John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Tony Palmer, Roland Joffé and Me - Another True Story

DATELINE: Dec. 15, 2017

It is 4:11 am. I am locked in a hotel room (by my own volition) in Sochi Russia. I am extremely hungover. Need. Much. Coffee. Drank too many vodka shots with the Russians last night as I was celebrating an extremely successful day for our film (and the drinks were free!)

Yesterday, Ghostroads - A Japanese Rock n Roll Ghost Story screened at the 2017 Sochi International Film Festival. It went great. VERY well received by the audience. Some of them loved the movie, it seems. I gather a few hated it. 

Good.

With Roland Joffé watching Ghostroads at Sochi International Film Festival. 

Sochi, Russia, Dec. 14, 2017

There were two extremely famous and legendary film directors in the audience, Roland Joffé and Tony Palmer. Both have won many awards and also Oscars too! They said they enjoyed the movie.

Roland Joffé is world renowned. He is known for the Oscar-winning movies The Killing Fields and The Mission. He also has at least 15 of the world's most prestigious awards including wins at Cannes, BAFTA and the Golden Globes.

He also reminds me of my dad. Nice guy. 

Tony Palmer - who is also world-renowned and has an extensive rock n roll background (understatement of the Year!) - said he loved the film and gave me a quote: "That was an excellent and really fun movie." 

I couldn't get a quote from Roland Joffee as he is the head of the Judging Committee for features and, as since Ghostroads is nominated, He isn't really supposed to even talk to me I guess (though we have spoken very briefly now 3 times)... He gave Ghostroads a "Thumbs up."

After the film screened, Tony Palmer actually asked me to go to lunch with him! We met in the hotel lobby and we had a great chat.

With Tony Palmer at Radisson hotel in Sochi Russia. Dec 14, 2017. Tony Palmer has made over 100 films, ranging from early works with The Beatles, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Maria Callas, Igor Stravinsky, Richard Wagner, and many more.

Tony Palmer, besides being a legendary director who has made some of the greatest films about rock music in history, he has also won many awards (40 international prizes for his work including 12 Gold Medals from the New York Film Festival as well as numerous BAFTAs and Emmy Awards. He has also won the Prix Italia - twice!) 

Tony Palmer made the historic Beatles film, "All My Loving" in 1968. He was also one of John Lennon's best friends. 

After lunch, Tony sat with me at the hotel lobby and began to reminisce about John Lennon and the Beatles back in the late sixties. 

I mentioned to Tony that I have met Yoko Ono once several years ago and found her to be a charming lady. To that, Tony's eyes grew wide.

L->R: Mike Rogers, Yoko Ono, Sasha and George Williams (the most famous DJ in Japan!)

Tony leaned over to me and started to tell me stories about John Lennon. He began to reminisce about how, when he was an editor at the world famous UK newspaper The Observer, he and John Lennon became best friends. 

Tony said, "Let me tell you about something that I don't tell very many people." I was all ears.

He began by telling me about the time when John Lennon admitted to him that he was having an affair with Yoko Ono and John wanted Tony to interview Yoko for the Observer newspaper in the UK in order to help repair Yoko Ono's reputation in England.

Tony said, "One day, John Lennon called me on the phone. John Lennon was an extremely intelligent man. But that day he didn't seem his usual self. John said to me, 'Tony, I need to talk to you about something important.'" 

So later they met and it was then that John Lennon admitted, for the very first time to anyone, that he and Yoko Ono were having an affair.

It seems that Yoko had shown up at a Beatles recording and was allowed to sit in the studio. This was unprecendented and didn't sit well with the other Beatles at all. In the past, even when George Harrison's own mother came to the studio, she wasn't allowed inside and had to sit outside the studio waiting. But Yoko was different. She sat in the control room during the entire recording session.

Paul, George, and Ringo didn't like that at all because they felt that Yoko was interference and would, one day, lead to the breaking up of the Beatles. 

