Kalamazoo

After college I was in a production called "1940s Radio Hour" which began with this song and was sung in this style. Fun stuff:

Proud Uncle

I just got home from Jack's bar and grill where we had a nice send off for my co-worker Kate who is moving to New York. I came to find my folks hovered around their Mac telling me to watch this YouTube video of my nephews Carter and Wil, my niece Maya, and their friends Maddi and Jack. They've formed a band (Carter and the Bluedogs) and played for their neighborhood block party.

I have to say that they are my new favorite band. Their "Harry Potter" song (the first one on the video)is really cool, but "I Wanna Live in the 24th Century" is amazing. But I'll let you decide for yourselves. Carter is playing the guitar, Maddi is sitting next to him singing, Wil has brown hair and is in the black round sunglasses, then Jack is the neighbor with the blond hair, and later, my niece Maya interviews the band. I was expecting something cute when I watched them; what I discovered was something much more. Enjoy:

I've Been Remiss...

...in not posting with any regularity, so I will post pictures here now.

But as I am still feeling a bit of remissness hanging about, you will only receive minimal commentary on them.

And as they are attempts to be artistic, if successfully done, they should need little commentary anyway.


Penn Station


Brooklyn Bridge


Metal Tree, Madison Square Park


The Cloisters


Three Busts, The Cloisters


Cornflower, The Cloisters Gardens


Irises, The Cloisters Gardens


Nathan's Hotdog Stand, Coney Island


Boardwalk, Coney Island

The Band My Brother Plays In, Stone Arch Festival


Carter and Wil (My Nephews), Stone Arch Festival


Maya (My Niece), Stone Arch Festival


Carter, Stone Arch Festival


Wil, Stone Arch Festival


Maya, Stone Arch Festival

Sayonara!

I have been reading Basho's Haiku prose/poetry travel diary, "Narrow Road to a Far Province." It was a gift (one of three books) from Yoko, who is brilliant, and has been taking my short story reading course. This book describes the poet's journey from Tokyo (then called Edo) to the remote upper areas of Honshu. As I was reading, I got this brilliant idea of composing some haiku to put in this blog entry, but all I could come up with was:

A lonely gyoza
Left uneaten on a plate.
A fly heard buzzing.

The gyoza was an obvious (if you live or have lived in Japan) nod to Utsunomiya (宇都宮), which has over 30 gyoza restaurants. But then I couldn't make the rest of the poem work in any meaningful way, and anyway, I'm pretty sure, if I were in a room with a plate upon which a lonely gyoza sat, I'd eat it before the fly ever got near it. So I have abandoned the idea of writing anything of poetic value in this entry (I do have some pics below of sakura, or cherry blossoms, so perhaps I'll be inspired further down).

I'm including pictures here from the last week or so - it's been a busy time, getting ready to leave Japan. And I've been lucky to be able to spend time, between packing and getting things organized, with a lot of the people I've grown to care a great deal for. A week ago, I played tennis with Tomoko, Isao, Motoki, and Anthony. Soon after we arrived, Anthony and Isao went off to play doubles with some other players on another court which left me, Tomoko, and Motoki free to play tennis and pose for silly pictures:
Isao and Anthony joined us after a bit and I was able to get this cool shot of tennis balls (and Anthony in the background):
After tennis, we had a great lunch spread out for us at Tomoko and Isao's. I love spending time with Tomoko and Isao: one is always certain to be well fed, to never have an empty glass, and to always have great conversations. After spending the afternoon there, Anthony and I had to head out to a small party at Aiichiro and Fumi's. Michel, Seiko, and Kohei were also there. Aiichiro did himself proud by cooking up a great Chinese dinner. Seiko brought her violin so that Fumi and I could play part of Bach's double concerto in D minor. This was a surprise I found out about only a day or two before going over there, so I practiced with Fumi a bit and then we had a concert where we played only the intro part of the first movement - I have never played that piece well, and after such a long time of not practicing, my playing was pretty rusty, nevertheless, it was a lot of fun:
Aiichiro and Fumi had also invited a candidate for city office over for dinner and he made a short speech which Aiichiro translated for us - this was amazing, as it was the first time, I'd eaten dinner where a political speech was made. I found this much more agreeable than what most politicians here do, which is to drive around in vans with loud speakers and yell about how everyone should vote for them. One of the things he talked about was the issue of a memorial that the local Korean community wants to erect near a mine where several Chinese and Koreans, forced into labor there, died. If you check out Michel's blog, he does a fine job outlining the history of this controversy (unfortunately when I use Blogger in my browser, I'm not given the option to create hyperlinks). Here we all are minus Fumi (who was the photographer):
This next group of pictures was taken at my farewell party last night. Madoka booked us a large tatami room at a restaurant near the school and it was perfect. The atmosphere was much better than the last couple places we'd had such parties at. Here I am with Isao and Tomoko:
It was great. Everytime a camera came out (and there were many), people would dive over tables, squash together, make peace signs with their hands. Here I am in a couple such group shots:
Scott was able to come up from Nagoya to spend the evening with us, which was a great surprise to many of the students at the party:
It was also the last time to see Michel and Yoshiko on this side of the world, so I was happy they could be there. I'll miss you guys - come to Minnesota soon!
I was humbled by the many gifts students gave me: pictures, flowers, sake, books, a soroban (Japanese abacus), furoshiki (traditional Japanese wrapping clothes for gifts, lunches, etc.), picture albums and frames, and lots of cards with warm messages. Yet none of these made me laugh as much as the shirt my Friday night discussion class presented me with. The front had a picture of me with the class - taken a couple Fridays ago. The picture on the back made me jump and let out what may have been as close to a scream as you will ever hear come out of my mouth. Here 'tis:
After Anthony led a Matt trivia game (won by a student who I've never taught before, but talked to in the lobby many times), Yasuko made a toast, Stacy gave a speech, and the staff and teachers presented me with a really nice fountain pen. Then I got up and gave a short speech - I had to keep it short because it was like the third time that week that I was worried that I'd start crying in front of my students. But I made them promise to visit me in the Land of 10,000 lakes as well as e-mail me from time to time, so I hope to be able to continue the many friendships that have begun here.

