Electric Ladyland

Reasserting the center

Today was very frustrating.  At least, at the end of the day, I found some truth in this.

やった〜！ (やっとう)

So it's late and I can't don't want to sleep because I'm still getting over the absolute awesomeness of finally having my flat panel display mounted on my living room wall.  Those of you who have been to my living room know that, given how oddly narrow it is (the room is kind of an an architectural afterthought), I actually have a somewhat plausible excuse for getting a flat panel.  I finally found a great handyman who (A) didn't stand me up and (B) did a superlative job. 

It took a considerable amount of planning to get the job done.  There was a moment when we hoisted the display onto the wallmount, heard it click and settle into place, stepped back, exhaled, and realized how cool it was.  "That got awesome pretty fast" he said.  "Yep" I replied.

So now here I am up late surfing Japan stuff and I just found a hilarious mashup of sorts:  the Tokyo subway map remixed with the names of major Internet and technology companies.  I'm kind of a railfan as it is so anything subway-related already gets a thumbs up from me.  And anyone who knows Tokyo will find this very funny and spot on.  A few choice quotes: 

1. Google has moved from Shibuya, a humming place for young people, to Shinjuku, a suspicious, messy, Yakuza-controlled, but still a pretty cool place to hang out.
2. Youtube has conquered Shibuya.
3. Microsoft has moved to Ikebukuro, if you know what I mean.
4. Yahoo is in Ueno, a nice place but nothing going on there

Having spent time in all those districts, yeah, that about fits the atmosphere...  Google got dodgy this year and YouTube is clearly the It Neighborhood, while Microsoft is going downmarket and Yahoo's off in the forgotten periphery... nice cherry blossoms but what else?  Oh yeah, the National Museum.  (Actually, I really like the National Museum.  Terrific calligraphy collection.  But I digress...) 

But what about Mom and apple pie?

You Have Not Been Ruined by American Culture

You're nothing like the typical American. In fact, you may not be American at all. You have a broad view of the world, and you're very well informed. And while you certainly have been influenced by American culture (who hasn't?), it's not your primary influence. You take a more global philosophy with your politics, taste, and life. And you're always expanding and revising what you believe.

Has American Culture Ruined You?

This just in:  American culture has not ruined me.  Yay?  It cracks me up here how it says "And you may not be American at all."  Now wait just a minute!  There are many types of Americans out there. 

Still, that being said, we've got plenty of conservatism and social oppression to deal with.  I just went out to lunch today with someone who I found out is also from Western Mass, quite by accident.  Her first question to me was "So how did you get out?  Tell me your story!"  Sad, but I knew just what she was talking about.  I love Western Mass but it's true, I couldn't wait to leave while growing up.  Needed to see the world.  New York suits me just fine. 

When it's really all about the food

I just finished another 49-episode Taiga drama, Toshiie to Matsu, this morning.  Next up on my Japanese drama viewing list is a modest 9-parter, Kuitan.  I've been waiting to watch this one for a while.  Just finished Episode 1 and I can already say that it's a bundle of fun and belongs in the category of all great movies and TV shows related to food obsession (Tampopo, Eat Drink Man Woman, Like Water for Chocolate, God of Cookery, Iron Chef...). 

Based on a manga, Kuitan features a gluttonous detective who seems intent only on eating well and often.  While other supposedly normal people are fluttering about a crime scene trying to figure out whodunit, Kuitan's zeroing in on the food or thinking about how to acquire food.  In the first episode he even eats the sushi right from a crime scene (see left;  note the golden chopsticks). 

The cops take him in for questioning and he manages to get someone to order him some katsudon.  One officer takes exception to this but is overruled by the police chief, who shares Kuitan's love of food and knows he'll get to the bottom of whatever's going on despite his apparent near-constant distractedness related to eating. 

Later, back at the detective agency where he works, Kuitan orders about $120 in sushi and begins to wolf it down much to his colleagues' chagrin.  Later in the episode we will see that not only is this an impressive display of unchecked appetite, it is also a route to discovering who committed the murder they are investigating.  At this point, though, it just puzzles and annoys everyone.

