hikki and the captain.

This week I got Utada’s United 2006 DVD. It’s really really great. This morning I was watching it before work and I had to keep watching for a while. I have seen parts of it on youtube but now I have the whole thing and it’s just incredible. I was in a great mood after watching some of it. This week I also got ‘Judy and Mary – Pop Life’ and ‘Miracle Night Diving Tour 1996′ DVD.
I was listening today to Utada – Ultra Blue’. It’s great and I was reading the words in Japanese/English to ‘Keep Tryin” Man, Hikki is just great. I played ‘Keep Tryin” a bunch of times. I was also listening to Judy and Mary Pop Life, sounds great. I was also listening to Elton live from 1975 Wembley Stadium (the Captain Fantastic album live). It is great stuff.

Last night I got my haircut by a guy named Bob who I found in the phone book. His shop is right around the corner from my house. Then I went to a photgraphy meetup at Wildflowers in Pennington. It was good, I met two new people and saw Kaye again.
The one girl who I met seems like she is serious about learning and she owns a Nikon D-50 camera. She will shoot a band next week so I might try to go and see how she does with it and get some ideas.
I will probably be shooting Skip next week on March 2 and then hopefully both Japan Nite shows..

Right now I am at work and I putting some George Strait and Akiko Yano on the iTunes. I feel really inspired today by the Hikki Dvd I was watching this morning. Plus I feel pretty good because I got a good nights sleep.
I  am listening to a lot of music today on iTunes with my Grado cans.

Sat 2/24 – Last night after work I went right to Sara’s house. We hung out there for a few minutes and then we went to her school for a Bingo game held by the girl scouts. I was not sure that I had gone to one with her before but when I got there I realized that I had been to one before. It was fun. Sara was not winning at first and  her friends in the troop were winning and getting prizes. She finally won and she got her Hello Kitty beauty kit that she wanted. I was happy to be with her but I was tired from working all week. I worked 47.5 hours this week so I was really tired from working. It was a long day by the time I got home I had been out of the house since morning and it was around 14 hours.

This morning when I got up I was doing my taxes. I thought I had them done on paper and I would just go online and fill out the forms online and be done. It was not that simmple. I discovered some things that I could do differently on the forms regarding the qualified dividends from my stocks. Also, the tuition refund worked out differently online. So it looks like I will file next week. I was watching ‘The Devil and Daniel Johnston’. I watched the whole thing and then some of the bonus features (the part where he is reunited with Laurie, who is the girl he has been thinking of for 25 years since he met her in art school). I thought of a song title when I saw that part ‘Everyone has a Laurie’. Because I think a lot of us have someone like that in our hearts. Someone who we cared deeply about and we can no longer talk to or be with. I know I have one.

Now I am in Barnes and Noble in East Brunswick on Rt. 18. I came up this way to meet a friend and the ‘Sunny Plaza’ Chinese restaurant for some Dim Sum. I love the green tea there so I am looking forward to it. I want to know what tea they use also so I can make it at home. Before I came here I stopped at the Oriental Supermarket on Rt.18. It is a big place with some other stores inside like a mini-mall. I think there is mostly Chinese stuff in there but there is also Japanese stuff. There is an arts store with arts and clothes and knick knacks and stationary that Sara would love. They have some nice artwork for my house but it’s all in Chinese. I will return there at some time and buy some food and fruit. I was just reading a book here about Samuri Warriors. Pretty strange stuff. I will buy a laminated reference card on japanese language and Photoshop CS2 before I leave. Maybe I will wait on the CS2. I hope to get CS3 at some point this year.  I will go meet my friend now.

Sun 2/25 I am at Panera now on Rt.130. I am sitting in the spot that Sara sat last night with my macbook in the same spot. I slept late today because I woke up in the middle of the night. I finished watching the commentary on the Daniel Johnston documentary and I was reminded that the director was from my area. He DJ’d on WTSR and WPRB so I am guessing he went to one of those schools. He also did the great Half Japanese documentary ‘The Band Who Would Be King’ which I have seen and thought it was really good. It is fucking cold and grey in NJ. Sometimes I wonder what I am doing here. Of course, the answer is my daughter and my house. And it’s actually not too bad in the nice months but I wish it was NYC or Philadelphia.

