Osakatomebaby

I don't have to do anything till I wake up and study. Hail mighty hacker god who put me here yet cares not. If you're ever in the neighborhood drop in for a chu-hai!

I accidentally forgot to bring home one of the books I needed to do some work...well actually just brought the wrong one. So instead I have to chill out and not do anything productive. Hallelu.

Lost in Translation update: "It opened at just one theater but is slowly expanding to some 70 by July." July?!?! The travesty continues.

From the Asahi Shimbun review:

"All the Japanese are consistently portrayed as foolish. But the movie fails to point out that what appears to be foolish mirrors the viewer's own foolishness."

Um...aren't you doing the same thing by failing to realize part of the point is that the Murray/Johansson characters realize they are foolish? And we're seeing this through their eyes. Um...isn't that part of the point? Outsiders laughing at ourselves, not at you?* Feel free to laugh at us too. Forest/trees?

*Okay except for the "lip" scene which is just not funny.

Today I am a viking.

I would put crumbs in the other dwarfs beds today so they would feel like me. I won't air my dirty laundry, I'd rather burn it. As someone told me this week about themselves, but it's true for me today, I need an emotiondectimy.

LASH! LASH!

Okay that's as much as I can lash out.

So coming home tonight I did a weird thing. I thought, what do normal people do when they have a crappy day? And answer came there one: eat ice cream. I've never tried eating ice cream after a bad day. (a) Seems like such a chick thing to do and (b) I'm just not big on sweets. Much rather chow on a bag of pepperoni if anything, but I wasn't hungry so I thought, well, can't hurt.

So I just ate a cup of Haagen Dazs Vanilla and I'm waiting for whatever is supposed to happen next. Nothing so far. Maybe I didn't eat enough. Maybe I got the wrong flavor. I guess in retrospect what chicks are supposed to do on a crappy day is buy a tub of ice cream (probably one containing chocolate in some form) and eat the whole thing with a giant spoon. But anyway I don't have a giant spoon or an eating disorder so I guess it's just not gonna work.

I feel like a kid who just smoked oregano.

The song with the theramin just came on again, or it could be a saw. I threw it into the big mix. It's good, makes me happy. I may have to listen to it on repeat once more and then tuck myself in. Everything's always better in the morning. *yawn*

Totally swamped so instead here's an article (no registration!) worth reading. One of the more intelligent nuggets I've seen on expat life. Need to read some Pico Iyer, I haven't except perhaps a few stray articles. Evidently he lives in a Kyoto suburb--wish I knew where, just for my own amusement and context. Context is so good.

Yeah I'm up in the middle of the night workin on lesson plans, and not even for me, for another teacher. But the only reason I'm up this late doing this is that I'm being ridiculously thorough. No one will ever use all this.

So one half of me is doing lessons and the other half is listening to tunes, specifically this one that I think has a theramin. Sounds like, could be, a saw but I doubt it. Sounds like theramin. BTW if you haven't seen the documentary "Theramin" go find it pronto. The history of an obscure and wierd instrument, about a trillion little commentaries by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, and a surprise ending! To a documentary, how good is that. Too good.

Back to lunacy...

Lost in Translation is now showing at 5 cinemas in or near Tokyo and none in Osaka.

This is translated through bablefish not to make fun of anything but in the hope that I can understand a bit of what's going on. I think I have hit the MOTHER LODE. There's a Czech animation festival for the next two weeks at a crazy little theatre I've never heard of but which, get this, also showed the Rocky Horror Picture Show recently. ALAS! I missed it. But evidently this is where the local film society is based. Alloooooo. Course most of it's in every language but English with Japanese subtitles, but whoooooo cares. Next Monday I'm going to attempt to catch all 8 hours of the Czech stuff, unless I max out in which case, shah, I can just come back the next Monday and catch the one or two sittings I miss. I am ECSTATIC.

Personally, I think marriage these days is weird since there are so many legalities and inconsistencies. Society is just so massive that everything has come down to rights...well, rights and taxes I guess. It's very confusing, this mix of personal and political. How this one institution affects your ability to visit loved ones, manage joint finances and property, have a family, and otherwise be recognized in the community in one fell swoop. I still don't really get how people can connect their romantic ideals with all of this horse trading, but that's just me.

Despite my inability to comprehend the machinations of the law and culture, I do know that what's happening in Massachusetts today is a very good thing and frankly tickles me pink. I'm glad that people who want to get married, can. Yay yay yay.

Okay now is it weird to say that even though I think *most* polygamists in the US are weird and anti-feminist, that in theory if you're going to have this legal institution of marriage, polygamy ought to be legal too? Yeah...okay that would probably be weird. Sometimes my liberalism goes around the bend. Guess where I rate on those libertarian quizzes.

Okay I feel bad for blaming the teacher. I'm just in a bad spot becase I'm behind. They are too, because they don't want me to repeat the class (since I'd be ahead of the other students) and I don't want to step up (since I haven't mastered the material). Problematic. However I am slogging through. I think I can catch up but it may take two months...yes I feel like I am that far behind. Not sure what will happen in terms of moving up to the next class...

*eyes wall warily*

I HATE my Japanese textbook. I feel so frustrated and inadequate. I want to start over but they won't let me and the other class member (who is an angel and very funny girl) is lightyears ahead of me. I don't think my teachers care that I am floundering. I am so happy when I ignore this stuff but crack open the textbook and I want to die. There has to be a better way.

*smashes head against wall*

Okay, I feel better. Back to the books!

Thinking about Waking Life reminded me to go check and yes! There is some new animation on Paul Beck and Jason Archer's site. Know Paul, not Jason. Wish they were still doing more political stuff--the rhodoscoping of Bush's State of the Union a few years back was great. The three videos on the top right are new to me, like the top one best but wish I knew Spanish. Anyway, you get the idea.

Hey, they're in the Driscoll hotel in Austin ===============>

Sarah Hepola wrote up an interesting conversation for, you guessed it, NYT between Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. I honestly can't remember if I've met Sarah, though I suspect I did back in the day. I know she knows Jim and may or may not have had a date or two with Nighttrain (who shall forever live in infamy for not having blogged for me when I was in India).

Hawke used to hang out with a girl I know and everyone was always asking her, "How's Ethan?" in a very over-the-top sing-songy voice because they really did want to know but had to make fun of themselves at the same time. That must have been annoying but she was really nice about it.

Not star-struck myself (unless David Byrne ever answers me). Okay I have sent fan mail to Alan Alda and Carl Sagan, but that's all. So the article was fun. Just seemed like a very normal conversation between some folks making a movie and without a lot of pretention.

I like Linklater. He set the tone for me moving to Austin. Saw Dazed and Confused which was set in the 70's when I was living in Tulsa (which is also set in the 70's). Saw Slacker just before I moved and a couple of times in college just because it's fun to watch places you know on film. Missed Before Sunrise but want to see it now. And saw Waking Life when I was living with a postmodernist carpenter. No I don't think Linklater's a genius but he doesn't have to be. His movies are thoughtful, accessible, real and fun. Good enough.