Goalproving - Apple Store (Step 1)

I started a new goalproving project, called "Apple Store."

My goal is to perform music on the small stage on the first floor of the Apple Store in Shibuya before I leave Japan. Enjoy the video.






Goalproving - Apple Store (Step 1) from jchap on Vimeo

Read More...

Summary only...

new music: "Dues"

Here's a lil songseed from last night.

Words:

That's what she said to me
I don't have to pay my dues

Music:


Download it: http://abitofnonsense.com/mp3/dues.mp3

As always, contact me if you want more info, higher quality stuff or garageband files to play around with. i'm working on streamlining this process.

Also contact me if you want me to work more on a song seed that you like. You just may help me finish a song!

Read More...

Summary only...

new music: Nevabefo'

I enjoy creating new words. It's such a glorious feeling to run a Google search with no results - it's as if the Gods of the Internet are saying, "You're original! You're a trailblazer! A pioneer! Nobody has thought of that word before!*"

*and put it on a website


In this case, the word that has appeared on the internet never before is: nevabefo. It means "never before."

Nevabefo:

Read More...

Summary only...

video: Magic ABC's!

Here's a music video I made for "The Alphabet Song" from Super Simple Songs, my school's original ESL/EFL CDs.





ACTUALLY, this "video" is really a stop-motion animation. It's a slideshow of about 650-700 individual photos, which I snapped one-by-one over the course of several hours. It was intense.

Q: Jeremy, why did you spend several hours gently nudging magnetic letters around a whiteboard?

A: Because that's my job, and it's awesome!


I teach English some days, and I make videos other days. The videos are to help spread the word about Super Simple Songs, which are CD's full of fun English songs for kids. Super Simple Songs are all written and performed by Devon, Troy and Tanja, the other teachers here at Knock Knock English.

Here are some more of the Super Simple Songs videos I've created over the past several months:

www.youtube.com/SuperSimpleSongs

If you press the orange subscribe button on that page, you can find out whenever I post a new Super Simple Songs video.

Know anybody who might enjoy these videos? Like any ESL teachers or 3-year-olds? If so, send them the video links! Even better yet, put me in contact with them!

Read More...

Summary only...

song: You're Telling Me

I planted a new songseed in the Creative Forest. It's called "You're Telling Me."

Here are the approximate lyrics:

you're telling me to go other ways/
i don't wanna go other ways/
i wanna go the way that i want to/
and if you don't want me to go that way/
then i'm sorry/

i can go this way if i want to/
i can go that way if i want to/

so far awaaaaaay/
from effectin me/
you're so far awaaaaay/
from havin an effect on me/
yeah/

Read More...

Summary only...

Something Upon Which We Can All Agree.

Whether your black or white, young or old, straight or gay, I think we can pretty much all agree...

...that Gargamel, the bad guy from The Smurfs, looks kind of like Danny DeVito.

Read More...

Summary only...

Nagi

This is possibly the cutest video clip I've ever put online. You can read the story below.







This is Nagi. from Knock Knock

The Story:

Nagi is a student at Knock Knock English, the school where I teach English here in Japan. Nagi and her Mama came in one day during their free time, because they wanted me to video her singing her new rap song. While I was setting some stuff up for the real video, we were listening to her favorite song by the Black Eyed Peas. She decided to record herself with my computer's video camera, and the footage was too precious to ignore.

You can find a bunch more videos I've made with Knock Knock English here: www.supersimplesongs.com/videos.htm

Read More...

Summary only...

Consolidation

It's Sunday afternoon, 3:57pm. I'm spending the weekend consolidating.



Consolidating my blogs.

Consolidating my YouTube accounts.

Consolidating my websites.

Consolidating myself.

Read More...

Summary only...

song: Polishedness

Here's a song I started (and finished) over the last hour. It's kind of representative of my current drive to share things online, regardless of their level of completion and refinement. If I only shared things when i felt they were completely finished and perfect, I'd pretty much never share anything.

So, I'm gonna start taking the extreme opposite approach -- just tossing each thing up here after my first sitting or two with it. As always, feel free to download it, enjoy it, remix it, etc.

