Tuesday, December 30, 2008

"Well, it sounded good at the time..." & Australian Bank Account (part one)

So I've been back in LA for a minute now, on vacation, and have had some good conversations again with people who I haven't seen in a while, like Mr. Rekik, my moms, and that yellow-teethed crazy on Santa Monica and Purdue, among others. These re-connections are finally helping me again to partake in a passion that I've been neglecting a little bit. I'm doing my thing in Okinawa, and a big part of "my thing" that I haven't really been keeping up on lately is creative writing.

So anyway, I'm going to start a bit of a project, just to give myself a necessary kick in the arse to write stuff that I want to write. I guess this is going to try to be a Whereverhome blog-collabo fictional experimental piece for myself, with some sort of meaning behind putting it on my village well. On the wall of the well. So that when it starts to stink I'll kick it into the depths. Australian Bank Account will be in separate entries from regular blog entries, at least that's kind of how I picture it right now. But seriously, please don't expect too much. Wooord. Presenting:



Australian Bank Account (part one)
How did he come up with such a bad idea? Kaito knew that my friend had an account in Spain, and he once told me that his uncle's godfather had numerous bank accounts overseas. But was it simply because we were talking about old movies and Swiss investments in that rickety old ramen shack that one evening that he came up with it? "What on earth's goodness do you plan to do with something like that?" I remember asking him. I didn't have much to go on, honestly speaking, but still, it was a horrible idea, if you ask me.
I would've thought that I would have more to go on, now, seventeen months later- that I'd be aware enough to make quick judgements on friends' decisions- but the truth is I still have none-to-zero awareness. But let me tell you that this ricket-ramen-shack in Okinawa is an investment itself of an old schoolmate. From kindergarten. His name is Melvin, and he used to bring these funny noodle sculptures to show and tell. And now, on the shelves of the square-shaped room with sliding glass doors sit sixteen glistening copper-wire works that mimicked those old pieces we'd eat at recess. Melvin even sold a couple to a gallery in Shibuya, for a good amount, enough to buy himself a brand new bicycle and some electronics. The restaurant is called Shinbunshi, because of the newspapers neatly pasted on the walls and the fresh issues from all over the world on a rack next to the self-serve water jugs. As Melvin stirred the huge pot behind the beechwood counter, I sat at my table next to the bar with a coffee and The Dagbladet, a paper from Denmark. I looked at what I could read and saw that the date was September 16, a Thursday. Was that our date here, or Denmark's?...
to be resumed later or continued

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Skating in Okinawa

There's not much to skate on the island of Okinawa, but you know that there's always the good old parking lot down the street. I live uphill where I can skate toward the ocean and try to ollie this ratty torn up cracked out four stair with Sanpin-cha bottles strewn on the side, and a cuurved out run-in that goes around a manhole, and the wondering gasoline stand kids stare, waiting for those little Japanese cars to come into the stand driveway.

There's not much time to skate in Okinawa, with work and that, but it's always like, no matter how tired I am or how late at night it is, if I do get up on my board for a little bit, that rattling and crunching and reverberation brings me back. And then I hang up on that tall curb and eat shit... hahah Aahhh, the beauty of skating in a place where the buildings are old and the sidewalks look like mini-earthquakes were thrown onto them for the rats. I got to roll down 58.