I Love You, Goodbye

Let's get one thing straight. I love Michael Jackson. My friend said to me, ナナちゃんと言えば、マイケルジャクソン。The day of his unfortunate passing, I was bombarded with tons of texts and emails being like, are you OK? Did you hear? Your hero is DEAD.I have doubles or triples of Off The Wall, Thriller, and Bad, and most all his singles on Japanese 7-inch. But the biggest proof of my love of MJ would be the uncontrollable sing-along dancing that overtakes me when a song starts up. My fandom is undeniable.

But I am so glad he is dead. It's about time! Now we can all stop talking about how strange and crazy he is and start remembering him for his amazingness!

Ummm to me, Michael Jackson has been dead A LONG TIME AGO. So his actual bodily death is like, whatevs.

It all went downhill after that album BAD. He wasn't awesome anymore- he was straight becoming weird. Some chose to bash him left and right, some chose continue the adoration, ignoring all the eccentricities. They hailed him as the King of Pop and applauded him again and again onto the stage in all his ghostly, pale, fake, glory. Hello? Are you not seeing what I am seeing?

Michael Jackson- born into a strange and abusive family. Child prodigy and musical genius. Black. Famous at the age of 11. Multi- Billion-dollar recording artist. Possibly the most famous muscian EVER. Can we blame him for being messed up in the head? Poor dude. I don't blame you Michael!

I love you, goodbye.

Miranda July

Miranda July teaches us how buttons are made.

PS22 Chorus

I am so jealous of these kids. I wish I could've had a rad chorus teacher like that! They get to sing Bjork and Tori Amos and Eye of the Tiger! When do you ever sing in unison and harmony with a huge bunch of friends pouring your soul out like that?

PS22 Chorus. They are so feeling it and I am so feeling them!

Moment After Moment

This is my favorite spot in Kyoto. A little path between Nashinoki jinja and the Imperial Palace. I bike along it in the morning on the way to work, but the way back is more special somehow. Maybe it's because it's dusk, and the slight decline makes you go zooom. Or maybe it's the fact that I'm headed home instead of to work.

This one minute stretch. We are so small and the trees make a leafy canopy overhead. They inhale our carbon dioxide and we inhale their oxygen!

If you're in the neighborhood, bike along it. You'll feel it too I bet.

Midnight Munchies is the Name of My New Band

Got the midnight munchies? Craving some greasy gyoza and maybe takoyaki octopus balls for round 2? Even if its late night you're still in luck because you are about to venture into the Gion district.

Senmonten has gyoza that taste garlicky as hell but supposedly has 0 garlic in them. They are said to be bite-size so that maiko and geiko don't have to open their mouths so wide to eat them. So spoiled they are! The menu is simple: Gyoza, pickles, rice, and a selection of bevies. They come all crispy and stuck together in block like you just want to pick the whole chunk with your chopsticks and put it in your mouth. On the wall are names of people who ate an extraordinary amount of gyozas and the time in which they ate them. If you break 100 or something you get some free gyoza next time or some gyoza to take home with you. Oh joy. Would you really want more?

OK so you ate like 20 gyozas and had some beer, and you could still use some extra umph, so just go down the street a bit to ---, where some good-looking men with muscular forearms are busy squirting batter into the circular molds and turning and flipping with the metal sticks. Hands down, these are the best takoyaki EVER. They be crispy on the outside and hot and steamy on the inside, and the octopus tastes super fresh and not rubbery or fishy. I personally like the regular sauce ones but the twice fried ones are pretty excellent.

There. That should be no more munchies for you!