So yesterday I went to Sunny Plaza and met my friend for a couple of hours. The place was empty because we were there from about 3pm to about 4:30pm and when we left there was no one in there except us. By the way, my favorite thing in the world is the Sinapore Noodles at Sunny Plaza. I am planning on going back just for that and I like being alone there. It’s a really nice place with a very cool vibe when you’re alone in there. I did not get to have the green tea, but I found out it is Jasmine tea. After that I went right to Sara’s and picked her up and we came to Panera on Rt.130. We really had nothing to do so we just came here. Sara played games on the computer from the primarygames.com site and Genie and her ate. Genie had soup and Sara had her peanut butter sandwhich and choco milk. I tried the I C Honeydew Green Tea which was really good but cost over $4. I till try one of them again at some time. I just noticed a cold rain coming down outside. Fuck February. It may freeze into black ice. February is almost over. I just need to struggle through March and then I will have completed my goal. What goal? you ask.. well I am not going to write it here. Let’s just say that I will have completed my goal in April and then I can get back to my artistic world.

I plan on taking a week off from work in April. During that week I will be working on photos, starting an ebay business, working on the house (painting/kitchen) and some other stuff like making a trip to the city. Sara is going to girl scouts. I wanted to see her before but Genie worked late. Maybe I’ll see her later.

I was watching Hikki United 2006 today. Some great moments on there. Wow.

Came up with a song title today:

“It’s Heartbreaking” or “It’s Heartbreakin’”

travels

Yesterday (Tue 20th) I worked a 10 hour day. It was the second 10 hour day in a row. I went to Target after work in Moorestown and they were having a clearance sale on the ‘global’ stuff so I got a few Japanese teacup and tray items.
There was a piece of artwork that I wanted before that was gone so I stopped at the Mount Holly store on the way home and when they did not have it I decided to check ou the Nasau park store. When I was looking at Nasau Park I saw a bookshelf that was very nice.

It was originally $280. I bought it and I had to disassemble it in the store and then put it in my car. It took a while and by the time I got home it was after 9pm. A long day.
I talked to Sara on the phone and she was excited. She had off the last two days and she went to the movies with her aunt and grandmother. so when I talked to her she was really happy. She told me ‘I had the most amazing day!!’ She told me about going to get chinese food and how she also went to best buy and she got a DVD and she saw these other DVD’s.. and she went on about it.
I felt good that she was really happy. It was the best part of my day to hear her voice. Today (Wed) I just keep thinking of her voice saying that she had ‘an amazing day!!’. It is the only thing getting me through this boring day at work. I also have a phone message from her from yesterday telling me about her ‘amazing day’ and she says the date and then that she had an amazing day. It’s a really great message and I played it this morning and it made me think of her voice all day. As the week goes on I miss her more and more.

Monday was a long day at work. I got some computer stuff done at home after work and not much else.

I was listening today to ‘Pat Metheny Group – Travels’. I love that album. I really enjoyed it today. There is some great metheny on youtube also. The ‘Travels’ album really takes me back to the early 80’s. It was a big part of the soundtrack to my life then. And it still feels just as fresh and exciting as it did then. I might check into getting a remastered version if there is one. I also listened to ‘Jonathan Richman – I’m So Confused’ today at work. That’s a good album. JoJo has his minimalist thing going and his songs are just straight up great. He has a real personable and great voice also. It was a good listen. I also listened to ‘Orange Sushine’ by Judy and Mary and it was really great. I really love that album. The whole band really shines. I have been listening to that a lot lately.

I have been looking at web designs again. I hope I can get one together sometime soon. Too many options, too little time.

Tonight I was watching ‘Swimming To Cambodia’, The Spalding Grey DVD while working on the computer. I have seen it before. It’s good. I went to the library and dropped off a few, got a couple. Worked on my taxes a bit. Working on my webpage.

grey grey cold cold grey grey cold cold

Cold and grey and grey and cold. Well, It’s the dead of winter so what else would it be? Thursday and Friday nights were largely uneventful. Just the same indoor stuff with the computer and doing household stuff.

