Sunday 28 September 2003

On TV now: Documentary on Rembrandt (but no one's watching)


Two weekends in a row, I've had a hard time doing what I want to do.  Last weekend was a disaster, this weekend was just as bad.  There really isn't anything worse than having to go to school at 18h on a Saturday night to miss out seeing friends whom one hasn't seen in ages, and then having a big fat headache on top of that.  By the time the meeting at school was over, it was nearly 20h and I realized that if I didn't go home, I would be paying for it for the next two weeks.  Instead, I settled with going home and having my head hurt for just another day.


It's Sunday today, and it was mostly a nice, lazy one.  I had a late breakfast of toast, seaweed salad with nameko (Japanese mushroom sauce), and a cut of moon cake.  What a breakfast.  American, Japanese, and Chinese all in one meal.  Then I carved a little on my godmother's woodblock print, read a little FT, then it was time for lunch again, at 15h.  We eat at the strangest times, don't we?  I feel like I'm living with my brothers again.  Oh well, it's only Sunday.  There's no desk to return to and phone calls to fetch.  My headache came back and I took a nap on the couch in the sun until dinner time.  What an afternoon.


Now the day is almost over and I realized that I've done absolutely nothing.  Why is my weekend over already?  Tomorrow, we move back home to Sanbancho because the woodblock is going to another studio where she will finish it up and print.  It's another week of work and learning looking at me.  It looks pretty good, though, because I'm having dinner with a co-worker and then going to watch an uncle play at a gig this week.


In case you are wondering, the big 8+ Hokkaido earthquake didn't do anything to Tokyo.  We're ok here.  So far, no deaths have been reported anywhere, just some 400 injured people.  The week before, though, there was an earthquake in Tokyo.  Of all the places in the world, I was in an elevator, by myself.  Quite an adventurous couple of minutes it was.


On to...doing my expense reports.

Sunday 21 September 2003

On the stereo now: Maria Callas. Did you know it was her birthday last week?

I thought I'd give weblogging a shot. Perhaps it will cut down the load on your straight-to-trash spam filter. ;)

How are things on your side of the world? I attended an exibition on modern Japanese paintings this weekend at the Nihombashi Takashimaya. It was quite nice, although I didn't really know at what I was looking. Who's had this feeling before? I think we should start learning about these things sometime.

Actually, come to think of it, I have quite an artistic family. My mother Chinese watercolor and calligraphy. After I went home to Taipei this summer, I realized that she's actually pretty good! No wonder my father keeps saying that he's going to be her agent after he retires. I thought he was joking, but I think perhaps...not entirely. Speaking of my father, he's pretty talented too, although not in painting. He photographs. But we can only take his word for it because we haven't seen anything from him lately. Or maybe it's because I took his camera. Hahaha.

Some of those artsy genes did make their way down to my brothers and I. Daniel can paint and Michael and I can shoot. I think some of Michael's prints made it into a published book. Once I figure out how to put pictures in these blogs, I will put some of mine up.

What kind of artist are you? What kind of things do you like to do? Leave me a message. :)

Time to go get the car before the typhoon eats me alive on my way there.

Have a nice week!