. Disc Jockey DJ AM, who performs with Travis Barker under the name TRVSDJ-AM, was also on board, as were two other passengers. Although Barker and DJ AM (real name Adam Goldstein) survived the crash with second- and third-degree burns, the two other passengers died, as did the pilot and the co-pilot.
Medical director of the Joseph M. Still Burn Center, Dr. Fred Mullins, said that the two performers are in critical condition, but also noted that, “Anybody who can survive a plane crash is pretty lucky.” Barker had burns on his torso and lower body whereas Goldstein had burns on his head and hands. Mullins reported that it could take up to a year for the two to fully heal.
One William Owens, a witness of the crash, stated that he had been driving when he saw a fireball streak across the highway. As he got closer to the burning scene he saw Barker and Goldstein trying to remove their burning clothes: “I noticed two guys who were on fire and it looked like a dance: They didn't know what to do.”
Global Exec Aviation, the charter company that owned the plane, is cooperating with investigators to find out what caused the fiery crash.
Travis Barker and DJ AM had been in Columbia to perform in a free concert for thousands of college students at the University of South Carolina. Barker, only 32, has already achieved world-wide fame for being an innovative drummer with a wide range of playing styles and involvement in different kinds of music including punk, pop, and hip-hop. He is one of the most sought-after drummers in the world right now and currently half of the rhythm section of alternative rock band +44 with former Blink-182 bandmate, Mark Hoppus.

Let’s begin with your name.
 Mia. And my last name’s Ohyama.
We have a lot of new people from a lot of different places this year. Where did you live before coming to Hokkaido?
 I lived in Omaha, Nebraska until this summer when I moved to Des Moines, Iowa. Now I’m here.
Why Hokkaido?
 Because I wanted to come here! And I ended up at HIS because it’s the only English-speaking school. I love  Japan.
Okay, a more personal question. What are two things you can't live without and two things that you cannot bear?
 My dad and my friends are two things I love. Um, I hate centipedes and milk.
Milk?
 Yeah, milk! It’s gross.
Tell us about your last school. What did you like most about it?
 I liked that everyone liked each other. It was much bigger than HIS… It was a middle school with almost  1000 kids – around 300 kids in each class.
So HIS must feel tiny. What’s one thing you like about our school?
 People are nice here…?
Okay, how about something you don’t like?
 The classes are too long. Ugh.
Last question: sushi or hotdogs?
 Sushi, I don't even like hotdogs.

First thing we need to know is your name. Really? Cool! And two things I hate… Bugs. Roly polys are okay… um, Mia, what’s something I hate? (Mia, who has been sitting next to Shannon, tells her… “Rain without umbrellas.”) Yeah, rain without umbrellas. We were caught in the rain today.
 What school did you go to before coming here and what did you like about it?
Park City. It was a middle school with about 350 kids per class, and I liked the people.
 Which brings us to this question: what’s your favourite thing about our school?
Everybody’s nice. I also like the late start Wednesdays. My last school didn’t have that.
 And what don’t you like about our school?
It’s too hot here.
 Final question: sushi or hotdogs?
I don’t like hotdogs, so sushi. But I prefer onigiri.

First off, let's start with your name.