I'd feel uncomfortable asking him to sign any Jihen stuff.


What if it opens up an ugly wound he's been trying to forget?

Yeah I feel the same way. I'd only give him something from his solo career I think or my guitar to sign. I know one of my friends is taking her bass for the band to sign in Chile at some point.

Bwah JaME suck, no fair.....*lol*.

Is there anyone willing to get something signed by Mikio for me, piece of paper....anything?

If an autograph multiplies the value that an object already had, then...

0 x Hirama's autograph = 0

If the object you choose to get signed, makes any kind of statement about you, then what statement do you want to make to the artist? "I'm an active supporter" (you're holding the artist's latest release), or "I'm old school" (you've got an out-of-print)? I figured I'd get the best reaction if I approached HZM with both categories, when PE'Z was touring North America. Turned out I wasn't wrong.

I'm not interested in keeping autographs for anything more than sentimental value. In fact it keeps in line with my habit of getting artists to sign setlists, beer mats, menus since when I worked with people I didn't carry around the CDs.

I'm just being immature since out of all of my favourite guitarists I'm just missing Mikio's autograph. I'd definitely probably get him to sign my copy of 文明交響型ウィルス since it inspired me to play guitar again after a number of years.

I lost all my valuable vinyl and collectables in a home flood a few years ago so I'm kind of past bothering caring about value/collectability anymore.

Any autograph you get in-person has sentimental value, whether it's on official merchandise or not. I haven't experienced a Fight Club reckoning yet (at least not offline), so I'm still in the caring-about-merchandise phase of my life.

For me, selling off an autograph is never Plan A, but I like to keep the option feasible in the form of Plan B (by having only official merchandise get autographed), in-case I ever get into a desperate situation. Plus from a sentimental standpoint, there's that philosophy of what you are implying something to the artist, based on which thing you chose to bring for autographing. That can be more important to some fans than the autograph or the collector value itself.

By the way, who are your other favorite guitarists?

I feel the same too... That's why I'll ask him to sign Bunmei Kokyo Gata Virus (that's somewhere between old-school and active supporter...). But it seems there's no open wound, as far as I've heard until now from the staff of the Mexico live.

Why? What happened?

Yes it does, it adds to the experience of a concert, and now concerts for me are few and far between due to various issues, it's especially something special for me. I know that Monoral are hoping to come to Europe next year, but I'm not sure if Mikio will still be supporting them by then since he seems to be making hints that he's moving back to solo work more again. Win either way as far as I'm concerned but I'd love to see him play live and I like Monoral anyway.

My other favourite guitars include Robert Fripp, John Petrucci, Gary Moore, Matt Bellamy etc.

I didn't know how good or bad his English was, and he didn't know how good or bad my Japanese was, so neither of us said a word to each other. But the reaction I got out of him, was a snicker of cumulative surprise. It was a better total reaction than the items would have sparked separately. When somebody had him sign a plain piece of paper, he was totally indifferent about that.

I'm casually familiar with John Petrucci, and haven't heard any performances from the rest of the people you named off. If I have a unique reason for not liking John Petrucci, it's that he's too perfect. No matter how much 'sensitivity' I hear in his playing, I get the sense that it's part of this god-like grid where all his "spur of the moment" feelings are emulated on-demand, effortlessly and independently of what he may really be feeling at that particular moment. He's got so much skill that there's no room left for genuine humanisms between the notes. Every nuance is emulated based on his many years of practice, and it's the best emulation I've ever heard in a guitar player, but it's still not what I want to hear (I almost feel the same way about UA's singing). Violinists and classical pianists are more commonly guilty of emulating humanisms. The thing I dislike about emulated humanisms is that the performer isn't carried by the emotional momentum of what they are playing, because it's all an act. It's like electric radiated heat that doesn't leave you feeling warm for very long after the source is turned off, versus firewood that soaks you whole, and keeps you warm for awhile longer.

In contrast, Hirama is obviously less skilled than John Petrucci, but at the same time, he still has way more of those native humanisms intact.

Robert Fripp is pretty legendary, heard the guitar line on David Bowie's Heroes? That's Fripp playing.

Petrucci live is slightly different, I'm much more into Dream Theater live than on CD. Live Petrucci there is warmth but yeah I dig alot of technical stuff. It appeals to me. *shrugs* but I'm not into full on guitar wanking like Malmsteen no matter how technical he is.

But the human touch isn't at all lost on me, I love Hirama more and it is his whole approach to music that appeals to me. I judge all musicians seperately and find it difficult to compare say a pure blues guitarist with a rock guitarist so I just end up making little sense in discussions thus.

That said, I like Hirama for much more than just his guitar work.

Regarding the "open wound" thing, I read on some of his blog comments that he talks about watching Jihen's DVD, going to Appa's and HZM's concerts, so there's no such wound, I guess.