Lotusblog

I was somehow able to get up extremely early this morning. Ate some
cookies. Read the news. Checked my email. The usual morning routine. I then
rode to the gym, swam and then while I was relaxing and preparing myself for
the coming day, there was another earthquake.

I have often wondered what it would be like to be in a pool or a bath when
an earthquake strikes- well today I found out. I was in the jacuzzi (where
all gentlemen should be at half past eight in the morning) when the swaying
started and the water started sloshing around. My sports club is actually on
the 9th floor of a central Osaka office building, so I imagine that the
swaying was amplified by the height of the building. It only lasted about 15
or 20 seconds, and wasn’t as intense as the ‘quakes over the last couple of
days, but nonetheless it was kinda scary. At least I was doing something I
enjoy- if worst came to worst I would hate to die in an earthquake whilst in
an ATM queue, riding the subway or even at work. Dying in a jacuzzi doesn’t
seem like a bad prospect at all.

As always, The Cowboy was absolutely right.
Lens flare makes everything better. The world becomes full of hope again. Melancholy vanishes. Hello hope.

Lens flare makes everything better

Thanks to M and S for modelling for this picture.

So if lens flare can enhance our visual world, then can you imagine what happen if only it could ameliorate our aural world, too? Try to imagine, if you will, Pavement’s Major Leagues or Burt Bacharach’s Pacific Coast Highway with lens flare. The concept alone is bringing tears to my eyes.

For the time being at least, I have my work cut out for me. I am going to go through my photo album and add lens flare to every photo I have.

There were two big earthquakes here tonight . The first, around 19:00 stopped trains and scared a lot of people. Apparently it caused some injuries in Kyoto. I was waiting for a friend at Big Man near Hankyu Umeda station whilst talking to a different friend on the phone. The phone-friend panicked and hung up (she was on the fifth floor of a building in Osaka) and while I could feel the floor moving (the sensation is sort of like standing on a large boat that is rocking ever so slightly) I wasn’t sure how big it was. The second happened about 5 hours later at midnight, the train I was riding at the time suddenly slowed down to a crawl, while the train conductor explained there had been an earthquake.

The second was actually the larger of the two (I think it was 7.3 on the Richter scale) and by this time I was a little concerned as to what state my apartment would be in. Everything was OK- a few things had shifted slightly, but that was all.
I am glad I wasn’t home: earthquakes make me pretty nervous and I think I probably would have started freaking out. It’s times like this I am glad I live in a new reinforced concrete building.

I am interested to know what happened (if anything) to Kansai Airport- being stuck in the middle of Osaka Bay not far from the epicentre can’t have been pleasant. Tsunami of up to one metre were also caused by the ‘quakes- and again, I am not sure where they struck and if any damage was caused. September has been pretty exciting so far, what with the huge Typhoon Number 16 passing through last week, and now this.
Typhoon Number 18 is also rapidly approaching.

Batten down the hatches.

Asahi Shinbum’s Vox Populi, Vox Dei column is seldom overtly political, but even thorny political subjects are tackled with its usual aplomb and grace. This is one of the very few newspaper commentaries I actually look forward to reading. Even more remarkable is the fact that it is originally written in the vernacular and then translated into English featuring the following day in the English Language Asahi Shinbum (in Japan it’s included with the International Herald Tribune).

You can see the original Japanese version of the above column here .

Luna’s Tiger Lily is the my song of the week. It’s incredible; indie pop taken back to the basics. Sounds almost like a direct descendent of the Flying Nun early 90’s New Zealand sound. In fact it could be- I’ve no idea where they are from.
The tragedy though is that this particular piece of aural heaven only lasts four minutes and forty seven seconds.

And speaking of weeping, I am interested to hear whether the Cowboy actually made it through the entire Brown Bunny album, or whether he’s still stuck at the first track. Cowboy, are you there? Are you listening?

If only I had a forty gigabyte portable music player made by Apple Computer. If only.

So the Russians, after being warned by a demoralised, exhausted and pretty pissed off group of Chechen Freedom Fighters (sorry, I won’t be referring to them as terrorists on this page) that military action would be highly inadvisable, still, quite inexplicably, stormed the school. Said freedom fighters are getting pretty skilled now- they are starting to get an idea for how far they can push the Russians, and thanks to their previous defeats (such as the Moscow theatre siege) they are also getting more skilled and ambitious.
I have only read the BBC website’s news coverage of this story; I haven’t seen any TV footage or read about it in any other sources, so I am now going to refrain from making any snap judgments about this.
It is interesting however, to read the snap judgments of others. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions (after all, conclusion jumping is hardly my job and something at which I seldom excel) but I did notice that people who posted from countries of The Coalition of the Willing ™ were quick to post rather hackneyed and predictable “opinions”.

Interesting, I thought to myself. It’s just such a pity and so sad that in a couple of months it’ll all happen again.

Louis and Oscar have finished, now Barry White’s Love’s Theme has started playing. I had forgotten how musically perfect this is. Guitars. Strings. Trumpets. Funky basslines. What more could you want in a four minute package?

With Typhoon Number 16 here at the moment, it has understandably been pretty windy. Funny thing was, today was another scorcher, so walking around Umeda was like walking around a sauna containing a high-powered fan. Quite a strange experience.

I am at home now, listening to Louis Armstrong and Oscar Peterson and pretending to do work. Problem is I keep having to get up to look outside to see if anything has happened- the wind is now absolutely incredible. I don’t recall it ever being this windy before- maybe it’s because I live by the sea. I just hope it has all gone by tomorrow and cycling days are here again.

Many thanks to Mike who posted this scary picture of me at the end of our recent video chat.

Oh dear.

You just wait ’til you’re on video.

***

Anyway, it’s Friday night again. It seems like every night is Friday night. Actually, every night is Friday night. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about.
Yesterday I met Momus. He was wandering around our gallery and interviewed me for his audioblog, and also posted a rather scary picture of me on his site which you can find here . It’s interesting to read his thoughts as he travels around what has become my home.
And if you want to know why I am wearing bunny ears… well you’ll just have to listen to the recording.

A bunny boy at gm

… the newest member of the family.

Mongoose Fairlane

Woah.