Quincy

Posted on October 4, 2015 by d4vid

I can’t help but notice that a not insignificant number of Japanese women look like Rashida Jones.

Posted in 京都 | Leave a comment

Afoot

Posted on October 3, 2015 by d4vid

Posted in 京都 | Tagged | Leave a comment

Parody

Posted on October 3, 2015 by d4vid

See, this is why being in Japan melts my brain.  We’ve already established that I treat foreign languages like cryptanalysis.  So I see this bus go by with a sign on it that reads 市バス.

市 is easy.  I know from Chinese that it means “city”.  And I know enough kana to know バ is pronounced “ba” and ス is “su”.  So I sound it out.

It’s like half of Japanese is recycled Chinese and the other half is a parody of how Americans think English words would be pronounced with a thick Japanese accent.

Posted in 京都 | Tagged | Leave a comment

Racist

Posted on October 3, 2015 by d4vid

Lots of people give up on figuring out change when visiting a foreign country — I’m looking at you, Eli — but I make it a practice to true to get rid of as much small change as I can, even when traveling.

I hate looking like a tourist and nothing screams “tourist” more than a fistful of unused change (short of being a 6’4″ white dude in Japan, I suppose.)

So I was shocked to see a Japanese guy today with a fist literally full of coins.  Shouldn’t he know how his own country’s currency works?  Then he started speaking and I realized he was Chinese, not Japanese. 

Racist, David.  Super, super racist.

Posted in 京都 | Leave a comment

Lynchian

Posted on October 3, 2015 by d4vid

https://youtu.be/b65PePHvr8g

Just watched a beauty cream ad on Japanese television which used the Julee Cruise vocal version of the Twin Peaks theme song.

I can only assume their slogan is “Maybe she’s born with it.  Maybe she’s dead, wrapped in plastic.”

Posted in 京都 | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Inexplicable

Posted on October 3, 2015 by d4vid

To me on a cursory evaluation, at least. 

 I see no evidence of a bushy hair epidemic here.  Unless the clinic is just that good. 

 A working brick aqueduct high on a hill by a Zen temple.  Because water.  And because fuck you, that’s why.  Malformed Latin conjugation.  Unless I’m proving a point.

Posted in 京都 | Leave a comment

Wood

Posted on October 2, 2015 by d4vid

“All the shrines and temples are wood!  It’s like one of the primary differences between China and Japan.  Here they opted for wood whenever possible.  Because they could!  Wood, wood, wood,” I was thinking, as I slammed my forehead into a low-hanging wooden beam with a loud, sonorous THOOOMB.

Posted in 京都 | Tagged | 1 Comment

Tradition

Posted on October 2, 2015 by d4vid

Kyoto was the capital of Imperial Japan for over a thousand years until Emperor Meiji moved it to Edo and renamed it Tokyo.  (Try reading that in an Alec Guinness voice.  It sounds awesome.)

It’s the general consensus that where Tokyo is all about progress, Kyoto is all about tradition.

Which explains why the ramen shop I just had dinner at played The Ramones in between The White Stripes and Foo Fighters tracks.

This is an ancient city.

Posted in 京都 | Tagged | 1 Comment

Cyberpunk

Posted on October 2, 2015 by d4vid

Fulfilling a lifelong cyberpunk dream of mine here in Kyoto:  staying in a Japanese pillbox hotel room. 

Yes, that’s my tshirt on a hanger for scale.  My hair brushes against the bathroom ceiling.  Again, tshirt for scale.
 The place is called the Smile Hotel.  But I suspect the name was chosen primarily to torture the poor old taxi driver who drove me here from the train station, muttering “Soo-mah-yah-ruh Hotel…Soo-mah-yah-ruh Hotel…” to himself, over and over again, the whole way here.

Was I overconfident in my Spartanmindedness when I booked this trip?  I don’t know.  It was months and months ago.  I mean, I have 50% fewer parents than I did at the time.  That’s how long it’s been.  Just saying.

Posted in 京都 | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Bullet II

Posted on October 2, 2015 by d4vid

Flew from Hongqiao to Haneda and then took a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto.  The trip was a blur of graveyards.  So many.

