What are you optimistic about?
So what are YOU optimistic about? That’s the 2007 Edge Question.
The new tattoo
My friend and super-tattooist, Ms Aureole McAlpine came to visit me in Tokyo on her way back from various tattoo conventions in Europe. She gave me my second tattoo – a follow up to the foot tattoo she gave me last year. We used a similar design idea, something that blends Japanese and Australian culture – using stylised water-designs with sakura flowers arranged in a Southern Cross constellation (as seen in the sky only in the Southern Hemisphere)… It hurt a little more than the foot tattoo, mainly because it took twice as long and used twice as much more colour and ink.
Charlene, Tyler and Steve were the support team…. they fed me some much needed beer afterwards. It was an intense experience and I was quite exhausted by the whole thing but gawd, I do love the final result. It’s quite beautiful and the colours are just gorgeous.
I made a flickr set of the proceedings…
Silly season greetings
Merry Christmas from me, and the sexy santa ladyboys Haku and Mat-sun!
Apologies for the radio silence. Been drunk for a couple of weeks it seems. Friends visiting from home, parties to go to, sightseeing to do, gigs to go to, tattoo’s to get. When things settle down a little next week, I promise an abundance of posts and photos – including a video and heaps of pics from the last ever ever ever Arab Strap show in the world. Oh what a night.
On a more serious note, I wanna wish you all a lovely Christmas season and of course, a fantastic 2007. I’ve had a great year and am looking forward to heading into the new year the happiest I’ve been in yonks. Thanks to my supportive family, in particular my incredible brother, David – who is ALWAYS there for me, my wonderful friends both here in Japan and back in Australia, all my colleagues and students here in Tokyo and to you – dear readers, for making my life the excellent thing that it has become.
PS: just uploaded a heap of pics to my flickr page, including some from the Arab Strap show.
Bored with the internet?
This little comic piece is …so …damn… right-on.
From: xkcd – A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
Fucking laugh big loud on train
Sometimes communicating with the locals can be a little mind-altering. Between my bad (but improving, to be sure to be sure) Japanese and their bad English, though, we somehow manage to make ourselves understood. And it’s a fun, creative process, one that has endeared itself to me. The art of communication, with all it’s cultural and personal eccentricities, brings me great delight (and regular frustration)… Not content to just sit back, soak up and correct the dodgy Engrish we hear and read all around us all day, every day as English teachers, MissSin & I have chosen to celebrate – with a full embrace, everything we love about Engrish.
How do we do this? Read on, read on. I hope you laugh a lot.
Technorati Tags: friends, funny, japan, life, teachingenglish
The Silly Season
Einstein is alive and well and hiding out in the little bars in Kichijoji’s red light district….
These hilarious JR (Japan Rail) posters warn salary men about getting too drunk and falling off the platform in this crazy silly party season….. Hilarious because of their screamingly accurate portrayal of a drunk suit.
Technorati Tags: funny, japan, kichijoji, life, photography, streets, tokyo
„Åó„ÅÇ„Çè„Åõ (Shiawase): A fortunate life.
4 years in Japan. I was thinking of calling this post “the girl who stopped running” but that seemed kinda naff and I figured “a fortunate life” was more adult and appropriate. Reasons for my fortunate life:
Wooster Collective: Fly Me To The Moon… A Visual Love Poem For Nico
Wooster Collective: Fly Me To The Moon… A Visual Love Poem For Nico: Oh, *swoon*, this is just beautiful.
Yesterday, Nico woke up in his flat in Split Croatia. On his closet door was a map created by his girlfriend, Andrea. The map showed different places for Nico to look as his took his usual route from his apartment to the academy where he studies.
What Nico found was an elaborate love poem done on the streets of Split by Andrea. She had put up stencils, paint, aerosol, collage wheat pastes etc. with last piece reading…. ‚Äúi love you‚Äù.
I can see a wave of semi-copycat cryptic street art showing up in alley ways and walls the world over. I sure as hell hope so anyway. The world needs more public, creative & imaginative shows of romance like this! Go check out the whole magnificent gallery.
Our Christmas tree
Charlene and I decorated our Christmas tree a few days ago… what do you think?
Technorati Tags: funny
The 28th…
28 is a good number. I always like the 28th day of the month. Many of my friends have their birthdays on the 28th.
The first person to guess why I quite like November 28 in particular gets a free print of their choice of one of my photos.
Technorati Tags: funny
This week in pic’s
Haku is a hilariously cheeky Chinese boy I know. I’m photographing the boogers up his nose here. No actually, I was trying to catch his beautiful brown eyes but failed miserably. Still, I like this photo a lot.
I stumbled upon this scene in Kichijoji last weekend.
