Great Blue

Very short set last night, but great local and a great singer, Alicia Saldenha headlined, with special guest Daryl Beaton straight from Sydney, Austrailia. Check him out here and here.

Hanibal's October

End of September through October will be a busy month. Here's a list of upcoming live events on the Hanibal slate:

Friday, 9/26 Common Cafe, Umeda, Osaka, 9pm

Saturday, 9/27 Blue Fox Pub, Sannomiya, Kobe, 11pm

Friday, 9/10 Common Cafe, Umeda, Osaka, 9pm

Sunday, 9/12 Midousuji Kappo Arts and Music Festival, Shinsaibashi, Osaka, 2pm

Sunday, 9/19 Common Cafe, Umeda, Osaka, 9pm

Farm House Cafe 8/24

Played at the hippy joint Farm House Cafe a few Sundays ago. Posted a couple of vids.

Common Style

Couple of Fridays ago played at Common Cafe in Umeda, Osaka. Couple of days earlier, I was able to get a couple of friends to back me up on bass and drums. It had been a long time since I sang/played with a full band and the first time with my original material. The place was full of friends and acquaintances, but that didn't comfort my nerves too much. Although we had never played together before, overall it went pretty well.

Pineapple Guts

One of the things I enjoy about the summers here is the mass amount of seasonal drinks that become available as soon as the temperature rises. I shouldn't expect anything less from the corporate marketing machines that fuel the local economy, but when I see "mandarin orange tea, limited time only", well, I always get suckered in. Actually, these drinks are not limited to the summer. Beer and tea companies also have "winter brews", and last fall I even saw a "changing of the foliage brew", which turned out to be a red lager.

This summer season my hands down favorite has to be "Guts! with vitamin B", a pineapple flavored sports drink that comes in at a shade under a one hundred calories. Granted, artificial pineapple flavor, but after my first sip of this refreshing elixir, my taste buds helped unearth a distant memory buried somewhere in the hamper of my mind.

Growing up in Puerto Rico there was a company named Old Colony that made two flavors of soda: grape and pineapple. School yard debates raged on which flavor was better. The prevailing sentiment was that grape was hands down the best, but yours truly was always a pineapple man. One thing my mates and I could agree on was that nothing was better than pooling our money, hitting the local bakery, grabbing a fresh from the oven loaf of garlic bread and chasing it down with your choice of Old Colony on a hot summer day.

Remember, Guts! is for men with passion!

Pseudo-Fish and Chips

My diet is mainly composed of any choice of meat or fish usually combined with vegetables in salad form or steamed. Recently though I was in the mood to make something different, perhaps a slight culinary challenge yet, pleasing to the taste buds. Coming home from work I knew I had some lovely chunks of tuna steak waiting for me in the fridge. My original idea was to lemon and pepper it and throw it over salad, but salad just didn't appeal to me this evening. My mind was racing at the same speed as the train I was riding. The sound of my mental recipe roller deck was clattering to a halt and nothing had distinguished itself yet. Just then Flogging Molly started to funnel through my headphones and the memory of the first time I saw them play paraded itself in front of my eyes. Watching Dave King fiery red hair belting out "Selfish Man" with a pint of Guinness by his feet and another giant version of said stout protruding through the Ashbury Park, NJ sky. I wanted fish and chips.

Luis' Pseudo Fish and Chips

Cup of bread crumbs

Tuna fillet

2 eggs

salt and pepper


Now making fries/chips is the easy part, so I'm not going to get in to that. Actually, cooking the fish is not all that difficult either, but you got to want to get your hands dirty. Cut the fillets in to any desired size. Personally, I prefer nugget size chunks that are easier to dip and eat with your hands. Drop some salt and pepper into a small bowl. Crack the eggs in to a bowl. Some like to use just the whites, I use yolk and all. If you keep the yolk, with a whisk or fork beat to until the are evenly yellow. Pour some oil into medium frying pan over a medium flame until you have more than covered the bottom of the pan. I prefer lite olive oil over any others. Frying is never the healthiest choice, but the rare times that I do I try to stick with arguably the best pan frying oil around. Look in to Macadamia Nut oil, which is a bit expensive but catchy on as another healthy oil.

You can either dip the fish in to salt and pepper or sprinkle it over with your free hand while holding the fish in you palm. Then dip the fish into the bread crumbs until all sides are evenly covered. Most fish and chips' fish is made with flour, baking soda and beer, but I like the crunchy texture you get with bread crumbs, plus this isn't a traditional style F&C recipe, so what the heck! You can lightly place the fish in the pan or use tongs. Now we are not deep frying here, so when you see the bottom start turning gold and crusting over, use your tongs to flip the fish to another side until all sides are a golden color. Place on a dish lined with paper towels or fresh newspaper to absorb some oil. Then transfer to another fresh towel/newspaper lined dish/bowl.

I wasn't happy with the high calorie tartar sauce options I found at the supermarket, so naturally, I made my own. I used low fat mayo, a squeeze of lemon, dash of apple vinegar, fresh cracked pepper, and with no relish insight I chopped some tsukemono. Tsukemono is the Japanese version of pickles but they used Asian cucumbers which are thinner and are also pickled with less salt. Also, malted vinegar wasn't readily available, so instead I used apple vinegar.

There you have it! A variation on a classic. Give it a try and don't forget to down it with a Guinness. The larger the glass, the better!

Upcoming Shows

Just to catch up on some up coming shows:

Friday, May 30th, Common Cafe, Nakazaki-Cho, Umeda, 7pm

Sunday, June 1st, Farm House, Okamoto, Kobe, 5pm

Win some, lose some, hurt some

This past week my hockey team, the West Wind, took part in the Western Japan Roller Hockey Tournament. And unlike last year where we fought and clawed our way to third place, we took a 1-1 tie in to the dying moments of the game , but ended up losing 3-1 in the quarter finals. I scored the lone goal and the welts on my body clearly show the 5 block shots I had, which lead to winning team MVP for the tournament. But winning MVP on a losing team is like kissing your cousin. Try explaining that in Japanese.

Chasing Waterfalls on Rokko Mountain

Sunday was another cool event hooked up by the venerable Mr. Yamanoh, a man who seems to have his fingers to the pulse of the Osaka Art/Music scene. On a small clearing on the way to the top, there's a shrine, a waterfall and a few "chaya" or tea houses, one of which Yamanoh and the rest of the Common Cafe Gang will be running every weekend all through the summer. Check it out, Yama Cafe.

Since it was the first of such weekends, Mr. Yamanoh gathered a few musicians to play some tunes and entertain the hikers, picnic goers and anyone enjoying some tea or wine this fine spring day.

Although it was a beautiful location, the waterfall was very loud and it made it difficult to hear myself. Consequently, although I played well, I was disappointed with my vocals. Still a fun day and there should be more of them in the in the future. and if so, I will consider one of these ;)

I put up some videos on YouTube under my new handle "HanibalMusic". Using my new Canon Power Shot SX100is
I had the videos taken, but unfortunately I'm still learning how to use it so my instead of getting full 4-5min vids like I know it can, I took some choppy ones. Every vid has a part one and part two. Sorry for the inconvenience, but please check them out. Here's some fun with my song "Persistence of Time".