Saturday morning I watched a documentary on the Netflix ‘watch now’ feature. It’s a new feature that lets you watch streaming movies for free. I get 19 free hours per month. The documentary was about a comedy tour with Patton Oswalt, Brian Pohsen and some others. It was really good.  Then Sara came over and she watched ‘The Arnold Movie’ on the ‘watch now’. We got some food and we basically just hung out and did not do much. But that was fine because we are just enjoying being together and there’s not much else to do. I was up late and working on my website, basically just going through the files and organizing what was there.

I have been talking on email to Audrey, who is the founder of the Benten label in Tokyo. I told her that I would promote the ‘Japan Nite’ show in Philadlephia and she was appreciative. It will be a great show and she will send me some posters from Japan to put up. I told her that I would take pictures and send them to her and she agreed. I might even try to make the NYC show, because GO!GO!7188 is not on the Phildelphia show.

I am at Panera now. Today (Sunday) I met Sara in the morning at the AMC Hamilton and we saw ‘The Bride To Tribethia’. It was good. There is one plot twist which none of us saw coming and it was really sad and emotional. Sara said afterward that she was crying. It was a different type of film because it mixed the Narnia type stuff with other emotional issues and some real life, mature themes. So we enjoyed it and then went to Lawrenceville to fill Sara’s perscription and then we got a pizza at Nino’s and then went home. Sara was on the net on the Foster’s Home site playing her favorite ‘Foster’s House Party’ game and then she was at amazon.com looking for Fosters stuff. She found a few posters that she wanted. Then she was streaming tons of video from the Nick and Cartoon Network sites. Then she went to youtube and streamed hours of fosters videos. Wow, she sure loves Foster’s. I was enjoying some of it with her. Then we were watching a bunch of Judy and Mary. She just got into some new songs of theirs like ‘Over Drive’ and ‘Popstar’. We watched about a half hour’s worth of Judy and Mary and part of a Yuki TV performance. Then I took them back to their car at AMC and now I am at Panera on rt. 1. I wanted a coffee, but now that I have it I actually want something cold also. I think I will go to Barnes and Noble soon and get something there. The new cafe should be set up by now. I have not been there in about three weeks or so.

Judy and Mary ‘Miracle Night Driving’ is playing on iTunes and my Grado headphones. I am loving it.

It seems like a lot is going on in March and so I am just trying to get some basic stuff done in February while it’s cold. Last week I was looking at web site design and trying to get some example sites together. I am looking at using simpleviewer, slideshow pro, and even possibly Flex 2 to get some things together. I found some cool sites on the web featuring some great photographers from around here. ther is a lot of talent in this area. I am meeting a lot of people in NYC and Philadelphia also.

Sara was great as usual this weekend. I miss being with her right now even though I saw her both days this weekend. She is the greatest. We laughed a lot together this weekend and she is a very happy girl. I gave her a bunch of roses today and she knows I love her very much. I can never complain about anything if she is happy. She is the very very best girl in the world. I need to work hard to make her proud of me and get her involved in what I am doing.

staring at a valentines day card

I am staring at the card that Sara gave me for Valentines day. I couldn’t love it more. I love her so much. I love the card that she gave me. I have it sitting in front of me on my desk at work and it just means so much to me I could never put it into words. I still don’t know how I survive without seeing her every day.
The card says ‘Happy V. Day Dady’ on the inside. She spelled Daddy wrong. Last night on the phone she was trying to get her Hello Kitty phone to work but it was not charged yet. When she said goodnight she called me DaDa like the old days. Sara is my world. I never loved anything more than I love her and I never will.

I am looking at some software to help me publish my photos online. Slideshow pro looks really good. It uses flash8 to create slideshows and web gallerys. It is not very expensive so I think I’ll give it a try.

Today I am staying at work until after 5pm. It will be dark when I leave. I am not crazy about it but I need to make up some time. I need to use a vacation day to make up my day off yesterday because of the snow. That is a good reason to hate the bad weather. I want all my vacation time for nice weather.

april come she will

It’s official. I am dying for spring to get here. Yesterday (Tues) There was a little bit of snow but not a lot. I was up late Monday night so I went into work a little later. I was watching ‘The Detective’ with Frank Sintatra. It’s a fun movie to watch because it was made in 1968 and it’s so set in it’s time. Frank says some pretty funny things that are not meant to be funny but looking back on them they are. Johnny came over last night and brought my new blue telecaster. I have been playing that guitar at his house during rehearsals for years and now, finally it’s mine. Man, it’s really nice. I love that thing.

