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Japan Cottage Musings

Connecting Generations with Letters, Books & Ferments – Japan Cottage Musings

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Pausing in the Kura barn from arranging dongles, cables, tripods – trying to upgrade tech aspect of telling stories – Dave starts with Kiana Brassest singing in the background while adding notes about decades of story making & thoughts about continuing with vigor.

Then into a recent Osera magazine cameo from a fermented foods tour (including saké, beer, cheese, wine, miso, shoyu…) in Maniwa, Okayama (which is also sorta son Ichiro’s first publication). 

oh! a curious cameo of us in Onsera magazine learning about saké making from a handsome gent in Maniwa, Okayama

Next onto recent books by post including:

“Waiting for Now” world-traveling “Scarborough dude” Ken Bole *often very* candid letters from Japan, Nigeria, Thailand, Canada etc to friends and family (with numerous coincidences and intersections with my own life).

connecting generations and traditions with letters, books, postcards and rambles

“Waiting for Now” available via Blurb (part 2 available for preorder) & Check Scarborough Dudes DicknJanes pod diary etc.

“High White Notes” – David S Wills’ brand-new literary biography of Gonzo writer/journalist renegade Hunter S Thompson – available from his Beatdom publishing imprint + riffs include namechecks for Dr. HST’s book of letters “Proud Highway” and references to Joseph Conrad (re: Importance of dedication to art),  Henry Miller (re: Big Sur etc), and Jack Kerouac (re: enemy of my enemy is my friend – if he could get write about drugs and get published…)

“First Third” – beat, prankster, railroader, hero “Adonis of Denver” 50th anniversary of Neal Cassady’s partial autobiography, inscribed by his daughter Jami Cassady on behalf of Neal Cassady Estate –including postcards with noted photos of, and by, the elegant poet, photographer, lover and muse Carolyn Cassady – with the aim of “Keeping the legacy alive” ++ a bit about Ken Kesey & the Merry Pranksters Further bus.

Oh yeah a reference to Brian Hassett’s cool “Hitchhiking to Kerouac” book in there too with stories about Carolyn Cassady…

Be like your heroes of something… photo by Wang Ping (screenshot from a FB post obv)

Finally, a whole rundown of poets Gary Snyder and Wang Ping spending time together at Kitkitddizze in Sierra Nevada –working on translation, amplification and edification including coffee, Han Shan poems, Hanko stamps, sons Gen and Kei, Lagunitas IPA and gyoza dumplings and cowboy steaks, the history of Axe Handles poem (and translation thereof), Snyder’s new book “This Present Moment” and me at “home” (finally) in a red velvet robe with coffee cup by potter Marty Thurston Kendall of Utah knowing while our journey is our own, there is precedent for path before (like I can be 91 hanging out with my son Ichiro, living well and making poems in a barn).

Gary Snyder and sons Gen and Kei kicking back at Kitkitddizze homestead with Lagunitas IPA and dumplings by poet Wang Ping (who took the photo)

See more at @Ping Wang’s Youtube – especially this video about Axe Handles: and website: http://www.wangping.com/ and see also translated “Flander’s Field” (Canadian) John McCrae to Chinese.

More Kiana Brasset at (I guess, sorta need better link or…? anyhow) met her on the Tracks on Tracks trip.

Moo cards / various sizes and styles, each can be unique = get some https://refer.moo.com/s/gravellybeach

Also, a postcard from a friend wandering in London, a new batch of Moo “friendship” cards [get yer own]

Always more more more projects coming along…

Fondly, dvo/uw

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Japan Cottage Musings, Personal Musings

Poets, Passports, Postcards in the Cascadia Consulate

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Burning sage, sharing global postal arrivals, variety of historic & alt passports, dropping needle on Ginsberg’s Howl, digressions on reconciliation, exhaustion & <3 for pals & family. 

Poets, Passports, Postcards in the Cascadia Consulate

Feeling weary, burning sage and obviously *not at his best* Dave meanders through topics including (not necessarily in this order):

Passports galore! From CCCP, Yugoslavia, USA, Albania, Romania and *alt* passports from The Matinee Band https://thematineemusic.com and Cascadia Bioregion https://cascasdiabioregion.org / with my *important photo choosing process* {and yes this dear old grain storehouse is the Setouchi Consulate of Cascadia}. Come get your passport stamped (just not right now). 

Membership for the Beat Museum (join/participate/visit http://kerouac.com) Leading to riffs about Jack Kerouac Alley, City Lights bookstore (http://citylights.com) and my photo tour of the North Beach, San Francisco environs.

First spins of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl on red vinyl (thanks ScurvyDawg) along with ephemera and riffs about the “6 Poets at 6 Gallery” (legendary reading) and how you can do something like that, i.e.: 1) make a poster and postcard, 2) invite folks, 3) pass a hat for wine. 

