Monthly Archives: April 2009

Supernovas and Other Birthdays

Posted on
4

Willie+Nelsonkristen dunst

Birth
It’s my birthday today. So I was curious to see who else shared my birthday. I conducted an internet search and found a lot of saints and a whole lot of other people I’d never heard of. I guess because my search was in English, the search results were mostly American or European. So if you know of any others from around the world, let me know.

From the results, there were only three people that I recognized and who I also like. Nevertheless, the best I could come up with were a grizzled country singer, a pretty good non-fiction writer, and an actress who’s already a has-been at 27.

1933 –Willie Nelson
1945 –Annie Dillard
1982 –Kirsten Dunst

April 30 is also a big day in Northern Europe. Both Sweden and the Netherlands celebrate the birthdays of their monarchs. And it’s the official first day of Spring for all of Scandinavia.

MuddyWatersgeorge balanchine

Death
More interesting than the birthdays are the deaths. Apart from the happy death of a genocidal maniac, I came across some truly fabulous artists: a French impressionist painter, a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer, and a great blues musician.

1883 –Édouard Manet
1945 –Adolf Hitler
1983 –George Balanchine
1983 –Muddy Waters

sn1006

Supernovas
There is actually one other birthday that I found. April 30, 1006 was the day Supernova SN 1006 was born. According to Wikipedia, SN 1006 was the brightest stellar event in recorded history. Even though it was 7,200 light years away from Earth, it was as bright as a quarter of the full moon. And people could read at night by the light of the explosion. Here’s a picture of the 1,000 year old remains.

I thought that was cool. But maybe it’s more of an event than a birthday. So I decided to check out what other important world events have occurred. Here are four that I picked out.

1492 –Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.
1789 –George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected US President.
1975 –The Vietnam War ends with the fall of Saigon.
1993 –The World Wide Web is born at CERN.

The first three seemed to create a nice narrative arc, spanning the beginning of the European colonization of the Americas to US independence. And then to another country becoming independent from US influence.

And finally, the birth of the World Wide Web is perhaps another world altogether, becoming independent from us. And based on this schematic of the Web, maybe it was the birth of another supernova.

Internet_map_1024

Yoyogi National Stadium

Posted on
Reply

Yoyogi National Stadium

The Yoyogi National Stadium is another of Kenzo Tange’s brilliant works.  When I first saw the building, it reminded me of the curving roofline of traditional Japanese architecture. In particular, it resembles the sloping straw roofs of farmhouses one finds in northern Japan.  

Built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the roof is made possible through a suspension system. Nowadays, it’s used as an ice rink and a basketball arena.  As far as major sports venues go, it’s quite small, seating only 10,500, so the FIBA World Championships were held outside of Tokyo. But it did host an international skating competition just over a week ago. And I notice lots of high school events taking place there.

Yoyogi National Stadium

Even though it’s right across the street from well-used Yoyogi Park, and near bustling Harajuku, very few people walk through the grounds to admire the building. Which is a shame, because it’s one of Tokyo’s lovelier structures.

Although the top picture on this post make it seem like it has a very sharp verticality, you can see from the second picture that it’s actually a very long gently sloping building. But I liked this angle with the sun behind it because it reminded me of another of Tange’s masterpieces, St Mary’s Cathedral, which is nothing but verticality, but with a similar sloped roof. You can read about it on this post, strangely enough, one of my most popular.

The Kaleidoscopic Eye

Posted on
4

Y

Collecting Kaleidoscopes

T gets into these collection manias. Like when she wanted to collect all the Starbucks city mugs. She actually never got around to buying any because at the time, we didn’t have a home, much less a cupboard spacious enough to accommodate a global mug set.

These days, she’s really been into kaleidoscopes. She thought it’d be cool to collect different ones from around the world. Again, she hasn’t actually gotten around to collecting them yet, mostly because the really good ones are really expensive. But that’s T, enthusiastic about life, but not so much that she wants to be burdened by acquiring and storing it.

So it’s not surprising that T wanted to check out an art exhibit titled, The Kaleidoscopic Eye, at the Mori Art Museum. Although we both knew that there wouldn’t be any actual kaleidoscopes, we dig that modern art so we went.

Grapes and Alcohol

It’s a private collection with a theme of “perception and consciousness”, which is kind of a lazy way of saying, “yeah, there really is no theme.” I mean most art purports to address the issues of perception and consciousness.  It’s like having a wine tasting party and having the theme as “grapes and alcohol”.

There were some modern art celebrities represented, like a Tracy Emin neon work. We also enjoyed the mesmerizing film of Tibetan monks debating what existence is. A room full of disco balls that could have been a scene from MTV Cribs certainly tweaked my sense of perception. And a water fountain that had trace amounts of LSD, with venus flytraps hanging above it, certainly could have tweaked my consciousness.