When the world began to suspect that something was going on between John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Yoko began getting attacked from all sides; by the other three Beatles themselves and the press who considered Yoko's art to be trash.

Tony said to me, "The press hated Yoko because they believed her artwork was nonsense. They thought that putting a nail in the ceiling wasn't art but merely an exercise in absurdity. But, this was 1968 and all sorts of artists were doing art that seemed absurd. The UK press bashed Yoko Ono mercilessly."

John wanted Tony, as editor of the Observer, to interview Yoko as an artist and explain to the world who she really was and what she was all about. Tony agreed but told John, "I will interview her and write the article but I cannot guarantee the Observer will print it."

John Lennon asked Tony to do what he could.

Tony said that when he met Yoko, he found her to be a very intelligent and articulate artist. He said he was greatly impressed by her. He wrote the article and it did run in the Observer newspaper. John Lennon was ecstatic.

This was, but just one of the many great stories Tony told me about John and Yoko.

Later, Tony said that when John died, Yoko asked him to pen the obituary for John and he would later receive a handwritten letter from Yoko Ono thanking him for writing such a wonderful obituary. 

Tony said it was obvious that the letter from Yoko was stained with tears.

Right then, Tony's handlers came and he had to run off. My brief fifteen minutes with someone who knew and loved John Lennon and Yoko Ono ended there.

Later that night, I saw Tony again and he thanked me. Once again complimented me for Ghostroads, and handed me his business card and asked me to write to him. I would see Tony a few more times.

He was a kind and soft-spoken gentleman and everyone would find his stories and story-telling enthralling. I sure did.

I met a legend and he was a nice guy too!

Then, after we met that night, we shook hands and parted.

I was awestruck to be so close to a living legend like Tony Palmer... A man who was the best friend of John Lennon, a man who changed the world....

Thank you, Tony, for bringing us his story as well as the story of many others who touched the lives of hundreds of millions of people all over the world. You are an amazing man with an amazing life and a truly incredible wealth of stories to tell. 

Thanks, Tony Palmer and Roland Joffé for honoring us with your presence at the Ghostroads premiere in Russia.

-------------------------

Ghostroads - A Japanese Rock n Roll Ghost Story trailer:

Belinda Carlisle Naked, The Ramones, Rodney Bingenheimer and Me - Another True Story

It's another true episode of shit that happened way back in my previous life. This is wild stuff and unbelievable craziness... But it is all true.... 

It's a story about the time Belinda Carlisle (the lead singer of the Go-Go's) stood right in front of me half naked and exposed her bare womanhood... 

It's a true story about how I first met the Ramones and became good friends with Joey, and got high with Dee Dee Ramone. 

It's a story about how my band got kicked off the Rodney on the Roq radio show! Yet a year or so later, I would become Rodney's assistant.

And it's all true.

Rodney and the Ramones

OK. This is a long convoluted story... So, I'll try to make it short....I was in a punk band named the Rotters in 1978. We had a hit song called "Sit On My Face, Stevie Nicks." (or "Nix.") I was the lead singer. 

Anyway, at that time I was a university student and fell in love with Punk Music from watching a TV show ranting on the evils of a disgusting music in England called punk rock.

So my friends and I (who watched the same show) decided to make a punk band. Since we were university students, studying cinema, it was a simple thing to get into the recording studio at the university and record for free. We did. The students hated us, but the instructor, Richard Simpson, liked us so much he said he'd make us a master for free so we took him up on the offer and the master was made. 

Fast forward a few days. The Dickies were playing at the Roxy. The Go-Gos had their debut show that night as the opening act for the Dickies. We figured Rodney would be there so we took a few singles with us and went to the show. Rodney had already heard a cassette tape version of the song and had told me, "When you make a 7-inch, bring it to me and I will play it." (I cannot recall how I had gotten that cassette into his hands earlier).

