tonari no shibafu

Day 9 - Florence (first day)

We went in to Florence, and it being Monday, most of the museums were closed. We thought that it would be a good opportunity to get the lay of the city and to help us plan subsequent trips. The weather was perfect, if a little hot, and we walked in from our distant parking spot and caught sight immediately of the Ponte Vecchio and Uffizi Gallery.

Then, of course we headed for the Duomo.

After walking around the inside for a while, we went to the back and climbed the 500+ steps of the tower. There are a few cool views from windows along the way.

Not to mention what you can see from the top.

Italy, Toscana, Tuscany

Congrats Mike

My boy Mike M. has won a Japanzine art issue award.

Well done.

The Pink Cow at Spinshell.tv

For a long time now I've had a bookmarks folder where I would dump everything with which I didn't have the time or energy to deal. Sort of a dysfunctional browser tickler file. I found something a little bit ago that I wanted to dump in there and thought that it might be a good idea to put my 'other' folder in my bookmark bar (rather than hidden away behind the scenes) for easy packratting of new stuff. Unfortunately in the middle of a drag I was prompted about a cookie and inadvertently dropped the folder onto the current blank tab. Well, about 40 <deny> clicks later I have all manner of sites up that've been gathering e-dust in the darkest reachest of my Camino. Master procrastinator that I am I decided to try to cull their numbers and got lost in a morass of things that I don't remember.

Lo and behold I come across a site called Spinshell.tv and there on the front page is a video that has Traci's face on it. Turns out that these folks did a nice interview with the proprietress of The Pink Cow and so now any of you who haven't been there before can get a sense of it and her.

Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: Japan, video, puppy, Shibuya, Spinshell.tv, The Pink Cow, Tokyo, Traci Consoli

Heso

The latest issue of Heso magazine is out. My boy Ry is one of the contributors and an all around cool guy. You can check it out for yourself, tell me, who's not interested in Food and Sex?

Any of you arty types that are interested in contributing should go to their contact page.

BEN FOLDS Pictures from the Road at Dakanyama 5F

Starting today, pictures taken by Ben Folds are on exhibit at Ryo's place in Daikanyama.  You can see them there until June 10th.

BEN FOLDS写真展＠５F-communication lounge-:
Tower Cafe、エスキス表参道で行われてきた「BEN FOLDS写真展」が５Fにも登場します。　BEN FOLDS FIVEデビューから10年、待望の2ndソロアルバム「SONGS FOR SILVERMAN」を記念する企画です。
BENさんが奥様（Frally）とツアー中に撮ったり、子供さんを撮ったり、日常の瞬間を撮ったりしたものが中心です。「SONGS FOR SILVERMAN」のジャケット本もBENさん撮影の写真で構成されています。BENの音楽性、彼の日常の時間性を感じられる写真達です。
音楽以外のBENの世界に触れられる良い機会になると思います。是非、遊びにいらしてください。

BEN FOLDS 写真展＠５F-communication lounge-
6/1〜10
17:00〜23:00

www.sonymusic.co.jp/benfolds/
www.benfolds.com

BEN FOLDSにちなんだイベントを企画していきます。
イベント情報は追って！

Miscellany

I hung out with my friend Yu Xiao last Sunday. We were kind of friends of friends at UMass, but have kept irregular email contact since then. She graduated from Mass College of Art a couiple of months ago and has been working at MassArt and teaching Chinese.

We met in Harvard Sq. and went to eat in Chinatown. It was a place I had never been to, and seemed to be very popular with the locals. There was, however, a couple of white guys outside...one was on the phone and the other proceeded to do a number of martial-artsy stretches for his groin area. I was hoping that he was just oblivious to us (and the other 6 or 8 people) within about 10 feet of him, but got the distinct impression that he was hoping someone would ask him about it.

Anyway, we talked a bit and walked back to Park Street Station and then met Libby and Todd at the Rustic Kitchen. It is pretty amazing how many cool little spots that Libby knows in the Boston/Cambridge area. It has given me new impetus to explore both my neighborhood and downtown (read Shibuya/Shinjuku) a little more thoroughly. After a while a friend of Yu Xiao's showed up and we all hung until last train (which is at a similar time to that in Tokyo), Yu Xiao and friend went home and Todd, Libby, and I along with Jake, Asia and Paul (who work at the RK) all went to The Charles Hotel for a nightcap or five.

Wireless in Harajuku

Yesterday I was to meet Danjo in Harajuku to do a little English conversatin'. I decided to go a little early and see if there weren't interesting things or people to snap a few shots of. Just to add an air of constructiveness to the venture I brought my laptop along to see if'n I could find a cafe that I could study in that also had free wireless. Well, it turns out that my friend Shai was in Harajuku and so that limited my photo time, but we had a good talk and he was with his newest tennis teacher Mikey.

Mkey is a diver/tennis player originally from England but has taught/dived in Malaysia and Australia and is currently trying to get financing for a project in Belize. Very interesting and, like almost all of the folk that I have met that spend most of their time in or on the water -- had an easygoing and disarming manner that made me like him right away. Mikey is one of those guys that doesn't really see borders, or languages as any sort of barrier and has only been in Japan for about two weeks. Considering that he speaks no Japanese and just got here, his lack of evident culture shock was very impressive. Probably get to see more of him in the near future.

So during our English convo, Danjo asked me about pictures from Chris's party, and though I didn't have any on my camera I did have them on the laptop and so i fired it up. When it booted up, the Airport manager told me that there was a network detected and so I found out that one of my favorite cafe's, the go go cafe, seems to offer free wireless. Don't tell anybody...

Monumental Sculpture

So it turns out that the sculpture that I moblogged yesterday is one of many pieces in a Fernando Botero installation.