No Pants Day

www.nopantsday.com

The Sportsman Bar & Lounge

Riddle:

You are on a horse, galloping at a constant speed.

On your right side is a sharp drop off, and on your left side is an elephant traveling at the same speed as you.

Directly in front of you is a galloping kangaroo and your horse is unable to overtake it. Behind you is a lion running at the same speed as you and the Kangaroo.

What must you do to safely get out of this highly dangerous situation?


If you do not know, see answer below.

It was 10:00pm Friday night and we were about to begin. I flipped the dome light on in my car so we could go over the assignment one more time. We were to focus on 1) the skills of observing and interviewing 2) the process of entering and belonging to a new culture and 3) translate the learning into teaching questions.

We got out of my car, walked up the old wooden steps, and I hesitantly opened the door of the Sportsman Bar & Lounge for Sunny and Akisha. The three of us, a Korean, an African American, and a W.A.S.P., were an unlikely group to enter a Vermont workingman’s bar.

We drew a few glances from a few folks playing pool in the back as we inquisitively walked up to the bar to order and were nonchalantly greeted by the bartender, “What can I get ya?”

“Um. Uh,” I stuttered, “Bud, please,” thinking it was the most generic beer.

“Well,” began the bartender, “we got a special ‘cuz the Sox game is on. Bud Light draft is only a buck.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

We took a seat at a nearby table with two beers and a Kahlua milk that came in a beer mug. Next, we began to take in our cultural surroundings. Akisha and I, being somewhat familiar with American bar scenes, decided to just sit back and try our best to be flies on the wall.

Sunny, on the other hand, took a much more active approach. She started walking around the bar surveying all the various wall hangings. Amongst Red Sox banners, Bud beer posters, and neon signs, she spotted some thing that caused her to pause.

“Who… who’s this picture?” she asked to any willing patron seated at the bar.

A scruffy fellow, named Tony, in the corner seat of the bar decided to answer, “That there is Warren Wilcox. He was a regular here; lived upstairs, and those are his ashes in that urn. Now, he’s always with us.”

Shocked and chagrined I abandoned my passive state to check this out. Sure enough, there he was; a picture of Warren sitting with elbows on the bar and a grin from ear to ear placed directly on top of grey urn.

Meanwhile, Sunny kept exploring. “What this?” she asked and pointed to a piece of white poster board over the bar.

“That’s for Kyle Gilbert. He was killed in Iraq in 2003,” answered the bartender without batting an eye.

Again, not believing my ears, I walked across the room from Warren to Kyle. The white poster in question was nothing fancy, just a piece of white poster board with photo of a young man in uniform with the date August 6th 2003 and the words “Just Don’t Forget Me” written in a black felt tip marker.

“GEORGE BUSH!!!” Sunny hollered and pointed before I could even finish processing the poster for Kyle.

“Did George Bush come to this bar?” Sunny asked bluntly and pointed to a framed picture hanging above the bar next to Kyle.

“Naw,” the bartender shook his head. “Kyle’s parents went to D.C for a memorial service and got their picture taken with President Bush. The flag from Kyle’s coffin is downstairs in the basement.”

I think I pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Then, I had to bite my tongue to keep from asking why a bar has a memorial flag in the basement.

Sunny, still investigating, managed to make her way back across the bar towards Warren’s urn. “What’s this?” Nothing could have prepared me for what was coming.

“Hup! She found the trophy!” exclaimed the bartender as he eagerly darted out from behind the bar as if he’d been waiting for that question all night. “That’s a Butt Dart trophy.”

“A what?”

“A Butt Dart trophy.”

“A what?”

I walked over to see this trophy with my own eyes. Wiping away the disbelief, I saw it. It was a standard softball trophy, but instead of a gold figurine on top swinging a bat, there was a 5’ inch, whittled wooden derriere with a 25cent piece wedged between the cheeks.

“It’s a game we play here in the bar,” came the explanation. “Ya see, here’s what ya do. Ya put a shot glass on the floor, a quarter between your butt cheeks, and ya try to drop the quarter in the glass.”

“You’re kidding, right?” is all I could muster, but in the back of my head, I was wondering if this happened with pants on or off.

“The owner of the trophy is on her way down here right now. She’ll be here in about 15 minutes.”

Fifteen minutes later, a tornado blew into the bar. “Wheeeeeew!” was the first thing I heard, and before I knew it, a heavyset woman with long blonde hair was standing on a chair and spinning around a pillar by a nearby table.

“Gina! Gina!” yelled the bartender. “Before you git goin’, we got someone here who wants to see Butt Darts.”

This perked Gina’s interest because without hesitation she jumped down off the chair, sauntered up to the bar, and demanded “Gimme a roll of quarters and a shot glass with water in it so they don’t fuckin’ bounce out.”

“Who wants to see Butt Darts?” she slurred and looked around before the bartender could point her in our direction.

“Alright, here’s what you do,” she said as she placed the shot glass on the floor next to our table. “Ya insert the quarters in ass; ya know where the glass is; ya know where yer ass is, and ya know where the quarters are, right?”

I watched in pure astonishment as Gina proceeded to insert a dollars worth of quarters into her rear end (with pants on, in case you’re still wondering), hobble over the shot glass, and successfully plop three of the four quarters into the glass.

“Yeeeaaaahhhh!” she howled and started cavorting around the bar. “Okay! Now you try!” she pointed at Sunny.

Sunny voluntarily got up and received the wet quarters. “Okay, but you have to help me.”

Gina reassuringly walked up behind Sunny and told her, “You need an inserter? Okay, here,” she said as she took the quarters from Sunny’s hand and bent down and began placing the change in Sunny’s gluteus maximus.

Sunny squeezed and shambled over to the shot glass with a look of total discomfort and determination.

“Whoa! Back up a little bit,” Gina coached her from behind. “That looks good. Let ‘em go!”

Sunny relaxed her backside and to her own amazement, all four quarters fell directly into the glass without touching the rim. “I win! I win!”

“Fucking bitch,” huffed Gina. “Peter, pour me two shots of tequila. One for me, and one for the new Butt Dart champion.”

Riddle Answer:

Get your drunk ass off the Merry-Go-Round

Back in Brattleboro

It seems my blog got derailed somewhere in Mexico, but I hope to get it back on track in the near future.

Please stay tuned.

Bugs in Mexico

I thought this would be an interesting way to show some of the things I see everyday in Veracruz on my one mile walk to work.



It takes me back to the days of Herbie (before Lindsay Lohan was born).

Geotag

I don’t know about ya’ll, but I love taking pictures, and I love looking at maps when I’m traveling. It just so happens, I realized I could link my photos to a world map with Flickr.