Earlier in the week, I took some pictures of the cherry blossoms, and as my kid sis asked me to post them, I am doing so here. But first, another fat lady sculpture - I like this one a lot:
The last four pictures were taken in Hachimanyama, the park where we had our hanami last year:

Okay, let's try a haiku again for the picture below:

The cherry tree's limbs
Droop and claw above my head.
Attacked by shades of pink.

(I think I'm channelling a bored student in a seventh grade English class during a poetry unit, rather than the spirit of Basho)



Tomorrow Anthony and I will meet the new teacher, Dayne, who is fresh from training in Omiya. Then two days left of work and a ton of things to do before leaving for Seoul on Saturday.

I Got the Heebie Jeebies

Today, I am feeling a bit restless. It was a busy day yesterday: I taught seven classes, one more than my usual Saturday schedule, which isn't bad - I've done it before - but the way it was scheduled stunk. I had to teach three classes in a row, then had an hour break, then taught four in a row. I also forgot to give a student a test between classes, so he was a bit disappointed and I was a bit disappointed in myself and grouchy and tired.

So today, I've done nothing of great import. I did do some cleaning of my apartment and organizing of papers and stuff. Then I biked down to the gas station to get some kerosene for my heater. I also tried making a Japanese style omlette. I am happy to say that in spite of not having dashi sauce (nor knowing really how to find it at the grocery store), it still came out good. The omlettes here in japan are a strange mix of the salty and the sweet. I my recipe, you mix the eggs with some sugar, soy sauce, salt, and mirin (a sweet, almost syrup-like rice wine for cooking). The omlette is cooked and rolled. My cookbook suggested eating it with grated daikon radish and a little soy, but I just had the soy. It tasted pretty good - it's definitely not a breakfast omlette - I like it as a snack.

Anyway, I have no idea what the point of this blog entry is. I'd wanted it to create some impression of what I was feeling (which is neither good nor bad, just middling), but instead, all I've done is given you a rather boring account of a boring day here. But all of this was leading up to the fact that I wanted to share this video I found on YouTube of the Boswell Sisters singing "Heebie Jeebies" - a song I first heard Louis Armstrong sing. The Armstrong version is supposedly the reason we have scat singing in jazz today - apparantly they were recording this song and he forgot the lyrics, but they had to keep going recording the cylander, so he just made up sounds and nonsense words to fill in for the lyrics. I'd never heard the Boswell Sisters nor their version of the song until yesterday when I came across the video. It's pretty cool for the 1930s and is an amazingly clear video. Connee Boswell, the lead singer, was a hero of Ella Fitzgerald's when she was first starting out. Ella tried to pattern her voice after this New Orleans songstress. Anyway, enough of my weird, disjointed ramblings. I hope you enjoy the video - I particularly like the way they sway to the music and bob their heads:

Channeling My Inner Child

I think there are some albums written for children that end up transcending their original purpose and appealing to a broader audience. Take the soundtrack to "A Charlie Brown Christmas." I'm not sure if it was Charles Schultz's stroke of genius to use jazz artists to create the soundtrack for this animated special, but whoever's idea it was, it was a brilliant idea. Vince Guaraldi created the "Linus and Lucy" theme and "Christmastime is Here," now both classics.

