1 June 2005

I've been led to believe that the rainy season has now begun. In earnest. With gusto. 

Con MUCHO gusto...

And I don't like it. 

I'm not sure why I think anyone cares, actually. Well, except it's probably because everyone asks that -- "How's the weather over there?" -- and as long as I'm talking about it, I surely should point out that I honestly have found the weather here in Japan approximately ONE BILLION TIMES more enjoyable than in Hong Kong. 

[Insert passage where I point out how much I love HK, "my favorite place in the world", etc. -- but still, the weather in HK (heat, humidity, smog) is insufferable]

Anyway, it's the first of June, and when I went out for a walk this morning I nearly froze my sushi. You've GOT to love THAT -- to be that nice and cool at this time of year?!? Great!

But the wet... the rain... I hope it won't stay long. 

Naturally, I have approximately ONE BILLION adventures to tell about -- but maybe later. Right now I am still running way behind schedule. Sorry.

2 June 2005

Imogen Heap rocks like almost no other girl I've EVER heard:

http://www.imogenheap.com

I have been a HUGE fan since I first heard her about 4 or 5 years ago. She has one CD as a solo artist, and another as part of a duet called Frou Frou -- then her new CD should be here soon. 

You will NOT go wrong with these, trust me.

Okay. Just had to say that... 

3 June 2005

I have been, and remain, super busy. I'm talkin' like Super Mario busy. 

But tonight, I couldn't stand it -- I took a break from the video I'm working on. You see, I have to make this video for our church's big annual convention in a few weeks -- we always call the convention "the G.A." (it stands for "General Assembly") -- which, it's funny how our church people say that so much ("G.A.!") that they start to think everyone ought to know what it is. 

But anyway -- I'm making this "promotional" video to get the word out on two huge events we are hosting here in Japan (in 2006 and 2008) -- and my work on this li'l vid-joe isn't going so hot, and I'm getting a little frustrated because I'm not sure what to put in there, exactly....

So I took a break.

Decided to entertain myself by watching a Police DVD I have -- not police as in "law enforcement" -- but "The Police" -- as in the band.

The DVD -- a collection of their music videos -- is called "The Police: Every Breath You Take" -- and I digress momentously to point out that I find that to be a TOTALLY lame name for this DVD -- they only named it that because that was their biggest hit. It's like that chick Darlene Zschech, who can't even freakin' SNEEZE without somebody slapping a label on her boogers and snot and selling it as "Shout To The Lord: The Platinum Sneeze Edition"...   

But the reason I have the DVD is because it has some "bonus" footage, especially a film produced while they recorded the "Ghost In The Machine" record in Montserrat. 

I have a few comments on this "Police In Montserrat" feature:

      1) The "host" of this filmette ("rockumentary", if you will), is apparently some boob named David Burbidge. I don't know who he is/was, but it is a TRAVESTY to have this bozo involved in even the slightest way. Here he is, in candid interviews with these amazing musicians, and he acts like a 13-year-old nincompoop. Now look -- I'm a missionary, I want to be gracious to all humankind and all that jazz -- but dude, pulling the guitar cable out of Andy Summers' guitar while he is playing the riff to Message In A Bottle, and doing it just so that he'll stop playing and you can ask another question about "what does this button do?" -- well, that's just wrong... DUDE, it's WRONG. I seldom talk to the screen when watching videos -- but in this one, I spent every moment this guy was on-screen saying, "Shut UP!!!" -- he is THAT bad. I HATED it.

      2) Do you remember those videos for Every Little Thing, and Spirits In The Material World, and Demolition Man? The ones where they are in a recording studio? All of those were actually taken from this short film -- I don't know why I didn't know that, but I didn't... 

      3) I would love to know if George Martin had a coronary when he watched the footage of Andy Summers dancing on the console in the Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic video. Dude, he dances... ON... THE... CONSOLE!! 

      4) I noticed they had two Minimoogs in the studio -- one next to Summers which is visible in every "performance", and then another one next to Sting -- Sting actually plays one in the Spirits In The Material World video. Well, he doesn't ACTUALLY play it, since those videos were all pantomimed dance-fests -- but he ACTS like he is playing it. While dancing. In a festive way...

