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 ..
2007年7月2日月曜日
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!
2007年5月28日月曜日
Que voy a hacer
Yay! After a late-night breath of post-rain fresh air, a plateful of shawarma, a glass of Estrella (Damm) and a cup of Mediterranean-style (i.e. strong as f$%&) coffee, I am wired up and ready to cast a blog your way from Marta´s place in Barcelona.
The UK part of the plan fell through, like a hammer dropped through a soggy pancake, otherwise I wouldn´t be here at the moment. Por desgracia I had timed that trip to coincide with Jared (sorry, no more blog, no more pseudonym) and Marta´s 5-day jaunt to Switzerland (I believe Jared went to escape the Werewolf Women of the SS), but fortunately, Marta was kind-hearted enough to let me crash at her place while they were gone ... could one ask for a sweeter deal? One could not. Another plus is the fact that this apartment is right in the middle of a vast grid of plazas and Falafel/Shawarma restaurants, most of which seem to be open till ALWAYS, and a 3-minute walk from the metro station, from which one can access any number of ramblas and beaches. I´m trying to spend as much time as possible at the beach; I won´t be getting any of that when I return to Tokyo, at which point I´ll probably have to change my name to Mr. Deep Red And Peeling for a week or so .. but I´d rather not think about that just now.
Barcelona was pretty much the number one place I wanted to visit this year, for the purpose of checking out where I might want to live if/after the Japan thing eventually "peters out" (sorry Peter). After this weekend I´d definitely say Yes, I could live here if I found some way to make an actual living, though come to think of it I probably say that about every place I go, with the exceptions of Bowling Green, El Paso and Detroit. As expected, it is pretty much the opposite of Japan (though less so than Santa Cruz in Bolivia .. this time there´s no "so how am I going to almost die today" factor), and surprisingly it´s actually easier for me to meet people here than it is in the country where you automatically receive attention for being white or tall, because the people here are open and friendly, as opposed to stiff, robotic and socially awkward like they are in the Land of the Rising Sun That No One Ever Sees Because They Are Working Indoors .. amazing the difference it makes when the smiles people give you are genuine and warm as opposed to surprised or half-terrified.
Anyway, I didn´t bring a camera, so you´ll get no pictures, though it´s not like I´m sightseeing or anything. So far I´ve spent most of my time practicing Capoeira (by myself) in the wet sand of the shoreline at the beach, going to shows (caught the Emergenza semi-finals on Friday night, and then Wolfmother on Saturday, who can actually rock pretty hard, though not quite hard enough for my taste), sitting around in plazas talking to strangers, and drinking the aforementioned Estrella (Barcelonan equivalent to Tecate in Tijuana) in outdoor cafes.
Tomorrow my missions are to do laundry, buy a thing of aloe lotion (me duele la piel!), go back to the beach, and possibly check out a local Capoeira group, since playing by myself is not so much fun (hahahaha).
There´s a beagle howling outside .. maybe I will go join.
The UK part of the plan fell through, like a hammer dropped through a soggy pancake, otherwise I wouldn´t be here at the moment. Por desgracia I had timed that trip to coincide with Jared (sorry, no more blog, no more pseudonym) and Marta´s 5-day jaunt to Switzerland (I believe Jared went to escape the Werewolf Women of the SS), but fortunately, Marta was kind-hearted enough to let me crash at her place while they were gone ... could one ask for a sweeter deal? One could not. Another plus is the fact that this apartment is right in the middle of a vast grid of plazas and Falafel/Shawarma restaurants, most of which seem to be open till ALWAYS, and a 3-minute walk from the metro station, from which one can access any number of ramblas and beaches. I´m trying to spend as much time as possible at the beach; I won´t be getting any of that when I return to Tokyo, at which point I´ll probably have to change my name to Mr. Deep Red And Peeling for a week or so .. but I´d rather not think about that just now.