In the same way, I think Jack Johnson's Curious George soundtrack is one of those albums whose tunes are so catchy and fun, that the parents who put the CD in for their kids get just as much fun out of it as their kids.

For me, my favorite transcendent kids album has to be Carole King's "Really Rosie." I remember first being shown the film of this in grade school - yes it was shown on a reel-to-reel projector complete with flying dust particles giving shape to the beam extending from the projector to the screen, and the strangely comforting flap of the film running through the projector. I think we watched it in first grade and soon after, my sister and I got the record at the library and listened to it over and over. This kids album has everything - Carole King's amazing, scratchy voice and New York accent (and great 70s era rock/folk piano playing), and illustrations and lyrics by artist extraordinaire, Maurice Sendak. To this day, my sister and I still listen to this unendingly listenable album and now that my sister has a little baby, she sings songs from this album to my niece.

Luckily, someone else on YouTube thought the children's special from which this album comes was important enough to share. Here's a clip from my one of my favorite songs on the album:

"Pierre"

Hey, Spoil Sport - Remember This?

What's the YouTube Equivalent of a Couch Potato? or Twiggy vs. James Bond

Like others, I have succumbed to the lure of YouTube. It's got something for everyone - think of that show that you thought only you liked, do a search on YouTube and nine times out of ten, someone else has recorded a short movie from their old beta tapes and forever preserved it for your enjoyment.

I also want to apologize for posting movies instead of putting up blog entries of any real substance. I should be writing a blog that is informative and insightful like my colleague Michel is doing on his blog, but I can rarely remember names of the countless shrines I go to.

So now, I'm going to post my last YouTube movie for a while (unless it is one of my own making). This one is a little more fitting because it is a J-Pop video. A few years ago B, Mrs. B, SpSp and I were able to see this band at First Ave. in Minneapolis. We'd already been listening to this band on CDs, and jumped at the chance to see them live. We knew it was going to be a great concert when one of the band members came out in a black tux jacket (sans tails) with a smart bow tie, and a kilt. He carried a huge Japanese flag that he waved over the audience. After that, the concert was a total visual free-for-all. Between songs, retro style videos of the band were played while the audience anticipated the next number.

These guys had a costume change for every song they performed - Japanese school uniforms, Disco wear, collegiate style cheerleading uniforms complete with letterman cardigans and a mascot. Their style was always a sort of 60s fizzy, Euro, lounge look. It was amazing how well they got it. To this day, the Pizzicato Five concert I attended that night was my all-time favorite. Since I've been here, I've seen tons of their discs - stuff you can't get in the US. I found out that Nomiya Maki - their lead singer during their most popular years was not the original lead, but the third lead singer the band had had. I only wish they were still making their amazing music. From what I read on Wikipedia, this type of J-Pop is called Shibuya-kei (named for Shibuya, a really "hip" district in Tokyo). If you like the video below, go to YouTube and search for Pizzicato Five or go to my videos (anskov is my screen name there), and check out my favorites of theirs. Enjoy:

A Video Response to Jean's Kool-Aid Post

I enjoyed Jean's post about Kool-Aid so much that I decided to look for some Hawaiian Punch ads (because I loved the sugary awfulness of the drink) and found this hysterical one with Donny and Marie Osmond (which is also sugary and awful):


Let me just say that if I had hair, I would want it to look EXACTLY like Donny's feathered 80s hair.

I laughed out loud at this because it reminded me of a parody of this commmercial that I saw with Catherine O'Hara and Dave Thomas on SCTV - they capped their teeth and sang the same tune, only now the product they were advertising was something you use to . . . well, let's just say a certain someone at MMC on Thursday nights (someone who dips herself) might find useful. I filmed it with my camera while playing the episode on my laptop, so the quality isn't too great, but you'll get the idea:

Hiragana Practice

Okay, here's a sample of my hiragana - I spliced together some videos and tinkered with the colors and aging features - I hope you enjoy:

Hiragana

I decided to play around with some of the features on iMovie. Then I broke iMovie. My parents brought my iBook installation discs and I finally figured out how to properly compress a movie file for QuickTime. Here's a short film I shot while practicing hiragana one night and listening to Norah Jones:

Hanami

Well, today was AEON's hanami party in Hachimanyama park - we worried that there would be no blossoms left on the cherry trees. And while many blossoms had given way to new green leaves, there were still many trees with blossoms still on them. Everywhere in the park there was a nice snowy covering of fallen petals. We also worried that it might rain, but we were lucky in this respect as well - the sun came out and it warmed up nicely during the time we were in the park. Here are some pictures from our time. I also want to make a disclaimer here - I am still learning names of students who are not mine so I may forget or get some wrong. I'll check them with Michel and Scott and get any mistakes corrected quickly.

