Likes, dislikes...

Ten likes:
① Keith Moon. I can't put my finger on it but watching that man, in interviews, actually playing drums, or just goofing around makes me deliriously happy. Hell, they use to duct tape his headphones to his head! I get close to the same feeling watching Les Claypool and Flea.
② Adrien Brody's nose (and the rest of him too). Yes, he has that smarmy thing going for him. But I'll forgive it. I sometimes go for smarmy. Example, Vincent Galo in Buffalo 66 and Lucas Haas in Mars Attacks. Yes...long haired and greasy too. Did you know that Vince and Luke are in a band together called Bunny?
③ Japanese folklore and the minions of mythical creatures that haunt it. This stuff just blows my mind! Continually.


④ Kurt Vonnegut. He makes me laugh and cry often times within the same paragraphy! Damn, I want to meet him!
⑤ Buddhism. "Life is suffering, suffering is caused by desire, desire can be rooted out, see the Noble Eightfold Path". Pretty much been a Buddhist nut since high school. Much more a philosophy. No guilt, shame, or groveling. I find recently I am drawn more to Tibetan and Shingon, real esoteric, out-there stuff...
⑥ Insence. My house is a constant cloud of perfume. I dust often. Even burnt the stuff in me car for a while there. Had to stop because people threw stuff at me and called me a hippy.


⑦ Billy Corgan. I love the melodies he writes and the lyrics he puts with them. He also has (is it true the Pumpkins are getting back together?!) the most amazing, and yes good looking, drummer. Jimmy Chamerlain.
⑧ The Internet. I was hardly even informed of the Gulf War. My father took videos and played them for me after it ended. Now, I can not only find out what is happening all over the world, I can talk to people who live there as well. Research, news, music, instant messenger...!
⑨ Dark chocolate, dark beer, dark humor (is that three?)
⑩ Certain "musicals"...Jesus Christ Superstar (especially with Ian Gillan), Rock'n'Roll High School, Hair, This is Spinal Tap.


Ten dislikes:
①Crowded trains, and I don't mean crowded by the your normal standards. I mean, you-ain't-getting-me-in-there crowded. I usually forego those. I make funny faces as they pull away, all the people with their faces smashed against the windows. I'd rather be late to work that suffer that. Although I did write a cute little story about an over crowded train, and it sold real fast.

② My mother in law.
③ That I must sleep for at least eight hours a night. I sometimes dream (yes, literally) about what I could accomplish if I only needed say, three hours of sleep a night.
④ This man at my son's karate dojo. He belittles, threatens, and degrades his children; dolling out praise only on rare occasions when they perform outstandingly. Yes, they are amazing athletes but at what a price? Ass!
⑤ Housework. I hate that even places you don't purposefully dirty must be cleaned sooner or later...floors, walls, refrigeraters.
⑥ Monkey Moms. There is this new breed of women. They are young mothers, super-di-dupper skinny, and fashionable to a degree. They usually have a child or two but they move like they were kids themselves, prefering the inelegant 'pooping squat' to a more graceful kneeling. The amount of underwear revealed is obsene. (And yes, this could be jealousy).
⑦ Ben Stiller. I wasn't in the country...but WHY did this man become popular?
⑧ Red wine headaches. You'd think I'd learn.
⑨ Asbestos. Just recently it was discovered some companies here STILL use asbestos! You can't imagine the outrage. Especially from me. One of the schools J has karate at very hastily tore down its gym and built another. I remember TWO YEARS ago when I would ask everyone, hey, doesn't that stuff look like asbestos and they laughed at me, don't be silly.
⑩ Japanese cockroaches. These things are mean, intellegent and vengeful! They aren't only enormous, they friggin fly too! I cannot tell you the number of battles I have had with a gokiburi...and how many battles I have lost as well. Like the time I thought I had killed one, went to get the paper towel only to find it had escaped. Later that night I was working on the computer in a dark room and felt a 'presence'. Odd. No one was supposed to be home. Next, I hear the flap-flap-flap of thick evil wings and then whap! It lands in my hair!! He died a death not unlike that yellow dude on Sin City.

HG

Okay, we are currently undergoing what is being called an Owarai Boom. It's like all the sudden being a comedian is cool and everyone is trying their hand at it. The good news is there are some real gems out there. Actually quite a few. Here is one I like, all the kids under a certain age like, and a whole lot more people hate.

His stage name is Razor Ramon (Lazor Ramon?) But this character is his most famous, called HG or Hard Gay. Yep, he wears the little leather pants and pumps his hips at an obscene speed. But really, he IS funny.

If you're brave and have some free time.

Cherry Blossom HG

Father's Day HG

Some books...

Some books make me want to BE something.
Krakatoa made me want to go out and study geography, Into Thin Air and I was wishing I could climb mountains and chew wax, then there came South and I was hurting to break ice and eat penquin livers (over flickering seal blubber candle light) with Ernest Shackleton.

Recently, though, I've been reading The Historian and you know what I really, really want to be these days...yep, a vampire hunter! No, more drab. A HISTORIAN! How can a book with so little action make me want to become a dusty old, historian? I don't know. But I figure Elizabeth Kosotava must be one helluva writer to be able to do that. I mean, the fact that I'm still picking up a book that is over six hundred pages long and doesn't involve elves, dwarves or wizards says something about the woman's talent.

Oh, and today the director for our radio show said she had actually tried the eel ice cream. Said you could tell there was something in there, like bones or little pieces of flesh, and also that it came with a little packet of sansho pepper to sprinkle on it. Two thumbs down. Then I learned that I can get squid ink ice cream pretty close to my house. The Fish Center. So I think I'll take my child there and get a stunning picture of his black teeth.

Yum!

※I saw (for the first time ever!) someone playing Sudoku yesterday. Despite having a Japanese name (it seems it wasn't even invented here) I don't see anyone doing it or talking about it.

Day Trip

Visited Kakegawa Castle. I hear they are doing some nightly historical drama based there so it was fun to see all the giant buses unload great herds of tourists. We live relatively close so we lean more towards being natives and are allowed to gawk relentlessly at the fancy Tokyo-ites.

The steps up (and down) are cut stone and quite steep. On the way back I blended in (I so did Not blend in) with several women in kimono. It was an awfully hot day. These women were hurtin'. Everyone was whispering nice things about them. But still, they were hurtin. One, a particularly older one, sorta gave up all hope of being demure as she descended the stairs. Our eyes met, her kimono split open to the knee. We exchange looks, a sort of understanding that I'd stand in front of her on the way down. The picture is J (brown shirt) and his buddy S.


Also went to a bird and flower park. Got real friendly with the emus. Both kids and I took one and pretended it was our "protege" or "henchman". This pretty bird is mine. I call him Kappa.





The kid and the husband and a bird. I like the pose the bird is doing.