Barcelona was pretty much the number one place I wanted to visit this year, for the purpose of checking out where I might want to live if/after the Japan thing eventually "peters out" (sorry Peter). After this weekend I´d definitely say Yes, I could live here if I found some way to make an actual living, though come to think of it I probably say that about every place I go, with the exceptions of Bowling Green, El Paso and Detroit. As expected, it is pretty much the opposite of Japan (though less so than Santa Cruz in Bolivia .. this time there´s no "so how am I going to almost die today" factor), and surprisingly it´s actually easier for me to meet people here than it is in the country where you automatically receive attention for being white or tall, because the people here are open and friendly, as opposed to stiff, robotic and socially awkward like they are in the Land of the Rising Sun That No One Ever Sees Because They Are Working Indoors .. amazing the difference it makes when the smiles people give you are genuine and warm as opposed to surprised or half-terrified.
Anyway, I didn´t bring a camera, so you´ll get no pictures, though it´s not like I´m sightseeing or anything. So far I´ve spent most of my time practicing Capoeira (by myself) in the wet sand of the shoreline at the beach, going to shows (caught the Emergenza semi-finals on Friday night, and then Wolfmother on Saturday, who can actually rock pretty hard, though not quite hard enough for my taste), sitting around in plazas talking to strangers, and drinking the aforementioned Estrella (Barcelonan equivalent to Tecate in Tijuana) in outdoor cafes.
Tomorrow my missions are to do laundry, buy a thing of aloe lotion (me duele la piel!), go back to the beach, and possibly check out a local Capoeira group, since playing by myself is not so much fun (hahahaha).
There´s a beagle howling outside .. maybe I will go join.
2007年5月20日日曜日
Taking a not-so-needed break
Hola hermanos y hermanas ... you see that? I`m practicing my Spanish, for when I go to Spain .. the day after tomorrow. I`ll be there for a few days with Frank/Maletas and his f#$%ing Spanish Lady Friend, and then when they (or he) go(es) to Switzerland, I`m bouncing to the UK to roadie/groupie for my surrogate family Fluttr Effect, just like I did last April. I come back to Japan on the 1st of June, giving me like 10 days total in Europe. Not nearly enough, but still ..
You may be thinking, "What the crap does Dan need a vacation in Europe for? It`s not like he does anything to begin with!" You would be mostly correct. I don`t do very much, but that is not to say that I don`t have a lot of "jobs" for my most prominent employer which require me to be somewhere, in uniform, posing for long periods of time. For example, I just finished up a 7-day stretch of daily appearances at this new complex called Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi, where I had to go up on stage 10+ times a day to pose and assist with this sort of promotional/explanatory presentation .. no, it was not hard work, but I definitely had to be there. This weekend I`m in Fukuoka again (Dante and I cleverly call it Fuk-u-oka) for a Hawks game tomorrow I won`t be playing in, since I`m not a baseball player. This picture that I sent out via email to a bunch of people instead of blogging it for reasons I can`t remember is from the opening ceremony of a game back in April where I got to stand up at the plate and receive the first pitch of the game. I wasn`t allowed to hit the ball (that`s the tradition of the opening ceremony here), but I will say that I`ve been spending a bit of time in the batting cages lately, and I can hit 120km/hr pitches pretty consistently. What do you think, should I try out for the team or what?
In the meantime I will continue to live in hotels (the one I`m at right now is apparently like $300 a night) and spend my days as a f$%&ing poseur. Cheese, biatches.
Other notes of interest:
You may be thinking, "What the crap does Dan need a vacation in Europe for? It`s not like he does anything to begin with!" You would be mostly correct. I don`t do very much, but that is not to say that I don`t have a lot of "jobs" for my most prominent employer which require me to be somewhere, in uniform, posing for long periods of time. For example, I just finished up a 7-day stretch of daily appearances at this new complex called Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi, where I had to go up on stage 10+ times a day to pose and assist with this sort of promotional/explanatory presentation .. no, it was not hard work, but I definitely had to be there. This weekend I`m in Fukuoka again (Dante and I cleverly call it Fuk-u-oka) for a Hawks game tomorrow I won`t be playing in, since I`m not a baseball player. This picture that I sent out via email to a bunch of people instead of blogging it for reasons I can`t remember is from the opening ceremony of a game back in April where I got to stand up at the plate and receive the first pitch of the game. I wasn`t allowed to hit the ball (that`s the tradition of the opening ceremony here), but I will say that I`ve been spending a bit of time in the batting cages lately, and I can hit 120km/hr pitches pretty consistently. What do you think, should I try out for the team or what?
