barney

I went to see Drawing Restraint 9 yesterday. I thought it was really good. Took quite a bit of focus , and I didn't exactly grasp all the whale metaphors, but if it's anything like cremaster, I'm sure Matthew Barney has spelled it out on paper somewhere. I read that the drawing restraint project is about using the metaphor of hypertrophy(muscle strength through exposure to resistance) and applying it to art. I think the film was really effective in that respect. A lot of the "restraint" involved serious discipline with respect to time. There was a lot more going on, and I'm sure I didn't grasp half of it. I'll write more when I have more time - perhaps a discussion somewhere else?

I went out for 4 nights last week(one with students, one with friends, another with school staff, and another with friends) and I'm trying to save my money(and body) until next weekend. On friday, vicente, tanya(his gf), some of tanya's friends and I went to a club called the chelsea hotel for "new wave night". New wave night included seminal new wave works such as smells like teen spirit and pretty fly for a white guy. shitty music and a whole shitload of australian rednecks aside, the club had a really nice interior. it doubles as a space for bands to play. cool. cave in is coming(not there, but I guess talking about bands playing made me think of that. i'm down.

on saturday, I went out for the machida school director's farewell party, which was me, the staff, and the 40 year old spanish teacher. it was actually pretty fun. I learned the "naughtiest" thing you can say in japanese, which apparently just amounts to "your mom is fat". the staff always want to be called english names, which I think is absurd. I told them to come up with a japanese name for me if I had to call them "lucy" and "chris": gonzaimon.


I'm doing one of my last moving trips to the new house. Internet is still not set up there, so my apologies if I don't post for a while. I'm not looking forward to no email access. I hate moving by train, and I feel really bad b/c I take up so much space with all my bags. bleh.

i bought a japanese guitar. it's awesome. i'll post pics.

snow demon

got a haircut. pretty nondescript(hyphen?). i used the japanese lucy from ecc told me to use and the guy was like "nihongo skoshi, ne", which means, "you really don't know much japanese do you?". got me out of there without army coiffe though.

i went and checked out a few art exhibits this weekend, the most interesting of which was one called "no border" featuring up and coming japanese painters. I almost bought the accompanying book, but didn't for some reason. I'm going to go back and get it.

today is valentine's day, and we have to give a special valentine's lesson. here, the girls give the boys chocolate, as opposed to vice versa. i'm being observed by a new trainee, so I need to review my guidelines for giving a proper lesson(lest he report back to bossman, "but zach did it this way!").

roommate invited me to a meeting of "tokyo art people" called "artsybugs"(am I back in asheville?) and it was mostly white people. A semi-famous artist gave a talk, and the organizer's crappy new wave bluesy riff band gave a show; I drank a few beers and watched people eat 1500 yen(15 dollar) bean burritos. at the meeting, roommate informed me he'd like to be the vocalist for the band I'm trying(to little avail so far) to get started - which, at the request of skirnonymous, will be referred to as SNOW DEMON. He then proceeded to scream(I am not exaggerating) in the middle of the room and start convulsing like one of the guys from that cronenberg movie scanners. I changed the subject. Convulsions aside, we actually got along pretty well that night. I'm moving out at the end of the month - perhaps that's why. He's threatening to move into a tarp in the woods. he's talked about it enough that I think it might happen. "the craziest thing about tokyo isn't the homeless, it's the people paying a thousand dollars a month for rent, mon! tell me 1 reason it's not a good idea to be homeless, MON!"

cold

It was really warm on Friday but has been and really windy ever since. It's my day off, though, so time to strap on my boots and do something.
I need a haircut, but my fear of a repeat of the military hair I received last time has deterred me so far. My equal if not greater fear of what my head will look like (if anyone has ever seen a picture of me in 5th grade they can sympathize) if I don't get my haircut in the immediate future has been the source of great inner conflict. after getting Lucy(ECC staff) to write down the japanese for "short here, longer there" I have resolved to get a haircut. I'll post some pics if it's really bad.
Although I've been told there've been a few earthquakes here since I've been here(I slightly felt one of them) I felt my first real earthquake on Friday when jamming at vicente's in the morning. It sucked. His massive apartment building just sort of lightly swayed back and forth, but it scared the shit out of both of us. Has made me a little more attentive to build dates on apartments I'm looking at. I also have no desire to live in a tall building.

One of the women in my classes dated the bassist in that band I tried out for in California my senior year of college - small world.

I've been reading this book massive change that has a corresponding exhibit that's touring the world right now. It's about possibilities in urban planning, science, and economics, and the interviews have been really fascinating. I've been relatively in the dark regarding materials science and nanotechnology, and the stuff they are doing(there is still a little science geek in me!) is really fascinating. It's also nice to read something that is written by people versed in criticism but not entirely pessimistic about the possibilities of production networks and technological innovation.

Been listening to lots of led zeppelin recently - a lot of the later stuff which I'd originally shrugged off is actually kind of interesting - a lot of it, mind you, is crap.

I've heard a few of the bands that are making pitchfork 7+ and haven't been to excited by any of them. I do feel out of the loop over here though. I'm going to try and get a new guitar soon(the nut width on my sg is too small and hard to do chording up top) and sell my old one, and I think that purchase will be followed by serious guitar hibernation mode. I need to start writing songs, and I tend to write a bunch at a time

Today there are a few exhibits I want to catch - two at the museum of contemporary art( an eastern european contemporary art and an exhibit of the museum's choice of Japan's up and coming artists) and another at this place called tokyo opera city which is holding Daimler Chryslers collection, which is actually really extensive. Both are 1000 yen(about 9 bucks - significantly cheaper than going to a movie).

My diet is kind of fucked up, and I need to figure out how to eat a little better. I've been eating miso for breakfast(which is pretty good for you, at least my students say), too much onigiri(rice balls with meat/seafood/pickles wrapped in seaweed), and a bunch of cereal. I do eat a lot of tangerines and bananas, but I feel like I need more fruits/veggies. I've also been eating lots of ramen(not instant, but still not that healthy).

Although I was initially enamored of Japan's modern architecture(and still am, with the interesting stuff) I have come to the realization(which isn't a source of much bother) that outer tokyo is a pretty fucking ugly. I actually like the ugliness if it's unique, but so many places outside tokyo look EXACTLY the same. like the city is one giant organism with no boundaries or divisions. hard to take in. Not quite new jersey, but not really paris either.

tttthhhpppt