The Go-Go's played first (there might have been another band - I can't remember.) Even though the Go-Go's were sloppy as hell (look whose talking!) I liked them. When the Dickies played, their lead vocalist, Stan Lee, pulled out a roll of dollar bills (it was a roll of cut up newspaper in the size of dollar bills with one dollar wrapped around the outside so it looked like $100 dollars). Stan screamed out to the audience, "I have some money here to give to any girl who will come up here on stage and show me what sex really is!"

Immediately Belinda Carlisle jumped up on stage, screamed like a banshee, and pulled off her shirt exposing her breasts for the audience and entire world to see.... She wasn't standing more than 4 feet right (about 2 meters) in front of me!

It was a, er, "exciting" moment for me. 

I fell in love with Belinda Carlisle right there on the spot. I really knew I could really respect her and her questionable moral values. Really! Though, I considered that, when she became my fiancee, I was wondering how I would explain to my parents how I first met Belinda? 

But I digress....

Later on, Belinda would become a goddess. I had screamed to her "I love you!" when her top was off... But she never called me on the phone after that... No problem..... Her loss!

Anyway, later, Rodney was sitting at a table in the back with Belinda, so we found him and re-introduced ourselves and gave him our record. He seemed genuinely interested and kind and said he would play it.... But, you know how that is.... You can't be sure it will be played until you hear it with your own ears....

You can imagine our shock, surprise and happiness when, on the very the next Rodney on the Roq show, we heard our song, "Sit on my Face, Stevie Nicks" on air. Rodney would later tell me that "Sit on my Face" was the "most requested song in the history of the Rodney on the Roq show."

So, after that, we decided that we'd go to KROQ uninvited and just show up and try to get on Rodney's show. Of course we brought more 7-inch records with us.

We drove down to KROQ (in the Pasadena days) on the night of Rodney's show. We had no idea how to get in, but I knew that the front door of KROQ would be locked so we drove around to the parking lot on the back of the building.

I didn't know exactly what I was looking for as we drove around the parking lot. I was looking for a sign or something as to the rear entrance of KROQ when I looked up and on the second or third floor of this building were four guys standing at the top of the stairs. They were wearing black leather jackets and looked like punks. I shouted at my friend who was driving the car, "Stop! This is it!" As the car stopped, I grabbed some records and jumped out of the car and ran full speed up the stairs to where those four guys were standing.

As soon as I got to the top, those guys looked at me like, "Who are you?" and didn't say anything. I didn't say anything either as the door opened and a heavyset guy allowed those four in. He looked at me with a stink-eye, but since I was wearing a leather bomber's jacket and had a hand a handful of 7-inch records he shrugged his shoulders and waved me through the door.

I would soon realize  - and this will blow your mind - that those other four guys were the Ramones! No kidding. What luck, What incredible timing!

Thank you, god!

When I walked into the studio Rodney looked at me and said, "Who are you?"

I replied that I was the lead singer of the Rotters and he soon remembered me. He welcomed me into the studio. I then asked if my band could come in too and he said, "OK!" So I called the other guys and we were interviewed on air at the same time as the Ramones. During the Ramones interview, Rodney asked us, live on the air, "You guys like the Ramones, don't you?" 

The guitarist and writer of "Stevie Nicks," Phester Swollen, and I said in unison, "Uh… er… we like the Sex Pistols" (I do like the Ramones, but, at that time, The Pistols were my favorite band.) 

Anyway, I guess that was a faux paus and the guy who let us in told us we had to leave and kicked us out. But the damage was done. Sit on my Face became a big hit and that would be the first time I met Joey Ramone, who would become a very good friend years later - when the Ramones came to Japan and met me again and found out that I was playing in Japan the same kind of music that Rodney was playing in L.A.

Things are hazy after those early days... Later, after my band fell apart, I'd go work as Rodney's assistant. Which was tons of fun. 

