Monthly Archives: December 2007

The Magic Man

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kazu

In one of my earliest posts I reviewed an illustrated novel that draws a connection between magic and early film history. While reading I immediately thought of my friend Kazunari because he’s a skilled magician and because of his maniacal passion for film.

In the last two years, Kazu has been one of my best buddies. He has a natural love of bringing people together to have fun. At any moment he’ll regale the table with his card tricks, and he’s always game for an evening of karaoke. We must have logged hundreds of hours in karaoke rooms. While my voice lends itself to jazz standards, he sounds like a white British soul singer. Continue reading →

Sunshine

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Sunshine

Fifty years in the future, a theoretical space anomaly has begun eating up the sun and a permanent winter has struck earth. The crew is on a virtual suicide mission to deliver a bomb the size of Manhattan to re-ignite the sun. Their ship is a giant parabola that acts as a shield against the powerful sun. As they near the sun, its powerful presence slowly affects the crew in interesting ways. The ships psychiatrist, for example, becomes obsessed with observing it from the observation deck at increasingly dangerous levels. Continue reading →

The Poet and the Pin-up

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In my post about free verse poetry I mentioned Carl Sandburg and my friend Mendy commented that he remembered seeing Sandburg reading one of his poems at John F Kennedy’s inauguration while JFK held up a hat to protect him from the sun. Intrigued by this image I did an internet search for photographs of this moment, but came up with nothing. There were photos of the poet and the president but most of them were of the two talking.

Instead, I found marvelous photos of Carl Sandburg and Marilyn Monroe, two people I never dreamed knew each other. From looking at these photos of them talking, drinking and dancing at a private party, it appears that they knew each other quite well.

the poet and the pin-up

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The Unobstructed View

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Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketFor the last three months my apartment building had been encased in an exoskeleton of a gauzy white screen covering scaffolding. Just weeks after we moved in, we were informed that the building would undergo renovations. The building really needed it. There was chipping paint covered in a fine layer of city grime. The concrete balcony floor was exposed. But it was a bummer to have our 8th floor view obstructed so soon after we moved in, especially during the balmy autumn season.

Continue reading →