It snowed last night but it was a freezing snow. The roads were horrible and everything was frozen. I actually tried to go to work like an idiot but I turned around after one exit on 295. When I finally got home I watched the movie ‘Election’ and then went to sleep again and slept until around 3pm. ‘Election’ is pretty good. I like Tammy Metzlers campaign speech. Very funny. Tammy rules in that movie. Matt Broderick is very funny in it also. So, after I got up I met Genie and Sara at Panera on rt.130. I gave Sara her Valentines day stuff (she still pronounces it ‘Valentimes Day’.. so cute. She looked cute in her blue coat and blue snow pants and white scarf. Anyway, she got a snoppy balloon, boquet of flowers, Hello Kitty ‘Everywhere’ book, Hello Kitty guitar picks, Hello Kitty cordless phone and a Star Wars Xbox game. I also got her two cards (one was hello kitty) and she gave me a very nice card which she made with glued-on sparkels. She was happy and she played her usual Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends game on my macbook. I told her that we should start writing songs and she agreed saying something like ‘Yeah, I want to write songs’. I reminded her that Hikki started writing songs at age ten at her parents request. I need to get back into it. Wow, I sure am in an artistic rut. I admit it. Working everyday and paying bills can do that to you. But I never lose hope. I am realistic, I know it won’t happen overnight. I must work hard at it.

Watched some Saturday Night Live season 1 tonight and Sara called. She said she was happy and she likes her gifts. It is all icy and bitter cold outside right now. The last two days have been the coldest yet. We are truly in the dead of winter but we are less than one month from daylight savings and the weather should start getting nicer in a few weeks. I wish it was April already. January and February basically suck and they always will here on the east coast.

I am reading this book. Actually it’s a quick read and I read it all today in two sittings. It’s good. It’s called ‘Why Sinatra Matters’ by Pete Hamill. I downloaded this Frank album called ‘Watertown’. Long live the art of Frank.

it’s still cold and grey in NJ

weekend of 2/10/07 continued – Saturday 2/10 . Sara met me at the Library. We went to the Chinese place and then back home. Sara got her blue gatorade at the shop rite. We watched some Episodes of Foster’s Home on youtube. Sara wanted me to see them and she wanted to watch them again. They are not on DVD yet. So I suffered through them but Sara was happy. Then we wathed The Simpsons Season 9 Disc 4. We started with ‘Lost Our Lisa’ and then went to ‘Girly Report’. Man, Season 9 is just stellar. Once again both episodes were absolutely amazing. We had fun watching them and at one point we found the line ‘Feeling stupid, I know I am’ from Homer which Sara has on her talking keychain toy.
After watching that we played some Black Jack and Sara was surfing the cartoon network site and playing games. She created a login account for a ‘Fosters House Party’ game. We watched a few videos of Judy and Mary. I fell asleep soon after they left.

Driving over to my house we were listening to ‘Hello Orange Sunshine’ and I showed Sara the line where Yuki says something about a ‘Teddy Bear’ or ‘Teddy Beah’ as Yuki sings it. Later we were watching the warp tour final last song of ‘Over Drive’.

Sunday I went to the library after doing stuff at home all morning. It was actually very sunny and although cold it did not feel as bad today as the other freezing days. I ended up going to the Library and then to meet Genie and Sara at Panera on Rt. 130. I was blogging there and surfing around. Then when Sara came she ended up taking over the laptop and going to cartoon network’s site to play the games again we did a little youtube but not much because Genie kept saying ‘We have to go!’. Sara wanted to drive with me so I followed Genie to get gas and then back to her house. Sara was happy and you could tell that she misses me. I miss her too. She gave me some nice long hugs in Panera and also at the house, outside when I was saying goodbye. I felt good after I came home because I had seen her. I got a salad at Villa Rosa and I was up late on the computer.

