旅の先生

Henry Miller, on travel

2010-06-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

(or, a perfect description of the process of culture shock)

from "Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch"

"[Arriving in a new place] is all so inviting, so spectacular, so complete in itself, that at first you are emotionally stymied. The preliminary bout of intoxication which inevitably follows is one the alcoholic never knows. Comes a settling down period, generally accompanied by a slight touch of boredom--the ransom one pays for flirting with perfection. Then follows the trouble period, when inner doubts pave the way for domestic squabbles, and the whole horizon grows dark with conflict. When at last you hit bottom, you say--everyone has said it at least once--"Big Sur? Why it's just like every other place!" Speaking thus, you voice a profound truth, since a place in only what you make it, what you bring to it, just as with a friend, a lover, a wife, a pet, or a pursuit.

"Yes, Big Sur can be a dream come true--or a complete washout. If there's something wrong with the picture, have a look at yourself in the mirror... The result is that you either come to grips with yourself or else turn tail and seek some other spot in which to nourish your illusions. Which leaves a whole universe to roam--and who is to care should you never come face to face with yourself?"

Does "White Culture" exist?

2010-06-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

'In a marvellously splenetic essay, “On Being White . . . And Other Lies,” James Baldwin argued that America had, really, “no white community”—only a motley alliance of European immigrants and their descendants, who made a “moral choice” (even if they didn’t realize it) to join a synthetic racial élite... In 1994, the white labor historian David R. Roediger published an incendiary volume, “Towards the Abolition of Whiteness.” Paying special attention to unions and strikes, he traced the unsteady growth of American whiteness, a category that eventually included many previous identities that had once been considered marginal: Irish, Italian, Polish, Jewish. “It is not merely that whiteness is oppressive and false; it is that whiteness is nothing but oppressive and false,” he wrote. “Whiteness describes, from Little Big Horn to Simi Valley, not a culture but precisely the absence of culture. It is the empty and therefore terrifying attempt to build an identity based on what one isn’t and on whom one can hold back.”'

The New Yorker, 12 April 2010, "Beyond the Pale"

This is what happens when you get married...

2010-05-21T07:15:00.000-07:00

Age and wisdom

2009-07-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

I don't like Judd Apatow's oeuvre, however he made a very salient comment on Fresh Air regarding wisdom, knowledge, and aging:

I feel like everybody on Earth is very immature. As I get older -- I'm 41 now -- I'm realizing that adults are not smarter than young people; some might say they're dumber. I don't meet many 70 year old people that I think, "What a wise person who can give me so much wisdom." I think most people are a mess and they're either covering the mess, or they're openly a mess. And we're all struggling, and a 60 year old man can be as immature as a 15 year old boy. I'm sure there are exceptions: I doubt Walter Cronkite was that way. But most of us are that way. ... I also think it's funny to expose it, and talk about it. Now that my friends are all in their 40s, I really do think, "Man! We're just a dumb as ever!" I actually think it's funnier when people think they are wise, or they do have their act together. Ya know, the funniest thing is the world is someone who's self-assured. Ya know, who's more hilarious than Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney? People who think they have all the answers: they're the people to be the most frightened of.

Fresh Air, 22 July 2009

Nietzsche says

2009-05-28T09:22:00.000-07:00

"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."

「措置入院に安く散歩は信が何もを成らない事を見せる。」

"The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad."

"Although the most acute judges of the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-existent. It is thus with all guilt."

-via The Nietzsche Family Circus

A tentative list of actors who have played some sort of incarnation of Woody Allen

2009-05-26T19:54:00.001-07:00

-Kenneth Brannagh
-Jason Schwartzman
-Robin Williams
-Tobey Maguire
-Stanley Tucci
-Richard Benjamin

from The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Tolstoy) + 今日の日本語言葉

2009-05-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

This is why I escaped the suburban miasma of my upbringing:

"Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and commonplace—and most horrifying."

「イバンイリイチの生活は卑近で普通ですけど、参列。」

ーーーーー

生地獄　 (　いきじごく　) - n: living hell

From Anthony Lane of The New Yorker

2009-05-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

Here, in other words, is a long-range backstory—a device that, in the Hollywood of recent times, has grown from an option to a fetish. I lost patience with “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” once we learned of Willy Wonka’s primal trauma (his father was a dentist, and forbade him candies, so guess how he reversed that deprivation?), and, likewise, with “Batman Begins,” from the moment that mini-Bruce tumbled into a well full of bats. What’s wrong with “Batman Is” ? In all narratives, there is a beauty to the merely given, as the narrator does us the honor of trusting that we will take it for granted. Conversely, there is something offensive in the implication that we might resent that pact, and, like plaintive children, demand to have everything explained. Shakespeare could have kicked off with a flashback in which the infant Hamlet is seen wailing with indecision as to which of Gertrude’s breasts he should latch onto, but would it really have helped us to grasp the dithering prince?

-Issue of May 18, 2009

2009-05-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

I consider traveling the purest form of living.

僕には旅が一番無雑な生活ですと思う。

Margaret Sanger: Eminent Eugenicist

2009-04-29T15:47:00.000-07:00

An excerpt from her brief proposal, "A Plan For Peace" (1932). At first I thought she is being sardonic (something like "An Modest Proposal"), but actually it was quite fashionable back then to argue for the sterilization, etc, of "morons" and other undesirables.

"...The main objects of the Population Congress would be:

a) to raise the level and increase the general intelligence of population.
b) to increase the population slowly by keeping the birth rate at its present level of fifteen per thousand, decreasing the death rate below its present mark of 11 per thousand.
c) to keep the doors of immigration closed to the entrance of certain aliens whose condition is known to be detrimental to the stamina of the race, such as feebleminded, idiots, morons, insane, syphilitic, epileptic, criminal, professional prostitutes, and others in this class barred by the immigration laws of 1924.
d) to apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring.
e) to insure the country against future burdens of maintenance for numerous offspring as may be born of feebleminded parents, by pensioning all persons with transmissible disease who voluntarily consent to sterilization.
f) to give certain dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization.
g) to apportion farm lands and homesteads for these segregated persons where they would be taught to work under competent instructors for the period of their entire lives.

The first step would thus be to control the intake and output of morons, mental defectives, epileptics.

The second step would be to take an inventory of the secondary group such as illiterates, paupers, unemployables, criminals, prostitutes, dope-fiends; classify them in special departments under government medical protection, and segregate them on farms and open spaces as long as necessary for the strenghtening and development of moral conduct. Having corralled this enormous part of our population and placed it on a basis of health instead of punishment, it is safe to say that fifteen or twenty millions of our population would then be organized into soldiers of defense---defending the unborn against their own disabilities

The third step would be to give special attention to the mothers' health, to see that women who are suffering from tuberculosis, heart or kidney disease, toxic goitre, gonorrhea, or any disease where the condition of pregnancy disturbs their health are placed under public health nurses to instruct them in practical, scientific methods of contraception in order to safeguard their lives---thus reducing maternal mortality.

The above steps may seem to place emphasis on a health program instead of on tariffs, moratoriums and debts, but I believe that national health is the first essential factor in any program for universal peace.With the future citizen safeguarded from hereditary taints, with five million mental and moral degenerates segregated, with ten million women and ten million children receiving adequate care, we could then turn our attention to the basic needs for international peace. There would then be a definite effort to make population increase slowly and at a specified rate, in order to accommodate and adjust increasing numbers to the best social and economic system.In the meantime we should organize and join an International League of Low Birth Rate Nations to secure and maintain World Peace."

Quoth Zadie Smith:

2009-03-19T12:19:00.000-07:00

"The funniest thing about dying is how much we, the living, ask of the dying; how much we beg them to make it easy on us."

"We had been tight as thieves as children, but I'd barely seen him since [my father] died, and I sensed us settling into the attenuated relations of adult siblings, a new formal distance, always slightly abashed, for there seems no clear way, in adult life, to do justice to the intimacy of childhood. I remember being scandalized, as a child, at how rarely our parents spoke to their siblings. How was it possible? How did it happen? Then it happens to you."

"Comedy nausea is the extreme incarnation of what my father felt: not only is joke-telling a cheap art; the whole business of standup is, in some sense, a shameful cheat. For a comedian of this kind, I imagine it feels like a love affair gone wrong. You start out wanting people to laugh in exactly the places you mean them to laugh, then they always laugh where you want them to laugh -- then you start to hate them for it."

-The New Yorker, Dec. 22, 2008

re: Bush's progress, democracy; "freedom"

2009-03-12T05:17:00.000-07:00

Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, the student journalist sentenced to death for blasphemy in Afghanistan, has been told he will spend the next 20 years in jail after the country's highest court ruled against him – without even hearing his defence.

The 23-year-old, brought to worldwide attention after an Independent campaign, was praying that Afghanistan's top judges would quash his conviction for lack of evidence, or because he was tried in secret and convicted without a defence lawyer. Instead, almost 18 months after he was arrested for allegedly circulating an article about women's rights, any hope of justice and due process evaporated amid gross irregularities, allegations of corruption and coercion at the Supreme Court. Justices issued their decision in secret, without letting Mr Kambaksh's lawyer submit so much as a word in his defence...

...Mr Kambaksh was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to death last year for circulating an essay on women's rights which questioned verses in the Koran.

read it here

Hypocrisy, etc

2009-03-01T07:31:00.000-08:00

"The biggest consumer [among US states], Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000...

Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama."

Latter-Day Saints: moral exemplars all

article here

Hamlet, revised

2009-03-01T07:30:00.000-08:00

My students produced this modern interpretation of Hamlet...

from the Dept. of Revelations

2009-02-16T04:41:00.000-08:00

2. Know that you're not alone. Many people have ornithophobia, including George W. Bush. It's nothing to be ashamed of, as millions of people suffer this in the world, and they feel just like you. Don't feel "defected", or "weird" because you have a fear of birds.

-excerpted from the list, "How to Overcome Fear of Birds"

Why Japanese Can Be Easy, or 日本語が簡単に勉強出来るの故

2009-02-09T06:47:00.000-08:00

I'm still no expert on the subject of course, but the Japanese language often surprises me in its logic and simplicity. To wit:

the kanji for fire is 火

the kanji for tree is 木

...and the kanji for burn is 焚 -- that is, "burn" combines "fire" with "tree"

2009-01-29T22:45:00.001-08:00

Apropos to nothing, I recently had what alcoholics refer to as "a moment of clarity" about one particular strain of Republican thought: namely that -- the prominent politicians, at least -- tend to be economic Nihilists.

If you listen carefully to Republicans rationalizing McCain's election loss, you continually hear how he was unlucky to have been a Republican candidate-following-a-Republican-president when a particularly bad economic meltdown occurred. That is, McCain would have won had not a recession suddenly emerged.

They are suggesting, of course, that the recession is some sort of Act of God: that, completely unrelated to actual economic policy of the last 8 years (or 14, if you count the "Contract With America" bunch), the recession occurred and oh, how unlucky it is for Bush's legacy as well as McCain's bid for the presidency.

One has trouble finding the appropriate adjective to describe that kind of cognitive dissonance: chutzpah, cynicism, nihilism (aforementioned). After all the blustering about economics, taxation, expertee-ism, free markets, and "fiscal responsibility, Republican demagogues ultimately concluded that their policies had nothing to do with the recession and in fact it was just their bad luck to be in charge when the recession hit, and oh people are going to blame us now, aren't they? Even though it's really not our fault when these things happen... Such bad luck is our lot in life!

It is cynicism indeed: if they truly believe that economic policy is completely unrelated to economic conditions, then their evangelical belief in giving money to the (super) wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle class -- with the concomitant explanation that the money will trickle-down to the benefit of the economy as a whole -- is cynical and disingenuous... No, we don't think that we can use policy to affect the economy, but nonetheless the rich deserve yet more money because... it's a good policy for economic growth.

One could also look to the recent House vote for Obama's stimulus package. Despite extensive (and honest) bargaining with Republicans, when the day of reckoning arrived not a single republican voted for the bill. They made, what I heard reported as, "a political decision" to vote against the bill. One can only speculate: Millions are suffering and dying due to economic conditions. We have the possibility, with this stimulus bill of alleviating at at least some of that suffering. However, we all know that no one can really do anything to really affect the economy, so, with the long view of rallying the base for 2010, we ought to all vote against this bill. The people, economy be damned! We're in it to win! This is 177 votes for the rest of our lives!

Gay marriage is an inevitability

2008-12-10T05:21:00.000-08:00

It was but 50 years ago that inter-racial marriage (miscegenation) was illegal in many states:

“On January 6, 1959, the Lovings [a black woman and a white man] pleaded guilty to the charge [of miscegenation] and were sentenced to one year in jail; however, the trial judge suspended the sentence for a period of 25 years on the condition that the Lovings leave the State and not return to Virginia together for 25 years. He stated in an opinion that: 'Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix'.”

-The Times Online

Surely it will be but a short time in the future when we will look back -- in utter horror-- on this era of hate -- that is, the present day, when the Mormons -- ever defenders of justice and human rights -- mobilized their Godly army to deprive (yet another) group of their rights and basic freedoms as human beings. Of course we would be remiss in forgetting the Church's glorious history of equal rights. For the Mormons had the wisdom and equanimity to finally allowed blacks to join their cult/church in 1978. What an expression of Christian love for all people!

Given the relatively recent evolutions in racial equality, I wonder but that we need only wait perhaps a few more years for the march of history to bring the human right of marriage to all people.

Hubris: (hyōōbrĭs) n. Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance

2008-12-10T05:15:00.001-08:00

In a way, you have to kind of admire his blind arrogance and complete
disregard for ethical considerations... or even the barest sense of
duty to his job as governor...

"...Blagojevich saw the Senate seat as a valuable prize, or as he put in an
intercepted conversation: "I've got this thing, and it's fuckin'
golden, and uh, uh, and I'm not going to give it up for fuckin'
nothing."

He said Obama's top choice as a replacement--Obama has said he
didn't speak with Blago--is "not willing to give me anything except
appreciation. Fuck them."

The governor comes off as bored and trapped in his job and as
anxious as an entrepreneur to "monetize" his business during the
Internet bust. He didn't want to "suck it up for two years" as our
lowly, underpaid, unappreciated governor and give this "motherfucker
[Obama] his senator. Fuck him. For
nothing? Fuck him."

Blagojevich envisioned that selling the Senate seat could wrangle his wife
Patti a high-paying corporate board post and could land him a lucrative
job in a non-profit funded by millions from Obama friend Warren Buffett
and possibly Buffett friend Bill Gates.

After all, the seat is "a fucking valuable thing, you just don't
give it away for nothing." He thought wistfully about being named an
ambassador. He lusts to be named Secretary of Energy--"the one (cabinet
post) that makes the most money." But Health and Human Services
Secretary would be acceptable.

But he was grounded enough to realize these posts were beyond his grasp because of all the bad publicity he's had.

He had a fall-back position: The governor said if he couldn't get
what he wanted he might just appoint himself to the Senate--and lord
knows he may even do that while out on bond. "Unless I get something
real good (from Obama's alleged choice), shit, I'll just send myself..."

