Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Fingers, Fingers, Fingers, Thumb

79-yr-old Keizo, a wry inquisitive Japanese man, when asked how he stayed so young, told me:
" I don't mind anything. It's nonsense."

Kiyoshi's baseball team had a beer spray party, like the professionals. I planned my version, a white-jump-suited ketchup and mustard fight, and he listened.

Sickness all last weekend. The moon was approaching fullness and everyone acting funny.

Being the most important person to the most valuable treasure.

"Dad, after I graduate and before I start three-year temple training and then live as a monk in the country, can I go abroad for a year?"
"Impossible."
"I understand."

Monday, May 12, 2008

Keikobah

I like how the Japanese word for "rehearsal space" sounds like the Dagobah but with two "ck" sounds in place of the "D" and "g." Say it with me: "Keikobah." Butoh dance is super-cool on its own, but imagine being able to do it in a place called "the keikobah." Imagine saying "see you in the keikobah." Imagine that your sensei goes to Europe for a month and leaves you the keys to the keikobah. Snap! It actually happened.

Recently, I love rehearsing and improvisation and don't care much for performance. I love building a story and watching something grow and shooting for discovery rather than solidity. Saturday morning I was playing in the keikobah and put together a few old ideas and found some new ones.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Butoh Day

Today, Giriyaku-san peformed in 4me-mura's triangle park.


The first d4nce is 4 d4nce 4bout horses. The second d4nce is 4 "jong4r4," 4 word which is not in my diction4ry. but the 4ctu4l d4nce looked like 4 festiv4l d4nce. like bon odori.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

H4PPY H4PPY BIRTHD4Y!!!

Monday was a very magical day. Kota's birthday!!!
Today two of my six-year-old girls came running into class and wanted to show me their bruises and explain how they didn't notice them until their teacher at school pointed it out to them. and then during class they pushed on their own bruises as hard as theycould until it produced an audible sound from their mouths, which they then used in the phonics practice.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahCTOPUS

and the start of today was discovering the motions of suckling baby kittens and wobbly airplanes, a few hours before that was waking up Sotaro and pretending I was drunk and lost and accidentally found his house by myself at 2 in the morning, before that was...

Kota's BIRTHD4Y!!!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

I st4yed up l4te on 4ccident

Minerals are draining out of my body and I eat the fresh broccoli a student gave me to put some back in. Today was a longer day of work, signalled in with the miaowing of a lost house cat in the alley next to the office, and three lovely old women with interesting hobbies, and seven-rear-old girls who want to ask me questions about america rather than learn phonics, and i would rather chat with them than teach them phonics, but we all acquiesce to the curriculum and sing the phonics song to the tune of bingo with one eye on the clock. The rest is a blur of how was your weekend and news articles. Every time I go to the bathroom I can see the sky, sunny, dusky, dark. I leave with the same feeling that I came in with. Walking back to my house, I start talking to myself without knowing how. I enter my room, it's clean, and it's a feeling like a good dinner party, except its a clean, bright, and quiet space. I try to dance and stretch, but my body is too tight and a little weak. I can wait.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

My Heart Explodes

Lately, I have been interested in happiness and having fun. What is happiness? What is fun? These are questions that are so important to ask while making decisions in life. What kind of job will I do now, and what kind of career will I pursue in the future? What will I learn, what will I go to see, who will I spend time with, what do I want to make and get involved in? Recently, I started a full-time job teaching. This definitely goes in the plus category - meeting and talking with people of all ages and personalities while trying to improve their language ability. Good choice. But, it seriously limits my free time, which forces me to be more discriminating with what I do, and gives me a desire to pursue those things that make my heart explode. Because while my job is fun and good, there are many tiring points of teaching English conversation.

Like fucking talking to people! Man.

So, I want to get back to the attitude of a child, of how I could simply choose what was fun, without my opinions being obscured by feelings of obligation or desires for security. Do you know that feeling when you experience divine joy, and you feel so alive in that moment? Like that. I have two videos from Saturday night.

1. Happiness




2. Fun - Coming soon!! I h4ve to ste4l this video from Mekers.
Go here!!! This is the best p4rt of the whole post!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOueHkBP_4Q

Go to the link Go to the link Go to the link
what do you think?

Tuesday, April 8, 2008