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Big Daddy Eyeball by Lisa Tajima TOKYO, JAPAN: LISA TAJIMA TWIRLS AND SHAKES HER HEAD TO THE BEAT OF A TECHNO POP SOUNDTRACK IN HER MUSIC VIDEO. Between rapid cutaways to slides illustrating "technical specifications," we catch fleeting glimpses of the Japanese bonsai artist having her hair coifed and dancing in a frenzy as her POPBONSAI creations – miniscule pines and spruce trees planted in pinch pots - begin to climb. Working their way up a staircase draped in gold lame, moving in awkward claymation steps, the pots are vibrantly glazed in zebra stripes. The video ends when Tajima, dressed in a turquoise top, miniskirt and black sandals finds herself collapsed at the foot of a stairwell after a POPBONSAI flies off the screen. Finally, we see the artist alternately chatting on her cell phone, assembling the bonsai sculpture, and sipping a McDonald's soda in front of a Tokyo department store as a cameraman snaps photographs. What does it all mean? Rewind several years and we discover Lisa Tajima, then a recent high school graduate, facing the first of several tragedies in her life: Lisa Tajima: After I graduated from high school in my hometown, I moved to city called Chester in England by myself and entered language school there. Eight months later, I was involved in an automobile accident and was injured so badly I returned to Japan in a wheelchair for recovery and medical treatment. I was just 19 years old then and really wanted to continue studying. After I recovered, I decided to apply to one of the State Universities of New York because I was very interested in theater arts. I had taken modern dance lessons since I was three years old, and with my dance teacher's elementary school group I'd performed at Disneyland in Los Angeles and the Opera House in Australia. I majored in performing arts at State University of New York Rockland community college (SUNY) and joined the school's musical performances before graduation as a dancer and singer. It was great experience! I earned my associate degree there. Soon after her graduation, Lisa became interested in the idea of producing a radio program, and after several attempts, finally succeeded in getting her own show. LT: After graduating from SUNY, I worked as an conversational English teacher in my hometown for a while because speaking English was my only ability then. But as time went by I remembered the attitude and way of thinking of my friends whom I'd met in New York – they really believed in themselves and kept struggling to reach their dreams. One day, I recalled a dream I had when I was a high school girl: To be a radio disc jockey – a DJ! So, I thought if I could get a job as a script writer or a radio program director, I might have a chance. I started sending resumes to radio stations and radio programming studios. I even made my own audition tape, recording my chats between songs and mailed it out, too. I walked it around to so many agents, but nobody reacted to it. I failed a lot, but I finally got a chance for an interview and began working at a radio program studio in Tokyo. Soon after, one sponsor picked my radio program plan at a competition and I became DJ! My Japanese rock music radio program continued for five years, and during that time I started writing about music for magazines. Sometimes I helped Japanese musicians with their English writing or attended their US and European tours.
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