yuck. so i haven't exactly...done any work around here in regards to school...culture drone is moving along quite well...in fact im giving a presentation tomorrow in regards to the executive summary. but in regards to real life things...yeah. went to nyc for the birthday, i wish i could promise you i'd write about it soon but yeah...not really sure if that would be truthful. let me just say that even though i lost my ipod, my digicam (that was half broken anyway), my keys (even to the apartment in tokyo), and most importantly, the best bag in the world. i am going to now have a tribute, because it must be known - this bag was once mine. oh, and if you see someone with that, don't hesitate to track them with your posse. so yeah, i finally set my desk up like a real desk (finally able to sit on it, is it waht we're saying), and i realize - god, i haven't talked to any of you in so long. so... hi there. i'm trying to get myself on track in this world - i've moved into a place smaller than my apartment in tokyo by a lot - the entire room is the size of just the bedroom of my apartment in tokyo, and is underground, technically. so yeah. needless to say, my life is strewn outside and down the hallway and around the corner, for obvious reasons. i have much to go through, and work is already underway, and im already behind in school - though ahead in the work world. gotta get back on track communicating with pu san and all at alambique - i have a good amount of work to do for them still. i will fulfill my promises to all of you. so yeah, this is supposed to be a sort of getting back on track hi hold me liable and kick my ass if you think i'm not doing something or...someone saying cheesy sexual references at this point would be so tacky don't go there. ah yes. so what is up mothaaatruckas, my apologies for those of you who are waiting for me to get back on track, i'm almost up to steam, i swear to yous.

love love

p.s. i know you've all seen this, but i'd like to declare that it is indeed the last photo i ever transfered off my camera before it was injured by the tokyo metro and later stolen on the new york metro after my eventful journey around the world. i dont know what else to say right now, but this is beautiful, and it was indeed the last, last, last, picture.



now on to getting back to the present.

riding the orange line to midway in chicago, Casimir Pulaski Day plays in my ears, and i can't help but quietly weep. its been a long time since i've cried. it feels good somehow to cry for reasons you can't remember. the people around me don't seem to mind. is it normal to feel as though the last two years of your life never happened? tokyo. santa barbara. my car. the loves. all of it feels like it couldn't be any more distant than now. you'd think that moving from place to place to place, seeing friends for unjustifiably brief moments, not really saying goodbye (or even 'hello,' for that matter). its like driving half-way across the country, california to boston, in a car you've had for three weeks, only to wind up stuck in des moines, iowa with a dead engine. so after several broken-down days, you bus it to chicago, staying with a friend you haven't seen in years, while you pathetically call everyone else you'd planned on seeing to tell them the news. roadtrip is over. katrina is pounding the south, but for some reason you've booked a flight from chicago to atlanta to boston. oh thats right, money was a factor. as usual. don't get busted for possession in iowa. make sure it happens in nebraska first, they're nicer about it over there. i love not using uppercase letters. makes me feel better about myself. it would be so wonderful if you could write your papers in lowercase. oh dear god, papers. i can't go back. the institution that i left last year for reasons of conscience and stimulation has sucked me in with an offer i can't refuse. a free ride? do you think i can't see your motives? fuckin crystal. i need those warm tokyo nights back. i need the drunken cartoon whizpopbang neon zing back. at pulaski, one more stop to midway. "i can't explain, the state that i'm in. the state of my heart, he was my best friend." sing it sufjan.

http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/event/2005/C166
my show's been written up in tokyo art beat

just a few things i need to get out...random bits of this and that...



first, i stormed a castle in my dreams last night
this isn't the first time this has happened
but its the first time i remembered exactly what it felt like to slice through flesh
gross, right?

i argued last night for a good hour about the similarities and differences between economics and art with two securities traders. basically, no one wants to deal with the bad news. the only way we can succeed is to use the current system's structure to slowly convince it to consume itself. not exactly the easiest thing to pull off. though the two of them drunkenly kept trying to establish differences between each other that didn't exist, to my surprise there was a lot we could agree on. whether thats because one of them used to date an artist, i couldn't really put my finger on it.

i haven't had a laptop battery for the last month or two. i realized this morning that its cut down greatly on the amount of writing i've been able to do, as i don't carry it around with me, and i fill my sketchbooks with mostly drawings these days.

björk and her ten person entourage came to my solo exhibition the night my visa ended and i was on a plane for thailand.

i'm thinking about putting the show online, but i really can't decide. its more of a time/labor/effort issue. i really have none of those at the moment.

