- I won`t lie to you -- I`ve been in a pretty low place for the past couple of weeks. One of the main reasons is that my heart was recently stomped on by a girl in Osaka. We`d only been together for a very short time, but I thought it was the start of something wonderful ... turns out it wasn`t. Another big reason is I can`t find a f#$%ing job to save my life, though that`s probably because I`ve been very picky, specifically looking for jobs outside of Tokyo (where there are a billion work opportunities). Actually I thought I`d be able to find translating work in Osaka (I was successful with this as I was with the girl), so I put in my 2 months` (!) notice for my Tokyo apartment at the end of August. Result: No girl, no work, and pretty soon, no home. If I find this to be a recurring theme in my life, does that make me a born loser? I`m about to resort to drastic measures. No, not teaching English .. not that drastic.
- There`s some new Evangelion movie playing over here, which I`m pretty sure is just Death & Rebirth over again with some added scenes (probably of Shinji whining, Rei trying on schoolgirl uniforms and Gendou riding around in elevators), but as part of its commencement or whatever, there`s an entire section of the Ikebukuro Tokyu Hands store devoted to crazy Evangelion merchandise. T-Shirts, keychains, mousepads, Zippos, figures ranging from a few inches tall to practically life-size, police tape that says Nerv on it, and beverages (just the other day I drank a can of tasty LCL). You want anything? An Ezekiel paperweight, perhaps? A mass-produced Eva with its arms cut off, half its head missing and its brain sticking out? Give me a holler, I`ll try to hook you up.
- I was lamenting the fact that approximately 10,000 albums I want, no, NEED to have all came out within the last week or so, by bands including but not limited to: Between the Buried and Me, The Black Dahlia Murder, High On Fire, The Baroness, Manu Chao (??), Ministry, and to a lesser extent, Arch Enemy and KMFDM. I say "lamenting" because I had no money to spend on CDs at the time, and couldn`t bring myself to just download them like everyone else does. Perhaps as a reward for my anti-music piracy stance, yesterday I randomly found an envelope on the ground with $200 in it, so I`m treating myself to the first 4 on the list ... maybe 5. Good thing I have my priorities in order.
- Also, it looks like I`m going to the Tokyo Game Show on Friday ... free pass and all. Not ticket, mind you -- pass. Suck it, Otaku! I`ve got connections! EDIT: Apparently tickets are only like $10 anyway. Oh well, I still feel cool.
2007年9月20日木曜日
Zankoku na tenshi no you ni
A few notes:
2007年9月9日日曜日
Worst blog ever
This blog is terrible. Terrible! I miss my old blue one from when I lived in KY, and the sort of grey one from when I first moved to Japan, all of which has been deleted. I guess I blog better while sitting at a desk trying to avoid doing work .. and I haven`t done that for more than a year now. Wooo!
But alack! I may have to start again. Working, that is. Unfortunately I`m having a hard time finding legitimate employment in Osaka .. I may have to alter my plan and move to Nagoya instead. Whatever. I have to do something -- I put in 2 months` notice on my apartment in Tokyo the other week. The clock is a-ticking!
See, even when I actually do type in this blog it`s not interesting anymore. I feel like all I have is, "I`m going to Osaka, I`m back in Tokyo, I need to move, waaaahh there`s all this drama .." blah blah blah. Nothing clever to say whatsoever. Oh, but plenty to complain about! That`s always fun. For example:
I always go back and forth from Tokyo to Osaka via overnight bus. 9 hour trip, 4000 yen. 9 hours seems like a pretty long time but the seats are pretty comfortable, it`s dark and quiet, and you can pretty much pass out the whole time. Unless! The seats are full. Then you have the option of paying just 2000 yen for your ticket and getting an "aisle seat" -- this retarded little seat that folds out from the side of a normal seat and juts out into the aisle, so you`re essentially sitting right in the middle of the bus. It`s really more of a stool than a seat, actually. There`s no back so you can`t lean back or anything. Plus everytime the bus stops for a break (every 2 hours or so), you have to get out of your seat and fold it back up so people can get through, to get off the bus and buy a drink or smoke or whatever. You`re really getting what you pay for with the aisle seat.
Since I always buy my ticket at the last minute, the regular seats are usually sold out, and I`m left with no choice but to buy an aisle seat ticket. This momentarily makes me happy because it`s half the price .. then I remember that I`m not getting aaaany sleep on this trip. However! Lots of times people don`t show up for the bus, leaving their (normal) seat open. I take! Half price and a normal seat. Take that, system.
Until the last time ... me and this other dude are waiting for all the regular passengers to board, so we can fold out and take our gimpy seats afterward. Then, just before getting on, the driver comes out and tells us, in beautifully polite dialect of course, "There are some empty seats because people haven`t shown up .. but you`re not allowed to sit in them."
"Come again?" I say.
"Since the ticket price is different, you have to take the aisle seat. It`s what you paid for."
You`ve got. to. be. kidding me. I argue with the guy for something like 5 minutes, and he pretty much agrees with me that it makes no sense whatsoever, but he says "it`s the rule." Somehow my "but I`ve done it like 50 times already" argument doesn`t sway him.
Anyway, after delaying the departure with my wise-ass gaijin attitude, I get on the bus, pull out the stupid seat right next to an empty actual seat, wait for the driver to close the curtain (there`s a curtain which separates the driver from the passengers` section, to preserve the darkness I guess), and promptly move over into the good seat and take a nap. Oooooh I`m such a badass.
First stop: I get out and buy a drink and some doughnuts or something. Getting back on the bus, the driver stops me and says, obviously pissed: "Sit in your own seat. I told you not to sit in the empty seats." I look at him questioningly, and then he hits me with it: "One of the other passengers told me you moved."
F#$%ing hell. Who the crap does that?
More arguing. The driver suggests that I pay 2000 extra yen so I can move over into the comfy seat. I`m not hearing it. Someone already paid for that seat, and they`re not f#$%ing here.
I forget how this story ends but it wasn`t as dramatic as it could`ve been -- I could`ve figured out who told on me and beat the snot out of them, I could`ve continued to sit in the normal seat every time until the driver called the cops or something on me, which I honestly felt like he was ready to do, I could`ve taken a stand and refused to get back on the bus, and gotten ditched at a rest stop halfway between Tokyo and Osaka. But I don`t need that kind of excitement right now.
