The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: Japan

  • Feelin’ the Funk at International Education Week

    Feelin’ the Funk at International Education Week

    Breaking down the power and importance of global funk music

    A few minutes into his talk on global funk music, local DJ and Humboldt State University Communication Department Chair Maxwell Schnurer stumbled into a definition of funk.

    “If you want my definition of funk, that might be it: revolutionary praxis with a desire to get down,” he said.

    Schnurer’s talk on Feb. 10 flowed quickly. His enthusiasm for the tracks he played trickled into the audience of about 20 students, who nodded and laughed along. But Schnurer later gave a more serious definition.

    “I find global funk to be ethical, significant and real,” he said.

    Alison Holmes, associate professor and the lead of the international studies program at HSU, facilitated the event. Holmes eagerly offered context to the presentation as part of HSU’s 20th Annual International Education Week. Schnurer’s talk was just one of 45 scheduled hours of material that over 1,000 students and staff were expected to attend.

    “It’s a showcase for all the global things we do in the community,” Holmes said.

    “I think that funk has a certain feeling. It makes you move and it makes you dance and it makes you feel all of these different things, but if you actually listen to it, the things that are being said are of importance.”

    Skye Freitas, communication major and film minor

    Near the end of Schnurer’s talk, he gave the audience a take-home message. Most music artists, he said, have been historically ripped off—especially artists of color. He urged students to pay artists for their work.

    “Does that make sense? That ethically, as we move forward, we try to be aware of the politics of power,” Schnurer said. “And that often times means that we are going to have to pay up for information.”

    After the presentation, Skye Freitas, a communication major and film minor, said she loved Schnurer’s presentation—Schnurer is her adviser—and gave a surprisingly passionate explanation of the importance of music.

    “I think that funk has a certain feeling,” Freitas said. “It makes you move and it makes you dance and it makes you feel all of these different things, but if you actually listen to it, the things that are being said are of importance.”

    Schnurer skipped across the globe with audio clips to give the audience a taste of different funk styles. The first stop: Nigeria and Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti’s song, “Pansa Pansa.”

    “He hexes and challenges the Nigerian government at this level while being—literally at various points—a revolutionary and also a candidate for president of Nigeria,” Schnurer said.

    “Honestly, this could be like an hour-long, three-unit course.”

    Maxwell Schnurer, local DJ and communication department chair

    The next stop on the funky foray was Brazil and the music of Tim Maia. In describing the Brazilian funk scene, Schnurer explained the underground spiritual game—or the use of funk music by artists to express their spiritual selves.

    Schnurer called Maia’s album perhaps the greatest Brazilian funk album ever, but only after noting its joint inspirations of a heavy dose of LSD and a cult pamphlet.

    “You know, those things I would maybe not be inspired by or take away from the Tim Maia story,” he said.

    Schnurer flew the room to Japan to meet Haruko Kuwana, and then to India with a soundtrack from a compilation album, Pysch Funk Sa-Re-Ga! Schnurer said many funk tracks remain hidden as instrumental movie soundtracks. He finished with a short profile video on El Rego, a funk artist from Benin in West Africa.

    Schnurer paused midway through the talk.

    “Honestly, this could be like an hour-long, three-unit course,” he said. “If I were to criticize my own lecture I would say that there is something kind of disrespectful about name-dropping dozens of interesting global musicians without giving them all musical space.”

    Rachael Thacker, another communication major, hadn’t taken any classes with Schnurer, but admitted she would attend just about anything he does for his interesting takes. Thacker knew little about funk.

    “Just my first impression was that you can groove to it, you can dance to it and you can relax to it,” she said.

    Thacker planned to ask Amazon’s Alexa to play some funk later.

    A hand sprang up when the talk ended.

    “Will you teach a class on this?” a student asked.

    The group chuckled and Schnurer hemmed and hawed. He wasn’t sure.

    While he pondered making a class out of the talk, Schnurer left the audience with an appropriately funky anecdote.

    “Let me encourage that maybe it’s time to buy the like Thai funk box set for your brother for Christmas from Mike in the attic,” he said.

  • Dreams of American baseball

    Dreams of American baseball

    By | Danny Dunn

    Miki Fukasawa’s journeyed from Sagamihara City, Japan, to Arcata, Calif. in his pursuit of playing baseball in America.

    “My lifelong dream was to play baseball in America and now I am,” Fukasawa said.

    Fukasawa is a catcher on the Humboldt State Intramural Baseball team. Fukasawa came to HSU in a study abroad program. He previously attended J.F. Oberlin University, located about an hour outside of Tokyo, Japan. There, Fukasawa was studying English. Fukasawa was also a catcher on the J.F. Oberlin baseball team and hopes to rejoin the his former team after his semester at HSU.

    “When I move back to Japan, I want to learn more English, and play baseball as long as possible,” Fukasawa said. “The dream would be to become a professional baseball player either in Japan, or even for Major League Baseball.”

    Fukasawa found out about the study abroad program, from some friends at his university back home.

    Fukasawa said that so far he cannot complain about the Humboldt life. His favorite food since arriving at HSU has been the pizza from The Depot on campus. Fukasawa said that he feels no added pressure to perform on the baseball team, and that he enjoys his teammates very much

    Fukasawa found housing in Arcata with fellow intramural teammate and HSU student Christian Clouthier. Clouthier is a second year transfer student from Sacramento. This is Clouthier’s second season with the team, while also acting as the team treasurer. These duties include getting people reimbursed for away games, collecting the dues of the players, and estimating the total cost of the season expenses.

    Clouthier has done more than that, he has opened his apartment to Fukasawa for the semester. Clouthier lives in the same complex with an international student coordinator at Humboldt State, who told him about Fukasawa.

    “It was just me and my girlfriend in the apartment, she is half Japanese and thought it would be a good idea,” Clouthier said. “We had an extra room, so we thought it would be a good thing to do.”

    Fukasawa is not the only Japanese ball player on the HSU intramural squad, Shinya Arai is from Kanazawa, the capital city of Ishikawa, Japan. He also plays catcher and a little bit of third base for the intramural team.

    “I have always wanted to attend an American university. I chose HSU because I like the California climate,” Arai said.

    Arai started playing ball around when he was around 9 years old, but stopped around junior high school. He was fortunate to have the opportunity to contribute to the HSU team.

    Arai has enjoyed his time in Humboldt County, he is staying in an apartment in McKinleyville. His favorite food so far has been from the Chinese restaurants around town.

    Arai likes playing on the baseball team, but says at times there can be confusion on the field with the language barrier.

    When Arai returns home he will continue with school, and learn more about travel and english, in hopes of one day becoming a sightseeing organizer.