It's great to live in a world where things like this exist.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Vegetable Man
So I've been working on advertisements for selling vegetables, and in the course of my research came across these two gems:
It's great to live in a world where things like this exist.
It's great to live in a world where things like this exist.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Vancouver part 2
My last day in Vancouver was good but had a very unfortunate surprise ending. I got together with that tour guide, who gave me an awwwwesome tour. He had it all down pat--history, stories, statistics, good jokes, bad jokes, passion, pride...he even hooked with me with one of my favorite motifs: cynical history. Afterwards, we went out for beers, japadogs, and more touring. We ended up at a book reading (my suggestion) at the Museum of Vancouver. This radio host wrote a book called "Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Bay". It's a memoir about a chunk of land that his father bought in the boonies of British Columbia and his return as an older man. There's some great stories of bushwacking, drunken fishing, and more or less being in the grip of nature. The reading included some music by a fav local band called "Said the Whale".
But that's when I got a text message from my father saying that my grandfather (his father) was in the hospital for congenital heart failure. One of his lungs collapsed and this was most likely the end. My grandfather would have turned 90 next month, has been in and out of the hospital countless times over the past 10 years+, and we've had scares so many times it's ridiculous (thirty years ago, my parents considered pushing their wedding forward because they were worried he wasn't going to make it). But this time it was pretty obvious. I booked the first flight back the next morning and the day after he passed on.
The funny thing was that he was on a breathing tube and because it was in his will that he didn't want to be on life support, my father and grandmother made the decision to get the family together at about noon, remove the tube, and spend the last few hours together. My grandfather was an obstinate, cantankerous man who always had to have the last word. So despite our decision, he went on his own Saturday morning. The next 36 hours were spent comforting my grandmother and taking care of the funeral necessities, which was exhausting and emotional to say the least. The funeral was this morning, and although my grandfather was an atheist, we said Kaddish, the traditional Jewish prayer for mourning. My brothers, cousin, father and I all spoke beautifully and he was buried at the family plot in Paramus, NJ.
What was new to me here was the act of physically burying the casket. With four shovels, 7 strapping family members, and my dads men's group, we shoveled loads of dirt into his grave until it was full. The idea here being that no strangers taking care of the corpse. This basically comes from a conservative Jewish exclusion policy that no one outside the faith has the opportunity to "corrupt" the soul on it's way to heaven, but that's besides the point. What was significant about this was the rigorous send off that honored this man.
There are many things to say about my grandfather. One is that he fought hard for social justice throughout his life, forming and participating in community organizations and marching on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr. Another is that he dreamt of a racially harmonious world, even though much of family (including his now-estranged brother) refused to attend my aunts wedding when she married a black man. At the funeral, I spoke of his passionately creative mind, his love for painting, film, theater, writing and abstract concepts. One of his most prevalent qualities was his undying loyalty and love for his wife, whom he had been married to for 62 years.
Finally, we have his humor. For six years, he convinced my cousin that there was a little man in the ATM machine that gave out money. Once while coalescing after a visit the hospital, he claimed to have been given an infusion with the blood of Burt Lancaster. Even into the days of wheelchairs and walkers, he would break into a cha-cha while crossing the living room. Below is a video that I hope you enjoy...the story here is that my grandmother was in a bicycling PSA and although my grandfather was asked to play the "straight man", he refused, and here are the outtakes
Although we'd been preparing for this day for a long time, he will be greatly missed.
But that's when I got a text message from my father saying that my grandfather (his father) was in the hospital for congenital heart failure. One of his lungs collapsed and this was most likely the end. My grandfather would have turned 90 next month, has been in and out of the hospital countless times over the past 10 years+, and we've had scares so many times it's ridiculous (thirty years ago, my parents considered pushing their wedding forward because they were worried he wasn't going to make it). But this time it was pretty obvious. I booked the first flight back the next morning and the day after he passed on.
The funny thing was that he was on a breathing tube and because it was in his will that he didn't want to be on life support, my father and grandmother made the decision to get the family together at about noon, remove the tube, and spend the last few hours together. My grandfather was an obstinate, cantankerous man who always had to have the last word. So despite our decision, he went on his own Saturday morning. The next 36 hours were spent comforting my grandmother and taking care of the funeral necessities, which was exhausting and emotional to say the least. The funeral was this morning, and although my grandfather was an atheist, we said Kaddish, the traditional Jewish prayer for mourning. My brothers, cousin, father and I all spoke beautifully and he was buried at the family plot in Paramus, NJ.
