beats

takeshis'

the first thing i notice: the apostrophe marking the plural possessive. this film is: takeshi the yakuza flick media icon meets kitano the doppelganger out-of-work actor ---> cuts between each man's imagining of the other's life ---> the membrane between the two - between reality and fiction - between the multiple personas of an individual - between the public and private worlds - between the past and present - one past and another - one man and another --- this membrane, pierced by bullets, blown apart, the selves contained, like multicolored viscous fluids, leaking through, rushing through, pouring through, meeting, swirling around eachother, distinct but indivisible --- gunshots, a shoe tapped hard on wood

the foreign soldier, rifle raised; on the beach at the end of the world, the charging samurai; the face-off in the warehouse; the blue go signal; the bank robbery; the centipede tapdancers; the ramenshop yakuza auditions; the autobiographical car accident; the beat kiyoshi manzai oyaji gyagu; the nagging woman, breaking the note for the gum

in parts i laughed out loud, in others i sat entranced, as though partaking of a strange dream. shooting the girl in the okinawan hut, like something from a mishima novel. the lights too bright, the cicadas too loud, their sound seeping into the rock. on the beach i saw takeshi blasting away his past, disentangling himself from those dream-people, those dream-selves; the infinite machine gun. to feel the heat of the white sand. to smell the gunpowder infusing the air.

"俺は金儲けでやてるんじゃないんだよ"
"I'm not doing this for the money."

the week

drumming. after another nagauta trip out to higashimatsuyama with mr iwasaki, he took me to meet the mochizuki family down the street who are traditional musicians in the kabuki theatre. we had tea and then watched them practice. overwhelmed with the solemnity and beauty of the study. the clean smell of okou incense. the intricacies of the shamisen/song/taiko/tsuzumi. sitting in seiza is good for the soul



lost my voice

caught a fish

gaah my eyes!

machines/fish/machines

time off. mum's in canada, dad's back at work. saw an exhibition celebrating the artistic links between berlin and tokyo - the avant-garde section including Der Sturm and Fluxus. saw in the same place an exhibition by U Ram Choe of exquisite, delicate, beautiful mechanical creatures, the Urbanus. the female of the species was particularly stunning; a supernova or a flower, unfolding fronds and petals and spinning metal fins, the centre swelling with light. she dwarfed her flock of male suitors, they angling toward her, fins flowing as they swam through the urban electrosphere. just...amazing.



i was reminded today of these creatures. today was kodomo-no-hi (children's day) and the koi-nobori (swimming carp) are flying around the country on houses with children. two big carp for mother and father, and smaller ones indicating each child. bringing luck and urging kids to swim upstream against all odds, to never give up, to keep hope and strength and passion. i've always loved this time of year.