Seriously, though, wtf??
But alack! I may have to start again. Working, that is. Unfortunately I`m having a hard time finding legitimate employment in Osaka .. I may have to alter my plan and move to Nagoya instead. Whatever. I have to do something -- I put in 2 months` notice on my apartment in Tokyo the other week. The clock is a-ticking!
See, even when I actually do type in this blog it`s not interesting anymore. I feel like all I have is, "I`m going to Osaka, I`m back in Tokyo, I need to move, waaaahh there`s all this drama .." blah blah blah. Nothing clever to say whatsoever. Oh, but plenty to complain about! That`s always fun. For example:
I always go back and forth from Tokyo to Osaka via overnight bus. 9 hour trip, 4000 yen. 9 hours seems like a pretty long time but the seats are pretty comfortable, it`s dark and quiet, and you can pretty much pass out the whole time. Unless! The seats are full. Then you have the option of paying just 2000 yen for your ticket and getting an "aisle seat" -- this retarded little seat that folds out from the side of a normal seat and juts out into the aisle, so you`re essentially sitting right in the middle of the bus. It`s really more of a stool than a seat, actually. There`s no back so you can`t lean back or anything. Plus everytime the bus stops for a break (every 2 hours or so), you have to get out of your seat and fold it back up so people can get through, to get off the bus and buy a drink or smoke or whatever. You`re really getting what you pay for with the aisle seat.
Since I always buy my ticket at the last minute, the regular seats are usually sold out, and I`m left with no choice but to buy an aisle seat ticket. This momentarily makes me happy because it`s half the price .. then I remember that I`m not getting aaaany sleep on this trip. However! Lots of times people don`t show up for the bus, leaving their (normal) seat open. I take! Half price and a normal seat. Take that, system.
Until the last time ... me and this other dude are waiting for all the regular passengers to board, so we can fold out and take our gimpy seats afterward. Then, just before getting on, the driver comes out and tells us, in beautifully polite dialect of course, "There are some empty seats because people haven`t shown up .. but you`re not allowed to sit in them."
"Come again?" I say.
"Since the ticket price is different, you have to take the aisle seat. It`s what you paid for."
You`ve got. to. be. kidding me. I argue with the guy for something like 5 minutes, and he pretty much agrees with me that it makes no sense whatsoever, but he says "it`s the rule." Somehow my "but I`ve done it like 50 times already" argument doesn`t sway him.
Anyway, after delaying the departure with my wise-ass gaijin attitude, I get on the bus, pull out the stupid seat right next to an empty actual seat, wait for the driver to close the curtain (there`s a curtain which separates the driver from the passengers` section, to preserve the darkness I guess), and promptly move over into the good seat and take a nap. Oooooh I`m such a badass.
First stop: I get out and buy a drink and some doughnuts or something. Getting back on the bus, the driver stops me and says, obviously pissed: "Sit in your own seat. I told you not to sit in the empty seats." I look at him questioningly, and then he hits me with it: "One of the other passengers told me you moved."
F#$%ing hell. Who the crap does that?
More arguing. The driver suggests that I pay 2000 extra yen so I can move over into the comfy seat. I`m not hearing it. Someone already paid for that seat, and they`re not f#$%ing here.
I forget how this story ends but it wasn`t as dramatic as it could`ve been -- I could`ve figured out who told on me and beat the snot out of them, I could`ve continued to sit in the normal seat every time until the driver called the cops or something on me, which I honestly felt like he was ready to do, I could`ve taken a stand and refused to get back on the bus, and gotten ditched at a rest stop halfway between Tokyo and Osaka. But I don`t need that kind of excitement right now.
Seriously, though, wtf??
2007年8月10日金曜日
Into the fray
Hola todos ... thought I`d drop a quick post from Tokyo before I head back west to Osaka, which I am doing in a couple of hours.
My little bike trip thing has been over for weeks .. needless to say I survived. A little skinnier (perfect, just what I need .. maybe I should have eaten something other than popsicles the whole time), arms much, much redder, knee a little more scraped up, but overall satisfied that it was not all for naught, as I was able to donate a little over $700 to the cause (the Niigata earthquake relief) and, unable to get rid of the bicycle in a way that I did not feel would be a total waste, brought home a beautiful black Trek hybrid which I now use in lieu of the subway whenever possible.
So that`s over. Now I have to head back and try to fix all the problems that my introduction to a group of friends has caused/contributed to in the past few weeks. Shamefully, I got swept up in a veritable tide of high-school-level drama/BS, and it`s breaking this group of formerly close friends apart, so I have to go back and do what I can to either remedy as much as possible, or accidentally break everything beyond repair. Hopefully the former, as I have also have 2 job interviews over there and will probably be moving there within the next couple of months.
Someone who matters very much gave me the suggestion that any group so easily turned against itself was not worth spending time with, and it might do to just distance myself from the whole crew permanently, though come to think of it that could become difficult logistically (for geographical reasons), plus these people felt like a surrogate family for me over here .. and you don`t just abandon, you sort things out, right? I`ll try to sort, and if that fails, abandon. Like a ship. As I told one of my last bosses exactly one year ago to this day, after he said "we hate to lose any crew members from our ship,"
"I can swim ..."
My little bike trip thing has been over for weeks .. needless to say I survived. A little skinnier (perfect, just what I need .. maybe I should have eaten something other than popsicles the whole time), arms much, much redder, knee a little more scraped up, but overall satisfied that it was not all for naught, as I was able to donate a little over $700 to the cause (the Niigata earthquake relief) and, unable to get rid of the bicycle in a way that I did not feel would be a total waste, brought home a beautiful black Trek hybrid which I now use in lieu of the subway whenever possible.
So that`s over. Now I have to head back and try to fix all the problems that my introduction to a group of friends has caused/contributed to in the past few weeks. Shamefully, I got swept up in a veritable tide of high-school-level drama/BS, and it`s breaking this group of formerly close friends apart, so I have to go back and do what I can to either remedy as much as possible, or accidentally break everything beyond repair. Hopefully the former, as I have also have 2 job interviews over there and will probably be moving there within the next couple of months.
