Sunday, January 30, 2005

How Embarrassing So for the last couple of days my leg and butt muscles have been completely sore.  From what?  Bowling.  Two games.  Now, I'm not out of shape or anything, so I figure a couple games of bowling shouldn't nearly put me in traction, but what the hell?  Anyay, I feel better today -- perhaps good enough to attempt a nice peaceful bike ride across the Clean Center (cheery Kyoto euphemism for: Garbage incinerator) road.  I am also making Paella for about 8 people tonight, so wish me luck, faceless readers (not you, Mom).  comment [] 11:36:21 AM

Friday, January 28, 2005

Don't Fear the Bowler Last night we went out with Markuz and Yuka to the MK Bowl for a little bowlin' up.  I should preface this by explaining that there is almost nothing close to our house except for the MK Bowl (well, there are about three hair cutting salons, numerous cigarette and vegetable vending machines, and a sporadically open restaurant that specializes in wild boar hotpot), and yet this was only the second time we've actually been there.  We had a very nice time, aided by our very uncharacteristically good playing and the fact that we were able to bring our own booze.  We may go back, even though our time here is short. Anywho, today I found these great Hieronymous Bosch figures, each lovingly crafted based on his nightmarish designs.  Even better are the captions next to each piece.  You know, my birthday is just in a few months...  comment [] 3:18:48 PM

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Mr. Lurie Well, I'm back at school this week to finish up my grading for the semester and proctor a few exams.  I have no idea what test I was monitoring today, but it must have been a hard one given the amount of surreptitious cheating (i.e. the roving eyes) that was going on in that room.  I always want to smack the kids on the back of the head or something, to kind of get their attention when I can see them obviously craning over the seats to look at their neighbor's test, but I know that I would probably have to bust them if I made a spectacle.  So, I usually try to make eye contact with them and give them a for christ's sake you moron kind of look.  Sigh -- one down and two to go.  For your visual and linking pleasure today, take a look at this website announcing an art exhibit by John Lurie.  For those of you who don't know, Lurie is a jazz musician whose career highlights include acting in Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law and Stranger Than Paradise.   comment [] 11:19:01 AM

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Photo: Wishes for the new year at Shimogamo Jinja Democracy Takes a Hit Well, I endorse one candidate this year and a day later he's taken out of his apartment in handcuffs.  Around the same time, Bush and Cheney, clad in tuxedos, are telling all rogue nations to watch their collective behinds.  This doesn't bode well for the future of democracy this year.   comment [] 4:40:01 PM

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Where Is My Mind? Sorry for being away for the last few days, but we were celebrating my wife's birthday, which generally morphs into a three-day festival of fun.  Although, the weather has been so crap lately that we only got out yesterday afternoon in between rain showers.  We rode our bikes down to Shimogamo Jinja (where I took the above picture of my much better half) and came home for dinner and a movie.  Anyway, I haven't talked much about politics lately, as the subject has just become too depressing.  That is, until I ran across an article about Christopher X. Brodeur, candidate for mayor of New York.  In this article, he outlines some of his plans for overhauling NYC by getting rid of crooked politicians, potholes, and four-legged tables.  While he will surely be branded a crackpot (especially for wanting Murphy Beds to come back), he would bring some much needed sanity to the world of politics.  comment [] 10:34:39 AM

Monday, January 17, 2005

Photo: Jerry's Dobro How About That Today's weather forecast is: crap-ola.  It is raining and muddy and ugly out there today, and to top it off, we're taking care of our neighbor Daniel's dog while he's in New York having a show (click on the calendar option).  While we love the Max-man, this does mean that we have to take him out for walks in the mud and cold and rain.  But please don't tell him I complained or it might hurt his feelings.    Anyway, tomorrow is my much better half's birthday, so don't hesitate to send well-wishes her way. comment [] 11:17:41 AM

Friday, January 14, 2005

Meta-Sweeping What with me working on two blogs now, everything's starting to get a little self-referential around here.  And while I'm not exactly averse to hard work,  I'm still going to cherry-pick things from the SoNew Media Lit Tracker that catch my eye, like the homepage of this writer Marty Beckerman, author of the book Generation S.L.U.T.  The guy tends to use rather filthy language, but it's really funny, I swear -- check out this excerpt from his book (uhh, not you Mom).  How can you not like a guy who is titling his next book Nation Of Retards: America's Sexxxiest Young Journalist Exposes the Bastardly Forces Keeping You Stupid?   comment [] 10:04:50 AM

Thursday, January 13, 2005

A Novel in Winter We watched Paul Schrader's Mishima last night, which is a very well done filmizization of the life of one of Japan's great writers.  The structure is quite intricate, interspersing black and white dramatization of Mishima's real life with color stage productions of three of his novels.  The effect is quite startling, especially since the stage productions are wildly impressionistic and easily outshine the sort of pedestrian biography that fits between. Interestingly enough, the tape was loaned me by a teacher friend here because the movie is banned in Japan!  He explained that the right wing was none too pleased to have one of their big supporters shown as a (gasp!) gay man.  I guess the 70's in Japan weren't very swinging, but you'd think by now the powers that be would have mellowed a bit. Anyway, here are a lot of nice pictures and info on Schrader's brother's website.    comment [] 10:33:55 AM

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Quality? On a mellow Wednesday, I'd like you to look at two different answers to the question "What makes something good?"  The first is Glorious Noise's blurb about an upcoming documentary about Roger Salloom, a man who seemed to be heading for stardom.  The second is here, and it basically says that the thumbs are all-powerful.   comment [] 5:47:38 PM

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