And he wanted the Tribune--in exchange for assisting in the
sale of Wrigley Field-- to fire editorial writers who called for him to
be impeached. "Fire those fuckers," Blago urged.

Students, perfidy

2008-11-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

In 2007, officials revealed that five per cent of applicants to Oxford and Cambridge had embellished their application forms with material taken off the Web. Explaining why they wanted to study chemistry, two hundred and thirty-four applicants cited word for word the same example, "burning a hole in my pajamas at age eight," as a formative experience.

-New Yorker

Doing god's work:

2008-11-11T11:53:00.000-08:00

"The Mormon Prophet commanded that every California member give time and money to pass Prop 8. Each member was then contacted by a church authority to make sure the orders from Salt Lake City were obeyed. Mormons were organized into groups to canvas neighborhoods, knock on doors, distribute yards signs, and otherwise organize against gay marriage rights...

Those who openly speak disagreement with the church's orthodoxy are routinely excommunicated. ... Deliberately complicating matters for outside observers, church members were ordered to disguise their actions. Official church orders told them to disguise their Mormon identity, not go in pairs, and not to wear white shirts and ties.

As the campaign escalated, the church broadened its call to members, drawing in activists and money from around the country. So although Mormons are less than 2% of the California population's, several gay websites claim that over 70% of the private money donated in support of Prop 8 was Mormon."

The glorious Mormon Church, spreading Jesus' message of love and equality to all corners of the world...

2008-11-10T05:06:00.000-08:00

"Mr. Emanuel said an economic stimulus package in Congress should not be linked to a free-trade agreement with Colombia, as some Republicans have sought to do. Democrats have resisted those efforts, saying it does not provide enough labor protection." -- NYTimes

[Note: please be aware of my liberal use of sarcasm forthwith]

Why is there such an emphasis on Colombia these days? The above quote is excerpted from an article addressing the initial project of the Obama presidency, with regards to his intention of reversing a number of Bush administration executive orders. That's all fine and well, but whence Colombia?? Why has such a minor issue -- that of a potential free trade agreement -- become the polemic du jour? McCain did visit Colombia (and no where else in S. America) during his campaign "world" tour... I suppose that obviously has given some impetus to the issue.

I think this reveals something of the fundamental peregrinations of the Neo-conservative world view, within the larger context of Evangelical Millenialist Christianity: their entire foreign policy machine is subject to the ultimately questionable relations with a specific few countries：

1) In the Middle East, all of the Neo-con establishment concerns itself exclusively with the fortunes of Israel (equivalent in size to Vermont, 7.2 million persons), forgetting that not ALL Muslims are anti-freedom fanatics who want to watch the jews burn in the conflagration of Jerusalem (the 500,000 or so Iraqi children who died directly as a result of the 1990s embargo notwithstanding); I suppose there are a few Palestinians out there who deserve human rights... I mean there's probably one or two, right?

2) In Eastern Europe, of course, the entire Neo-con foreign policy establishment is focused on our new best little buddy -- the Robin to our Batman, the Scrappy-do to our Scooby-do -- Georgia: all 70,000 km2 (equivalent to Maine) and some 4.6 million persons. What is it that McCain said? "We are all Georgians now." Yes we are! Translation: "We are all pawns to be used in the coming Manichean conflict between the US and our favorite old enemy USSR, I mean, Russia."

3) And lastly, let's us not forget Colombia. Among all the strongly emerging economies of South America (Brasil, Argentina, Peru, Chile, etc), Colombia seems to have won the Miss Congeniality award. Apparently its "conservative government" (don't tell McCain that they are socialist/commies because Colombia has universal health care) and close allegiance in the "War" on Drugs has endeared itself to the hearts and minds of Anti-Chavezists in the US. I mean, why not alienate the world's second largest oil exporter? And surely it's of little consequence that Colombia is perhaps the sole remaining country in the region where human rights abuses (read: government-sponsored murder, disappearances) are extant. And of course it has nothing to do with round rejection of US influence (the mot juste would be "criminal interventions") in S. American politics over the past 50 years (supporting Peron's dictatorship in Argentina, CIA-backed coup of Allende in Chile, failed coup attempt against Chavez, among others)

Nevermind that Israel has consistently -- and with blind arrogance -- pursued policies against both the interests of itself and the US (no, the war in Lebanon has not improved security; no, allowing illegal settlements does not endear the Israelis to the Palestinians). Nevermind that it's been recently revealed that, in fact, the president of Georgia (Sacka...vili.... ?? Sack-a-shit) really did actually provoke Russia into war, thinking that the US would not be averse to fighting another world (nuclear) war with Russia over the grievances of the proud and noble South Ossetians. Nevermind that the billions of dollars we've thrown into incinerator of the Colombian Coca fields has done nothing to stem the tide of cocaine production and export (all while providing a moral cover for the murder of left-wing dissidents).

No; the Neo-cons have abandoned the centuries of precedence, intelligence, and mutual self-interest among the democracies of the world -- instead lashing their sinking ship to the fortunes of three countries: Colombia, Israel, and Georgia.

What insight! What far-reaching influence we would have!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Bush/McCain Neo-conservative foreign policy:

The view from the true left

2008-11-04T09:51:00.000-08:00

Chomsky on McCain

"Let's imagine that, say, someone in Russia now running for office who was a pilot in the invasion of Afghanistan and was shot down while he was bombing heavily populated urban areas in Kabul, civilian areas, and was then tortured by Reagan's freedom fighters. We should sympathize with him for his fate at the hands of the people who tortured him. But how does that make you a hero and a specialist on national security? On the other hand, that's exactly what's being done with McCain. His expertise in national security is precisely that. But you can't raise that matter here because the jingoism and the commitment to the nobility of our military efforts is so high across the spectrum."

Alexander Cockburn on McCain

"...the resplendent rows of decorations on McCain’s chest, a medal an hour, for the total of 10 hours and 30 minutes he spent dropping high explosive on civilians in North Vietnam.

McCain returned home to wife Carol who had kept the home fires burning all those years, undergoing the torture of 23 operations after a car accident that left her semi-crippled. After brisk inspection of his worn bride, he judiciously abandoned Carol for the much younger and extremely rich beer heiress, Cindy Hensley and embarked on his political career as maverick and war hero."

Cockburn on Biden

"Biden need not detain us. In his single person is combined everything that is loathsome about the Democratic Party. He’s a phony through and through, serf of the credit companies and virtually incapable of opening his mouth without unleashing a falsehood, a plagiarism or an absurdity. On his criminal record are the bankruptcy bill, many horrible statutes prosecuting the war on drugs, the crime bill."

Cockburn on Obama

"In substantive terms Obama’s run has been the negation of almost every decent progressive principle, a negation achieved with scarcely a bleat of protest from the progressives seeking to hold him to account. The Michael Moores stay silent. Abroad, Obama stands for imperial renaissance. He has groveled before the Israel lobby and pandered to the sourest reflexes of the cold war era. At home he has crooked the knee to bankers and Wall Street, to the oil companies, the coal companies, the nuclear lobby, the big agricultural combines. He is even more popular with Pentagon contractors than McCain, and has been the most popular of the candidates with K Street lobbyists. He has been fearless in offending progressives, constant in appeasing the powerful."

Reasons for moving to Seattle, Addendum

2008-10-31T05:55:00.000-07:00

Specifically: the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle

The Fremont Lenin
The Fremont Elepant
The Fremont Troll
The Fremont Rocket

アメリカの大統領選

2008-10-27T05:54:00.000-07:00

次の火曜日は(2008年11月4日)アメリカの大統領選だね。本当に僕の人生中一番大切な選時だから、行きに容れましょう。オバマちゃんが勝つでしょうっと思ってるけど、米上院でも、大きなチャンスがある。

ブシくん、くたばっちまえ！！

If I ever move back to the US...

2008-10-26T20:29:00.000-07:00

I'm moving to Seattle:

Seattle has been named the most "unchurched" city in the country, having more Atheists and Agnostics than any other major city in the US...

United States Census Bureau of 2003 survey data indicated that Seattle was the most educated large city in the U.S. with 51.6 percent of residents 25 and older having at least a bachelor degree...

Seattle is the most literate city of America's sixty-nine largest cities in 2005 and 2006 and second most literate in 2007, after Minneapolis, in a study conducted by Central Connecticut State University...

Seattle has "around 100" theatrical production companies and over two dozen live theatre venues, many of them associated with fringe theatre...

At nearly four percent, Greater Seattle has the highest concentration of mixed-race persons of any major metropolitan area in the United States...

A 2006 study by UCLA suggests that Seattle has one of the highest LGBT populations per capita. With 12.9% of citizens polled identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, the city ranks second of all major US cities, behind San Francisco and slightly ahead of Atlanta...

Being a local hotshot

2008-10-24T05:04:00.000-07:00

One of the advantages of being a big foreign fish in a small (relatively poor) pond is the access it affords to the local high life, as it were. In this strongly class-conscious society (officially delineated by 6 "estratas" -- economic designations of the quality of one's housing and neighborhood), I would otherwise be an anonymous teacher, toiling through life's daily struggles. However, the fact of being an extranjero (foreigner) has boosted my standing among the locals. Even at the most posh clubs in the city, bouncers push others aside to allow my VIP access. Living where I do (a very nice neighborhood), I rub elbows with the local rich and famous -- including the players of our premier league soccer team Athletico Bucaramanga. And it goes without saying that my school caters to the richest and most powerful (read: drug barons) of the local population. This is all by way of saying that one of the unintended dividends of being an expat here -- in this remote city, in the unredeemed country -- is being a minor celebrity. To wit, I've already been featured (in photos, at least) twice in the local newspaper, and once on the local TV news (all due to involvement with rugby).

In other strange news, last night I played soccer with a coach of the aforementioned premier league team, as well as a German professional player, and a midget -- I mean -- dwarf. You haven't lived until you've seen a dwarf and a monster German (covered in tattoos) battle each other for the ball.

2008-10-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

“The tourist is someone who doesn’t know where he’s been. The traveler doesn’t know where he’s going.” -- Paul Theroux

...and shouldn't I be awarded points for avoiding the obvious -- and by now clichéd -- quote from Tolkien? ("not all who wander are lost," etc)

(Photo= myself, Adam, and RJ -- and some others of course -- stranded on this "road" as we are making our way into the jungle of the Mosquito Coast in Honduras)

McCarthy-ism

2008-10-07T06:04:00.000-07:00

He looked up. His pale hair was white. He looked fourteen going on some age that never was. He looked as if he'd been sitting there and God had made the trees and rocks around him. He looked like his own reincarnation and then his own again. Above all else he looked to be filled with a terrible sadness. As if he harbored news of some horrendous loss that no one else had heard of yet. Some vast tragedy not of fact or incident or event but of the way the world was.

Cormac McCarthy, "The Crossing"

(the guy who also wrote "No Country For Old Men")

99 - 0

2008-09-29T19:31:00.001-07:00

...and now Santander Rugby League Champions

Sunday, September 28

Bucaramanga Rugby Club ("Aguilas")

vs.

Alliancia Francais (those surrender monkeys!)

Nosotros ganamos contra el equipo se llama Alliancia Francesa, pero ellos no tienen un relation con France o la idioma Francesa.

僕達はフランスの連立組を倒したけど、彼たちはフランスとフランス語とも関係がない。

John Stuart Mill, predecessor.

2008-09-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

"A good life for Mill... is not one where you have queued before the slot machine of utility and got the candy it dispenses. It is one where you have gone out into the world to build the best self you can—travelled where you wanted and seen what you could and said what you had to, sung your own songs and heard your own poems. Mill was a romantic and an epicurean in a gray tweed suit, and his mature liberalism is both what a narrow historian means by liberalism—a theory of free conduct justified by its good results—and what the rest of us mean when we say that someone is liberal-minded: open to all the pleasures of life and generous in their enjoyment."

-Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

Etc.

2008-09-25T18:52:00.000-07:00

Today I:
-had a parent-teacher conference with the Mayor of Bucaramanga (though, at the time, I was unaware of this fact)
-discovered that my student is one of the best squash players in Colombia, and beyond

Annual Causes of Death in the United States

2008-09-20T17:31:00.000-07:00

Tobacco	435,000¹
Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity	365,000¹
Alcohol	85,000 ¹
Microbial Agents	75,000¹
Toxic Agents	55,000¹
Motor Vehicle Crashes	26,347¹
Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs	32,000²
Suicide	30,622³
Incidents Involving Firearms	29,000¹
Homicide	20,308⁴
Sexual Behaviors	20,000¹
All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect	17,000^{1, 5}
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Such As Aspirin	7,600⁶
Marijuana	0⁷

I think it's high time that we declare:

a "War on Microbial Agents"
a "War on Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs"
a "War on Sexual Behaviors"
and a "War on Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity"

Granted, marijuana -- being the scourge that it is -- still deserves our attention and our billions of federal dollars. God knows how many lives we could save were we to finally defeat Marijuana and send it back to the other -juana: Tijuana.

The 775,138 people arrested in 2007 for possession of marijuana (specifically: not buying, selling, trafficking, or growing), these people ought to disappear into the bowels of justice forever. I won't abide reefer madness in my streets.

Lightning

2008-09-08T06:01:00.000-07:00

These photos are out of focus, but they're my first attempt at taking shots of lightning. As you can see, in order to capture these images, my reflexes have become nearly as fast as the speed of light.

These were taken the night of Sep. 8th, in Bucaramanga, facing south on my penthouse balcony. Yes, I live in a penthouse. It was a mo-fo of a thunderstorm too: electrical outages, transformers blowing-up, pissing down rain -- epic!!!

Special Olympics for Airports

2008-09-08T05:57:00.000-07:00

Self-confidence is very important for airports... they are sensitive beings. Winning "Most Improved Large Airport in North America" is more than just a prize, it's an accomplishment that will last a lifetime.

Question of the Day:

2008-08-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

from a girl in my 11th-grade American literature class:

"Do women in Afghanistan shave their vaginas?"

Some observations on having lived in Bucaramanga, Colombia for all of one week

2008-08-15T12:42:00.001-07:00

In no particular order:

1. Admittedly, I am easily manipulated by those who have chosen to use their charms for Evil, instead of Good. But the Colombian girls of my classes -- or at least the ones who seem to lack shame -- have mastered that uniquely potent weapon to which almost all men are powerless: The Pout. "Alright, let's get out a piece of paper..." I would ask the class. Whereupon one, or more, of my deceptively demur students would purse her lips, tilt her head, and purr, "Buy why, Mister? Let's watch a movie instead," or something to that effect. This is a skill that is honed in the home, where Papi -- try as he might -- simply cannot refuse when his dear, sweet daughter begs while batting her innocent eyes.

2. The weather here isn't all that bad. Though its unpredictability often leaves one stranded in a downpour, generally the micro-climate (which are profuse in this country) here is just one increment below the level of heat/humidity that I would consider unbearable. As it is, I can bear it... barely. A sunny morning often yields to an afternoon shower, which again gives way to the setting sun come dusk.