Someone who matters very much gave me the suggestion that any group so easily turned against itself was not worth spending time with, and it might do to just distance myself from the whole crew permanently, though come to think of it that could become difficult logistically (for geographical reasons), plus these people felt like a surrogate family for me over here .. and you don`t just abandon, you sort things out, right? I`ll try to sort, and if that fails, abandon. Like a ship. As I told one of my last bosses exactly one year ago to this day, after he said "we hate to lose any crew members from our ship,"
"I can swim ..."
2007年7月22日日曜日
Life is .. something
You know how you can tell when a joke has gone too far? 1) When people start dying as a direct result, like in Foucault`s Pendulum, or 2) When you find yourself in some f$%&ing nowhere town on the northern coast of Honshu with nothing but a bicycle and a pack of (not nearly enough) supplies, riding from town to town flying a Japanese-style banner that says "Niigata Earthquake Victim RELIEF MISSION." It could be just that: a joke gone too far -- we`re sitting around in Osaka (where I have come to buy books and pursue women) last Tuesday morning, and I`m complaining about this e-mail my mother had sent, yelling at me to "pay attention to what`s going on around me" and "do something to help out." So everyone starts getting on me about how I have all this spare time, I should get off my ass and do something worthwhile, they`d all do it themselves but they have "jobs," blah blah .. thing is, before long it started to make sense to 2 of us, me being one of them (if they`d known me better, known how seriously I`d take any accusation of time-wasting, they wouldn`t have said a thing), and by that evening I had a bicycle, a destination, a vague plan, and no details whatsoever .. actually, 5 days into the trip, I`m still kind of blurry on the details -- I`m just kind of riding northeast, from town to town, with this big yellow banner, asking anyone stupid enough to come near me for a contribution (fyi - so far people either give me a thousand yen, or run away). When I get to Niigata, which should be in another week or so, I will do three things: 1) Give all collected money to the appropriate venue, once I figure out what that is, 2) Probably throw in a large handful of my own cash, since I`m really not good at the whole soliciting thing and would feel embarrassed showing up with like $100, and 3) Auction off the bicycle (which is very nice), give whatever I get for it to the aforementioned appropriate venue, and catch a bus back down to Osaka, where I don`t even live, but hey, there are girls waiting for me there. And my other friends too, of course.
So is it a joke turned against me? A cry for attention? An attempt to do something worthwhile, like the way my older sister is sponsoring a little girl in South America, only less tangibly effective? A vision quest?? My latest effort to become more like Kintaro Oe? Doesn`t matter what it is -- it`s poorly/barely planned, kind of ridiculous, maybe pointless, and exactly what I`m doing ... wish me not-death.
So is it a joke turned against me? A cry for attention? An attempt to do something worthwhile, like the way my older sister is sponsoring a little girl in South America, only less tangibly effective? A vision quest?? My latest effort to become more like Kintaro Oe? Doesn`t matter what it is -- it`s poorly/barely planned, kind of ridiculous, maybe pointless, and exactly what I`m doing ... wish me not-death.
2007年7月15日日曜日
Excuses
Not much new to report, and I don`t want you all to think there is. I`m plowing nicely through my first pile of books for the summer .. after I finish A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which I am ashamed to only be reading now, and not, say, 5 years ago, all I`ve got left is Only Revolutions before I have to find a decent bookstore and reload. I`m thinking Random Walk in Osaka ..
.. and there is my official excuse for going back there, which I plan to do tomorrow night. It has nothing to do with the 2 or 3 women over there I have crushes on. Nothing! Aaron is right .. maybe I am pretty transparent.
The fact that I can`t think of anything else to tell you right now makes me feel like I might be wasting my summer. Reading and exercising are good and all but still sort of passive activities, no? They`re like my default things to do, overriding other potential tasks like cleaning my room (room = apartment, but "cleaning my apartment" sounds like such a grown-up, responsible thing to do, while "cleaning my room" is something I don`t have to do as long as my parents are not around) or, God forbid, re-learning how to draw. Don`t even get me started on that one ..
This manga cafe smells funny. In another 2 hours I will leave, get some coffee, catch the subway back to my place, and crash for most of the day, which is acceptable because we have a typhoon or something coming Sunday .. see that? I am justified in all my actions. Nothing can stop me now!
.. and there is my official excuse for going back there, which I plan to do tomorrow night. It has nothing to do with the 2 or 3 women over there I have crushes on. Nothing! Aaron is right .. maybe I am pretty transparent.
The fact that I can`t think of anything else to tell you right now makes me feel like I might be wasting my summer. Reading and exercising are good and all but still sort of passive activities, no? They`re like my default things to do, overriding other potential tasks like cleaning my room (room = apartment, but "cleaning my apartment" sounds like such a grown-up, responsible thing to do, while "cleaning my room" is something I don`t have to do as long as my parents are not around) or, God forbid, re-learning how to draw. Don`t even get me started on that one ..
This manga cafe smells funny. In another 2 hours I will leave, get some coffee, catch the subway back to my place, and crash for most of the day, which is acceptable because we have a typhoon or something coming Sunday .. see that? I am justified in all my actions. Nothing can stop me now!
2007年7月2日月曜日
Welcome to the next level
I`d say last week had some pretty bizarre moments, but what week doesn`t? Whether that`s my fault or Japan`s, it is hard to determine.
I was complaining about that contractual garbage earlier, so I`ll try not to go off on that again, but it presented a problem last Wednesday when [Corporation Z] told all of my agencies that I couldn`t accept a role as another baseball player until October, when the contract I have not yet seen/signed expires (how can the contract expire when I haven`t signed it yet??) .. they did this 30 minutes before the audition I`d been waiting all day for. So I couldn`t go. I asked them where the hell this contract was, and what would be the point of me signing it when they didn`t have any more work lined up for me after this (last) weekend, and the response was "we`re still drafting it," and "we`ll give you money for signing it, and we`ll probably have something else for you to do this summer." Whatever. Screw that; Friday I went to a job fair.
Since I still have a bunch of money, and don`t particularly want a real job again just yet, I mostly used the job fair as an excuse to update my resume, dry-clean a suit or two and feel like a legitimate adult for a few minutes (hah). I went with some very specific things in mind to look for: Translating work in Osaka. Hmm, I guess that`s only one thing. I went to look for a translating position in Osaka.
