手取川 Tedorigawa 手取川

Venetian Slime Woman

2011-12-04T00:37:00.001+09:00

I wrote a sci-fi novel about a strange group of people who grow from mold and can't die except after the birth of their grandchild. And the unnamed government agency that ones to dissect one - "for research purposes" - of course, and how a daring EPA water specialist saves, protects, and falls in love with one.

Then I printed it out and bound it up to create three copies (one has been given away already) of a unique book that is also fun to read.

"The Venetian Slime Woman: A Biological Love Story" is available at Smashwords.com and, handbound, from me.

Email me at Tedorigawabookmakers.bookmakers@gmail.com if you would like to purchase one of the two remaining copies. The one copy I gave away was given to the inspiration for the EPA water quality specialist - a friend who is an EPA water quality specialist; or was before retiring into private consulting work. In Venice? No, alas.

Junque Journals and Fun

2011-11-24T13:01:00.001+09:00

Life is definitely for the fun-loving person. If you want to record your life as you live it, perhaps you'd like to make a Junque Journal (sometimes called an artist book or an altered book. Maybe even called a journal.) Here is a video I found for you all from TangieBaxter's YouTube channel.

She also has the three-part video on how to make this unique Junque Journal. It can be found at this link here: Link Here. Enjoy making a journal or just watching the video.

Calvado Cover

2011-10-27T10:39:00.001+09:00

Here is a photo I'm thinking of using for the cover of my novel

CALVADO: A Deadly Love Story

Calvado is a fashion model/medical school student who gets caught up with a gang-related singer with a deadly disease. Soon to be released on Smashwords.com If I finish editing it soon; after all, NaNoWriMo is just around the proverbial corner and my new novel

THE BLIND OPTHAMOLOGIST

is itching to be written.

White Dragonfly Coptic

2011-10-02T00:35:00.001+09:00

I made a small blank notebook with hand-backed cloth, Coptic binding, colored thread. Maybe 160 pages (10 signatures of four sheets each). I think it came out quite well and was a welcome respite from books that require glue (casebound, for example).

Renewed Notebook

2011-09-25T18:19:00.001+09:00

I made a blank notebook about three tears ago and, being poorly constructed, it gradually fell apart with use. So I remade it, this time under expert supervision. Handbacked cloth, link-stitched, white endpapers, and a new and thicker book board. I also added three signatures of brown paper because the notebook was 75% full of doodles and doodads.

Below you can see the back and front plus some of the brown paper signatures that were added. And some of the doodling done for imposing content. Not that the content is imposing but that the content (a novel) needs to be imposed before I bind it.

Book Girl from 円プレス - Yen Press

2011-09-04T15:43:00.000+09:00

I found this an interesting premise: a demoness who must eat books in order to stay alive. Naturally, she's got a gourmet taste for books and stories. Handwritten are the best. I don't know anything else about it but may check it out to read more. From Yen Press.Book Girl

BOOK GIRL AND THE SUICIDAL MIMEby Mizuki Nomura July 2010 | ISBN: 978-0-316-07690-6 | $8.99 ($10.99) | 192 pages | 5.5”x 8.25″For Tohko Amano, a third-year high school student and self-styled “book girl,” being the head of the literary club is more than just an extracurricular activity. It’s her bread and butter…literally! Tohko is actually a literature-gobbling demon, who can be found at all hours of the day munching on torn out pages from all kinds of books. But for Tohko, the real delicacies are hand-written stories. To satisfy her gourmet tastes, she’s employed (rather, browbeaten) one Konoha Inoue, who scribbles away each day after school to satisfy Tohko’s appetite. But when another student comes knocking on the literary club door for advice on writing love letters, will Tohko discover a new kind of delicacy?

Muna Luz Sings

2011-08-12T12:21:00.001+09:00

Some strange animal songs from Muna Zul, an a capella trio from Mexico. This one is called Baking Hollow. Listen and enjoy.

And this one is called Voto de Silencio. Listen and enjoy this one, too.

Music, Dance, Video

2011-07-04T12:00:00.001+09:00

Music, Video, and Dance. From World's End Girlfriend

World's End Girlfriend – Les Enfants du Paradis (Official Music Video) from Erased Tapes on Vimeo.

The Raamen Shop

2011-05-15T21:02:00.003+09:00

Another 20-second clip of a joint that serves food. Obsessed are we? Another JayCut creation.

Thanks for watching.

Conveyor Belt Food

2011-02-10T23:37:00.002+09:00

No, not food made from a conveyor belt. Enjoy your sushi.

Made entirely from range-free fish. And cloud computing.

FreeZone/FreeZine: Vids about Words

2011-01-18T20:00:00.001+09:00

Free

Zone

Free

Xine

The Moveable Feast: A 2010 Odyssey

2010-12-15T22:59:00.006+09:00

We spent a few minutes on Jaycut (http://jaycut.com) playing around with the online video editing. First, we videoed our lunch place. Then, we emailed it to ourselves. From our email we uploaded it to Jaycut. Then we slapped and pasted video and audio. One minute. Enjoy. (It's not meant to be earthshakingly awe-inspiring, it's just a short flick. Enjoy.)

Music from Freesound.org

Ulrike Grannis, Bookbinder & Paper Artist

2010-12-14T23:48:00.001+09:00

A pretty informative video of a fascinating array of books and papers. One can only aspire.

ulrike grannis from glencadia on Vimeo.

2010-12-09T23:36:00.002+09:00

A fairly quick but intriguing use of paper, books, writing, and imagination.

Two Videos with Art

2010-11-10T23:36:00.002+09:00

A bit of a delay from the last post but I've been working. That's good, isn't it? I have discovered the joys of artistic endeavors and have found these two videos.

Two videos with art and intriguing music from Banging Gods Drum and a giant pop-up book. Enjoy.

Art from Banging Gods Drum on Vimeo.

The pop-up book:

wonder book from tanigawa on Vimeo.

2010-07-11T22:50:00.006+09:00

Saw an excellent movie at 1:00 AM the other night, morning. It wasn't so much the story or the acting, both of which were pretty main-stream boring but it was the editing and shots: split screen, warped time and space, bizarre characters (the druggie musician was very, very over-the-top as if the writer 奥寺佐渡子 or the director 原正弘 had never actually seen a drug-user musician). But mostly the technical aspects: A sound is heard and then three different sets of people react to it - or don't. Title is OLDK which needs some explaining.

A 1LDK is a one-room bedroom apartment with a living room (L), dining room (D), and kitchen (K). A 2LDK is a two-bedroom apartment with a separate Living room (L) and Dining room (D). An OL is an Office Lady, a woman who works in an office. The star of this moving works as an OL. She has a small apartment with a living room, kitchen and dining room. But it is old and small. So she is an OL with a small apartment OLDK. Great title.

The main character is Keiko (played by big-eared Shimizu Mina, visual at right) who has a boring job and no boyfriend so she decides to commit suicide on her birthday. Her neighbor on one side is a guy with two or more girlfriends and their constant love-making is driving Keiko bonkers (the sound). The musician on the other side is just too loud all the time. And the mysterious upstairs neighbor is causing the ceiling to fall in.

Through the course of events we see these four people interact, ignore each other, go about their business in a warped Tarantino-esque way, which is what made it interesting to watch.

I couldn't find a YouTube video of OLDK but I did find Shimizu's more recent movie about Japanese lesbians - that caught your attention, eh? - called Topless. Here's the opening nsfw scene:

What is Project London?

2010-07-04T16:18:00.001+09:00

What is Project London?

Project London: Unleashed! from Phil McCoy on Vimeo.

Or better yet:

Project London: Multiply Teaser from Phil McCoy on Vimeo.

Yoshida Kenko and A Movie Not Related to Him.

2010-06-27T01:07:00.005+09:00

Here's a movie, not so long, that has an interesting story (some). I found it while trying to find some information - any information - about Yoshida Kenko (吉田兼好) who wrote Tsurezuregusa (Essays on Idleness) back in the 1300s Japan. This movie is vaguely related to him as his work is mentioned in the notes accompanying the video. From the notes:

A short based on 'The Tsurezuregusa of Emma,' a collection of brief, haiku-like aphorisms by Emma Rohwer. Emma's Tsurezuregusa's (essays in idleness) are inspired by the original essays of the Japanese monk, Yoshida Kenko, written sometime in the early-mid fourteenth century.

Little Stories of Some Interest from Michael Gaston on Vimeo.

製然草 - Essays in Idleness - written by 吉田兼好 - Yoshida Kenko - in around 1330~1332 after the Kamakura Bakufu fought Godaigo. Big battle. Lots of fighting. Yoshida supported Godaigo as a guard, then retired when Godaigo's successor died.

My new blog: Idle Journal of a 30-year Japanese Resident has more about Yoshida and idleness.

Bassekou Kouyate - Ngoni Fola - Shanghai SIdeways

2010-06-03T20:24:00.003+09:00

Cool music.

A quick flickr tour of Shanghai.

Next week: More books.

Japanese Females Death Metal

2010-06-02T23:21:00.002+09:00

This video is for all you who think of Japanese (and/or Asian) women as petite, cutesy, high-pitched, and subservient. Check out the voice on the singer. This is a group from Osaka called Galmet (but the A is printed upside down.)

Not exactly your country-western diva, eh?

Chinese Women Rock

2010-05-28T23:36:00.003+09:00

Women talking about women in rock music in China.

And making music in a music video.

There seems to be a great amount of rock in China, especially Beijing and Shanghai but there's also a lively music scene in Xian. From what I can gather from, YouTube videos, and searching for it.

Bookbinding: What I've Learned.

2010-05-17T16:42:00.002+09:00

A little music to listen to while you wile away your time reading what I have to say about making books.

What I've Learned

What I've learned in the last 67 books I've bound can be summed up in two words: Listen to a teacher. (Okay, four.)

I've learned that 2 mm book board is better than a grocery sack.
I've learned that the space between the spine and the cover is about 3.5 times the thickness of the book board (If using a 2 mm book board that would be about 7 mm)
I've learned that you need to press the book under considerable weight shortly after making the book and not let it sit on your tabletop overnight while you gloat about your great achievement because the covers will curl up like a butterfly about to take flight.
I've finally learned that you need to cut the corners of the book cloth BEFORE you paste it up or try to press it to the book board.
I've learned that glue in a glass container can still get dry and grungy and if you let it sit overnight while you gloat about your great bookbinding achievements then you might as well buy a new glass container and glue.

Ernie Kovacs and Eugene

2010-04-22T23:08:00.003+09:00

I've been looking for this video clip for awhile. This came on after Jerry Lewis had a two-hour special. Lots of people were asked to follow, but no one wanted to because they knew Jerry would blow them out of the water. Ernie Kovacs basically volunteered and presented this dialog-less show. Innovative, creative, and memorable. Not many people remember any skits, songs, or jokes from Jerry's special but many remember Kovacs' Eugene. Enjoy.

Film Noir by Plaxin Productions

2010-03-29T09:21:00.003+09:00

Film noir and old-time radio detectives (audio noir?) are great, I think. The visuals are dramatic - shadows and light playing the dramatic role, the stories are usually strong, and the dialog terse. Action movies - even in color - pale by comparison. Recently, if you surf YouTube and other sites, you can find a few good modern day film noir short films. Here's one by Plaxin Productions, which has other pretty good films, too.

This one has all the elements of film noir plus a word not usually spoken in mixed polite company so it might not be audibly safe for work.

Fujara rock!

2010-02-27T01:26:00.002+09:00

This is a traditional Czech fujara. Sounds cool in the cavern. Originally designed to soothe sheep.