3. In every seeming incarnation, Colombia is very much the inverse of Japan (Colombia=1/Japan). To take a few examples:
-Colombian students like to share their thoughts and, well, talk too much in class
-I've made more "native" friends here in 1 week than I did in 2 years in Japan
-Official policies of "tranquilo" and "mañana" are very much in effect
-The people here like to dance, express themselves, and generally enjoy a community life
-There are only three smokers on the entire school staff
-No one is particularly surprised that I can speak spanish

4. With regards to national pride, there is no shame here in admitting your desire to create a stronger and .... Colombia. Having been asked to share their goals in life, a remarkable number of my students submitted that they want to help build a Colombia that is prosperous and powerful. You would never hear that kind of language from American kids... certainly not from me when I was in high school.

5. There are no surprises about the traffic conditions: dangerous and unlawful.

6. There really is a lot of plastic surgery around here

In 2004, I got into a jucuzzi with...

2008-07-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

...this guy:
Pinchas Zuckerman. I was walking on the beach on Oahu (Hawaii, dummy); I blagged my way into a seaside resort pool area. Zuckerman was accompanied by his mistress as well (I was accompanied, as it happens, by a professional violinist with the Honolulu Symphony -- it's a long story -- I had no idea who he was, but she flipped her lid).

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1825241_1739939,00.html

2008-07-10T23:02:00.000-07:00

They were at it again when the tsunami killed hundreds of thousands in 2004. The Archbishop of Canterbury, a distinguished theologian, wrote an article at the time, reminding his Anglican communion that such tragedies challenge faith. But then he circled around a kind of physicist’s version of the free-will argument when he cautioned that “the world has to have a regular order and pattern of its own. . . . So there is something odd about expecting that God will constantly step in if things are getting dangerous.” Well, there would be something odd if you had never read the Bible. But one of the repeated indices of God’s power, as invoked in many of the Psalms, is his ability to control the waves—after all, the Psalmist knew that a great flood had consumed the world, at God’s command, and that the Red Sea had been divinely parted. How dangerous would things have to get before divine intervention was justified? To this, the Gospels can reply succinctly: not very. For when the disciples were out on the Sea of Galilee, and things took a stormy turn, Jesus appeared, walked on water, and calmed the storm. Perhaps the disciples just meant more to Jesus than a few hundred thousand Asians.

James Wood, reviewing Bart Ehrman's new book "God's Problem" in The New Yorker

Leave no stone unturned

2008-04-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

Cabdrivers [in Beijing] have been issued an “Olympic Taxi Handbook,” a three-hundred-and-twelve-page primer on the world, which features not only a list of useful English expressions—“I want to go to the People’s Hospital”—but also a section of do’s and don’ts that account for purported national preferences and taboos: never rub the head of a Thai child; a Frenchman likes his handshakes brief and light; Americans shun “goods and packaging that use a bat-shaped pattern, believing that those animals suck people’s blood and are inauspicious.” (In China, bats signify good fortune.) The “Olympic Taxi Handbook” concludes with a section on emergencies, including how to escape from a burning cab (use your belt buckle to break the glass) and how to retrieve, bag, and ice a severed finger.

-The New Yorker (28 April 2008), "Crazy English," by Evan Osnos

Eye of the Tiger!

2008-04-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

We found this borracho on our way back from a hike to the waterfall on Isla Ometepe, Lago de Nicaragua.

La Moskitia

2008-03-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

There's a lot to cover, so I'll try to keep it brief...

Both Adam and RJ arrived in Guatemala City (having flown from Chicago and Hawaii, respectively) and we decided to embark on a journey to the jungle-coast of La Moskitia (The Mosquito Coast). Before we could quit Guat City, however, we found ourselves amidst La Revolution! It wasn't quite clear to me exactly what they were protesting, but I saw a lot of Che paraphrenalia, so it must've been something transformative.

After a few long bus rides, we arrived at the famous Copan Ruins, located near a town called... Copan Ruins. Why are they famous? For their stellae -- elaborate totem-esque carved columns standing free amongst the temples and courtyards of the compound. Copan is also reknowned, somewhat ignobly, for its prohibitively expensive entrance fees: a $37 package to see ruins, museum, and the tunnels that were dug by archaeologists into the temples. $37!! Most ruins cost, on average, 5 to 10 dollars... and Copan is certainly less remarkable than, say, Palenque... very average indeed. I think the problem is that the region was restored with the cooperation of the Japanese and thus Japanese-pricing was imposed (though even the most impressive sites in Kyoto and Tokyo cost considerably less). Anyways, to your left is one of the many infamous stellae. Further afield (now having arrived in Honduras), we stationed ourselves in La Ceiba, gateway to both the Bay Islands as well as La Moskitia. Getting to the Bay Islands is easy; getting to La Moskitia is definitely not easy...

Ours was a mosaic journey. The first leg was a simple 3-hour bus ride (on, we later discovered, the last paved roads we were to see for nearly 2 weeks) to the crossroads/town of Tocoa, from whence we boarded, or rather climbed, into a 4wd pickup truck. "How much," you may be wondering, "Can a pick-up truck really carry?" Well, we found out, and in grand style. In the cab of the pickup were seated (that is, sardined, if you permit me to use such a verb) six fortunate souls -- they paid more for the luxury. The remaining 10 of us were seated in the back with 1oos of further kilograms of luggage, gear, rice, and other third-world detritus. The journey commenced... At first, it was a simple matter of driving off-road, amongst encroaching, over-hanging branches that threatened to brain anyone caught unawares (variously, one passenger would shout "duck" just before another branch made its attempt to claim further victims from the moving vehicle). The penultimate surprise of this leg occurring when the road absconded from the jungle in favor of the perils of the Caribbean beach. For two hours we braved sand and surf, driving now among the dunes, now in the waves themselves. My fear wasn't so much the possibility of breaking-down our there, in the middle of the middle of nowhere (though we did have to stop a number of times to affect various minor repairs to the vehicle) -- rather, I feared, itself being overly top-heavy, the truck toppling over as it drove at a 25 degree angle perpendicular to the slanting shore. Despite the perils, it was, indeed, a glorious journey! Along the way, we stopped at a few small villages populated by the Garifuna people -- descendants of Carib island slaves. We arrived at our destination -- or at least what we thought was our destination; for had a further 3 hours of transport via a rickety dugout canoe powered with a gas motor. This was, as well, quite glorious: we puttered in and amongst the swampy, alligatored byways connecting this smallo lagoon to that... One is reminded of Pirates of the Caribbean -- the actual ride, not the terrible movie franchise (I weep for the days when a humble Johnny Depp was satisfied with the occasional "Gilbert Grape" or "Edward Scissorhands") -- here and there one spotted a lone dugout (only the tourist boats are equipped with motors, the majority being powered by pole and paddle) tied to a mangrove tree reaching its hundreds of legs into the un-firm muck of the channel bottom; then one sees a collection of 4 or 5 houses perched upon their stilts, naked children out front smiling, adults, somewhat more incredulously, glumly watching.

Finally -- yes, finally finally -- we arrived at the the village of Raista: a point of embarkation, as it were, to a few other locations in La Moskitia; our final destination was the interior village of Las Marias. We spent a couple well-earned days relaxing with the quaint charms offered by Raista. The only real events of note was our encounter with a bevy of Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as the addition of 2 more travelers (a canadian enviro and a Aussie ne'er-do-well) to our group. On the third day in Raista, we decamped for Las Marias. Normally, this journey is undertaken via a further canoe journey up the Rio Platano, in the interior of the jungle reserve. However, being hardy folk (and attempting to avoid the exorbinant price of the boat journey), we opted to hike there instead. We were told, repeatedly, that the journey was only a matter of six hours -- the day I can't hike six hours is the day of my death, so I was not daunted. What we were not told is that the trail is not one in the conventional sense of the word: it is a path in the jungle used for the moved of chattel between various locales. And being within, properly, a rainforest, the "trail" was little more than a mud-highway: sticky, unforgiving, yielding when least expected. Let me tell you: walking 15 kilometers in 8 to 20 inches of mud is not a casual stroll -- that hike ranks among some of the most difficult of my life (we were carrying full packs as well). Our guide -- contacted via the efforts of the Mad Professor Hildo in Raista -- was impatient with our gringo pace... though had he warned us of the trail conditions, we surely could have opted for footwear more appropriate than tennis shoes (the guide was wearing galloshes, or "gum boots" as the Aussie called them). We weaved for endless hours among jungle vines; numerous stagnant streams (surely larger torrents during the rainy season) crossed our path, forcing us to cross them, very crossly, across what amounted to little more than fallen tree trunks. And indeed, they were fallen tree trunks -- quite small at that.

When the last vestiges of hope had fled from my heart -- and the last ounce of will having seeped from my leaden legs -- we arrived in Las Marias... much worse for the wear, and much rejoicing. Las Marias is a riverside village of about 100 Moskitia and Pech (another ethnic group) families; a place where, according to Lonely Planet, "children learn to swim before they can walk." We stayed a hotel of thatch and wood construct -- no electricity of course... in fact, there is no electricity for hundreds of miles. Flushing the toilet was a matter of pouring buckets of water into the outhouse bowl. Despite such privations, there was still an element of luxury: meals were no task, for the house mother prepared them for us (though they consisted of little more than beans and rice -- at first a welcome blessing, but later gruel only fit for the starving). The first night was one of pure bliss: merely resting one's legs after the long journey was pleasure enough. The following day, our group -- minus myself and RJ, who value rest above almost everything else -- traveled upriver to see some petroglyphs of unknown origin... RJ and I laid in hammocks, rested, and read (I was enjoying my first V.S. Naipaul book: "Among the Believers," a wonderful monograph on Muslim societies). Much heartened by our rest, on the third day our group hiked to the top of Baltimore Peak, first sleeping in a wee mountain hideway constructed purely for the luxury of visiting tourists. We were accompanied by three guides: the principal (name unknown) of a visage harking back to the 1970s (full chops and mustache); the secondary guide, of the applied handle "Mr. Smiles" (due to his inability, it seems, to NOT constantly smile and laugh at even the most insignificant moments -- a condition later attributed to his love of the ganja); and the young apprentice who was called, by his own people, "Gordito" -- Little Fatty -- due to his having more than 5% body fat (most of the male villagers were absolute paragons of physical fitness).

More coming soon...

Exceptionalism justified

2008-02-25T15:06:00.000-08:00

"The Defense Language Institute rates Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic, and Korean Category IV—the most difficult—languages; a basic course of Category IV study lasts sixty-four weeks, versus twenty-four for, say, Spanish."

-From yet another wonderful piece in The New Yorker, about the New York Phil. in Pyong-Yang. This quote serves two purposes in my mind: A) It somewhat justifies the exceptionalist streak in the Japanese psyche (though, of course, all countries are exceptionalist to a certain degree, the US foremost among them); 2) It assuages much of my anxiety about my acquisition of the language -- ie -- I'm not actually slow: it really is a tough language to learn.

Volcano!!!

2008-02-16T10:46:00.000-08:00

Roasting marshmellows... it's impossible to stand that close to the lava for more than 10 or 15 seconds:

_____

A river of fire...

_____

Autoportrait avec le metal rouge...

Jesus Parade in Guatemala

2008-02-15T12:49:00.000-08:00

Walk The Earth, Part II: Tulum, Valladolid, Chichen-itza

2008-02-15T09:50:00.000-08:00

On either the 15th or 16th of January (when I'm traveling, the days become blurred), Adam and I quitted Playa del Carmen for the lush and rustic environs of Tulum -- famous for its seaside Mayan ruins. While not the most impressive ruins in terms of sheer size and complexity, Tulum is definitely one of the most beautiful settings one can find in southern Mexico. For the ruins abut the beach itself -- sitting on a cliff above the roiling and crashing of a blue ocean onto the white sands. Floating in such water, sun blazing above, peering 20 meters up at the placid edifice of a Mayan temple, there is little else that one can say other than "amazing..." (dependent, of course, on one's ability to zone-out the hordes of cruise-ship tourists who descend on the ruins by the thousands).

That night we stayed at the "Weary Traveler" hostel, hosting a similar set of backpackers and bums. The only event of note was the arrival, at 2am as all of us slept in the dorm room, of a very drunk and very belligerent English slag who proceeded to verbally abuse each of us individually (she was a equal-opportunity abuser). Part of me wanted to kick her in the teeth, but the other part of me was worried that a teeth-kicking would only result in further abuse.

In any case, we next began crossing the Yucatan peninsula for the colonial city of Merida. En route, we first stayed in Valladolid, unremarkable except for the "Cenotes" which abound in the surrounding hills. Cenotes are basically giant sink holes OR big caves filled with water... Really, there's nothing particularly spectacular about them... at least not enough to justify the $5 entrance fee. Regardless, we rented a couple "experienced" bikes and rode the 7-10km to a local cenote. Normally, it wouldn't have been much of an arduous task -- however, the bikes not necessarily having been up to, well, first-world standards -- it was more than a bit taxing for the both of us. Incidentally, we rented the bikes and stayed with a gentleman bearing the histrionic handle, Antonio "Negro" Aguilar (or, "Anthony the Black Eagle"). He is a troll of a man -- sitting all day in his "office" door, in an old colonial building, calling-out on the passers-by. Mind you, he is perpetually shirtless as well, with a beautifully massive pot-belly silently dominating the room...

I discovered that both his nickname and his fame are the result of many years of minor league baseball in the United States in the 1950s. One award declared the Aguilar is "one of the top ten Mexican baseball players of all time." Quite impressive, eh? See for yourself, the debonair devil he was...

Our time in Vallodolid having come to an end, we adjourned to the great Mayan ruin of Chichenitza. It is a much revered and storied ruin in the center of the Peninsula. Remarkable for it's massive ball court (where teams of Mayans would compete for the honor of being sacrificed) and, particularly, the huge edifice of the main temple. Though entirely reconstructed -- most unrestored Mayan temples are mere piles of stone amid the jungle canopy -- it was nevertheless inspiring, in the very etymologically literal sense of the word: to see it, one cannot help but draw-in one's breath ("in-spire," as in "re-spir-ation")...

The picture does little justice, however, to the tragic flaw of this particular locale: the thousands of cruise-ship tourists who come, en masse (in their posh buses), ostensibly to see the temples, but, in actuality, to complain about the heat and yearn for the sedentary comforts of a poolside barca-lounge on the QE2. Nevertheless, it was a worthwhile expedition for us, and it highlighted Principle 79 of "Adam's Principles of Travel": #79) It never hurts to ask. The price having been listed as US$10, Adam inquired of a student price and -- queue "Also Sprach Zarathustra" -- we were able to pay $5. Yes, we are cheap cunts. But what is one to do? I now have about $6000 for 6 months of travel, the first month having gouged $1300 out of my budget.

There you have it.

Two quotes

2008-02-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

¨What´s the issue?¨asked Judge A. Raymond Randolph, a federal appeals judge.

