Overture to the Commencement of a Very Rigid Search
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Saturday, January 20, 2007
In response to the recent Golden Globe awards and the winners of such, I wish to announce my own award, the 'Crash' Award for "most over-dramatic, over-blown film lacking cohesiveness and preaching a general moral of 'people of different ethnicities don't understand each other, whatever', in the style of Crash." The award goes to Babel. I didn't really like Babel. If I had no understanding of the world before watching Babel, I would get the impression that Mexicans are idiots, Japanese people have an obsessive compulsion with flashing their vaginas (this is only half-true), and that the Golden Globe committee doesn't hold much interest in dialogue, writing, or the existence of script or unified story. I guess I actually didn't dislike Babel all that much, but it really didn't deserve any Golden Globes.
On the other side of the picket fence, Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinthe were really, really good movies. They should win things, things of great value and achievement, like three foot Tigger dolls from the Youth Fair, or all-expense paid tickets to Canada. I have plans to see Letters From Iwo Jima, maybe tomorrow, and I've heard real good things about that too, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Pursuit of Happyness and Dreamgirls were good too, not quite as important or innovative as the former, but solid films, both providing quality acting and competent writing. Curse of the Golden Flower was so-so, but I like Asian stuff, so I saw it, and enjoyed it.
In concluding my awards show, I grant two giant stuffed Tiggers for Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinthe, a Pikachu of medium-size and obvious bootleggedness for Pursuit, Dreamgirls and Curse, and something like a half-eaten rat that an alley-way tabby cat regurgitated for the pissant, lackluster Babel, which I didn't dislike all that much.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
3:40AM
I just watched Michael 'Kramer' Richard's racist rant on the Internet and now I'm kinda sad
12:47AM
Will Ferrel is to Adam Sandler is to Jim Carrey is to Robin Williams, apparently, what Stranger Than Fiction is to Punch-Drunk Love is to Eternal Sunshine is to One Hour Photo, which makes me wonder if there's something askew, the level to which I enjoy watching funny-men depicted as sad, lonely socially incompetent men who are easy to sympathize with.
I really didn't expect Stranger Than Fiction to be what it was. I didn't know Dustin Hoffman was in it, I didn't expect it to have such good acting, and I didn't think I'd like Will Ferrel so much, but I did, and it was weird, he didn't even really make any funnies. Instead, his love-relationship was strangely sweet and his situation was curiously believable, so much so that his performance and that of the wonderfully neurotic author (who narrates his life) eclipsed that of Hollywood veterans like Dustin (while watching him I thought, 'that reminds me of when I followed him into Johnny Rockets, he is pretty short isn't he'). So yeah, I'm already home now and the movie is over, and I think I have a red ant bite on my hand because it itches and there's a little white spot there, and yeah maybe the airport lost my luggage yesterday somewhere in the giga-normous international Charlotte airport, but I'm still thinking of the implications the film made between insanity and brilliance, sacrifice and achievement and what not. It's what made a film that could have been summarized into 'man lives boring life, finds out he's going to die, turns it around, survives' in to, well, 'man lives boring life, starts hearing it narrated by a fascinatingly neurotic author--', well, I don't want to ruin it, but I liked it.
It's sort of ironic that Queen Latifah has a part in this movie, and that Queen Latifah only one year ago starred in a film about a woman with an average life who finds out she's going to die and turns it around, only that one probably sucked and this movie was good. Also, my hand hurts like a BITCH now, I really probably should stop scratching it.
Sunday, September 3, 2006
1:14PM
This place feels foreign and a little creepy to me.
I passed a lot of ambulances and police cars walking around, and a buttload of students teeming and wandering through the night.
Everytime a college students lands a ping-pong ball in a plastic cup full of beer, God kills an orphan.
I had a really nice flight, I got through half of The Alchemist, which makes me very very happy. It gives me a pleasant feeling that's oddly reminiscent of when I read Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. Although the two are very different, what I get out of both is the same: there's very little you can't accomplish if you're willing to suffer for it.
And when you're working for something you really, truly want, it's never really suffering.
Before I got on the plane, I was randomly chosen for intense searching of my things. In my stress, I forgot to take off my watch while passing through the metal detector, so I was also selected for intense padding down of the body and untouchable regions.