Charlene at our fave kichijoji bar
!Beatdown! punks getting drunk
Add a couple of other late nights with J-buddies, an all-nighter in a colour-developing photo darkroom in Shinjuku (with no heating), and then visualize about 32 English lessons (and their preparation) in various school rooms, community centres and cafe’s around Tokyo…. and you will understand why I slept 12 hours last night. Really gotta settle down on the burning-the-candle-at-both-ends-thing. Ha! Off to the pool, need to de-calcify my back. Have a great weekend ya’ll.
Technorati Tags: friends, funny, japan, kichijoji, parties, photography, streets
March 2007 is looking mighty gooooooood
oh.my.god. one of my photos is being used for a real-life glossy calendar. go buy it folks. i’m so proud. thanks to kat, jo and jenn for making it all possible.
Technorati Tags: japan, news, photography, shibuya, streets, tokyo
Speeding towards that time of year…
‚ÄúSo we’re speeding towards that time of year
To the days that mark that you’re not here
And i think i’ll want to be alone
So please understand if i don’t answer the phone
i’ll just sit and stare at my deep blue walls
Until i can see nothing at all…
And now my sorrow seems so far away
Until i’m taken by these bolts of pain
But i turn them off and tuck them away
’till these rainy days that make them stay
And then i’ll cry… to these sad songs…
So i’m waiting for this test to end
So these lighter days can soon begin
i’ll be alone but maybe more carefree
Like a kite that floats so effortlessly… ‚Äù
Azure Ray, song title “November”
I think I hate rainy autumn days. My flatmate flew home to Canada today to be with her Mum for her cancer surgery. It’s all been very sudden. She’ll be gone a week, all things going to plan. I think I’ll be drunk all weekend. Grieve the passing of summer, accept the approaching winter, worry about my flatmate and think about my Mum and Dad a bit. It’s almost been a year since Dad passed away. The passing of time shocks me. I recall again the words of Robert Frost: ‚ÄúIn three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.‚Äù
BTW, email problems are still not fixed.
Asia repreZent
I need to acknowledge frangipani’s nomination for Best Japan Blog at the Asia Blogs Awards this year. I remember a few years ago (2003) when I came second in Best Asian Photoblog in the same awards (hosted by a different guy that time) and I was so thrilled by the whole thing.
But as time goes by, bloggers (at least most of the ones I know) and their motivations evolve (mutate?) and they become less enthusiastic about recognition, and so, sadly, these kinds of things mean nothing to me any more. I keep this thing running for my family and friends and to keep me motivated as a photographer. frangipani, the blog, is really nothing special (apart from being a great record of my life), and I am kind of embarrassed to have been nominated (but thank you sweet Stefan for considering me worthy enough to nominate initially).
I had planned to take the stick-my-head-in-the-sand-and-hope-it-goes-away-quickly approach but that is being a wee tad disrespectful to the spirit of the/my blogging community, and also to the people using their own free time to make something special for the much under-represented Asia-dwellers on the internet. So, if you have some free time, go check out the awards site and all the great sites that have been nominated this year. There are a heap of categories (erm, even a best Sex Blog…?!), you’ll be sure to find something that tickles your fancy. Go on, you know ya wanna.
Technorati Tags: asia, japan, life, news, photography, asiablogawards, tokyo, web
JuggsVSJapan: front back and sides…
My very very ace old friend and former music colleague, Justin Dee (aka Juggs) and his partner Evette stayed at my place for a few weeks, and reluctantly packed up their mouldy futons a few days ago to head back to the Gold Coast. I have mentioned their regular shopping spree trips in other posts (they are both avid collectors and their impressive collection of dolls and character figures would put the 40 year old virgin to shame) but this trip was actually fueled by an even greater passion.
Technorati Tags: documentaries, friends, japan, kichijoji, portraits, streets, tokyo, video
Seeking foreign women for photography project
I’m working on a cool project for a magazine and require foreign women subjects. Because I’m going to be out of town for most of summer I need to get a bit of a backlog together to cover me for while I’m away. The brief is for stylish (but not necessarily beautiful), happy foreign women in the streets of Tokyo, just doin’ their thing. There is absolutely no need for prior experience as a model, but an ability to work it for the camera would be handy. There is no money involved but all models can get free prints and full resolution digital files from the shoot as payment if they want them. Please email me at martine at frangipani dot info – thanks!
You can see some other portraits I’ve taken at my Flickr Portraits Set. I know they’re not all great but I’m working on it. I do love trying to get a good portrait. Anyone out there want to help me out?
