for fuck's sake

i wish this was a joke, but ...

is he fucking serious? where does one even start? still rocking the rows-and-baggy-sports jersey look of a few years ago? korn tour-announcement party? 32 songs?

i've got 10,000 yen that says chinese democracy is never released. actually, maybe i just hope it will never be released.

doesn't this just make velvet revolver seem that much more badass?

[caveat: big ups for the toronto jersey. we bleed blue.]

PS.

I have some pictures -- I'll try to post them soon.

Not in a Slint way

This vessel's underway
Headed south

Miles and miles of telephone poles
Fallen and tossed around
I can't talk to you anymore
And I miss you
And I miss you
Not in a slight way, but I miss you

Seldom to touch far away from here
Even if I'm released
I can't talk to you anymore
And I miss you
Not in a Slint way, but I miss you

green-san? hai!

those of you that know me at all will be, i think, quite unsurprised to learn that i've fallen for my [married] japanese language teacher. i knew it was all over when she introduced us to "green-san," her frog hand puppet. so i study the hardest for her class. my thinking is that i'll win her heart by becoming her best [and favorite] student. i did manage [along with the rest of the class] to score her number. after striking out [hard] at heartland the other night, i threatened to "get drunk" and call her. fortunately [for her and me], my friends put a stop to all that. but i was never serious -- i'm too smitten to dare do anything that might offend her.

24 and so much more

i'm 24 today. usually, you know, i get all depressed and isolate myself on birthdays, but i don't feel like that this year. things are good - i'm having the time of my life. last year was a good year for me, maybe the first good year in a while. hopefully 24 will be the same.

my roommate jason bought me beers and a hello kitty cell phone charm that looks like "green-san," my japanese teacher's frog hand puppet. and he planned a dinner party for tonight.

i bought myself a pair of marc jacobs aviators. be easy, mayne.

The History of Air

make fun of me all you want, but i saw something yesterday that made my heart skip. to celebrate the 30th anniversary of air cushioning nike released the "3 decades of cushioning" line on jan. 21. it's limited and dropped primarily in NYC, LA, Tokyo, etc. i haven't found the niketown here yet, so i wasn't sure if i'd get to see them.

as i was walking around harajuku yesterday i passed atmos, a relatively famous sneaker shop. they had the "3 decades..." poster outside so i went in. [last time i went in i was underwhelmed by their selection]. well, so nike has taken over their whole shop -- they had a whole wall of all the air maxes in the "3 decades" pack. and the floor -- the whole entire floor -- was a giant air max bubble you could stomp and bounce around on. there were all these "harajuku sneaker kids and their haircuts" standing around talking about the shoes.

i was about to buy [seriously] three or four pairs, and i was like "do you have any of these in a US11?" and the guy lauged: "no, only one." meaning they only got one pair of each style. they were all a size 9.

i asked her name, she said "brah brah brah"

tuesday night after class i went with some kids to heartland in roppongi hills, a somewhat-upscale kind of neighborhood. it's pretty much an after work bar where suits go to pick up girls and where girls go to get picked up. it's a single yup late-20's kind of crowd, and ordinarily that's a pretty ugly scene, but i don't mind this place. in fact, i quite like it.

my friends have expressed a little concern that we're underdressed and outclassed -- outmanned and outgunned, you know? but i don't think that's the case at all. first of all, we're definitely not outclassed. and i think it's good to be the only guys there that aren't in black suits. paul summed it up: "those women have money. they don't care if we're broke. they're looking over at us because they want to dumpster dive."

anyway, i like the scene. the beer is cheap and the DJ is solid. [as an aside, with the exception of terrible clubs, the DJs in japan are dope. you'll hear these insane, unapologetic mash-ups - yesterday i heard outkast mixed into eddie money - but the vibe is always so mellow. i can't get enough of it.]

so, i tried to pick up on the two cutest girls in japan. they were sisters [of course.] you know how when you try to kick a soccer ball really hard and you completely whiff? it was kind of like that.