Like I said, years later, Joey and I would become good friends. Maybe because I was one of the very few who supported the Ramones on Japanese radio. There is one thing about Joey Ramone that I think only his good friends must know: Joey was a really polite guy and I think he must have had good parents. Why? Because every year Joey would send me a Christmas card. It struck me as odd that this rock n roller god would be sending Christmas cards to people... But Joey always did. Think about that; only people with proper upbringing and manners do the little things like send friends Christmas cards. I was so surprised to get those. How many people do that?

There was another time that the Ramones came to Japan (It must have been 25 years ago or so) and they asked me to come to the show and bring young girls, so I did. I brought my famous TV announcer friend, George William's younger sisters. They were hot! I think they were 18 or so at the time. After the show, as I was talking to Joey, I overheard, Johnny angrily scream at the top of his lungs, "Stop pulling on my neck!" Then I heard George's pissed off little sister shout back, "Stop grabbing my tits!" 

I looked at Joey and nervously said, "Gee, Joey. I guess it's time to go."

That was the last time I ever saw Joey Ramone.

Oh, and Dee Dee Ramone? Oh, Dee Dee loved me! You see back in those days, I was living in Ventura county and we had MUCH better weed - at much lower prices - than the dirt in L.A. people were smoking... So every time Dee Dee and the Ramones came to KROQ, Dee Dee didn't want to go on the air, he wanted to hang out in the back room with me and the, er, "peace pipe" and "expand our horizons." I used to worry that he should be talking on the radio and not in the backroom getting stoned with me (I was always stoned anyway)... But it seemed like no one cared....

Oh, let me make it clear here too; I have never seen Rodney drink alcohol or get high... He was a tea-totaler. That kind of surprised me that he was so straight... But he is.

Dee Dee and I were stoners. It was the late 70s, early 80s, OK? That's what people did back in those days. So off my back!

So, that's it. My claim to fame was getting high with Dee Dee Ramone. Also the first time I ever spoke to Belinda Carlisle was when she was half-naked... And Joey Ramone used to send me Christmas Cards...

Rodney? Well, Rodney was - and is - Rodney...

Rodney wouldn't hurt a fly. 

Rodney must have been standing in the middle of all that crazy rock n roll and whirlwind of madness and wondering, 

"Wow! Look at this beautiful house and this beautiful wife! (He doesn't have a wife).... Well, how did I get here?"

I wonder, today, how I ever got there.

----------------

Go-Go's - Cool Jerk '90 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9V7tAlpzoY

The Rotters are a long (and quite hilarious story. Read it here: The Rotters Biography - https://www.last.fm/music/The+Rotters/+wiki) My name was "Nigel Nitro."

If you liked the above post, you might get a chuckle from:

My close "working relationship" with Charles Bukowski. This article was quite popular, thank you. Looking back, though, I kind of screwed that one up because I should have added the name of U2's Bono to that article's title; "Charles Bukowski, Bono and Me."  

Also, a while back, I wrote about the time I met "God" in person and even sort of had lunch with him at a restaurant in Los Angeles!...  And who could forget the time I met former president H.W. Bush and the hijinks surrounding Daddy Bush, Diana Ross and me? 

Professional Sports vs. Video Gaming

I'd like to compare my friend Jake with his son...

Jake was telling me that his son is "computer-game crazy!" Jake was complaining that besides school work, all his son wants to do is hang out with his friends, drink sodas and eat chips and pizzas and play video games.

Jake's son loves gaming.

Jake is not interested in video games and and says they are a total waste of time.

On the other hand, Jake was telling me that he "loves sports!" Besides work, Jake says he likes to hang out with his friends and, drink beer, eat pizzas and fried chicken and watch sports on TV or go to baseball or football games.

Jake loves professional sports on TV...

Jake's son is not interested in professional sports on TV and says they are a total waste of time.

I think video games are a waste of time. I think professional sports are a total waste of time. 

Both Jake and his son, would be better off if they didn't enjoy sitting in front of a box all the time.

Jake's son has grown up just like dad... The delivery system for mind-numbing experiences has changed. That's all.