Doorways into Perception

My favorite pieces were archways. One was a hypnotic passageway of lightbubs that flickered in various patterns, pictured above.   This piece by Carsten Holler (spelled with an umlaut over the ‘o’) was magnified by mirrors surrounding it.  And the silk gate by Suh Do-Ho, was especially lovely. The gate was a hand-stitched model of the gate of her childhood home.  It emanated a soft celadon light.

3919_artwork_detail

The exhibit will run through July 5. The great thing about the Mori Art Museum is that it’s open late most nights, and the ticket price includes access to the Skywalk, which is the best view in Tokyo.

Chamate

Posted on
2

Chamate

When I write these restaurant and café reviews I purposely omit the places I go to regularly. But because I rarely go to Shibuya anymore I can disclose what used to be one of my regular haunts.

Chamate is a little oasis in crowded Shibuya, tucked away under the 3rd floor eaves of Loft (one of the coolest furniture and house wares emporiums in town). Though it’s a Chinese teahouse, the décor is that Scandinavian pastel look that’s popular with the leisure matron crowd. The clientele however are pensive, conservatively dressed young women. In the few times that I’ve seen men, they’ve invariably been in a suit and tie. I guess there’s something formal about the place, or about tea in general. Here’s a link to their site, demonstrating how to serve tea, Chinese style.

Even though it’s in a popular store off a densely traversed street, the only time it’s ever busy is during lunch on the weekends. And you can still get a table. Or you can sit at the counter overlooking the street.

While I hadn’t been there in over a year, T has been using it as a relaxing meeting place with her friends. So it was nice to see new dishes. The lunch set’s a bit pricier than the norm, but the food quality is quite high. T had a lush dim sum set that came with tea. I ordered something more architectural. The centerpiece was a soft-boiled egg set in a nest of crispy noodles, a fitting image for a long-awaited spring.

nest eggdim sum set

I imagine the best way to appreciate this café is to watch Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, then put on your cheongsam if you’re a woman, or your rat pack suit if you’re a man. Then meet your secret tryst and sip tea with restrained desire.  

Or, for the less dramatic,  you can peruse the beautiful lifestyle toys in Loft, then settle down with your favorite Tang Dynasty poet (Hanshan is a good one) and a pot of chrysanthemum tea.

inthemoodforlove

Earth Day Tokyo

Posted on
2

earth day tokyo 2009

Celebrating the Earth is a good thing. I remember attending my first Earth Day festivities in 1990 in Santa Cruz, California. The entire city was partying. There were events all over the city in every conceivable venue. Some memories I have of that weekend include participating in a community “rain dance” by the beach (we were in the midst of a bad drought), joining in on sing-a-longs at an elementary school, jumping from one drum circle to another, listening to street musicians, attending civil disobedience training. It was awesome.

Last weekend I went to the Earth Day celebration at Yoyogi Park. Most of the booths and events were held on the long tree-lined pedestrian boulevard that faces the NHK buildings. And the scene there could just have easily been pulled out of that weekend in 1990, or any West Coast hippie event.

Of course, it was a lot more crowded, but the natural fiber clothes, tie-dyes, dreadlocks, and other accoutrements of the West Coast hippie made me feel at home. 

earth day tokyo 2009earth day tokyo 2009

This being Tokyo, there was a high tech element to the proceedings. Like this pair of folk singers playing electric ukuleles. Or corporate sponsored alternative transportation like this cool covered bicycle taxi.

earth day tokyo 2009earth day tokyo 2009

And especially this biofuel processor thingy.  Or maybe it’s an environmentally friendly nuclear device that also makes great espressos.

earth day tokyo 2009

I also liked the green construction demonstrations with recovered wood, or with mud and straw construction.

earth day tokyo 2009earth day tokyo 2009

All the plastic forks and paper plates discarded at any sort of festival has always been problematic, especially for a festival espousing minimal impact on the environment. So the most interesting aspect of this festival was the attempt at using reusable dishes and utensils for the food booths. I would have organized it differently but the idea was praiseworthy.

First you have to wait in line to pay a 100 yen deposit to pick up a sturdy plastic plate or bowl and the metal utensils of your choice. Then you get in line again at the food booth of your choice.

earth day tokyo 2009

After you’re done, you get in line again to wipe your plate with cloth scraps. and finally, you return everything and get the deposit back. Meanwhile, in these plate tents, there are squads of dishwashers.

earth day tokyo 2009

My first reaction to this system was, “That’s a lot of waiting in lines for an over-priced bowl of vegetarian curry. Let’s go to a nearby cafe instead.” I mean, couldn’t we have just picked up a bowl at the food booths instead? That would have at least saved some time.

But eventually, I understood this to be part of the experience, making each diner go through the inconveniences of being responsible for preventing waste.  And it was a good reminder of how we take so many of our conveniences for granted.  Next time I go to a festival, I’ll just bring my own bowl.  Or just eat my hempseed granola and soymilk at home before heading out.