VOL.103／104 第 22 回 Hitoshi Okamoto／第 23 回 AZUKI 七

From music freak magazine Vol.103 / Vol.104

GARNET CROW's *word scope in M.F.M* (Vol.22)

GARNET CROW will release a new single on July 16. This time Hitoshi Okamoto appears while he is in the middle of recording.

Hello, this is Okamoto. The weather has become thoroughly hot and humid. How has everyone been?

Not long ago, the hard drive in my computer died. Everything vanished completely, cleanly wiped out. It was a huge shock. Of course, hard drives are consumable items, so you could say this kind of thing happens all the time. I tried everything I could think of, but there was no saving it. The previous replacement retired after only a little over a year—far too short a life. My luck was terrible. Still, we rely on machines in our daily lives and let them make things easier for us in so many ways, so perhaps this is simply the price we have to pay.

Mobile phones in particular have been working themselves to death lately. Yes, exactly—you are absolutely right. Just a few years ago we thought pagers were incredibly convenient, and now we can make video calls on our phones. You cannot help saying, “Wait, what?”

We are fortunate to be surrounded by so many things. There is no question about it. Walk down the street for a little while and people are handing out all kinds of things, so the things you carry keep multiplying. “Would you like a modem?” Without all of this, we would probably manage to live somehow anyway. But then it would be the people who had to work desperately hard.

When I think about that, I secretly find myself longing for a life with nothing, a life returned to its starting point. Get up in the morning, cultivate the fields, go hunting, go fishing—all simply to make it through that day. Be born in a small village, get married there, and eventually finish your life surrounded by many children. Is it strange to imagine that?

And yet here I am, sitting firmly in front of a computer and typing these words on a keyboard. Hopeless, really. Anyway, it is great that the fishhook has been removed from Tama-chan. Well then, see you next time.

GARNET CROW's *word scope in M.F.M* (Vol.23)

GARNET CROW's eagerly awaited new single “泣けない夜も　泣かない朝も” will be released on July 23 (pp. 12–13). This time AZUKI Nana joins us!

Time is money... — Franklin said that.

It was just after Golden Week. I was thinking that, at last, I would not have to see so many exhausted families out on trips, having worn themselves out for no reason... and that was when my phone suddenly stopped time. The display was permanently stuck at “00:04.”

I rely on my phone most of the time when I check the time. Without it, I really become someone who has no idea what day it is or what time it is—and could not care less. I am already a habitual latecomer, so without anything to tell me the time... it felt wonderful! Even when the appointed time had long since passed, I did not feel hurried at all. Because I had no idea what time it was. I even found myself with a huge amount of “breathing room,” thinking, “People really should not rush around so much...” I felt as though I were living in a small town in the Italian countryside, swaying in a train that ran approximately on time whenever the weekend came around...

Every Thursday, live performances are held in the bread factory beneath GIZA HILLS, and I often stop by to watch. Before going, I make plans to meet people from the company—for example, “Meet me on the fifth floor at such-and-such a time.” But by that point, all I could register in my mind was something as vague as, “Sure, sure. Then I will see you around sunset.” I did not know the time anyway. That worked out more or less well through the middle of May.

But the summer solstice kept drawing closer, and the days grew longer little by little. Every week, the extent of my lateness became more serious. One week in June, someone called me and asked, “Um... are you not planning to come see the show today?” ...It was already more than halfway over.

I thought this might be a problem, so I dug out a wristwatch that I did not usually wear and thought, “I suppose I have no choice. I will put it on!” But it had been sitting untouched for several months, so I had to wind it for quite a while. I tried very hard, turning the tiny crown around and around without end... and then it came off. The crown...

Since things had come to that, there was nothing I could do, so I decided, “I guess having a rough idea of the time is good enough.” I could always see the time once I got into a car, after all. Just when I thought that, the liquid-crystal display on the car's clock went dark the next day too. It was wonderfully comfortable. I could only conclude that something was guiding me toward this way of life.

This story has gone on rather long and is becoming difficult to bring to a close, but yesterday I was walking in the rain during the day when I heard people shouting, “End unpaid overtime!” and “Raise Osaka Prefecture's minimum wage!” I joined in without missing a beat. Demonstrations really do get your blood racing, don't they?

Well then, I hope everyone has a wonderful summer full of anticipation and excitement!