      5) I did a quick internet check and found out that Hurricane Hugo devastated the island in 1989, and the studio closed after that. And that is a MAJOR shame, because it takes about 30 seconds of this video to realize that it must have been an amazing place to make records.

Whatever... 

Oh, and I noticed the video to So Lonely was filmed on the subways of Japan and the streets of Hong Kong -- did you know that?!? I just about freaked when I saw it. I had never actually seen that video, as far as I know, and suddenly here they are on the trains and streets of my life. Ha. 

But yeah -- that video is split between underground shots in Japanese trains and stations, and above-ground shots cavorting around circa-1980 Hong Kong. Cool.  

Well, anyway -- the one last thing I'll say about The Police -- they were so cool. 

And I spent about a minute just now trying to think if there was some slightly more articulate and erudite way to say that, but I failed. Dude, they were just so cool. Stewart Copeland still makes my jaw drop, there is just NO ONE who sounds like that guy (and I include the drummer for that band The Samples who obviously wished he could be Copeland's twin).

. . .

Okay, and I have one "post-script" -- I use FrontPage 2000 to make this webpage, and I notice that it is trying to spell-correct every place above that I wrote "DVD" -- that tells you something about how fast technology changes, doesn't it? That in the year 2000 "DVD" wasn't in the spell-check dictionary... 

21 June 2005

I am still swamped with work... but there, at the end of that tunnel... what is that? Is it light? Why, YES... yes, I believe it is... 

I finally am close to finishing this dumb video I am making. And it is DUMB. I hate it. I always have this "vision" of what it will be like, how the images and music and narration will all fit together in a tiny masterpiece of creative brilliance. But then I start actually putting it together and it just ends up poop.

What's particularly embarrassing about this one is how close it actually is to the video I made for HK about a year and a half ago. THAT video, which most of you have not seen, was something I was very proud of, in fact. A total of about 27 minutes, split into three parts, it had a good script (written by the pastors in HK) and I had months to get it together. Plus, there was that "it's my first one, so anything I come up with is a miracle" factor... 

For this one, on Japan, there's no such "allowance" for it being my "first one"... I've done it before, and while I haven't had months to work on it, I have at least had WEEKS... But it's turning out pretty lame. 

I'll definitely post it here when it's finished, though.  

. . .

Brother, Can You Spare A Gigantic Bag of Dimes?

I just read an article that Tokyo once again tops the list of the world's most expensive cities. This must be about 20 years now that it remains unstoppable, a real heavyweight champ in this department. 

I knew that... 

Give you some ideas:

1) Cost of a movie ticket for ONE PERSON: $18

2) Cost of a crappy Pee Wee Herman bike: $250 (these are bikes that in HK you would buy for about $30, seriously -- they're not "crappy" but still)

3) Cost of a cantaloupe I saw once in Shibuya: $50 -- YES, that was for ONE CANTALOUPE (in a wooden box with velvet lining)

4) Cost of a visit to McDonald's for Mr. Glenn: approx $9, and that is a VALUE MEAL... (though they have recently lowered their prices, I heard -- not sure)

5) Cost of two pizzas, with trimmings: over $80 (you've heard me tell that story before?)

6) Cost of doing three loads of washing at the coin laundry: $27

7) Cost of ONE music CD: anywhere from $22 to $35 (the cost of a three song-EP is usually over $10)

8) Cost of my recent trip to Tokyo for the Reuben Morgan "Modern Rock Worship" event: over $70 ($30 for ticket, $30 for CD and EP I bought, and then over $18 for the train rides there and back)

Well, whatever... I could keep going but I'll just get mad... I'm already "mad"...

I'll put it this way... In HK I would order my groceries over the internet (VERY convenient) and I'd spend about $40 every 4 to 5 weeks, and have it delivered FREE to my door in the exact 2-hour timeframe I chose. Here in Japan, I am spending $40 on groceries at least once a week -- and I have to bag and carry it myself!! The NERVE of some people...

