A Message from a Japanese Girl

'It was able to sleep and was good. Because sleep is important!!!! Let's always play (Grateful Dead Bear). However, it has been forgotten to present the cucumber (OH NO face). I'm sorry (Panda Bear with a runny nose).'

Gardens

Spring has come again and gardening season is starting up. I've just direct seeded some cilantro and chervil on the herb front. Vegetable wise I've got red radishes and snow peas in. I also put in some Buttercrunch lettuce and Red Russian Kale. We have a late frost date here in Troy so I'm going to wait a while for some of the sexier vegetables. Anybody else growing anything?

i am a weener.

http://www.youtube.com/user/SenecaLakeWineTrail#p/a/u/0/XBoNDOtvVCY

Some Help?

So I've decided to try and take on 'managing' a band, and by that I mean getting them signed. Note: this is not a job I'm getting money from, but rather a job I'm doing out of respect for a band who I think really needs to be heard. Anyway, I've got some connections in the 'biz' as it were, but nothing that particularly substantial. My question is, anyone have any ideas about how I might go about this faster than if I just plunge head-first without knowing too much and doing it DIY contacting labels, posting on blogs, and informing others of shows?

Oh, and Vince, you posted a message a while ago about how long I'll be here in Japan. At least until 2011, my brotha. And don't let that not-getting-into-a-journal thing get you down, keep at it.

Oxford Comma

So I recently found out I did not got onto a law journal. I am kinda bummed out about it. I spent my entire spring break working to get on journal and went to these writing sessions to improve my chances in which they spent half an hour discussing the difference between a hyphen and an em dash. I can only assume I didn't get on because I never truly learned the difference, so Meg who is into Vampire Weekend suggested I watch this video.

On The Subject: Paperbacks

I started collecting books in High School, but took a particular interest in old paperbacks in College. Specifically Mass Market paperbacks. For one thing, they're dirt cheap when you can find em. And the art on them tends to be much more daring and less strictly sales-oriented than what you'd find on hardcovers. Maybe cus most books become Mass Market PB's by being proven sellers /academic transgression/.

Anyway, here are some of my favorites from my collection:



I think Matt Ketchum might have this one too.








A little banged up but just look at all three of that handsome gentleman.

And the cream of the crop...

What I've been up to...sorta

Hey all,

hope everyone's doing well and the weather is nice where ever you are. Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I figure I'd give you a heads up on some of the work I've been doing. Check it out below.

Cleaning up the mess

Shit's HOT

Goddamnit. This is awful.



This, on the other hand, is super awesome.

TV

Is it just me or has the world entered an entirely new phase of serialized TV. Be it quality, distribution, attention and all of the above, it's unavoidable to me. I've discovered that my favored (and many times required) version of "winding down" after a long day or before going to bed involves watching at least one show on hulu, hbo on demand (which i JUST discovered i have...hallelulah) or catching up on downloaded episodes of entourage.
It's pretty amazing to me seeing as how I've never been a fan of TV. the virtual deletion of ads really does it for me. The crappy/sappy music, painstaking graphics and see-through message (e.g. It's so much better in the bahamas, everyone loves chef boyardee) used to (and still) drives me so nuts I can't sit through 'em.
So what's the deal? Are we gonna have to start paying for this hulu business or will commercials get longer and longer? I noticed they occassionally pop up on youtube now...weird.

If you haven't heard of or seen my latest fascination, "how to make it in america", you ought to give it a try. It helps if your as crazy about NYC as I am, but that's hard. When I realized my new episode has HBO, I caught a mid-season episode and got into it. I watched the first two episodes the next day and the day after that I got invited to a screening at the HBO building with a Q+A w/the actors and creator. I burned through the rest of the series and you can now consider my hooked.

lemme lay this shit out for you:
late 20-somethings are trying to make it in NYC. Fashionistas, hustlers, players, Ben and Cam try to keep honest schemes together in the garment trade and the night life scene while Cam's ex-con cousin, Rene (Luis Gusman) tries to run a legit business making Rasta Mansta (the Caribbean Red Bull) a successful product. First the Lower East Side, then the world.
I love this show for a number of reasons, but #1 would have to be the role that NYC plays. This show does such an incredible job of making the city a living, breathing, throbbing, damning, teasing beautiful bastard that it is. They do SO much shooting on location and each neighborhood and locale comes off as such an integral part of each episode.
#2 is the dynamic between the two main characters. Ben, the Jew, and Cam, the Dominican are a perfect yin-yang: grumpy and excitable, stable and wild, driven and spontaneous, they gave each other a leg-up when the other is tapped out and love each other to the core. Rene's stories are terrific as well, showing a powerful but reproachful man trying to lead an honest and benevolent life. His criminal instincts and desires to rise back to the top get in the way of his penitence, but his love for his community and the need to take the righteous path is very compelling. Plus the way he pronounces Rasta Mansta with that lisp is fucking hilarious.
#3 the show is fucking funny. The ups and downs, wise-cracking side characters (Eddie Kaye Thomas plays the super-Jewy hedge-fund manager), and constant chatter between Ben and Cam is very entertaining.
#4 it looks beautiful. Again, this show has a great eye for NYC. Architecture, streetscapes, the vibrancy of new yorkers and the eye-catching interplay of party scenes keep this show in my minds' eye. It's all in the opening credits, which play over a crazy-hot photo montage with a sick soul song.
What the show fails at however, is the side story of Ben's ex-girlfriend Rachel, who is boring, whiny and doesn't know what she wants. Her boyfriend Darren is rich, beautiful and soulless and it's so obvious that we're supposed to hate him that this story line gets old fast. The one thing that keeps it going is her sex-crazed stoner boss, Edie, who keeps the dumb girl in check.
I also don't like how all these hipster fashionistas can afford to party every night in lavishly decorated and gi-fucking-normous downtown lofts.
But hey, that's TV

Back To Tokyo

Just drove in to Tokyo late last night. I'll be here until at least the seventh, but I don't have anything to do until the 15th so I might extend my stay a bit to hunt for a job. Last night I stayed at my friend's host-family's house (that's their house/dog (named Benkei) below), and starting today until the 7th I'll be staying in the city I lived in briefly in Chiba-ken, Kashiwa.

So what am I doing today? Hanami, bitches. Fuckin' cherry blossom picnic party extravaganza. Its gonna be brutal. Followed by a night out with some friends at a spot we used to frequent in Kashiwa. This shit is SICK compared to my mundane life in Iwate... god damn I need to find a new job. Tomorrow has me seeing one of my new favorite Japanese bands, Gotsu Totsu Kotsu (self-described Samurai Death Metal - these guys chew up and spit out a fretboard like no-one's business) with another old friend in Shinjuku at a club called Antiknock. Despite it being Sunday night, I'm pretty sure that's going to be the defining out-all-night experience of this trip to Tokyo.

Also, let's talk about mutton chops.