red red wine makes me something something

saturday morning was hard. up dancing till 2(a-trak was awful for he first ten minutes...then slowly he and the crowd warmed to eachother and it was good) and then trouble sleeping due to back pain and incline related sleeping issues... at lily allen now (when i wrote that) and people false started again... i think they just dont know what the acts look like and so stagehand after stagehand is greeted with applause and cheering. lily was cute up there smoking a fag in her 50s popstar dress... and her songs sounded great live... i left during her blondie cover to head for feist... a good thirty minute walk, beautiful but unwelcome when your trying to get somewhere fast. i got there in time and found aonly slightly too formal spot in front of the stage. feist was fantastic, she has that immortal sort of weight...by "formal" i mean to say that, when i saw her i had a feeling i was seeing one of those Artists... one that will last. saw !!!, the Beastie Boys, Iggy & the Stoog...

woke several times in the night...my neighbors are all happy drinking people...finally ventured forth at eight for juice and the bathroom...but there was a ten minute wait... i met kouji and sayakaback at the camp site and we left for the onsen. the showers at the camp are cold water only, frigid mountain water cold. the onsen is 500 yen and its a japanese tradition. it was my first time. it didnt make me a bit uncomfortable, being naked there with koji but i wonder if he felt the same. next: water (300 yen for 2 L@grocery) and indian food (700 for 3 samosas and bean curry). then we just walked... the stages are arranged in a row... the furthest is a good 30 minute walk and the rest lie between. we are taking a break now before going to see jarvis cocker at 3:50. more to come. p.s. dancing was good fun but the headlining dj last night played 4 Justice songs....

I like how it says I am a contributor here yet I have not contributed anything. Well here is something I recently wrote. I'll try to contribute more...I guess. The Blind Leading the Blind I haven't ever really had to share a room with my brother. When I was younger I had bunk beds that my brother inherited from me at birth and, being the scaredy-cat kid that I was (just hearing the theme from Unsolved Mysteries would have me diving for the covers) I tended more often than not to occupy the top bunk, although I possessed my own separate room. I was so afraid, that for years I would take a running start for my bed and leap into it. This was of course to avoid having my ankles exposed to any attacks from under the bed. Since junior high school I've pretty much stuck to my own room, but for the last five weeks I've had to share not only my room but also my bed with my brother. Before you start getting any West Virginian thoughts let me note that my bed consists of t...

there were fireworks too

dan, i love you, but house music and house djs are fun...but rarely cool. but the "all night rave" is going well and im gonna sneak to the "live" tent and see ratatat again. made two friends and saw a few aquaintances... 3000 yen on drinks and food so far. more to come

the shinkansen is unabashedly sexy... long, sleek of line... if i were a freudian sort this would be the train of my dreams. as it is, my being less into incest and more into the brain as the great bio a.c..., it is just groovy. hah. groovy. my train has two floors-i am on the first, lowered, floor. im alone now, my dreams of a sexy neighbor to make eyes at or a happy experienced couple to use for information... crushed. the band of old women who clean the cars bowto an invisible audience when they finish-their job done, their faces relax and the gesture wildly and smile to say "welcome to your adventure you hapless fool-can you do it alone, can you set up a tent, find food... oh-to hell with it all, good luck..." And i struggle to maneuver my tent and my backpack down the steps and to my seat. (approx. 15000 yen for round trip shinkansen fare...) luggage: 4 man tent and hiking pack emotional state: rediculous

getting ready to go. i'm gonna keep you updated via my trusty cellphone... stay tuned. i leave tomorrow morning...

The idea of a 4 night, 3 day camping excursion on a ski resort in Japan, accompanied by the tunes of: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Justice, The Shins, Simian Mobile Disco, The Cure, The Beastie Boys, The Chemical Brothers, !!!, Lily Allen, Peter Bjorn and John, A-trak, Chromeo, Yo La Tengo, Feist, the Stooges, Jarvis Cocker, Kaiser Chiefs, The Boredoms, The Album Leaf....(another 30 Japanese groups I've never heard of but look forward to hearing...) It seems exciting until you hit the first of many realizations: the ticket price. the ticket, incl. camping spot, was 42000 yen (about 380 dollars for four nights, three days)... Then you justify it like this "when you think about it--if you'd pay 20 dollars to see one of those bands..multiply it out..and it's not a bad deal AND it's at a beautiful ski resort in Japan... and I'll be camping with my friends..." and it's okay again until you realize that you haven't included your transportation...and that ...

you enter the school, take off your outside shoes and slide them into a little box marked "ALT" and put on your inside shoes, then you go up the stairs to the Teacher's Room which is already full--the teachers came in about 30 minutes or an hour before you and they're all trying to finish their coffee before the daily school meeting at 8:30. the bell rings, you stand up with the rest of the teachers and bow--" ohayogozaimasu !" everyone sits and the vice principal ( kyotosensei ) opens the meeting. he calls on a few teachers, they all speak and then when it's all over everyone says " ohayogozaimasu " again before the different groups (the first, second and third year teachers) begin their meetings. you sit and watch everyone move around you, maybe the other special teachers will say " ohayo " to you or, more probably, they'll bow and begin to arrange their desk. you'll get up and walk over to the pad of paper by the door--4...

