Are you telling me there really isn't some one better to send to the UN? For God's sake, it's the UN! The U-N-I-T-E-D N-A-T-I-O-N-S!

Bush's man for the UN. I don't understand what goes on (or doesn't) in that man's brain.

G'uh

It's been a pretty bad day. I'd tell you about it but I don't have the energy. Will someone please show me some love?

There you are!

Quick spotlight on Found Magazine, a magazine that collects found stuff like birthday cards, notes, scraps of papers, photos and kids' homework. I came upon this while listening to This American Life recently, which if you are not listening to regularly, needs to be corrected immediately, its one of the best and most original voices on social commentary in any medium, radio, film or tv. You can listen to the creator of FOUND magazine, Davy Rothbart, reading some of his favorites submissions in the last segment of the episode Lost in America (originally aired 6/6/03); it's entertaining, funny, and touching, check it out.

Freeday Weekend comes to an end

Wow, that was awesome. Due to a national holiday on Monday, (say it with me kids, V-E-R-N-A-L E-Q-U-I-N-O-X) we had a freeday weekend and it was, yes you guessed it, awesome. Saturday, Sean and I headed over to Akihabara to hunt down a region-free dvd player and of course, accompanying dvds. Seems (both!) Beck and Daft Punk's new albums are already out here even though they don't come out in the States for I think a week or two. Took a free listen at Tower, pretty good stuff. At Akihabara, we had the unusual experience of handing over a hundred bucks to a street vendor selling the all-region player only to have him cheerily chirp, "One second please!" and then run off in the other direction into a crowd. A little scary at the moment but it all turned out fine. In fact, the dudes were surprisingly really nice. They even took out the player right there in the middle of the street and hooked it up for us!

Last night, Penny, Sean, and I hung out for a good ole night of pizza, beer, and movies. We watched the Christopher Walken SNL Special (that man is a gift from on high), A Mighty Wind, Manhattan, and James and the Giant Peach. It was fantastic, one of those nights where you end up staying up until 2 in the morning drinking Teacher's Whiskey and trading stories. Been awhile since that happened, it was fun, thanks guys.

Finally today, Sean and I took an awesome bike ride to Wako City to a nice, big park. It was freakin sweet. The weather was great and it felt really nice to be outside and get a small taste of nature. Japan doesn't really seem like a cohesive place until you bike throught it; when you get on a train, it's like being magically transported from one place to another but on your bike, you get to see all the small details, sidestreets, old ladies going for walks, parents with their kids, old men playing go on park benches, moms hanging the laundry. At one point, we came to a small, steep hill directly adjacent to a small cemetary that covered all the surrounding area in the smell of burning incense. When we reached the end of our ride, we got to the park entrance, which is a road covered on both sides with cherry blossoms. The cherry blossom trees are starting to bloom here but only in pockets here and there. In about two weeks everything will be in full bloom and it will be beautiful pink tapestry. Today was a small taste of that and it was great. Here's to freeday weekend, thank you!

Bill Murrary VS Macaullay Culkin

We're at the end here at Niiza DaiYonChu junior high school. The school year ends in two weeks and there's pretty much nothing constructive to do. Unless of course you count sleeping at your desk and reading until your eyes bleed ink onto 43 types of differently sized paper. Anyway, it being the last week of classes, we've decided to screen movies in my English Conversation class. My Japanese team teaching partner , Mrs. Yoshida, and I each brought in a movie and we asked the students to choose which one they wanted to watch. Mrs. Yoshida brought in Home Alone 2, where Kevin MacCallister, incomparably played by Macaulay Culkin, is again seperated from his family only to spend X-Mas in New York City with a gang of second rate actors like Tim Curry, Joe Pesci, and Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigalo. All while he secretly pines to be reunited with the mom from BeatleJuice, who incidently also happens to be his mom (strange world huh?). Tempting, I know.

My contribution to movie week may have been a little bit less eclectic. Unable to secure Labyrinth, I instead brought in Ghostbusters. Now I know, in terms of childrens' films, Ghostbusters doesn't hold a candle to the cinematic wonders of Labyrinth: Jennifer Connelly, Jim Henson's Muppets, 80s music, David Bowie, and let's not forget David Bowie's cod piece (there are apparently websites dedicated just to Bowie's codpiece in Labyrinth!). No contest but I think Ghostbusters does an admirable job of competeing. Exhibit A: “Yes it's true your honor. This man does indeed have no dick.” Pretty tight.

So while Ghostbusters may pale in comparison to Labyrinth, when pitted against Home Alone 2, the choice seems clear and self-evident. But then again, I'm not a 13 year old Japanese junior high school student. To my complete and utter astonishment, the little devils chose Home Alone 2! And I just stood by and let it happen. My entire time within the JAPANESE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, I've been told that my job as a teacher is to guide the students onto the path of knowledge and wisdom. I should have realized that these children are simply too young to understand the signifigance and educational value of Ghostbusters. This is what I get for putting my faith in a generation raised on SpyKids and the Harry Potter movies. No, it's my fault. I let them down. I failed in my capacity as counselor and educator. From now on, I will try and give these kids the education they deserve gosh darn it! Expose them to such essential classics as The Goonies, The NeverEnding Story, Time Bandits, BeatleJuice, TMNT, Monty Python and of course, Labyrinth.

I'm sorry kids. I let you all down. Instead of forcefully imposing my own superior taste in films, I let you choose Home Alone 2.I shudder just thinking about it. But you didn't know any better. And I did. I am truly sorry. I won't let you down again, I promise.

Appendum: One class FINALLY chose Ghostbusters over Home Alone2. It was the honors class. Of course. I feel old.

Playing catchup..but not really

Hi. I don't know if you remember me, I use to post here occasionally. I've been a bit derelict in my posting lately, caught a bug and whatnot. Anyway, I'm going to be switching to a new publishing format called Wordpress and this site may be down for awhile but fear not! We (the party of one known as myself) will return shortly with greater design control and actual content this time. In the mean time don't forget to check out marichan and sean's sites, who are inspiring me to get my bu-tocks in gear. One last thing, some Daily Show clips to bide your time. Enjoy.

Good Night Sweet Prince: Hunter S. Thompson (1939-2005)

Raoul Duke is dead at 67 from a self-inflicted shotgun wound. Hopefully, Thompson and Horatio Alger are kickin back a few right now. R.I.P.