My plane was delayed a bit due to weather.
When I got to Providence I couldn't find any other Brown students to split a cab with, so I decided to take a shuttle. While sitting down for the 25 minute wait, I noticed what looked like a Brown student getting into a cab. I went and asked him if he was going to Brown and all the taxi cab drivers started yelling at me. This one dude is like "You talk to the driver, not the passenger." And the driver was like "No, no, this is done, you take the shuttle, this is done here." Needless to say, this made me angry in a way that is worsened later by thinking up all the things I SHOULD have said (what I should have said is: "I'm going to punch you in the face, now"}.
So then I get to school, and my room is nice and stuff but the campus freaks me out, like being in a place you've never really seen before in your life, except in dreams. I'm in a dream place. It's kind of creepy.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
12:44PM
It's also been several months since the last time I updated the website for my comic strip, and that pisses me off all the time but for some reason I still haven't fixed that. i definitely left andrew hanging there
12:43PM
Also, I wish I had given a final account of my stay in Japan, since a lot happened in the week after the program, when I stayed with a host family and then in a hotel (no Internet), but, eh, it's been a long time now since that happened.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
12:09AM
Most nights out of the week, you can find Pee Wee's Playhouse on Adult Swim at midnight. Today there was a clip warning parents that if they have kids under 17, they may find the upcoming content unsuitable. And then the show began.
If you've never watched Pee Wee's Playhouse, it involves Paul Reuben laughing and talking in an almost entirely claymated world. What is not claymated is puppeted. Although Paul Reuben never indecently exposes himself on the show, it is still very scary. He screams a lot, while talking to things in his refridgerator, and laughing, and acting insane. Back when it was popular, I would never have allowed my child to watch it, and I support Cartoon Network's decision to only play the show at late hours.
Wait, no, what? Seriously, does Cartoon Network think its audience is so stoned all the time that it doesn't matter what the $*(%& they play??
&^%#*(&$($^@
#$%%
Friday, July 21, 2006
11:28PM
PS If you want me to keep posting you gotta let me know by leaving comments and junk. I know a coupla people who tell me they read my journal but don't have LJ and you guys can still comment anonymously. Also, Wilson, your stories and travels are getting progressively more disturbing.
S'all for now
11:14PM
I really enjoy recieving and writing emails in Japanese every day.
On another note-
Yesterday was one of the craziest and most interesting and most fun nights of... ever. I got home today and spent an hour documenting it, but am not sure how I will share it with you, Livejournal. To be honest, it is just a bit too long, though it did involve pulling a boat through a small city that had probably never seen foreigners before, having beer and shouchu shoved in our face like every ten minutes, recieving a gift from a quasi-drunk priest (a medallion that has his name on it), dressing up in traditional japanese garb and participating in shinto ceremony, walking into peoples' houses randomly on my own (either to use the bathroom or to talk to Japanese people playing xbox), watching musical performances that are part of their yearly festival, dancing, being totally totally man-crushed on by a man wearing the respectable garb of the elders, running down a street with dozens of people pulling a float that had children and adults in it playing drums and laughing and dancing, talking lots of japanese, eating freshly made festival food, etc.
Today we pounded rice with a mallet to make a pastry, mochi. The town we spent the night in only has a population of 2000, and is surrounded by mountains covered in mist. We slept in a ryokan on futons. This morning we woke up and had rice and fish (I mainly ate toast).
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
6:41PM
First of all, here's a picture with the group of people with whom we toured the university. Look at how tall I am!
Next point of interest. Last night I went to Tsukiji, which is one of the largest fish markets in the world. Tsukiji is almost indescribably unique, but I'll try anyhow.