I am a fellow food fanatic.  Other members of the food cabal tend to find one another and share our love of food over stories and meals.  I'll definitely be recommending this short-but-sweet series to all my foodie friends.  And apparently this show was a big hit among the food freaks of Japan:  they went out and made a Kuitan 2 this year!  Let's eat! 

Heisei Nakamura-za's "Hokaibo"

Wow.  On impulse I suddenly bought a ticket to tonight's performance of Hokaibo at Lincoln Center and it was otherworldly.  I could run through a list of adjectives right now trying to describe my enthusiasm and headiness at what I've just seen.  I should mention that although I lived in Japan for three years, this was my first time watching kabuki.  I've learned that I now love kabuki and want to see a lot more of it.  I haven't been this excited about a theatrical performance since I don't know when. 

I was already a fan of Nakamura Kanzaburo XVIII before tonight, having watched his performance as Oishi Kuranosuke in NHK's 1999 Taiga Drama Genroku Ryoran.  His  Hokaibo blew the lid off of what I thought the Japanese performing arts could be.  My god.  I want to go back right now and see it again from the very beginning.  It had many of the dreamlike elements of Western opera and yet rules were broken all over the place, gleefully trampled on.  Hokaibo swore, climbed up things, was hanging and even oozing from all corners of the set, and then started speaking in English, even cracking a joke about how one of the other characters was metrosexual.  Nakamura asked if everyone could hear him, even "You up there, you in the cheap seats!"   Everyone felt energized, engaged.  We were all leaning forward in our seats like captivated schoolchildren.

My penchant for watching Taiga dramas paid off in an unexpected way.  Having not realized they were handing out headsets with English commentary until I was in my seat and the play was about to begin, I was reliant on my Japanese language skills to see me through.  And the Japanese they were using in Hokaibo was not exactly Japanese circa 2007.  Lots of ornate, old-fashioned and flowery language.  Watching those dramas paid off -- in most cases I knew what they were talking about even though people don't speak like that anymore.  Bonus.  I guess there is an upside to obsessively watching 49 episodes of a show only grandpas and grandmas in Japan watch.

Tomorrow Mom and I are going to see Nomura Mansai (who we loved in Onmyoji) in some Noh and Kyogen pieces at Japan Society.  This week is my Stove Top Stuffing Bonanza of Japanese performing arts, if you will.  I am double dipping.  Having never seen live Noh or Kyogen before either, this will be a rare treat.  My eyes are wide open, ready to take it all in.

Welcome to Monday. Now duck!

It was Monday all right and there was some weird energy going around today.  I dove right into it as if I'd never left.  It was a whirlwind and I kept looking up at my whiteboard, onto which I had written the Short List of Really Important Things to Get Done for Each Project, to see how I was coming along.  Glad I dropped in over the weekend to organize things.  Not sure what today would have been like had I not done that.  Well, I would have been fine but I had a little extra peace of mind somehow. 

Put in two orders, one for an off-site backup project and one for our West Coast office which is about to relocate next month.  Negotiated a third order which is about to be wrapped up, hopefully tomorrow.  Strategized on network drops and IT closet design for said West Coast office.  Lunch with my coworker got canceled and so the afternoon just flowed on straight to 6pm.  Glad I brought a contingency sandwich!  And not just any contingency sandwich -- it was my very own mozzarella, tomato, prosciutto and homemade pesto on French sourdough, thank you very much.  Lip smacking good. 

After work I came home to make dinner:  steak with scallions.  That turned out rather well and even energized me.  I think scallions, garlic and onions have some energy-bestowing properties.  The scallions were part of last week's CSA delivery (and the pesto was made from the same delivery's allotment of basil).  Like I said, lots of green things.  It's good I'm being forced to factor more of them into my life.