The job fair itself immediately brought me back to Drexel -- minus the sense of urgency and doom. I remembered this one time I went to a job fair looking for my third co-op job, and got interviewed briefly by (I think it was) the Inquirer after talking with some guys at Cemex, some company that did something with concrete, and I got quoted in the newspaper with something like, "Of course I don`t really see myself working with something like concrete for any extended amount of time; this is all just temporary." That was the winter I ended up building cubicle walls.
Anyway, there were only something like 20-30 companies at this thing, plus some universities offering MBA programs (including Temple and McGill), and a bunch of recruiters (quick note about recruiters -- this is what a bunch of my friends are doing lately, and it`s not a line of work I`ve dismissed entirely, but I refuse to be at the other end of it because I know how much money they get from your salary if you get a job through them), so after I (surprisingly) found 1 or 2 companies with translating positions in Osaka, I was feeling good enough about that, considering I didn`t think I`d find any, and I was doing a final walkthrough, considering hitting on some of the Indian women there, when I get stopped with a guy asking, "Hey, aren`t you Mr. White?"
Next thing I know I`ve got a small crowd around me, wondering what the hell I was doing here and laughing at the idea that I`d originally come to Japan as an engineer (I know, funny, right?), but more importantly, giving me their cards and getting my info, telling me they "think they might have something for me," in a way which implied that that might actually be the case. Of course it`s unfair to others that I should receive special attention for being the Baseball Guy on TV 4 months ago, but not something I`ll beat myself up over ..
Now that I look at it, that`s not so bizarre after all, but this is: Wednesday night I got a woman`s phone number while sleeping on the train. Seriously, it woke me up when she pressed the little piece of paper she`d written her number on into my hand before taking off at her stop. Not to brag but I don`t even know what level that is.
Agh damn it, is it raining again?? Stupid rainy season. I didn`t mean to cut this short, but I`m hungry and need to go scavenge for some satisfying breakfast food, kind of a rarity in this country. So I`ll talk to you later.
Also, I saw Live Free Or Die Hard (called Die Hard 4.0 over here and in Europe apparently) Saturday; it was like Die Hard without the blood, cursing, sense of urgency or realism, or coolness (with the exception of any scene involving the Parkour guy). The "I`m a Mac" guy was actually pretty entertaining, too. When he`s one of my favorite parts of a movie, you know something is amiss ..
I was complaining about that contractual garbage earlier, so I`ll try not to go off on that again, but it presented a problem last Wednesday when [Corporation Z] told all of my agencies that I couldn`t accept a role as another baseball player until October, when the contract I have not yet seen/signed expires (how can the contract expire when I haven`t signed it yet??) .. they did this 30 minutes before the audition I`d been waiting all day for. So I couldn`t go. I asked them where the hell this contract was, and what would be the point of me signing it when they didn`t have any more work lined up for me after this (last) weekend, and the response was "we`re still drafting it," and "we`ll give you money for signing it, and we`ll probably have something else for you to do this summer." Whatever. Screw that; Friday I went to a job fair.
Since I still have a bunch of money, and don`t particularly want a real job again just yet, I mostly used the job fair as an excuse to update my resume, dry-clean a suit or two and feel like a legitimate adult for a few minutes (hah). I went with some very specific things in mind to look for: Translating work in Osaka. Hmm, I guess that`s only one thing. I went to look for a translating position in Osaka.
The job fair itself immediately brought me back to Drexel -- minus the sense of urgency and doom. I remembered this one time I went to a job fair looking for my third co-op job, and got interviewed briefly by (I think it was) the Inquirer after talking with some guys at Cemex, some company that did something with concrete, and I got quoted in the newspaper with something like, "Of course I don`t really see myself working with something like concrete for any extended amount of time; this is all just temporary." That was the winter I ended up building cubicle walls.
Anyway, there were only something like 20-30 companies at this thing, plus some universities offering MBA programs (including Temple and McGill), and a bunch of recruiters (quick note about recruiters -- this is what a bunch of my friends are doing lately, and it`s not a line of work I`ve dismissed entirely, but I refuse to be at the other end of it because I know how much money they get from your salary if you get a job through them), so after I (surprisingly) found 1 or 2 companies with translating positions in Osaka, I was feeling good enough about that, considering I didn`t think I`d find any, and I was doing a final walkthrough, considering hitting on some of the Indian women there, when I get stopped with a guy asking, "Hey, aren`t you Mr. White?"
Next thing I know I`ve got a small crowd around me, wondering what the hell I was doing here and laughing at the idea that I`d originally come to Japan as an engineer (I know, funny, right?), but more importantly, giving me their cards and getting my info, telling me they "think they might have something for me," in a way which implied that that might actually be the case. Of course it`s unfair to others that I should receive special attention for being the Baseball Guy on TV 4 months ago, but not something I`ll beat myself up over ..
Now that I look at it, that`s not so bizarre after all, but this is: Wednesday night I got a woman`s phone number while sleeping on the train. Seriously, it woke me up when she pressed the little piece of paper she`d written her number on into my hand before taking off at her stop. Not to brag but I don`t even know what level that is.
Agh damn it, is it raining again?? Stupid rainy season. I didn`t mean to cut this short, but I`m hungry and need to go scavenge for some satisfying breakfast food, kind of a rarity in this country. So I`ll talk to you later.
Also, I saw Live Free Or Die Hard (called Die Hard 4.0 over here and in Europe apparently) Saturday; it was like Die Hard without the blood, cursing, sense of urgency or realism, or coolness (with the exception of any scene involving the Parkour guy). The "I`m a Mac" guy was actually pretty entertaining, too. When he`s one of my favorite parts of a movie, you know something is amiss ..