Like they say, the nut doesn't fall far from the tree.

My Very Own Rock & Roll Swindle! How I Scammed the Music Business in Japan!

Alternative title: "How to use lessons of the Sex Pistols to sell records."

"Hype is always better than reality" - Me

In the early nineties, I ran one of the best-selling independent record labels in Japan. It was called "Samson Records." We were based in Shinjuku, Tokyo and I started the label with a guy from Osaka named Suzuki who owned a radio program recording studio named "Sam." Hence the name of the record label, "Samson Records." 

"I like your music!" - Me
"Of course you do...." - British artist

The company was set up so that I would split 1/2 with Suzuki everything we made. He provided the studios and staff and engineers. I would set up the music and branding and marketing... Later I would be given shares in "Sam" on a stock option (an option that I was never able to exercise). 

The former president of Tower Records Asia, Keith Cahoon, once told me that Samson was the number one selling Indies label in Japan.

This is a brief story about how that label began and how I scammed the Japan music industry.

The beginnings of Samson Label:

We wanted to make a cool indies label that had a policy of very stylish and sophisticated music. J-Wave FM radio station in Tokyo was booming and they had a very chic and stylish image. I wanted to sell music that they would air for us (I also had my own late night show on that station).

I was trying to license music from Europe (mostly France) but was having lots of trouble with conceited artists (what's new?) who wanted huge advances (like $25,000 ~ $50,000)... We didn't have any money to pay advances like that!

It was funny dealing with artists from around the world. If you were interested in music from an American artist and inquired with them, they'd normally say, "OK. Let's have our lawyers get in contact with each other." 

If you were interested in music from a Canadian or Australian artist, they'd normally say, "Great! We'll even pay for our own airfare to come play in Japan!"

If you told a European - or especially a British artist - that you liked their music, they'd take a drag on their cigarette and in a very aloof manner say, "Of course you do."

It was very difficult licensing music from Europeans and Americans. So I decided that we'd make our own stylish music. That first project became known as "Nadege" in Japan and was a smash Indies success that was later sold to a major label. 

Besides problems with licensing foreign artists for Japan, for Indies labels, there was (still are) problems with the music publishers in Japan. Mostly the problems are with the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC).

At that time, JSRAC extorted money, er I mean, "arranged payment" from all small labels by a silly "sticker on album" system. JASRAC used to charge indies labels ¥90 per sticker to be placed on CDs (about $1.10) whether they sell or not - just for manufacture of product. To make matters worse, we were licensing indies bands who had no publishing in Japan so they wouldn't get a cent of the money anyway - JASRAC pays the money to the domestic major labels. It's a scam.

Anyway, JASRAC would make you buy these little stickers at ¥100 (about one US dollar) a pop to place on all CDs made. It seemed ridiculous to me.

No, you couldn't just print these on the CDs jackets either. They had to be the actual stickers!

A new label can't afford these types of charges up front. If our Indies label was going to fly, I had to figure a way out of these problems. But how?

Well, as I wrote about the other day in I Was a Teenage Punk Rocker - Why Dedication Beats Fanaticism Any Day! Even for Punk Rock or Success in Any Field!... I had a punk rock band background so I got to thinking.

First off, I went to Korea and made a deal to press CDs over there (I think I was one of the first, if not thee first, to go make a deal like that)... 

We got around massive import duties by having them ship the CDs as "unfinished product" (parts). The Korean manufacturer would ship the boxes, discs, wrappers all separately and then we'd assemble them into finished product by hand in Japan (that was a tough job!) We printed the sleeves, etc. locally in Japan.

Then I knew a half-French / Japanese girl named Vivi. Vivi was a Deejay at Bay-FM (a Chiba Japan FM radio station) and so was I. Vivi was an excellent singer. She also spoke perfect French (well, at least good enough for the Japanese). We put her and the engineer and the producer in the studio and played some music for them and told them to write songs like some examples that I had brought along for them to hear... You know, smooth jazzy lounge music (like Bossa Nova style, Sergio Mendez, etc....) They did a good job writing songs. They went to work on making the music and I would check it out every once in a while and add comments or advice...