In the meantime I will continue to live in hotels (the one I`m at right now is apparently like $300 a night) and spend my days as a f$%&ing poseur. Cheese, biatches.
Other notes of interest:
- Congratulations to Mike and Heidi for having their kid
- If you haven`t seen Grindhouse yet you are wasting your life
- I think I drank this "complimentary" Chardonnay too fast. woooooot
2007年5月9日水曜日
Now dig on this
久しぶり、amigos. Last time, I was spouting something about never spending money on anything .. I`ve already sort of reneged upon that, by seeing Spiderman 3 on opening day, and buying the new Bjork album "Volta" from a nearby music store .. while waiting for Spiderman to start.
I actually wanted to do a full track-by-track review of Volta, since it doesn`t seem to come out in the states for another couple days, but I`ll try to sum it up in a paragraph .. first of all, even though I`m a pretty avid Bjork fan, in that I have all of her work and if you say something bad about her I might try to kick you, I`m not blindly biased .. I`ll admit that (and I think I can say this around you guys without getting kicked) I never really got the hang of her most critically acclaimed album Vespertine, and as for Medulla, I didn`t spin that one more than a dozen times before I was like, "all right, time to listen to Selmasongs." My favorites are actually her first 3, the more electronic, "poppier" Bjork, and to me that`s what Volta seems like a throwback to (but not entirely .. there`s also a prominent and beautiful brass section), and I cannot. Get. Enough of it. Seriously, I`ve just been playing it non-stop for a week now (almost .. I took a break today by listening to Watch Them Die while I ran) .. I even did the thing where you fall asleep at night with it on repeat, and it`s still playing when you get up in the morning, and I`m not tired of it at all. I look forward to every song on it while not wanting the current track to end. I think the last time an album hit me like this was Blood Mountain, and before that, Begin To Hope. If you know me, you will know that by these comparisons I am not fooling around. Sorry, I guess it`s not a very good review for me to just say that I really really like this album a lot and feel like even non-Bjork fans should buy it. You think she`s crazy or something? Who cares, buy this album, it`s awesome. "To shut yourself up is the hugest crime of them all." That`s from one of the songs!
Uh, so anyway. If you were ever going to see SM3 you would have done so already last weekend. What did you think? I hate to say it but 2 is still my favorite ... they really should have saved the Venom thing for part 4, I think. This one didn`t need it, or maybe it just really didn`t need the Dark Tobey scene that seemed to have been taken from The Mask. I`d also say that Peter needs to dump MJ for Gwen or Ursula, but I`ll gladly take them instead if he wants to stay with Whiney Bitch Watson. Also, there should be a drinking game for the number of times Harry Osborn gets owned in that movie. Hah! That`s what you get for being James Franco!
I have nothing of actual substance to say right now.
I actually wanted to do a full track-by-track review of Volta, since it doesn`t seem to come out in the states for another couple days, but I`ll try to sum it up in a paragraph .. first of all, even though I`m a pretty avid Bjork fan, in that I have all of her work and if you say something bad about her I might try to kick you, I`m not blindly biased .. I`ll admit that (and I think I can say this around you guys without getting kicked) I never really got the hang of her most critically acclaimed album Vespertine, and as for Medulla, I didn`t spin that one more than a dozen times before I was like, "all right, time to listen to Selmasongs." My favorites are actually her first 3, the more electronic, "poppier" Bjork, and to me that`s what Volta seems like a throwback to (but not entirely .. there`s also a prominent and beautiful brass section), and I cannot. Get. Enough of it. Seriously, I`ve just been playing it non-stop for a week now (almost .. I took a break today by listening to Watch Them Die while I ran) .. I even did the thing where you fall asleep at night with it on repeat, and it`s still playing when you get up in the morning, and I`m not tired of it at all. I look forward to every song on it while not wanting the current track to end. I think the last time an album hit me like this was Blood Mountain, and before that, Begin To Hope. If you know me, you will know that by these comparisons I am not fooling around. Sorry, I guess it`s not a very good review for me to just say that I really really like this album a lot and feel like even non-Bjork fans should buy it. You think she`s crazy or something? Who cares, buy this album, it`s awesome. "To shut yourself up is the hugest crime of them all." That`s from one of the songs!