For those paying attention to my Photostream on the right sidebar, I learned how to “geotag” my pictures. If you click on a photo, it will take you to my Flickr page, where you will see the photo and a list of details next to the photo
If you click on the “Map” link, it will show you a satellite view of where the photo was taken, and you can zoom in or out of the map to get a better idea where in the world I went.

Hope this helps put things in perspective.

Peace by Peace.

Papantla

On my way to El Tajin, I went through the small town of Papantla, where I saw what I think is a rain dance of some kind.

Not really sure, though.

El Tajin

Last week I learned that Mel Gibson’s new movie, Apocalypto, was filmed in the state of Veracruz. To make it even more appealing to me, I learned that Gestalt, the school I’m teaching in, was involved in the filming. The fashion students designed and made many of the costumes, jewelry, and other accessories worn by the actors and actresses, and many students were used as extras.

Unfortunately, the film is showing here with Spanish subtitles, and my Spanish isn’t quite up to snuff to understand everything being said. I’m tempted to try anyway, just for the experience.

Apocalypto or not, my interest in Mexican history was sparked, so Anna, a fellow intern, and I decided to get out of the city of Veracruz for a day and visit the ancient ruins at El Tajin.

"The city El Tajín was the capital of the Totonac state. Tajín means city or place of thunder in the Totonac language, and is believed to have been one of the names for the Totonac god of thunder, lightning and rain." -- Wikipedia

On our way into the archaeological site, we saw five men perform the Voladores Rite. Now, I thought I’d seen some crazy things in Japan, but this ranks way up there.



According to my Lonely Planet, this is packed with symbolic meanings, which I’m sure at some point in time it was, but from my perspective, it’s just a way to sucker tourists into watching something crazy while vendors sell T-shirts made in China.

Talkin' about Teaching

Awesome

In an attempt to mock the cover letter workshop I sat through at SIT, and the process I went through to get my current internship, I recently composed an email application, in cover letter style, to a friend who goes by the monkier the Director of Awesomeness.

My awesome application was as follows:

Dear Director of Awesomeness,

My name is Heyward Gignilliat. I am a candidate for a Master of Arts in Teaching at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, VT.

I recently embarked on an eight-week internship to Veracruz, Mexico, and I would be honored if you bestowed upon me the title of Ambassador of Awesomeness.

I feel I distinguish myself from other applicants because I am ever mindful of the Big Here and the Long Now. If granted this honorary title, I vow to teach, learn, speak, study, listen, laugh, eat, drink, joke, play, surf, spin, skip, jingle, dance, groove, twist, squeeze, drop, flush, climb, win, lose, conquer, smoke, rip, tear, thrash, roar, thrust, finish, slash, and even burn in the name of Awesomeness.

Please consider this application, and I am looking forward to hearing from you in the near future.

After a couple days of deliberation, my friend wrote me back with the following response:

Dear Candidate,

After extensive review of your application the selection committee (comprised only of the Director of Awesomeness) would like to honor you by conferring upon you the title of Ambassador of Awesomeness.

It is with great pleasure that this position is filled by such an ambitious candidate in its first conferral as of date. It fills the director with much pleasure that awesomeness will be brought to the people of Veracruz.

Everyone, especially beautiful women, need awesomeness and I trust that you will spread as much of it as possible to Veracruz and the surrounding region. Just be sure to do all that you have said you will... especially groove, squeeze, burn and thrust.

I guess I am now a diplomat... of awesome sorts.

Veracruz Vlog

Sushii w/ Salsa?

I knew Veracruz had a small Japanese restaurant around somewhere, but I’d nearly walked all the way to the beach before I stumbled upon the squat building with Kanji painted around all the windows. As I stepped into the nearly empty restaurant, a short and weathered old Mexican man stood up to greet me, “Buenas tardes.”

I thought for a moment and then muttered in Spanish, “Hablo Ingles?” In a split second, it occurred to me that I’d conjugated the verb wrong. The old man just waved me off and motioned for me to sit down.

Not exactly sure what to do or say next, I reached down to the nearest table and picked up a pair of chopsticks. The old Mexican man looked puzzled and said, “Hashi da.”

With renewed confidence and a gleam in my eye, I asked, “Nihongo hanasemasuka?”

“Un,” grunted the Mexican.

“Eto ne… Boku wa Eigo no sensei desu. Kyo no jyugyo de hashi tsukaitai. Moratemoii desuka?”

“Ii desu yo,” he said delightedly and gestured for me to take the chopsticks in my hand.

“Yon seto de ii desuka?”

“Ii yo,” the Mexican’s son said coming out of the back kitchen with a handful of chopsticks for me.

“Arigatogozaimashita,” I said with a bow as I backed out the door. “Shitsuraishimashita.”

As soon as I was back out on the street, I thought it was strange to meet a Mexican family that could speak Japanese.

Then, I began wondering what they thought. Some white boy pops in off the street, can’t speak a lick of Spanish, but in Japanese says he’s an English teacher and wants to use four sets of chopsticks in his class, and he pops back out.

Yeah, that might be a little odd. I smiled and hurried towards the bank. Now I needed to ask for $20 worth of coins.

Xalapa: Museo De Antropologia

Yesterday, Anna and I decided to take advantage of our day off (our work schedules don't really kick in until next week) and go to Xalapa for the day. It was an easy hour & a half bus ride north.

Below are some pictures from the amazing Anthropology Museum. Enjoy!

Veracruz: The First week in Pictures

Here are some photos, in no particular order, of my first week in Veracruz, Mexico.

I suggest playing Latin music in the background as you watch.

Veracruz Music

SIT Internship

Winter Holiday 06

The Ride South

I sat in the backseat bleary eyed from the drive yesterday. Occasionally, I would glance at a book Atasi had given me an hour before. I didn’t really feel like reading, but the weight of the book felt comfortable in my hand.

The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Freire. At one point, I opened the book and began counting how many times the word ‘oppressed’ appeared on a single page… one, two, three, four; flipping to another random page… one, two, four, six oppressed; another random page… five oppresses. This is not the kinda book I wanna to read while going home for Christmas, and my gaze drifted out the car window to the passing mountains for an undisclosed amount of time.

An unfamiliar street sign snapped me to attention. “Hey, Gooch” I called from the back seat. “Where are we?”

“Ummm. I dunno,” he said. I think I woke him from a daydream too.

“Are we still heading south on 29?”

“I’ve just been driving straight,” he reassured me.

Suddenly, a cell phone went off somewhere inside the car, and Mario sitting shotgun answered it on the second ring. “I’m on my way to Atlanta… No, I’m not there yet… I dunno… I’m still in Virginia.”

Christmas Day


Taylor and Kady: the singing, dancing Christmas princesses.


New Years Eve

“What exactly is flare and panache?” I asked Chris as he brought out a box full of Mardi Gras beads and other tacky knick-knacks. “ I don’t think I have either of those.”

Stiles quickly reached into the box and pulled out a black wig with pigtails. He tried it on and walked into the dining room to see himself in a mirror. “You look like Pocahontas!” someone laughed.

I guessed wigs were the way forward this year, so I walked up to the box and grabbed a blonde one. Jason looked at me as I put it on and began trying to the clear the hair from my eyes. “Uhh, dude! You look like the guy from Spinal Tap.” I guess I can dig that; I thought and headed to the front door to leave for the party.

“Come on in!” was the greeting at the basement door of the mayor’s house by an older man. “What’s your name?”

“Me? I’m David St. Hubbins,” I replied.

“Hi, David,” said the older gentleman, who turned out to be the mayor’s father.

Then, almost as if on queue, Chris deadpanned, “The patron saint of quality footwear.”

“Hey! I’m Randy. Nice to meet you,” said a jolly guy in a penguin suit and a top hat. “I’m the mayor. Ya’ll are safe here. The cops in this town work for me.”

“Happy New Year!”

Merry Christmas!

This video is long overdue on this blog. I recorded this with my students a few years ago, and it still makes me laugh.

Happy Holidays!

SIT MAT38 Blog

Recently, I've been learning about various approaches to teaching languages and the guiding principles behind each specific approach.

As I was looking into one approach, it occured to me how much emphasis and value I put into the concept of community. I've come to realize that 'community' is very important to me everywhere and I go, and my actions reflect this in different ways.

In the same vain as the Meet the MATs podcast I started earlier this year, which has slowed down recently, my newest project is a team blog for all my classmates.

The SIT MAT38 blog is now up and running. Hopefully, in the coming months as everyone goes out into various corners of the world for their internships, this blog will give some interesting insights.

http://sitmat38.blogspot.com/

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

Musicovery : interactive webRadio

This is a mash up between Pandora & MusicPlasma:
Musicovery : interactive webRadio

Happy listening!

Multiple Intelligences

I'm currently doing research about Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences and how they apply to an ESL/EFL classroom.

I came across this 15min clip on Google and thought it's really interesting. It concentrates more on the emotional aspect of intelligence, but if you're in the field of education it's worth taking a look.

Learning Log Pt. 2

This is an email I sent a colleague in Japan as part of a school assignment. I'm trying to retain my sense of humor as I wade through years of linguistic theory, and I think it's working. My teacher loved these analogies!

Dear Mrs. Keiko,

I hope you are doing well! It's time for me to write you another email for school, so I hope you don't mind. I want to tell you about some of the things I am studying, but I'm worried it might be difficult to understand. If you have any questions, please ask me and I will try my best to answer them. I hope this will be a good learning experience for both of us!

In my Second Language Acquisition (SLA) class, I have been studying about many theories for language teaching. In class, we recently had a very fun assignment to summarize all the various theories from the past 50 years using metaphors. My classmates all presented very interesting metaphors, but I want to share my musical themed presentation with you.

In the 1950s & 1960s language learning was characterized by a theory known a Behaviorism. Linguists thought that learning a language was like learning anything else; it's a formation of habits based on stimuli and responses. This is very similar to the "Call & Response" technique we used in Jyushiyama JHS. The teacher is always the center of attention and the students listen and repeat.

The metaphor I used to describe Behaviorism was an album by James Brown. He was a very famous musician in the '60s because people could not take their eyes off him. He was the center of attention and he conducted his band and the audience with call & response techniques.

In the 1970s, a linguist named Corder began studying students' errors and a new theory called Error Analysis was born. This theory noted the fact that many errors by students did not originate from their native language. For example, Spanish and English have very similar plural tenses, but Spanish speakers often forget to add the plural marking when speaking English. Linguists could not understand where these kinds of errors were coming from.

To associate the Error Analysis theory I used Led Zeppelin's first album, which has a famous picture of the Hindenburg crashing. To me, aside from the fact that the Hindenburg was a major error in and of itself, Led Zeppelin's music was based on electric blues, but it was full of feedback, and listeners were baffled at where this new genre, dubbed heavy metal, came from.

In the 1980s, a linguist named Krashen put forth a theory about comprehensible input. Comprehensible input is defined as "second language input just beyond the learner's current second language competence." This is more commonly referred to as "i + 1." It claims that if a student is studying something too easy or too difficult, it will not be useful for learning, but if the input is slightly higher, the student will be intrigued and want to learn.

This was my favorite metaphor. I used Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album. Michael Jackson was the first pop star in the '80s to take traditional musical input (audio) and add a visual component (video). By adding a new aspect to music, he captured the world's attention and intrigued millions.

As language learning moved into the 1990s, a new humanist approach started to take hold. Linguists continued to build upon theories explored in previous decades, but they started looking into more social, cultural, and psychological variables. More emphasis was put on the learners individual characteristics like motivation, personality, and personal learning style.

To capture this refined humanist approach, I used a CD by a band called the Flaming Lips. Their album "The Soft Bulletin" was a symphonic pop album created by modern technology melding synthesizers with guitars to make blissful melodies. All the while, the humanity of the album comes through loud and clear because the lyrics are about basic human emotions like love and loss and the beauty of life.

Now in the 21st century, my teacher says, "we're wearing a lot of hats." Linguists tend not to adhere to any one specific theory, but to a multitude of possible approaches centered around the learner.

To represent this all-encompassing idea, I brought a DVD called "1 Giant Leap." I used this because it's a fusion of all kinds of music from all over the world, spoken word, and very powerful visual imagery. It's presented in a surround sound mix for home theaters, so the listener really is encompassed!

I hope this was informative for you, and I look forward to reading your response. Again, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me.


Take care,


heyhey

Just so you know, my teacher asked to borrow the Lips CD and the Giant Leap film!

Brian Eno: Let there be Light

Apple - Pro - Profiles - Brian Eno, p. 1

Brian Eno paints with light. And his paintings, like the medium, shift and dance like free-flowing jazz solos or elaborate ragas. In fact, they have more in common with live music than they do with traditional artwork. “When I started working on visual work again, I actually wanted to make paintings that were more like music,” he says. “That meant making visual work that nonetheless changed very slowly.” Eno has been sculpting and bending light into living paintings for about 25 years, rigging galleries across the globe with modified televisions, programmed projectors, and three-dimensional light sculptures... Cont.

www.77millionpaintings.com

Burn Your Pants & Dance!

As the winter weather set in, I earned a reputation around campus because I advocated everyone at SIT burn their pants & dance at a bonfire party.

This may sound like a crazy idea, but there was logic behind my lunacy, and I just submitted this essay to our school paper in order to explain myself.