2007年6月26日火曜日
Taste the Icy Cucumber
Ahh, the botched audition, a time-honored tradition to which I am already growing too accustomed ... and my summer is off to a great start. If you give me a speaking role, usually I`m good to go, but when you`re like the guys tonight and you give me a camera on a tripod and say, "You are sports photographer," all you really get from me is a squinty look on my face while I madly swivel around hitting the (devastatingly silent) shutter button like I`m playing Diablo. What else could I do? How do you embellish that role? "I should have squinted harder. Or, less." Less is more, so they (mostly short guys) say. At tomorrow`s audition maybe I`ll just stand there and do nothing. Actually, tomorrow`s part is for -- wait for it, wait for it -- a baseball player again, and standing around in a baseball uniform has kept me alive for the past few months, so ... let`s just hope it doesn`t create any conflicts of interest. Actually, if you`ll forgive what is probably some kind of blogging faux pas (though I`ve done it before), I think I enunciated the situation pretty clearly today in this excerpt from one of the coolest emails I`ve ever written:
you know how every type of job you could possibly have always devolves into these damned Machiavellian games of politics and protocol, right? You know in Japan it`s like that TIMES A THOUSAND? The same applies for this thing I call a job, this business of going to auditions and mugging and shouting out slogans for the camera, which seems simple enough, until you take into account the fact that I`m registered with 3 different agencies, all of whom hate each other of course .. the problem arises when 2 agencies offer you the same job, and you have to pick one to go with and snub the other. It`s a problem because you can`t just tell the other company "oh, I`m busy that day," because they WILL see you at the audition, whether you`re with them or not. So you really have to basically tell one guy, "sorry, I`m going with the other guy," and then worry about how this will affect your relationship with the first guy. Christ, it`s an allegory for dating, only with dating you could then theoretically never see the first guy again. Not so here! The loser in this case in Company A, who got me the whole Mr. W___ [oh look, now I`m being all careful] thing all those months ago (but then cancelled all my jobs for the rest of the summer, so ... f#$% them), and I feel indebted to nonetheless. Tomorrow`s audition is for ... the part of a baseball player in some other commercial. So Company A gets all worried about it, since they think it`ll create a conflict of interest ("consumer confusion," they call it) with the Mr. W___ thing, even though that commercial has been off the air for months and I have no more events with [Corporation Z] -- he says I have some kind of "one year contract" with them but I didn`t sign shit and they`re not giving me any more gigs anyway -- is this boring to you? Too bad, I`m on a roll -- no time for proper punctuation -- and all day long he`s saying "please wait, we have to confirm with this guy, that guy, those other guys," and it`s all very Japanese and inefficient. Meanwhile Company B, whom I like exponentially better even though they have yet to get me an actual job, is just like, "yeah man, come on to the audition! Pay is ￥XXXXXX." To close this up, after "please wait a bit longer for response" message #5 or so from Company A, I said FOOK IT and responded to them with "please don`t worry about it anymore. I took the job from another agency," and then turned my phone on silent in preparation for the inevitable cacaphony of "what?? You can`t do that, we don`t know if it`s okay yet!!" calls from Company A, but ... eerily, no one has called yet. Unsettling!
Later I realized I had reponded to them at like 9:30PM, after they had inexplicably gone home. "You snooze = you lose," sure as I`m going to wake up in the morning to some frantic phone calls from Company A.
Anyway. Going to/bombing at auditions is only one part of my summer plan .. I mentioned it earlier but did not link to it with the enthusiasm I should have that I plan to read my ass off this summer, 7-year old at the public library-stylez, and I`m off to a pretty good start at that, as well. Sorry, PSP! I`ve got something like 55 hours logged on Gunpey-R and have yet to make it past level 17 more than once ... game has more than 40 levels. Time to draw a zigzagged, glowing line between "fun challenge" and "waste of precious life-hours." I did always justify rocking the PSP with excuses like "But I only play puzzle games! That means I`m thinking! Blarrgh! Argle!" but reading gives me less carpal tunnel in my thumbs, and in turn inspires me to write as opposed to throw things across the room, hence the 2 entries in 2 days, and more to probably come.
Summer Listening: I retract my earlier ho-hum assessment of the new QOTSA album "Era Vulgaris" and now demand that you all give it several listens, unless you hate things that are good. It grew on me to the point where I had to step back and force myself to stop listening to it over and over, lest I wear it out for myself in the first month. So, I grabbed the new Pig Destroyer (why are there 4 of them on that bio page, you might ask? They added a new guy to provide "noise." Because Pig Destroyer was not noisy enough until this) album as well, which I would recommend to approximately 2 of you. We`ll show those pigs! Now who`s the pig??
Bonus: Summer Dining: Bentou GO!
I used to think I hated bentou, but I realized that`s because if you`re eating bentou during work, as was usually the case, you`re probably eating it every day for at least a week straight, and it is probably one of those cold, day-old jawns from the convenience store. This one I got tailor-made! I was like, I want that コロッケ!!
you know how every type of job you could possibly have always devolves into these damned Machiavellian games of politics and protocol, right? You know in Japan it`s like that TIMES A THOUSAND? The same applies for this thing I call a job, this business of going to auditions and mugging and shouting out slogans for the camera, which seems simple enough, until you take into account the fact that I`m registered with 3 different agencies, all of whom hate each other of course .. the problem arises when 2 agencies offer you the same job, and you have to pick one to go with and snub the other. It`s a problem because you can`t just tell the other company "oh, I`m busy that day," because they WILL see you at the audition, whether you`re with them or not. So you really have to basically tell one guy, "sorry, I`m going with the other guy," and then worry about how this will affect your relationship with the first guy. Christ, it`s an allegory for dating, only with dating you could then theoretically never see the first guy again. Not so here! The loser in this case in Company A, who got me the whole Mr. W___ [oh look, now I`m being all careful] thing all those months ago (but then cancelled all my jobs for the rest of the summer, so ... f#$% them), and I feel indebted to nonetheless. Tomorrow`s audition is for ... the part of a baseball player in some other commercial. So Company A gets all worried about it, since they think it`ll create a conflict of interest ("consumer confusion," they call it) with the Mr. W___ thing, even though that commercial has been off the air for months and I have no more events with [Corporation Z] -- he says I have some kind of "one year contract" with them but I didn`t sign shit and they`re not giving me any more gigs anyway -- is this boring to you? Too bad, I`m on a roll -- no time for proper punctuation -- and all day long he`s saying "please wait, we have to confirm with this guy, that guy, those other guys," and it`s all very Japanese and inefficient. Meanwhile Company B, whom I like exponentially better even though they have yet to get me an actual job, is just like, "yeah man, come on to the audition! Pay is ￥XXXXXX." To close this up, after "please wait a bit longer for response" message #5 or so from Company A, I said FOOK IT and responded to them with "please don`t worry about it anymore. I took the job from another agency," and then turned my phone on silent in preparation for the inevitable cacaphony of "what?? You can`t do that, we don`t know if it`s okay yet!!" calls from Company A, but ... eerily, no one has called yet. Unsettling!