Here we are preparing to enter:
You see, Tsukiji is a night thing. Around three or four all the trucks and all the fish start to come in, and around five the customers come. Tsukiji is insane, like a sci-fi post-apocalyptic fish fantasy. It's mostly under a large roof-like shelter, and the market somewhat resembles a factory floor, but the place spans for ever in every direction. It's mofockin' huge, it's so huge it's huge my god it's big. Anyhow, at every corner there are about a dozen little trolley things lugging big ole boxes of fish, everywhere everyone is bustling, it's so fast and stupid touristy gaijin like us just get in the way. The whole time we were there we didn't see any other foreigners, it was all business, people preparing their shops, cutting up tuna the size of human beings, sticking knives into clams, cutting ice with saws, decapitating live eel, driving their little trolleys around insanely fast yet managing to never hit anyone. It was intense. I took a nap the night before, seven to 10:30ish, woke up and then all of us caught the last train to Tsukiji. At that point the trains were down for the night, and we would stay there until about 6, a little after when the trains reopened. That picture above was taken sometime probably around two while we sat around outside a konbini waiting for time to pass.
Here are more pictures:
(At home, we cut fish with knives, but sometimes you just need a bandsaw)
Oh, and the clincher for the night... I've been giving it a lot of thought, and I just might drop the film half of my major and solely focus on East Asian studies. Which is to say, I might start learning Chinese next year...
Monday, July 17, 2006
5:52PM
Today has been a ridiculously good day.
I have like a half dozen Japanese pen pals now who I email regularly, mostly thanks to Odaka, the women who I spent the first night with and paid for half the yukata and emails me constantly. So recently she suggested I take my friends to meet this girl who was part of the Mobara ensemble (volunteers while we were homestaying in Mobara), and she would tour us around her university campus. Well, that was today and Hell of a lot of fun. She had her three friends and we all talked in Japanese the whole time and had a great time. I talked to this one guy a lot about video games and PS3 prices and games that were popular and my new Loco Roco game (he doesn't have it yet because it just came out Thursday, it is HUGE and advertised to hell and also a lot of fun). We also talked about hamburgers because I've been eating at like every single hamburger joint in Japan (my favorite is Freshness Burger). Today was also amazing for a whole lot of other reasons I won't get in to.
Yesterday we saw fireworks in Yokohama, about an hour train ride out from Tokyo. It was the prettiest fireworks display I had ever seen, though I fell asleep in the middle of it (fireworks are boring, so sue me). On the train ride we met a Japanese guy who spoke fluenty in English, Spanish and Japanese, so we spent the ride communicating back in forth in all three languages. I have never felt so linguistically capable in my life (though my Japanese still sucks). He showed me pictures of his time in South America on his cell phone.
So much has happened to me in this country. I've eaten at a lot of places, been to flea markets, about three matsuri (festivals), bought tons of shit, super super cool shit, taken a load of pictures until my camera started being a piece of garbage, after which I just started taking pictures on my friends' cameras, etc. I've been to some many places at different times doing different things. Tonight I'm going to Tsukiji, one of the largest fish markets in the world, only runs from 11 to about 7 AM. It's my friend Robert's favorite place in the world, I think. So it should be rather interesting.
One of my fun times was in the park talking to Japanese teens at about 1 in the morning and setting off fireworks. The park is a really cool place, located right next to my dorm... there's always people tap dancing, playing drums, doing traditional dances, setting off fireworks, walking dogs, riding bikes, everything. I took pictures once of a photoshoot that was taking place with these two models (possibly for a magazine or ad?). Here are just a couple of pictures, because uploading is a douche, and also my camera is a douche, and also the Internet is being a douche.
At one of the matsuri, Robert hoisted me up to get a better view.
This is absolutely brilliant.
This is on a day we took a tour of NHK, Japan's largest and oldest television studio, comparable to BBC or CNN. They asked for volunteers and I ended up doing this 'guest announcer' thing. This picture, for me, validates my "I'm A Legend In Japan" cap that I like so much.
This is when we went to 'The Lockup', the first ever horror themed bar I have ever been to. After being there about 45 minutes the lights all went out and it started pounding heavy metal and monsters invaded our jail cell (when you first get there, you're arrested and taken to your cell, afterwards which you get your menu). The drinks come in test tubes and beakers and stuff. I went to another pretty cool bar that was really cheap and gave me a membership ID (that night, we talked a lot to the Japanese people behind us, who ended up signing my friend Cathleen's hand, after the girl said she was an actress).
