The biggest issue I had with blogging and writing in general is that I get so crossed-up with figuring out WHAT to write about that I barely ever had time to get into the act itself. I occasionally find a gimmick to stick to — short album reviews, profiles on artists I like, breakdowns of famous pro wrestling matches — but after a few weeks I get so tired of the rigid format that I assigned myself that it became a grind to keep it going. It didn’t help that I found myself writing in other more-popular voices besides my own, now that I think about it. My music writing especially suffered because of it. It seemed like everyone writing album reviews at the time were trying to ape the Pitchfork style, which I still find snooty and full of meaningless purple prose. But hey, I thought! People seemed to dig their music reviews written like shitty and abstract reflections on life, so I thought I can put my own twist on this!

I’d legit rather kick myself in the dick than read those old pieces I did. I had all this stuff I wanted to talk about, but I was so unconfident in my own voice that I never felt like I got my point across despite putting so much work into sounding like everyone else. I’ve legit lost count of the number of times I deleted my blogs because I didn’t think that they accurately described my thoughts on the topic, and this typically happened in the matter of weeks. I luckily outgrew that with a bunch of self-reflection. Now when I write, it’s both a fun release and a confident expression of what I and only I feel.

I don’t think I would have been able to make STRONG STYLE CHRIS CRASH if I didn’t think like this now. All the DJs on WFMU have such distinctly personal shows that showcase their quirks and interests, so it always felt natural to start developing my own voice little by little. As it turns out, this was the skill I needed to get people to finally connect with my thoughts. Killer! Let’s start taking this a little further.

This newsletter series is just gonna start off with three things I’ve been digging lately. I tend to have a lot of thoughts about topics ranging from music to martial art movie heroes to killer NYC sandwiches, so hopefully subscribers will hit the jackpot eventually in reading something by me that interests them. Let’s crack into it.

1) SHEENA x MAKOTO

Sheena Rokket and Makoto Ayukawa — lead singer & guitar player for the Japanese punk band Sheena & The Rokkets — are not only two of my favorite rockers of all time but two of the most impressive students of the entire game. From city pop to Shibuya-Kei, so many popular Japanese music scenes seemed to bloom from artist fascinations and unique takes of Western fashion and music. Sheena and Makoto were no different while they grew up in 1970s Fukuoka. Makoto tore through classic blues and rock records as a kid, and you only have to take one look at Sheena to see how inspired she was by 60s girl groups. This passion for Western music shines through each of their 20 full length records, as they all contain killer original songs with clever nods to riffs and lyrics from classics through the years. The most obvious example of this is their hit “Lemon Tea”, which is essentially a Japanese cover of “Train Kept A-Rolling”. Sometimes these references are more subtle, like with their song “Swindle Of Romance”. It’s not at all a cover of the Rod Stewart song “Hot Legs”, but Sheena keeps screaming “I LOVE YOU, HONEY!!” exactly the way he did.

The music is incredible on its own but I can’t help but feel deeply inspired by the drive and passion of Sheena and Makoto. We all have our little pet interests that we think constantly about, and one of mine was and is Japanese music. I feel like a lot of people I’ve passed in my life never really understood my fascination with this and the culture in general, but I was convinced that people like Sheena and Makoto would get it. They were essentially on the different side of the same coin — engaging with a foreign culture that speaks to them, internalizing the bits they take away that they feel deeply about, and devoting their life to paying respect to their inspiration. Music, food, mentalities — there’s so much meaning that we can derive from these different things from around the world if we fully engage in them.

Sheena & The Rokkets traveled the world a ton to record, play live shows, and take fan photos with other famous punks — but it was in Japan where they were considered superstars and two of punk rock’s most popular faces. They are by no means the first Japanese band to fully embrace Western music — an entire generation of English-speaking garage bands popped up right after The Beatles hit it big — but their deep love and fascination with the genre led to them writing iconic songs that made them shine under the big lights. The connection they made with Japanese audiences is undeniable, and all you have to do to see this is to watch the always super-dense crowd rock along to their taped live performances.

After listening to Sheena and Makoto for years, I’m thinking that the secret to their coolness was that they were both gifted entertainers who had an endless fascination with the world outside of Japan — and had a strong sense-of-self to express that. Maybe someday I can reach their level. I may dream.

2) Death And Discworld

Terre T played a ton of fantasy-themed metal on one of her latest episodes of Hooligan, and shit did that put me in a Lord Of The Rings mood. She played a song called Gandalf’s Return, for christsake! I went to a few bookstores after that to find new copies since I was in dire need of an upgrade. My grandma on my dad’s side was a middle school English teacher, and the copies I’ve owned for years were the ones she gave me — tiny, yellowed, and crumbling student readers from no later than the 70s. If I’m going down this route again, then I want to own the Camaro of Lord Of The Rings editions. I want them to be the size of leather cinderblocks, I want illustrations, I want thought put into the font, and I want — no, need — MAPS, MAPS, MAPS at the very least.

Couldn’t find anything like that on Friday night, but I was happy to see that they started reprinting the Discworld novels by Terry Prachett. God, these books are so funny. I couldn’t resist grabbing one. For those that don’t know, the Discworld series is a very cleaver and very English satire of sword-and-sorcery stories. You might be familiar with Good Omens, which he co-wrote and was a similar take on Christianity or Catholicism or whatever — I always get those two crossed-up.