Later I realized I had reponded to them at like 9:30PM, after they had inexplicably gone home. "You snooze = you lose," sure as I`m going to wake up in the morning to some frantic phone calls from Company A.
Anyway. Going to/bombing at auditions is only one part of my summer plan .. I mentioned it earlier but did not link to it with the enthusiasm I should have that I plan to read my ass off this summer, 7-year old at the public library-stylez, and I`m off to a pretty good start at that, as well. Sorry, PSP! I`ve got something like 55 hours logged on Gunpey-R and have yet to make it past level 17 more than once ... game has more than 40 levels. Time to draw a zigzagged, glowing line between "fun challenge" and "waste of precious life-hours." I did always justify rocking the PSP with excuses like "But I only play puzzle games! That means I`m thinking! Blarrgh! Argle!" but reading gives me less carpal tunnel in my thumbs, and in turn inspires me to write as opposed to throw things across the room, hence the 2 entries in 2 days, and more to probably come.
Summer Listening: I retract my earlier ho-hum assessment of the new QOTSA album "Era Vulgaris" and now demand that you all give it several listens, unless you hate things that are good. It grew on me to the point where I had to step back and force myself to stop listening to it over and over, lest I wear it out for myself in the first month. So, I grabbed the new Pig Destroyer (why are there 4 of them on that bio page, you might ask? They added a new guy to provide "noise." Because Pig Destroyer was not noisy enough until this) album as well, which I would recommend to approximately 2 of you. We`ll show those pigs! Now who`s the pig??
Bonus: Summer Dining: Bentou GO!
I used to think I hated bentou, but I realized that`s because if you`re eating bentou during work, as was usually the case, you`re probably eating it every day for at least a week straight, and it is probably one of those cold, day-old jawns from the convenience store. This one I got tailor-made! I was like, I want that コロッケ!!
2007年6月25日月曜日
Moving along ...
Woozle wuzzle?
That`s me, up on stage in my baseball uniform before a non-receptive and bored audience, one last time this coming weekend. That`s right -- Mr. White is officially getting retired as of the beginning of July. R.I.P., Whitey ... it was a fun, bewildering and surprisingly long 15 minutes.
Where does that leave me? Going back to auditions, getting rejected left and right, doing 1-second-of-screen-time extra parts in TV shows for $300 a pop? Wasting night after night spending money on coffee, booze and game centers with similarly depressed friends, watching my meager savings and (also meager) prospects of any sort of substantial future slip away, nay, continue to slip away till I end up in a blue-tarp community by the age of 30? Not entirely unrealistic at this rate if I don`t change my course of action .. as Ngoc said once, "You need a curveball."
As I usually do when I need to think things through, last week I took off from the home base and traveled around for a few days. Nowhere glamorous, just caught a bus over to Kansai and hit up my old hang-out spots in Nagoya, Yokkaichi and Osaka ...
Thoughts! Sidetracked! I was going somewhere with this, too. Moral of the trip was, I need to move out of Tokyo. Probably sometime around the end of this summer. In the meantime, instead of worrying about how to "get in shape" this summer like I`d been doing, I`m going to read, study Japanese in preparation for the 日本語能力試験（２級） (and Portuguese in case I should someday end up in Brazil), and look for a job back over in the Kansai area, where I have more than 2 friends and can play some good Capoeira for a change. And in the more immediate meantime, I actually have somewhat of a busy day tomorrow, the first I`ve had in .. months, so I`m going to leave you for now ... hope all is well, and if it isn`t, that you`re doing something about it.
That`s me, up on stage in my baseball uniform before a non-receptive and bored audience, one last time this coming weekend. That`s right -- Mr. White is officially getting retired as of the beginning of July. R.I.P., Whitey ... it was a fun, bewildering and surprisingly long 15 minutes.
Where does that leave me? Going back to auditions, getting rejected left and right, doing 1-second-of-screen-time extra parts in TV shows for $300 a pop? Wasting night after night spending money on coffee, booze and game centers with similarly depressed friends, watching my meager savings and (also meager) prospects of any sort of substantial future slip away, nay, continue to slip away till I end up in a blue-tarp community by the age of 30? Not entirely unrealistic at this rate if I don`t change my course of action .. as Ngoc said once, "You need a curveball."
As I usually do when I need to think things through, last week I took off from the home base and traveled around for a few days. Nowhere glamorous, just caught a bus over to Kansai and hit up my old hang-out spots in Nagoya, Yokkaichi and Osaka ...
Thoughts! Sidetracked! I was going somewhere with this, too. Moral of the trip was, I need to move out of Tokyo. Probably sometime around the end of this summer. In the meantime, instead of worrying about how to "get in shape" this summer like I`d been doing, I`m going to read, study Japanese in preparation for the 日本語能力試験（２級） (and Portuguese in case I should someday end up in Brazil), and look for a job back over in the Kansai area, where I have more than 2 friends and can play some good Capoeira for a change. And in the more immediate meantime, I actually have somewhat of a busy day tomorrow, the first I`ve had in .. months, so I`m going to leave you for now ... hope all is well, and if it isn`t, that you`re doing something about it.
2007年6月14日木曜日
And so, blogging
Like a pigeon twirling around and fluffing his feathers, trying to impress the ladies, or even better, this bird of paradise (watch that now ... seriously), I find myself going back to the gym of late. Actually, that`s not the reason at all, considering the only things I could do to attract more female attention over here involve getting even paler and speaking less Japanese ... mostly I`m going because I`ve been on a get-yo-ass-in-shape kick since hanging out at the beach in Spain, plus the fact that I haven`t worked in almost 2 weeks and have penty of time during the day.