Why I Burned My Pants (And Danced)

Over the past few weeks, I conducted a social experiment on the campus of SIT called "Burn Your Pants & Dance." I advocated students burn their pants at a bonfire party, and now, after a few days of reflection, I want to explain why.

I love SIT; I love the various people. I revel in the diversity and knowing that this campus and its myriad of personalities have the potential to make a deep positive impact on the world. This idea alone helps me wake up for my 8:30am classes.

With that said, I feel it is necessary to address an underlying aspect of our campus. Everyday we send emails to inform about various religious holidays, sexual orientation parties, and immigration action meetings. These are all very serious topics. In some parts of the world these are a hotbed of discussion that create major turmoil and it’s just the stuff piling up day-to-day in our email Inbox! This is the reality we live in at SIT.

In an effort to combat the level of daily seriousness, lighten the mood, bring some kind of balance to our campus, and shed the proverbial PC layer that keeps building up, I sent, what I thought, was a humorous email. I advocated that everyone burn their pants at the next bonfire party. Burning pants, to my knowledge, does not infringe on anyone's religious beliefs, sexual orientation, nor does it have anything to do with immigration. It simply targets the opposite end of the contextual spectrum, and if you feel so inclined, it could be seen as a symbolic gesture.

The reactions from campus I received for doing this ridiculous thing are very interesting to me, and I actually feel I learned a lot about diversity and acceptance. I can separate the responses into three contrasting categories that I call the Partiers, the Questioners, and the Silencers. The Partiers' reaction was the most entertaining to me. They just laughed at me, gave me high fives for doing something silly, pointed and yelled in unquestioning solidarity "Burn your pants!"

The reaction of the Questioners was a little more interesting to me. They laughingly approached me and asked, "You want me to do what!?" "Why do you want me to burn my pants?" To them, I tried to explain the idea of a group of people working towards world peace standing around a bonfire in their underwear seems like a hilarious concept, and one I want to put into action because of the novelty. Can you imagine sitting in a conflict transformation class, looking over at your classmates during an intense debate, and realizing they were standing around in the cold in their underwear with you last week? It would have to put a different perspective on things, not to mention the bonds and the memories that would be formed by doing something so simple.

A slightly different, but frequent, response I heard from the Questioners was, "I like my pants, and I don't have any pants to burn," or, "I would rather donate my pants to the homeless." For this, I suggested they go to a thrift store, donate to the local economy, and buy a pair of pants that expressed who they were, or a pair they felt was begging to be burned because of the hideousness of the pattern. To me, this made sound sense.

The third and final reaction, from the Silencers, was one I least expected, but one that assisted my learning the most. I categorize this response as peoples' total silence or aloofness to my absurd request. I could overhear the Silencers whispering at lunch tables, "I can’t believe he did that. It’s completely inappropriate." The most hurtful response I heard came straight to my face. A person looked me in the eye and bluntly said, "I don’t get you." I do not know what that person meant, but it felt like they were trying to distance themself from me because they didn't understand where I was coming from. This reaction was most surprising because I didn't expect it on SIT's campus.

The heaviness of these reactions hit me like a lightning bolt as I was standing around under the stars in my underwear. If I got reactions like this from people on our campus for making and following through on a preposterous request about burning pants at a party, I can not imagine the reactions that someone might get for making serious statements they wholeheartedly believe in that might not fit with our societal norms.

Of all the places in the world that can benefit from political incorrectness, it is SIT. Our mission is world peace, but how can we work towards such a goal if we continue to shroud our language and actions in a polite, but lifeless, manner because we fear we might be misunderstood? I think we need to expose ourselves to draw out feelings that might be deemed incorrect, so we can look at them objectively, and analyze why we feel that way.

Bob Dylan once sang, "You’re invisible now, you got too many secrets to conceal." Only when we open up our secrets, speak, and act from the heart, will it be possible to see the true differences between everyone on this campus. When that happens, we can start learning how to approach the real problems that arise, and take what we learn away from this tiny microcosm on a hilltop in Vermont and apply it to the rest of the world.

Now get out there and take your pants off!!

Vermont Fall '06

I've spent the past couple weekends playing soccer and driving around with friends taking pictures of the scenery. Check out the photo gallery here:
Vermont Fall '06

Highlights include:

* driving one hour west to Bennington College with four friends in total silence because everyone was staring out the window at the Fruit Loop Mountains

* going to an apple pie festival in Dummerston to find all the apple pies were sold out due to an influx of Harley Davidson riders, so we decided to go for a drive on a few dirt roads; got lost, found Dummerston, got lost again, found Dummerston again, got lost again!, found hot apple pie, then found Brattleboro

* having Stiles come up for a few days driving a rented PT Cruiser with a red dash board and knowing he was in Brattleboro a whole ten minutes before buying a Neil Young LP

* going to Marlboro College for a soccer game; arriving an hour early to warm up, and actually seeing people play Quidditch, from the Harry Potter books, for real!

Brattleboro is treating me well.
Come visit!

My Morning Drive

This is a snippet of my drive up Black Mountain Rd to SIT's campus. I do this every morning and recently the weather has been perfect!

Learning Log

As an assignment for one of my classes I have to keep a reflective journal about my learning process and write a letter to a colleague explaining what I'm studying.

I thought I could incorporate this blog into the journal and get some feedback from anyone who reads this, so below I copied & pasted the first email I sent to a teaching liason I worked with in Japan, and in the future I'll try to do more reflective writing about what's happening here in Brattleboro, VT.

Dear Mrs. Keiko,

Long time no see! How are you? Is everything okay at Jyushiyama JHS?

Recently, I have been very busy with graduate school, and I have a homework assignment to write to a colleague about my studies, so I thought it would be a great idea to tell you a little bit about what I'm learning here.

For the past month, my new classmates and I have been getting to know each other and our new surroundings. During school orientation, we played many fun games like: 60 people lining up in alphabetical order without talking! This was a fantastic activity because everyone learned each other’s names while having fun. We also cooked dinner together and went contra dancing! This was great because we had to take responsibility for each other and work together while learning about local culture.

This school puts a lot of emphasis on group work and reflection, so we have been given many group projects. For example, my first group project was to find information about local restaurants and display our findings on a bulletin board for other students. I learned many things about my new town and I got to share the information with others.

The first two weeks of class were very interesting too! I had two classes: Shock Language and Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Shock Language class was very thought provoking because I had to study a language I’ve never spoken before. I learned Korean! It was easy for me because the grammar rules are similar to Japanese, and my teacher was great! She used many games and activities to make the class fun; I learned what it feels like to be in a language class as a student.

My SLA class is much more difficult because I’m studying about language teaching theories. I’m reading about famous linguists like Chomsky, Krashen, Swain, and Vygotsky who changed the way education systems teach languages. Also, there are a lot of new vocabulary terms I have to know, but my teacher is very good and lets me ask lots of questions.