Watched Hell's Kitchen with Mom.  We love watching that show over the phone together on Monday nights, alternately cackling and gasping as someone totally bombs or Ramsay pulls off a particularly rude turn of phrase (this week's winner:  "That looks like baby vomit!").  We were amazed that Josh didn't get booted.  I'm still rooting for Julia.  So far I think it's down to her and Rock but I'm appreciating Bonnie for hanging in there too.  We'll see. 

So all in all, it's the same old story for the moment.  Work work work.  That is my broken record theme.  I'm occasionally distracted by a few open crushes I have but nothing major.  They keep everything light-hearted.  Oh, and I practiced calligraphy tonight:  the big Tanabata assignment (鳥語竹陰密雨声荷葉香).  After the summer break I really enjoyed getting back into it. 

Bastille Day

It was Bastille Day today.  I didn't even realize it until the end of the day.  Spent several hours listening to MC Solaar and when I got home, I ran across a fellow Franco from my hometown on Facebook who I had never realized even spoke French -- but there it was on his profile.  Conjured up some sentimental feelings about our shared identity.  I used to sometimes think he was an annoying pipsqueak (once tried to show me up in front of our English teacher thinking I was lying when I said I knew how to spell every word on our vocabulary test -- I spelled every word correctly then and judging from his profile he still can't spell now) but this little surprise changed that somewhat.  I did buy three kinds of cheese today without even thinking twice about it, come to think of it.  Periodically I go trolling the Internet for sites that are geared towards us French-descent types but generally the French sites are either (a) for French bashers or (b) for people who, gee, don't speak any but just love the culture and would like to go there sometime.  I have no problem with the (b) case but where's my (c) Franco-Americans?  Allo?

Sanctuary

Here we go with another weekend.  I think it started kinda early what with the partying conducted at calligraphy central last night.  I got home a little after 3 and didn't get to sleep until the sky was lightening to a soft blue outside my window.  The iced coffee I had this morning didn't do a thing.  Now I'm doing battle with my fatigue.  I want to really enjoy my Friday but it's hard when I'm this tired. 

I thought I would have more to say than I do.  It was another prodigiously active week.  I've been working my @!&^! off and it's been straight up fun.  I'm really digging it.  Although I didn't spend as much time at home as I would have liked to I was still able to enjoy a few hours of downtime in my abode continuing the redecoration project I've got going on here.  Now it's feeling even more cozy than before.  My friend's roommate checked it out when she came over to deliver my part of our CSA share tonight and she really liked it for the same reasons I do.  Home sweet home, a retreat.

Yawn.  Yup, time to recharge the old batteries.  Running low.  Tomorrow should be a splendid day, though.

Communications protocols

Anybody remember this?  I remember this!

It's been a while since I've dealt with it, though.  I've been a Mac user since System 7 so OS9.2 isn't exactly unfamiliar territory, but I gotta say it's been a while.  I switched to OSX years ago.  Seeing as we run a Windows shop where I work you'd think I wouldn't run into any Mac tech support issues but today I actually ended up helping someone who was running OS9 and needed to set up DHCP on the Mac laptop she bought in 2002.  OSX was already out in 2002.  But anyway, I had to dig into the memory banks to help this young lady amidst plenty of other things going on simultaneously (lawyers calling for contract negotiations, office renovations and relocations).  I was actually pretty tickled that I remembered how to set her up.  The only thing was that once that was done, her IE was woefully out of date.  I don't blame Microsoft for not supporting it for OS9 anymore.  I set her up with iCab and it wasn't great but it worked better than IE.  Oy.

So no sooner did I opine on social networking than I got a request from a friend to join yet another social networking site -- Facebook.  Am I done now?  Yeesh.

It occurs to me that there are now a gajillion ways in which people can get in touch with me.  Let's see if I can list most of them.  Phone, email, text message, IM, postal mail, in person, social networking sites... and many of these are in duplicate.  I've got three phones -- two work, one personal.  Text messaging on both cell phones.  IM for both work and home.  Fax at work.  Postal mail for both work and home.  The list goes on.  It doesn't usually matter so much except for those comical moments when I have someone in my office, the phone is ringing, IM is flashing and an email just came in.  Oh, and someone's knocking on the door.  How does one process all this input anyway? 