Not wanting to have to do any research, I took the easy route and headed down to the Gold`s Gym in Nakano, about a 25-30 minute walk from my apartment (I may buy a bicycle tomorrow ... hey cool, that`s a total non-sequitir) knowing full well that their monthly membership which allows you access to any of the several Gold`s Gym locations in Tokyo costs over $100, not including a $50 sign-up fee ... I was like "screw it," they have a lot of good equipment, something you can`t find in any other gym I`ve been to in Japan, where they don`t put so much priority on "lifting weights" as they do on swimming pools, massage machines and various "health-spa"-esque nonsense ... I may have complained about this before, either in person or via the old Eponym blog from which I am no longer able to access anything. Anyway, so I get to Gold`s and find out they want 2 months` payment up-front .. only having brought $300 with me, suddenly my "screw it, I`m joining" turns into a "screw it, I don`t need this stupid place," and I excuse myself and angrily huff over to Freshness Burger to fume over some beef. While I`m sitting there, I glance through the info they`ve given me, hoping to find some kind of a cheaper package that isn`t completely worthless, or a loophole or something, and the only thing that catches my eye is the 2-week trial which goes for like 6000 Yen, or around $50 ... ever living in the moment, I finished my hamburger and went right back to sign up for 2 weeks, because really, I just want to lift weights now. Who knows where I`ll be in 3 weeks? If I`m still here when that runs out, I`ll either decide to make the upgrade, or find something else to do, like a boxing gym, which there are a lot of in Tokyo and seems like a lot of fun, based on the fact that I enjoy punching things (and, to an alarmingly similar degree, being punched).
Actually the Gold`s is already starting to annoy me ... the equipment is great and I feel really good even after just a week, but, you (may have) guessed it, the people there are irritating as hell. Now in Japan, weight lifting is not fashionable. Young models here are waifish as hell, so that`s the look most people go for, and thanks to the diet here, it`s pretty easy to attain. Older people, on the other hand, are 1000% harder than the young generation, so the only (Japanese) people you`ll find lifting weights in their spare time are at least in their mid-forties .. some of them look to be at least 60, which is really weird looking when they`re huge and tan. And like the huge/tan guys you`ll find at gyms in the US, here they also spend most of their time throwing around more weight than they can handle correctly, and screaming. Also, they massage each other a lot on the stretching mats. I don`t know, maybe I happened to join the gay branch of Gold`s Gym accidentally. Either way, looking at these overcooked, puffed-up geezers in their string-strap tanktops and short shorts doesn`t exactly inspire me to lift ... it mostly makes me want to leave.
So that`s all I have to say about the gym .. which is unfortunate because I`ve been doing almost nothing else for the past week or so, which leaves me with little else to write about. Best night I had was last weekend when I went to Roppongi with Dante, and instead of blowing thousands of yen on dance clubs and going home with a handful of numbers we never intend to call, for some reason we just went to the all-night Starbucks, sat in front of the window, drank coffee and made fun of people till 5 in the morning. It was just what I needed! When I`m with Warao all we do is eat conveyor belt sushi and play this ridiculously addictive 2Spicy game ... fun, but maybe some high-level unfulfilling.
Ugh. Other than the exercise, I`m in a bit of an unproductive, lethargic rut ... so what else is new. I`m listening to both the new Neurosis and QOTSA albums ... the first is really good, the second, only pretty (good). Maybe neither is appropriate listening for trying to motivate oneself. What`s some good motivational music??
Not wanting to have to do any research, I took the easy route and headed down to the Gold`s Gym in Nakano, about a 25-30 minute walk from my apartment (I may buy a bicycle tomorrow ... hey cool, that`s a total non-sequitir) knowing full well that their monthly membership which allows you access to any of the several Gold`s Gym locations in Tokyo costs over $100, not including a $50 sign-up fee ... I was like "screw it," they have a lot of good equipment, something you can`t find in any other gym I`ve been to in Japan, where they don`t put so much priority on "lifting weights" as they do on swimming pools, massage machines and various "health-spa"-esque nonsense ... I may have complained about this before, either in person or via the old Eponym blog from which I am no longer able to access anything. Anyway, so I get to Gold`s and find out they want 2 months` payment up-front .. only having brought $300 with me, suddenly my "screw it, I`m joining" turns into a "screw it, I don`t need this stupid place," and I excuse myself and angrily huff over to Freshness Burger to fume over some beef. While I`m sitting there, I glance through the info they`ve given me, hoping to find some kind of a cheaper package that isn`t completely worthless, or a loophole or something, and the only thing that catches my eye is the 2-week trial which goes for like 6000 Yen, or around $50 ... ever living in the moment, I finished my hamburger and went right back to sign up for 2 weeks, because really, I just want to lift weights now. Who knows where I`ll be in 3 weeks? If I`m still here when that runs out, I`ll either decide to make the upgrade, or find something else to do, like a boxing gym, which there are a lot of in Tokyo and seems like a lot of fun, based on the fact that I enjoy punching things (and, to an alarmingly similar degree, being punched).
Actually the Gold`s is already starting to annoy me ... the equipment is great and I feel really good even after just a week, but, you (may have) guessed it, the people there are irritating as hell. Now in Japan, weight lifting is not fashionable. Young models here are waifish as hell, so that`s the look most people go for, and thanks to the diet here, it`s pretty easy to attain. Older people, on the other hand, are 1000% harder than the young generation, so the only (Japanese) people you`ll find lifting weights in their spare time are at least in their mid-forties .. some of them look to be at least 60, which is really weird looking when they`re huge and tan. And like the huge/tan guys you`ll find at gyms in the US, here they also spend most of their time throwing around more weight than they can handle correctly, and screaming. Also, they massage each other a lot on the stretching mats. I don`t know, maybe I happened to join the gay branch of Gold`s Gym accidentally. Either way, looking at these overcooked, puffed-up geezers in their string-strap tanktops and short shorts doesn`t exactly inspire me to lift ... it mostly makes me want to leave.
So that`s all I have to say about the gym .. which is unfortunate because I`ve been doing almost nothing else for the past week or so, which leaves me with little else to write about. Best night I had was last weekend when I went to Roppongi with Dante, and instead of blowing thousands of yen on dance clubs and going home with a handful of numbers we never intend to call, for some reason we just went to the all-night Starbucks, sat in front of the window, drank coffee and made fun of people till 5 in the morning. It was just what I needed! When I`m with Warao all we do is eat conveyor belt sushi and play this ridiculously addictive 2Spicy game ... fun, but maybe some high-level unfulfilling.
Ugh. Other than the exercise, I`m in a bit of an unproductive, lethargic rut ... so what else is new. I`m listening to both the new Neurosis and QOTSA albums ... the first is really good, the second, only pretty (good). Maybe neither is appropriate listening for trying to motivate oneself. What`s some good motivational music??