Another fujara ensemble

iPad

2010-02-05T23:23:00.007+09:00

This seems to be a new design in holiday or homes from inhabitat. It's called the iPad with the little tm symbol following. The little trademark tm symbol, could it get Apple in trouble? I mean, I understand Apple has a product called the iPad, too, but theirs is considerably smaller and cheaper.

The inhabitat iPad starts at $125,000 New Zealand dollars and has 50 square feet of living space. Beat that, Apple. And just like Apple, the iPad comes with a video: iPad Video.

Here is the floor plan from inhabitat of the cheapest model. As you might barely be able to see, it has three large decks with large doors/windows to the interior that make the small abode seem larger. With exterior walls that provide a bit of privacy. From the looks of things, the most expensive model ($375,000) is three of these modules put artistically together in a horseshoe arrangement. Check it out at iPad.

I'd like one of these - maybe in a southern island or an Italian cliffside. Turn it into a small office/workspace. But, alas, I may have to settle for the other iPad, pictured below; smaller and cheaper.

Solstice Eve (Traditional)

2009-12-24T22:52:00.003+09:00

Christmas eve and I just finished a book I'm giving as a solstice present. Is that cutting it close or is that cutting it close? It is also my first bound novel with imposed pages. No illustrations, though. I wrote the book in November during NaNoWriMo, imposed it in early December, printed out three copies, sewed up two, and finally finished putting the coverboards on one tonight. About 20 minutes ago. Recommendation: don't do this at home, boys and girls.

As it is Saturnalia Eve and you all are probably not reading this right now, I shall refrain from putting up photos of said book until a more auspicious occassion. Besides, I already wrapped it.

Bon appetit, ya'll - as they say down South.

Painting Inferno

2009-10-30T22:25:00.004+09:00

Do NOT do this at home. No matter how much you like to paint.

2009-10-30T21:37:00.003+09:00

Every year universities have school festivals and the students put on a dance exhibition. This year, one school's dancers were caught on video and uploaded to a host and now You! can view it. This is Part One.

Also, if you go to YouTube and search for:

Fire4EweToob

you will find another video. Odd, that, finding a video on TouYube. Anyway, this video has a troop of fire demons dancing with globs and poles of fire.

Meanwhile, Normal Dancers, Part One.

Magical Listening Experience

2009-10-20T19:32:00.003+09:00

To celebrate my finishing my largest book (A4 when closed, about 200 pages, I think. I forget. I suppose I could go look it up, but... nyah.) Big Book. The cover is made of an old obi from an old kimono that I bought at an old flea market in an old temple. The obi, not the kimono. Anyway, to celebrate finishing it, I provide to you, the viewer/listener with a Magical Listening Experience:

Today's Playlist

Wagner - Ride Of The Valkyries
Neil Peart - Drum Solo R-30
Alice Cooper - Poison
Little Feat - Dixie Chicken
Little Feat - Skin It Back
Jesse Mccartney - Beautiful Soul
Mozart - Rondo Alla Turca

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

How Many Experiments Today, Dr. Watson?

2009-10-14T18:32:00.007+09:00

I experimented with perfect binding - the binding cheap detective novels use to keep the pages between the covers of scantily-clad dames with cigarettes hanging from the mouths while they fondle the business end of some sap's revolver.

The result was a book with a lot of pages falling on the floor like so many corpses in a gangland shoot out. This was not the result I was hoping for so I ripped the book apart like a gold-digger rips through a fortune. I sewed the loose sheets of paper up, glued them very heavily and gave them an offer they couldn't refuse. It looks and feels better and its pages also staying in one place. This is usually considered to be a good thing.

Next, I will experiment with more glue, more thread, more pages... In fact, as we speak at this moment, two books are being pressed. Both perfect binding. Both about 100 pages. Papers of different sizes though. The covers are being designed tomorrow. Or someone's waking up with a horse head in their bed. If you know what I mean.

And now, even if you don't know what I mean, a jazzy piece of music from ez2google which can be found at GarageBand.com. Listen to it, if you know what's good for ya.

Unusual Books and Pricey, Too

2009-09-09T13:11:00.006+09:00

First, a few links to a couple of cool books. The first one is Necronomicon designed by Jean Marc Laroche. These others at the Ingalls Library at the Cleveland Museum of Art, are not so bizarre as using unusual materials or relatively unusual binding methods.

The book on the right is bound in brass - could be heavy, eh? - and it sold on Abebooks for $24,400. That's US dollars. Twenty-four thousand US dollars. It's a catalog of brass bookbindings. Speaking of Abebooks, whose tagline is cheap, fast, easy (I had a date like that once), they also have a book going for $119,000. Yes, three zeroes, two ones, and a nine. In US dollars, again. It's a Bible printed in 1611 and bound in calf skin and copper. So if you have a few coins of loose change rolling around on the top of your chest of drawers, you might want to check Abebooks out.

On the upper left you might have noticed the original book: cuneiform on clay from our friends at the Sumerian Civilization - that would be a great name for a bookbindery, wouldn't it?

And finally, another book using clay (and paper, fabric and paints) from LadyArtisan. The leaves are clay, by the way.

Abakuya on Tedorigawa

2009-08-11T14:06:00.001+09:00

Enjoy a little Australian-Cameroon fusion music from France.

Surfin' China

2009-08-10T13:21:00.003+09:00

A nifty 6-minute 45-second video about surfing in China. Looks cool.

What's the music? I don't know either. I do know that Hangzhou is a bit inland from Shanghai, southern China, if you're looking to surf China this summer.

Books for the Languid Panda.

2009-08-06T07:55:00.002+09:00

I have no idea what the title means either.

One:
Cailun has two books using the Secret Belgian Binding (so don't tell anybody.) His Duotone duo is quite nice, so please check it out.

Tao:
(or is it Two) Tedorigawa (me) finished another book using Perfect Binding (although it isn't) for a book called The Dance of the Fool. Now with the continuing audio events in the fictional life the Bookbinder.

First New Book in Three Months!

2009-07-01T20:16:00.003+09:00

I finished my first new book in three months today. It is a small book made of recycled B5 paper folded into fourths (a quatro?). I used about 30 sheets of paper for about 120 pages. I used the perfect bound style but.. Ho, ho. It was not a pretty sight.

First, I glued the signatures together at the spine. Glue didn't hold them all together well. No matter, mull was added and the signatures sewn together. Quite nicely, I might add. Then the cover was constructed of a recycled flyer for a local performance of Puccini's La Boheme.

Finally, I attached the bright yellow endpapers and glued the whole shebang together. The end result was the creation of my first book in three months. Definitely a learning experience wherein - once again -

I learn the importance of taking accurate measurements and cutting to the measurements.

The original title was The Circle Book but the vision fell well short of the actual book. I need a new name. I'm thinking creatively now with The La Boheme Book but that actually means The The Boheme Book, doesn't it. I think I'll use either The Puccini Book or Puccini's La Boheme Book. Undecided.

Photos to come.

Walking and Shooting

2009-06-29T22:23:00.002+09:00

Cool Video from Charlie McCarthy at Vimeo. I liked it because of the different ground the videographer covers, the editing involved, the music, and the colors that whizz past your head at color speed. Very cool.

walking and shooting from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.

Another Wordle Twitter

2009-06-28T20:27:00.002+09:00

Just a little Wordle for Tedorigawa Bookmakers:

From http://www.wordle.net/

And Tedorigawa Bookmakers is now on Twitter at

http://twitter.com/tedorigawa

A New Horror Episode

2009-06-21T06:25:00.005+09:00

The Zombie Saga continues with

The Dawn of the Nightmare: Third Corpse

In this episode, someone - who? - must deal with his girlfriend who has turned into a zombie. And then meets a Mysterious Stranger. Will this Stranger help him or Eat His Fresh Brains? Only episode four:

The Dawn of the Nightmare: Fresh Flesh

coming soon

Undead Horror Audio for the Squeamish

2009-06-05T16:56:00.002+09:00

A new audio horror blog has been thrust upon the unsuspecting. A continuing story of the undead walking amongst us (with great music - this week: Surf Slut's Scary Tale in Old Yorke).

If you have the time (about 4 and three quarters minutes for episode one), check it t at:

Humangers.

But don't say we didn't warn you.

Bookbinder Video

2009-05-23T22:00:00.001+09:00

Here's a pleasant little video about a bookbinder y'all might find interesting.

Chester bookbinder Andrew Brown from TONY CLIXBY on Vimeo.

LifeGame

2009-05-22T10:47:00.003+09:00

It has been only one month since Goya2Goya started and I'm up to episode 10 (pending). However, I have learned the pitfalls of weight loss or fat loss. I lost two pounds in about two or three weeks and felt pretty good about even that small amount. However, I spent a weekend working with co-workers and we ate, worked, drank, and worked some more. Working consisted of sitting at a table with the others and munching on snacks. So, in two days I gained two pounds. I'm back where I started. Aaargh!

Weight loss is not a one week game; it's a lifegame.

But I did learn a few things: weight loss requires the obvious choice of not eating as much as you do when you're not trying to lose weight. Pretty simple. However, just eating less is not enough, you have to eat the right foods, too. No more potato chips - at least not in huge quantities. What are the right foods: vegetables, fruits, and that are naturally low or have no fat. (Just because it says low fat on the box doesn't mean it is.)

What does this have to do with art and art in my life? I am about to re-embark on my weight loss journey by calling it my body sculpture event. Through proper eating and exercise - On Goya2Goya I walk and talk - I'm aiming at a differently shaped body. Mine, not someone else's.

Enjoy your life, it's the only one you've got.

Goya2Goya: The Weight Loss Podcast

2009-04-21T23:22:00.003+09:00

New Podcast at Podomatic.com called Goya2Goya. This is a podcast I've thought about for awhile. Just me talking, sometimes with a guest inquisitor, while I walk around my town and discuss losing weight.

How I hope to lose weight, how much I used to weigh and how much I weigh now, how what you eat is as important as how much you eat (those empty calories in alcohol tend to cause weights to balloon upwards), how much I hope to lose, and general observations as I walk around.

My current weight is 67 kg (148 lbs) and according to US standards, I'm not fat. But I have a beer belly (or, more politely, a 'paunch') that I'd like to get rid off. My goal is 57 kg (125 lbs). Good luck with that, eh?

Goya2Goya stands for Get Off Your Ass To Get (it) Off Your Ass. The (it), of course, is fat. Fat. Big Fat. But in my case, and in most men's cases, it's not so much the ass as the stomach:

The Beer Belly is Evil.

And here's why: those with beer bellies tend to suffer more heart attacks. And more fatal heart attacks. And they are ... uuuuuuugly.

If you're trying to lose weight and want some support, download Goya2Goya and listen to it on your mp3 player as You walk around losing weight. Then send me your tips and tricks for losing weight - I really need them.

Thanks. Our email is goya2goya@gmail.com

Zines

2009-03-28T21:52:00.002+09:00

There's nothing like delving into a genre of life for which you have no experience. It opens new horizons and makes one desirous of a longer day with less time relegated to sleeping. This week:

Exploring the Online Zine World

And what better place to start than a zine about zines for ziners (?) at Zine World or a list of zines by keyword at E-Zine List. Or so one would think. Because zines appear and disappear like mushrooms in the rain, many of the links are dead, fronts for spam, or like the number 404. Or the creator of the zine has changed his or her mind and changed the focus since it was listed. (A zine about jazz bassists in Europe turned out to be a huge advertisement for phone services and equipment.)