Some advice they took; some they didn't. It was okay with me, I figured. If I already knew what 17-year-olds wanted to buy, I would have already been rich! And anyway, I was in charge of sales and marketing and branding anyhow....

In Japan, at that time, if a CD said, "Made in Korea" or "Made in Japan" on the jacket then there were 3 problems: One, if it said "Made in Japan" JASRAC would demand payment and two, if it said, "Made in Korea" Japanese radio station directors won't play it... Nor would store buyers at places like Tower Records, HMV, Virgin Mega-Stores buy them - that was the third problem... 

This was at the very start of the boom in foreign music stores in Japan and I desperately needed these stores to carry our product... I needed the local radio stations to play the songs... I didn't want to pay JASRAC unless I sold a record....

Malcolm McLaren

So, how to fool all these people? I thought about it for a long time and then it dawned on me like a bolt of lightening! I asked myself, "How would Malcolm McLaren or the Sex Pistols do it?" I soon had my answer. 

I forbade my staff from putting any Japanese writing on the CD at all. None. Zero. Verboten! Then in large letters on the back of the CD backing sleeve, I ordered the designer to write, "Made in France." 

When the JASRAC people saw that they thought, "Oh? Not manufactured in Japan? You don't have to pay publishing royalties!" And, since the sleeves were printed in Japan and parts shipped from Korea, I didn't pay import duties for finished product! (Smirk, smirk!) 

We finally finished the CD, put it all together and started selling it. We offered a really good price to stores for quality product that the stores believed was imported. Even though it looked like an import, we gave the stores excellent product for about half the price of a regular import. We even gave them 100% return rights. The CDs sold like hotcakes!

Soon after, I took some CDs to J-Wave (the big radio station in Tokyo that plays that kind of music) to promote the CD. 

There I met a director named Ishii san. Ishii san was a very arrogant and conceited little piece o' sh*t... er, I mean politically powerful radio director and producer. He was director of what was probably the most famous J-Wave radio program (I can't remember the name). I walked in with the CD to hand to him and he laughed at me (in a very condescending manner) and said, "I already have that CD. I bought it at the store yesterday!" (As if to say, "I'm always way ahead of you Rogers, you are always behind a cool trend setter like me!") 

I saw the CD he was proudly holding in his hand and had a hard time not laughing, but I bowed my head to him and said something like, "Yes. Of course. You are an expert on French pop music. It figures you'd have it first, Ishii san!"

That CD sold well over 20,000 copies in the first month. Considering that we were an Indies label, we made about $10.00 (USD) profit for every album we sold.

This was the rerelease on Victor of what I think was the second Nadege album

Later on we sold all the past released albums for that artist known as "Nadege" to Victor Records for about $600,000 (USD)... Hilarious, huh? We sold to Victor Records a "French pop group" that didn't really exist except that it consisted of one half-French / Japanese girl and two Japanese in-studio computer manipulator genius/dorks for over a half million dollars.  

Man, did we have a massive party the night that deal was signed!

I think they released several albums on Victor but never had any more hits... Major labels always have a way of making something cool quite the opposite.

We never were able to repeat the wild success we had with Nadege with other artists but we were able to still have several artist's albums that sold well over 15,000 ~ 20,000 each. 

It was a great time to be running an Indies label in Japan and it was a wonderful memory! It was my very own "Rock and Roll Swindle!"

The music was good, for sure... But the entire concept and selling and marketing was all a scam! It was a lesson that I will never forget: Hype truly is always better than reality!

Ignore the Wishes of Sales Department at Your Own Peril

I had dinner with a friend and business partner who is an extremely famous businessman in Japan and in New Zealand. Hell, he has even been featured in the New York Times more than once! He was the first foreigner to ever IPO a company in Japan. In fact, he brought the first two foreign owned companies to the Tokyo Stock Exchange by a foreign founder in history. From those two deals he became a many times over multi-millionaire... Gee...Do you think it might be wise for me to listen to his advice?

