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.

Two Years of Summer

Finally, I get a winter after three consecutive summers.

Mt Fuji, took a while back, snowcaps from an airplane.
Probably like two years ago I took this photo... for some
reason it was in my LA file. My LA file, like
LA Gear black and neon green.

So last summer I was in Los Angeles, chillin at the Colby house, working nights at that restaurant on Santa Monica Blvd and at the Institute for Intercultural Studies during the hot bicycling days (big ups to Dr. Han). Then I moved to Australia, which I'm sure you know is in the opposite hemisphere north-south ways. For some reason this creates a January mid-damnin-hot summer, I think because of the tilt of the world. Then this year, I came back up past the equator to Okinawa for a burning hot summer on a tropical island. So the last time I tasted real, good cold air was like two years ago.

It made me realize how much I love summer, but a perpetual one wouldn't be good for me. I need some sort of seasonal change; I think we all do. Isn't that why the Earth, like, turns? Yeah, change is progress, and I get really cold recently riding my moped with two jackets on, hunchbacked and notredamed, teeth chattering, but I'm actually down for it. Watttuuupp winterrr.

I'm coming home! I got a flight back to LA on the 23rd of December and will be in America until Jan 6th... I'm pretty hyped; I actually miss my country, the smooth sidewalks, Comedy Central, right-gear-shifts, all my clothes in storage, my books, two tacos for a dollar... Let me know if you're around- I'll probably be staying in Torrance, near that Benihana's. Which is good to the Wilmington skateplace you say about, Geoff. Damn, I'm about to just drive out to the Korean Bell and kiiicckk ittttt.

Words, there's a new live music class in our curriculum here, which is pretty sick, and all is ever-proceeding with Okinawa Actors School and Live City, too. I'm lucky to be able to be doing this translating, curating, teaching and filming.

Peace, see you soon.

Yeah

YEEEAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!

ATLiens Running OKInawathons

How's it going? Today is a rainy rainy day, and I was listening to this CD that my friend gave me a while ago- Outkast's ATLiens instrumentals... of course the Elevators track is sick, and my personal favorite is the instrumental for Wheelz of Steel. The following poem came on top of the best classic beat though, ATLiens, number two... (I know my poetry sucks, but if you read it while listening to the instrumental, you'll only get bored of it halfway through instead of after reading one-third) Enjoy. Or make sure you have a sofa or bed nearby to throw your computer at after you get angry at yourself for reading such garbage. But enjoy that too.

Interesting
That no I'm not from the ATL
But rather I have the power in me to yell
That I come from Los Angeles County
You get more aware of that while living in a different country

It's likely
That most, many, or some of the people who we meet
In this Japanese nation or on an Okinawan street
Have only visions of movies and television
Cultural differences and a foreign vision
Allow me to perceive how I perceive
Not through any media except my own eyes
The information that I receive
The ways that people create both laughter and drawn out sighs
It's like good roasted pork meat
Like a timelessly marinated OutKast beat
It's all quite neat
and
Interesting.

I don't know about that sighs part.. what do you think?

Aaaanyway.....

It's good to know that my absentee ballot is either in the LA County Clerk's office or just a couple miles away now. Big day tomorrow. To be honest, I feel really American right now. Letss doo this!

Later y'allestikos

Surroundings （日本式）

How's it goin, hey? A photo essay-slash-journal-slash-commentary that started from an uploading mistake:

I begin at home, sitting on the ground with the fan going....

I get up and get in my girlfriend's car. Speed is good...

Weird antennae creature lurks upon the car's radiator, and Okinawan
lights pursue, just a normal picture...

Damn, this movie was siiiick.

Did you see Wes Anderson's latest? It was pretty late to come out in Japan, but I was like, so comforted. His movies are dope.

So we're putting on another surfball tournament this weekend, and we've got a team made of Marines. They're actually pretty cool, which is a little rare.

Filming for our TV show, Live City, is continuing as well. We're on Episode 28 now, jjeeah.

laaater, and yes, i would like to know how you're doing, please let me know. Big ups to cold green tea!

Recently, my cell phone got up and took some pictures.

It was crazy, he was like, yo straighten me out, flip me out homie. Then he grew eyes and was like, yeah, that's good, yeah. So then he told me to "put these on the web cuzz" and I was like, okay, whatever you say. Crazy technological Japanese telephone. They're mini-computers, and I still can't work like 5/8 of the functions. The camera works well though. It told me to work harder, he was like, "I'm doing all the work here dumbass."

My ride. Uuuhhhhhhhh

Good ol pool art behind a very abandoned building.

Sunrise from Mt. Fuji, Shizuoka prefecture, far from here.

A neon store right downstairs from my apartment.
The owner has this little toy-poodle, but he's all tough
and beer. It's pretty rad, he sells these old MGD t-shirts
and coasters from like 1986.

iMoved

Yup, I have no actual pictures yet because I'm lame and I haven't taken pictures of my new habitat, but I now officially live in the Building with the Giant Buck-Toothed Dog on Top, Ginowan City, Okinawa. So if you read this, and if you're my friend, and you're ever in Ginowan, there's a tatami mat with your name on it! (well not actually written, but if you really wanted to, you could burn your name on tatami with incense sticks, cuz i accidentally dropped a bit off and that shit looks like a little 2-D rat poop.. just a simple FYI)

So I'm planning on going to this cafe across the street where I might get a good view and maybe some pictures. I didn't even notice I moved in under _______ (my landlord said he doesn't have a name, and I haven't named him yet) until my sister said, "Do you live in the building with the big dog on top of it?" And I went home and there was a dog on top of my building. A bit more info on the dog to come..

Happy Respect-for-the-Aged Day (9/15). I looked up 敬老の日, the Japanese holiday, and that came up. Really though, props to all who are living large and madd yearrrrsss. Respect.