For a neat site that allows you to judge a book by its cover, go to Cafe Royal (a UK distro.) Not a lot of any information about the insides, however, except the price. Not even scans of sample pages. Well, maybe it's not such a neat site but it looks nice and gives you an idea of cover art for zines.

I have read and looked at a few sites devoted to an individual creative outlets. Here are just three that you might want to look at:

Some clever and insightful writing and art at Chinese Sweatshop

A rather intense series of zines at the distro (distribution channel to us older fugs) Gimme Brains!!!

From the middle of almost nowhere (southern Arizona that is neither Nogales nor Tucson, almost normal zine at Almost Normal Comics

Wordle fun

2009-02-09T23:40:00.004+09:00

From Wordle, a nifty site.

Type in words or a url and see what the site transforms it into. I, naturally, chose Tedorigawa Bookmakers and a bunch of words about it. There's another site: TypoGenerator, which is fun to use to. Interactive, what will the internet think of next?

Next, another one:

An odd book or two

2009-01-20T15:58:00.003+09:00

Nothing is more fun than an odd book or two. Check out Dark Roasted Blend and MyWiki's The Most Unusual Books in the World.

Woodblock Printing

2009-01-12T14:55:00.003+09:00

Each year in elementary school here kids have to opportunity to create an original piece of art which is then hung in an art gallery/museum/city hall with all the other works of art by kids from all the elementary schools. This year a nearby school did woodblock prints.

The kids carved their original design onto plywood, inked it, rubbed the paper and voila! A woodblock print. Some were more than one color which is difficult to do. Some woodblock artists carve separate blocks for each color. Others just wait for one color to dry before using another color.

Here is a link to an English-born Canadian woodblock printer who lives and works in Tokyo and is the creator of many a print. David Bull. Be sure to flip through all the pages of his websites as he also manages/operates/owns Mokuhan (木版館), an online woodblock store. If you are studying Japanese, his sites are bilingual.

Snow and Thunder, Life Couldn't Be Funner

2008-12-25T22:32:00.005+09:00

A crack of lightning a few feet from my window followed by a huge crack of thunder. And it's snowing. Truly a remarkable Christmas evening. All the kiddies are asleep in their beds surrounded by their Christmas haul (socks and towels, eh?) and the year is coming to a close. What shall next year bring? Here's what I'm hoping it will bring me - and I realize for me to get all these things in the coming year require me to work harder at everything. Oh well, here's my list anyway:

More and better movies

(YouTube The Bed Oracle )

More and better audio drama

(Check out Detectives and Drama in audio noir at DinoSoarPix.

In English and sometimes Chinese (Mandarin); sometimes both Mandarin and English)

More and better books

(Check out Tedorigawa Bookmakers and Tedorigawa Bookmakers - The Blog)

More fun!

(Check out life!)

More and better podcasts

(Check out Hokudai/Cast - Trilingual fun in Japanese, Chinese, and English)

Have yourself a very merry new year and I'll see you real soon. Enjoy yourself!

Down in Flames

2008-12-10T00:18:00.005+09:00

As you can tell from the date, I've been busy and it hasn't been with writing a 50,000-word novel in one month. I could blame it on the dog: the dog ate my computer. Crashed. Big time. Spent a few weeks getting up the courage to buy a new one and by then I was busy with some video production and, well, NaNoWriMo fell by the wayside, along with the dog and I didn't complete the Ruggles thing. Although I did get about 8,000 words into it by the time my computer crashed. Died. Gave up the ghost. And the re-write improved it. Much. So I gave it my best shot but the writing gods and goddesses were... Ah, the goddesses. Ah well, there may well be next year.

Ah well, there may well be next year.

The Month of November at 6500

2008-11-03T20:31:00.004+09:00

The month of November brings us smack-dab face-to-face with hyphens and National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo or Nanowreemo). And yes, we are heavily involved in it this year again, too. We've done it every year since 2004 and have managed to meet the 50,000 word goal each year, although we failed to finish one novel, we finished the others. (Two are here: The Priests of Hiroshima and Calvado.)

The trick, for me, seems to be having some Real Meaty Characters that either I enjoy writing, reading about, or just plain reading. The characters pull the story they want to tell better than I could force the characters through a story I want to tell. (The one novel I didn't finish, Caraculiambro, had great characters but even they couldn't end the story - a detective yarn.)

This year's NaNoWriMo novel:

The Murder of Tan Tinh Ai by Ruggles Royce, Ex-Priest

Characters include (so far):

Ruggles Royce - ex-priest current mercenary 65 years old built like a linebacker and fast.
Wings Kenosha - 40, tough, lanky, works for 'the company.'
Tan Tinh Ai - flirtatious 24 years old, works in a fruit stand owned by her mother and aunt.
Da Xu Xi - rough, male, 27, in love with Tan Tinh Ai. Owns a bar.
Maxine - 50, American female black market exploiter living in Hanoi.

The Plot, so far:

Ruggles is asked to find a kidnapped woman. The woman, Tan Tinh Ai, was last seen leaving a grocery store in Hanoi. In his efforts to find her, Ruggles discovers himself, his heart, and love. All in the wrong places.

Having read the synopsis so far, I am totally going to change it before I get into the meat of the story (I'm 6500 words into it - about 30 pages).

Simple Tasks・Simple Feats

2008-10-16T10:26:00.004+09:00

First, I guess I spent too much time on YouTube last week. I watched a lot of short bookbinding-related videos and finally threw a dart at my monitor to decide which one to share. Here they are:

Next, I'll try to include a couple of my new diaries - the most current diaries acan be seen at Tedorigawa Bookmakers

No, I can't

2008-09-22T18:18:00.003+09:00

I challenged myself to make 14 books in 14 days (and if I was successful, I would rent this new space near my house), even if they were simple - they had to be simple, actually, by definition quick books can't be too complicated - but I forgot about a few things. Let me see if I can list them.

Family
Life
Work

There, that wasn't so difficult, was it? I got extremely busy with family and life and that spilled over into work - which isn't book binding - and the end result was a happy time for all. But only the one book - The Animal/Insect Mash-up Supremo Book - bound but three (two diaries, one 'artsy') in various stages of dismemberment. I mean, development.

Plus! Plus, I backed my own cloth with paper so now I can use my own book cloth. I watched the video on Cailun.info and read the discussion on the LiveJournal Handmade Book Community,then set about using very thin Chinese paper on the back of a Japanese cloth remnant. It worked nicely.

I'm pleased with the results.

I also found an art gallery online thing from Italy. tuttolibri from the designboom website. With such books as the one pictured here (from the designboom website, which you really should check out when you have the time, say, at work.)

Now, I'm off to make a book - a diary, I hope - which I will make with no pressure about time or competition.

Besides, the nifty space I would have used as a workshop/sales outlet has been rented to someone quicker than I at making decisions that cost me money. Thanks for reading.

Book One - The Animal/Insect Mash-up Supremo

2008-09-10T09:52:00.004+09:00

This is The Animal/Insect Mash-up Supremo Book of 9/9/08 the first, maybe, in a series of 14 books for September.

Why Animal/Insect? Because the contents, some of which can be seen in the photo below, are names of animals and insects in Japanese and English; With! Sample sentences. The first Japanese word is the first part of the Japanese word for animal (動物) whereas the second, in red, word is insect in Japanese.

Why Mash-Up Supremo? Because Mash has four letters, just like the word I really wanted to use but won't because this is a family-oriented artsy foober blog. Why is this book all mashed-up? I screwed up the sewing THREE TIMES! And that's a lot of repair work. Plus, there's a hidden secret! Yes! Here's the secret: Look at the thread for the binding. Looks like a Chinese-style stab binding, right? It is! But the line running parallel to the edge is not as it seems. One section of this thread is actually.... Drawn on with a pen! Why? Art! (And this book was supremely mashed-up.)

But here you can see the interior of said Supremo book: First, the Japanese kanji for the animal or insect, then the pronunciation, then a sample sentence, and finally, the English equivalent. There are 18 animals or insects altogether but on this page is Fox (狐 - kitsune) and Cat (猫 - neko) with the sample sentence of Fox being, "Crazy like a 狐." And that for Cat being "A 猫 has nine lives."

Thanks for reading.

New Space?

2008-09-08T20:02:00.003+09:00

I have an opportunity to rent a new space for my workshop. It costs very little, is centrally located, has trees lining the street, and a fairly busy street it is, too. Plus, it's so close to home I can walk. In fact, it is so close to home that if I forget anything, I can walk back home and get it.

The main question is, should I? Right now I spend zero for my space which, admittedly, is a desk in a room but anything over zero is still more expensive than zero, right? On the other hand, if I have a space I must pay for then maybe I will be more serious (ha!) - make that, more determined - to become an at least locally known bookmaker.

Therefore, I will challenge myself to make a book a day for two weeks. If I make 14 books in 14 days, then I will rent the space and set about doing even more for my bookmaking career (not that it's exactly putting a dent in the universe now.). An interesting challenge and I'd better hop to it because to day is:

Day One!

Rough Book

2008-08-31T23:43:00.006+09:00

Having strolled through too many stores that sell great paper, I found myself with a large variety of paper - soft, rough, colored, white - and finally decided that instead of buying more and not doing anything with it, I would use the paper I've got before I buy more. Ha! That's a good one. Anyway, I made The Rough Book. (You can see the rough cover here.)

The pages are rough, the endpapers are rougher, but the cover is the roughest: it isn't really paper so much as woven threads. I backed this cover paper with rough yellow paper (like endpapers.)

Here is an open page

and you can see the stems and leaves embedded in the paper. This is also a very light book. Because the cover is so porous, and the pages aren't exactly the tightest weave in the world, the entire book is very, very light.

And finally, here is a shot wherein you can see how roughly cut the pages are. More like torn than cut but they are very beautiful to look at.

Chinese Stab Binding

2008-08-17T09:58:00.005+09:00

I looked at some Japanese stab bindings over at cailun.info and they inspired me not to make a great Japanese stab binding but to return to the genre. With two caveats.

First, I was told by some Chinese humans that what most of the world calls 'Japanese' stab binding is actually 'Chinese' stab binding. I did a little research (I googled Chinese stab binding) and found that the main difference between Japanese and Chinese stab bindings is that the distance between the sewn threads in a Japanese-style binding is even. From one thread to the next is the same distance on traditional Japanese binding. In Chinese binding, that distance can vary.

Second, I went to a Buddhist store that sells Buddhist scripture. The books Buddhist priests read from when they chant. These are all bound using Japanese stab bindings. I checked them out. Now, one reason I didn't like the stab binding genre (Chinese or Japanese) is that the book doesn't open very widely. Well, I examined in minute detail the scripture book. It has very thin paper, very few pages (maybe 50 at most), and the binding is close to the edge. With the thin paper and few pages plus the binding close to the edge, the book opens wider.

So, I cut up some paper to B6 size and made two Chinese stab binding pamphlets - blank journals of about 60 pages (30 sheets). I liked the fact that I could make one while watching a DVD (The Queen staring Helen Mirren) and only stab myself once or twice.

They open nicely but still you can't use the inner most edge as it is closed off by the binding but they make nice notebooks and doodle pads if one were stuck in a meeting for a couple of hours.

Frustration and Appeasement

2008-08-11T23:53:00.003+09:00

Get a nice piece of wood. Decide to make a book cover out of it. Saw it. Find a flaw. Saw it again. Check it out with paper. Wrong size. Saw it again. Decide to carve a groove in it and put in wood a different color for contrast and 'art's sake.' Cool idea. Carve it wrong. Not once but twice. The groove is too big for the wood I was going to insert. Try to find another piece to insert. Can't. Shrug shoulders ... and not for the last time on this particular project. Drill holes for the binding (to be coptic). Crack the wood. Glue it back together. Varnish it. It looks crappy. Sand it. It looks worse. Varnish it a different

color. Bang head against a brick wall. It looks extremely bad. Sand it to smithereens. Cool. Very thin wood now, by golly.