¨That Hillary Clinton is a European Socialist,¨ Bopp replied. ¨That is an issue.¨

¨Which has nothing to do with her campaign?¨ U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth interjected.

¨Not specifically, no,¨Bopp replied.

-USA Today, 11 Jan. 2008; pg. 4A
______________________________

To live is to betray your God. Every act in life, every act that affirms us as living beings, requires that the commandments of your God be broken.

-Carlos Fuentes, ¨The Death of Artemio Cruz¨

Walk The Earth, Part I: Cancun and its Surrounds (Jan 13 - 15)

2008-02-01T07:51:00.001-08:00

My arrival at Cancun airport was not accompanied by any of the grave dramatics that oen often encounters on such travel. My partner in crime, Adam (having recently declared a hiatus from the rigors of med school), had provided me with what he referred to as "directions" to the hostel where he was staying -- though I found them more than a bit nebulous as to not only which hostel, but the city itself. Nevertheless, I forged ahead, all the while my bones slowly thawed-out from the recent cold of a Northeast winter. The hostel was indeed located in Playa del Carmen -- a beachside resort which is remarkable for its ubiquity: travel to Thailand and you see the same resort; now in Nice, now in Vietnam, now in Goa. These resorts are designed for tourists with a particular bent for the fineries which are apparently representative of local culture. In a word, cruise-ship tourists. They have the means, the money, and the Will to Consume which is absent in your typical backpacking dandy (one would not err in accusing backpackers of being cheap bastards). Lanes upon endless lanes of jewelery shops, expensive restaurants, souvenir/omiyage outposts hocking "Playa del Carmen" towels and mugs, as well as innumerable shops selling various sartorial items. Playa del Carmen is almost everything I hate about traveling -- the beautiful beach being the largest exception.

The hostel itself is quite nice -- indeed, one can almost always find such a hippie outpost even in the most posh cities. [Editor's Note -- having recently discovered the etymology of "posh," it is herewith defined: "Port Out Starboard Home." This was written on the steamer trunks of rich British colonials who wished their luggage to be stored in such a way as to avoid the harsh rays of the sun; thus the luggage would be stowed on the port side whilst heading toward the colonies, and on the starboard side when returning to the Motherland] I had not seen Adam for well nigh 18 months -- the last time having been a frenzied exploration of the Japanese isles during my tenure there. He looks no different, nor has our relationship suffered: as with all good friendships, absence is no blight on one's affections. He chose that particular hostel because -- similar to many other successful hostels -- it is something of a social catalyst for the wayward and lonely traveler. The rooms are situates around a grand lounge containing a varied assortment of couches, hammocks, and tables. The walls -- reaching two levels to the ceiling -- are adorned with paintings, art kitsch, and the standard hippie accouterments (images of planets, nude females, "energy," etc). But it is the people that truly make a hostel the foundation of any endearing travel experience. Scandinavians, Germans, Swiss, Canadians, Anglophones, and all manner of international citizens were in attendance. Staying at a standard hotel, one has little chance to meet other travelers; but a hostel -- spartan though they are -- facilitates the kind of "single-serving friends" [(C) Chuck Palaniuk] which make travel a worthwhile pursuit. That night, for example, Adam introduced me to a bevy of French and German travelers who -- surprise, surprise -- are here for the exact same reasons that we came: to enjoy sun, beach, and the company of other travelers. Is this making any sense? I mean, for all those who strictly adhere to the pre-packaged Marriot experience, can you not see the existential value in staying at a hostel? In any case, I can't imagine staying anywhere else. (well, at least as a bachelor, hostels are the best option...)

On our first proper day in Playa, we ventured across the waters to Cozumel -- yes the Cozumel -- for a little snorkeling in what Jacque Cousteau lauded as one of the premier underwater haunts in the world. Exorbitant ferry prices ($25 return) aside, it was a very pleasant day. We requisitioned a crap scooter which we used to explore the island and find isolated snorkeling spots (due to my considerably foolhardy experience of motorcycling in Vietnam, I was elected to drive). The clouds somewhat stymied the clarity of the water, though the snorkeling was nonetheless brilliant: all manner of colored, candy-coated fish floated in an among the reef dwellings. Adam being more the enthusiast, I spent a majority of our time relaxing and reading (currently Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita") on the beach. It was at this time that we made the interesting acquaintance of a pair of travelers from New Brunswick -- are they called "New Brunswickians?" In any case, Adam and I were quite taken by their unique French accents and fascinating story of New Brunswick, here recounted:

In the years immediately following the French and Indian War (known as "The Seven Years' War" in Europe, though, as you see, it lasted longer than seven years...), 1754-1763 Britain -- the victors -- felt somewhat threatened due to the considerable presence of French-speaking populations immediately to the north of the Colonies, in what is today eastern Canada (New Brunswick, of course). This land was home to about 10,000 persons, primarily concentrated in the city of Acadia, to whom the British made an offer they couldn't refuse: move to France. So the city Acadia was abandoned and the citizens moved, en masse, to France. Having been situated there for some time, the Acadians, quickly realizing they shared little else -- other than language -- with the French, demanded that they be moved to a more accommodating locale. Thus did the people-formerly-known-as-Acadians once again emigrate -- this time to the French protectorate of the Louisiana Territories, specifically souther Louisiana. Thus they (and the language they spoke) are today called "Cajun" -- a bastardization of the original "Acadian." Quite interesting, is it not?

Having completed their tale, the New Brunswickians made their farewells as we, too, adjourned to the mainland once again. What followed that night is not fit for the ears of polite company, but suffice to say that, in typical fashion, there was considerable drinking at the hostel and then a movement en masse (reminiscent of the Acadians) to a discoteque adjoining the beach. Our revelry was unfortunately cut short by the onset of a moderate rain shower.

According to Reich...

2008-01-30T19:35:00.000-08:00

I found this little gem in a hostel in Tulum, Mexico; written on the back cover:

"What is cancer? Traditionally, medical science has thought of it as an invisive tumor arising spontaneously in an otherwise healthy organism. Wilhelm Reich defines cancer not as a tumor... but as a systematic disease due to chronic thwarting of natural sexual functioning... Reich has arrived at the conclusion that 'cancer is the most significant somatic expression of the biophysiological effect of sexual stasis.'"

Reich, Wilhelm. "The Cancer Biopathy." New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973 (orginally published 1948). 433 pages.

La Vita Nueva!

2008-01-15T09:11:00.000-08:00

So I've been somewhat remiss on updating ye olde blogge lately, but that's only because my life has been, well, boring of late -- I don't thing anyone is interested in reading about the travails of a student-teacher languishing in the culturally-fetid hole of suburban texas... it's really quite bland. Here, I'll give you a bullet-point summary of the last three months:

-moved to texas
-student teaching freshmen english at Arlington High School
-playing rugby with the Arlington Mavericks
-soccer with a local team of Evangelicals
-no money, no car, no social life

Like I said, not much going on in texas, so not much to write about.

Anyways, my vita is nueva because I have now begun Walking The Earth (like Cain from "Kung Fu"). I arrived in Cancun yesterday, and I have since spent my time meeting various backpackers and soaking-up all the sun (and goddam rain... grr) that this Carib-inclined region has to offer. I intend on traveling until August, or until my money runs-out -- whichever comes first. A lot of people have asked me, "How are you paying for all this?" And I have to assure them that traveling in the third world is considerably cheaper if one avoids luxury and conspicuous consumption. My hostel here is, by way of example, 12 dollars/night, and that is considered "expensive" by most backpacking standards. When we adjourn to the road less-traveled -- in such places as Guatemala and Nicaragua -- the price of accomodation (and amenities in general) becomes almost absurdly cheap. Thus one needs little more than 1000 bones (or clams, or whatever you call them) for each month.

Anyways anyways, here I am. My primary goal for this particular region is to experience as many Mayan cultural remnants as possible... I dream wistfully of trekking through the forest and encountering, unforeseen, the towering facade of a Mayan sacrificial temple. Today we shall visit Tulum -- somewhat famous as the setting for the final scene of Robert Rodriguez's opus "Planet Terror" --

There it is... pretty amazing, eh? That is just the beginning for a journey that will hopefully take me to the very tip of South America, Jah Bless.

My new job

2007-12-02T23:57:00.000-08:00

I just got hired to teach high school Humanities/English at Colegio Panamericano in Bucaramanga, Colombia.

It's a smaller international school (about 250 students) in a smaller city in Colombia (about 1,000,000 people).

I know what you're thinking, and Colombia really isn't dangerous unless you go to the dangerous areas of the country (ie - the area controlled by FARC).

The job starts next August, and I'll be Walking The Earth (like Cane from "Kung Fu") until then. Now all I have to do is learn Spanish :-)

Basically, the long-term plan is to work for two years at this place, then use the experience to get a job at a more cosmopolitan school... in Europe maybe, or Buenos Aires or something.

Big-up yo'self, guv'na!

Coupland-ia

2007-11-14T17:24:00.000-08:00

"At twenty you know you're not going to be a rock star... by twenty-five you know you're not going to be a dentist or a professional... by thirty, a darkness starts moving in - you wonder if you're ever going to be fulfilled, let alone wealthy or successful... by thirty-five, you know, basically, what you're going to be doing the rest of your life; you become resigned to your fate."

"We had all awakened X number of years past our youth feeling sleazy and harsh. Choices still existed, but they were no longer infinite. Fun had become a scrim, concealing the hysteria that lay behind it."

"When you're young you always feel that life hasn't yet begun...But then suddenly you're old and the scheduled life didn't arrive."

"...I realized that once people are broken in certain ways they can't ever be fixed, and this is something nobody ever tells you when you are young and it never fails to surprise you as you grow older as you see the people in your life break one by one."

One of my favorite scenes...

2007-11-06T19:45:00.000-08:00

From "25th Hour," a good movie in its own right. Directed by Spike Lee, thus a quintessentially New York film. Also notable for being one the first movies to come out after 9/11, featured as a sort-of subplot.

This.... Is.... Texas!

2007-11-06T15:11:00.001-08:00

Get yer guns...

...and yer JROTC...

...and yer proud American Idol winners...

...and yer suburban sprawl...

...and of course yer high school football...

...and I would be remiss to forget Cheerleaders!!!

We made it to the Second Round!

2007-10-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

Well, as you may or may not have heard, Robert Mitchell and I created a short film (called "ご苦労様" / "Gokurosama") to enter into the Kurosawa Short Film Competition. Out of the initial 565 entries, 44 were chosen for the second round -- AND WE MADE IT INTO THE ROUND!!!

Here, see for yourself... Our film is fourth on the list, #0057.

I really can't believe that the film even made it that far...

Hooray for us... :-)

Levitch redux

2007-10-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

My crush of the moment, Timothy "Speed" Levitch, featured in a cameo in Linklater's "Waking Life." Previously I posted some scenes of Levitch from "The Cruise."

Salmon Rushdie, on religion in Public life, 1985

2007-10-17T17:04:00.000-07:00

"When the activities of a nation's representatives begin to diverge so dramatically from its self-image as the guardian of freedom and decency, then the country has to find ways of turning away from the truth into cosy simplicities (God, patriotism), in order not to see itself too plainly; in order not to see that its picture of itself is in many ways a false one.

"And if religion is the blindfold, so it is also the bedrock on which, failing any other certainty, many Americans build their sense that they are right to be, and do, as they are, and as they do."

Rushdie penned this meditation during the 1980s -- a time that marked the burgeoning pregnancy, as it were, of the doctrines that now dominate US foreign policy. This was the era of that great man -- I mean, "great communicator" -- Ronald Reagan: the golden calf of the movement conservatives. Yet, amidst our Messianic "War on Terrorism" it is useful to recall that America's Reagan -- who himself believed that the Christian Apocalypse would come in his lifetime ("and who had the button to prove it" -Rushdie) -- was one of the greatest exporters of state-sponsored terrorism of our age.

George Orwell, on La Sagrada Familia, 1937

2007-10-17T16:41:00.000-07:00

"For the first time since I had been in Barcelona I went to have a look at the cathedral [La Sagrada Familia] -- a modern cathedral, and one of the most hideous buildings in the world... Unlike most of the churches in Barcelona it was not damaged during the revolution -- it was spared because of its 'artistic value,' people said. I think the Anarchists showed bad taste in not blowing it up when they had the chance." (from Homage to Catalonia, his account of his time fighting Franco and the Fascists in Spain during the Spanish Civil War)

One of the great man of letters of the 20th century, commenting on perhaps the greatest architectural achievement of the 20th century. Granted, Orwell had just barely escaped death and imprisonment during the Spanish Civil War; yet surely his aesthetic sensibilities could have at least given slight recognition to Gaudi's modern piece de resistance.

Lucky Number Four!

2007-09-30T17:47:00.001-07:00

"The Cruise" (1998), and mad poetry

2007-09-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

A character sketch-qua-documentary...

See all the clips if you can...

Timothy "Speed" Levitch, modern Beat, cultural phenomenon, lone inheritor of a tradition

and while we're on the topic of Mad Poets, you should check-out one of the premiere artists of slam poetry, Rives:

Website and Poetry

and the musical poetry of Roxorloops

Why I Love Paris...

2007-09-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

Reason #74:

"...Moscow has one coffeehouse for every 3,187 people. New York has one for every 365 people, and Paris one for every 126."

2007-09-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

"Hard work never killed nobody -- but I ain't takin' no chances..."

-Upright Citizens Brigade

2007-08-25T18:47:00.000-07:00

I have no hope for the future.

WE ARE SO FUCKED.

2007-08-25T16:09:00.000-07:00

Today I was looking at a book of Japanese "fashion"... you know -- all those nutty girls and boys who hang around the concrete parks of Tokyo, wallowing in vanity and narcissism, wearing the most absurd threads in the effort to get noticed. (as an aside, you should know that -- once you leave Japan -- you'll become really nostalgic for all things Japanese) I was thinking about why -- in Amaterasu' name -- would they lurk about in such, I'll just say it, ridiculous clothes. Now, you know I've never been one to conform: those of you who know me from high school will remember the various "Duct Tape" paraphernalia that with which I chose to highlight my non-aligned sensibilities. But any of you who have seen these "Shibuya Girls" in person ought to recognize the difference between dressing as an individual, and dressing as a public act: for indeed, such fashion has less to do with personal choice, than with a desire to intrude upon the conscious awareness of all who pass within their demesne; one simply cannot help but stare -- or at least glance -- at someone dressed like this:

Again, I must disabuse of the notion that I oppose such fashion choices -- indeed, I believe fully in the right to dress as you will, regardless of (or perhaps as one's duty to oppose the) extant societal norms. In this age of the normalization of all possibilities for living -- that is, the obviation of regional uniqueness and local flavor (see: Walmart, McDonalds, Starbucks, etc) -- personal aesthetic expression is very important as an act of checking/battling the Norms of society that are ever creeping forward; swallowing diversity; insinuating itself into the very fabric of your thoughts. That having been said, what I want to address here is the WHY of Shibuya Girls. I mean, what the fuck? I have two answers, one of which is quite obvious, and the other, less so.