2007年6月4日月曜日
El regreso del Sr. Blanco
Crap. Why is your head always filled with ideas until the moment you`re confronted with a blank sheet of paper or text field? So many things to say and no idea where to start or how to put them in order ...
I "came home" to Tokyo (that still feels weird) on Friday, after the 10-day Spain trip made awesome by Jared, Marta and the strangers of Barcelona. People had been telling me I woudn`t want to come back here, and I believed them, and it turned out to be true. Maybe it`s just the allure of the beach, or the laid-back people, or the abundance of delicious shawarma, or .. yeah, pretty much everything about the place. In the end I came back because I have a job here that is (usually) pretty sweet.
"Coming back for work" seems like a weird thing to say as well, considering what I do, but literally I had to come back last Friday so I could go do this job in Fukuoka over the weekend, which combined my usual Fukuoka jobs of 1) appearance at the Yahoo! Dome and 2) TV show with the handicapped artist kids. You know how they did this? Instead of getting breaks I`d just bounce back and forth from one thing to the other. So I`d go outside and get mobbed by people with boring lives for an hour, then come inside and try to understand what the hell the handicapped kids were saying to me in front of TV cameras for an hour. And so on, all day. Meanwhile, Dante just filmed a new commercial, bringing his count up to like 10 or something and leaving me with my measly 3 which I don`t think are even shown on TV anymore. The thing that didn`t make sense to me, though, was that his most recent commercial was for the new thing called the White Family Plan. What the hell, shouldn`t that be mine?? Annoying .. his agency gets him new commercials and mine just keeps sending me to the same events over and over again.
Wait, that`s not annoying ... this is. You remember Blues Jet, the crazy guy who lived upstairs from me, gave me all his furniture and an old musty bed, asks me to lend him money every time he talks to me, got kicked out of the apartment and moved into a church up the street (with the minister`s permission), and one day plans to kill himself so he can go to hell and fight with Satan? I`m back at my place for like 15 minutes before he comes knocking at my door again on Friday (he can see when I`m home because I have the lights on, and he still knows the keycode to get into the building) ... this time instead of asking for money, he tells me that the minister kicked him out of the church, threw all his luggage out into the street and called the cops on him. I`ve met the minister; he`s like the nicest guy in the world. Blues Jet ... not so much. But he looks distraught, and he goes "I have no place to stay. I don`t know what to do." I`m not about to invite him to crash at my place, but I am considering letting him in to sit down and think about it for a few minutes, until he goes, "I didn`t even do anything bad ... I should kill that fucker." I told him there was nothing I could do and shut the door in his face. Time to move ...
I didn`t mean to go off for so long on the Blues Jet thing, but I was thinking about him the other night and what role he plays in my life, like, what is the reason for the presence of this character, and I think I got it: the guy is 40, still dresses like a punk-rocker in his 20s, has no job, no money, no place to live ... oh yeah! That`s me in 14 years or so if I don`t start to grow up a bit. That`s another catch to living here doing odd jobs (as most foreigners do) for an extended period of time ... you have no future. I just realized the other day that since quitting the last job and moving to Tokyo, I`ve been here for almost 8 months. Even that`s a pretty long time to spend doing nothing! Time to "level up" at "useful skills." And I guess by that I mean go to Ikebukuro and eat sushi with Warao.
Sushi: short-term cure for the existential blues!
I "came home" to Tokyo (that still feels weird) on Friday, after the 10-day Spain trip made awesome by Jared, Marta and the strangers of Barcelona. People had been telling me I woudn`t want to come back here, and I believed them, and it turned out to be true. Maybe it`s just the allure of the beach, or the laid-back people, or the abundance of delicious shawarma, or .. yeah, pretty much everything about the place. In the end I came back because I have a job here that is (usually) pretty sweet.
"Coming back for work" seems like a weird thing to say as well, considering what I do, but literally I had to come back last Friday so I could go do this job in Fukuoka over the weekend, which combined my usual Fukuoka jobs of 1) appearance at the Yahoo! Dome and 2) TV show with the handicapped artist kids. You know how they did this? Instead of getting breaks I`d just bounce back and forth from one thing to the other. So I`d go outside and get mobbed by people with boring lives for an hour, then come inside and try to understand what the hell the handicapped kids were saying to me in front of TV cameras for an hour. And so on, all day. Meanwhile, Dante just filmed a new commercial, bringing his count up to like 10 or something and leaving me with my measly 3 which I don`t think are even shown on TV anymore. The thing that didn`t make sense to me, though, was that his most recent commercial was for the new thing called the White Family Plan. What the hell, shouldn`t that be mine?? Annoying .. his agency gets him new commercials and mine just keeps sending me to the same events over and over again.
Wait, that`s not annoying ... this is. You remember Blues Jet, the crazy guy who lived upstairs from me, gave me all his furniture and an old musty bed, asks me to lend him money every time he talks to me, got kicked out of the apartment and moved into a church up the street (with the minister`s permission), and one day plans to kill himself so he can go to hell and fight with Satan? I`m back at my place for like 15 minutes before he comes knocking at my door again on Friday (he can see when I`m home because I have the lights on, and he still knows the keycode to get into the building) ... this time instead of asking for money, he tells me that the minister kicked him out of the church, threw all his luggage out into the street and called the cops on him. I`ve met the minister; he`s like the nicest guy in the world. Blues Jet ... not so much. But he looks distraught, and he goes "I have no place to stay. I don`t know what to do." I`m not about to invite him to crash at my place, but I am considering letting him in to sit down and think about it for a few minutes, until he goes, "I didn`t even do anything bad ... I should kill that fucker." I told him there was nothing I could do and shut the door in his face. Time to move ...
I didn`t mean to go off for so long on the Blues Jet thing, but I was thinking about him the other night and what role he plays in my life, like, what is the reason for the presence of this character, and I think I got it: the guy is 40, still dresses like a punk-rocker in his 20s, has no job, no money, no place to live ... oh yeah! That`s me in 14 years or so if I don`t start to grow up a bit. That`s another catch to living here doing odd jobs (as most foreigners do) for an extended period of time ... you have no future. I just realized the other day that since quitting the last job and moving to Tokyo, I`ve been here for almost 8 months. Even that`s a pretty long time to spend doing nothing! Time to "level up" at "useful skills." And I guess by that I mean go to Ikebukuro and eat sushi with Warao.
Sushi: short-term cure for the existential blues!
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