Dudes just wanna have fun

As promised, the videos of the dancing cross dressing maids, all part the discussion of moe in anime culture at Temple University's Youth and Imaginative Labor: East Asia and Beyond Conference. For more pix of the evening, see this link.

Sand Mandala

Last night The Other Half and I went to the evening session of the Youth and Imaginative Labor: East Asia and Beyond conference sponsored by Temple University. The session was held at Super Deluxe, an art/club space in Roppongi. Unlike the political/economic/history conferences that we usually attend, this academic conference was . . .well. . .just cool. This leads me to wonder whether anthropologists simply have more fun. The grand man himself, Donald Richie was there, introducing the film Avalon.

Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each - for a total of 6 minutes 40. While the quality was uneven, there were two clear standouts: the video from RinpaEshidan, and a very good presentation of the "Moe" (Mo-ay, not the guy in the Three Stooges) in anime culture. I'll post more photos later and my video clip of the dancing cross dressing maids. In the meantime, here is something more sublime. . .

I wake from my dream of electric sheep

Dawn in Tokyo. . .sometimes I feel like I live in Bladerunner's movie set. . .(Photo by The Other Half).

The Kindness of strangers

I asked my local florist for two peony stems (they were so beautiful I couldn't resist)-- and he gave me an enormous bouquet as the flowers were too far gone to sell. . . I went home with an armful of sweet smelling flowers. . .

Happy spring!

"Daffodils" (1804)
I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake,
beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

50 things to eat before you die

On NPR Food, the host interviewed Arena magazine's Anna Longmore on her list of 50 things to eat before you die. Longmore's list sounds a lot more adventurous than the BBC's list of 50 foods with elk heart, fugu, Kobe beef, English cream tea, monkfish liver, vegetarian black pudding and that cliche, fugu. The list looks like a lot of culinary chest pounding and conspicuous consumption: just because it's exotic doesn't make it good (although monkfish liver is really quite good).

What's on my list? It's not too exotic. . .

1) Chocolate. Rococo Chocolates in London will do nicely
2) Morels with anything. I almost prefer them to black truffles, although fresh pasta smothered with truffle shavings is always good
3) Matstutake mushroom rice, made with too much sake.
4) White peaches, fresh off the tree, still warm from the sun
5) Perfectly roasted gingko nuts and salt.
6) Good Tofu. This is not as easy as most tofu is horrible industrial stuff.
7) Scrambled eggs (made with really fresh eggs) with lots and lots of caviar (yes, I know about the caviar moratorium)
8) Real Ramen with lacy gyoza
9) Clotted cream.
10) Wild honey and stinky cheese (the stinkier the better)
11) The Other Half's lemon Chicken
12) A perfectly ripe persimmon with a cup of green tea
13) Really good uni (sea urchin). Unless you know the fisherman, don't eat it. Most uni is horrible stuff as it's not fresh enough
14) Good tea: good quality green tea and my favorite, blueflower Earl Grey with extra bergamot
15) Cha sui Bao
16) Toasted crumpets dripping with too much fresh butter
17) Thick streaky well smoked bacon or Chinese crispy pork fat (don't knock it until you try it)
18) Mangos-- so ripe the juice drips down both arms and has to be eaten over the sink
19) Real Kobe beef (most of the so called Kobe beef in the US or UK is anything but!) or at the other extreme, well hung dry aged beef that got a proper coat of fuzz and guck.
20) Hairy crabs from Hokkaido
21) McDonald's breakfast hash browns
22) Tempura fuki no to: deep fried bitter spring greens

I'm running out of steam, but given a second wind, I'll think of some more. What's on your list? I'm thinking of you Mr. HP and your endless gastronomical appetites!

Podpeople

SunsetOnTheWater lost and then found her ipod -- which got me thinking, What's on your ipod?
My "must have" list:

1) Kiku Nikkei: Digest-- The Nikkei Newspaper (the main financial newspaper in Japan) summarized. Rumor has it that there are English versions as well. This takes me through most of my commute
2) NPR news 4PM 5 minute summary and NPR Story of the day: This takes me through the rest of my commute
3) Slate Explainer, and Slate Daily podcast
4) NPR's Wait wait don't tell me! This reminds me of BBC Radio 4's news quizzes--I wish Just A Minute became a podcast.
5) NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross: I listen to this on my commute home
6) NPR's Car Talk Call of the week
7) NPR's This American Life: I look forward to this every week. . .
8) NBC's Meet the Press
9) In Our Time, BBC Radio 4
10) Some really bad music-- namely something along the lines of Fergie's Glamourous and Timberlake's SexyBack, and too much Eminem (it's all good when entering data)

Lifework

Headline on CNN on the death of movie director Robert Clark:
'A Christmas Story' director, son killed in crash

Headline on BBC:
Porky's director dies in crash

Axis of Evil

Beware of the brown menace, Part II: NPR Fresh Air's Terry Gross speaks to Maz Jobrani, Ahmed Ahmed and Aron Kader who make up the Axis of Evil Comedy group. (They're of Iranian, Egyptian and Palestinian descent, respectively).

Click here to listen to the clip from Fresh Air, funny and tragic at the same time.

See a clip of Maz Jobrani below: