Parting Words

I'm off to San Francisco tomorrow. Before I go, here's an except from an upcoming submission to Uplift Magazine.

What we are aiming for in a modern culture is the promotion of enjoyable experiences that can make anyone question their unreal conceptions and recognize the beauty of the here and now. Highbrow culture questions but does not comfort. Lowbrow culture comforts but does not question. And what passes for “counterculture” increasingly does neither, because all three cultures are now being docked of their beautiful experiences entirely. The experience is compressed to a two-hour documentary, a thirty-minute biopic, a five-minute essay and finally a two-second photograph.

The original mistake was trying to preserve the innovations of counterculture in the first place. Everything is transient and when you make the transient appear permanent, it leads to attachment, which leads to loss and suffering, and reification as a means to prolong the attachment. All you're trying to do is preserve that wonderful thing that flipped your world upside down, but a reified experience cannot upset one's expectations: it is a new cultural norm which can be adhered to, or a new brand which can be consumed and advertised. In fact, right now at the turn of the century the norms and brands are merging into one.

The avant-garde, fashion, and counterculture which I look forward to is one which de-emphasizes preservation entirely, and rejects authority in the purest sense. Rather than looking to the outside for the source of our problems, we should look to our own mistakes. Rather than accepting what is given to us or ridiculing it, we should discover and defend the things that we like. Rather than focusing on preserving experience, we should focus on creating experience. Ideally, we should stop listening to our iPods and start creating music. We should learn to appreciate everyday events, and quit ourselves of the cult of once-in-a-lifetime events which we preserve and call up endlessly.

You know what's cooler than taking pictures? Not taking pictures.

What I'm Taking, What I'm Bringing Back

I noticed Cory and Austin have made lists of what they are taking to Japan. For synchrony's sake, here is my situation, which is a little different from theirs.

I am only bringing a single, half-size duffle bag and a small messenger bag. This is because I am going to be living in a monastery and I will have to carry all my stuff on my back from place to place. Oh yeah! Did I mention that my study abroad is much, much cooler than theirs? I'm not sure if you got that message.

Here's what's coming along:

• A sweater and a Harrison Ford jacket.
  
• Passport, student ID, credit card.
  
• Five blank shirts. Four pairs of khaki pants.
  
• Heavy pants-- I need to buy some of these, because I can't find any in my dresser.
  
• Toiletries: toothpaste, deoderant, Dr. Bronner's, and cold medicine
  
• Camera
  
• One of those damn money belts-- there being no place to store my money, I need to carry 200,000 yen with me at all times.
  
• Padlock-- I'll be living in places without locks on the doors
  
• Diary

Not seen here: No jeans. No shirts with writing on them. No swimsuit. No guidebooks. No electronics. No extra pairs of shoes.

Need I remind you how much cooler my trip is than theirs?

This doesn't mean I'm only bringing one bag back. In fact, I am planning on buying all sorts of crap while I'm there, mainly artbooks. If you'd like anything from Japan, SPEAK NOW before I leave, because communication over there may be difficult.

Niconico Translations

I was going to post about meeting my host sister Natsumi Suenobu from 2005 but I wasn't able to get to her hostel in Worcester so I don't really have much to say about that. Instead, here are some superb translations of Japanese songs posted on Niconico Douga, the Japanese Youtube. Yeah, it's relevant to my blog because it's from Japan.

All these are translated but require varying amounts of Japanese culture knowledge, which I will be happy to provide in comments.

• "Convenience Mart"
  A delightful take on dime-a-dozen Japanese pop love songs.
  
• Owata \(^o^)/
  This kind of describes why I wasn't able to meet Natsumi.
  
• sugar chocolate waffle
  Don't watch this one if you're allergic to Japan. You have been warned.
  
• Super Mario World Western Show
  Requires a little knowledge of Japanese slang, but hey, it's a Mario rap. So worth it.
  
• The Vanishment Of Hatsune Miku
  Oh no... Miku-chan...
  
• Hypothesis
  Awwww.
  
• Time Signal
  (I translated this) This video is incomprehensible if you don't know what Niconico Douga is, so don't bother.
  
• Yukkuri de Ii sa
  You will become a NEET.
  
• Song of Isolation
  (I translated this) You will be freed from NEET.
  

DC Photo Gallery: Bhutan Tents, Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Are you ready for mountain Buddhist art and culture? You know you are!!



This is the funny guy in the mask who invaded the food tent.



I was impressed by the hand lettering on the signs. Okay, hand lettering is utterly pointless, but it's also beautiful. You don't see it in the U.S. anymore.



Bhutan has universal health care. Yes, free health care, in a tiny Indo-Tibetan country with a smaller GDP per capita than Turkmenistan. The government has thus documented and nationalized the production of herbal medicine, which apparently really works.



Moxibustion device which was used in the old days.



More dangerous-looking tools from the old days.



Some of the raw herbs with medicinal properties. Another display showed pressings and descriptions.



I asked the monk in the miniature temple on the Mall if the Buddhist art you see here was a reproduction or made originally for the temple. He seemed confused. "It's the same art you can find in any temple," he said. "We copied it from a standard design." Eventually he did say that yes, they drew and painted it specifically for the exhibition. But he thought little of it-- wouldn't any other country do the same? Wow...



This incomplete sketch gives you an idea of how the art is made.



Dung Dorji wrote my name in Bhutanese script.



The morning procession. It was really hot! The Bhutanese had agreed to wear their traditional clothes, but they were sweating all day long.



Only a few people came for the morning parade but it was pretty impressive.



This guy makes me smile even today. He was the hawker who invited people to step on up to the food tent. He had a good speaking voice and made Bush jokes. Unfortunately I don't remember his name.



Monks making the "sand" mandala which they wash away as soon as it's completed.





Traditional dance of Bhutan.





Traditional quilt of Bhutan. There were others, but they were Indian influenced. I liked this one for how peculiar it was.





The poster of plants and animals was also hand-drawn.



The inside of the yak herder's tent.

Harvest Moon Festival, Chinatown, Boston

Some of my friends in DC don't know what a real Chinatown looks like. They think this is Chinatown:

Isn't that the saddest thing ever? I asked Lie Bot and he told me that it was. Today I went to a festival in the real Chinatown in Boston. For the benefit of my DC friends, let's go on a tour.

The festival was not advertised and four-fifths of the people on the street were Chinese. I took a picture of this kid with his brand new pet turtle and his dad said something to me politely. He might have been cussing me off. I'm don't know because he didn't speak any English.

The best part about Chinatown are the shops full of weird stuff you can't find elsewhere. I went to a candy shop with salted plums, chunks of ginger, and dried pumpkins. We also ate fresh lychee from a stand on the street. Lychee are little bulb fruits.

Here is Pargol Borojerdi having fun. Our coterie observed a martial arts expo on the streets which was pretty interesting.

I didn't realize how many different kinds of swords and knives there were.

Here is an EDGY DIAGONAL SHOT of a strange trinket store (actually, I was fumbling with the camera).

The kid above is wearing a shirt reading "Wong Family Benevolent Association" (黃氏宗親會). There are a lot of these shady associations in Chinatown and some of them were on the streets today. One advertised themselves as Buddhist so I approached them. They said they were volunteers raising money for earthquake relief. I bought a book from them by Dharma Master Cheng Yen, but not a very expensive one. Now that I'm home I can look them up on Wikipedia and yup, they're legit. The Wong Family is not so accessible. Somehow that's nice in its own way. Orientalism--finding beauty in the mysteries of inaccessible China--is admittedly racist, but I kind of like it.

The lady in the bottom left here promised us the rings she was selling were made of real silver. And they probably were. Boston's Chinatown is a really friendly place.

Falun Gong is pretty cool, except for the part about aliens taking over the world, but I agree with them that truthfulness, compassion and forbearance are all covetable virtues. We had a picnic on Boston Common and ate Thai food. I think MSG makes me sleepy. Then I went home and helped my little brother pack for college, kind of. I hope you have learned something about Chinatown today.

Green Line

Today I ate katsudon and and met a fangirl, natch. I wanted to go see a movie but she lives in a giant bucket. Instead I argued about Zionism and watched Repo Man. On the way home there was a boy who had gotten on the wrong train. It was almost midnight and we were on the last train out of town. Kid was sobbing. One guy was a real pal and explained to the conductor with a heavy Bahston accent what had happened. The conductor went through the options and the guy collected some money from part of the car to get the kid a taxi. Everyone congratulated the guy. "This won't be on the news tomorrow," one bystander said, "but we know it happened." Indeed.

It's good to be home.

DC Photo Gallery, Part 1

Ron Paul Revolution March


A Revolution Blimp floated below the steps of the Capitol.


A giant Constitution excerpt was paraded around.


A good indication of the total size of the rally.


The swag I came home with afterwards

Smithsonian


Another one of those statues that seem to loom down on you.


Bigass prehistoric cousin of a sloth


Goddamn that is a big turtle

Miscellaneous


I took a picture of Barney's front door before I went in.


Me with Bhutanese author Kunzang Choden and unknown bystander.


My college-kid vegan diet in early July

Tomorrow: Bhutan