Lather on the varnish, it doesn't look That bad. cough cough. Decide to make the back cover the front cover as the front cover doesn't look That good, either. cough. Add a few baubles and whatnot to the front and leave the back alone with its ugly groove and uglier insert.

Fold the paper for it, align the holes in the paper and cover. Decide to call it a night before termites appear and resurface the whole shebang. Still, termite trails might be an improvement....

Suffice it to say this has been one bad karmic cover which has needed salvation time and time again. But if you work on it long enough and remember two things: wood is flexible, cut-able, and adjustable, after a fashion, and sand paper is a gift from the gods, then perhaps you can salvage and even end up with a book that looks good. Or better than its karma would have made you think.

This is a 168-page blank journal of an odd size paper (not as wide as A4 but just as tall) because the wood was not equal to any known paper size. And, as I am further from its birth pains, I have grown to like it more. Even the sewing, which went not so well, has its fine points. We live, we learn. (Does that mean, if we keep learning we'll live forever?)

The Star Festival - Tanabata - Cereal Series

2008-07-07T22:33:00.007+09:00

From my "Cereal Series" I have completed a Premium Corn Flake with Beet Sugar Book with a coptic binding, seven signatures of six pages each for a total of 168 pages on the Star Festival (Tanabata) of Japan wherein two star-crossed (literally) lovers cross the Milky Way to kiss face once a year. For more of my Cereal Series, see the post of May 8, 2008 - japanesestabbinding - a Kellogg's Brown Rice Flake book is described. Also see this page from Tedorigawa Bookmakers.

Tanabata is celebrated by lovers staring into the night sky (which really sucks if it rains) and hoping for the best, whatever that might be. And of Tanabata branches: bamboo branches stuck in various places and people write their wishes on a piece of paper and attach it to the branches. Some come true! What do you wish for this year?

More Photos of my

Premium Corn Flake with Beet Sugar Book

will be placed on both Tedorigawa Bookmakers and at

Tedorigawa Bookmakers

(probably with sound as well!)

Stay Tuned. Stay Posted. Be Well.

Time - Wings - Gone - Flash

2008-07-04T22:13:00.003+09:00

I can't believe time as slipped through my fingers like guacamole through a sieve. Well, perhaps a lot faster than that, that's for sure. Here it is July 4, 2008 (232 and counting) and my last post - in which I probably promised to write more often - was May 27. I missed one complete month; and as everyone knows missing a month could be vibracious.

On the other hand, Tedorigawa Bookmakers was updated with sight and sound on July 1 while Tedorigawa Bookmakers (another one? What's he doing with Two Blogs with the same damn name? Being moronic? - Sorry, no question mark needed.) was updated a mere month ago on June 4. But, alas, Calvado hasn't been updated since last I wrote I was thrilled to pieces to discover a new idea about updating Calvado. Talk about shallow. Will I keep being this shallow or will I actually get down to work and update on a semi-regular schedule? Keeping in mind, of course, that biannually is a regular schedule. As is bi-centennially.

On the third hand, my weekly podcast about things Japanese and Chinese and lessons in speaking three different languages (Japanese, English, and Chinese) coupled with interviews in those three languages and music (usually in English), continues its weekly production schedule unabated. Probably because I enjoy the sound of my own voice? No, no. Other people speak on this podcast. Especially when it comes to Japanese and Chinese. (I can handle English fairly well, I think. Maybe. I'm not sure. I'll ask around.)

I finished a special book in the last month. The June 6th Book - which should have been finished June 6th but was completed on July 3rd - is a coptic-bound, wood cover, 144-page lined notebook with yellow paper and waxed green hemp thread. I think it is quite nice and the binding is one of my best. Not the best in the world, just my best. It can be seen at Tedorigawa Bookmakers. Well, not right now. But soon! I hope, think, maybe; I'll ask.

Unless time sprouts wings and jets by in a flash.

New Posts on Calvado

2008-05-27T22:18:00.002+09:00

I hit upon something that brightens my day. I have a novel over at Calvado.blogspot.com which was, until today, just sitting there waiting for me to add to it, to edit it, and let it live. It is a NaNoWriMo novel from a few years ago, that's how long it has been sitting over there sad, forlorn, and not-quite-but-almost forgotten.

Then a hit struck me like a thought: I shall put it up one chapter at a time, read the chapter, and then write a commentary on that chapter, sort of like a hypertext novel except without the hundred blue and underlined nouns. Sort of like the Talmud but without the scholarship. Authorial marginalia, I think would be a good name for it; but I'm calling it Behind the Curtain.

You the reader should be able to read straight through the novel just by clicking on the 'Next' link at the end of each chapter. And, if you so desire, you can click on the 'Behind the Curtain' link at the end of each chapter to see what I think of the chapter, how the chapter came to be, and other insights I probably don't have but would like to have.

Calvado is a love story where love kills. (That's the subtitle/tagline: Love Kills.) Mack and Calvado have a problem - he loves her and she could love him back. Except for one minor problem. Click on the title of this post or the Calvado link to your right to read my Free! Online! novel of love and death.

The Plan and the Man

2008-05-13T19:34:00.005+09:00

What have I been doing in these last 36 plus hours since I said I'd upload some snaps of my Japanese stab binding/cereal box? I have uploaded some snaps of my cereal box cover/Japanese stab binding But mysteriously posted them on Tedorigawa Bookmakers. Why would anyone do that? A mystery, of course, but at least there is a link to another Tedorigawa blog with pictures. And sound.

Second accomplishment: I'm making - slowly but surely and with spurts and gurgles and the occasional push uphill by a semi and the occasional jumpstart - a radio drama. A detective drama for the ears called

Dead Men Don't Travel

A fairly original title, don't you think? It is not a stand alone drama but embedded, so to speak, on a podcast I do about Japanese, Chinese, English, and things in Japan. If you'd like to check it out go to Hokudai/Cast. The following episodes of Hokudai/Cast contain Dead Men Don't Travel shows. There are more sections on Hokudai/Cast episodes than just DMDT shows: A language lesson - Japanese, Chinese, English - vocabulary lesson, and music. Usually there is a timetable and you can find the DMDT shows easily by checking the timetable. I hope.

Let me look up some episodes for you.
Episode 51 is the first, I think, followed by
Episode 55,
Episode 57,
Episode 59,
Episode 60.

Dead Men Don't Travel is an experiment in text-to-speech. It is first typed in TypeitReadit, then it goes through a tortuous editing process complete with sound effects and voice over. It's a film noir detective story for the ears. A radio noir, so to speak? Perhaps? I think it sounds good but I want you all to tell me what you think.

What's the plot?

A businessman is missing. Or is he? The detective, Vicki Bradstreet, has been asked to find the missing man. Everywhere she goes, she's one step behind a murderer. Is the missing man the murderer? Or is it his wife? His girlfriend? His business partner? Can Vicki find the killer before the Dead Man winds up ... dead?

japanesestabbinding

2008-05-08T00:19:00.005+09:00

Here I am sipping some fine Japanese sake (Tedorigawa sake, by the way, brewed right over there in Hakusan City, Japan), thinking about my accomplishments over the past few days.

As you may recall, I wrote a movie for Script Frenzy in about 12 hours called Chimera Woman. It's about DNA cloning, genetic engineering, and murder. To better let the world know about yet another useless blog, I created one called ZipScripts: Scripts Written Quick. Yes, I know it should be Quickly, but that's the problem with creative writing: sometimes you feel like an adverb, sometimes you don't. Please take a look at it and remember: speed was of the essence.

Second accomplishment, kind of. Rather. Maybe. I bound a book using Japanese stab binding, folded over used paper, green, waxed hemp thread, and the cover is made of a Kellogg's Genmai (brown rice) Flake cereal box. I butchered the binding and sewed one too many loops around the book. It's a soulful mess but a pretty one. If things go according to plan over the next 36 hours, I should have One - count it - One photo of the bastard child of satan by tomorrow.

Script Frenzy Success!

2008-04-30T23:43:00.003+09:00

I learned that Script Frenzy had moved from June to April on April 23rd, leaving me 7 full days to write a screenplay. The only trouble being: LIFE! I couldn't write everyday so I had to write when I could. I managed to write for three days total. THREE! And.... I finished! Hence the winner's logo to the left. What is the point? No point (except if you donate some cash so that the organizers can do some good in the world) except to prove to oneself that one can, given the deadline, finish a complete 100 page screenplay in a month. I managed it in less than a week. Cool. Next year, no sweat. Also, by the way, I finished a script last year, too. Both were film noir style movies. Why? Because I like Lauren Bacall/Kathleen Turner tough talking babes in movies.

What was this script about? Genetic engineering, chimeras, and DNA manipulation - where is the real human and what's the difference between designer people and androids? All encased in a mystery, a thriller, and a shoot 'em action screenplay Without a car chase (but with cars.)

Thank you very much. I'll be here all week. Be sure to tip your waitresses and hey! Have a good time.

A Capella

2008-04-15T23:31:00.002+09:00

A different media play with... Just a little a capella classical singing in a language I don't understand. German? Latin? Italian? About two minutes.

Alice by Evan

2008-04-09T20:36:00.003+09:00

Just a little independent music from the Jamendo website.

This is Alice by Evan who, I believe, is from a French-speaking nation.

Sound Thinking.... Two Plus Choices.

2008-03-30T00:41:00.023+09:00

This is another test of the emergency broadcasting system except with one minor change: no siren. Except a little one at the end that could be mistaken for a dead phone line. And an experiment with an embedded player.

Please listen and remember, this is only a test. If this had been an actual emergency... well, you'd be SOL. Next week: more about books and less about experiments. Unless they have to do with bookbinding.

Click on the little triangle thingy to hear.

After the Prefix Lesson, a song by Seattle Standard Cafe

or here: a little drama about bookbinding.

Or this late addition:

Which player do you like? Let me know.

Another blog. What's he thinking?

2008-03-27T10:08:00.004+09:00

I have created a bookmaking-related blog or two at the following places in case you really, really need to read more about what I write in such a sporadic way. And who amongst us hasn't had that need?

Site one is Tedorigawa Bookmakers and site two is Tedorigawa Bookmakers - clever titles designed to not confuse anyone except myself. The first is a blogspot blog and the other is a Podbean blog. Both now have sound (courtesy of Podbean) and I'm thinking of including one for this blog, too, so you can not only read what I write but hear what I say as you read. A plethora of media, wouldn't you say?

I've also updated and rearranged the links on the sidebar to your right. Exciting stuff, this, eh?

Once a Week?

2008-03-23T15:40:00.004+09:00

Try as I might - not much - I failed at my 'weekly' entry. However, I made a box for a book - the book is called The Leap Day Book because I finished it, purposefully, on February 29, 2008; I made a short film (about a minute) called Waiting to practice filming, and I organized my office - which is still a work in progress. And I, uh, worked on another blog plus a website so I wasn't completely innocent of blogdom in my spare time. The box is here but it's sideways so you either have to turn your computer on its side or tilt your head or imagine it upright.