Just recently, I began three new classes: Approaches (a class where I have to analyze myself and my teaching techniques), Four Skills (a class where I learn how to incorporate speaking, listening, reading, and writing into to my own classes), and Language Analysis & Lesson Planning (a class where I study about English grammar and making lesson plans). These classes are new to me, so I can’t write about them yet, but I want to share them with you when I learn more.

I hope you are doing well, and please tell all the students at Jyushiyama JHS I said hello.


Take care,


heyhey

If anyone finds this the least bit interesting, please leave a comment because I can use it in my classes.

Thanx.

Podcast Preview

It's been a while since my last post, and I apologize. Moving to Brattleboro, VT and starting school at SIT have kept me pretty busy; not to mention it took three weeks to get the Internet hooked up in my new apartment.

Anyway, things are up and running at full speed now, and I do mean FULL SPEED. For the first time in my life, I need a day-planner to keep track of everything that's happening.

In the coming weeks, I promise to get some pictures online of the Vermont foliage, but in the meantime I started working on another project to interview all of my fellow classmates one by one and podcast it on my DotMac site.

If you're interested, please check it out: HeyHey's Podcast

Peace.

Habitat House

Family is frustrating, no doubt about it. But this isn't about that. This is about the foundation family lays and what can be built from it.

This past Saturday all members of my family volunteered with Habitat for Humanity to help construct a house for the Watson family. The money for the house was raised by Grace Episcopal Church in memory of my late Uncle Ned.

Please check out some of the pictures here: Habitat House Gallery

My cousin Harris instigated this project during Christmas '05 with a letter to all family members explaining that Grace Church and Habitat of Hall County would raise the money and get the house started, but at some point during the building process he wanted our entire family to come get our hands dirty.

Since Christmas, it took a few months to get the logistics worked out, but they broke ground the end of June, and this past Saturday morning at roughly 9am every family member & a couple close friends came straggling in for work detail: Puttin' up the roof.

The start was slow and unknowing. If anyone had asked me the day before who would be the first family member to climb on the roof, Harris would not have been the guy. But to my surprise, Harris not only got on the roof, he led the charge!



Before long, my cousins Stuart & Rob, my brother Darrell, and Harris were all up on the roof talkin' the talk and walkin' the walk. Between the four of them, they laid well over half of the ply wood sheets for the back part of the roof (in hundred degree heat no less).

Meanwhile, my father, who has always shied away from manual labor, was measuring plywood, cutting wood with a buzz saw, heaving wood up on the roof, and mixing up concrete with my cousin Meigan.

My Uncle Bill, Aunt Laura, and cousin Liz were busy nailing up the weather proof plastic sheet around the house and cutting out the windows.

My eighty-year-old grandparents even made a showing around lunchtime with homemade sandwiches and sweet tea.

All in all it was a momentous afternoon for our family. I'm sure my Uncle Ned was thoroughly entertained, laughing, and smiling the whole time.

To cap the day off, we drove into the foothills of the Appalachians and my Dad treated a group of us to dinner in Dahlonega at a place called the Oar House. We sat outside on big wooden deck next to the Chestatee River listening to a two-piece jazz band while eating prime rib and pork tenderloin.

As a family bonus, Sunday morning got started with a breakfast batch of grits and a drive to Atlanta. Darrell & I met my cousins Seth & Meigan, and they treated us to the Allman Brothers concert at Lakewood Amphitheater. Summer ain't summer until the Allmans play.

I walked out after the concert feeling physically exhausted with blisters on my fingers from playing too much air-guitar, but my conscience was clear and my heart was full.

It was a workin' man's weekend full of family.

Yokkaichi Summer Music Festival

This is a tip of the hat to my buddy Richard and the rest of the promotion staff for organizing this music festival and a wag of the finger to anybody in Japan that doesn't go.

It's the 10th and last time they're gonna do it, and it's for a good cause; all proceeds go to local Yokkaichi charities.

If that's not reason enough to go, the lineup looks good too! Big Frog, A-Fank Syndicate, and more will get the place rockin', and Tokyo Ale will be serving up cool refreshing beverages, so pack up the car and get down there this weekend for some fun in the sun!

http://www.cty-net.ne.jp/~rtjordan/yokkaichi_promotions/

(*~*)/

Bound for Glory

I shit you not, since being back in the States; I've been on the run the entire time. If I only had a guitar, a few chords, & some truth, my hard traveling and easy riding would make even Woody Guthrie proud.

I hopped on a Greyhound bus out of Boston bound for Brattleboro to pick up the used car I'd bought the previous week. Much to my family's dismay, I decided to break it in by driving it down the East Coast, making a few pit stops along the way to check in with some good friends.

First stop was New York City. I met my friend Daniel, who was fittingly wearing a T-shirt sporting a "100% Organic" logo. Daniel, to me fits the bill as a true activist, and I draw a lot of energy from my meetings with him. This time was no exception.

Daniel now lives in Harlem, and he first spotted me in his neighborhood as the, "white guy driving." The streets were full of African-Americans, Latinos, and the buildings had graffiti memorials to lost friends, but the best part was watching them play games in the streets. The road I parked my car on was blocked off so kids could play a supervised game of basketball.

Then, Daniel brought me up to speed on his current projects, which are always interesting. He is now working with the Gaia Institute in hopes to plant Green Roofs across New York City. A Green Roof, I learned, is exactly as it sounds, vegetation on roof tops to help prevent excessive runoff water, provide more oxygen in the city, help clean dust particles out of the air, keep the soaring summer temperatures down a little, and of course provide a more attractive cityscape.

It's just my opinion, but I think Daniel is really onto something here, and I wish him the best of luck as he tries to market this idea to the city of New York over the next year. But, just remember, to paraphrase my buddy Bubba, its progress not perfection.

The second stop on my southbound tour was Charlottesville, Virginia to visit my friend Alexis. She had recently returned to America from teaching English in Japan due to a job offer from UVA to work on the George Washington papers. I believe it involves digitizing all of George's writings.

Lex was nice enough to show me around Charlottesville and UVA's campus, but she had work everyday I was there, so I spent most of the time sleeping late, lounging around the house, chilling in a hammock listening to Muddy Waters, watching groundhogs trot around the backyard, and reading a JFK book I picked up while in Boston the previous week.



For my third stop, I was lucky enough to have Lex join me, and we drove down to Asheville, North Carolina for the annual Bele Chere Arts & Crafts Festival. This was nuthin' but a big party with good music and lots of beer!

Check out the pictures here: Bele Chere Picture Gallery

My good buddy Stiles (aka Silver Fox) met us downtown as we joined my brother Darrell and cousin Stuart, who both reside in the Asheville area, to check out the last few minuets of a funk band from New Orleans. The keyboard player was wearing a T-shirt that said, "Make Levees, not War."

Later that night we saw hometown hero Warren Haynes with Gov’t Mule rock the main stage before heading back to Darrell's house to play a ring toss game they nicknamed Kasey 151 because it took Stuart's girlfriend Kasey 151 tries to get a ringer.



This video shows 4.5 minuets of Stiles & Lex displaying a total lack of natural ability. If they only had 1/10th of Darrell's skill!

The following night we went back downtown to see Galactic play an incendiary cover version of Zeppelin's "When the Levees Break", and then onto a place called The Root Bar, where the owner has set up a sandpit in the back and patented a game which crosses horse shoes with botchy ball. Root Ball, we were told, is the fastest growing sport in America.

The following day everyone went their separate ways, and I continued south past old Cherokee Indian places like Tallulah, Chattahoochee, Nantahala, and Chatuge into the southern end of the Appalachian Mountain range to Hiawassee, Georgia where my father lives.

I spent a nice quiet evening eating dinner with my dad and stepmother before driving the rest of the way to Gainesville early the next morning.

All in all, I put 1200 miles on my new car, saw some good friends & family, drank a few beers, heard some good music, and watched the sunset over the mountains with my dad.

If Woody Guthrie was here, he might say we're bound for glory. Life is good.

(*;*)v

Mass & Maine

I spent the past ten days traveling with my mother and stepfather, Stanley, through New England. It all started because I needed to go Vermont to find a place to live for school, but it became a great excuse to take a family vacation to Boston and up the coast of Maine.

Please check out some photos from the trip here: Mass & Maine Photos

I owe a great deal of thanks to my mom & Stan for their overwhelming generosity and assistance in finding an apartment and a car. As usual, their hospitality went above and beyond anything I could have anticipated. Thank you very much!

We flew into Boston, rented a car, and immediately drove over to Plymouth to eat lunch and check out Plymouth Rock. Afterwards, we drove back into Boston and checked into a hotel located in Cambridge, a couple blocks away from the Charles River and next to MIT's campus.

(If you're interested in reading more about the Pilgrims, check out this article: Puritans to Prohibition)

The first couple days we spent sightseeing around Boston. We went to the JFK Museum, which was politically inspiring, went to the famous Bull & Fitch Pub, which was the inspiration of the '80s TV show Cheers, and we braved a heat wave to do a portion of the Freedom Walk; checking out Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church, where the famous "Two if by Sea" lanterns were hung.



















The next day we walked around Harvard's campus and spent some time in an outdoor cafe at Harvard Square watching a ten year old boy Chinese boy whip a line of adults in speed Chess.

We drove into Vermont listening to Willie Nelson's Whiskey River on the radio and spent an intense few days apartment shopping. There was no time to take any photos of Brattleboro, but I will say, I'm getting very excited about starting school.

SIT is a very small school, the campus consists of only a few old white columned houses renovated into classrooms and offices, located on top of a hill overlooking rolling mountains. There're maybe 300 students. I think it’s gonna be a phenomenal experience that will light a few creative sparks and get the good wheel of fortune turning.

By sheer luck, there was a Subaru dealership located next to our hotel in Brattleboro, so I bought a used Outback wagon. I'm now mobile!

With my mission accomplished in Brattleboro, we headed into Maine to travel up the rocky coast and eat lobsters! Our first stop was the small town of Ogunquit where we went to Perkins Cove to eat stuffed lobster at Barnacle Billy's.
















As we continued up the coast, driving from meal to meal, we made a sightseeing stop just north of Portland around Cape Elizabeth to see the Portland Head Light, the most photographed lighthouse in the world.

Our next meal was on Bailey's Island at place called Cook's Restaurant, which became world famous in '98 when it was featured on a string of Visa commercials. We all ate our first lobster rolls.

For dinner the same night we drove around Rockland to a small community called Camden where we ate boiled lobster at a place called Bay View Lobster. Stan made friends with a guy from Louisiana whose reason for moving to Maine was Shreveport.

Stanley's goal for the whole trip, aside from eating well, was to make it to Bar Harbor. We had an afternoon driving around Acadia National Park, where we saw some breathtaking views of the jagged coastline before checking into a B&B called Lucerne.

Last, but not least, we drove back to Boston, stopping at some outlets malls for my mother to do some shopping, and had our last supper at one of Boston's oldest family run Italian eatery called Jevelis Restaurant. Evidentially, Bill Clinton ate here a few years ago, so they styled one room after the White House and it has presidential paraphernalia everywhere.



















This was the first extended trip I've ever taken where so much emphasis was placed on food, but I must say, it was really, really, good food! My hat's off to Stanley for being a knowledgeable guide, and my belt's one notch looser in anticipation for my next trip with him.

Thank you.

one red paperclip

This is really cool. Dude started with one red paper clip and through a series of trades ended up with a house.

one red paperclip

Lego World Cup

In preparation for the World Cup final, check out this German video:

Germany vs. the World

July 4th Holiday

Fourth of July necessities: food, beer, water (preferably ocean), friends, & fireworks. I feel like I covered all of these criteria excessively over the past week.

Here are some pictures from my July 4th holiday:
Charleston & St. Simons Gallery

I just want to say thank you to my good buddy Stiles for his hospitality in Charleston and his family in St. Simons for all the delicious gluten free food.

Thanks to Cain for the gas powered blender on the beach and the daiquiris, and his cousin Ashley for being the kindest, funniest redneck from Albany, GA I've ever met.

Thanks to Nelson for the Red, White, & You party which consisted of chili dogs, baked beans, potato salad, beer, and a few hundred dollars worth of explosives. All the summer essentials to celebrate America anyone could ask for.

Thanks to Fiji Ted for taking me out on his boat and letting us watch fireworks from his dock.

Thanks to my friend formerly known as Ronnie and his roommates for grilling everything under the sun and letting me eat it. I wish I had some pictures!

Thanks to Scooter and his family for letting me crash at their house on Folly Beach and feeding me even more food.

I can safely say, "I'm full."

Let freedom ring!!!

TED Blog: Sir Ken Robinson on TEDTalks

My friend Daniel emailed this video to me, and I thought it was very interesting. When you have about 20min of free time, please sit back and listen.



TED Blog: Sir Ken Robinson on TEDTalks

Sir Ken Robinson is author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, and a leading expert on innovation and human resources. In this talk, he makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. [Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 20:02]

MusicPlasma

Check out this site. It gives you a visual representation of various band in the same sphere of influence.

Liveplasma: music, movies, search engine and discovery engine

Kinda cool.