I'm real happy today, that's why I posted. I still need to find a hotel to stay in for the last week I'm here, after the program ends. I decided that the first days afterwards I'm going to go back to Mobara and stay with the family who sent me the yukata and see the big matsuri there.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
11:05PM
I hate livejournal and I hate readjing livejournal posts. I'm a less happy person for doing so. I wish I had not taken a break from studying to make myself more uncomfortable by reading your posts.
No thank you Livejournal,
dp
Sunday, June 25, 2006
10:01PM
Today had one really notable moment (as far as things go that I can actually share with you, Livejournal).
I was sitting in the common room doing my homework when Shinkai-san, one of the program directors, comes in with a package for Michael, Kevin, someoneelse, and myself. You see, when I was in Mobara, I spent one day with my homestay mom and the homestay parents of Mike and Kevin, and we went to Yokohama and saw the tallest Buddha, etc. It was fun. Their homestay mom was really nice, an old lady who would do things like jump out of the car while going "Yoisho!" She told me I had cute hands and nice curly hair at one point. Well, anyways, this woman sent us a package, and I had only met her for one day. Inside were four yukatas (summer kimono) with sandals and two belts, everything. They're really, really nice. She also sent a very nice letter in Japanese saying it would have been nice if we had spent more time together, and saying that the package was actually from her and Odaka, the woman who I spent one night with at the beginning of the program. The letter also included two pictures of us at Yokohama. I am rather happy
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
6:48PM
Oh shit, there's something I forgot to mention.
I slept through an earthquake last night.
That's all. I had dreams about earthquakes.
Also, I probably won't be posting too often now that classes and homework are starting.
6:38PM
Dear Internet Recording Tool,
It's been awhile since I've written about my stay here in Nihon, mainly for reasons of time, and this won't be the most comprehensive post either. It's really just me checking in. I'm out of Mobara and the homestay and into the dorms now, and Tokyo, which is a substantial change of pace.
This is what my room in the homestay looked like.
At night:
And in the morning after I had rolled up the futon and picked up my stuff:
This is what my new dorm room looks like:
The clothing, I suppose, needs explanation. The wash is 200 yen, or about 2 bucks, a load, a packet of detergent was 30 yen, and the dryer was 100 yen. So I'm like, okay, 3.30 for a load of wash isn't so bad. Until I realized that the dryer was 100 yen per ten minutes. I kept coming back and putting in money, and after five bucks my clothes were still soaked. "Fuck!" proclaimed our dismayed adventurer hero. So he went out to a 100 yen shop and bought a shower curtain pole thing and stuck it in his room and hung his wet clothes off it. Another problem solved.
This is what my homestay father looked like:
He was kinda the dope shit, I must say, and I was sad to leave him. My homestay mom was similarly awesome, but it seemed like a lot of effort to upload TWO pictures. Maybe some other day. I remember the time I walked my homestay father to his house because he got pretty drunk in the Korean restaraunt. And silly me, I didn't understand why his wife drove the car home and parked it there and came back walking before we ate. I told him, "oh! It's because you're going to drink A LOT" and he was like "hahaha yes! Yes! That is exactly right! That is exactly the reason!"
Anyhow, a lot of great and amazing shit that Wilson's life can't even compare to has happened since now and the last time I wrote a beautiful, eloquently written post about whatever shit happens in my life, and I don't have the energy to talk about all of it. So, instead, I'll leave you with this foto:
Peace out, homes
Oh, and PS, we finally got sorted into language classes. Here's an explanation, that I'm copy/pasting from an email to someone more important than you (Internet Recording Tool): " this program has four levels for Japanese speakers: 100, for students with no Japanese education, 150, for less than two semesters or equivalent, 200, for less than four semesters or equivalent, and 300, for four semesters +. Today we had the papers put up that said which class we got into, based on our standings in the placement exam... I GOT INTO 300. That makes me feel so so good about all the work I did for that class and all the studying I did on my free time and during the summer. And there were people who had studied two years and were placed into levels below me. And I've only done one year. That also makes me feel really good about going back to Brown and maybe possibly skipping over intermediate japanese, and going straight into advanced. I'm going to study a lot to see if I can do that."