contemplating another piercing

buy the sufjan stevens illinois album

sarongs are the shit

tae SHOULD be coming to tokyo soon

jessie sprague gets here in like two days

i'm trying to pack before that happens - its hard

oh yeah i went to thailand and stayed in tae's home again. it was wonderful, though extremely blitzed. the whole trip lasted 3 full days. but it was nice. and you know what i mean. (and no! not the women - i've never gotten involved in that part of the thai experience, getcho mind outa tha gutter)

i've been awarded a scholarship without applying for it. a full ride for the next year in regards to everything academic. the Free Thinker's Scholarship. very odd. the first one they've ever given at my school, and the school chose me as the first recipient. i don't know what to say, but 30k makes me really want to say very little. except that i feel like the institution is attempting to suck me back into the system in some attempt to ensure its own future. needless to say, this clears out all of my financial concerns for the next year. the car, the roadtrip, the living situation, all of it. i was also handed a single in bryant.

i can't leave tokyo - things have been going too well, and they only seem to be getting better. alambique had its first anniversary last night. the tshirts weren't printed as well as i'd hoped, but that was a money issue, so whatever - next time.

i hung out last night with the head of namaiki designs, the group that handled all of MTV Japan's identity and promotions for this year's VMA's. awesome discussions were had. topics ranged from duck-rice-partnership, sustainable architecture, google maps not letting you zoom into the ocean, the role of intelligent designERS, the fact that the thing he's most proud of in his life is a one foot cucumber he just grew, the fact that we all want to escape to the wilderness deep inside but most of us won't be ready when we have to, SARS as a sociopolitical experiment in terror, the possible death of two-thirds of the american population, and possible subversive uses of the establishment to effect change contrary to its own agendas. the general point being that he is interested in culture drone, agreed to look over what we're producing, possibly host it at superdeluxe, and offer us his two cents in regards to things we might be missing.

technically, i shouldn't have sat down and written all this, because i have a lot to get done before the day is through, and that means i must go and start it with my shower. i spent most of the day in bed with a hangover. anniversary celebrations tend to go on well into the morning.

oh, and so you'll all stop asking me...

I GET HOME SOMETIME BETWEEN

JULY 22 - 25

i miss you too.

i actually agree with tom cruise on a large issue? i need to go take a shower, i feel so gross.



i'm sorry i haven't been writing much lately, i had my last day of work and am honestly just now finally settling into a routine in the home-office lifestyle. i have lots to divulge though, including frustrations regarding artists and their egos, having your heart jump started (not literally, don't worry), and i'm happy to say that i'm going to thailand the day after my art show opens. then i get to come back just to start a second art show. oh (joy).

so today's the last day of work at the office. i have to admit, i'm fucking ecstatic. its been really quite great, and i'll try to write down a much more balanced look at the whole thing later, but for now... FUCK YES, FREE AT LAST. from now I'll be doing freelance work, my solo show, culture drone's exhibition+magazine (so much good stuff happening!), and working part time at Pu san's restaurant. ha! IRRASHAIMASE~~!

here are some things to think about...

Outrage as USA Blocks Probe of Uzbek Massacre

Poll: Canadians See Bush, bin Laden as Equal Threats

John P. Avlon talks about the future of Moderates with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show (wmv)

Bill Moyers is my hero, what? A surprisingly articulate conversation with Chris Matthews regarding the future of American democracy.

Just when you think you've heard every possible editorial comparison between the current administration and nazi/right-wing/fascist regimes, the government decides they might as well own up to it all and get their 'creative' guys on the job! A poster on the MARC commuter train (btwn Baltimore and DC) today. Pretty much sums up how "National Security" will bring us into the "New American Century." LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC!

p.s. sleater-kinney just produced what i'd consider to be their best work ever. even if you never thought of yourself as the type to appreciate them, i think this album could EASILY change your mind.

okay. so. you may have....well, heard....
now, let me just remind you all...

"Nothing is fucked here, Dude. Come on, you're being very un-Dude."
- Walter Sobchak

Jason Snell agrees with Walter, "The sky is not falling. But, I'll admit, it seems to be a slightly different shade than it was yesterday." Stop doing acid by the way Jason. But yes, its going to be okay....its going to be okay.....its going to be okay...keep breathing...its going to be okay.

So apppppaaaaarently my cousin is hittin it big over in Czech producing for hip hop phenom Cherry Hill. They're getting daily play on Prague's radio stations and music video channels, and have already made their way into Germany and a few other countries' charts. Check out their first video. My cousin is the piano player hater.

Speaking at one of his Orwellian, faux townhall meetings on Social Security in Greece, New York on May 24, Bush said, "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." I'm guessing this is the first time in the history of the Republic that a president has publicly acknowledged he was catapulting propaganda at the American public. - David Corn for The Huffington Post

"We've got a lot of work to do with the North Korean because he tends to ignore what the other five nations are saying at times. But that doesn't mean we're going to stop," Bush said. Anyone else see a little hypocrisy behind the smoke?

colin wrote that last post by the way

the sneaky bastard

colin's also leaving

so all of you shed a tear

do it now

yes

shut up colin

yes

yes