Even with the tech-enabled networking you can't replace good old fashioned connections made between people.  Yesterday I discovered quite by accident that a consultant I'm working with grew up in the town next door to where I grew up.  Just over the river.  Who knew?  That was a real surprise.  We are going to have to go get lunch and make all the connections.  It's a small town area out there in Western Mass and everybody knows everybody.  And as I'm browsing through Facebook right now I see someone I went to high school with.  Haven't thought about him for a million years.  I see all the French names too (big secret nobody seems to know about:  Massachusetts has a reputation for being Irish but there are tons of Francos where I grew up).  Yep.

In other news, I'm still in indecent love with my iPhone.  Oh, and calligraphy starts up again tomorrow.  I have a big Tanabata assignment to turn in before the end of the month.  Can't wait to get started.  Speaking of Japanese art, last night I went to pick up my Ehon poster at the framing shop and on the way back, I did a little recon on two relatively new additions to the neighborhood.  One was Gyro Mania, a Greek joint just off 30th Avenue.   The people were unbelievably sweet and the sheftalia gyro I got was delish.  The second was Esparks Coffee, where they had a cute sign up saying the following:

Socrates drank hemlock!
Romeo drank poison!
You drink coffee!
You're smart!

Word... I may be smart and still ticking but my decision to have a coffee last night probably had a lot to do with my getting to sleep after 2am... *Cough*

Darfur, generating meaning

Went to see Winter Miller's play In Darfur at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park with some of my coworkers tonight.  It was very striking and raised uncomfortable, morally troubling questions about journalists' role in calling attention to the genocide.  To run on page 1 with a name, breaking your promise to your source and condemning her to vicious militia reprisals from which she'd be lucky to escape with her life?  Or not to run at all, losing the opportunity to bring Darfur front and center into the spotlight of the Western press so that someone might actually care enough to do something about it?  Nick Kristof spoke as part of a panel after the play concluded and said that depiction was basically accurate, that he'd been part of frustrating calls back to the editor's desk in the New York office but had had the good sense to start swearing after hanging up the phone, not before.  Samantha Power spoke very eloquently about the situation in Darfur.  I'm going to borrow her book, A Problem from Hell, from the library. 

One of my many favorite coworkers mentioned Change.org in passing the other day as we were driving to an organizers' training retreat in New Jersey.  Maybe it was having just come home from seeing In Darfur that made me want to check that out:  networking and activism for social justice.  So I'm fiddling around with it now, setting up a profile and learning how it works.  Perhaps this will be a social networking site I will actually use.  I could get behind it more than others because it actually has a purpose.  Of course, I already work for a nonprofit that does amazing things to address the issues I care deeply about so I'm not exactly bereft of opportunities to make a difference every day when I walk into the office either.  That's pretty rad.

Side note about the social networking thing, though.  This is yet another site I'm registered on and I would really dig it if there were some type of social networking aggregator out there.  Let me see if I can remember all the social-networking-web-2.0-esque places I'm on:  Change.org, Del.icio.us, Friendster, GoodReads, Last.fm, LinkedIn, Mixi, MySpace, Technorati, Twitter... are there any others? 

Friendster and MySpace I hardly ever visit because I've already got a blog and those places really aren't my style.  LinkedIn I actually find fairly useful.  GoodReads I enjoy quite a bit too.  Mixi is where I used to do some blogging and social networking in Japanese but I haven't kept up with it the way I'd like to.  Twitter, aka microblogging, is fun and mobile -- I actually like it more than I thought I would and someone calls the Red Sox games on there so that's a bonus.  But all in all, as another favorite coworker opined to me the other day, looking at me with that look that only she gets, "What does it mean to be LinkedIn?"  I smiled and said I'd get back to her when I had the answer on that one.  Not sure what meaning is being created by all this networking, all this content generation.  One's mileage may well vary.