What was new to me here was the act of physically burying the casket. With four shovels, 7 strapping family members, and my dads men's group, we shoveled loads of dirt into his grave until it was full. The idea here being that no strangers taking care of the corpse. This basically comes from a conservative Jewish exclusion policy that no one outside the faith has the opportunity to "corrupt" the soul on it's way to heaven, but that's besides the point. What was significant about this was the rigorous send off that honored this man.
There are many things to say about my grandfather. One is that he fought hard for social justice throughout his life, forming and participating in community organizations and marching on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr. Another is that he dreamt of a racially harmonious world, even though much of family (including his now-estranged brother) refused to attend my aunts wedding when she married a black man. At the funeral, I spoke of his passionately creative mind, his love for painting, film, theater, writing and abstract concepts. One of his most prevalent qualities was his undying loyalty and love for his wife, whom he had been married to for 62 years.
Finally, we have his humor. For six years, he convinced my cousin that there was a little man in the ATM machine that gave out money. Once while coalescing after a visit the hospital, he claimed to have been given an infusion with the blood of Burt Lancaster. Even into the days of wheelchairs and walkers, he would break into a cha-cha while crossing the living room. Below is a video that I hope you enjoy...the story here is that my grandmother was in a bicycling PSA and although my grandfather was asked to play the "straight man", he refused, and here are the outtakes
Although we'd been preparing for this day for a long time, he will be greatly missed.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Vancouver
So I been on vacation about a week and its been nice, refreshing, fun and interesting...at times. I can't say its been my best trip, but lack of preparation and planning is the only thing at fault.
I decided I wanted to go to Vancouver because
A) I love the pacific northwest: culture, climate, food; I've had great experiences in North California and Portland
B) My aunt lives in Seattle and my cousin goes to school in Bellingham, a beautiful area btwn there and Vancouver so it seemed like a good way to see em all
B) I imagined it's a damn cool Canadian city and a good counterpart to NYC w/urban arts culture, modernity and surrounding nature
This is also a major Couchsurfing trip, and CS culture is a very particular type of travel culture. Those of you who don't know, this is a GIANT community of travelers worldwide. They can typically be a little scatterbrained and certainly travel on the type of shoestring budget that I find can be very restricting and uncomfortable, but they are awesomely adventurous, friendly and extroverted people. My hosts, for example, are two fabulous gay guys who have hosted 80 people over the course of 8 weeks and are fun, kind, wacky guys who are soooo happy to be surrounded by travelers every day of the week.
One Australian guy, David, that I met was a great travel partner for a day or two. We hiked Lynn Peak, a 9 km hike of 1000m elevation. On a beautiful day (when I thought I was gonna get rain all week), it was EXACTLY what I wanted to do. And it was easy, cause he had a car. The next day we spent wandering around, drinkin beers, not exactly finding what we were looking for (generally having a cool time while doing it), but when we were at a serious loss for the next step, our interests began to divert.
I saw a really cool tour go by that my family has connections with, but he didn't wanna do it, so I gave the guide my card to hook up with him later and we went to an art gallery. Now David is a very outdoorsy sort of person and I knew he would not be into art, but I really wanted to go and there was practically nothing else in the area so we went. The stuff wasn't very good, but he goes off into a diatribe of how disgusting it was and it really just pumped negativity into the already uncomfortable situation and unfortunately, that was how we said goodbye. I sat around for a bit, waiting for the tour guide to call me and later found out that he got caught up grabbing beers with his tourists (some of whom were damn cute). I kicked myself for missing out on that and fighting with David instead, and stood on line for rush tix at a film festival for 20 minutes before realizing I couldn't get in.
So this was just one shitty thing that came about. I'm hookin up with the guide later today but otherwise Im really not sure what I'm doing here. I've wanted to bike around but I keep passing that up for other opportunities. My cousin is coming up this weekend to hang out with me/see his girlfriend and he's a fun, cool, outdoorsy guy so I really gotta make some plans with him (esp cause he's got a car) but it's gonna rain most of the weekend. I may end up spending a lot more time at the film festival (I saw one pretty intrstiing bawdy sex comedy from China about nonagenarians at a northern farming village), so that'll be cool but I'm lacking a travel partner and I knew that would get me down.