Thursday, June 15, 2006
5:19PM
Dear Blog,
Today, after Survival Japanese lessons, we took another small tour of the town, this time guided by pint sized, 8 year old cub scouts. We walked around town following a map, and at certain points a cub scout would be there to give us information in Japanese.
We went by a bookstore and I bought a copy of The Little Price, in Japanese. Since it's somewhat a childrens' book, the kanji have the kana pronounciation written right by them, so maybe I will actually be able to read it (if so, like, a page or two a day, with heavy dictionary use).
At the end of the day, this really skilled drummer beat the drums for us. It was rather impressive. I can only describe it as a rare form of martial art where, instead of learning to defend yourself, you beat the shit out of a drum. I took pictures, but will skip the photobucket hassle for today. Gomen nasai.
I really enjoy walking to class by myself. Oop, my hostmom just walked in and asked if I was tired, hungry, thirsty etc. I told her I was daijoubu. She's real sweet. Anyhoo, as I was saying, this is a really peaceful town and it's rather calming walking to class, about a 20 minute walk-- there aren't too many people, just a few folks on their bikes, maybe a shopkeeper tending the shop. Rather quaint. Mobara is a sort of small town/city, they don't get a lot of visitors, in fact, I heard from Mike today that we showed up briefly in the newspaper yesterday, with an approximate headline of "foreigners at cultural exhibit," or something like that. They don't get a lot of visitors here, since it's a not tourist attraction or anything, so it's a source of pride and interest to see us walking around. Still, the town is fully equipped with restaraunts and McDonalds and trains and buildings and stuff, though not to an exaggerated level.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
5:50PM
So, this morning, I was folding up my futon and drudging through Wilson's account of being in, what, Columbia? when my homestay father walks into my room and gives me presents. I must say it was all pretty tight, he gave me two dictionaries, very old school and right off the man's shelf. I don't know how the hell to use them but they are beautiful and I will cherish them forever. Also, there's a plaque up on the wall displaying how my homestay parents won the International Homestay Competition of 2005, and they told me how Wilson's homestay parents only got a participation award and have been depressed ever since.
Today my study abroad group went through some survival Japanese training followed by a trip to Mobara high school. This is probably the single greatest cultural experience I've had as of yet: whenever you pass a group of Japanese school girls, they giggle and run away. Either that or they giggle and run towards you. They usually wave, and talk among themselves, and sometimes they say "HI!" They are ashamed of their giggling, and cover their mouths. While in the highschool we saw a kendo, karate, and judo demonstration, watched an all girl Japanese band representing the entire city, saw breakdancers, baseball players, sat down with Japanese students in an English class (we talked in both languages and made origami), saw a koto demonstration and tea ceremony, and an art class. Unlike the school girls, many Japanese males will approach you, shake your hand jokingly, and scoff at you. They act tough, but really they are afraid we will steal their women.
The last two days I've had rice bowls for lunch. Today, I had tacos.
Here are pictures from today:
Here I am learning kendo. Before you strike you yell 'YA!' and every time you hit you yell "ME!"
These girls were all playing volleyball until we walked by, at which point they dropped the ball, clustered together and started waving. They also shouted a lot, and giggled, and called to us. This happened every time we saw school girls, and being that the school was 2/3 female, it happened a lot.
This was probably the fastest I've ever seen someone move in person. If she wanted to, I bet she could kill you.
These guys were also pretty tight. We watched a boy and a girl fight, they wrassled for a couple minutes when the girl suddenly flipped the guy over her back and onto the floor with a loud 'thud'. It was fantastic.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
8:09PM
Dear journal,
I poked a small hole in the wall today. I am in utter fear that my homestay parents will notice and hate me. Hopefully they will notice after I have left. I believe this will be the case.
This is day, what, 5? of my Japan Adventure. Day one was in an airplane. Then suddenly a lot of hours were eaten up by the time difference and it was day two. Day two of my Japan Adventure was pretty eventful, as it took place in Alaska. Wtf, mates? as they say in Australia, which just beat Japan in the World Cup. Short story is, my plane was flying over the pacific ocean when oil suddenly began spewing out of our 777, forcing the captain to pull a 180 and land in Anchorage, middle-of-nowhere Alaska. After many, many hours of waiting and grumbling, American Airlines got us a hotel. This is where it gets nice, because they sprung for a fourstar hotel, drop-dead gorgeous in the middle of the mountains. There weren't enough rooms to go around so an embarassed hotel clerk asks us to share, and as a motivator allowed us to charge anything we want, with no limit, to the hotel. A round of ten dollar shots of tequila for everyone! Bring on the $25 ribs! And then onto my beautiful room and plush pillows.