Technorati Tags: japan, photography, portraits, streets, tokyo
Oh Georgie…
Click here – trust me, you’ll have a ball… If he gets stuck, just move him with your cursor. In fact, you can push him around; toss him across the screen… it’s very therapeutic! Have fun. Thanks to Charlene for the forward.
Australia meets Japan in the world cup tonight
I can’t believe how excited I am about tonight’s world cup game between Japan and Australia. I am *so* not into sports but the excitement here is so infectious and… well, I’m actually going off to a little bar called Heavens Door in Shimokitazawa to join Tim the punk rock pimp and whoever else is gonna be around to shout OJI OJI OJI OI OI OI lots….
If you’re looking for a cool place that doesn’t have an excessive door charge then come on down. The game starts at 10, we’ll be there from around 9 or so…. The more the merrier!
Really hope Australia wins just so I can totally pay out on all my students and the kids at school tomorrow who have been bantering with me all week about the game. Actually, truth be told, they’ll all be so sad if Japan loses. They’re so into their soccer… I guess I don’t really mind either way. It’s just gonna be a lot of fun.
Sorry the site’s been all crazy the last few days, they’ve moved the site to another server and a few things got messed up in the transfer… it’s slowly being pulled back together… If you notice any gnarliness please let me know so I can let the tech’s know.
Curiouser and curiouser
Curiouser and curiouser: Andrea just uploaded this picture she drew after returning to smelly Chiba city after her little drunken sojourn in Kichijoji this weekend. I looooooove it. Damn she’s a talented little thing.
Another death in the family
My little buddy Percy died about an hour ago. This is the last photo I took of him – that’s him on the right, with Gertrude. It was taken a few days ago when he was on the comeback trail (or so I thought). Last Monday I cleaned their big new superdooper mega-tank, and was a bit worried by how mossy the slate bricks were getting – so opted not to put them back in till after I gave them a big scrub later on that evening. I thought they would be able to get up onto the basking rock without the use of those bricks but it seems I was wrong. Red eared sliders aren’t the strongest of swimmers – they need to take pit-stops.
When I got home Monday night, Percy was upside down in the bottom of the tank, not moving. I grabbed him out of the water and I was pretty relieved when he started moving… After a quick search on the net, I followed the instructions on how to save a drowned turtle and after a few hours I was pretty confident he’d pull through. I kept him in a separate tank with a really low level of heated water and put him out for walks every morning. He was getting stronger and stronger but he wasn’t interested in food at all.
This morning, after his walk, I put him in the feed tank with Gertrude. I don’t know what was going on in the poor little fella’s head, but he started walking under the water with his mouth wide open breathing in water. I pulled him out quickly and hung him head down to drain the water but the damage was already done. He spent the last hours of his life gasping for air and making laboured noises (yes, as I wrote that last post). It was pretty horrible. Reminded me of some other deaths I’ve experienced in recent years. It’s a sad day.
I buried him out in the garden, next to the stone lantern. Rest in peace little buddy.
Room for short-term rent in Tokyo
Tokyo summer rental!
I am going to be away from my lovely house for about a 6 week period from the end of July through to the first week of September, and so we are looking into the possibility of finding someone to rent my room while I’m away. If you are interested, or know anyone who may be interested, please shoot me an email: martine@frangipani.info
Details:
* It’s a huge, gorgeous 10 mat room with tatami and a wall of shoji screens and an adjacant sunroom overlooking a traditional Japanese Garden.
* The fully self-contained apartment is actually the entire ground floor of a spacious house, and the landlady and her family live upstairs in a separate living area with separate entrance (but are so busy we almost never see each other….).
* All mod-cons, including washing machine and drier, fans and air con and ice-making fridge!
* Located in Suginami-ku (North-west Tokyo), it’s close to the Inokashira and Chuo lines, and a 20 minute wander to Kichijoji station. About 20 minute train rides to both Shibuya and Shinjuku.
* It’s close to 3 supermarkets (one international), a kombeni, a post office, dry cleaners, Tsutaya, a bar, and parks.
* You’d be sharing with my ace Canadian flatmate Charlene. We are both non-smoking vegetarians so would prefer someone the same.
* Rent and bills are negotiable, depending on period of stay.
* Photos are available on request.
* You can use my bike and internet access, use my clothes racks, raid my bookshelf and if you have an ipod, you can plug in to my speakers (usually hooked up to the computer).
Grant McLennan has died (updated again)
Jackie sent me an email about Grants funeral and wake and she gave me permission to post it here. It’s down the bottom….
I’ve got a secret
I got a secret. Maybe I’ll share it with you next week….. ;p
In the mean time, this pic was taken last week riding the Ginza after attending Su-san’s exhibition with my friend Helen, who you can see on the left here. I do love reflection shots….