How come no one stopped and said "Hey Jonah, Canada can be pretty boring"? Again, I'm probably not looking in the right places, hooking up with the right people and making the right plans, but I guess I got a coupla more days to get that right.
On the upside, I had a blast biking around Seattle, hanging with my Aunt and I got a couple more days of that before I go home, so I'm looking forward to wrapping up the trip with positivity.
I decided I wanted to go to Vancouver because
A) I love the pacific northwest: culture, climate, food; I've had great experiences in North California and Portland
B) My aunt lives in Seattle and my cousin goes to school in Bellingham, a beautiful area btwn there and Vancouver so it seemed like a good way to see em all
B) I imagined it's a damn cool Canadian city and a good counterpart to NYC w/urban arts culture, modernity and surrounding nature
This is also a major Couchsurfing trip, and CS culture is a very particular type of travel culture. Those of you who don't know, this is a GIANT community of travelers worldwide. They can typically be a little scatterbrained and certainly travel on the type of shoestring budget that I find can be very restricting and uncomfortable, but they are awesomely adventurous, friendly and extroverted people. My hosts, for example, are two fabulous gay guys who have hosted 80 people over the course of 8 weeks and are fun, kind, wacky guys who are soooo happy to be surrounded by travelers every day of the week.
One Australian guy, David, that I met was a great travel partner for a day or two. We hiked Lynn Peak, a 9 km hike of 1000m elevation. On a beautiful day (when I thought I was gonna get rain all week), it was EXACTLY what I wanted to do. And it was easy, cause he had a car. The next day we spent wandering around, drinkin beers, not exactly finding what we were looking for (generally having a cool time while doing it), but when we were at a serious loss for the next step, our interests began to divert.
I saw a really cool tour go by that my family has connections with, but he didn't wanna do it, so I gave the guide my card to hook up with him later and we went to an art gallery. Now David is a very outdoorsy sort of person and I knew he would not be into art, but I really wanted to go and there was practically nothing else in the area so we went. The stuff wasn't very good, but he goes off into a diatribe of how disgusting it was and it really just pumped negativity into the already uncomfortable situation and unfortunately, that was how we said goodbye. I sat around for a bit, waiting for the tour guide to call me and later found out that he got caught up grabbing beers with his tourists (some of whom were damn cute). I kicked myself for missing out on that and fighting with David instead, and stood on line for rush tix at a film festival for 20 minutes before realizing I couldn't get in.
So this was just one shitty thing that came about. I'm hookin up with the guide later today but otherwise Im really not sure what I'm doing here. I've wanted to bike around but I keep passing that up for other opportunities. My cousin is coming up this weekend to hang out with me/see his girlfriend and he's a fun, cool, outdoorsy guy so I really gotta make some plans with him (esp cause he's got a car) but it's gonna rain most of the weekend. I may end up spending a lot more time at the film festival (I saw one pretty intrstiing bawdy sex comedy from China about nonagenarians at a northern farming village), so that'll be cool but I'm lacking a travel partner and I knew that would get me down.
How come no one stopped and said "Hey Jonah, Canada can be pretty boring"? Again, I'm probably not looking in the right places, hooking up with the right people and making the right plans, but I guess I got a coupla more days to get that right.
On the upside, I had a blast biking around Seattle, hanging with my Aunt and I got a couple more days of that before I go home, so I'm looking forward to wrapping up the trip with positivity.
Monday, September 27, 2010
This Blog is Boring
The hell guys... lucidmedia got shut down so now I spend my time staring at the forever unchanging face of Boogaloo...
Life's been steadily picking up over here. I climbed a mountain recently, Mt. Hayachine, and I swear to god it was like being on Gutz. Ladder-climbing, chain-swinging, cliff-face-scaling, all with the added bonus of certain death if you fell. I went with my school's mountain climbing club (that's tozanbu, for those of you who are curious). Camped out the night before, had the students cook us dinner, "party" with the other 2 teachers there after lights out... great experience over-all. Next month we're hitting Mt. Goyo and Mt. Iwate.
My band, Kraken Strike (believe it or not, I was not the one who picked that name), has our first concert next month. Its an alright deal, what I've got going, though we've still yet to integrate each of our specific tastes in music into one cohesive whole. Covering the Ramones' "Rock 'n' Roll Radio" and then doing at least 2 of my original songs and one of my bassist's. Obviously we're opening. By that time we might have more under out belts, but at the moment that's our (nameless) set list.