The obvious answer is, of course, a reaction against the Will to Conform which is the central tool and purpose of virtually all forms of Socialization in Japan. I need not mention the oft-quoted Japanese proverb, "The nail that sticks-up gets hammered down." Having worked in the Japanese school system for two years, I have been witness to the almost pathological obsession with normalization and conformity. I have seen students severely chastised for wearing any kind of make-up or jewelry. Most of my teachers were more concerned -- than learning itself -- with shirts that are properly tucked-in, and scarves that are properly tied, and coats that are properly buttoned. You have to understand that Japanese students attend public school NOT to pursue academics, but to engage in the very serious project of Socialization. Indeed, they spend countless weeks on preparations for Cultural Day or Sports Day, at the expense of academics. This is not out of some misguided curriculum, but rather an expression of the Will to Normalization that is the goal of the public school system: teaching kids how to be proper, humble, and respectful Japanese citizens who know their proper place in society. I would venture to guess that the Right-Wing opposition to immigration is based on a fear of un-Japanized (dirty) foreigners upsetting the very careful balance that has been developed over years and years of educational indoctrination. Virtually all Japanese students attend "cram schools" for at least a few hours every day, after "real" school. They do this out of necessity: they have to actually learn the subjects which they didn't learn at public school -- for the mission of public school is to essentially "break" students (as you would a wild horse) into becoming good little Japanese citizens.

The requisite elementary school backpacks -- one cannot use any other kind.

This is all to say that, as you should know, the Japanese are obsessed with conformity. And thus it should be obvious that the fashion choices of our lovely little Shibuya Girls are based, in no small part, on the will to reject the Japanese project of normalization. What was interesting, though, as I flipped through the aforementioned book of fashions, was that every person pictured was no older than 18 or 20. This is, of course, derivative of the maturation process that is universal to all societies: children must be allowed the freedom of self-discovery. But I would also suggest that, ultimately, it is rare to find someone in Japan who perpetuates such style choices beyond the age of 20 -- understood as the advent of adulthood (the age at which you can fuck, smoke, drink, drive, and vote -- all at the same time, if you're so inclined). Point being, these societal rejects almost always return to the fold -- out of either necessity (a boss is typically allowed to dictate your hair and clothes fashions -- to an absurd degree -- in and out of work) or simply because years of socialization/normalization will eventually come home to roost. It should also be pointed-out that these clothes they wear, they are NOT cheap: the book lists, beneath the glaring photos, all the Jean-Paul Gaultiers and other fashionable names (I may or may not have heard of) that they are wearing at the time. In contrast with, I would suggest, hipsters and other rejects in America, Japanese rebellion requires a high degree of financing: that is, it is a decision that must be arrived at very consciously and prudently; "Yes, I am rebelling. But can I afford to rebel with Versace or just Donna Karen?" It requires great effort indeed. Furthermore, you should know that it is VERY expensive to live in Tokyo (which is where one will find a majority of this particular population), and I doubt these kids -- with their *crazy* Gucci glasses and mis-matching pink pants -- are going home to some hovel. No, of course it is their dear, confused parents who are sponsoring this lifestyle. This suggests that, again, their rebellion is not so much a choice of lifestyle, as it is a choice of pure image -- their aesthetics emerge not out of some deeper part of themselves, but exist only ephemerally, as an almost meaningless expression of taste.

So, my second theory about their motivations is based more on the recent history of Japan, as revealed to me in the WONDERFUL book by John Dower, Embracing Defeat, about the revolution in Japanese society by which fascistic nationalism almost magically transmogrified into peaceful democracy. In the first 5 years (or so) following Japan's surrender, starvation and privation were rampant. I won't go into all the reasons (corruption, corruption, and corruption -- a black market system which provided the funds to sponsor the LDP, which is still in power), but basically Japan was like bloody Ethiopia at that time: no one had nothin', everyone was hungry, people were dying of starvation, the prices of basic commodities were absurdly high. Basically, it was like America's depression X 10. Really, really hard times. Well, the Shibuya Girls of today -- it was their grandparents who had to suffer through this. And their parents who grew-up in the "developing-nation" of Japan, under the very prudent tutelage of those grandparents who suffered. The generation of today is essentially the san-sei -- the 3rd generation -- to follow in the wake of World War II: not far removed, I would suggest, from the memory of starvation and hard times. The parents of Shibuya Girls raised them to be careful, to save money, the always be grateful for what they have, to conserve, to spend only when necessary. Well, as it turns out, Japan is one of the most profligate, decadent nations on this Earth. It is still the second largest economy, even with only a scant 180 million people -- that means that there is a large amount of wealth shared among relatively few hands. When Grandma or Mom talk about how you have to watch your money and be careful, how can Little Sister possibly connect such remonstrations with the reality of a decadent Japan? For the Shibuya Girl has known nothing but decadence and comfort -- sure, they are mostly middle class, but the middle class in Japan would be considered quite posh by many standards. Basically, money is not an issue for the Japanese of today. Therefore, I would suggest that the values of penury and thrift of which Grandmother still expounds -- these values have no relation to the reality of Japan today. And thus I would further suggest that the decadent fashion choices of Shibuya Girls partially reflect a conscious reaction to the now-antiquated values of thrift and worry: they are expressing the absurdity of thrift and caution in a society that bleeds and breathes money.

That's all I have to say about that.

In other news, I'm now living in Arlington, TEXAS... well until December, at which point I'll be Walking the Earth, like Cain from "Kung Fu." A list:
-there is NO public transportation whatsoever; definitely a society that thrives on cars
-Texas really is, as they say, fucking BIG. I live "close" to the high school where I teach, yet it take about 20 minutes to walk there.
-I am pleasantly surprised by the diversity on campus here: many many South Asians, Hispanics, Middle Eastern folks (is there a better term for that?), and East Asians. I love diversity best because I love to eat diverse foods -- there is even an Arab market just around the corner from me (thought that means a 15-minute walk b/c Texas is big).
-I'm excited to be (student-) teaching :-) Though I'm scared as well. If I can sort-out this teaching credential, though, by this time next year I'll be writing to you from, say, Paris or Buenos Aires. I'm already learning spanish.
-I love all the excitement and hope that pervades university campuses. This is like College Part IV for me (Part I being actual college, Part II being grad school, Part III being the JET program in Japan).
-At my gym in Japan, I was definitely the hugest buff dude around. But, Jesus H. Christ, I went to the gym on campus here and I feel like a puny little sally-boy... there are some absolute MONSTERS working-out in american gyms...
-I like carrot cake.

Google, page 1: "George is very upset," 2007年8月6日

2007-08-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

>> After George is mean to Lennie, George is very upset about it so he apologizes deeply to Lennie. Many other men would not apologize and walk away. <<

>> George is very upset with Martha. And, when Nick and Honey talk about leaving, George tells them that they cannot. The fun has just begun. <<

>> A spokesman for the star, who lives in New York where his hit musical Taboo is appearing on Broadway, said: "George is very upset. <<

>> There was a hearing on child custody yesterday and George is very upset because previously the judge ordered Brad to keep his and Jennifer’s child, Maddox, <<

>> George is very upset. Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Aug 2003 Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved <<

>> George is very upset about this and refuses to use the can. I've been trying to explain that we have no choice, but the poor kid is mortified. <<

>> She's together with Sam, the boy of her dreams; she is no longer plagued by her foster mother Ella (though George is very upset when he learns the truth); <<

>> to be excluded from consideration: George is very upset; he was passed over for a promotion. pass up. to ignore (e.g., an opportunity): We must not pass up <<

>> George is very upset as it was his cat. Flossie slept next to George most nights as George's loft bed is well out of the way of pesky dogs. <<

>> George is very upset when he realizes that Pip cannot see the elephant in his garden. When their friend Maggie comes by, she sees the elephant but does not <<

This is my little photoshop magical mystery tour
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>>>>>>>>>>>>>

{ { "she was a fastidious Judaic-type woman, in very sexy slacks" } }

By way of explanation...

2007-08-05T20:55:00.001-07:00

This is the girl, Chihiro (or "Chi-chan") with whom I've been hanging out over the past week -- she's staying at my parents' house (as am I) while we galavant amongst the many theme parks that Southern California offers to the wayward traveler. The story is, basically, one day I went to Enoura Shogakko to "teach"English to the 4th graders. English isn't taught as an official subject at the elementary level, so most kids can only muster "I like ~~," "My name is ~~," and "Go fuck yourself, dirty round-eyed foreign menace." I was immediately struck, however, by one of the students, who could more-or-less speak English at the level of high schooler. For motivations that yet remain a mystery to myself, I offered my services to her as a tutor. Thenceforth, every Sunday or so I've been going to her house and joining her family for dinner and TV/movies, along with a couple hours of tutoring for the kid and her kid brother. I didn't charge them anything because I saw it as something of a cultural exchange: I provided (mediocre) English tutoring, while they shared with me the quaint pleasures of Japanese family life -- and a free home-cooked meal. Well, her mom got it in her head to send Chihiro home with me when I left Japan... so here she is. Her mom decided to also fly out to my place (after Chihiro arrived)... but I still can't quite understand why. As is typical of the Japanese vacation, the mom arrived on Saturday and together they're leaving on Tuesday -- which gives her all of two days to experience Americana. もったいない！ In any case, it's been awesome so far!

"Disneyland Et Ceterata" or, "Being (Hypo) Hypercritical About Other People"

2007-08-02T03:46:00.000-07:00

I shouldn't even comment on this guy because he's just an attention-whore.

Of course, on Hollywood Blvd you can discover the wonderful secrets that lie within L. Ron Hubbard's fecund mind.

?????

What the hell kind of speed limit is this?

A new environmental policy: Be Wasteful!

Winner of the Clark Griswold Award for Indulgent Tourism

Welcome to the jungle!!! What else can possibly be said about this guy that hasn't been said before? He is a walking cliche. His daughters must be embarrassed... Also, note the "House of Pain" t-shirt which -- if the hair, glasses, neck chain, cut-off camos, wife-beater, and 'stache didn't already indicate -- locates him solidly in the mid-80s.

These guys REALLY want you to know... The one on the left even has a trimmed mustache. (I would be remiss if I didn't also include the obvious Simpsons reference: "There’s only two kind of guys who wear those [hawaiian] shirts...")

One year later...

2007-07-31T05:42:00.001-07:00

August 2006 -

* * *

July 2007 -

God bless you, Mr. Wallace!

2007-07-24T00:03:00.000-07:00

One [Pistons] player who wasn't as enthusiastic about the team's White House visit was Rasheed Wallace. Asked on Sunday what he would say to President Bush when they met, the Pistons forward told the Free Press: "I don't have shit to say to him. I didn't vote for him. It's just something we have to do."

Oscar Wilde said that Life imitates Art...

2007-07-23T03:42:00.001-07:00

Airborne Laser Aircraft Slated to Provide Missile Defense

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md., June 21, 2007 – A typical-looking 747 aircraft on the tarmac here today -- distinguishable from other 747s only by its glass, bulb-shaped nose -- could one day be the silver bullet that shoots ballistic missiles out of the sky.

But what’s revolutionary about the prototype Airborne Laser aircraft, which arrived last night after its first nonstop cross-country flight, is that it won’t use bullets to take out its target, explained Air Force Col. John Daniels, program director.

It will use light.

“What makes this revolutionary is that you can engage targets at the speed of light – 186,000 miles per second,” Daniels said. “So we can go from New York to Los Angeles before you can blink your eye. Think about that. You can’t blink your eye faster than this weapon system or a beam of light goes across the country.”

The Airborne Laser is being developed as an integral part of the ballistic missile defense system to protect the United States, its allies and its deployed troops against a ballistic missile attack, he explained. An advanced detection-and-tracking system, state-of-the-art optics and a high-energy laser would detect a missile launch and track it during the boost phase...

Here's the original article; and Here's the funky connection:

...although Val Kilmer really doesn't deserve to be on the cover of the DVD -- he was only a supporting character in the movie. But of course -- marketers being who they are -- they slapped him on the DVD to drum-up more sales.

Anyways, point being, it's pretty interesting (in a really, really lame way) that the Department of Defense reached into the dark, forgotten recesses of the 80s and pulled-out this new gem of a weapon system.

道で子供と会話

2007-07-22T01:00:00.000-07:00

えみちゃんの沢山の顔

2007-07-18T23:31:00.000-07:00

And this Good Ol' Boy wants to be president...

2007-07-18T23:14:00.000-07:00

お化けの船

2007-07-16T07:54:00.001-07:00

A fungus among'us...

2007-07-02T22:38:00.001-07:00

I win the Household-Mold Contest.

For those of you playing at home, it's bloody humid in Japan during the summer, and you gotta watch-out for mold, fungi, etc. I didn't watch close enough because I found a bloody mushroom growing on the end of my floor-scrubber-brush --

Only in America

2007-07-01T20:02:00.001-07:00

No, it's not Yakov Smirnoff. It's Carhenge:

Nebraska

It's Done!

2007-06-18T07:31:00.000-07:00

Rob and I finished our movie!

See it here.

*****

In other news, I went to the Awaji soccer tournament last weekend (June 9/10) and managed to grab fourth place with the wonderful guys from the Shimane-ken team. It's our best showing ever... really should have won the whole thing, but two penalty shoot-outs (following two zero-zero games, one with the eventual tourney champions) relegated to fourth. On a positive note, during he four championship games on Sunday, we only conceded one goal (during a game we won!). I still can't figure out how we ended-up in fourth place. Anyways, it was a great tournament and I love the boys from Shimane -- really nice guys, fun, and great soccer players.

Then this recent weekend (June 16/17) I was back up in Shimane with the Lena-organized beer olympics. Following a leisurely (and sunburn-inducing) 3-hour float down the river, we retired to a "camp" site and gournds for the second-annual Beer Olympics! I was ingloriously elected Blue Team captain -- we christened ourselves the "Sukebe Smurfs," and chose the shocker as our official salute. We were in the lead for most of the events, but a poor showing at the dizzy-spin-and-hit relegated us to second... still, I was proud of our showing there. The next day, after drinking -- jesus, how much did I drink? -- and about 3 hours' sleep, I rushed back to Yamaguchi to play in my final game with the Shimonoseki Rugby Football Club. We kinda suck, and we were playing Hagi, who are really really good... so we lost pretty bad. I did score one of our two tries though. Then I whored in a second game with some other team that had FOUR players. So we put together this frankenstein team of Hagi, Shimonoseki, plus 4 of the originals. Anyways, I played fucking forward... and I keep forgetting how much I don't like playing forward. I guess flanker or 8-man is alright... but, fucking hell, getting my face smashed-in is not exactly how I envisioned my last glorious games with the club. Anyways it was fun; I'll take rugby wherever I can get it. Next, of course, I'll be getting it in bloody Texas, of all places. We'll see how that turns out...

I slept like the dead on Sunday night.