First we have Scott with two of my students - Emiko (holding Tupperware against Scott's head) and Masae (with chopsticks) - and some people who I just met today, Mayu and Koji.
Some of our lovely students. These three had a won! derful! time. This was supposed to be a candid, but one of them saw me with the camera and this was the result:
Here's one of my non-regular discussion class students, Keizo, with Takashi (my FocusPoint student), Masaki - an AEON student I've talked with but don't really know, Scott, and Toshiyuki (from my Encounter class):
Kentaro (ViewPoint Student) and Naoto with our assistant manager Yukiyo and Madoka, one of our full-time teachers.
I bopped around the tarp a bit to talk to a lot of people and ended up forcing my homemade rice pudding on this group (note: Many Japanese people are not used to having rice in a sweet context - except maybe mochi. Its probably as weird for them as it is for me to bite into a sweet here and have the filling be a sweet bean paste). Seiko (my FocusPoint student) and Sayaka (the head teacher) both bravely tried - and liked - my rice pudding. I'm not sure if Takashi or Masaki had any. I talked with this bunch about "24" and "Beverly Hills 90210" (Kentaro slyly snuck into the picture):
After we ate, Yoshi moderated our Bingo game where we gave out prizes to several winners.
Here's Keizo, Shizuka, and Michel:
Mayu, Masae, Emiko, and Scott enjoying themselves:
And here's me and Toshiyuki. Toshi runs a lumber import business up in my area of town and offers me green tea when I stop by to say hello.
After the bingo game, a pair of wandering Japanese cowboys stopped by with their mics, speaker, and guitar and sang for us and then invited us to go up - karaoke style - and join them in a song. Our young caballero Scott, opting for beer over tequila this time, bounded up and sang "Country Road" (This of course lead to Michel and I having get up and sing - Michel sang "Yesterday" and I sang "Twist and Shout." - see Michel's blog - probably - for video footage of the event):
Here's the gang as we wrapped up the party.

It was an excellent day - it was a great way for me to get to know my students better and for them to know that I wear other clothes besides stuffy suits.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2006

Hey guys. I'd love to see as many of you as possible before I leave the country on January 12. This Saturday, X thought we should all meet at Laura's bar in NE Minneapolis for karaoke - it starts at 9pm. We can hang out and you can sing a song for me (Yes, X, that includes you). Let me know who all is in for Saturday! Chad will be bringing his special friends from the group home:


Oh, wait. Jean won't be there because she's ditching me for Phoenix! - By the way, Jean, thanks for the invaluable suit shopping assistance - you rock! (I can give you Brandon's number so you two can hook up once you get back). I'm going to miss you.

Karaoke

Just trying to get an idea of who all would be interested in going to Laura's this Saturday night for karaoke. It starts at 9pm and is in North Minneapolis. If this weekend doesn't work, we'll plan another. Just respond as a comment and we'll go from there.

Sexsmith, I'll let you contact Sarge and Princess for this event (tho' you may have to fight Angry Vegan to get Sarge's telephone number out of her).

Have a Cup of Chi

This was the song being sung as we entered the Firen Roast Moutain Cafe (T and C's spelling of this small coffee shop). The place was packed because the coffee shop was having an open house. Jean, Chad, my sister Becky, and I ended up sitting right in front of the husband and wife duo - Note: it's very hard to feel good about laughing at someone when you're smack-dab in front of them. Here are a series of pictures from the event:


This is my sis. She had to keep turned away from our musical entertainment all evening in order to keep from laughing uncontrollably.


Here are Chad and Jean's initial reactions to hearing T's crooning - I love T's face here.


Here's Chad trying to keep it together as T and C play an intstrumental version of "Light My Fire." By the way, Jean and I caught a glimpse of T&C's play sheet - at the top was written in bold letters, "Don't Worry, Be Happy." As they never sang this tune, we concluded that this was their performance mantra.


Beck and I.


Chad and Jean (engagement photo).


By the end of the night, Chad had fully embodied T (and even shook C's hand before leaving).

Purple Ball Pics

Okay, as promised here are the pictures from Lake of the Isles where we found a purple ball and played some weird soccer/volleyball sort of combination sport. The first:



No, that's not an earth ball balanced on Chad's head; that's the ball Chad just kicked, headed straight for my camera.

The next one comes with a mini contest attached:



The first thing I thought when I saw this pic was, "This totally looks like some Gen-X, Indy Rock album cover." Liz, Chad, and Erin agreed. So here's the contest: Come up with the best band name and album title to go with this album cover (extra points for including an entire playlist). Xtina will pay the winner 50 bucks from her tip money. Xtina's so generous.