Also, please note that HK dropped in the ratings from 5th to 9th most expensive city. 

24 June 2005

I'm still on my "money" thing here -- bear with me... 

Okay, so I've been thinking for a long time that I'd love to get a few magazine subscriptions. The fact is, the ONLY English reading material I have available is the internet -- OR, the few things I have bought at Amazon. 

So I'd been thinking how much I'd just love that -- get a subscription to Newsweek, or Time, or any one of those weeklies that would help me keep a little better informed about what's going on in the news and culture. I mean, those aren't "heavy-weight" rags, but that's what's good -- they have a smattering of everything, however shallow the coverage. Good enough for what I'm talking about, anyway... So yeah, woke up this mornin' thinking I'll get me a subscription or two. 

"Glenn, you're a dang fool"... 

'Cause you know how much a subscription to Time costs in the USA? I'll tell you. A one-year subscription (about 54+ issues) costs $30 just now. Sounds about right, doesn't it?

Know how much it costs in Japan? One year, 54 issues, of Time Asia... How much does that cost, would you guess?

  ...(scroll down to see).... 

$222!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I want to say I'm mad, but that just doesn't capture it. I want to cry more than I'm mad. Just sit here and weep... That's what I want to do. 

The fact is, there is no way on God's earth I can do THAT. For heaven's sake... 

I mean, I don't have a TV. I don't have a radio or even a stereo. I have yet to find any kind of English news source here in Japan that is worth the time to even look at it -- there may be something good out there, but I sure haven't found it yet. 

So in some ways it feels like I've been in a media "blackout" for the last 9 months, basically cut off from the normal news outlets that keep the modern world informed about itself. I should say, that's not entirely "accurate" to say that -- but it's TRUE, if you dig my meaning...     

No -- all I've got is the stupid internet. And it's a little weird to get all your news from CNN.com and Yahoo! News every day (as if Yahoo! News had much "news" -- it's mostly stories about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes -- or maybe some dog in Germany that sniffed it's way into an elephant pen at the zoo, and befriended the elephant and cured it of it's elephant-depression -- or a real example: I just now looked, and one of the actual headlines was, "Giant Popsicle Melts, Floods NYC Park")... 

SO whatever -- I just wanted a stupid magazine or two. But they won't let me. 

Okay, and WAIT -- hear me on this -- I don't even WANT the stupid Time magazine now -- they can keep it! And I hope the people -- those prospering, moneyed people -- who ARE paying that subscription price... well, I hope they enjoy it and use the information they get each week for GOOD, and not evil...  

And, uh, if anyone reading this here in Japan gets those magazines, can I have them when you're finished? (I was just joking about the "they can keep it" business...)

. . .

Okay, and now I have a special treat for you all. This might revolutionize the way you work with your computer. Which, by "revolutionize" I mean, "making it totally SWEET"... 

So right -- when I was in HK I bought Painter (a computer art program), and I messed around with it a bit for a few months, even got a few cool things done with it -- but wow, it was VERY unstable on that computer! I lost my work about 10 times, and that tenth time I was like, FORGET IT. 

Well, recently I needed to get some "artwork" done, and who better to try it than me? I knew what I wanted but I just didn't know if I should try to buy some paints and a brush or what... On a whim I loaded up Painter, knowing that if I could get THAT to work it sure would save me a LOT of trouble... and it seems to be working GREAT now... at least so far... 

But one of the things I started messing around with was this sketch of a samurai I drew -- there is a very famous painting (or at least I THINK it's famous) of a samurai on horseback leading the charge into battle -- and I basically modeled my guy off that one. 

Anyway, after I did the initial sketch, I started painting in the colors, and suddenly got the idea to make myself my own custom wallpaper for my computer desktop. 

And after about 2 months of puttering about on it -- voila!

Feel free to download it and make YOUR computer desktop rawk!

I do wish to point out that this is one of the funniest things I've done in a while. 