They made a few BBC TV adaptations, but I don’t know if I’d recommend watching them. Discword as a place is absolutely absurd and so much of its charm lies in the way Pratchett writes about it. Think about The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy where you have something like the Babel Fish — a tiny prehistoric tadpole that you jam in your ear and gain the ability to understand all languages. It’s a funny concept in-and-of itself, but it’s Douglas Adams’ English wit describing it that makes the entire sequence memorable. That’s how I feel about Pratchett — I think it would be difficult to depict the extent of his humor by just filming events from his books. You end up with things like The Hogfather tv mini-series, and I really didn’t enjoy seeing Ankh-Morpork filmed like one of those hack Harry Potter movies they kept making after the 3rd one. Really really sucked.

The book I picked up was Eric, which is a short novella and sequel to the last Discworld book I read called Sourcery. Rincewind, our favorite incompetent and scaredy-cat wizard, died at the end of Sourcery and was brought back to life by a 14 year old boy whose hobby is practicing Demonology. The demonologist, named Eric, has a dream that I also had when I was that age — to have a demon from Hell under my control and use it to take over the world. After proper preparation, Eric performs all the right rituals and opens up a doorway to Hell to fish out his very own demon. The problem he experiences is two-fold — 1) Clumsy-ass Rincewind was also in Hell and somehow ended up on Eric’s hook. It’s quite a downgrade from having an all powerful demon to help you strike fear into opposing empires. Rincewind can barely do magic and takes great pride in his ability to run away from every possible situation. But Eric is unfettered! Downgrade, yes — but he’s still closer to world domination than he was before. 2) Actual demons from Hell realized that Rincewind stole their opportunity to enter the world of the living and they are pisssssssssed.

Gothic era authors (Mary Shelley, Ann Radcliffe, etc…) took delight in describing the environments where their characters had adventures. Not everything about it, but definitely the really striking bits. We notice and internalize certain things about the environment we see, too — colors, shapes, motions — and I’m always impressed when an author is able to vividly write about an environment in a succinct way. Terry Pratchett mastered this hysterically. He’ll describe a place or person with the most ridiculous features, and then poses some sort of bizarre logic as to why it actually makes perfect sense and that we’re the weirdos for thinking otherwise. It sounds antagonistic, but he’s always so charming the way he does it. For example, he always puts aside a paragraph or two for reminding readers of what Discword actually is physically — a flat planet that rests on the back of four elephants who in turn stand on the back of a titanic turtle who randomly flies through space. None of the Discworld inhabitants know if the turtle is male or female. They really don’t know much about it expect that they live on top of it. “There might have been more efficient ways to build a world. You might start with a ball of molten iron and then coat it with successive layers of rock, like an old-fashioned gobstopper. And you’d have a very efficient planet, but it wouldn’t look so nice. Besides, things would drop off the bottom.”

I’m an absolute fiend for writing like this.

3) RAMBO STYLE!!

The winner’s circle for NYC sandwiches is absolutely packed with great choices, but christ did I have an amazing one near Prospect Park a few weeks ago. I was coming home from the Brooklyn Museum and had to get creative with my commute since the Q train wasn’t running. Getting creative typically involves a ton of walking, but I love walking. I’d walk everywhere if I could. I’m completely cool with this. I was also mildly buzzed and super hungry, so I was busting for a bite.

So thank you, Rambo Style. Thank you for having the foresight in being in the right location at the right time with the right signage and having EXACTLY right cuisine I was looking for, despite never meeting me prior. It’s a small place located at 579 Flatbush Avenue — right near the BSQ Prospect Park stop — and they specialize in all the popular dishes we typically find in Asian restaurants through America. Ramen, yaki udon, soup dumplings, different fried rices, a Korean beef broth soup called muguk that I should really try since it reminds me of that oxtail soup I can never remember the name of — that type of stuff. You literally can’t miss the sign — it’s bright red with the words RAMBO STYLE flanked with Chinese hanzi. I’ll get around to trying all the dishes eventually, but I couldn’t resist getting their signature dish for my first trip — The Rambo Sandwich.

A Philly Cheesesteak with melted American cheese and teriyaki sauce. Protein choices are chicken, beef flat steak or shrimp. SO unbelievably tasty!! I may have to write an update detailing my rankings of the 3 proteins once I try them all. It’s such a simple concept that I’m surprised some big franchise chain didn’t think of it first. What I love the most about the sandwich is that it tastes great from the actual place, but it’s a simple enough concept to recreate at home. You can either make it quick or fancy!

Whenever the mood strikes to create my own Ultra Rambo Sandwich (and it will happen), I was thinking of getting some nice cubed beef from a butchers, grill those up and stuff them into some Italian rolls, and make the trip to Sunrise Mart to find some okonomiyaki sauce to glob on top. I’m gonna even try and grill up the onions good this time, as I always lack the patience to get them caramelized the way I want. But if I don’t want to go through all that effort, all I need to do is pick up some bread, teriyaki sauce and frozen Steak-Uums from my closest supermarket and I’m also good! I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a sandwich that inspired this much creativity in me.

So in conclusion, let me know if you wanna hang out in Brooklyn. We’ll walk around Prospect Park while eating our Rambo Sandwiches.