And *Loads* of postcards and packets from:

* Sri Lanka (see Rasika’s YouTube channel @CeylonRelation)

* Powell River, BC; Olympia (Greece, not Washington); Kentucky

* Estonia with items from Aqaba, Jordan (maybe you’ve heard from Lawrence of Arabia)

Musing about phone calls with Uncle Mark, buddies Scales in Montreal and Kemp in Vancouver, and pal Cam’s 50th birthday (I made a video with ukulele)

And even:

* Being good papa and hubby (so lucky! hot dinner and bath)

* Visitor Ted (mountain guide) and a new book case so filled with wonder! 

* Gord Downie’s Secret Path and final days

* First Nations reconciliation & shame of residential school (poem)

* DownieWenjack foundation (donate)

* Indian Residential School Survivor’s Society (donate)

* Brother on Diego Garcia and flashback to Ghandruk, Annapurna district, Nepal

* Miracle of Death” and being weak and making art through the transition

* Larry’s Dark Star Ranch and not knowing whether a particular beast is an Elk or a Deer (indeed! we collectively know so little)

Other rambling meanderings about feeling a bit exhausted from this year of house renovation, firewood (first fire and making firestarters) and getting adorable son Ichiro into school, plus so many medical appointments and endless paperwork to get properly settled. Whew.

How to find my address: tip = anywhere/everywhere.

Yes I do send a lot of postcards. You can join the club if that’s of interest ($5 gets you a piece of handmade art each month) https://daveostory.com/shop 

Plus thanks for Banghi and Maddog for holding books and records (support book stores and humans)

So much, so little, such nothing and everything and anything. Settle in. 

Fondy, daveo, Tsuchida Cottage

PS tips of how to improve lighting and sound welcome (memo: there is no natural light in the barn, i want to make well-lit 2 camera videos with quality sound with as minimal processing (moving stuff and files around) as possible. hit me up with ideas

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Japan Cottage Musings

Typhoon Weather and Usual Days

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Possibly – no Probably – the best worst video you’ll *maybe* watch today. Likely only with lounge-y, vaguely annotated Ramones on baritone ukulele anyhow + Gord Lightfoot if you get that far.

Typhoon Weather and Usual Days

After catching up on the laundry, making tomato soup, washing dishes and tidying up the carport, Dave checks in with a bit of ukulele and gratitude for friends who pick up phones &/or send messages, books and quilts when bit blue from “the illness” which is *a challenge* – and through it all, mixing in a little bit of Ramones and Gordon Lightfoot and the usual stuff about Post offices and making fermented items while trying to be a good papa to a wonderful nursery schooler and hubbo to a delightful arborist and diligent landscaper. 

Ryoko’s stone approach project #evidence
serious about tomato soup and various other items

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Japan Cottage Musings

Essential Annotations About Cycles & Adapting

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Dave enjoys a moment of leisure after busy days of construction and sortganizing to scribble art postcards, arrange records by neighbourhood, think about the of cycles miracle of death, flashback to the hemp “essentials bag” project, and gingerly mention the difference between “adapters and whiners” in the kura barn atelier with (apparently) new festive lights.

Special regards to friend en route to Sundance ceremony and mothers dropping their babies off to college.

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Japan Cottage Musings

Castle, foundations and pajamas (from Saskatoon to Tsuchida)

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Castles, Foundations and Pyjamas (from Saskatoon to Tsuchida)

Along with {amusing} ukulele meanderings, daveo recaps recent year including hot springs trip, nursery school colds, new pajamas, house building, legitimate emigration, stopping time, hospital visits, finding home, and various birthdays and gravesites, brain strain on new chords and kana, meditation & patience while waiting for sashimi and vanilla ice cream to arrive. 

Plus musings about company advising (really), Kerouac exhibit (story pack forthcoming), gratefulness for “go bags“ and other treats in the mail, conundrums about “not doing enough“ and struggles with computer eyes, usual stuff about postcards & paintings but especially about being grateful for family and friends and you and life and perpetual motion while sitting still sheltered.

Gratefully and Fondly, daveo51

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Japan Cottage Musings

Pink Phone Generational Flashbacks (& Forwards)

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From the front porch of the kura studio with cicadas chirping on a sunny day in Okayama come riffs and reflections about tatami mats revealing generational touchpoints, thoughts of friends passed on, reminiscences about american road trips with bands in renegade youth, sickness and healing, tree doctor tests, mystery old-timey radio shows, submarine films and evasion tactics from the signal corps.

Overall: home is where the projects are, planes can take you places you forgot (or try to) and phones can call anyone anywhere and the ¥10 is optional. Importantly, do you remember the number?

Brought to you (unofficially) by Sri Lankan cricket team, giant hat for ¥642 and Jevitty who are helping me live well past 100 (note apple watch).

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Japan Cottage Musings

Music theory, thunder & friendships #diary

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From a rainy porch, riffing gratefulness for friends with kind words and packages, minimal commentary about ridiculous Olympics and various public health situations, hello to my favourite arborist and rain songs ++ tree doctor tests, Kerouac exhibits, future global expeditions with in-laws and importantly, the elusive D chord.