Tom Delay: Oracle at Delphi

2007-05-28T22:04:00.000-07:00

"We have to win the war against our culture."

...as quoted in a recent New Yorker article. This meme -- which has been oft-repeated by conservative demagogues -- strikes me as blantantly and intrinsically self-contradictory: that is, it is it's own refutation. The "We" to which he refers is, of course, "our culture." Does he thus mean we are striven to elide ourselves? Of course not. What lies beneath this abnegation is actually the presumption that the Manichean morality of the conservative radicals ought to be the yoke which binds the population at large -- a la The Handmaid's Tale. This attitude will never succeed in a true democracy because, despite recent Herculean efforts, one simply cannot convince people to vote against their own moral inclinations. It scares me though... it scares me that a minority would want to impose their version of morality on the majority.

Japanese whaling

2007-05-27T20:27:00.001-07:00

The Sea Shepherd attacking some jerkoff Japanese "scientific" whaling ships! Fuckin get im!

Hollywood Hotshot

2007-05-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

”ご苦労様” - (gokurousama)

Purely by chance, I came across a flyer for the Kurosawa (as in, Akira) Short Film Festival. Knowing Rob's penchant for making short -- mostly experimental -- films, I demurely suggested that he put together a film for the festival. What started as an off-hand suggestion has turned-into a fully-fledged, collaborative film project. We've shared responsibilities on pretty much every aspect of the film -- though I've been more the writing/idea guy and Rob's expertise in editing is second-to-none.

Thus far we've finished principal filming and we are within a few weeks of completing post-production -- the most arduous task being the animation of each of the thousands of frames in the movie. We were bloody lucky in that our leading man is a great actor -- he pulls an amazingly nuanced deadpan throughout the movie.

So what is it about? Well, I developed a theme around the work-aholic culture of Japan: a guy devotes his whole energy and being to his company -- never having had the time/energy to develop outside interests nor his relationship with his wife. Upon retirement, he finds that he has, as it were, no life outside of work -- he simply doesn't know what to do with himself now that his whole raison d'etre (gainful employment) has disappeared from his life. Then his wife leaves him and he kills himself, the end. This is reflective, of course, of reality: divorce and suicide are much higher among recently-retired couples (suddenly a wife is faced with this man she has hardly known throughout their marriage). The title -- "Gokurousama" -- means, basically, "thanks for your hard work and devotion;" it is used when a person retires or, less formally, when someone completes an extended task. In other words, our main character has fulfilled -- what he perceives to be -- his duties to his company and to himself... and nothing remains of himself.

In any case, you'll be able to see the completed film on youtube in a few weeks. Below is the flyer, created by Rob:

Rugby, bragging

2007-05-21T02:45:00.000-07:00

Despite a 5am bedtime following a well-documented night of debauchery in Kokura (accompanied by the lads from East-coast Yamaguchi), I managed to summon-up the moxie to play a rugby game with my boys, the Shimonoseki City Rugby Club. I played only half the game (I started, but -- uncharacteristically -- we had a number of reserves who needed to play as well), and, well, I am really proud of the way I played.

I scored the first try of the game: the fly-half was kicking for touch after a penalty. As I was on the wing, it's my job to chase the kick in case he bollocks it up and it doesn't go out. Well, he bollocked it up and it didn't go out. I caught the ball off of one bounce, put stiff arms into two players' faces, and broke a couple other tackles to trammel over the try-line for a score.

My second try was easy -- I don't deserve any credit for it: I was on the wing, the fullback passed me the ball on a straight hands play, the defense wasn't able to slide fast enough, so I simply ran around the outside and scored; converted my own try with a drop kick.

The third try was glorious, though Wakako wasn't sure if she saw it because "ぜんぶんすごく分からんやろ。”　I received the ball on a short pass in traffic at the 50, cut inside to reverse the momentum, then broke through four tacklers who were desperately trying to pull me down. Try awarded; converted my try with a drop kick.

Keep in mind that -- due to the lazy winter -- I've gained about ten pounds since November... though I've also started working-out with creatine, which has helped me get somewhat stronger over the same period. That puts me up to 95kg (about 210lbs), which is probably 30kg bigger than any other Japanese back player -- especially on the wing, where traditionally the smallest and fastest dudes play. So I was at something of a size advantage against my opposite numbers. When I was playing in America, it was almost completey reversed: I'm the little guy trying to tackle these huge ex-college (american) football players, so of course I never had as much success at scoring.

Happiness and free will

2007-05-17T08:17:00.000-07:00

"The irreversible condition is not conducive to the synthesis of happiness," according to Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert (watch the lecture here). That is, when we are presented with a scenario in which we must make a choice that cannot be amended (an "irreversible condition"), our happiness/satisfaction with that choice is remarkably greater -- according to numerous and well documented studies -- than a scenario in which we are allowed the luxury of an amendable choice. To wit, happiness is nearly inimical to free will.

A proverbial example: our grandparents' generation had very low rates of divorce complemented by relatively high rates of happiness -- "we met and married the week before he was shipped-off to the War -- and I have been happy ever since!" However, it has been shown that the happiness which each partner felt in the marriage is related to the fact that divorce was a less viable option in those days (through laws as well as social norms). In other words, they had no choice to leave the marriage, thus they were forced to come to terms with the marriage and even synthesize satisfaction with it. These days, of course, we have the option of the "no fault-divorce," which enables the somewhat un-satisfied partner to indulge and justify those feelings. The fact of having choice in marriage -- free will -- leads to overall lower rates of happiness within marriages.

Anais Nin, excerpts from Volume II of the diaries; analysis

2007-05-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

"In war you only lose your life once, in life you die so many times." This is the sentence that strikes the most violently at the reader -- simultaneously piercing and de-nuding; it is painfully expositional. It is a summation, as I would interpret it, of the narrative that runs throughout her diary: the failures and failings of intellectuals, artist, and culture as they accelerate into the apocalyptic apotheosis of World War II. All the tertiary characters that enter and disappear -- they live in the hermetic world of Lost Generational Paris. We see them perpetually compromising themselves, failing to realize their own ideals, betraying their own convictions. All these little deaths: they are what truly destroys a man. Heart disease, aging, alcohol -- they destroy the body but they perhaps do not touch man's spirit. "All my friends, when we sit in cafes, or walk the dark streets, have no regrets for what they have not done, not loved, not given." We die each time we refuse love; we die when we forsake the creative life; we die when we allow utility to compromise friends and lovers. The war that approaches at the volume's conclusion is the Valkyrie, the merciful angel that quiets the daily vascillations, carrying one into the transcendence that, ultimately, was one's goal from the beginning -- though cowardice ever prevents one from a true pursuit. That is parhaps the allure of war itself: it presents to possibility of closure -- of death as a cleansing agent to all the ways in which one betrays oneself.

David Beckham, patron saint of missing children

2007-05-11T19:45:00.000-07:00

Beckham -- caring lad that he is -- has personally appealed for the return of a beautiful little blond girl who was kidnapped in portugal recently. I've mentioned this before, but I find it a little disturbing/depressing that the Media (and other tertiary figures like Beckham) suddenly go on moral crusades whenever a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl goes missing. (See: Elizabeth Smart, Natalee Holloway, Jon-benet Ramsey, etc.) Actually, you can just check out the wikipedia site for "Missing White Woman Syndrome" and see for yourself. To wit, here is a partial list of the non-white, non-blue-eyed missing children in the United Kingdom (in 2006-7) for whom Beckham has not personally intervened: Muzamil Hussain, Ashia Jabbi, Ying Lee, Maya Leila Mahmoud, and Elizabeth Ogungbayibi

Japanese Fascism

2007-05-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

Say what you will about Japan as a nation or as a cultural phenomenon (and I've said many things), but no one with any moral sincerity can praise the country's criminal justice system and it's fascist police force. And I'm using the term fascist quite literally and purposefully: unlike all other modern industrialized nations, Japanese police can detain any person for up to 23 days without charges and without access to lawyers, family, or any other mediating authority -- during which they often use physical intimidation on par with Guantanamo. I have heard countless anecdotes about the kind of physical and mental pressure that the police use to coerce confessions. And now, on the FRONT PAGE of today's New York Times, is a story of "gang" of old ladies and geezers who were quite literally, beaten into confessions for some obscure voter-fraud violation. Of course they were completely exonerated recently, though after months of incarceration.... and, of course, not a single policeman or official related to the case has been indicted for any wrongdoing. The authorities are never wrong in this country, are they?

I suppose I must admit that I have an almost infantile obsession with justice, thus the Japanese penal system does not sit in my good graces. Yes, Japan is a "safe" society, but at what price? And is that safety directly attributable to fascism of the system? I would doubt that. This is not just an abstract frustration directed at the system -- personally, I have been privy to a number of run-ins with Japanese fascism:

-Last year, a group of Yamaguchi soccer players were standing in a parking lot in Saga-ken, about to leave for Yamaguchi. Apparently, the fact of their group presence aroused the suspicions of the local police, who questioned them and meticulously recorded everyone's information for two hours. Ross, unlucky lad that he his, was detained for a further three hours because he didn't have his gaijin card on him.

-Another bloke I met in Hiroshima who was attacked by a bartender, then subsequently charged with assaultling said bartender. They kept him in jail for a month, but he did the Right Thing: he never confessed -- despite their repeated admonitions. He's back on the job (though $10,000 in legal fees later) because they couldn't produce any real evidence with which to charge him.

-Rachel in Okayama who was pulled-over for speeding, and then yelled-at for 30 minutes while locked in a police van.

-The Club in Hiroshima, El Barco, which was raided and shut-down by over 50 police (read HERE also). The crime? An obscure permit violation wherein a drinking establishment cannot simultaneously be a dancing establishment. Of course the real crime was the fact that El Barco is owned by a foreigner and is a known foreigner hang-out.

-I don't personally know this girl, but she has posted a horror story of Japanese justice on Big Daikon. Falsely accused of shoplifting about $50 worth of merchandise, she was told to not worry about it and just confess, and everything will be okay. Of course she was then fired and deported.

If you are ever nicked by the police, just remember one thing: DO NOT CONFESS, not matter what they tell you (unless, of course, you really did do something illegal and you feel guilty about it -- then, by all means, confess). They will tell that it's just a formality, or that it'll all blow-over if you just confess, but that's all bullshit. Don't confess, because then Officers Andy and Barney Fife will have to do real policework to bring any kind of charges -- which, of course, they are incapable of doing. Like that bloke in Hiroshima, after his refusal to confess, the Mayberry police were incapable of actually producing a case against him.

Some vacation photos...

2007-05-06T23:41:00.000-07:00

男になる... Okay, it's silly but I have to include this photo because it's always been tough for me to choose between Ultra Large and Usui condoms -- usui means thin, by the way. I love the tag on the usui box: "女性にやさしい！” -- "Easy on girls!" I think "女性にちさ過ぎちゃ！" is a little closer to the truth.

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My girlfriend browsing the porn section. We're looking at the used video shelf ("中古ビデオ"), which is totally gross if you think about it.

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"The Ogre's Washboard" -- incredible natural rock formations all along the coast.

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This Torii on Sakurajima is nearly buried by volcanic lava and ash... pretty cool stuff.

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Wakako posing like a sexy motorcycle-mag slut. She's so hazukashii, it took me five minutes to convince her to do the silly photo.

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The resident Macaques of Yakushima... mostly they just laze about on the side of the road. It's impossible to resist taking photos of them.

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One of the premier onsen experiences in Japan: this onsen is only available when the tide is out -- otherwise it's covered by the waves! This is like the Inverted Jenny (-?-) of onsens.

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Hiking in the ancient cedar forests. As you have probably guessed, most of the original trees ("Dormant resource" as one sign refers to these graceful giants of Nature) have already been logged-out (whenever I here that old adage that "the Japanese revere Nature" I feel a strong urge to gouge out my eyes). Luck allowed that a few survived, and some very nice trails were built to them, as you can see. I don't know why, but my legs look really long in this photo... I guess I'm a little insecure about the length (or lack there of) of my torso... my shoulders are big enough for L shirts, but larges hang down pretty far and that's annoying.

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I love this kind of stuff -- this motherfucker is 3000 years old!!! That's older than Rome and maybe even the Assyrians. When this tree sprouted, Jesus was just a twinkle in the Holy Ghost's eye. (Shouldn't Joseph have been jealous that some asshole ghost was making time with his wife?)

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Wakako's endurance for trail-trekking really surprised me, particularly during the four hours we hiked in a fucking torrential downpour.

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Mickey and Tall Paul's ghetto tent with requisite Bob Marley Flag. Despite their valiant efforts at water-proofing, gale-force winds and rain nearly sent this shanty to fucking OZ.

I forget to mention...

2007-04-21T01:27:00.000-07:00

...about the touch rugby tournament I went to last weekend (April 14/15) on Shikoku Island. For those of you playing at home, every year there is a 7s touch rugby tournament organized by the good folks of Tokushima AJET. I didn't go last year, though Pete did, and his tales of grandeur and debauchery convinced me that I had missed the Austenian social event of the season. Rod McLeod (there can only be one highlander) was gracious enough to allow Jess and I to join his Shimane team. Thus this year, by way of train and auto, I made my way down to the beautiful back-country of Shikoku. I'll spare you the gory details in prose -- rather, I'll opt for the Nick Hornby(R)-esque list. This years highlights:

-Co-ed teams - this tournament was no sausage fest!
-LOTS and LOTS of Kiwis. The crucial question for any team was, "How many kiwis do you have?" because that pretty much determined how a team did. I like to think I'm pretty good at rugby, but I've only been playing since 18 -- these bloody Kiwis started playing rugby before they could walk.
-Nomihoudai (all you can drink) AND Tabehoudai (all you can eat)!!! Unlike the fucking Awaji soccer tournament, this tourny featured a number of food and booze sponsors who provided more than enough beer and meat for a barbecue worthy of the 4th of July.
-The lovely folks of Shimane-ken, for whom I have nothing bad to say.

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Also, I would be remiss in not mentioning that confounded "white party" to which I had to lug Wakako's drunk ass. After gathering a posse to rescue her from her own torpor, she ended-up having a great time -- I taught her the phrase "second wind", as in, "I was so tired earlier, but I just got my second wind." The party was aight, though I was a little hesitant to buy into the whole theme thing. Sometimes, to stay sane at those events, you have to "imagine retards throwing-up on each other," as Rob so eloquently phrased it.

日本を出かけるの。。。

2007-04-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

I'm not in the habit of quoting others for the purposes of personal exegesis, but Larkin has certainly penned it better than I am able -- thus I must defer to his authority on the subject.　話したい言葉の言い方が出来ませんやろ！日本で止めたんが、ほかの夢が海外に住んでいる。

"Love, we must part"
-Philip Larkin

Love, we must part now: do not let it be
Calamitous and bitter. In the past
There has been too much moonlight and self-pity:
Let us have done with it: for now at last
Never has sun more boldly paced the sky,
Never were hearts more eager to be free,
To kick down worlds, lash forests; you and I
No longer hold them; we are husks, that see
The grain going forward to a different use.