In other art news, I'm listening, slowly, to Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle) which I have never listened to before. This is the opera from which we have our image of opera singers as being big, fat, (It ain't over til the fat lady sings) and wearing breast armor and helmets with horns. One opera - of course it takes four days to watch it - and it created a stereotype. There is a lot of yelling... I mean loud singing, but there is also some incredible music. (And not just the Ride of the Valkyrie of Robert Duvall Lt. Colonel Kilgore Apocalypse Now fame.)

Greetings from Afar.

2008-03-12T23:08:00.003+09:00

Yes, months ago I posted a post and then fell silent whilst working on something called "life." But I have returned with a Bushite smirk and a song in my heart. What have I been working on, you may ask? Besides the day job, you mean? A variety of home improvement projects which, as you well know, consume entire bank accounts and reek havoc on the most innocent of lives with merely a whisper of thanks or warning.

Also included in this silence was the inclination of a total, again, revamp of 手取川 - Tedorigawa. Yes, again. The first Tedorigawa was a rampage of raamen. The second incarnation was a rambling of a lot of meandering rivers in the streams of consciousness. This, the third revival of a blog, will focus like a laser beam in on art. Art, I tell you. Not related to the Garfunkel of Simonand kind of art but of art in real life. Mostly, however, movies, screenplays, and books that I have seen, written, or plan to write. (See below: Dancing on the Arc of a Dream for further details on the written and plan to write phases of writing.)

I will, one hopes, promise (which, with $4 will get you a cup of java at your local caffeine outlet) to update this New Improved Revamped Revived Blog more often. Dare I say "Once a week"? We shall see. We shall see.

_____________

Next week: Text to Speech Suspense Drama - Part One: The Invisible Client.

NationalNovelWritingMonth (NaNoWriMo) Winner

2007-12-11T21:13:00.000+09:00

I managed to finish a Nanowrimo novel in November: The Priests of Hiroshima. The novel is about time travel, love, the little quirks of fate that change lives, Gutenberg, Istanbul, and a priest who falls in love with a nun. I blogged the first draft of my novel (still not completely up) which, if you're so inclined, you can read by clicking the blue words (indicating a link, as well you know) above.

This all means that now I have more time to update Calvado, another Nano novel about love, the little quirks of fate that change lives, singing, modeling, and criminals. Calvado, our heroine in Calvado is also our heroine in The Priests of Hiroshima. You can read Calvado above.

It also means more time can now be devoted to Dancing on the Arc of a Dream, which I hope someday to finish and get up for sale someplace. It's the first draft/only draft of a bunch of hard-working folks trying to make it in Los Angeles. They are this close to making it, too. As stated before I'm not going to blog it so that whoever buys it will be the sole owner! Exclusivity! Great.

Dancing on the arc of a dream (continued)

2007-10-29T16:50:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, Sunday, October 28th, a day that will never make it to the infamy top ten list, I sat in an outdoor cafe with my Mexican rice, coffee, and salad and wrote several... many pages of Dancing On the Arc of a Dream. So many, in fact, that I fear I may run out of room before the blank pages evaporate in a shower of ink and doodles. I'd write the story, doodle a drawing that may or may not be related to the story, and write some more. I discovered, half way through one scene that I had the wrong character interacting with another character so I had to go back and cross out the original character and enter in the proper guy's name.

Speaking of characters: here's a rundown of the main characters so far and which I hope will be the only characters, except for a few minor thugs and hangerson:

Janice Jean J - the narrator; 20, the 'mother' of our little group, the glue that keeps the other two in orbit.

Mel - 24, the disgruntled, angry young man who has made a very bad deal for drugs and a coffee shop.

Syd - 24, a former drug dealer who was shot and lost quite a few IQ points; Janice Jean J takes care of him and Mel has a few soft spots for him, too.

Red - Mel's dad, a scam artist.

The Suit - a mysterious woman with too much money and a drinking problem.

Mike - a rock star guitarist super-god, The Suit's boy-toy and perhaps a benefactor in Janice's coffee shop. The last I saw him he was getting beaten up by Red.

The plot, as we speak, is Janice and Mel are trying to get enough money to keep their coffee shop afloat. Mel borrowed some drugs from the bad guys (as of yet unseen) and was going to sell them to The Suit except someone did the old swithcroo on him (on Janice, she was meeting The Suit) and now they need money to pay for the drugs And the coffee shop. Red things he has a scam ready.

Exciting Semi-News

2007-10-23T23:05:00.000+09:00

After a short break I have returned with a vengence upon Dancing on the Arc of a Dream. Tomorrow I will have escaped the rigors of any day job that might be lurking behind me on a dark street like a stalker about to pounce and will be devoting several hours to religiously creating more words, stories, characterization, and plot to "Dancing". For several minutes today, whilst listening to a web design podcast called boagworld, I re-read the some fifty pages of the novel so far, looked at the pictures, scribbles, and asides and this has bolstered my enthusiasm to carry on! To boldly split an infinitive where no human has split one before! To write, draw, and plot! Ah, the wonders of hand-written, hand-drawn, hand-bound novels. It sends a chill up my spine just thinking about it.

________________________________________________________
Check out my online novel, Calvado: Love Kills.

Dancing on the Arc of a Rainbow (con't.)

2007-10-17T20:32:00.000+09:00

I enticed an artist acquaintaince of mine to assist me with Dancing on the Arc of a Rainbow. She is going to dabble in the margins and, perhaps, create a drawing or two of the action in the story. Being an artist, she is quick, she is creative, and she can do a doodle in 5 minutes that looks more like a complete drawing than a doodle. Amazing to watch work and encourages me to write faster.

The plot thus far:
Our heroine is about to get some major money to create an upscale coffee shop for the rich so that she can make enough money to pay back the loan her dead-beat friend got from gangsters Except, the dead-beat friend's father, a con-man from back in the day, is on the scene. What does he have in mind?

Shouldn't I be riding the dig-me! blogging wave and blog Dancing on the Arc of a Rainbow? I should and could except I wanted the finished copy to be the only one and computer screens, online sites, and Flickr are not too receptive to hand-drawn art, hand-written novels, and waxed Irish linen thread threaded through needles. At least and not keep their warranty.

A New Day • A New Post • A New Blog • A New Challenge

2007-10-10T16:10:00.000+09:00

First!

I have begun blogging a novel called Calvado.

Calvado is a love story between a street-smart, hard-living man and a woman of exceptional intelligence. Mack, the man, discovers early in his life that everyone he loves dies. He never gets close to anyone. Until he meets Calvado. Calvado was hired as a model when she was 14 but had planned to become a doctor since she was 9. They meet in New York City where Mack has gone to get lost.

The novel takes place all over the time: We meet Mack in the final moments of his life, we meet Calvado as a young med student. We flash back to the many, many times they 'meet' but do not become friends. Then, we flash up to why Mack is escaping New York.

It's being blogged slowly but surely over time. The first installment: The Delaware Water Gap is up now.

Second!

I plan to blog my NaNoWriMo novel this year, just to see if I can do it. The title: The Priests of Hiroshima. It's an historical magically realistic story of Calvado (making her second appearance), Hiroshi (a Japanese college student hitch-hiking through Turkey), an as-yet-to-be-named used bookstore owner and his 657-year-old bilingual cat.

This fab four make their way through time and place when Hiroshi discovers that Istanbul is laced with tunnels that meander over the earth and around time.

They go from the Fall of Constantinople to the bombing of Hiroshima; they wonder at the birth of Genghis Khan, and visit the studios of Wang Zhen in Yuan China as he invents movable type 130 years before Gutenberg. They visit Mainz, Germany three times: to watch Gutenberg print his Bible in 1450; to watch as Martin Luther sends his 95 Theses to the Archbishop in 1517; and to watch Hubert Schiffer, a Jesuit priest, receive his priestly robes. Schiffer is one of eight Jesuit priests who survived the bombing of Hiroshima.

Mostly, though, The Priests of Hiroshima is a love story between Calvado and Hiroshi.

Third!

And, no, I haven't forgotten about Dancing on the Arc of a Dream. It is still being worked on. It is still being drawn and hand-written. It is up to 50 pages and growing. I'm working on it when I have the time and because it is the first and only draft, I'm being careful about plot and characterization. It's not like I can hit the delete key 28 times really fast to eliminate a misspoken sentence.

Thank you and enjoy your life.

Dancing On the Arc of A Dream: A Novel Writing Idea

2007-08-07T19:31:00.000+09:00

Good morning, everyone and welcome to Tedorigawa for August 7, 2007 and my new brainstorm.

Dancing On the Arc of A Dream

I stumbled upon a great idea at Plotastic.com via The Writing Show with Paula B. (on iTunes, of course, where else?). Seems Mark Putnam, creator/editor of Plotastic, wanted to write a novel but couldn't concentrate on any of his many ideas. He created Plotastic.com and a survey wherein people could vote on main character, plot points, motivation, etc cetera for Mark's novel, which he would write given the parameters of the survey. He is hard at work and as of today has about 35,000 words of his projected 100,000-word novel.

Dancing On the Arc of A Dream

Bear with me here; I'm getting to the point. Mark inserted a link to NanoWrimo on his website. NanoWrimo is National Novel Writing Month which is held each November. Your goal in NanoWrimo, should you decide to accept the challenge - and what writer can't? - is Simply? to write a 50,000-word novel in one month. I have dragged my carcass through NanoWrimo for the last three years and have reached the goal of 50,000 words each year. (Yeah, me!) Meaning, in my case, two completed novels (Calvado and Tristram's Printer) and one incomplete novel (Caraculiambro) but still over 50,000 words.

Dancing On the Arc of A Dream

Now, what does NanoWrimo, Mark Putnam's Plotastic, and me have to do with this great new novel writing idea I have? Read on, MacDuff, there's more. I also enjoy hand bookbinding. I'm a very, very beginner but enjoy it. Here is a link to one of my books on Flickr, if you're dying to see what a handbound book by me looks like.

Dancing On the Arc of A Dream

Get to the Point! I hear the one person who is reading this blog scream. Okay. Let's see what we can add up: bookbinding, NanoWrimo, me, Plotastic. What do you get? Me, handwriting a novel in one of my handbound books before the year is out.

Dancing On the Arc of A Dream

I've already bound the book and I've already started scribbling. I'm eschewing computers and anything more high-tech than a ball-point pen. I'm writing it without a net (no outline), and I'm editing it as I write In the Book! First draft is the last, all editing marks, crossouts, misspellings, doodles, and other aids to procrastination included.

Dancing On the Arc of A Dream

I have a title but no plot ... But! the plot is forming as I write! Talk about organic (see The Writing Show episode for July 29, 2007 with Anthony G. Williams "Scales" for more on organic.) And what is the title? Look: Dancing On the Arc of A Dream!

Ocassionally incredibly illegibly hand-written by George Stenson using pen, pencil, doodles, art, notes, and re-writes, Dancing On the Arc of A Dream is the first hand-bound, hand-written, first-draft novel written since 1450: the first and only draft of Dancing On the Arc of A Dream.

Here's the plot so far: Two men and one woman borrow money from the wrong people to open a greasy spoon coffee shop. They discover to their horror that they are in over their heads and have to beg, borrow, steal or print lots of money real fast. Murder, revenge, back-stabbings, double-dealings, drugs, rock and roll, and a woman known only as The Suit. Wish me luck.

Photos of Dancing On the Arc of A Dream are here: Dancing on the Arc of a Dream!

Film Noir Podcast

2007-07-11T13:09:00.000+09:00

There's a film noir podcast wherein two academics talk about film noir. Personally, if you can get past the academic jargon ('source material' for 'the book it was based on') and the introduction wherein one of the two academics makes.... pronouncements about the movie in question, the podcast, Out of the Past, is pretty good with some insights about the genre, etc.