( WARNING!!! don't look at the picture. DON'T! it has the F word written on it. you know the word. THAT word. So, unless you're 45 and lonely and unoffended by that magical word...don't look) Enoshima floats off the coast of Fujisawa, attached by a long bridge. The island is home to one of Japan's temples dedicated to a female god and also home to gardens, restaurants, a spa, a lighthouse...and one of the best sunset-viewing spots in Japan. By climbing, or riding the extensive escalator system, to the top and then down the other side, to the sheer cliffs facing the sea and Mt. Fuji, you can sit in a very unassuming little bar that sells overpriced beers with a smile. The bar is great in that it is so...unadorned. The husband and wife the run it have always greeted me with a smile and a few words of near-english... At sundown, on a clear day, there is no better spot in japan for one of the coveted Mt. Fuji pictures. The day started late, Mimi and Rayford lay ...

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=290 it's free, it's educational AND it's entertaining? this american life episode 290: Godless America

i've been reading Sophie's World, the supposedly children's book that mixes philosophy 101 with a cheesy YET entertaining twist that I won't ruin for you, and thinking about, well, existence. i guess i've been doing that a lot lately--people have been telling me that i "have an old soul," that i am "really mature for [my] age," and things like that...which makes one wonder what an "old soul" is and how mature are 23 year olds supposed to be? i think that people often mix "maturity" and "composure" and I can be fairly composed when i'm not lubricated and lurching around the dance floor. so i guess this leads me to my latest introspections: art in japan, life in japan, life, what's next for me, and why the human mind is not very trustworthy... Art in Japan is not for the masses. Only someone in the upper tax brackets can afford more than 4 concerts or shows a month when each show costs between 3500 and 10000 ...

(from left to right) Eri "Naive Lady" toilet paper? I'm guessing there was a thesauras involved here... Issa Foodium Bar! "quietness--it is the summit of the clouds that can be seen at the bottom of the lake." Enoshima beach, an easy 30 minute walk along the river, is a dirty..dirty beach..and there's a lot of it.. the trash from the summer beach bars still washes ashore today. I saw parts of shoes, cds, glasses, high heels, and more starfish than I've ever seen outside of an aquarium...we spent an hour checking starfish for signs of life....the ones that did..we put them back in poseidon's hands... Finally, last but never the least: Hotel Chapel Christmas. Nothings says "christ who?" like a christmas "chapel" themed love hotel. Yes--the prices are 2990 yen (20 bucks) for 90 minutes, 4990 yen (40) for 3 hours, and 7990 for a full night... yay! I will stay in a love hotel eventually...even if it's me and a friend or a blood...

sitting in my new apartment, trying to clean my windows...which is harder than you might believe, i have to lean out of the right window to clean what i can reach of that window and that's only about half...and then i realize that my windows are going to look rediculous... i have two half-clean windows. it makes an eye--the pupil being the slightly mildewy middle part and the whites or the "scelra" is the rest... this eye looks down directly to upon the couples emerging from the just-finished wedding next door, who look up at me the foreignor leaning out of the window 5 feet above them...I feel like I should get some rice and make it an occasion.

these are for you, jenna Nancy Drew--Tuscadero a house is not a home--Luther Vandross love, your brother

life goes well, it does, but there are parts that soar above and parts that swoop below... this weekend was all far above just "well." on friday night I went to Shibuya to see 2 guys from Belle and Sebastian (Bob and Richard) DJ on saturday morning I went to Kamakura to take part in a traditional "i-ai" competition and saturday night I helped my friend set up his monthly "Push" party here in Fujisawa. That's the short version--a longer version would involve name dropping and I'm hesistant to cheapen my fun times with such a thing (edit edit--so i named dropped, realized it really WAS rather tacky..and have since removed said names) So, since I'm not going to name drop I'll just tell you that this whole weekend, though I didn't sleep for a full 48 hours....was amazing. (sorry to anyone who is friends with me on myspace and saw this there as well---but i'm too tired to write something better) on another note--blogs shou...

I'm not REALLY going to talk about sex, but I am going to talk about a MOVIE about sex. Be forewarned. I'm watching Shortbus, the long awaited second feature from that guy who made that musical about the transsexual musician--yes, that guy. I'm not terribly far into it yet, so I cannot really critique or praise it--BUT I wanted to say a few things.   1) the use of "Winter Love" by the Animal Collective was, perhaps, a perfect choice for that scene. I wonder if it fit our heroine's mood...perhaps not...but it was such a joy to hear a song put to good use.   2) sex therapist who hasn't had an orgasm--seems a little hokey, even to me.   3)if i end up becoming a sex therapist it won't be because of this movie, but this movie did remind me of that dream...  4) are any of these actors really gay? does it matter? or are they simply answering the call of duty as I believe all people are capable. OR, as my motto goes, "kiss anything long enough......

I had too much to drink a few nights ago. It wasn't a horrible evening as a result--in fact I got 2 emails saying what a GREAT time had been had. 2 being the perfect number as--well--only 2 of the 3 people I went out with had my email address. the only thing leaving me a little..guilty...is a result of a bit of culture.. in japan, I had heard, if someone touches your leg it's a sure sign that they are attracted to you. neon lights, smoke signals, and your name across the sky couldn't say it clearer. or so I thought/think. it does lead to some trouble however when you and everyone else has had too much to drink and...someone touches your leg... and you touch their leg..and... and.. perhaps your hand brushes a BIT further south. but briefly and MOSTLY in a joking way..and you think nothing of it till the next day...as even AFTER his hand stayed on your back, your knee and your shoulders and... he stumbles out to catch a train later, almost without saying goodbye, and ever...

Found Pictures (just that) Perfect Phallus (a certain woman, or perhaps "woman," who has made it her goal to survey the glorious manhood of many..and to leave us with what she considers--the Perfect Phallus. Probably not safe for work, unless you work at a porn store)