Archive for January, 2010
This summer on my quasi-annual return trip to the United States I decided that I wanted to travel by train, rather than flying. This decision was partially to do with the fact that flying is one of the most carbon-unfriendly activities around, but equally due to the fact that I’ve come to despise air travel […]
Filed under: culture, daily life, drinking, economy, history, nature, personal, society, travel | 3 Comments
Tags: Amtrak, California, Cargill salt ponds, coast, Coast Starlight, CPR, defibrillation, Elkhorn Slough, EMT, farming, farmworkers, fruit picking, grapes, hidden landscapes, industry, insterstate highway system, landscape, Lompoc penitentiary, missile tests, ocean, salt ponds, train travel, trains, travel, U.S. military, view, wildlife preserves, wine, wine tasting
solid potato salad
“Solid Potato Salad” — a perennial YouTube favorite — is a 1944 dance and contortion routine featuring the splendtastic harmony singing of the Ross sisters, who went by the stage names Aggie Ross, Elmira Ross, and Maggie Ross even though they were — apparently — actually named Veda Victoria, Dixie Jewel and Betsy Ann Ross. […]
Filed under: culture, funs, music, television, video | 2 Comments
Tags: aggressive normality, avant-gardist slapstick, choreography, contortionism, contortionists, dance routine, harmony singing, remix, Ross Sisters, Solid Potato Salad, video
three from Shitennoji
I’ve written about Shitennoji temple before, but these three photographs form such a nice set on their own that I decided to add a separate post. Osaka’s Shitennoji, founded in 593 CE by the ubiquitous Prince Shotoku, is the oldest state-sanctioned Buddhist temple in Japan. Shitennoji is dedicated to the Four Heavenly Kings — the […]
Filed under: culture, history, Japan, Kansai, Osaka, photography, religion | Leave a Comment
Tags: black and white, Buddhism, 白黒, 聖徳太子, Four Heavenly Guardians, Four Heavenly Kings, Holga, Kodak TMY400, medium format, monochrome, Osaka, photography, Prince Shotoku, Shitennoji, Shotoku Taishi, temple, 四天王, 四天王寺, 大阪
nightwalk in Minoh
These shots were taken on the way back from a night walk up to Minoh Falls. Somehow these shots all remind me of the kinds of dreams that I sometimes have after I’ve eaten a few too many slices of pizza or downed just a little bit too much nihonshu. All shots taken using a […]
Filed under: Japan, Kansai, photography, scraps and bones | 3 Comments
Tags: animals, お散歩, お散歩カメラ, color flash, 箕面市, double exposure, Holga, medium format, Minoh, Minoo, night, night walk, photography, strange, surreal
hatsumode at Sumiyoshi-taisha
Hatsumode — the year’s first visit to a shrine or temple — is generally celebrated in Japan between January 1st and January 3rd and typically involves making your wishes for the new year known to the kami (the shrine gods); buying new omamori (good luck charms) and burning your old ones since they’re full of […]
Filed under: architecture, culture, festival, history, Japan, Kansai, Osaka, religion | Leave a Comment
Tags: 神, gods, hatsumode, Japanese new year, kami, new year celebrations, Osaka, Shinto, Sumiyoshi Grand Shrine, Sumiyoshi-taisha, 初詣, 大阪, 住吉大社
grab the tiger by the tail
It’s 2010, and the Year of the Tiger has begun. The tiger is associated with ferocity, courage, and all of those other things that you’d most likely associate with tigers whether or not you knew anything about their symbolic significance within the Chinese zodiac. The tiger is also, apparently, closely affiliated with wealth. The two […]
Filed under: culture, Japan, Kansai, personal, philosophy, religion, scraps and bones | Leave a Comment
Tags: 2010, 2010 horoscope, Agyō, chinese zodiac, cycle of birth and death, 絵馬, ema, 阿形, 虎, Free Will Astrology, grab the tiger by the tail, Happy New Year!, have a tiger by the tail, heavenly guardian, new year, Nio, Pisces, prayer plaque, Rob Brezsny, Ungyo, year of the tiger, 吽形
Recently I had a chance to interview my neighbor, Damien Molony, who is currently making the final preparations for an upcoming exhibition of his works. The exhibition, which will be held at the CASO gallery from January 12th until January 17th, will feature a series of paintings that Damien, who is based in Canberra, Australia, […]
Filed under: art, culture, exhibit, Japan, Kansai, Osaka, religion | 6 Comments
Tags: aesthetics, art, CASO, Contemporary Art Space Osaka, 絵, 美術, Damien Molony, exhibit, exhibition, figurines, Four Sculpted Scenes, graves, gravestones, graveyard, interview, jizo, life in Japan, local space, locality, Michael Leunig, Osaka, painting, place, poetics of space, religion, representations of religious figures, statuary, television sunset, the experience of vision, visual framing, 地蔵, 墓, 大阪