Fiberops x New Balance 574

I'm on the prowl for these, but I don't think I'll find them. I slept on them when they dropped in November, but now that I have a newfound appreciation for NB, I wish I hadn't. I checked Fiberops (in Harajuku) the other day, but I knew they wouldn't still have them. Later that same day I saw a geezer rocking them at the adidas store. They aren't a must have, but they're nice.

one day i'll be on time

i saw the album leaf in shibuya last night. i timed my arrival perfectly, which i'm really good at in the states but horrible at here. i don't think there's such thing as "fashionably late" in japan.

they played the same set i saw them play twice last year, which is fine, but i wasn't, you know, overwhelmed or anything. and this is probably like the only time you'll ever hear me say this, but there was too much live instrumentation and not enough cuts, clicks, glitches, etc., which is where i think they are at their best. they opened with the song from the hummer commercial.

there was a really cute girl making eyes at me but i was [of course] too shy to talk to her. i think i like it that way.

mogwai is tonight and tomorrow. i'm thinking about trying to sneak in. and by sneak in i mean buy a ticket at the door.

i don't know, though. i'm hemorrhaging cash in a serious kind of way. tom hicks style. my friend paul said "i feel like someone punctured my yen aorta."

in a safe place

friday - after class some friends and i started off at heartland . [think kill bill, the second most over-cited movie in the history of tokyo. the bar where gogo stabs that dude in the stomach after asking about his ferrari.] then we checked out a surprisingly fun undergrad party at what might have been the worst bar in tokyo. i think it was a salsa bar but i was keeping my distance from that whole scene. i was to find out later that it was only the second worst bar in town. my first and last night at "muse" [the worst bar in scotland] was a short one. i cut out "early."

saturday - got wrecked at a house party in harajuku, forgot to meet a friend at the escalator records party, and eventually woke up in a hostess bar talking sneakers and slurring my way through "this charming man" by the smiths. woke up again when my ass hit the pavement after slipping on the ice. all things considered, i made it home relatively unscathed.

sunday -- akihabara, or "electric town," and conveyor belt sushi. both were cool [and cheap]. no pics.

after recovering [somewhat] from a two day hangover [slash hunger strike], i had monday to enjoy. i met up with a friend and headed to harajuku. on the way we stopped at the xbox cafe/bar/lounge. god it ruled. check it out: the hole point is to hang out and drink coffee and play xbox live (for free). oh yeah, and cute girls in white jeans roam around teaching you how to play[i think]. unfortunately, the games [and girls] were in "japanese only." after getting worked in NBA live [shaq was dominating me in the paint], we dipped out to do some shopping.

after checking out comme des garcons and prada, i found myself trying on shoes at le coq sportif. a cute girl with crooked teeth and baggy cammo pants tried to squeeze my foot [cinderella style] into a US 9.5, but it wasn't happening. i told her i'd come back when they had some bigger sizes and she was like "no, this is biggest." i'd have about 7 new pairs of shoes if i could ever find my gd size.

prada (i'll get a better pic when i go back). i haven't really bought anything yet, but i will. i like to get a feel for the scene before diving in. i think a passerby summed up tokyo quite nicely yesterday: "that place was cool but it's so fucking expensive."

walter

most days walter wore an inside-out jerry rice jersey. i never understood why he wore it inside out, but then again walter and i didn't have too much in common. he was the kind of kid who had corn rows and beads in his hair way before any of that was big. i tried to stay out of his way as much as possible. one day, in "careers," my 8th grade elective, walter stolled in a few minutes late. it was a test day, as i recall, and the teacher was already handing out the scamtrons. jacqueline, the class slut, one of the first girls in our grade to discover her sexuality and who i naturally found dreadfully intimidating, made some snide remark about walter's clothes or hair being "nappy," or something along those lines anyway.

at this point, walter hadn't yet made his way to his seat. he was kind of loitering near the front of the class room, and the teacher was somewhere nearby. whatever walter's response to jacqueline was, i missed it. i only caught the end: "... , shit." "WALTER!" the teacher yelled in disbelief, "did you just say 'shit!?'" at hearing the teacher say "shit," the class erupted into a din of poorly muffled and barely contained snickers, which eventually gave way to outright laughter. what walter said next i'll never forget:

"naw, i said fuck you, shit."

ps.

somebody buy this.

"well, we are going to talk about the patriot act..."

i started classes last week.

• intro to japanese law
• international securities regulation
• international commercial transactions
• east/west negotions
• international taxation
• japanese for busy people [sic]

i was concerned [and to some extent, relieved] that the classes were going to be either boring or easy or both. while i continue to hope that they are in fact easy [and don't require any effort outside of class], i don't think they'll be boring [with the exception of intro to japanese law, surprisingly enough]. my professors so far are amazing: one is general counsel for citigroup japan (and ex sullivan & cromwell talent), one is general counsel for citigroup japan's asset management group, and one is general counsel for apple japan.

the professor for int'l sec regulation (1) didn't prepare for class (at all) (2) spent 2 hours (!) on "introductions" (listening to us introduce ourselves) and (3) wrote the syllabus in pencil while he was talking to us, after asking us what we'd "like to learn." [one girl said she signed up for the class because she thought it was about "international security, you know, like homeland security and the war on terrorism." the rest of the class, of course, delighted in this admission, but the girl was cool about it.] [i actually laughed harder when another kid said he signed up for it because he thought it would help him on the bar exam -- "international securities regulation" is not covered on any state bar exam.]

"japanese for busy people," taught by sensei okada, is the bomb. except for the fact that we have to learn all the hirogana characters by friday. and that the book is written entirely in kana (no romanizations -- so until i learn to read and write kana, the book is of no use to me). yesterday i learned to say "no, i am not ann, i am john. how are you doing?" "ann-desu dewa arimasen. watashi-wa john-desu. hajimemashite."

sayonara.

R U Still In 2 It

I guess you can consider it my first lesson about life in the big city: both (both!) mogwai shows at Unit next week are sold out. I was particulary excited about it; I've been looking forward to the show since November, they're going to be playing their new album [Mr. Beast] live, and one of the shows is the night before my birthday. And they're one of my favorite live bands. And I'm in Tokyo. So, you know...

Instead I think I'm going to see the Album Leaf in Shibuya on Monday night. Not quite mogwai, but it will do. I think it will be a bit less majestic, but perhaps the show will match my mood (or is it the other way around?). Also, for nostalgia's sake, that's how I spent my birthday last year (the Album Leaf at the Parish in ATX).

Tokyo Gig Guide has been clutch. If you check it out, you'll notice Dinosaur Jr. and Sigur Ros are both coming soon. Sigur Ros is sold out (of course) and Dinosaur Jr. is at this huge venue. I may still go, but something tells me I could catch them in Texas for (1) half the price (2) at a venue half the size. The shows here are ruinously expensive, but there aren't that many coming up that I'm that amped on, so I think it's manageable (which brings up the point: how does Austin get better shows than Tokyo? I think I just don't have the right information. Perhaps I should consult "Martin," of Castillian fame).

at least i got a free drink

last weekend i was to meet my friends (let's call them ron, sam, and mike) at a "j-pop" show. "softly! nights," feat. orangenoise shortcut, hazelnuts chocolate, and the aprils. [think belle & seb on coke. with a huge blue dancing panda bear on stage, who played air guitar and air bongos. god i wish i had pictures.] after taking the wrong train, then taking the right train in the wrong direction, i was running a "little" late. i had a map of where the club was, but still managed to get lost in [what i thought was] daikanyama. had i just looked at the map, i would have been straight, but in this city one wrong turn can be a serious ender, and i felt like i knew where i was going.

