(Update: our video host experienced a service outage today, here’s the YouTube video link in case you’re unable to view the video as embedded above.)
Boing Boing tv passes the 150th episode mark today, and we’re celebrating by cooking up some delicious takenoko (竹の子), young bamboo shoots, with Joi Ito — and original music by Ryuichi Sakamoto.
You may know Joi as a serial entrepreneur, a twittering globetrotter VC, a World of Warcraft junkie, or the CEO of Creative Commons, but he has a more traditional side, too.
In this video, Ito welcomes us into his back yard in Japan, where he and his partner Mizuka teach us how to hunt for and prepare this traditional seasonal delicacy from a lush bamboo forest.
The episode is accompanied by an original score composed by Grammy, Academy Award, and Golden Globe-winning composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto. The legendary electronic music pioneer is also an outspoken environmental advocate. His recent reforestation initiative, “More Trees,” supports the planting of trees around the world to help offset carbon emissions. To-date, 2 billion trees have been planted mostly through work with country governments including Turkey, Ethiopia and Mexico. Link to English-language PDF with more info on the project.
Sakamoto co-founded the seminal synthpop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra, and has scored or contributed to movie soundtracks including The Last Emperor, Merry Christmas Mister Lawrence, Babel, and the work of director Pedro Almodóvar. Boing Boing tv thanks him for generously contributing this beautiful, evocative score.
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Link to Boing Boing tv episode with discussion and downloadable video — and Joi Ito’s family recipe for yummy takenoko just like mom used to make. Special thanks to the Ito family for sharing their traditions with us.
Update 2: Here’s Joi’s blog post about his background with Ryuichi, and here’s Joi’s post from today about how this video came together.