There is regret. Always, there is regret.
But it is better that our lives unloose,
As two tall ships, wind-mastered, wet with light,
Break from an estuary with their courses set,
And waving part, and waving drop from sight.

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[And I must amend another quote I just found. Writer Ken Kalfus said of living abroad, "Just the idea of going out to get your milk and coffee is an adventure. You see everything fresh. It gives you a chance as an adult to see things in a more childlike way." Yes, yes, yes. Yes, this is why I travel.]

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3rd amendation. I would also like to comment on a dream I had this afternoon while I was napping at my apartment instead of sitting at the BOE (all of you Non-One-Shots can suck it!). The dream went as follows: after an unimportant series of twists and turns (irrelevant to this analysis), I found myself in the company of a large group of JETs at the US Naval Academy. We were there for a team-building exercise -- very reminiscent of all the bullshit conferences which we must attend, right? Well, in this case, the exercise involved none other than a paintball competition: the idea being that we will each faithfully carry-out our individual roles as members of the JET team (those of you who went paintballing on the Marine base will recognize the references made by my subconscious). The game started and I found myself ducking and shooting in a very large room which served as the field of battle; we all of us were similarly decked-out in appropriate paintball paraphernalia. I, however, was suffering from a particular lack of motivation for this exercise: there were a series of rules, and from the start I broke almost all of them. I, very consciously, failed to carry-out my assigned tasks due only to my laziness and "whatever, this sucks" attitude. An official entered the room and we were instructed not to shoot him -- so of course I shot him and thumbed my nose at the organizers. A few somnambulant twists and turns later, I woke up (having drooled no small amount onto my face and pillow). This dream stuck with me because it immediately cut the quick of my attitude about JET this days: as our friends across the Pond say, "I just can't be arsed." During my (dream) participation of the requisite JET activities, I was not only remiss in my participation, I was also openly defiant of the goals of the game -- I just wasn't motivated to immerse myself in some bullshit team-building exercise. And, basically, that's is considerable truth to that sentiment. I love my kids, I love teaching, but I am quickly losing patience with all the bureaucratic BS that accompanies the Life. Japan and I, well, I think we have some fundamental, irreconcilable differences.

There are a lot of things in this country that make a man's cock hard: hostess bars, titty magazines, shitty capsule hotel porn, and the ilk. But the biggest fetish in this country -- far and above -- is ritual and ceremony. Starsky seems to have been subject to some similarly revealing experiences -- baffling instances of fetishized ritualism such that one loses sight of the original intent of this job. Ultimately, I cannot live here because ritual is anathema to my very core: I am, though I deny it, American through and through. As an American, I am concerned exclusively with production -- the final result of a process. Japan, by and large, focuses -- with almost pathological zeal -- upon the process itself, and I cannot abide that.

Why I haven't had kids yet...

2007-04-11T22:42:00.000-07:00

Besides the obvious reasons (lack of a wife, wanderlust, immaturity, fear of commitment, etc) -- and this may sound a bit odd -- but I despair for the future of the human race. That is, I don't want to bring children into this world who will be forced to confront the environmental devastation that is just appearing on the horizon. We're all hearing about global warming these days, but of course no one has yet to really seen the direct effects of it... but the effects are there, and they're autocatalytic: the warming of the Earth is going to accelerate the warming of the Earth. Furthermore, the emissions of today need 20 to 30 years to come to dreadful fruition. Thus the warming that scientists are measuring now is the result of the emissions from the 1980s. Just you wait.

The scary thing is that our grand-children will probably be alive when both polar ice caps are completely melted during the summer, and I can't stress to you enough that when the oceans (and, by extension, the climate) change so drastically, the effects on human society will be catacalysmic. Political stability is built upon climatic stability -- an unstable climate (and sea levels that will be rise 20 to 30 feet) will produce massive demographic and socioeconomic shifts. All of Africa will likely turn into one big Sahara desert, along with much of southern Asia and the Midwest in the US. Most of the world's population lives near the oceans, and a 30-foot increase in sea levels will eliminate, for example, the entire nation of Bangladesh. Bangladesh will disappear. It's 150,000,000 Muslims will have to migrate into Hindu India and the upheaval and carnage will be spectacular to behold.

Humanity has a pretty good track record of surviving massive demographic shifts (the Black Plague in Europe, eight centuries of constant warfare since the Middle ages, the discovery of the New World, etc), but technology evolves exponentially and thus evolves the techonology of environmental devastation. Recently, environmental groups in Texas cheered when an energy company decided to build only three new coal power plants instead of the planned eleven -- not bad, I suppose. But China is building one new coal power plant, literally, each and every fucking week! Just between 2002 and 2006, 560 new coal power plants were built around the world. "By 2012, the [new] plants in three key countries - China, India, and the United States - are expected to emit as much as an extra 2.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide, according to a Monitor analysis of power-plant construction data. In contrast, Kyoto countries by that year are supposed to have cut their CO2 emissions by some 483 million tons."

I would love to have kids someday, but I simply can not ethically justify bringing new life into a world that, frankly, is going into the shitter.

Overcoming masturbation

2007-03-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

I know that many of you are suffering from masturbation. That is, you just can't stop masturbating. I know I can't! Luckily, our good friends at the Mormon Church have put together this "handy" guide to help you quit! Yes, friend, you too can finally kick that nasty habit! "Why," you ask, "should I stop yanking the wank-tank?" Well, according to Mormon doctrine, MASTURBATION CAUSES HOMOSEXUALITY!!! (which, of course, raises the question: if a homosexual masturbates, will he become straight?) Also, you should know that, "This self-gratifying activity will cause one to lose his self-respect and feel guilty and depressed, which can in the extreme lead to further sinning. As a person feels spiritually unclean, he loses interest in prayer, his testimony becomes weak, and missionary work and other Church callings become burdensome, offering no joy and limited success..."

And so, without further ado, the Mormon Church presents 9 E-Z steps to quit jerking the jingle-bells:

Never touch the intimate parts of your body expect during normal toilet processes.
Avoid being alone as much as possible. Find good company and stay in this good company.
If you are associated with other persons having this same problem, YOU MUST BREAK OFF THEIR FRIENDSHIP. Never associate with other people having the same weakness. Don't suppose that two of you will quit together, you never will. You must get away from people of that kind. Just to be in their presence will keep your problem foremost in your mind. The problem must be taken OUT OF YOUR MIND for that is where it really exists. Your mind must be on other and more wholesome things.
When you bathe, do not admire yourself in a mirror. Never stay in the bath more than five or six minutes--just long enough to bathe and dry and dress AND THEN GET OUT OF THE BATHROOM into a room where you will have some member of your family present.
When in bed, if that is where you have your problem for the most part, dress yourself for the night so securely that you cannot easily touch your vital parts, and so that it would be difficult and time consuming for you to remove those clothes. By the time you started to remove protective clothing, you would have sufficiently controlled your thinking that the temptation would leave you.
If the temptation seems overpowering while you are in bed, GET OUT OF BED AND GO INTO THE KITCHEN AND FIX YOURSELF A SNACK, even if it is in the middle of the night, and even if you are not hungry, and despite your fears of gaining weight. The purpose behind this suggestion is that you GET YOUR MIND ON SOMETHING ELSE. You change the subject of your thoughts, so to speak.
Never read pornographic material. Never read about your problem. Keep it out of your mind. Remember--"first a thought, then an act." The thought pattern must be changed. You must not allow this problem to remain in your mind. When you accomplish that, you soon will be free of the act.
Put wholesome thoughts into your mind at all times. Read good books--Church books-scriptures--sermons of the brethren. Make a daily habit of reading at least one chapter of scripture, preferable from one of the four gospels in the New Testament, or the Book of Mormon. The four gospels -- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- above anything else in the Bible can be helpful because of their uplifting qualities.
Pray. But when you pray, don't pray about this problem, for that will tend to keep it in your mind more than ever. Pray for faith, pray for understanding of the scriptures, pray for the missionaries, the General Authorities, your friends, your families, BUT KEEP THE PROBLEM OUT OF YOUR MIND BY NOT MENTIONING IT EVER--NOT IN CONVERSATION WITH OTHERS, NOT IN YOUR PRAYERS. KEEP IT OUT of your mind!

As a special bonus, I am also including pictures of the 4 secret handshakes that Mormons learn during the super-secret-double-probation Temple Ceremony. These handshakes serve two purposes: first, you can identify other Devils and Angels (on earth) by the way they shake hands; second, these handshakes are your sweet ticket into heaven -- when you arrive at the gate, and angel will prompt you to give the handshake -- if you don't know it, sorry charlie, no soup for you!!! Participants must swear never to reveal the handshake because -- gasp! -- Satan could learn the secret to getting into heaven. For shame!

Surprise, surprise

2007-03-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

This may come as no surprise to you, but according to a 2001 report by the United Nations Development Programme, Japan ranks a respectable 44th according to the Gender Empowerment Measure -- a tabulation of a country's attitudes and actualizations of gender equality. Japan was edged-out by such modern economic notables as Uruguay, Peru, Cyprus, Estonia, Botswana, Latvia, Namibia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Trinidad, and Barbados. After 60 years of break-neck development and a lack of colonial, Communist, or otherwise authoritarian hegemony, Japan has yet to overtake much of Eastern Europe and Africa in attitudes about gender equality -- both having had, for most of their recent history, what could quaintly be referred to as "political tribulations."

Congratulations, Japan, on this noble achievement! I would like to hand the mic over to former Trade Minister Takeo Hiranuma. I managed to dig-up this little gem regarding the possibility of wee Princess Aiko ascending to the Imperial throne if a male heir cannot be produced. "If Princess Aiko becomes the reigning empress and gets involved with a blue-eyed foreigner while studying abroad and marries him, their child may be the emperor." He should certainly be commended for managing to combine racism AND sexism into a seingle sentence. Or how about current trade minister Hakuo Yanagisawa: "Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can ask for is for them to do their best per head.

Here are the top 70 countries. I would like to point out that my beloved, bemoaned, longed-for Scandinavia occupies positions 1 through 5. It's getting harder and harder for me to think of reasons not to move there.

Yemen	70
Bangladesh	69
Egypt	68
Sri Lanka	67
Turkey	66
United Arab Emirates	65
Cambodia	64
Korea, Rep. of	63
Georgia	62
Ukraine	61
Honduras	60
Paraguay	59
Pakistan	58
Russian Federation	57
Venezuela	56
Thailand	55
El Salvador	54
Romania	53
Chile	52
Moldova, Rep. of	51
Panama	50
Ecuador	49
Lithuania	48
Belize	47
Colombia	46
Malaysia	45
Japan	44
Uruguay	43
Mexico	42
Hungary	41
Greece	40
Peru	39
Bolivia	38
Dominican Republic	37
Croatia	36
Philippines	35
Cyprus	34
Estonia	33
Italy	32
Botswana	31
Latvia	30
Namibia	29
Czech Republic	28
Slovenia	27
Singapore	26
Poland	25
Slovakia	24
Israel	23
Trinidad and Tobago	22
Portugal	21
Barbados	20
Costa Rica	19
Bahamas	18
United Kingdom	17
Ireland	16
Belgium	15
Spain	14
Switzerland	13
New Zealand	12
Australia	11
United States	10
Canada	9
Germany	8
Austria	7
Netherlands	6
Finland	5
Denmark	4
Sweden	3
Norway	2
Iceland	1

2007-03-20T01:41:00.000-07:00

Here are the directions (and map) to the residence of the sex offender who lives closest to my parents' house in San Diego.

I ought to say that I am still very ambivalent about the whole issue of the privacy rights of sex offenders (who have served time and been freed) versus the rights of parents to protect their children from potentially dangerous situations.

Suicide

2007-03-15T08:33:00.000-07:00

Rob and I have been working on a project concerning Suicide and Japan, thus I have been thinking a lot about the subject (in a purely subjective way, not "contemplating"), particularly as there seems to be an "epidemic" of suicide in Japan these days. Though the epidemic is little more than media hype, Japan -- with a total rate of 23.8 per 100,000 -- has the distinction of being one of the TOP 10 suicidal nations of the world (out of 99), according to WHO statistics. Lithuania tops the list at 42.1, while a slew of nations including Egypt, some smaller Carribean islands, Dominican Rep., Syria, Iran, Jamaica, Peru, and Guatelmala all have rates of less than 2/100,000, and some even list zero suicides. If you haven't already looked at the statistics yourself, I urge you to -- here is a link to the Wiki article, where you'll find a table on which you can easily manipulate the data. I have created a world map (following) on which I've color-coded countries according to suicide rates -- it's really fascinating (from an objective standpoint) to see how suicide is reflected in geography. Anyways, after looking at the basic numbers and the physical distribution of suicides in each country, I've found some interesting things to consider here:

Men, far and above, are committing suicide much more often than women, whose data is almost statistically insignificant. In Japan, for example, men have a rate of 35.2, with women at 12.8: ALMOST THREE TIMES MORE FREQUENTLY! Poor Lithuania: 74.3 for men, 13.9 for women: about 5 times more frequently.
It seems that there are a number of low-suicide nations clustered in Central and South America. Of course, without extensive studies, it is impossible to produce a cogent analysis of economic, political, climactic, and social factors that may affect suicide rates. However, I would make two speculations: First, that countries nearer to the equator trend toward fewer suicides (sunlight, warmth, etc); Second, traditionally Catholic nations (including the Philippines) have very low rates -- could this be the consequence of a historical Catholic prohibitions against suicide?
There are a number of Middle East nations that list very low numbers (like Iran), but I think one can assume that there is some obfuscation of the facts coming out of such dictatorships.
Japan and South Korea seem to be the exception in all of corners of Asia (including South Asia and extending out to Israel) and the Pacific: all other Asian and Pacific nations have rates that are far below that of Japan and South Korea.
Japan and South Korea are also the most developed countries in Asia and the Pacific (along with Oz and NZ). Considering the higher rates of Western Europe and North America, one could conclude that affluence is correlated with higher rates of suicide.
And of course one can easily see that the colder, easterly nations (Latvia, Russia, Belarus, etc) all have very high rates. Excluding the recent history of totalitarianism, one could possibly correlate shit weather and higher rates of suicide.

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Here are the maps I've (painstakingly) put together. These actually show only the rates for men because women constitute relatively few suicides. Rates are indicated by shades of red, lighter being a lower rate. Yellow countries are ones in which the rate is extraordinarily low (less than 5 per 100,000). Blue indicates no data; and I couldn't find fuck all for most of Africa.

The World

Europe

Asia

Central America

South America

Abe's at it again...

2007-03-05T17:34:00.000-08:00

It looks like Abe-san is up to mischief again: this week, he reiterated -- in no uncertain terms -- that Japan definitely did not commit any transgressions in the sexual enslavement (serial rape) of 200,000 Chinese and Korean girls/women during World War II.