As for my film noir screenplay, Die Me A Genealogist, it is not going through a re-write. I'm just not un-busy enough to put it up or put up with it. Plus, I had a major computer crash. Two, in fact. One computer has been returned minus the faulty hard disk (with tons of data.) The other computer - with Die Me A Genealogist on it - is still in the shop and if it comes back with an erased disk, well, Die Me A Genealogist is poof, up in smoke, in the nether regions of life and quite an experience it was, too. I do, however, have a cool vampire movie in mind titled: Vampire Steaks. No, that wasn't it. Oh, well, I can't think of the original title so I'll go with that.

Anyone have any idea for a plot?

Go in peace. Live in harmony. Promote Good Thoughts.

Script Frenzy Script

2007-06-28T07:37:00.000+09:00

I have finished my film noir screenplay and have been announced a winner (over 20,000 words - aout 100 pages) of the Script Frenzy frenzy. Someday I plan to put most of the script up here on a related page. If I figure out how to do it.
I believe, if memory serves, only five people get killed in my screenplay, the good guy gets the money but not the girl, and ach... six people get killed. Maybe I'd better read the damn thing to find out what happens. This is one of the special results of writing in a frenzy and not really paying attention to what you're doing: writer's alzheimer's - makes reading it a new and fresh experience!

Film Noir Script Part One

2007-06-18T20:53:00.000+09:00

Greetings all.
Here is a short snippet of a scene from the film noir script: Die Me A Genealogist which I'm sure is eagerly awaited by one and all. Let me set the scene... or better yet, no. Read the snippet and figure the scene out on your own. Hopefully, it will be clear. Or I've failed miserably as a film noir screenwriter. We shall see. If you have any comments.... er, I'd be glad to hear from you. No, seriously, I would.

Be forewarned all ye who enter: Here lie Dirty words.

SCENE: Grunge-driven back alley littered with graffiti and broken bottles. An ALLEY CAT scavenges over the garbage for breakfast.

MAINWARING (V.O.)

It isn't everyday a stranger offers you two billion dollars.

The Cat spits at something. JERRY, 55, alcoholic Chinese-American, staggers down the alley.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
It isn't everyday you murder a stranger.

The cat spits and runs off. Jerry turns around.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
It isn't everyday you meet a woman who drives you to murder.

JERRY
What the fuck are you doing here?

SCENE: A park bench. Early morning.

MAINWARING, 40, sips from a bottle in a paper bag. He has a scar from his left ear to his mouth. Jerry sits next to him, still a little tipsy from last night. Mainwaring pulls a cigarette out and lights it.

JERRY
Those things'll kill ya.

MAINWARING
I hadn't planned on living this long.

A STRAY CAT strolls by. Mainwaring picks her up.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
If it wasn't for Jerry, I'd probably have a John Doe tag on my toe down at the Seattle City morgue. He found me right after the Florida job.

SCENE: Florida Coast
Mainwaring, no scar, 30, slouches into the lobby of a flea bag hotel. USTINOV, 20, follows carrying a large worn-out bag.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
I didn't know it was my last job when I checked into that whore's paradise but I should have guessed. There were enough clues: we missed a connection, our hotel was booked solid, and I had to deal with a three-fingered hotel clerk.

Mainwaring holds up two fingers and the clerk shoves two registration cards across the counter. Mainwaring tosses $300 on top of the cards. The clerk pockets the money and hands Mainwaring two keys.

SCENE: Seedy Hotel Room.

Mainwaring looks out the drab window at the yacht harbor. He picks up a rifle scope and finds the yacht he's looking for. Ustinov cleans a high-powered rifle.

USTINOV
Bradley says you're a genius with this.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
Ustinov is a little shit. He thought he was a tough guy because he spent a weekend in jail sobering up. I've never been in jail and hope never to be. Bradley wanted me to train the little shit. I have better ways to waste my time.

Ustinov dry fires the rifle while pointing it at the window. Too close to Mainwaring for comfort. Mainwaring moves slowly at first. Then, in one quick move he slaps Ustinov hard across the face. Before Ustinov can react, Mainwaring has a knife to Ustinov's right eye.

MAINWARING
You point that thing at me again...

USTINOV
It's, it's not loaded.

MAINWARING pushes the knife closer.

USTINOV
Okay, okay.

Mainwaring sheafs his knife.

USTINOV
I was pointing it at...

Mainwaring glares at Ustinov.

USTINOV
Okay, okay.

Mainwaring grabs his coat, fedora, and heads for the door.

USTINOV
Where ya headed?

MAINWARING (V.O.)
I suppose I could have told him, but I didn't feel like handing out any peace of mind. I didn't have any, why should the little shit?

He slams the door behind him and heads for the lobby.

That's it for today. I'll be here all week and hey, let's tip our waitresses, shall we?

Film noir script Part 2: the fun.

2007-06-14T22:16:00.000+09:00

The script, which I'm sure you're all really, really waiting to read on baited breath, is going swimmingly - whatever that means - well?. Let's recap, shall we? I have to write a 110-page film noir in one month. I have the good guys, the bad guys, and the woman. I need some plot twists but I'm already on page 65 and moving fast. In fact I should actually be doing the script instead of playing on Tedorigawa but I can't pound out the words that long without running around looking for something else to do. No! It's not attention deficit disorder, it's because I want to think about what my characters want to do, what they are pulling me toward.

Main good guy - Mainwaring (named after the man who wrote one of the first film noir films - Daniel Mainwaring and the movie was Out of the Past starring Robert Mitchum and pretty soon all the nouns will be in wikipedia blue.). A former hitman who now operates a crummy little used bookstore in Seattle.

Main bad guy - Eely Moran (named after nobody, just a name I thought sounded greasy and slimey and ne'er do wellish.) A genealogist, the deadliest of bad-guy occupations, yes? Hmmm. Hence the tagling:

When this genealogist checks your lifeline- run!

The Woman (commonly known in the film noir world as the femme fatale; her name is legion. She is known by different names by different people: Eely knows her as Diane. Mainwaring knows her as Gertrude; the cops know her as Special Agent Freytag. But everyone knows her as Nancy - please sing along with the Beatles... ) She's known throughout the movie as....

The Hair

(a mispronunciation by Moran as The Heir - he thinks she's about to inherit a ton of money from her dead husband, who Mainwaring killed for a couple thousand dollars.)

I should say no more. I should get back to work. I should type something useful. I should say no more.

Create Peace wherever you are.

Film Noir (black film?) Screenplay

2007-06-10T23:01:00.000+09:00

I have decided to join the ranks of the chosen millions (especially in Los Angeles) who have decided that they, too, can be the next Shane Black (a man who has gotten way too much cash for his scripts - unless someone buys mine, then we're both underpaid) and write a movie. Or, as we say in the biz, a script.
Not an ordinary script, though, (I wish) but a film noir script. A dark, twisted script with three basic characters: the hero, an ex-hitman turned bookstore owner, the femme fatale that makes the ex-hitman jump through the hoops, and the bad guy who tries to manipulate the femme fatale and the bookstore owner. This is all because of Script Frenzy in which we unwashed of the world pretend to be on deadline for a script.

One month. June.
One script. Die Me a Genealogist
One film noir ready for sale. Ha.

So, naturlich, I looked up film noir ala wikipedia to make sure I've got all the ingredients for this particular caldron of soup. According to that we need the following pieces:

cigarettes - what genre comes after film noir, film cancer?
flashbacks - love it. All the screenplay gurus (Syd, Robert)say never use flashbacks.
a dame
a flawed hero
a flawed bad guy
voiceovers, of course - and, hey, didn't I write about this very thing not too long ago? Am I repeating myself? Do I have blog-alzheimer's? Yes I did! May 23 of this year. Look below! - Who am I shouting at? Myself? Probably. Who's in charge of this blog anyway!?

Today's recommended film noir movie (redundant, or what?) is "Touch of Evil" (released the same year as "No Time for Sargeants" with Don Knotts.) directed by Orson Welles, starring Orson, Charleton Heston, Janet Leigh, and, in a pre-Psycho crazy role as a motel clerk (can you say Norman 'Hi, Mom' Bates), Dennis Weaver (no, Weaver isn't in Psycho, I know that. That was Anthony Perkins. It's just that Weaver's hotel clerk in Touch of Evil is an over-the-top weirdo two years before Psycho was released.)

A bit over-acted in parts, the main reason for watching this flick is to watch Welles' directing - his camera positioning, his angles; his, what, ten-minute first tracking shot. And to watch Welles' character fall into the abyss as Heston watches and may have pushed a little bit, Janet Leigh gets gang-scared, and Dennis Weaver freaks out about marijuana.

If you're interested in film noir scripts, I've got one for you. Let me know. Contact me. Hit comment. Smile. Enjoy your life and hey, let's be careful out there.

"Die Me A Genealogist"
If this genealogist checks your lifeline, you'd better run.

YouNoir? TubeNoir?

2007-06-07T23:33:00.000+09:00

A tribute to film noir I found on YouTube.com, one of many, many tributes and whatnots to film noir. Please let me know what you think of this and, no, I didn't make it, write it, direct it or have anything else to do with it except watch it.

"South Korean breakdancing squad" google hit update: THREE! (up from one a few days ago.) Stay Tuned for more Stupid Google Tricks!

Tapdancing South Korean Militant Breakdancing Funda-Squads

2007-06-05T21:30:00.000+09:00

There's no reason for this other than to increase the number of google hits for it: "South Korean breakdancing squads" which Zay N. Smith (Quick Takes at the Chicago Sun-Times) coined and is trying to see how many google hits it gets vs how many yahoo hits it gets along with "tap-dancing militant Islamic fundamentalists" which, you have to admit, is a pretty amazing visual image.
On the other hand, Quick Takes is a good read for a quirky take on the news (i.e. printing contradictory quotes from the same person... read: Bush.) Currently, there is only One hit for "South Korean breakdancing squads" on Google.

And, for no particular reason, okay - because of the soothing music, the nice pictures, and the chance to read some Japanese - this video of the Kanazawa Yosui (water ways of Kanazawa, Japan):

Seth Harwood's Jack Palms II Podiobook

2007-05-29T22:13:00.000+09:00

As if to show me I'm wrong about my last post (see below, bunnykins), I heard a portion of a new podiobook by Seth Harwood, Jack Palms II on Podcast411 episode something. Seth does a good job of doing two things: one, reading and two, writing. A lot of people who read are either overblown Dramatic with a capital D or monotone; Seth is neither. He hit it quite nicely in the middle. He also used special effects but only as necessary. He didn't go overboard. And the writing, for the most part, held my attention which, of course, is the point. There were a couple of points where I grimaced at a forced transition or two but generally really good. On Podcast411, we hear an interview with Seth and a 15-minute clip teaser of Jack Palms II which is scheduled to be put up on Seth's podcast starting June 3rd. The 15-minute portion on Podcast411 leaves us with a cliffhanger but that was to be expected. (Ah, got it, episode 203 of Podcast411. Two hundred shows? That's incredible, eh?)

This is all to say that Seth's podcast came across as a good old fashioned radio drama minus a lot of overdramatic music but without the different voices for all the parts; Seth reads all the characters himself with one exception.

This is also to say that I realized why a lot of the crime dramas on old radio shows were told in the first person. First, because that was the way crime novels (hard-boiled, Chandler, Hammett,- two Ms, two Ts - and pulp fiction) were written - Think Bogart in the Maltese Falcon. And because it sounds more like the character talking to you instead of someone reading to you or pretending to read to you. That said, I think I'm going to check out Seth's serialized audiobook.

