today

got my new schedule for the coming months at ecc. mostly day shifts. I'm attempting to work in about 6 extra classes teaching at waseda university(a private university close to shinjuku), but ecc is giving me a lot of trouble about taking a day off that i need for training at waseda. it's extraordinarily frustrating being that i don't have any training at ecc on the day I'm trying to take off and i know plenty of people who have skipped work due to a hangover. My frustration is compounded by the fact that i have 8 vacation days and was attempting to use one. guess that's what i get for being honest. garb.

i was reading pitchfork today and read about this record by some ambient dude called the field - sounded good.
speaking of electronic music, I've been programming drums in cubase so that i can show our current drummer what kind of beats i have in mind for our songs(he's not that used to weird time changes etc.), and i realized sequencing drums would be a lot easier if i had a midi controller(i.e. keyboard). I'm going to go out and get one either today or tomorrow. The one i want comes with a trial version of reason, which has a lot of idmish sounds included, so i'll fiddle with it and post anything i come up with.

tonight is an art "gathering" at the only decent club i've been to in roppongi called superdeluxe. The beer is good and architects/artists come in and present their work, about half of which is interesting(which is far better than any other "art night" i've attended). I'm kind of hoping if i show up enough i might meet some cool people. miho(friend from todai) is going, and vicente might come.

I watched "tampopo", which is an itami juzou film about ramen. i found it a lot more entertaining that "marusa no onna"(which I watched a few weeks ago), and the characters much more endearing. funny and highly recommended.

laundry..

Currently cleaning my room to "shake a leg". our 2nd "annual" hanami(with no cherry blossoms in sight and a high of 50) is tomorrow, and in the event anyone wants to see our house, i have my work cut out for me. after the outside portion of the party, we're going to move to shimo where i will, once again, be djing with marguerite. we decided on spinning bad 80s music (think "sherry" by steve perry and "that's all" by phil collins - it was the only thing we could agree on considering our otherwise radically different tastes). i don't really know who is coming, but i hope it'll be fun.

there's a final party at akasaka school next friday - i'm going to go - apparently they are going to have a late night hanami afterwards. the students there are pretty awesome so it should be cool.

skirko saw blonde redhead - i am jealous.
i missed converge when they came through b/c i had to work and it was 60 bucks.

i went to a kurokawa kishio architecture exhibit at the new art museum in roppongi that he designed. it was free, and pretty huge. lots of miniatures, so i was stoked. the building was pretty amazing, too. here's a link if you want to check it out.

i bought a bike, but the tire ripped while i was riding it home, so it was out of commission for about a week. the shop gave me a new tube and tire for the cost of the tube, and i put the bike back together on sunday night. i'm going to ride it to kichijoji(about an hour away) today to return some manga to keiko. i'm excited about getting to know tokyo's geography from outside the train.

i realize it's been nearly a year since i took any pictures and have resolved to take more starting today.

alright, more later.

today, this week

So I just got finished doing a private lesson in Shimokitazawa with Naoko. She's really nice and I feel bad getting paid for talking, but I want some studio monitors(http://www.krksys.com/v3/vseries2_v4.asp). However, I am charging her less than I usually do and going much longer than usual, so I'm hoping that makes up for it.... Anyway, she paid me today and wrapped the money in a pretty intricate manner in some tissue paper. That made me happy - i took some photos - maybe I'll get arount to posting them(i'm going to try and worry about getting writing done regularly before I make any promises about taking/posting pics again........) Anyway, she gave me a Miyazaki movie last time(laputa), which was really good. That led me to watch more miyazaki(naushika) - i think i"m going to have his filmography done by the end of the month at this rate. He really captures something that I haven't quite been able to nail.
In other news - we recorded a few rough rough versions of some songs we're working on - you can email me if you want to hear it and I'll send you the mp3s if you like..... no vocals, no bass, not even completed skeletons so don't expect anything particularly listenable.
I'm working on vacation plans for golden week - i think i"M going to take a trip out into japan by myself - i haven't done that in a while and think it'd be good both for me and my japanese. Although it's going to be ridiculously crowded, I think I might just head into kyoto with all the other tourists. Naoko said she's going to go to shizuoka with her sister and her dog. I asked her how she transports her dog and she said she carries it in a little bag - cute.

I visited a bookstore yesterday that has a ton of used english books(a pretty decent political science and econ section) and bought a hirohito biography and albert camus' 'the stranger'. I haven't read any fiction in about a year, and he's been on my list of people to read, so, uh, yeah.
Vicente warned me the owner(an american or canadian) was a "dick", and he wasn't too far off the mark. They do have a book club there, though - I might be a geek and sign up. the website is www.gooddaybooks.com

I've watched a few movies recently and I think I'm going to start using this blog to attempt to "review" what I watch to help me with a. my writing skills and b. as a decent reference of what I've seen so I know which directors I've enjoyed etc. Hopefully you(all two of you) might gain something out of it as well.


Films I plan on writing about
laputa/naushika/tonari no totoro
hanabi
seppuku
ran
gohatto

tomorrow i'm meeting sayuri in the morning and going to todai at night - not sure what's in store for the interim period - i've been really wanting to get a japanese telecaster - might do so pretty soon maybe i'll hit up ochanomizu(the section of tokyo with lots of used guitars) tomorrow. i also need to buy some more dress shirts. I don't know how to ask for them to measure me, so I'm a little shy about doing so. it needs to happen, as my other shirts are getting pretty worn.

that's all for now.


japanese word of the day :
kashikomarimashita(formal): certainly