Eco-tribesmen sought for Fiji island - World Environment - MSNBC.com

Just got this from my friend Tyler.

Looks interesting...

Eco-tribesmen sought for Fiji island - World Environment - MSNBC.com

Hawaii

This post is long overdue, and I just got some pictures up online. Check 'em out here:
Hawaii Picture Gallery

Originally, I wanted to write about my departure from Nagoya; the quiet drive with Fumio to the airport on the Nagoya expressway past the twin towers of the station and the new Toyota building. My last view of Nag city came from an almost aerial viewpoint with surreal qualities.

I wanted to write about arriving in Honolulu and getting whisked through immigration because a family of twenty Samoans was in front of me; only to get outside with my giant green duffle bag holding six years worth of summer clothes and be told there's no storage facility at the airport now because of 9/11.

I wanted to write about my Uncle Teddy, a guy from Macon, GA that caught the Southern Rock swell of the early '70s and rode it all the way to Waikiki. In the middle of that tumultuous tidal wave, he married a young Hawaiian woman, had a baby boy, and experienced a religious awakening which bore him again. He spent the next twenty years with a Bible and no secular music. Just last year, he had another religious experience at a church in Harlem, NY, where he was ordained, and he's now on a mission from God to start his own church in Waikiki.



Let's just say, Teddy didn't show me the light... but he did show me a home video of him meeting James Brown in 1968 at the Macon airport. Does that count?

But I digress, I wanted to write about sleeping on Waikiki and overhearing someone point out the exact place where Cameron Diaz learned to surf, and I also wanted to write about Teddy's friend Dr. Wes, a fast talking, fast thinking, fast photo taking guy who married a young Japanese girl named Tomomi in the Ilikai Penthouse suite two weeks prior to my arrival. They still had the keys and wanted to show the place off while I was there.

I still feel like I'm digressing. I wanted to write about flying to Maui and renting a small economy car and paying $125 for a room at the North Shore Hostel; the car nor the room were needed because I met my buddy Dane, an ex-English teacher from Japan who works construction and was renovating his basement apartment. He set me up in a nice condo and didn't charge me any rent.

Dane's girlfriend Yumi arrived the same day as I did (06/06/06), and he proclaimed he was her low calorie sugar daddy. I wanted to write about hanging out with them on Big Beach, going surfing in Kihei and getting a bad rash on my belly and chaffing my nipples, going to a Hawaiian house party full of Dane's host family members and unknowingly meeting Richard Chamberlain.

I wanted to write about driving at 3am to the top of Haleakala, the highest mountain on Maui, to watch the sunrise and nearly freezing me feet off because I was wearing a pair of Dane's oversized work boots and my socks somehow managed to come off my feet inside the boots.




I wanted to write about hiking through I'ao Valley and getting lost, so we tromped through the woods to the river where we stumbled on a nude photo shoot, and Dane ended up jumping off a bridge into a shallow river with some local Hawaiian guys and making new friends.




All these things would have made a great storey, but as soon I landed in ATL, I hit the ground running, and it's hard to look back. Maybe someday, I'll get around to writing all those things up, but in the meantime please take a look at the pictures:
http://web.mac.com/heyheygig/iWeb/heyhey%27s%20Site/Hawaii.html

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Just got home and having some technical difficulites with my new MacBook; nothing serious just can't seem to import all my old pictures & albums into to my new photo library. It should be resolved soon, and I'll get a post up about Hawaii.

In the meantime, please check out this video my friend Ethan sent me.




How long? How long must he sing this song?

Letter of Acceptance to SIT

Dear Heyward,

On behalf of the Admissions Committee and faculty, I would like to congratulate you on your acceptance to the Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages course work that begins Fall of 2006. We are confident that you will both enhance SIT's learning community and benefit from the degree.

Within the next few days, you'll receive a paper packet containing documents related to your acceptance. If you would like to access an Acceptance Packet instantly online, you may visit:
http://www.sit.edu/graduate/accepted/ Please save this email to direct you to this Accepted-Students only website.

In the packet and online, you will find an enrollment card. The Admissions staff recommends that you submit the $400 non-refundable deposit as soon as possible. The deposit reserves your place in the class and will be deducted from your first semester tuition payment.

If you need support accessing on-line documents please feel free to request assistance by replying to this message.

Again, congratulations and, on behalf of the faculty, the Admissions Committee and SIT, welcome. We look forward to meeting and working with you.

Sincerely yours,

Donald Freeman, Ed.D.
Dean, Graduate and Professional Studies in
Language Teacher Education

Peace Out

To all my friends!!

I've been using that intro ever since I saw Mickey Rourke in 'Barfly' say it as he poured free drinks to everyone in a bar, but for me, this is the first time I've ever meant it as sincerely as Rourke said it.

There is nothing I can write, say, or do to express my gratitude and appreciation to each and everyone of you for making my life in Japan more than memorable.

All I can do is say
THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Heiwado has left Hewia-cho.

Peace Out.

Rafting in Gifu

This is a leap of faith, and I'm hoping for a soft landing.

Entering my last days in Japan, I feel like I'm being drawn and quartered. Trying to get my bags packed, ship boxes home, finish my grad school application process, get my financial aid application in, negotiate the hand over of my school, train Brian to take my place, and say goodbye to everyone!

I wish I had time to properly write about my last weekend trip, but it's not gonna happen at the moment. Anyway, please check out these pictures. They're worth a thousand words each.

Rafting in Gifu Gallery

Thanks to everyone for making the trip happen.

Enjoy.

Monk-E-Mail

Evidently, as I'm told by this monk-e-mail, I've been neglecting my friends back in the US, and I hope to remedy that in the near future.

Funny stuff.

Whitney Music Box

whitney music box var. 0 - chromatic - 48 tines

Music theory visualized.

Wow.

Lazy Ramadi

Watch the original:

NBC.com > Video > Web Favorites > Saturday Night Live: Chronicles of Narnia

Now watch the US soldiers in Iraq spoof it:

BitTorrent inks studio distribution deal

BitTorrent inks studio distribution deal | CNET News.com

BitTorrent, the creator of the file-sharing software that for some has become synonymous with piracy, has struck a landmark distribution deal with a Hollywood studio.

Warner Bros. Entertainment Group has agreed to use BitTorrent's peer-to-peer system to distribute movies and television shows, including "Dukes of Hazzard" and "Babylon 5," beginning this summer, the companies are expected to announce Tuesday.

Tiff's Slideshow

My good friend Tiffany recently returned to Japan from France. She made a surprise appearance at the Heiwa Matsuri last week by sneaking up behind me and giving me a big hug.

Amidst all the party people, she managed to snap quite a few funny pictures; including some of embarrassing shots of me trying to cut the rug.

