Lost In Translation

Diary Of A Sadman: Part 4

My friend Pat Okell has just posted another entertaining installment of Diary Of A Sadman about the upcoming elections. Be prepared to laugh hard.

Art Party

This is one of the works made by my friends Lorenzo and Jack. Another friend, Kelly had a party for them to show off their new work at Tameike Akasaka Tower, a residence that has a rooftop graden for residents to use. Below is the view from the 25th floor garden.

Natural Disasters

This is from Japan Today:

A series of powerful earthquakes, with the first and biggest one measuring a preliminary magnitude of 6.8, rocked northern Japan on the Sea of Japan coast within minutes from each other Saturday evening, killing at least 15 people, injuring more than 700 in Niigata Prefecture, and leaving at least four others missing...

It felt pretty strong in Tokyo as well, at least stronger than usual. There's also this from Japan Today:

The death toll from the powerful Typhoon Tokage, which hit Japan earlier this week, rose to 80 Saturday, with 12 people still missing.

There was a massive typhoon on Tuesday-Wednesday last week, of which I spent most of the time at home indoors. After the extremely hot summer, over 30 straight days where it was hotter than 86 degrees F, I am worried about the effect of global warming on the weather and environment-they say Japan has had more rain than on average so far this year, than ever before as well. It feels like mother nature striking back.

City View

This is the view from a conference room on the 16th floor of the tallest building on the Hakusan campus, there's a cafeteria on this floor as well.

Greeneland

It's the 100th anniversary of Graham Greene and there has been the release of a third volume of a biography set, The Life of Graham Greene - Volume 3: 1955-1991 by Norman Sherry, and new editions of some of his old classics to comemorate it. My favorites include: The Quiet American, The Honorary Counsol, In The Heart Of The Matter. He is one of my favorite writers. I came across this interesting article about him in Salon.com:

Graham Greene had a reputation for prophecy; as early as 1955 he published "The Quiet American," a book about the perils of American meddling in Vietnam. What seems like foresight actually came from his knack for cutting down to the heart of the matter -- to appropriate the title of another of his novels, this one about Sierra Leone. It was less that he saw things coming than that he recognized the same scenarios of human foolishness and venality unfolding over and over again. If anything, his was a gift for timing, and it's still in operation, even now, 13 years after his death. His centennial (Greene was born in 1904) arrives just as some of his most barbed political observations have acquired a brand new -- and simultaneously all too familiar -- relevance.

A New Razor?

After seeing this razor display in Ikebukuro station, I have been inspired to get a new razor-who says advertising doesn't work?

DVD Notes: The Simpsons Season 4

I’ve finally made my way through Season 4 of The Simpsons DVD box set. I usually watch the episode in its entirety, and then again with the commentary, so it takes a while. But it was very enjoyable re-visiting this season. It has some of the all-time best episodes in this season. One of the main reasons I think has to do with the fact that Conan O’Brien was one of the producers/writers that season. In fact Entertainment Weekly named Last Exit To Brooklyn, the greatest episode ever. I loved the “McBain”(action movie) and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas parodies in that episode. Marge Vs. The Monorail was also in the Top 5 coming in at 4. I like to think they were making fun of Seattle.

Some other classic episodes include: Selma’s Choice (which has the trip to Duff Gardens where Lisa drinks the water and has a Yellow Submarine-inspired trip, as well with Homer’s quest to finish eating an 8-foot sandwich), I Love Lisa (with the musical number about the “mediocre” presidents), and not to mention Mr. Plow, Homer The Heretic, and Lisa’s First Words (“Back when a young Joe Piscapo taught the world how to laugh…”), Whacking Day, and Krusty Gets Cancelled.

Incidentally, my friend participated in a contest to identify the best Simpsons side character, a couple of years back, it was modeled after the NCAA basketball tournament, called The Road To Springfield-check it out.

Ichigyoin Temple

I pass this temple in Bunkyo-ku on the way to the Toyo Hakusan Campus every Friday.

October 22, 2004 in Tokyo | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been a huge fan of David O. Russell since seeing his first film Spanking The Monkey. I was slightly disappointed by Flirting With Disaster, but absolutely loved Three Kings, one of the best films made in the 90s. I am interested in seeing his latest, I Heart The Huckabees. There was a good interview with Jason Schwartzman (who stars in the latest film) in last week's Onion AV. I also came across this article about the documentary he made about Iraq, Soldier's Pay, that was shelved by Warner Brothers, for the re-release of Three Kings on DVD on Salon.com.

I saw these topical masks for sale in a book store in Tokyo, near Roppongi.

David O. Russell

I have been a huge fan of David O. Russell since seeing his first film Spanking The Monkey. I was slightly disappointed by Flirting With Disaster, but absolutely loved Three Kings, one of the best films made in the 90s. I am interested in seeing his latest, I Heart The Huckabees. There was a good interview with Jason Schwartzman (who stars in the latest film) in last week's Onion AV. I also came across this article about the documentary he made about Iraq, Soldier's Pay, that was shelved by Warner Brothers, for the re-release of Three Kings on DVD on Salon.com.

Masks

I saw these topical masks for sale in a book store in Tokyo, near Roppongi.