Lemme know if you do anything cool.

j-chap

Some of the lyrics:

I'm happy right now.

1:34am

Sunday

Sometime in 2007. May-ish.

5th? 6th? 4th? Around there...

polishedness is overrated
polishedness is overrated
polishedness is overrated
polishedness is overrated

what's the point of finishing everything if you ain't gonna finish anything, know what i mean?
listen
what's the point of making it perfect if it's at the expense of never finishing it?

be okay with it not being okay, okay?

be okay with it not being perfect, and,
you'll find that you can finish it and it's always worth it

Read More...

Summary only...

Interview About my Job as a Teacher

A guy named Jeremy S. sent me an e-mail saying that he likes my videos, and wants to come to Japan. I encouraged him to come! He said he wants to, but he's still in school. But would I be willing to do an interview for him? He has to interview someone with his dream job. Well, how could I turn that down, especially from someone named Jeremy!

Here are his questions and my answers:

What do you do?
I teach English to Japanese kids, age 2-11.

Why do you do it?
I love kids, I love learning, and I wanted to live in Japan for a year.

How long have you been doing this?
Seven months, so far.

How much is the pay?
260,000 yen per month. That’s about $27,000 per year. In addition to that, they pay for my transportation to and from work (my train and bus tickets).

What type of education do you have?
I have a BS in Psychology from Duke University.

How far do you travel each day to get to your work?
About 5 minutes by bicycle, 20 minutes by train, 5 minutes by foot. Total about 30 minutes. Once each week (on Thursdays), I take an hour’s worth of trains, plus another 20 minute bus ride, and about 20 minutes of walking. Thursdays are about 1.5 hours of travel.

How old are the kids that you teach?
Age 2-11. The youngest ones (under 5 years old) come in with their Moms or Dads.

What subject do you teach?
English.

Is it fun?
Very, very fun. It’s especially fun because, when we’re not teaching, we write our own original kids’ music and even make fun videos! We even do a podcast on iTunes, which helps parents learn to have some basic English conversations with their kids.
Check out our music videos on YouTube here: www.youtube.com/SuperSimpleSongs
And here’s our podcast: http://www.kodomoeikaiwa.podomatic.com/

Is it suitable for any one or just certain people?
Well, you have to like kids, because otherwise you will go crazy. That means you have to be okay with your students sometimes drooling, pickin’ boogers, tugging on your shirt and/or climbing on their Mom during class. If you like kids, and you’re willing to work hard and have fun, then it’s a great job.

Thanks for interviewing me, Jeremy S.! I hope this was helpful.

-Jeremy C.

Read More...

Summary only...

SpamFolks: Funny Spam Names

Carpathian S. Crumbliest
Plummer P. Elijah
Uncanny V. Disfavor

Who are these people? They're SpamFolks. They're imaginary people whose only purpose on this planet is to occupy the "Sender" column of the spam messages in my in-box.

But I love their names. I guess there's some system for automatically generating a first name, a middle initial and a last name, by borrowing names from some database of names, along with random words from the English dictionary. I think these make great character names, and I hope to one day make some sort of a song or video using these names.

So, today, I'm going to officially start my official list of my favorite SpamFolks. Please feel free to tell me some of your favorites, too...as long as they're actually "real" (meaning you've actually received an e-mail from them).

"Real" SPAMFOLKS:

Carpathian S. Crumbliest
Plummer P. Elijah
Uncanny V. Disfavor
Pip Roman
Barnacles P. Bib
Transcontinental K. Ferreted
Convoking G. Geezer
Bossed Q. Ensembles
Vogue K. Individual
Catalyze E. Eclipsed
Biko H. Appliances
sophi sukey
Jawboned I. Inordinately
....more to be updated, each time I clear out my junk-mail folder.

Read More...

Summary only...

Back to Life!

Aight, yo, i'm gonna bring this blog back to life. It's been collecting dust for a while. From now on, I'm going to try and limit my posts to 5 sentences or less. If I try to make huge, long, grandiose blog entries, I never finish them.

alrighty, then!

Read More...

Summary only...