Click here to check out some of Tiff's pics from the past few weeks back in the land of the rising sun: Tiff's Olympus Slideshow

Neil Young: Living With War

allmusic ((( Living with War > Overview )))

In a move that deliberately echoes the rush release of "Ohio" in the wake of the Kent State shootings, Neil Young bashed out his 2006 protest record Living with War in a matter of days, sometimes recording songs the day they were written, and then seized the opportunities of the digital age by streaming the entire album on his website only weeks after it was recorded, with the official digital and CD releases trailing several days later. It's the best use yet of the instant, widespread distribution that the Web has to offer, and it also hearkens back to the days when folk music was topical, turning the news into song.

04.282930.06 平和

The cold of winter is officially over and the warmth of spring is emitting energies and emotions straight through the stratosphere.

My old hometown friend Brian arrived in Japan last week to move into my Heiwa-cho house and assume my English teaching responsibilities. He’s settling in really well; he even started a blog called The Fire That's In Me to write about his first impressions, and I think he’s got a great attitude towards living in Japan. He’ll do well.

At the same time, my good friend Cem left to begin a job writing for the Japan Times. He will be in Casablanca, Morocco for the next three and half months interviewing businessmen before departing for his next worldly destination. He will be deeply missed.

To celebrate this emotional changing of the guard, so to speak, we pooled our efforts to host a three-day squat party in Heiwa-cho. We had live didgeridoo performances in the living room, multiple DJs spinning dance music, fire dancers, a pot of curry to feed 50 people, a BBQ outside, a full bar that included three kegs of Tokyo Ale, another fridge full of bottled beer, and Brian’s very own liquor carousel shot dispenser. Hell, we even printed T-shirts!

Check out some of my pictures from this Peace Town blowout, please click here:
04.282930.06 Heiwa Picture Gallery

To all my friends,

We is were are Rolling Stones. Somebody call Keiff!

School for International Training

Earlier this month I sent off an application to the School for International Training. I'm applying for their Master of Art in Teaching with an emphasis on teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL).

As part of the application process, I had to write a 1500 word essay on an international experience or cultural exchange that was important to me. It took me months before I decided on an approach, but I finally settled on giving a brief overview of my life in Japan.

If anyone would like to read my essay, please click here: SIT Essay.doc

It's not the greatest thing I've ever written, but it's the first time I've actually summed up on paper the impact Japan has had on me, and I'm very grateful to my good friends Cem & Alexis for proof reading it and giving me constructive criticisms and ideas.

Thank you.

花見

BOOZE!!!

Lessons learned:

1. Flight, fight, or Jesus
2. Aaahhhh... comfortable
3. Scooters are bad

Wired News: Betting On a Green Future

Wired News: Betting On a Green Future

Venture capitalist John Doerr made his name and fortune with early investments in Netscape Communications Corp., Amazon.com Inc., Google Inc. and other pioneering tech firms that went from scrappy startups to household names.

Now Doerr and his firm, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, are placing big bets on an emerging sector he calls "green technology," one he believes could become as lucrative as information technology and biotechnology.

Rolling Stones: Bigger Bang Tour

HOLY MUTHA F$@!K!ER!

The only way I can describe the Rolling Stones Bigger Bang concert in Nagoya Dome is with a string of expletives unfit to print here. To say I'm still buzzing or walking without touching the ground would be a mild understatement.

Before the show, I met my friend Toku, his girlfriend Nami, his colleague Motoshi, and a local promoter that goes by the name Go-Low. The night before, Toku and Go-Low went drinking with some of the Stones roadies and received an offer to come backstage. I got to tag along!

Check out the photo gallery here: Rolling Stones: Bigger Bang

We met Pierre, the Stones chief sound technician, who escorted us backstage and gave us a tour of the area. He took us past Mick's dressing room, all the guitars, and up on the stage. I actually walked around on the Rolling Stones' stage!

Eventually, Pierre passed us off to Mike, Charlie's drum tech. Mike told us to bust out our cameras and he started talking pictures for us. He gave Motoshi a set of drumsticks and everyone else got guitar picks.

Check out this video of Mike showing us the drums:



The show itself was fun, but the Japanese audience was a little too conservative. Believe it or not, they didn't even serve beer in the place. Totally mind-boggling.

It took a little while for the audience to really get into it, but the latter half of the show was really fun.

Here's a short video of Honky Tonk Women:



After the show, we all went to a restaurant to chill out, get something to eat, and finally drink a beer. While we were eating, Bernard, one of the back-up singers came and sat down near us.

The whole night was surreal, as it should have been.

>>> Site Syndication <<<

With the boom of blogs and podcasts, RSS feeds are becoming increasingly relevant to Internet users because it's an easy way for users to subscribe to websites and receive notifications when those sites are updated. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.

I'm still learning how to use RSS, and I have a long way to go, but in the meantime, I'm trying to offer this blog up for syndication.



In my opinion, the easiest way is to sign up for subscription by email. If you enter your email address below, you will receive an email anytime I post a new entry.

Enter your email to subscribe:

Powered by FeedBlitz

Alternatively, you can click on one of the icons below to add this blog's headlines to your Yahoo, Google, or AOL pages.









Lastly, if you're using the newest version of Safari or Firefox, you can click the RSS or syndication icon in the address bar and simply bookmark the feed address.

or



I hope ya'll find this useful and it saves the time of checking for updates and being disappointed if I'm too busy or lazy to make posts.

Peace.

Almost Spring

Spring is slowly setting in, but the cherry blossoms look like they’re gonna take another week.

For April Fool’s Day, I went to Inuyama with my friends Cem, Yuki, Ethan, and Alexis for a festival. We spent the afternoon walking around casually eating all the usual matsuri snacks: choco bananas, yaki-mochi, squid, various meat sticks, butter potatoes, etc.

Check out the photo gallery here: Inuyama Matsuri

Here’s a video of Ethan demonstrating how to give a kancho:



If you don’t know what a kancho is, I suggest you read Wikipedia’s explanation here: Kancho

The following day I had plans to go to a cherry blossom party in Okazaki, but the rainy weather forced the party inside. Regardless, we still had a good time, and a couple from Okinawa brought a shamisen and performed a few songs.

I put a few pictures on my Flickr account that you can scroll through here: Okazaki Pics

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Simpsons film confirmed for 2007

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Simpsons film confirmed for 2007

Twentieth Century Fox has confirmed that popular animated TV series The Simpsons is to be made into a film.

The movie will be released in the United States in July 2007.

A 25-second trailer for the film has been shown to US audiences at screenings of Ice Age: The Meltdown, promising to introduce "the greatest hero in American history".

It then cut to Homer Simpson, wearing only his underwear, who admitted: "I forgot what I was supposed to say."