Monday 2/12 – It feels like a bit of a wasted day. I worked an extra half hour because it’s supposed to snow this week and I want to use as little vacation time as possible. I am saving it for the spring.
I took a long nap after work and it messed up my sleep cycle. Now it’s 12:40am and I can’t sleep so I am typing and watching a Frank Sinatra movie in the background (‘The Detective’). I hope I can get to sleep soon or tomorrow is going to be a long day.
I like snow sometimes, but I am not in the mood for it right now. It would be fine with me if it didn’t snow at all this season. On a brighter note there are some good shows coming in March. Japan Night is coming on 3/13/07 to Philadelphia. Gito Gito Hustler is coming in late March. Skip will be in town on March 2nd. I have not seen Skip in quite a while. I can’t even remember the last time unless I really think about it. It may have been when he was on WRTI and we went up to the station together after one of his gigs.

There’s a few more cool things happening and more and more to come as the weather gets nicer. Plus we are less than a month from daylight savings and just over a month until my one year work goal is complete. So I hate to live for the future instead of in the moment but it really does seem like I want February to end and to just get to March. I know it’s not a great attitude because the best way to live is to enjoy every minute. So I am trying to find a balance in there somewhere.

another simpsons weekend in february

Sara is going through a big ‘Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends’ phase. It’s a crazy cartoon on cartoon network. I am at Panera on rt. 130. Grooving to Judy and Mary on the Headphones (‘Oh, Can Not Angel’ from Miracle Night Diving on iTunes). I ordered ‘Pop Life’ so I will soon have 4 Judy and Mary cd’s and a few to go. I can’t get enough Judy and Mary. I am on the free Internet here, so I can pop over to youtube and check out the live version of the same song. I think I will do that. See ya.

united nations in a high school cafeteria

I went to Sara’s girl scout ‘Nations of the World’ thing last night. It was the second one. I think we did the same thing last year. Sara’s troop did ‘Mexico’ and Genie was very involved in getting the whole thing together. She really put a lot of effort into it and it showed. She did a great job. Sara was dressed in a Mexican white dress with her hair done up in ribbons. She looked great. There were homemade tortillas and some other stuff on the table. There was also a big Mexico poster with facts and pictures and a bunch of decorations. She brought Sara’s new boom box that she got for Christmas to play Mexican music. I met them at the school and helped them carry the stuff in. Genie was a bit stressed because she had to work hard getting everything together. It was a big job. They got the table setup and then eventually we made the rounds to all the tables (countries). Sara had hot chocolate, pudding, cookies and cakes. I tried the homemade rice pudding which was good. Megana was with Sara and they stuck together. Sara was crying when she first got there, something happened with one of the girls there but I am not sure what. She was moody at first but then she felt ok after a while. When I asked her what was wrong she kept saying ‘You’re making it worse’. We were there for a while and then we took the stuff back to Genie’s house and I went in to spend time with Sara. She was showing me how she plays her Spongebob Bikini Bottom xbox game and I was showing her some stuff on guitar. I showed her a G chord and she played it pretty well. She remembered it after taking her fingers away. I went home at arounde 11pm and I fell alsleep right away. This morning I was at the house doing stuff and now I am at Lawrence library using the internet connection here for the first time. I am waiting for Sara and Genie to meet me. Genie needed a new front tire on her car yesterday and I helped her by calling places and setting it all up. I am also paying for it and it will be more money than expected because she needs a part replaced before they can align it. I got ‘The Collected Works of the Roches’ today from Amazon and I will give it to Sara today as a gift.

places from my childhood

Thurs 2 8 – I went to the post office and picked up my copy of ‘Akiko Yano – Japanese Girl’. It shipped from Hong Kong. I also received ‘Joe Strummer – Let’s Rock Again’ on DVD from Netflix. The CD has members of Little Feat on the ‘American Side’. It is Akiko’s first album and she is very young, probably in her teens when she made it.
I think she married the producer of that record. That’s where the ‘Yano’ comes from, it’s not her family name. It is not very long but it sounds really good. I watched a bunch of the Strummer DVD while eating cereal for dinner. It’s really good. It shows Joe on tour with his band and it’s very behind the scenes with lots of interview stuff with Joe and lot’s of backstage clips and onstage clips of the band playing. It is shot all over the place on tour including Japan.
The Japanese seem to appreciate Joe more than the Americans. At one point he is standing on the boardwalk in Atlantic City NJ. Promoting the gig to passers-by by handing out handmade flyers. It’s wild.

