Nostalgia for a Present Tense – Japan Cottage Musings
Amidst construction on Tsuchida Cottage, Dave runs-down recent events, both contemporary (seitai treatment, café poetry, CBD shop, family life) and coincidentally historic (regarding, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Kerouac, Edward Abbey, Neal Cassady, SxSW, Beez, Cmdr Bob) with usual digressions about postcards, pacifism, creations, inspiration, book collecting, San Francisco, and removing the meta rather than enshrining dinosaurs – also namechecks for Joe Strummer, plus riffs about meditation class, Japanese houselife, wonderful in-laws, adorable wife and baby and current catching-up (trying anyhow) on correspondence, with special regards and affection for pals who are in transition and friends who are flying high.
Lots on my mind to riff about sometime about with various dangling topics & conversations unfinished and yet the days go by so quick, ergo:
* libraries (lost in Showa)
* meeting Ed Abbey (for Heads Lifestyle)
* my next postbox paintings/poems
* Ryoko’s new Fluevog shoes(!) /
below (note: Vancouver company but these came from the Amsterdam store in the magnificent box with extra treats. She will look so great in these, and hopefully can wear in her next concert sometime this autumn if things well, get safer.) + I kept an eye on the sale section and special sale days to find just the right pair at well, a good price and this was my third attempt
* Dennis Kearns & Quinn Hughes &
* Canucks family cook book circa 1981 (contents thereof)
* paintings by Noriko Miyake (She’s local to our area but spends a lot of time in France making her vag!na goddess art. We have 2.5 of her pieces. Purchased this “wild hot spring” as a surprise “momma’s gift” for Ryoko Olson) & Jean Smith (she’s rocking it so well right now)
* reducing humidity for book and record archiving in kura barn
* Fast Times (film & soundtrack etc)
* Itami’s “The Funeral” film
* scheme for house modifications/extension (safety & efficiency)
* so many letters out in the post, absolutely fantastic custom and complicated… And time-consuming(!) but so worth it
* Ichi-Stan’s CDN paperwork / checkmark #io
* The Queen never getting to know the pleasure of making a perfect grilled cheese sandwich
* further annotations re: hemp in Japan (state of & unpublished artifacts)
* recap #daveo50 / 190+ posts project
* wild boar sausages & inflatable pool (+ impending typhoon)
* how i ended up in Japan this time around
* how are you?
* condolences for losses (i see you)
* yes *the illness* persists #chronic #complex yet research drastically increasing (note: One strange /good thing is with *the virus*, there’s suddenly a lot more attention and awareness and research going into CFS/ME vis a vis so-called “long haulers” / Would be so wonderful to see so many people get so much of their lives back #MillionsMissing)
* “Hollywood” Scurlock (for Dark Poutine Mike Browne) #weird
* etc
* full email box #trying
* autumn is best season in Japan
* questions??
> in the meantime…
Note: The reality is, I wrote this as a little bit of “stuff I’m thinking about but I can’t do anything about right now“ list when I was in a crash mode from my silly consortium of syndromes.
(When I “crash“ I can only be in bed with the lights off, audio playing but not video, no outside light or noise,… but my head is swimming with ideas of stuff I really really want to do but can’t. In this case, three days of almost complete an activity aside from bathtime with baby.)
Dictating out a “laundry list” of thoughts, helps the brain calm down and well, means I’ll maybe address the topics eventually… maybe.
Note: I *know* I had (or have) this magazine “somewhere” but I’m not sure if this is my image, – if it’s yours, cool, might be – maybe I’ll find the magazine, if so will share the rest of the article, maybe I won’t… Who’s to say? Regardless, this is the best and i share this image all the time when folks ramble on about “not having free time” and “that one show on TV” in the same convo. #hint #shootyourtv
I have a few other Ed Abbey artifacts in my stash including a program from his “Arch-Druid” lecture in Salt Lake City, possible ticket stub from same, and obituary clipped from the newspaper and so on, in the meantime, this cover is such goodness of such a hero (plus handy as i share this all the time when folks complain about “nothing on TV”.
Books are my pals, even since a kid – and sometimes books (by circumstance or convenience) are stashed at mysterious locales around the world.
Sometimes, i snap pics of the cache for future reference, sometimes they go to little /free libraries, sometimes into my “Liberated Literature” program.
Regardless, sometimes, the bookcases and/or contents are captured for memory of spending time with friends in a still-life of sorts. As such, this dossier of evidence.
In this round-up is an assortment of books gathered here and there / sometimes used, sometimes new and sometimes re-collecting from someone’s house where the tome has fermented awaiting my pickup.
Some have recently re-arrived (i assume) to me in present day (April 2020) and are waiting to be unloaded from a box and placed lovingly on a shelf.
This little book appeared in prep for (now cancelled) Jack Kerouac preso and is driving directions for the roadtrip chronicled in OtR using Ggle Maps driving directions – a fun remix idea!
Letters from the “Dr” which are more prescient now than ever.
Picked up a Beat Museum looking forward to actually digging in.
50th anniversary documentary from the noted (and recently sold) Vancouver arts and culture weekly.
This one sent to Sooby in NJ (acquired in Sri Lanka).
Such a solid in-depth primer for Middle East history (though wasn’t meant to be that per se)
Books are my pals, even since a kid – and sometimes books (by circumstance or convenience) are stashed at mysterious locales around the world.
Sometimes, i snap pics of the cache for future reference, sometimes they go to little /free libraries, sometimes into my “Liberated Literature” program.
Regardless, sometimes, the bookcases and/or contents are captured for memory of spending time with friends in a still-life of sorts. As such, this dossier of evidence.
In this case, the growing bookcase at Tsuchida Cottage in Okayama, Japan with a stash of new treats obtained by mail order, special delivery by folks coming to wedding or by kind gift, ergo:
Robbie Robertson’s auto-bio, Testimony (thanks Naoki), Aaron Chapman x 2, Eve Lazarus BC crimes, Grant Lawrence’s hilarious tour diary, David Wills’ riffs about Ginsberg’s travels, Lookout records’ honcho’s rise and meltdown, Neruda’s romantic poetry, the usual Kerouac, a few Lafcadio Hearn, Ed Abbey’s postcards, Jerry Kruz’s Afterthought poster collection, Brian Hassett’s JK riffs, a few more punk rock (Please Kill Me and Our Band Could be your Life, Kim Gordon’s memoirs), various Japanese classics (Tanizaki esp) and more more – oh and Shiv’s renegade Woodstock>Nepal-made poetry.
Displayed here with a stash of a scrapbooks and diaries, a few of my publications, and with our household shrine on the top.
At Fresh Media conference at W2 Arts + Media Centre, participants riff a spontaneous blurb about a hero from a Dossier of Importantcy in a workshop about storytelling + podcasting by Dave Olson (AKA Uncle Weed).
Dave O reads a Utah writer variety pack from Pe Ell, Washington featuring Françios Camoin, Levi Peterson, and EdAbbey (more Ed – interview and article in Canyon Country Zephyr) plus an original essay about Glen Canyon Dam.
In Volume 8, while in Pe Ell, WA, DaveO reads from Lewis and Clarks’ journals as they lose horses on Sept. 3rd, then Ed Abbey foretells the future in his modern classic, “Desert Solitaire”, then the Uncle Weed story continues with jovial demonstrations of eco-sabotage and desert enjoyment while camping with kids .
In Volume five, DaveO hangs out in the dark at Olympia’s Seven Oars park and reads Part 2 of Uncle Weed’s Red Rock Adventure, chats about Edward Abbey, and reads from Ed’s “Desert Solitaire” (scored fresh from Olympia’s Last Word Books).