In the next post on this blog I'm going to talk about a podcast called Behind the Black Mask, which looks like interviews with several pulp/crime/detective novelists. Should or could be interesting. (By the same people who do a podcast on film noir called Out of the Past.)

Eat in Peace.

Why Film Noir Is Like an AudioBook

2007-05-23T23:26:00.000+09:00

AudioBooks are like old time radio dramas (see post below) and the film noir movies of the 40s and 50s were like the old time radio dramas (except with pictures.) So, I guess it stands to reason that those great old movies - White Heat springs to mind immediately: - "I'm on top of the world, ma! On top of the world!" - were what audiocasts, audiobooks, dramacasts want to be and, I hope, will be someday. I'd love to plug an earbud in and be swept away into a radio noir drama. (There's a singer who should be in a film noir movie, let me think of her name..... hold on....Got it: Bernadette Seacrest.)

What are the characteristics of a film noir film you ask: read on, my precious one.

• Cigarettes - everyone smokes, lots of smoke in the air bouncing off lights and fedoras.
• Fedoras - everyone wears a hat. To keep the smoke out of their eyes?
• Underdeveloped femme fatales - I'm not taking body parts, I'm talking characterisation, as in, one-dimensional female roles.
• Twists and convoluted plots - who to trust, who to trust?
• Flashbacks and Flash-forwards - the story is often told in a non-linear (remember Tarantino's Resevoir Dogs? Pure film noir except for the babes, lighting, ... okay. Nevermind.)
• Morally ambiguous - the good guy has bad traits, the bad guy has good traits; both try to live up to their own moral code; too bad sometimes it involves knocking someone else off occasionally.
• Voice-over narration - considered a weakness by modern day screenwriting gurus, voice-over narration is deriguer in film noir.
• No Hollywood ending - everyone loses, nobody wins,
• Banter. Lots of witty, clever banter. Lots of good one-liners. For all of film noir's negativity, there's a lot of humor in the banter. Love banter. Banter is my life. Banter like this:

You know you don't have to act with me, Steve. You don't have to say anything, and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and... blow

Bacall to Bogart in To Have and To Have Not (1944)

Bacall was 19, Bogart was 45 and the next year they got married. Altogether they were in four movies together, all film noir: To Have and To Have Not, The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948). Who can argue with a film style that produced not only the romance of the century (the last one - century, I mean) but also those four great flicks? Hmmm? Can you, punk? Well, do ya, punk? Do you feel lucky? (now, who said that?)

The whole point of this post is to make the following dare to myself: I'm going to attempt to write a film noir screenplay. I don't have a plot but I've got a title: Die Me a Genealogist. Pretty classy, eh? Picture the young Robert Mitchum embracing the young Gloria Stuart (the old lady in Cameron's Titanic) on a drizzly San Francisco street, over there, near the docks, a little bit away from the tourists, in the shadow of that empty warehouse. I only hope I can banter well.

Go in Peace, my lovely little ones, and fear no boogeyman.

Is Old Time Radio the New AudioBook, er...

2007-05-22T21:11:00.000+09:00

Listening to a few audio books/audiocasts/drama on a podcast and am immediately reminded of what I used to do late Sunday night growing up in the metropolis of Olympia, Washington. Sunday night the local radio station used to broadcast radio dramas; murder mysteries mostly with cool sound effects, dramatic readings and eerie music. I loved 'em. Even as a small nerd with no appreciable social skills, I enjoyed the audio picture that they painted. A creaky door opens, footsteps, a male voice hushing someone, a gasp.. Cue the Intro Music. Loved 'em. Listened to them in the kitchen next to the speaker that was connected to the radio in the front room because nobody else wanted to listen. You can't, or at least I couldn't, listen to a radio drama and do anything else like read or watch TV or do my homework; talk with your parents. You had to Listen to the Drama.

My parents kind of laughed at me because many of the radio dramas I was listening to were the ones they listened to when they were young and radio dramas were the TV shows of the day.

Now there are audio podcasts that, rather then be a boring person talk about their life - wow, how exciting - are radio dramas. Except without the good sound effects. But with (sometimes) cool music. One thing I noticed, though, were the podcast dramas were mostly told by one person: a narrator. And sometimes a friend would drop in to add an additional voice, especially if the podcaster were male and needed a female voice.

So the question of the day is, Are AudioNovels the New Old Time Radio Dramas? (Of course they are, what kind of a question is that? But so far they're not as good, in my nimble opinion, but then my memory is probably playing tricks on me and making me think those old radio dramas were pretty good when in fact they sucked.)

Some audionovellas include: PodioBooks, Barfly, and Murder By Design. Among a rack of others. (If you noticed that Scott Sigler is not on the list, well, you noticed so you know about him. If you don't know about him and his audio empire, google him or traipse on over to PodioBooks and try to avoid his name.) And the ultimately famous librivox which has books swept from the public domain and read by a whole host of real people. You can listen to a person read Don Quixote to you, if you wish.

In any case, please enjoy your healthy eating habits, enjoy the new old time radio dramas and let me know if you know of any other audio novellas that I should be listening to. (For the record, I'm not a big fan of fantasy, science fiction, or fan fiction. Why? I guess I read too much of it when I was young.)

Peace, my little lambchops. Live Long and Prosper.

Is Videocasting the New Podcasting?

2007-05-18T23:10:00.000+09:00

Recently a billion people more or less have started videoblogs, videocasts, Youtubecasts, or whatever they may end up being called: a video online made by people like you and me. Well, not exactly like you and me. There be some sick puppies out there. (See here.)

But my question is, is making a videocast going to be the new podcast and will videocasting cripple TV like podcasting is crippling terrestrial radio? What, exactly, do people want from a videocast that they can't get from a TV show? With podcasts it's all about niche - you can find a podcast about goldfish training if you want. (See here.)

Videocasting is moving in the same direction. Did you know there is a videocast about toenail art (here)? You certainly won't find that following Sixty Minutes (here) on the CBS line-up any time soon, I think. Do we really want to watch each other's home videos? Me, Me! I can answer that! I can answer that! (See here.)

Thanks for reading and, hey, let's be careful out there.

Two More Reasons to Update Your Blog

2007-05-16T21:42:00.000+09:00

Late last night or early this morning I updated another blog and got a comment really, really fast. Of course it was unabashedly spam but, hey, if I hadn't updated the blog I wouldn't have gotten even the spam, right? Right. That goodness for spam or I'd have no email at all. So, here are two more reasons you should update your blog regularly.

2. The cost of gasoline is rising, the cost of airline tickets is rising, the frequency of full body searches just before you get on the plane is increasing, the cost of doing anything in the Real world is rising, so, hey, what have you got to lose? You can't go anywhere without spending a small fortune And pollute the environment And get frisked by Elmer the banjo player from Deliverance with the teeth missing, so why not Update your blog and see what happens. It's free, at least. At least for now.

1. Your reader (perhaps your mom, perhaps your dad, too, if your mom tells him about the update) will be happy. Maybe. Unless you're writing one of those Mommie-Dearest blogs where you drag all your family's dirty laundry through the blogosphere on the mistaken thought that it will make you feel better. It won't.

Bless you all and to all a healthy vegetarian raamen. Thank you and good night.

Two Reasons to Update Your Blog Regularly

2007-05-15T19:38:00.000+09:00

Another quick blog post. What am I doing? Watching re-runs of Mayberry RFD and sipping Orange LeHi with my cousins sitting on a couch with no legs on the front porch or writing a blog about raamen and other assorted gooky things? Well, evidentally, I'm on the couch.

Let's see. Why should you update your blog regularly?

2. So you can remember from one year to the next what the heck you think you're blogging about! That's why! you lazy blog-fader!

1. So your favorite free blog-provider won't delete your blog because they went bankrupt 23 friggin' years ago and now in 2032 the heirs Want Their Money Back!!!

Thank you for listening.

Hisashi-buri

2007-03-30T00:16:00.000+09:00

Hisashiburi. I just realized it has been nearly the gestation period of a human since my last post and I was in a quandry. Should I post now or wait another month so that I could speculate about the growth of a fetus and my latest post but then I came to the stark-raving realization that I shouldn't be writing about fetuses and food items in the same blog/paragraph/sentence.

Hisashiburi, by the way, is not a food item nor is it a raamen item. We have to make these distinctions, eh? Hisashiburi is how one would say "Hey, I haven't seen you in a age." If you were living in Japan or speaking Japanese to a Japanese person who you haven't seen in a age.
i.e. long time no see.

About raamen. Well, good news and bad news about raamen. One, I'm cutting down on my consumption of said food product because I'm leaning heavily to port. I mean, portly. I mean, veganism. I have found several vegetarian raamens and even two vegetarian raamen shops (in Tokyo. Kichijoji, to be more specific. Near Kichijoji station, in actual fact.) But I don't live in Tokyo so I won't be going to either of them, I suspect, in the near future.

Veganism - not for my health but for the health of the little critters that give up their lives so that I might have a double cheese with bacon burger that I forget about in a matter of minutes. Why should they have to live in creepy places and be slaughtered just for my momentary pleasure. I suppose if my pleasure were greater I wouldn't switch?Hard to say.

In any case, I'm going to say, "I'm not a vegan because I love animals, I hate vegetables" rather than say I'm a vegan because veganism upsets so many meat-eaters. I don't know why. Why do meateaters get so pissed off when they find out you don't eat meat? Guilt?

The bad news is I'm not going to be writing much about raamen anymore - please, please, keep your weeping, crying, and rending of clothing for later (as if hundreds of people are reading this dormant blog). The good news is... I'll still write. This is good news? I've written before? Yeah, like EIGHT MONTHS ago. What kind of writer writes once every eight months? A lazy one, that's for sure. We'll see. Mata ne. (Another Japanese linguistic unit. It means something but then, who wants to know what it means, eh?)

At last, a humourous vegan video instead of the usual sanctimonous crapola you get when google "not slaughtering mammals and masticating their dead flesh".

How long will it be before the amazon.com books on raamen change to vegan cookbooks?

Missles for Raamen

2006-08-05T02:42:00.000+09:00

I ate at a raamen shop the other day that had the biggest piece of gristle this side of Norway. I mean, it was huge. It sort of sat in the bowl of dashi and raamen like the proverbial 800-gorilla: I couldn't ignore it. Fortunately, the soup and the noodles were good so I could try to ignore it. But in the end I failed. I had to flip it unceremoniously into an overstuffed ashtray. The ambience of the place was one of hand-made two by fours so that might've been a clue as to the gristle to a more enquirying mind. But not mine. All-in-all the quantity was good, the quality was okay, but the gristle on the pork just, hmmm, tipped me over the edge. No more gristle, please.

Speaking of messing up your day by pretending not to see an 800-pound gorilla, what do Israel and Hizbullah (this is the Christian Science Monitor's spelling, not mine) think they're going to accomplish by killing babies? Does it help that the titular leader of the free world doesn't think Israel should stop? This is the same leader who taunted terrorists with "Bring it on." Of course Israel should stop! Of course Hizbullah should stop! They're killing children here. Children! And babies. I can't believe That Leader doesn't see the dead babies. Is he as isolated as Kim Il Jong?

By the way, I heard an Iranian woman talking about the time frame that some Islamic mullahs and others think. She said the West, especially the temporary leaders, think in terms of five to ten minutes. Maybe a year. But the past is the past. History, Henry Ford said, is bunk. She said some mullahs and other Moslems think in terms of centuries. For example, X happened in 1427, so I can't talk to you because your ancestors were on the other side. History, she said, is very much alive for these people. So, will our great-great grandchildren be sending their grandchildren off to Iraq and Afghanistan to protect democracy?