He was telling me about a General Manager that was just terminated a few months ago from one of Japan's largest internet services.

He told me that the guy wouldn't listen to people and especially ignored the wishes of sales department. 

Anyone with business experience knows that is a sure-fire way to failure.

My friend explained it to me like this:

"Imagine that, Mike, you are the boss of, say, a company that makes vacuum cleaners. Sales have been going consistently down for the last few years. You need to do something. You have a sales force that's been with you for years, and knows the market.

Your company desperately needs to do something to get customers back to buying your vacuum cleaners. There are a few options from designers and factories and you must choose one to be the unit line-up that you make.

The sales department all want to make model A, but you think model B is better.

So even with all the evidence that you have compiled to prove that Model B is better, Sales - the people on the ground - are convinced that A is better. You ignore the wishes of sales department - not even offering any compromise - and you manufacture Model B.

Big mistake! Why? Now sales department feels that you don't listen to them and that their opinion isn't important. The sales department thinks that you don't know what you are talking about since it is they, and not you, who are in the field talking to clients and potential buyers. 

Is this a good result?

Maybe model B is better. But sales now feels disrespected or that their opinion doesn't matter. Are they now a Gung-ho sales force ready to sell the world? Or are they a disillusioned and disgruntled group that sighs at work and goes fishing a lot or even to play pachinko?

This was the worst result that could have happened. The project will fail because the sales force won't be motivated. This error in management has happened over and over and will continue to happen.

So, in our case, we fired the guy after a couple of years. I wanted to fire him within 6 months."

It's obvious, isn't it?

Good management will often decide nothing on their own. Bad management will decide and will also be obstinate. Good management will gather all important parties and have a discussion - even several - and try to gather a consensus and come to the best decision. Bad management doesn't. If there is a hung jury or a decision cannot be made by staff, then and only then, should management step in and make a decision. 

Bad management decides and then informs.

This is common business sense and well known professional management technique. To do otherwise is to risk your own job.

Ignore the wishes of sales staff and your own staff at your own peril!



For a more detailed description of these techniques and how to use them to keep your job! Please read the multi-million selling management books by Chris Collins, "Built to Last - The Successful Habits of Visionary Companies" and "From Good to Great - Why Some Companies Make it and Others Don't."

My Interview on BBC Flagship News Program, Newsday!

I was interviewed in Russia on Dec. 14, 2017, by Kasia Madera the main host of the BBC flagship news program, Newsday! Newsday is broadcast to over 200 countries and has 90 million viewers a day! We talked about "Ghostroads - A Japanese Rock n Roll Ghost Story" and the 2017 Sochi International Film Festival and Awards! Thanks Kasia! See you in Japan soon! 

１２月１４日ソチ国際映画祭のためにロシア・ソチに滞在中、プロデューサーのマイク・ロジャースが、カシア・マデラさん（英国BBC放送のNewsday ー毎日全世界２００カ国９００万人が視聴する番組ーのメインニュースキャスター）から映画「ゴーストロード」とソチ国際映画祭についてインタビューを受けました！カシアさん！ありがとうございます！放送日が決定したらお知らせします。

First Hollywood Divorce of 2018? Ronald McDonald & Colonel Sanders? Only in Japan!

There is a place in Japan that could be considered "Fast Food Heaven." It's a place in Japan where there is a McDonald's next door to a KFC. I have been going by here every Summer Holidays and New Year's for over 25 years!

I have been told that this is the only place in the entire world where a McDonald's stands right next door to a Kentucky Fried Chicken. They are supposed to be enemies. 

They don't normally open shop next to each other. But here they are. 

It's a sort of like a North and South Korea Demilitarized Zone excepting with french fries and chicken nuggets.

It is well known that the Colonel is fond of young spring chickens.

