1. Get an enlarger- This is a Lucky DM Classic something-or-rather. The easel is for 16×20 (40cm x 50cm) paper. I had to make a custom mask to be able to print in the center of the paper.
2. Get a bunch of trays. Here at the left is the 8 liter tray for my developer (papitol) and to the right is the stop bath. When I am mass-printing workprints on 8×10 paper I line the trays up from the wall to the sink, from right to left. Everything fits on the counter with the small trays. However since I am making exhibition prints today I set up my fixer tray in the bathroom.
3. Have a bathroom. The fix is on the floor and there is another tray in the tub for the prints to wash. The jug is for when I use the same fixer tomorrow.
Not Shown– I live on the first floor of my building, and so the windows all have metal shutters that can be rolled down for near total darkness. I did have to tape a photo paper bag over the window in the bathroom though.
I got more attention at school the other day wearing this tie than I thought I would. Part of me wondered if it might be too much but everyone liked it. I found it at a used clothes trendy shop in Lincoln. Someone applied/sewed a purple skull and crossbones thing onto a golden tie from the 1970s and then later I bought it. It says “Gimbels” on the back of the tie and on a smaller tag below it says “100% imported polyester”.
Imported, so you know that’s the good shit.
yesterday when that big earthquake hit Kevin and I were with some people I kind of know just enough to get invitied to a cook out they were having in a huge park in east Tokyo. It was just after the cook out, and we had just finished loading a small station wagon with the remaining supplies when I thought I was dizzy. The parking lot we were in was very large, and almost empty save for our three cars, a dodge van camper and a dozen of those glossy plasticky minivans which are so popular with the college kids and young red-headed families these days. In a far corner of the lot was some guy rippin’ sick tricks on his BMX bike. You know the kind, where he does a wheelie, spins the handle bars around while he stands on one peg off the rear hub and bounces around in a circle. During the long earthquake (I can never tell when they are actually over) we all just kind of stood there looking amazed, I am guessing with the same looks on our faces as all the other young parents had. They stood froze in the doorways of their minivans while the kids in the back seat were swaying with the car. The weird thing was the sound… the trees were swaying and swooshing. It was the largest earthquake I think I had felt, I would like to comapre it to the Niigata earthquakes last october that I felt in Matsudo, but that is hard because I was out in the open yesterday.
The whole time I don’t think the BMX guy noticed anything.
update>> So today I was thinking and the weirdest thing was this- I was in a wide parking lot in a wide park. Unlike other times when I have experienced an earthquake, there was no doubt that I was going to survive this. At home I might wonder if the second floor will come crashing down on me but this time save for a biblical style maw opening up in the parking lot I was going to be fine. There were a few minutes as we drove out of the park wondering what was going to await us in the city. I say “us” but I really meant me. I was looking for smoke on the horizon but everything looked the same. Which is what I was hoping for.
That is Kevin getting his picture taken by a girl nearby some people whose names I don’t remember mere seconds before the quake hit. For some reason the girl in the foreground has a hat upside down on her shoulder. That is amazing I think. What are their names? You and probably I will never know. Their boyfriends were all standing behind us. All I remember is that the girl at the left has the same last name as her boyfriend. He is on the phone in the second picture.
man, I don’t know why I thought it was going to be easy. To move into an apartment here in Japan you need a Japanese co-signer/sponsor to make it work. This is probably well documented and complained about on many other gaijin in japan websites so I won’t go into it. The school set up my current apartment for me before I arrived last August, and they naturally were the sponsors. For some reason though, they won’t sponsor me for this new apartment. There are two types of apartments for teachers at my school- one is the school apartments, which are spread out around Matsudo and are taken care of by the school. Then there is the non-school Private style, this is common for teachers who are already living in Japan. The teacher whose apartment I am trying to move into is going back to their own country, and he lived in a Private apartment. There is another teacher from my school living in a school apartment in the same building. What I can’t get yet is why the school won’t sponsor me for my move there (or why they say they can’t just make this new “private” apartment a School Apartment) when they are already sponsoring me for the one I am currently in. They are not going to be put out anything- I am the one who would be paying all the key money to the landlord AND realestate agency (78000 yen EACH) plus 2 months rent as a deposit. I am not asking the school to pay the roughly 3 grand it would cost for me to move. Jeeze I could buy a new leica for that. …and after writing that I wonder which might be the better choice. But anyway without a Japanese national to co-sign for me I will probably just stay where I am. Maybe I ought to just buy that bicycle I want- Which is one of those you see in china town or outside soba shops- big bulky black things with wide tires, leather seats and a system of rods instead of wires for braking. If I have to get pitted out by the time I get to the closest train station I might as well do it in less time than it takes to walk.
>>>> Update
yeah I am going to stay put. Thats best for my wallet for now. I figured I could have a better summer with money in my pocket.
SCREW KEY MONEY!