Raamen for Peace

Moving Raamen and Missiles

2006-07-13T10:59:00.000+09:00

First, let me say that I was going to flash a few quicktime movies on this site about raamen and raamen-ya I have been to. Wow: lights, movement, excitement. But then I found this site and videocast:

Zero-Raamen

Which has not only movies but is updated, according to the person who made it, everyday. Everyday! A new one to two minute movie of a different raamen EVERYDAY! My goodness, who wants to compete with that. Also, his or her website and the iTunes link to his videocast is in Japanese but the few movies I have watched have no spoken language; just music and some writing which isn't important. Check this place out if you're interested in raamen.

Second, North Korea. What can I say? They test fire a few Scuds and a ICBM that blows itself up a half dozen seconds into flight. Everyone's worried. Everyone's upset.

My question is, what do the people of North Korea want? From what I've seen, they want food. And maybe some education and decent housing. But mostly food. How does Kim justify spending billions on missiles when his own people don't have even noodles to eat? If Kim even knows his people are hungry (Is this kept from him while he lounges in his compound?), how does he justify their hunger? Is it for the good of the fatherland? Is the money diverted from food, medicine, clothing, and housing to missile construction a good thing in his mind?

Do you think it would be possible for the powers of the world to send more food to North Korea now that Kim has launched his missiles? Doesn't he realize that Japan, China, the US, and Russia have to "punish" him for his missiles?

Noodles for Nukes. A fair trade.

Concentration

2006-06-27T23:01:00.000+09:00

In the last couple of weeks I've had a vegetable raamen at the same place twice. Both times the noodles were too soft and the vegetables overcooked. Plus, the TV was too loud and obnoxious. However, it was showing the news of the hour and being depressed by the murders and war fatalities took my mind off of the food. Which is a pity. I think when we are giving nourishment to our bodies we should concentrate on the project at hand rather than allow our minds to wander off in uncharted and unproductive side streams. In fact, if you will.... Perhaps we should concentrate always on what we are doing at the moment. Concentrate on the now, rather than dwell on the past or contemplate the future.

That doesn't mean we ignore the travesties brought on other people; we can't ignore the war dead or innocent people being murdered in the streets. We should do what we can to help all that we can. We should do what we can to help the end of a war (Peace isn't always bad, is it? I mean, blessed at the peacemakers? Isn't that a quote from some book?). No, we can concentrate all of our efforts supporting and nourishing those around us and hope, by a ripple effect, that others will help and help and eventually killing and wars will not be all diplomats and and murderers can think of.

Support the Prince of Peace

Life Recycling

2006-06-20T19:46:00.000+09:00

This isn't to make people concerned or anything, but I think vegetarian raamen without a pork base is better for the world than a pork-based soup. Am I wrong here? There are a gazillion sources online (some true) that show how a lot of grain is used to feed pigs so we can eat the pigs. But, of course, the pig farmers add a lot of chemical junk to the pig's feed. If we eat the grain instead of the pig, we get the health benefits of the grain and skip the chemical junk. Of course the pig will have to die of old age after watching Arnold on "Green Acres" in his declining years, but doesn't that beat gathering all the chemical junk in our bodies? Just wondering.

Which brings me to this week's post: A vegetarian/vegetable raamen I had for about $4.00. It was okay in that it didn't have pig flesh, but the noodles had been cooked too long. The ambience of the raamen shop was pretty bleak, too. Industrial lighting and institutional seats (plastic). All together, not a good place to eat good food. If they could upgrade the ambience, boil the noodles a little less I think they'd have a winner. And it's near a university. A winner all around.

Simple Life/Simple Raamen

2006-06-03T19:53:00.000+09:00

There's a new trend called 'slow life' creeping around Japan on little cat-like feet ready to pounce and the gist of the movement is that people should, as Joni Mitchell sang all those years ago, "get back to the garden." This has resulted in lots of people doing things themselves (Do it yourself-ers) and moving to more isolated places in Japan instead of slaving through the rat race in a concrete oven that's jam-packed with other race-ratters. (Is that a word?) One other result? More people more aware of what they eat and that, my friends, leads us to 'healthier' raamen. Yes, there is a trend away from your college-crowd snack food and back to food that doesn't required a chemistry degree to make. I.e. buckwheat noodles, water, homegrown veggies, and a little soup stock. You can be it takes a lot longer to make than the boil-water-three-minutes-uncover-consume raamen, but it's definitely better. And that has resulted in more raamen shops with 'healthy' raamen (trying to compete with the homegrown breed, I guess.)

Raamen: The Last Bastion of Homegrown Peace

Going Unilingual

2006-05-23T15:14:00.000+09:00

Ate raamen the other day that left a bit to be desired. It felt old and grumpy, if you know what I mean. I won't mention the name of the place because a) you may never be in the area and b) finding a bad raamen shop is half the joy of finding good raamen shops.

One reason it felt old was that the shop only sold one kind of raamen, which is getting to be more common. In the last oh, five - six years raamen shops have been 'specializing' in a single type of raamen: miso, shio, or Hakata raamen for example. This is making for pretty boring shops. No variety.

America is tilting in that direction: uni- everything. One language, one religion, one political thought. I live in a country that is all that plus one basic ethnic group. It can be, and this is a warning America, extremely booooooooooring. Whenever I trip back to the States I enjoy the cacophony of languages and ideas. It feels vibrant and alive. It feels great. It feels like a symphony of the world! But if your less-than open-minded politicians have their way we will all be humming the same tune at the same time of the day. They will consider this a 'good' thing. I consider it the death of America.

If you don't want a boring raamen shop specializing in miso raamen, then you've got to encourage diversity where and when you can. I, personally, like my miso mixed up with my shio raamen bowls. My Hakata nestled next to my Sapporo. My TopRaamen snuggling upagainst the Nissin.

Keep the Raamen Open

VIR (Vegetarian Instant Raamen)

2006-05-17T00:15:00.000+09:00

I didn't keep the package or take a picture of it, but I had vegetarian instant raamen the other night in the confines of my little abode deep in the darkest recesses of the night (when hunger strikes). It was delicious. Tasty. Sparkling with briming-over taste. I didn't read the instructions, of course, so I neglected to add extra, my-choice, vegies. Ah, well, all was not lost. The noodles were done right - not too soft - and the soup was just this side of spicy. Near spicy, I guess you'd have to call them. Like near-beer only better.

On the other, third, hand, I have learned how to play for hours and not accomplish much with Audacity, GarageBand, and iWeb, for those who enjoy bashing their heads against a wall for no apparent reason other than to ease the pain of learning. No, seriously, I managed to make a small audio file using Audacity and GarageBand and then I uploaded it nicely to iWeb. Can't find the damn file now, but, hey, what's a learning curve if you can't lose control, careen like a madman, and wrap your head around the proverbial telephone pole of life?

Build Peace Through Raamen

Wooden Raamen

2006-05-10T14:18:00.000+09:00

Went to a nice place the other day that seats about 30 people but comfortably could probably seat 20. The seats, counter, walls, and bookshelves all looked hand-made. Nice little feeling to the place except for the smokers. If only one person smoked, the whole place ended up with a layer of smog. And a table of four were smoking so I ate with my head just below a thick layer of second-hand carcinogens. Delightful, and I mean that in the worst way.

The place was called Raamen All Japan. Of course it was written in Japanese. ラーメン全日本.

The noodles were done perfectly. I ordered miso (味噌) raamen with extra bean sprouts and I got a ton of bean sprouts. A lot. And the soup was good, too, and I'm not really a miso fan. So why did I order it? Couldn't tell ya, mate. Haven't got a clue. The food overall was good. If there are no smokers, I'd probably eat there again. On a scale of 1 - 10, maybe a 6 ~ 6.5 for the food and a 2 for the ambience so a total of 8.5 overall.

Only problem was the time. Raamen is a fast food for some folks. It took me about 15 minutes to get my food. One reason the smokers were smoking was they had nothing to do with their hands for 15 minutes so they automatically poppled a rolled up stick of tobacco in their face. Fifteen minutes! People eat raamen in less time than it took them to make it.

There was only one waitress and two cooks. That doesn't explain the time problem, though, as both cooks delivered the noodles. Hmm. Next time I go there I'll go after lunch and see if it's quicker. All I can say, thank goodness I bought an iPod Nano.

Seize the Raamen!
(That doesn't sound right.)

Bankrupt Raamen

2006-04-24T19:47:00.004+09:00

It had to happen eventually, I suppose, but it's always hard to see and one can only wonder why it happened. A raamen place featured a few decades ago on this site has gone belly-up. Came upon the building yesterday for the first time in a few months - maybe that's one reason, people forgot it was there. Another reason might have been because it was not so tasty, not so clean, and not so customer-friendly. Just guessing here. Here's a shot of the place before it went out of business – Maybe the owner just got tired of making raamen? Or moved to another location? In any case, you can't go here anymore.

On the positive side, if anyone wants to open their own raamen shop, a space is available and it has a parking lot, most of the equipment, and tables and chairs. You could practically move right in.

After I drove past the out-of-business shop I went to a shop that I go to not infrequently. Fortunately, many other people go there, too, so they're not in danger of going out of business. The raamen was good, as usual, and the quantity superb. I had the "Vegetable Raamen" which came with just a hint of pork. Fairly delicious and the noodles were done to perfection. Why don't I go to this place more often? Good question.

Cultivate Raamen Peace

Illegal Immigrants and Raamen

2006-03-28T09:23:00.000+09:00

A minor post here. I'm traveling through the southern part of California, not too far from Indio, but, alas, I am raamenless. Lots of vegetarian food, especially Mexican with its bean burritos, but not a lot of Chinese-inspired noodle-based dishes. In fact, the Japanese place across the street has neither raamen nor udon nor any other noodly food. Hmmm. Maybe I have to get closer to LA, before I can find any. This is odd considering the number of Chinese workers who helped build the railroad that clatters past my sleeping arrangements.

It's not the trains that are loud, it's gas-guzzling cars running over the tracks. Then the tracks clank, click, rattle and roll. And I have yet to see a train; I've heard lots of train whistles bleating everytime they get to an intersection, but I have yet to see an actual moving train. You'd think the descendents of the workers who helped build this railroad would've stuck around long enough to build a raamen empire in the Inland Empire for the Empire Builder (name of a train). Come to think of it, this railroad was built by illegal aliens - immigrants - so maybe they split for the coast as soon as they were finished building our infrastructure.

A little historical exploitation:
Chinese workers on strike at the Donner Pass. (and US labor management.)
The Promise of Gold Mountain: Chinese workers in Tuscon, Arizona.

A little modern exploitation:
Chinese Workers Pay for Wal-Mart.
Chinese Workers in Iraq (and the US government's response to them.)

Keep Immigrants Coming!

They Built this Country on Raamen!

Gatsunko

2006-03-04T23:38:00.000+09:00

Returned to Gatsunko for a repeat visit. This time I tried the miso raamen while people with me tried the Gatsunko special. The special came with a hunk of meat that would've done any steak place proud: one big slap of pork complete with gristle and fat. My miso raamen was good. Even the noodles were good. I tried both dishes and can honestly say the noodles were good. Did I mention the fat and gristle? Not a problem. Just eat around it. It's big enough not to miss.

I still can't find if Gatsunko is a chain or not. No info on the web about it but I'm still looking. Next time I go, I'll ask. Wow, there's an idea.

Raamenize Your Life!