so, this happened

Cows in the driveway. Ah, sweet surreal Unincorporated.

Arigato, pt. 2

More from Tokyo! Highlights from the rest of the trip.

Arigato, Tokyo pt. 1

Picture is a link

Due to overwhelming demand, I've begun the process of uploading the Japan pictures to flickr. They cover most of days 1-4.

today = yesterday? wtf

home now. ripped from Japan's nurturing teat. woke up saturday morning in Tokyo, had sushi at Tsukiji, got on a plane at 16:00, slept on & off for 8 hours, then arrived in the States at 08:30 on saturday. instead of trying to wrap my mind around that conundrum, I am very busy cleaning, scrubbing, and organizing the life I left into some semblance of this past pristinely beautiful week. where's the bleach?

pictures coming soon.

30 seconds over Tokyo

the internet room here is constantly swarmed ... this may been the most fun i`ve ever had ... epic wins on all fronts ... i may arrange my own kidnapping ... i love riding the trains, why the hell don`t we have trains connecting everything ... saw bunraku last night, completely amazing ... last night we trekked through Shinjuku (downtown, basically), and it totally put Vegas to shame as far as weird omnipresent light and sound ... it`s strangely difficult to find sushi here, I think we`ve walked past a single conveyor-belt shop; but we have yet to visit the Tsukiji fish market, that`ll be a coup ... weather`s nice ... california-ey ... language barrier is not a barrier at all ... too many completely, utterly amazing adventures to recount right now ... have been taking loads of pictures & videos ... i love it here ... time to cross the Yakuza? ... more later ...

sexy japanese vacation cheerleaders

we arrived safely
toilets are complicated
adventure awaits

isomorphic cartography

this is what my brain feels like right now, stuffed like a bag of holding with phrases, figures and factoids (+ a plethora of preparations):



eigo-ga hanasemasu ka?

hi-ho jazzoids

Just a note: the music editors at Amazon just published a surprisingly well-rounded (even for net-media) list of the 100 "greatest Jazz albums of all time", with Ornette at a shocking #1 and John Zorn at (of course) #23. Cecil's only at 54, but I'm not grumbling. I'm extra impressed they put Brax, Ayler, Moondog, & Sun Ra on there, surely a sign of receding jazz-revisionism. Fascists.

the picoult factor

As I toil away every day in the HPB fiction section, few books are as welcome to my book-weary eyes as those of Jodi Picoult -- not (sweet Jesus) because they have substance or any other superlative quality, but because good lord they sell better than anything else there. So I read with actual interest this interview with the author, and a total lack of the spite I reserve for the Gutersons and the Frazers of the literary world. An interesting tidbit from the interview:

"She posts videos of herself, and of her family romping at their Vermont summer home on her website, www.jodipicoult.com, which also hosts a conversation group called the Pi-cult. On the surface, that sounds cringingly self-important, except for the fact that her readers, and there are millions, are remarkably cult-like."

Indeed! I did watch some of the videos, and I feel conflicted about having no hatred (albeit no respect either) for Ms. Picoult, since she clearly is running a very similar artistic agenda to Nicholas Sparks. And I seethe with hatred for that douchebag. Anyways, the seed has been planted.

m'aider

And that's about enough of shove-tales. Update time! We played our second Seattle show last night, at the "historic" Blue Moon Tavern, which I thought went quite well, despite learning afterward the keys were inaudible (for which I blame the stupid (well, jaded) sound check guy). The magic grows stronger with every show, no doubt about it. The next month will see more emphasis on recording, I'm told.

Foremost on my mind: at loooong last, thursday of this week Jenny & I are flying to Japan. I'm nowhere near ready, but really how ready can you be for mf-ing JAPAN? Never, or uh, "not" is the answer to that ostensibly rhetorical question. I am very keen on the investigation of (& simply soaking in) a culture that is so famously omnivorous. Or just surreal. I will try not to cross the Yakuza. (Man, I hope I don't cross the Yakuza.)

My Japanese language skills are weak at best, so we'll be relying quite heavily on the ingenious Japanese public school English education program (lucky time #1). Most interestingly, I'm bringing my iPod touch, which has wifi capability, and will likely be our primary source of information; interesting because being able to stay in a foreign country in which you do not speak the language and having a technology (even better! a wireless technology!) to more or less be your guide is solid proof that we're living in the future. Paul Bowles had to know French when he lived in Tangiers but mothafocka I got the internets.

Also I'm looking forward to eating sushi for every meal. Oh, shit.