i finally made it to the club, unit, paid 3500 JPY to the cute door girl, and made my way down 4 flights of stairs (all the hip clubs here seem to be underground). i met up with my friends (who thought i wasn't coming), and only then did i realize just how late i was. "yeah dude, this is the last band!" "what?" "yeah, the show started a few hours ago." "...." so, i saw about 4 songs of the aprils' set before the lights came up and they were telling us to get out. [you'd think the door girl would have said something or let me in for free, right?] [on a side note, as we left, mike was like "hang on, i wanna get those sandwhiches i stashed in the alley." he ducks into an alley next to the club and emerges with a 7-11 bag full of sandwhiches, which he promptly housed. you can imagine how tickled i was at the sight of this.]

after the show, they cleared everyone out and got ready for another event later that night. as it turns out, unit is like the hip all night club you think about when you think of the tokyo night scene. it's 4 stories underground [literally and figureatively] and features big name DJs all the time. superpitcher is coming in a month or so, and i'm really tempted to check it out (he might be my all time fav -- his remixes are nothing short of perfection. see his treatments of M83 and the MFA). however, i don't want to go by myself and i'm pretty sure he goes on at about 6am (i'm serious). hopefully i'll meet a cute tokyo hipster that will take me out with her.

when the sun hits

i woke up at 4:30am (i seriously think that's the earliest i've ever woken up) to go check out the fish market. this is me at about 5:15 with a 500 pound tuna. i wish i had a camcorder (actually i think my phone does take video) -- it is hard to describe the scene. it felt like i was in star wars. the market is in these dark, wet warehouses by the bay and there are thousands of merchants under these dim yellow lights. and there were all these "carts" that were like forklift/golfcart hybrids. they were super loud, driven super fast, and all over the place. it was kind of like being on another planet.

after scoping the auction (there were fish from all over the world -- spain, africa, etc), i went for "breakfast sushi" (this is about 6:30am). this market is renowned for having the "freshest sushi in the world," you know, still dripping with sea water. (my friends had some second thoughts after seeing the fish being dragged around on the wet, dirty floors of the warhouses). the place we ended up at had an autographed picture of cameron diaz. i like to think of myself as pretty open minded when it comes to food, but raw squid and raw octopus are not for me. i don't care who you are, octopus is tough to get through. it's like super-rubbery and hard to chew. luckily it doesn't have much taste, but i think that's my last octopus for a while.

the difference it makes

so, i broke down today and copped a pair of [outlandishly expensive] new balances. i held off on buying them until my feet, knees, and hips just couldn't take it any longer. seriously, i would say that only bringing dunks is one of the stupidest things i've ever done, but for the fact that they [dunks] have served as an invaluable conversation starter and led to me meeting quite a few people. and they lend me some cred when i'm shopping. [sb's are huge here, and hard to get, to the point where i'm a little concerned about having them stolen when i take them off at restaurants. remember when dudes used to get jacked for their jordans?]

anyway, it took me three trips to the new balance store in harajuku before finally deciding to buy them. [they are, after all, the most expensive pair of shoes i own. but as i said, my feet couldn't take the dunk sb beating any longer]. new balance 576, "made in the UK." "superior quality control in the UK. so much nicer than the US models," or so says my man fahad at Motive807. i can't tell the difference, but it helps to believe that there is something special about them. i wasn't that taken with them at first, but now i have to say that they're pretty nice.

tell me why

my very first impression of japan came as i exited the airport. as i walked out of customs, i was greeted by a bevy of young japanese girls with cameraphones being held back by some young police officers. as i got closer they started cheering and pointing and waiving in my direction. "awesome," i thought. "is it really this easy?" they started yelling: "kay-bin! kay-bin!" as i walked closer to them, and eventually past them, they kept yelling, but obviously not at me, since i was already past them. i turned around, and who is behind me? kevin richardson! fucking "train." yeah, the married backstreet boy. actually, he was very nice. while the girls squealed, he posed for some pictures and then went on his way. some of the mob fell out, some cried, you know the scene. something about it was nice, and i'm glad i was there to see it.