Uh, so anyway. If you were ever going to see SM3 you would have done so already last weekend. What did you think? I hate to say it but 2 is still my favorite ... they really should have saved the Venom thing for part 4, I think. This one didn`t need it, or maybe it just really didn`t need the Dark Tobey scene that seemed to have been taken from The Mask. I`d also say that Peter needs to dump MJ for Gwen or Ursula, but I`ll gladly take them instead if he wants to stay with Whiney Bitch Watson. Also, there should be a drinking game for the number of times Harry Osborn gets owned in that movie. Hah! That`s what you get for being James Franco!
I have nothing of actual substance to say right now.
2007年4月30日月曜日
Let`s bite and taste it
ME: So, I keep thinking about Jenn from San Francisco.
WARAO (half asleep, seat reclined): ... and?
M: It`s not good.
W: Why not?
M: Because it`s pointless. I`m always thinking about women who live on the other side of the planet, and it`s just painful.
W: Then I have a solution.
M: What`s that?
W: You want to hear it?
M: Yes!
W: ... don`t think about her.
One of many insightful conversations shared with Warao on the road last week. We rented a car, drove up north to the Sea of Japan (which of course I took a dip in), ate some sushi, visited Warao`s grandmother (who had never met an American before, and didn`t know what to give me to eat), burned incense at some old Japanese graves, ate some sushi, drove through the mountains, stopped at a few hot spas, and even ate a little bit of sushi.
It was a relaxing few days, which unfortunately don`t mean so much when you don`t do a whole lot to begin with. Don`t get me wrong, I keep busy 3-4 days a week .. for example, just last weekend it was my job to wear a baseball uniform and play Wii Sports Baseball with customers` children at an electronics store. Having only played the boxing game prior, this was my first time with the baseball one, and I was only able to hit 5 homeruns out of 10 pitches during my turn ... this one kid with a dead serious look on his face walks up and without a word hits 8 in a row, beating my score and winning a free pillow or something .. I was like, Way to go, Kid. Way to go.
Just before that, I had an audition for some print job, where I had to pose as an olympic swimmer. A couple years ago I think I could have gotten this one easily, but lately a combination of laziness and .. laziness have kept me from exercising regularly and left me feeling like the Pillsbury f#$%ing Douhghboy, so I`m still waiting on that one without very much hope. At least I know I beat the (inexplicably present) big fat hairy guy, whom upon removing his shirt, was promptly asked to leave. 厳しい。。
Ah, but speaking of print jobs, these jawns finally came out, though I have yet to take a decent picture of either one. I know it is not a very good au batido but they wanted me to do it "vertically" .. plus that is the best I can do one. Anyway, I was pretty happy to see that, and then to top it off, the company gave me all the clothes I wore during the shooting, because apparently they can`t use them for anyone else (go figure) .. so add 2 suits, 4 pairs of pants, 4 pairs of shoes, and a pile of shirts to my wardrobe, which until now mostly consisted of band t-shirts and jeans. Though considering how often I need to wear a suit these days, maybe I should try to sell the stuff .. anyone need a suit jacket with really pointy shoulders??
What else has me excited lately .. oh yeah, Spiderman f#$%ing 3 comes out tomorrow, and I`ve already got my ticket, suckers. I`ll let you know how cool Venom is before you go see it, just so you know (that I know). How does it feel to live in the past? what is it, Monday morning over there?? Mwahahah ... all right, I`ve had my moment.
Oh yeah, and it looks like I`m doing a 10-day Eurotrip at the end of May ... Barcelona to visit Frank or Maletas or whatever the crap he wants to be called, and the UK to roadie for my dear friends the FE crew for a few nights. How can I afford such kind of thing, you ask? Simple .. never buy anything. I forget who it was but I`ve met someone else who did this, that is, only used their money for traveling .. high five to whoever the crap that was.
I leave you for now with the words of some huge guy who got his picture taken with Mr. White today ... "Maintain your condition, and become world champion." I`ll try.
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