FIRST, the face. You have to admit it's hilarious. Dude, faces are HARD to draw!! The nose is "unique" (to say the least), and I'm not sure how his moustache is coming along there... But MAINLY I love the EYES. The original eyes I drew looked pretty creepy, but not "scary" creepy -- more like "messed up" creepy. Okay, so I thought, "What I need to do is give this guy some more penetrating eyes" -- I mean, he's supposed to be a fierce warrior, right?... so I wanted to make it look like he's staring right thru your soon-to-be-conquered pansy-butt... But, unintentionally, the "final" result is MUCH funnier than the original!! He's totally cross-eyed, and one eye is higher than the other... Nevermind, I kept it that way... it adds "charm"...  

SECOND, his right hand looks pretty messed up. It's NOT, actually. The thing is, I made the sword have a big, round HILT (hand guard) to it, like European/Spanish swords (I know nothing about samurai swords!)... but I guess, in retrospect, it was dumb to paint that hilt/hand guard part the exact same color as the glove on his OTHER hand. It makes it kind of look like his right hand (holding the sword) is in a sort of GI Joe grip, with a sword blade stuck into his fingers... It's NOT -- you can't even SEE his right hand -- dig? His arm stretches out and then his hand is HIDDEN by that hilt/hand guard. Make sense? No?!? Nevermind, I kept it that way... 

At any rate -- I don't actually know that much about samurai -- so nobody should take this as some kind of "statement" or anything... And I think you can realize I just sketched a samurai because I was making this video about Japan, see?... and so I was looking at all these images of that, and, well... you know... But just in case, I still feel it's necessary to apologize in the event that it seems pathetically clichéd for me to sketch a samurai, being as I'm in Japan and all. 

I'm not sure what I'll try to paint next -- maybe some robots or something... 

THAT would be totally sweet... 

. . .

Three photos I grabbed from the HK newspaper, the South China Morning Post, recently:

HK Disneyland is just about to open, so that's pretty exciting -- but notice how polluted the air is in this photo? That's a CLEAR DAY in HK... 

HK has recently been getting ready for a workplace smoking ban, which I suppose bans smoking in all public places (not sure about the details). But somehow I loved this shot of "entertainment workers" protesting the ban -- "It's gonna ruin our businesses!!" 

And lastly, this lady was riding a bus in HK when she was bitten by a centipede -- a 15cm long centipede!! The bus driver stopped, emptied the bus, and then killed the MONSTER -- thus allowing the woman to be photographed at the hospital with her now-lifeless nemesis (see above). Dude, that is SCARY. And it's NOT the first time this has happened on this particular company's busses!!! 

. . .

Oh, okay, here's a flier I saw posted on a telephone pole near the park I go to sometimes:

   
I'm like, "Mr. Trump... YOU... ARE..... FIRED!!!"

(Actually, in Japan they say "trump" to mean "card game" -- so this is really a rather illicit advertisement, if you can put 2 and 2 together (and I think you can) -- sorry to my Japanese friends who may not understand why I'd post something like this -- the Americans understand)... (OH, and I changed the number on the sign, by the way)... 

. . .

I saw a quote recently that has stuck with me -- it's from one of the leaders of that crazy polygamist Mormon sect out west -- you know, the one where hundreds of boys have been kicked out of their towns in the last few years, supposedly for "offenses against the religion" -- stuff like wearing short-sleeved shirts, listening to CDs, or maybe having a girlfriend... 

You know, EVIL stuff like that... 

Well, anyway, the article (and I'm lame because I didn't record where I saw this!), but the article explained that what's REALLY going on is that in these polygamist towns, there just aren't enough girls to go around. I mean, I guess if a guy wants to have, like, 30 wives, then the idea of having to compete with a bunch of teenagers is just too troubling.

Seriously, you've read about this, right? 

So they kick all these teenage guys out onto the street -- LITERALLY drive them to the edge of town and kick them out -- and they are left to fend for themselves. 

