“I find it repulsive how a country like ours can be trillions in debt and yet be criticized for the amount of funding given for tsunami relief.
We should not be sending a penny. Where was our world aid after 9/11, after the destruction of Florida during a record hurricane season and now with flooding in California, Ohio and Indiana? We have our own problems to take care of.
It’s about time we let other countries run their own countries. We are long overdue in addressing issues that affect our own citizens, such as health care, Social Security, education, homelessness, unemployment and the national debt.
How can we continue to offer monetary aid to any country when we continue to run a record deficit? ”
Roger Ites, Omaha
ahhhhh omaha…
to be fair though- there was this letter too:
(more…)
YES I indeed do. This is the first post that I have made from my apartment. Thank you NTT. and THANK YOU Mr. Kuroki for letting me borrow your G3 powerbook. In home internet use… what a concept…
In other internet news, I joined the Leica Forum at photo.net. What was on my part a simple question as to how many other members reside in Japan, soon became this.
One of the more interesting statements that was made was concerning the chances a White English Speaking Male has in Japan with the native ladies. It was said that “The odds are good, but the goods are odd” in respect to the types of Japanese women who become involved and or search for non-Japanese men.
Well,
This Mac I am using is using OS 9.2.1 and I would like to download MSN messenger for it- but alas the downloadable programs are for OS 9.2.2 and higher. If anyone knows how I can get around this please let me know.
Yesterday Kelly-sensei and I met our High School Shodo (Calligraphy) teacher at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Musuem in Ueno for a guided tour of the 53rd Annual Dokuritsu Sho Exhibition . The panorama above is one small view of one floor. to the left all along down the hall are sub-rooms, three sided and filled wall to ceiling with calligraphy. The sheer size of this exhibition cannot be fully expressed with four little grainy cell phone camera photos. Around the corner to to the right is another hall with more rooms of Shodo. This was one of three floors of the exhibition in one museum . There was another show at the Ueno Royal Museum nearby (two more floors) that we saw as well. The largest works were about 15 feet tall and 20 feet wide. The brush (fude) used to make them is about 4 feet high. The works in the photo above are no less than 2 feet wide (the narrow ones) and maybe six feet tall (the tall ones).
here are some people for scale:
As is the case with seeing large exhibitions of great art, you can get worn out rather easily. Works that could be the center point of a home or temple are passed over with out even a second glance. 疲れちゃった。本当にそんなにあった。
Miyazaki sensei, our teacher, also exhibited his work. He won’t admit it but in the Shodo community he seems to be well known, with other members constantly coming to him bowing and thanking him for attending yesterday. Afterwards he took me to a Shodo store in Shinokubo near Shinjuku. Next week I am going to make my own hanko stamp.
In a similar vein, kanji is quite popular in Ameirca now. Want a tattoo of a mystical oriental character? Nothing says COOL like 気違い ”freak” in Japanese on the back of your neck when you are in line at McDonalds in front of me in Nebraska. There are pleanty of websites offering to help you find the chinese character that express your unique and or bad-ass personality. Maybe if you are lucky though you can get your kanji tattoo featured on THIS AWESOME SITE. Good Luck!
First off, the internet is a horrible way to see photographs. But it is fast and efficient and for that trade off we are able to see seemingly countless websites offering views of what people are doing photographically around the world.
I suggest:
Jun Itoi
I can’t recommend his photographs enough. Great work. Spend the time and look through each of his galleries and get excited. Photographic work of this caliber is tough to come by.
Aya Kato
Aya produces poignant and moving images that continue to deliver meanings upon multiple viewings. Even if they seem slightly strange they feel personal.
Mitsugu Onishi
Onishi-san is one of my favorite photographers. His photographs work intelligently on many levels at once. They operate as Photographs. I like to think of him as one of the greatest photographers working in Japan today.
Justin Kohmetscher
You’ll have to hit the refresh button to see new images but it is well worth it. I can’t talk about photography near as well as Justin can so I feel weird trying say anything abut his work but it is good. And more!