I'm truncating all of this to save time. Finally I got to Japan, with my small group that was on my flight and in my study abroad program, and we all got lost around Japan before finally meeting up with the group. Two hour train ride later, everyone meets up with their homestay parents except me. My homestay father disappeared for a night-trip, and a IES rep who speaks little English drives me to a beautiful, expensive, traditional Japanese-style restaraunt where I meet up with another IES-rep, also little English speaking. We have a small dinner and she takes me to her house to spend the night. Her family is amazing, her house is quaint, we chat it up for an hour or so in my broken Japanese and their broken English. The 17 year old son uses an electronic dictionary. I sleep on a futon in the tatami room.
Since, then, I've moved into my real homestay parent's house, into another tatami room with a futon. We have wireless here, so I can email from my computer. The first day I met them, my homestay father picked me up at the orientation site, which is walking distance from his home. One of the first things he said was "How old are you. Ah, I see. My wife and I, we drink a lot. I would have liked to drink with you but, ah, oh well. Nevermind." They have a pint of beer with every dinner, and then after dinner a cup of wine. C'est la vie. Later that night the three of us hopped onto bicycles and we drove down to the grocery store to get food for dinner. My otoosan walked me to the cereal aisle and made me pick out a box. My okaasan went and got me ice cream. Aren't they nice? Dinner consists of a half dozen bowls of assorted things, fish and pork and salad and knick-knacks and what not that you pick at with your chopsticks and transfer to your bowl. Another bowl of gohan (rice) is available, and maybe a little dish that you can put soy sauce in. They told me I'm jouzu (skillful) with the chopsticks, and I responded by knocking over my glass of water. Ikenai!!
Today we toured the city of Mobara, where I am now and will be until next week when we move to the dorms in Tokyo and start classes. We visited a shrine and a castle, and I took some great pictures, including the one I'm now using for my Facebook picture. You should check it out, I don't want to brag but it's kind of awesome. You might just think it's silly but fuck you anyways.
Ah, the cutest thing happened this morning. I walked to orientation with all the kids in the neighborhood. At 7:45 I leave the house, after convincing my otoosan to let me walk alone, and I pass by a group of about eight kids, maybe eight years old, walking in a straight line to school. They all wear uniforms with bright yellow caps and bright yellow bookbags. As I walked alongside them other kids stepped out of their homes and joined us. I was listening to my music, suddenly one of the kids goes "Hel-lo!" I turn around and he's putting his fingers in his ears, mimicking my headphones. I take them off and respond hello. "Gakkou e iku no? (Are you going to school)" I ask them. The boy responds with a loud, cute, enthustiastic "Hai!!" So I'm like "Watashi mo! (Me too!)" And we keep walking. Later, right before splitting off in different directions, he says "Nice-to-meet-you!"
Indeed, this is the Land of Gods.
I hope y'all read this and allow me to share my Japan Adventure with you. I promise to keep the entries short. Jaa atode!
Thursday, June 8, 2006
5:27AM
As the twin suns shone down on the Miami landscape, our hero's landspeeder (a 2000 Mustang), was in the shop with muffler problems. Several days had passed with no word from the droids; the part they needed had to be shipped from Naboo, and there was trouble with the Trade Federation. Several of our hero's friends were recently killed by Tuscan Raiders, but he was unfazed, afterall he HAD warned them beforehand. "Don't go that way", he said, "that's Tuscan Raider territory. It's dangerous". But they just laughed and called him a bigot. "Sand People," they said, "is the politically correct term. And they're just like everyone else, the violence is caused by their sociopolitical history for the fault of our lousy government." That's what they told our hero, but then they were killed, trying to defend their speed bikes from angry Tuscan Raiders teenagers. Serves them right.
j/k
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