SO this one guy, the mayor in one of the towns, was asked why they'd do something like that, just kick all these poor dudes out to fend for themselves, and here he's trying to "explain" that it's because these guys are actually defiant trouble-makers (emphasis mine):

Hildale Mayor David Zitting, an FLDS member, said the exiled boys were defiant. "The people in this community have certain standards and values," Zitting said. "If you have a son or daughter in your home, and their behavior got worse and worse and they defied you, wouldn't you want them to leave?"

Just like that's the most logical thing in the world... 

. . .

Which speaking of guys getting kicked out (tenuous segue coming in 3...2...1... NOW!), here's a photo I just stumbled onto from the day I left home to move to Hong Kong:

Louisville International Airport
21 August 2001

The BAD part is that I look pretty good in this photo, compared to what I'm seeing in my little mirror tonight! I must have aged like 20 years in the last 4... Oh, well. But it was a blast from the past when I saw this...

27 June 2005

As of TONIGHT, I've been in Japan 9 months... Three-fourths of a year... Approximately 270 days... Yep... Good long time... 

I've been thinking about how many things I've done since I got here... Like, I've taken out the trash, I'm guessing, about 65 times... Been to see ONE movie... Been to the foot of Mt Fuji about 3 times... I've ridden maybe 500 trains... Taught a LOT of English classes (sigh)... Oh, and I would guess I've eaten about 150 ham sandwiches. Approximately. 

(In HK it was cup noodles -- in Japan, it's ham sandwiches). 

I LOVE IT HERE. I have had my own share of weirdnesses, and my own share of horrible nights -- shed my own bucket-loads of tears, you know -- this comes with the territory. ANY territory, actually. But I can just not stop expressing to you how much I LOVE IT here. I am so thankful to be in Japan just now. Write that down and post it on your refrigerator. 

Now, I've done some complainin' here recently -- hope it doesn't get you down. The people who know me well know that I'm not REALLY complaining -- no, no, no -- I'm just "getting it off my chest"... I just sit down, start typing, and as soon as it's out of my fingers it's out of my head -- I usually don't even remember what I wrote until a few days later when I come back and read it. No, I just type it and then forget it. No big deal -- just my way of "dealing"...

So it always startles me a little -- not much, but just a little -- when someone writes or calls to talk about something I say here. I guess I figure you really aren't paying attention -- but I'm wrong, ha ha... Sometimes I will get e-mails like 20 minutes after posting something, and I'm like, "Uh, what? What is he talking about?" -- and then I realize, "Oh, he must have already read what I just wrote or something"... and then I have to go back and read what I wrote before I can even respond!! Funny...  

Anyway, regarding my recent yappings: The truth is, things cost a lot here in Japan, and I'm still learning to deal with it. It's pathetic, but I am confessing to you that it's true. 

I've always had MORE than enough money to do whatever I wanted -- amazing wealth, THAT is. My whole adult life has pretty much been that way, though. If I wanted to buy a book, I bought a book. If I wanted to go see a movie, I went to see a movie. If I wanted to eat at McDonald's, I just went to stupid McDonald's and had 'em hook my veins up to the grease vats... I can't live that way anymore -- but I used to, and never even gave it much thought... Can you imagine that wealth?!? I mean, you DO realize that it represents an almost unprecedented standard of living in the history of humanity, right?!?... And not only "in history" but even NOW... 

Ever been to the Global Rich List?!? 

Go there -- put in your numbers -- and then get down on your knees and pray to God. Tell Him how thankful you are. 

And stop complaining just because Time Magazine costs $222 for a subscription in Japan. YES, it's robbery. YES, it's hard to imagine what would possess someone to pay that for a subscription to Time. Yes, yes, yes. 

But stop complaining, okay?!? 

28 June 2005

Hot today. And THICK, dude. Thick like soup... NO!! Not thick like soup -- thick like CHILI. 

They tell me it's the hottest day in June -- in history. 

HISTORY. 

So I'm really being serious -- it's hot. 

. . .

Got some "bad" news from some friends of mine today -- I won't give you details but they are hurting, and so let me just ask -- in a way only followers of Jesus can "get" -- for you to pray for my friends here in Japan who are going through a bit of a rough time right now. THANKS.