New Album “Freedom Venture Spirits” by “Captain Stag” coming soon ~ pre-order all usual outlets

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Japan Cottage Musings

Effectuating positive change from heart (with ukulele)

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Just back from cleaning the grandparents’ graves and regrouping in century+ old barn studio, i riff a few things in my head about communities, hubris, restitution, sincerity, safety, life and death, empathy, seeds, cycles and children and everything.

As well as attempt a few chords on ukulele and talk about an air conditioner.

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Japan Cottage Musings

Gratitude Omnibus (with ukulele and K trucks)

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A round-up for musings from the kura grain barn studio with several topics: new records, summer starts, fathers (various), mentors, Kerouac in Kobe event, construction (on-going), summer projects, healing ramble series, and of course Ichiro.

Note: Painting in background by my wonderful niece Hannah Olson

++ Name checks for Ken Bole, Larry Harper, Ed Saukkooja, Matt Theado, Bill Janovitz, RJ Garn, Dan Mangan, Fujita Takushi, Lorne Olson, Joe Strummer, Luca Fogale, Colin McTaggart… Plus a mention of the Seeking sustainability in Japan talk show w/ Walsh JJ and a couple of other radio/pod hits I did about the Olympics with outlets in Vancouver on CKNW & The Breaker News.

It’s a little bit messy right now to say the least but… Big moves in the kura barn studio >> now fortified with proper electrical outlets and a breaker box!

As such, re-ran some cords and connected a cassette /cd / usb player to my early 1980s vintage Yamaha amp and 100 pound record player.

Tested out with vinyl by The Weakerthans and CD by Hey Rosetta and USB by RJ Garn’s Retrospective. Cassettes are all bundled in boxes behind the chaos so waiting until the heat pump/cooler is installed to do a big rearrange including a new shelf for all this gear.

Will be all nice and tidy and ready for relaxing times when you come to visit #hint

Oh yeah, got some new records (shock!) I’ll share with you another time.

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Japan Cottage Musings

Japan Generational farm house and cottage story

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+ Introducing our compound in Tsuchida, Okayama +

I joined a Kominka (trad Japanese country home) renovation, acquisition & enjoyment group and made a video introduction – sharing here in case you are curious.

‘Tis a little intimidating cause a load of people are doing incredible detailed projects in remote locations with all sorts of hand-tools and techniques but hey, i am adding to the generation story of our land – its all about the cycles.

Riff includes parents’ renovated farm house and our “cottage” under construction.

In brief: Both of these homes were empty from the 1990s until about 7 years ago when my (arborist/jazz singer) wife re-opened the cottage, the parents followed and the dilapidated old farm house was reno’d keeping all the beams, much character and details.
Now the cottage (which sits where other buildings did in the past) is getting a big new room plus a load of other upgrades to add to the story. A mix of trad joinery and materials and a few touches from the parent’s reno (genkon doors etc) and also insulation, woodstove, tea ceremony area, and big doors out to the carport as i hope our place becomes the local hangout for our son Ichiro’s pals in years to come.

Also a peek at wife’s Naya toolshed and glance at garden. Oh yeah, i also ramble on about my “origin story” of coming to Japan in early 1990s and working as a mushroom farmer in Tottori before running away and hitchhiking from Shikoku to Nagano where i first experience renegade inaka living.

Very pleased to add to my local community and respect the work of the ancestors.

the “Sistine Chapel” of kura granary barns

PS If curious i have time-lapse video of the roof raising and other artifacts from the kura which is now my arts and crafts studio and music lounge.

panorama of the backyard with garden, kura barn and bamboo grove

 

 

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Japan Cottage Musings

Nostalgia for a Present Tense – Japan Cottage Musings

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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.

Fondly, dvo

daveostory – Nostalgia for a Present Tense

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Japan Cottage Musings

Kura Cultural Curation – Japan Cottage Musings

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Kura Cultural Curation – Japan Cottage Musings

Riffs about home reform with new rooms, woodstove and tea ceremony area (thoughts of Ichiro and pals coming home from school) heat pump for humidity control for responsibly curating and collecting books for a legacy library.

And a rundown of recent new/used records including acknowledgement of Shred Kelly, Nice Horse, and (Buffalo Tom’s) Bill Janovitiz’s community building in times of tumult + musical memories in tangible form with David Bowie Let’s Dance picture disc, Hüsker Dü covers, Dead Kennedys, Sonic Youth’s Dirty (Europe 92), War on Drugs (comfort foods), literary keeners The  Weakerthans from Winnipeg, and importantly pal Pat WOOD on Awesome Death’s “To Be Determined.”

Thanks to postcard club participants and folks mailing stuff my way and Casa Rosa for safe haven for library staging.

Fondly, dvo at Giggling Piglet Atelier and Consulate

PS Investigate Forthwith:

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