It seems that people simply aren't recognizing the gravity of Abe's (and the Right-Wing Establishment's) refusal to come to terms with Japan's nihilistic, genocidal past. I definitely wouldn't equate Hirohito with Hitler (genocide of about 10,000,000 Jews, Roma, and other minorities) or Stalin (fratricide of about 30,000,000 perceived enemies -- Russians -- of the State), but we must recognize that Hirohito reigned over a slaughter of equal proportions.

Japanese Army policies in China during the occupation were acutely genocidal: to put it bluntly, the Army didn't consider the Chinese or the Koreans to be fully human. There has never been a full accounting of the genocide, but there are estimates that the Japanese Army killed multiple millions of Chinese civilians (and prisoners of war) during its occupation. I've mentioned this before: at the end of World War II, Japan had a total of 56 Chinese prisoners of war -- after a massive conflict involving millions of soldiers, after all the Chinese soldiers captured by the Japanese Army, there were only 56 alive at the end of the War (POWs were commonly used for bayonet practice). You may have heard the infamous incident in which two officers competed to see who could decapitate POWs the fastest -- well, that was not an isolated incident -- it was indicative of a wider (tacit) policy of the extermination of millions Chinese POWs and civilians.

The "comfort women" were equally a part of that policy: 200,000 women were raped repeatedly throughout the course of the War. That's not necessarily genocide, but certainly government sanctioned-rape, on that kind of scale, deserves an accounting. Well, actually, there was an accouting: in 1993, a high-level Japanese government minister admitted to, and apologized for, the serial raping of those comfort women. Abe, however, has repudiated that admission.

For all you Japan apologists out there, welcome to your modern Japan. Yes, very much so, I love the people and I love the ethics. But it's not an accident of politics that right-wing revisionists (read: Holocaust deniers) like Abe and Tokyo governor Shintaro (who said that the Chinese are genetically pre-disposed to crime, among other oratorical gems) have ascended to power and have maintained that power in post-War Japan: they were voted-in by the people of Japan. Of course, the US is always lurking around in these kind of situations*: it is argued that the US embrace of Japanese nationalists (for fear of Communist influence -- Japan was used as a bulwark against the USSR) during its occupation of Japan (1945-52) cemented their place in Japanese politics.

(*By "situations," I am referring to the ascendancy of far-right-wing politics in places like Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, Haiti, Nicaragua, etc -- the US had a role in pushing right-wing dictatorships in all those countries)

Haiku

2007-02-26T03:52:00.000-08:00

The following is the first part of the Shimonoseki Cycle of haiku I wrote tonight, followed by a rough (artistic) translation and explanation. I should mention that these poems don't really have l'esprit de Haiku because the genre is typically concerned with the seasons -- of which there are four in Japan, if you haven't heard yet. I've kinda used Western attitude in the Japanese genre.

"船の音 (The Voice of the Ships)"

船の音 The voice of the ships
海の歌声 singing with the ocean's voice,
出かけたい wakes in me the call of foreign lands.

As I lay in bed at night, I can hear the horns of the massive cargo ships passing through the Kanmon Strait, and there is something both comforting and disquieting about the ships's calls. Each time I hear one, I think about all the unknown destinations I have yet to see, and I can suddenly feel the desire to travel fomenting within me.
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"コンクリート (Concrete)"

山が切る Slice the mountain wide;
灰色の土 gray earth;
思いやり Think of others first.

You may or may not know, but Japan is fucking COVERED in concrete. I won't get into all the corrupt/senseless/economic reasons for this, but suffice to say that nary a river, beach, or hillside is free of the massive, gray, lifeless embrace of concrete. "思いやり" (omoiyari) is a saying in japan that means, roughly, "think of others first," but it also has other connotations in terms of GroupThink. Often it is used, like, as a driving edict: "when you're on the road, think of others first." I am using it here -- ironically, of course -- to suggest that the Death Star-ization of Japan's physical geopgraphy surely isn't in the spirit of omoiyari.

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"ぶぜんだ (Buzenda)"

暗い道　　Dark streets,
酒を飲み過ぎ you drank too much sake,
ぶぜんだで it must be Buzenda.

Quite simple, really: Buzenda is the little neighborhood where all the salarymen go to get pissed, pee in the streets, and flirt with hookers/hostesses.

Two unrelated quotes

2007-02-06T04:36:00.000-08:00

"The tragic pathos is born when the perfectly average sensibility momentarily takes upon itself a privileged nobility that keeps others at a distance, and not when a special type of sensibility vaunts its own special claims."
-Nietzschean author and right-wing zealot/madman Mishima Yukio (who subsequently staged a coup in 1970 in an attempt to restore power to the Emperor). Tragedy, for Mishima, is "the highest form of art" and "the peak of existence," according to Peter Abelsen. And indeed, in the post-modern era -- and particularly in the safety, security, and predictability of Japan -- the tragic pathos must be consciously engendered by the individual (see: Death of a Salesman), for tragedy no longer converges upon the individual unlooked-for (see: Oedipus Rex). In a sense, Mishima was seeking the kind of limit experience that we all, at the very center of our being, lust for unceasingly -- yet we also mortally fear limit experience for the truths that it could reveal about us. The tragic pathos breaks the yoke of mundane living; it is rebirth at the very moment of destruction, enlightenment co-eval with death -- a lifetime of swimming against the current, only to fall into the void at the very instant of recognition. Does that recognition pre-empt destruction or does destruction invite recognition? Mishima was not a good person; he was what we Americans call an "evil-doer." Yet one must still see in him the seed of an infinite figure -- one who breached the bounds of this suburban samsara. I think he proved that to really live, as the hippies say, one must transcend the rational and adopt the mantle of the tragic pathos... though of course, as we have seen, the moment of true living itself becomes a preamble to death.
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"If we want to be precise about what Pollock did -- drawing in the air above a canvas with a paint-loaded stick -- the mot juste is dribble."
-Peter Schjeldahl, in a New Yorker review of a Pollock exhibition. Schjeldahl is the first critic, I believe, to have accurately described the true nature of Pollock's work.

Recent Photos...

2007-02-06T04:12:00.000-08:00

This girl is -- I swear -- lifting my whole weight. Besides being strong as a hulk, she is also, maybe, the most confident, self-assured, honest, and fascinated little girl I've encountered in Japan. Louise and I are going to adopt her.
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Marko's Animal Party, on top of a mountain -- the hike to which was, perhaps, the most ill-conceived party idea of the last ten years. As to what Keith is doing, you can draw your own conclusions.
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Dan-dan-batake in Vietnam. Mesmerizing.
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Wakako and Tim. I said it before and I'll say it again: Tim is one of my favorite people in Japan.
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Degenerates

The Seer

2007-02-06T03:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'll start with a recent happenstance.

Last Sunday night, as we were chatting in Xelha's (the gaijin bar in Kokura of considerable notoriety), Rob was sitting next to a ghost -- a salaryman who had committed the "ichiban waruikoto" sin of suicide. This spirit wanted to go to heaven, but the heavy debt of his sins has condemned him to a sleepless death of walking the Earth among us, the Living. At another table, sat two girls -- both dead. And over there, in the corner, sits the spirit of an old man, wandering this realm of light and flesh.

Or so sayeth Osamu, "spiritual healer" and teacher at Kanda elementary in Shimonoseki (whom I had met while teaching at Kanda).

It's something of a shock to the system when one encounters another who bears such strong convictions. Me, being a typical post-modern, post-meaning, de-constructivist child of the West Coast (see Coupland's Life After God for further reading), I really don't believe in anything with any kind of passion. Osamu, however, looked us in the eyes and calmly explained the spirit world and its impact on this material dimension. They spirits -- "rei," in Japanese -- are sometimes innocuous, but more often they are the bane of the living: they cause divorce, car accidents, and all manner of personal pain and suffering. These calamities are not on the scale of Poltergeist, though certainly they such that one would seek to rid oneself of the onerous burden of maligned spirits. That's where Osamu enters the picture. He has actual meishi (business cards, for those of you playing at home) with his name and title of "Spiritual Healer." If ye suffer the ailments of the spirit, consult Osamu and he may be able to banish those undead, unliving beings that seek to do ye harm. Rob was lucky enough to have his spiritual pulse taken, en gratuite -- Osamu holds your left hand in his, closes his eyes, whispers an incantation in a garbled tongue, and submits his meta-sensory faculties to the realm of the Others. The analysis? You're a good person, Rob, just don't drink and smoke so much. I think, though, that given the fact Rob was drinking and smoking during this tete-a-tete, Osamu didn't exactly have to reach into the depths of alternatives realities to extract those truths.

It's funny, I get the impressiont that the Japanese are somewhat more prone to the the belief in ghosts, though that may be based on a poor sample size. Wakako swears that her mom can see dead people. And once she told me this [paraphrased] story: "My friend was walking home from school one afternoon, and she ran-into the next door neighbor girl. They chatted for a little bit, then parted ways. Later, my friend casually mentioned to her mom that she saw the next-door neighbor girl that afternoon, which caused her mom something of a fright, because the next-door neighbor girl had committed suicide the previous night." Since that time, as Wakako so claimeth, her friend has had the gift of second sight. Rob's girlfriend also believes in ghosts, as do a number of other casual aquaintances I've talked too in my city. This belief in ghosts may have something to do with Shinto and the fact that, technically, when a Japanese person dies, s/he is automatically enthroned in the pantheon of Gods, which is why Shinto recognizes untold millions of official deities.

Anyways, that'll give you something to chew on. Try it: ask your Japanese friends and find out how many of them believe in ghosts... you may be surprised... hell, you may even be dead and you just don't realize it!!!

Gnostic Gospels

2006-12-14T22:53:00.000-08:00

In the world of religious studies, there have been two particularly astounding architectural finds in the last 50 years. First, at Nag Hammadi, numerous apocryphal gospels were discovered (including the Gospel of Judas Iscariot, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and the Gospel of James Jesus' Brother). As you may or may not know, the Bible which we recognize today is very much a work of partisanship and politicking. In the early years of the Church, different groups were contending in the attempt to interpret and define the work of the historical Jesus of Nazareth (who, of course, wasn't born in Bethlehem, but rather in Nazareth -- the Bethlehem myth was appended in order to fulfill the prophecy that Jesus be of the line of David). Eventually, as always, the conservatives triumphed and were accorded the dubious honor of "writing" the Bible -- that is, choosing which stories to include in the Bible and excluding all others. All of the books in the New Testament, by the way, were written between 70 and 200 years after Jesus' death -- certainly not a timely and accurate account.

In any case, I have gathered here some powerful and pithy statements (for anyone of any religious leanings) attributed to the historical Christ, though they never actually made it into the Bible -- being from the Gospels that were purposefully excluded (primarily because they threatened the patriarchal power-structure of the early Christian church).

Jesus said,

If you bring forth what is in within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."

Rather, the Kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father."

"When... will the new world come?" Jesus said to them, "What you look forward to has already come, but you do not recognize it yet."

[excerpted from The Origin of Satan, by reknowned Biblical scholar Elaine Pagels]

Student submissions

2006-12-14T22:07:00.000-08:00

Here are a some excerpts from a recent "Life Story" project in which the students are assigned to write a timeline/life-story (in English) about their past, present and future. These are all 三年生 (14-15 years old) students, editor's commentary [in brackets] is included.

Mii's Life Story [very existentialist leanings]
-And I want to live youthful even if becoming a grandma and to live.

Kubo's Life Story
-2010: In May of 2010 will die.

Kudo's Life Story [more of a confession than a life-narrative]
-When I was four years old, I was robbed a tricycle by Shanchan [ie- he STOLE a tricycle]. It was very sad. When Tera was going near firefighter's uniform, I stopped him and robbed him. He was very angry.
-When I was in fourth grade, I tried injection [that is, KANCHO, which means -- seriously -- sticking your fingers up someone else's asshole] to Sakata and failed. He got injured with his heg and Ms. Omori scolded me.
-In April of 2004, we touched Shintani's cheek and we were scolded by Mr. Otaki. [Shintani is fat, so the little bastard wanted to touch his fat cheek to see how it felt]
-I hate benishoga and shungiku [vegetables] I really hate.
-I want to remove benishoga and shungiku on the world.
...I am no future. [ie- "I have no future"]
But I want to live in peace.

Yamamoto's Life Story [quite an arrogant self-assessment]
199X: I was born in this world on June 4 [also my birthday]
199X: I was short and very fool. But now is very genius.
199x: I was playing baseball. I broke right arm. And I almost died.
...2010: [very large] NORTH KOREA'S MISSILE ATTACKS ON JAPAN. AND COLLAPSE OF JAPAN. [very small] And I will die.

Watanage's Life Story
Now: I can play Janken. [rock, paper, scissors] I've practiced it for 12 years.
2016: I'll be a businessman. I'll work in "Sony." I'll live anywhere. I'll despair.

Ryoko's Life Story
Future: I want to be a foreigner. Because I want to watch movies without subtitles.

Yuiko's Life Story [much more the optimist, perhaps even delusions of grandeur, not so humble either]
...Now: My special ability: read a heart of a person. It's and a head being good [ie- "That, and I'm also smart" -- the literal translation of "smart" being "head is good"]
2016: I become a hero of all.
2027: I still work for all [ie- the common good of everyone]. And I think that I marry with a favorite person. I heard that it was very hard to bear a child. [this is why Japan has a declining population] Therefore I am in the middle of being at a loss with a child right now. [ie- "I haven't decided yet if I want to have children"]

Katsutaka's Life Story [Oedipus complex...]
...Future: I'll be a volleyball. I'll play in a stadium. I'll be over my father.

Fuyumi's Life Story [with friends like hers...]
...Now: I can't do anything special. Because I'm clumsy. My friends call me clumsy. [but she's also the best artist in her class]

Fujita's Life Story [WTF?]
In the Spring of 200X, my father moved to Osaka. It made me happy. But my father was return home three years later. It made me sad.

Sachiko's Life Story
...When I was a little girl, I locked porch window and shut out my mother.
...Now: I made many good friends. To tell the truth, they are very ill-natured but I'm happy.

Naoki's Life Story [low expectations...]
1991: I was born in Yamaguchi on May 24. When I was born, I breathed for the first time. It was exciting!

Abe's Life Story [WTF? Pessimistic personal, social, economic analysis]
199X: I was so sick that I almost died.
200X: I broke my right foot that I almost died.
200X: I broke my right arm that I almost died.
2006: I went to Bump of Chicken Tour 2006 "Run Rabbit Run" that I'm glad and I almost died.
2006: I went to Aobozu Live and I almost died.
2006: I broke my right hand. And I had a pain that I almost died.
Now: I can't read air. I'm fool.
Future: I'll be NEET [an acronym for a lazy, useless piece of shit -- Not in Employment, Education, or Training]. I can't still read air. The Great Kanto Earthquake will happen.
200X: Japan's [economic] default will happen. We will lose all our money.
200X: We aren't going to be able to live in Japan.
201X: North Korea will use nuclear in Japan.
201X: Japan will take part of America and China.
201X: I'll escape from Japan.
201X: The 2nd dollar shock will happen.
201X: The 3rd Worlds War will begin and many people will die.