Which reminds me that if you haven’t seen Grave of the Fireflies then you should.  It’s generally considered one of the best, if not the best, anime feature ever made.  Makes me weep like a wee lass.

Posted in 京都 | Tagged | 2 Comments

Mom

Posted on September 25, 2015 by d4vid

When I think of my mother I think of a woman overflowing with both love and fear.  I like to think — whether by nature or nurture, mitochondrial DNA or hearing her “awww” at every baby she ever saw — that the reason I always find love welling up inside me  is because of her.  As cynical as I wish I could be at moments, as inconvenient as feeling so much love can be, I wouldn’t want to change that.

But the other part of her, the fearful side of her, the self-described “scaredy cat” aspect of her is a legacy I can choose to either carry on or leave behind with her ashes.

I will do what I can to live out only the best part of her.

I love you, Mom.

Posted in L.A. | 2 Comments

Comfort

Posted on September 24, 2015 by d4vid

In the hierarchy of maraschino cherries, Baskin-Robbins is the ne plus ultra.  Perfect comfort food.

I kept finding myself singing this Deb Talon song to myself all day:

When everyone has gone to sleep
And you are wide awake.
Theres no one left to tell your troubles to.
Just an hour ago
You listened to their voices,
Wilting like a river over underground.
And the light from downstairs
Came up soft like daybreak,
Dimly like the heartache of a lonely child.

And if you can’t remember
a better time,
You can have mine, little one.

In days to come,
When your heart feels undone;
May you always find an open hand
And take comfort wherever you can, you can, you can.

And oh, It’s a strange place
And oh, everyone with a different face.
But just like you thought when you stopped here to linger,
We’re only as separate as your little fingers.

So cry, why not?
We all do.
Then turn to the one you love.
And smile a smile that lights up all the room.
And follow your dreams,
in through every out door.
It seems thats what we’re here for.

And when you can’t remember
A better time,
You can have mine, little one.

In days to come,
When your heart feels undone;
May you always find an open hand.
And take comfort, there is comfort.
Take comfort wherever you can, you can, you can.

Posted in L.A. | Tagged | Leave a comment

Security

Posted on September 23, 2015 by d4vid

Over fifteen years ago, I had set up a personal wiki to centralize notetaking, to do lists, story ideas, etc.  One of the things I had jotted down were my mother’s last wishes.

I haven’t visited my wiki in a long time (now mostly keeping track of things here in this blog and in MindMeister) but when I went looking for that page, I found that all the wiki data was missing.

I called tech support — who eventually solved my problem with a PHP version tweak — but this was the security question I was asked:

security

Posted in L.A. | 1 Comment

Visitor

Posted on September 22, 2015 by d4vid

The Amarano is a boutique hotel a few blocks away from my parents’ townhouse.  DWA used to put up visiting PDIers here.  Back when the hotel was named The Graciela.  Back when there was a PDI.

My room was decorated with black & white prints of images from around Burbank.  Palm trees and reflected clouds in the Media District…  The F-104 Starfighter at Olive Park…
An artsy take on the Warner Bros. water tower…I especially liked this last one as I have often described myself as “growing up in the shadow of the Warner Bros.’ water tower.”

After two nights, I decided to mix things up and moved to the Safari Inn.This motel appears in tons of movies and television shows like Apollo 13 and, of course, my favorite, True Romance.  I expected to find it quite Marge in the Douglas Coupland sense of the word:

    “Is the hotel Marge?  It has to be Marge.  I want atmosphere.”  Marge is Anna-Louise’s word describing sad, 1950-ish diner-type places where the waitresses are named Marge.
“Yes, it’s Marge.”
“What’s the name.  The Lucky Puppy?  The Plucky Ducky?”
“The Aloha.”

(Shampoo Planet)

But in fact, the place was quite boutiquey instead.
I’m staying here the rest of my time here in Burbank.  Assuming James Gandolfini doesn’t show up and try to murder me.

Posted in L.A. | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Serenity

Posted on September 19, 2015 by d4vid

 Like the Battle of Serenity Valley, things are truly over.  My mother passed away after her long fight with Alzheimer’s and has crossed over the River Lethe.

Posted in L.A. | Leave a comment