MARCELLUS NEALY

At 3 am this morning, I wondered if this text would make it into the archives of my daily journal. If I was to stick to my ideals of writing the truth of my own experience, then I believed I had no choice but to publish this story. I'm certain it will only serve as cause to exasperate my situation. I don't care. Look away now if you are the type to become infuriated by deep discussions of race. If you're particularly offended because someone doesn't see things the way that y

I think the last story I told you was about the band manager who tried to trick me into fighting him when we were in New York City. As I wrote in my previous post, I knew it was a trap because if I had thrown a punch, I would have surely been fired and he would have been rid of me. The leader of the band noticed his behavior and sent him back to Tokyo. Later I found out that I wasn't the manager’s only target. He had been abusive to several of the other staff members. I don'

I was watching a YouTube video with Stevie Wonder. He was riding in a car with another celebrity, whose name I can't remember. I think the show was called Carpool Karaoke. In that show, Stevie Wonder said something that seemed so profound to me because I had never heard the expression before. He said, “teamwork makes the dream work.” That phrase made me think back on all the moments of my life when I was trying to do something. In almost every case, it was cooperation among t

I was going through my hard disk looking for a photo to post when this one grabbed my attention. It’s a bit blurry but I will post it anyway. I met her in London while visiting friends about 11 or 12 years ago. Her name was Sylvia Chant. She was a friendly woman who loved to laugh, tell jokes and share stories about her yearly jaunts to The Gambia. She enjoyed being there because of the beautiful scenery and equally beautiful people. “If you ever get a chance I highly rec

There's no other city in the world like Tokyo. It's packed with people and alive all day, all night and yet anyone can walk down the street in relative safety. We can stumble and sway drunk as we want to be, fall asleep on the train with our bags next to us. I don’t know how many times have I left my laptop or my iPad on the seat only to have it waiting for me somewhere at a nearby station or police box lost and found. Yes, over the years I have had some difficult times, but

My mission, which was given directly to me by the leader of the band, Masa, was to help him get his dance remixes on the streets. He wanted to do a dance remix for a long time but the record company said no. The management company also refused him. They both did so with good reason. The dance music world is very unforgiving and also very cynical. It was highly unlikely that a J pop artist like Dreams Come True would be a big hit with the electronic music crowd. People who lis

Working for Dreams Come True would have been a dream come true for most Japanese people. My dear friend Aoka went nuts when she found out I was interviewing for the company that manages them. She collected every album they ever released and made me listen to all of them. She was such a huge fan that she insisted on becoming my coach. Before stepping into the MS Artists' offices, I had no idea who they were beyond the vague familiarity with their name. Oddly enough, no one

Although part of me feels there are forces in the universe beyond rational explanation, I never fully believed in the supernatural. Just like my position on the existence of God, my take on the supernatural is that anything is possible, however improbable it might be. A few times in my life, something seemingly supernatural and has made me tilt the scales of doubt towards the side of belief. I once saw a shadow person walk into the room where I was sleeping, stop next to my

The day I arrived in the office it was obvious that they had no idea what to do with me. I was in my 20s with barely enough experience to rely on. I was hoping for some kind of training, but their training was trial by fire. They threw me into situations without telling me what they expected and, of course, like clockwork I failed. Then they blamed me for my failure. I was too young and naive to understand that it was not my problem. It was theirs for not training me properl

I don't really have a story today. Well, I have stories, I just don't have the energy to write one. I could feel my energy fade the moment I decided to write less about struggle and more about happy moments. What is it about happiness that is so boring. I am not depressed AT ALL. I have a fantastic live and I love being happy but it doesn't inspire me to write like struggle does. Most of my life has been one impossible battle after the next. Of course, I have been happ