Yoga Women

Some of the most beautiful women in Flagstaff are at my yoga classes, and throughout the week I always think, "Maybe at my next class I could meet an attractive yoga girl, talk, and get to know her."

Then I go to yoga class, and everyone looks straight ahead, rolls out their mats, avoids eye contact, and sits down.

Then at the end of class, everyone looks straight ahead, doesn't make eye contact, rolls up their mats, and leaves as quickly as possible.

Sometimes I talk to the instructor, or my backup girlfriend if she comes along. But otherwise I'm one of those people who could go to the grocery store a thousand times and not say one word to anybody.

In fact I have gone to the grocery store at least a thousand times without speaking to anyone except the checker.

When people say you can meet someone at the grocery store, a bookstore, the library, or some other public place, I have no idea what they're talking about.

Maybe next time.

Rage

I've been thinking about my dad again lately, and my previous attempts at a poem like this. After several college creative writing courses, it's hard to break the habit of writing about bad shit in a precious way. I hate precious poems.

Rage

You are the dark song
of the morning;
serious and slow,
you shave, you dress,
you descend the stairs
and drive away, you become
the wise and powerful one
who makes all the days
possible in the world.
But you were also the red song
in the night,
stumbling through the house
to the child's bed,
to the damp rose of her body,
leaving your bitter taste.
And forever those nights snarl
the delicate machinery of the days.
When the child's mother smiles
you see on her cheekbones
a truth you will never confess;
and you see how the child grows--
timidly, crouching in corners.
Sometimes in the wide night
you hear the most mournful cry,
a ravished and terrible moment.
In your dreams she's a tree
that will never come to leaf--
in your dreams she's a watch
you dropped on the dark stones
till no one could gather the fragments--
in your dreams you have sullied and murdered,
and dreams do not lie.

-Mary Oliver

Samurai X Sake Quotes

I noticed that if you know the characters, you can kind of follow the story just by their comments on sake. This works until near the climax where nobody has time to drink sake because they're all killing each other.

I rarely drink anything but sake now because all other kinds of alcohol, especially beer, make me sick. Good sake also tastes very clean to me, sort of like good tea.

---

Samurai X Trust & Betrayal Director's Cut (English Version)

17:16

Hiko Seijuro

"Spring brings cherry blossoms to comfort you, the summer stars, the harvest moon in fall, and the powdered snow in winter. All of these things, and the promise of them, is what makes sake taste so good."

"One day, you will understand this, and then I shall pour sake for the both of us."

----

23:33

Izuka: "You are a master of the art. Three men down and not one drop of blood on you. Let's go get some sake and celebrate."

Kenshin: "No, thanks."

Izuka: "I see. Well I'll drink a few for you then. See you later."

----

25:00

Katsura's wife: "Would you like more sake?"

Kogoro Katsura: "I don't. I can't taste it."

----

46:26

Tomoe: "What is it?"

Kenshin: "This sake, it tastes good again."

Tomoe: "It's because of the festival."

Kenshin: "I suppose..."

----

1:04:26

Kenshin: "It's good."

Tomoe: "You like it?"

Kenshin: "This is the best sake I've ever tasted."

Tomoe: "You're right."

---

Maus

Vladek was a Jewish mouse who survived Auschwitz.

"Friends? Your friends?..."

"If you lock them together in a room with no food for a week..."

"...then you could see what it is, friends!"

---

Art was the son of Vladek.

Art: Sigh. I'd rather kill myself than live through all that...

Francoise: What? Returning groceries?

Art: No. Everything Vladek went through. It's a miracle he survived.

Francoise: Uh-huh. But in some ways he didn't survive.

-From Maus: A Survivor's Tale
by Art Spiegelman

---

I like this book because it retells the standard artistically meaningful Jewish sob story in a unique and compelling way. With mice!

In a society where we have every convenience and people often dramatize every little change in their lives, it's interesting to think about how we might deal with real hardship. Like being locked in a cattle car for days, standing in other people's shit with no food or water.

I wonder how someone who complains about the hot weather while sitting in an air conditioned SUV would react if put into Vladek's situation.

No New Year's Resolutions

I don't need to lose weight or pay off any gambling debts, so this year I resolve not to make any resolutions.

Here's one of my favorite poems instead. It reads really well when coupled with doubt or loneliness.

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

—Mary Oliver

Kenshin Leaves

Kenshin and Kaoru before he leaves for Kyoto.

From Rurouni Kenshin Episode 31, "A Wish Unrequited"

---

Kenshin Himura is one of my all time favorite characters in any medium. I really identify with him and think about him as a real person.

One thing I like about this series and a lot of anime in general is the subtlety with which character development occurs. Kenshin and Kaoru are interested in each other almost from the beginning, but they both show tremendous self restraint. They allow things to develop very gradually, and don't fully express their feelings until the right time. Very little is said outright about their budding romance until towards the end of the series, after 70+ episodes.

This scene is very meaningful because it's the first obvious display of affection from Kenshin, and Kaoru is the only person he even says goodbye to before leaving for Kyoto, where he will probably die.

Contrast this with a common Hollywood device where the first hot girl the hero meets is obviously going to be his love interest. Not long after meeting they fall into bed, then immediately afterwards they are a committed couple for the rest of the movie. Snort, yawn.

Kenshin's Sake Lesson

"Spring brings cherry blossoms to comfort you, the summer stars, the harvest moon in fall, and the powdered snow in winter. All of these things, and the promise of them, is what makes sake taste so good."

"One day, you will understand this, and then I shall pour sake for the both of us."

-Hiko Seijūrō in Samurai X: Trust

Mugen and the Blind Musician

"A song like that...no one happy could sing that."

-Mugen in Samurai Champloo, Episode 20, "Elegy of Entrapment"

Tittering Teenage Girls

After lifting weights I'm ready to cool off. I grab a towel, quickly shower, and walk outside to the pool in the low light of late evening.

Five tittering teenage girls splash and chatter in the middle of the shallow expanse. I head over to the far side, where the pool water spills over a low edge towards a pond.

I toss my towel on a chair and slip into the water. Crouching neck deep I casually stretch and look out over the pond. The smell of juniper mixes with chlorine.

The girls are spitting water at each other and laughing.
"See if you can curl your tongue like this."

The closest teenage tittler glances over at me. Other than dark hair, nothing distinguishes the girl. Early high-school anorexic gigglers all look alike. Trying to keep her voice low, she says, "Hey, check that guy out."

Her plywood-chested friend turns to look. "Oh, I thought you meant he was ripped or something."

A bandage on my toe is starting to come off underwater. I pull it the rest of the way and quickly shove it in my pocket.

A fat, balding European jumps in. Thank Muhammed his Speedos stay on. The plywood girls resume tittering.

Godzilla wears a moomoo

I'm walking around, drinking tea this morning (a.k.a. "afternoon"), when a blubbery, flower-print apparition saunters into view through my sliding glass door.

Apparently someone wakes up later than I do. It's after 3 p.m., and the spongy, gray-haired reptile totters around the grass in her nightdress and curlers.

She staggers my way, but sees me, thinks better of it, and heads off between two other houses, eventually circling back to her porch.

Damn, and I was finally going to meet someone...

I should knock on Grandma Godzilla's door and introduce myself.