Oh, check this out: I'm taking lessons from a Noh theater director. There's a possibility I might perform in a play in Morioka sometime during November, though I seriously doubt that. Difficult shit, and learning it to a sufficient measure by that time is more or less unthinkable, though its a thought I like to entertain.
I sent in my application for the 73rd Peace Boat voyage last week, though (and per the usual), I'm not at all confident in my chances. For those of you who aren't familiar, Peace Boat is a circumnavigating humanity aid cruise ship docked in Yokohama just outside of Tokyo that makes apprx. 3 trips around the globe a year stopping at different ports for varying spans of time to assist with humanitarian aid projects, as well as to open the world's eyes to different cultures. Normally, it costs (if I'm not mistaken) around 14k to ride. However, if you've got 18 months or more of ALT/ESL work under your belt by the time of departure, you have the chance to be taken on board as an English teacher and have all dues and fees waived. So its awesome, and by the time that 73rd comes around I'll have what, 19 months or so working like this? Hard to believe. Anyway, its doubly good if I actually am lucky enough to be selected because I can opt to not resign with this position when my contract expires in March, have a month of to dick around, set sail in April, and get back right around the time a lot of the contracts come in for another, better company located in Osaka with whom I've already spoken with about employment. That'd be a hell of a year, to say the least.
Alright, I need to go duct-tape more bags together - its getting cold and Japan doesn't know the first thing about insulation.
Life's been steadily picking up over here. I climbed a mountain recently, Mt. Hayachine, and I swear to god it was like being on Gutz. Ladder-climbing, chain-swinging, cliff-face-scaling, all with the added bonus of certain death if you fell. I went with my school's mountain climbing club (that's tozanbu, for those of you who are curious). Camped out the night before, had the students cook us dinner, "party" with the other 2 teachers there after lights out... great experience over-all. Next month we're hitting Mt. Goyo and Mt. Iwate.
My band, Kraken Strike (believe it or not, I was not the one who picked that name), has our first concert next month. Its an alright deal, what I've got going, though we've still yet to integrate each of our specific tastes in music into one cohesive whole. Covering the Ramones' "Rock 'n' Roll Radio" and then doing at least 2 of my original songs and one of my bassist's. Obviously we're opening. By that time we might have more under out belts, but at the moment that's our (nameless) set list.
Oh, check this out: I'm taking lessons from a Noh theater director. There's a possibility I might perform in a play in Morioka sometime during November, though I seriously doubt that. Difficult shit, and learning it to a sufficient measure by that time is more or less unthinkable, though its a thought I like to entertain.
I sent in my application for the 73rd Peace Boat voyage last week, though (and per the usual), I'm not at all confident in my chances. For those of you who aren't familiar, Peace Boat is a circumnavigating humanity aid cruise ship docked in Yokohama just outside of Tokyo that makes apprx. 3 trips around the globe a year stopping at different ports for varying spans of time to assist with humanitarian aid projects, as well as to open the world's eyes to different cultures. Normally, it costs (if I'm not mistaken) around 14k to ride. However, if you've got 18 months or more of ALT/ESL work under your belt by the time of departure, you have the chance to be taken on board as an English teacher and have all dues and fees waived. So its awesome, and by the time that 73rd comes around I'll have what, 19 months or so working like this? Hard to believe. Anyway, its doubly good if I actually am lucky enough to be selected because I can opt to not resign with this position when my contract expires in March, have a month of to dick around, set sail in April, and get back right around the time a lot of the contracts come in for another, better company located in Osaka with whom I've already spoken with about employment. That'd be a hell of a year, to say the least.
Alright, I need to go duct-tape more bags together - its getting cold and Japan doesn't know the first thing about insulation.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
inxs - devil inside
i watched this video on VH1 Classics the other day and was extremely entertained. this video features the following:
1. near constant use of a smoke machine
2. skateboarding
3. pool playing
4. catwalking
5. big permed hair (male & female)
6. surfboards
7. motorcycles
8. palpable tension between surfers and motorcyclists
9. ill-fitting blazers worn with mock turtlenecks
10. subtle 'devil' theme
11. keyboards
12. ominous lighting
13. asian girls
14. solitary appearance of what seems to be a bellhop
15. pole dancing
16. satin opera-length gloves paired with off the shoulder tops (a look i am willing to bet we will not see 'come around' again)
17. spandex-clad wrestler types ("beefcakes")
18. unfriendly sideways glares
19. more bowler hats than you can shake a stick at
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)