Today (Friday 2/9) I came into work a bit late because I needed some extra sleep and because I had some problems with my home alarm. It is fixed now but it caused me some hassles last night and this morning. I have been mailing my netflix back from a mailbox on Greenwood Avenue. It is in front of the (now empty) Parkway Deli. I did not realize it was empty and the other day I looked in the window and the inside is pretty well emptied out.
I flashed back to the days when I was a kid and I would ride over on my bike or walk over and get some candy from the rack near the register. Or I would be in there with my parents. It seemed like the world was more simple then, more innocent and simple. Like all you ever needed was a loaf of bread and some milk. It made my heart heavy. I could feel the little kid inside of me buying candy on a warm summer day with my bike parked outside.\
The front of the store had not changed much. There are old stores in the neighborhood that bring back memories of going to them as a child and with my parents.

Among these are places from my childhood: Mike’s Steak House. Lee’s Pharmacy. China Garden (I remember the lady on the phone in her happy Chinese voice “Hello, China Garden”). Pep Boys auto (and the dude ‘Ken’ that worked there who was always trying to pick up our girls when we were teenagers). The Parfait House (I remember eating there as a kid with my parents). Ed Cook’s Shell Station (always on my block, a standard).
some of the businesses are still operating: IHOP on the corner (I remember going there with my parents as a kid and I would get the happy face thingy, pancakes with a happy face made of cherrys and a pinapple smile). IHOP was also my first job when I was around 16. I was the midnight shift busboy on weekends. How did I function with those hours? I am guessing it was summer time, no school. I don’t remember sleeping during the day but I guess I did somewhat. I probably just didn’t sleep.

I remember the Ground Round. It was the last place I ate with my Dad. I remember going for a walk about a year ago before they tore it down and It was closed but I looked in the window and saw the booth where I sat with my Dad that last time. It was after he got out of the hospital and we stopped there on the way home. I wish more than anything that I could eat with him again. I wish more than anything that I could be with my parents again. It is strange to have no parents. It is something that I have gotten used to I guess. But it was not long ago that my dad was around. Trust me, that weighs heavy on me. When I read Henry Rollins and he has no feelings about his parents I could not feel more differently. I am the opposite of that, I live every day missing my parents dearly.

hontouni doumo arigatou gozaimasita

Last night I met with a Japanese languge meetup group. It was fun. It is good for making some contacts with people who are also learning to speak Japanese (or already speak it).
It would be better if there was more activity in central NJ, rather than having to go to Philadelphia to meet people. But I am glad that I went I met a few interesting people. A few American guys could speak very well in Japanese.
It is hard to find others who really care about Japanese music. Most people are much more focused on animation. It seems like most people are into video games and the music that they hear on them. What an awful way to listen to music, on a videogame. But yet many of the Japanese music artists are most know for the music from the videogames. Oh well, I wish it was only about the music. I guess I’m old school.. hehe.

I know there are others with a passion for great Japanese music, they are out there and with the help of the internet we are finding each other. I watched more Judy and Mary on youtube today (like I have been for the past two weeks). I watched the final number of WARP tour final again. I found the text of what Yuki says at the end of the final number (Over Drive) from the WARP tour. She says the following:

“Judy and Mary WARP TOUR 2001 In TOKYO-DOME FINAL”
“Atsumatte kite kureta minasan”
For all audience coming this concert
“sosite,koremade ouensite kureta minasan”
and have been cheered us all the time
“hontouni doumo arigatou gozaimasita”
thank you very very much!

Wed (2/7) Sara had a choir concert in the school cafeteria. It was short and it was the same few songs that they did a couple weeks ago. It was like a teacher appreciation night type of thing. There were not many people there. Sara was happy to see me. I took pictures and video. They had snacks afterward and I got to hang out with Sara for a bit but Genie kept saying ‘We have to go’. Then Sara wanted to drive with me but Genie just wanted to take her so they could go to the drugstore and then get straight home. But Sara was crying in the van because she wanted to go with me so I convinced Genie to let her go with me and we went to Eckert Drug and we fooled around in there for a few minutes while Genie got medicine for her mom. Sara let me hug her while walking to the store from the car and also on the way back to the car and then we said goodnight and she was happy again. It’s hard on Sara and I to see each other for just little amounts of time. Genie doesn’t fully understand that because she doesn’t know what it’s like for Sara and I. We are both ‘only children’ and Genie always had a big family.