But, in a secret place in Japan, there they stand; A McDonalds shop open right next door to a KFC. 

I have even been inside these places a few times over the last twenty-five years or so. Until recently, it seems that Ronald and the Colonel did get along quite well... Sometimes, over the years, I wondered if they didn't get along a tad bit too well... 

Fraternizing with the enemy is treasonous and usually carries a penalty of death by firing squad.

So, I can understand Ronnie and Harlan wanting to be discreet.

I hear this is the only place in the entire world where a McDonalds and a 

Kentucky Fried Chicken stand next door to each other. 

I'd tell you where this is, but don't wanna ruin the neighborhood with tourists!

Up until this year, it seems that the Colonel and Ronald had gotten along quite well in this corner of the world. They stood right next to each other smiling. I could imagine all the great chats they had with each other and the friendly bragging about whose lunch set was the best deal or whose breakfast buns were hottest...

At this special place in Japan, the McDonald's and The KFC, even shared the second-floor dining space so that a customer could walk from one restaurant's dining area to the other. Really! You could buy a burger while your friend bought a chicken sandwich and you could still eat at the same table upstairs where two worlds met.

It was a match made in heaven! 

For the school kids in this town it was a dream come true: Perhaps after junior high school, Keiko would pack her bags and meet her secret lover Joji, from the local boys school at the second floor of KFC & Micky D's! Keiko loved burgers! Joji, wanted fried chicken.... So happiness could be met, they could be discreet, and their love could bloom at this place where the oceans met; where day met night; a place where opposites attract: Where the second floor of McDonalds connected with the second floor of KFC.

It was a truly unique place where the dreams of potatoes could fly with the dreams of MacShakes. Joji and Keiko could meet on the second floor and their love, as well as their appetites, could be satiated....

Of course, dear reader can imagine what other possibilities this offered Ronald and Harlan after dark when the shops had closed and the staff all gone home... And, with them, both Har and Ron (as they affectionately called each other) had to go back to their respective rooms... But wait! What about the connecting second-floor from one bedroom to the other, er, I mean, from one restaurant to the other? 

I can't imagine that Harlan and Ronnie sat downstairs all night and watched the darkened cash registers... Who knows what sort of hijinks went on between those two at night?

Well, judging by what I saw today at these restaurants, there's a trouble in Fast Foodland. Instead of both Ronald and the Colonel standing side by side smiling, Ronald has his back turned away from the Colonel. It looks like Ronald is pissed off about something and no longer even wants to see the Colonel's face!

The Colonel, being much older and more experienced with tender meat, realizes that appearances are important and he doesn't want the neighbors to start rumors so he's taking it all in stride. 

Ronald having a triple quarter-pound McHissy fit and acting like a poncy hairdresser. 

I asked the Colonel what was going on, but he had no comment.

I wondered why there was trouble in paradise and so I tried to investigate.

I walked to the upstairs area and was shocked to see that the joined dining areas are no longer joined together. There's a dividing wall that has been built. These areas were connected for years! They were best friends! 

They must have had one hellacious fight.

No more Keiko and Joji meeting for burgers and chicken after school; no more midnight escapades between Harland and Ronnie. 

I walked across the street to ask my old friend Mister Donut if he knew what had happened, but Mister Donut had moved. He was gone. No forwarding address. No nothing!

We'll probably never find out what really happened between Ronald and the Colonel... Maybe it's best we don't. It is probably too late to repair hurt feelings and broken hearts anyway...

2018 has just begun and with it, the dreams and hopes of millions for a better world.

But, in this one corner of the world, in this tiny town of Japan, 2018 has brought about the first "Hollywood Divorce" of the year: Ronald McDonald and Colonel Sanders are no longer friends in Japan. In fact, Ronald doesn't even want to see his old buddy Colonel Sanders' face anymore.

Could the year start off any worse?

It makes me sick.. All this talk about McD's and KFC... It's enough to mess up my stomach.