Quickly before running a bath, Dave – regaining equilibrium – discusses creation of a slightly-delayed but very-pleasurable project, ergo: “Time Travelers“ handmade cards including outfits, printing techniques and paper choices, fire hazards, inky & postal stamps, and fingerprints.
Plus riffs about carrying on in strange times, wonderful events, fountain pens and puppets. And expressing gratitude to friends who sent cards and letters, often reciprocated by Hokusai woodblock prints and/or “cheap and cheerful” time traveler cards.
Drinking a Turmeric / Reishi mushroom concoction in a stolen mug with a velour tracksuit, Dave rambles aboutmisplaced “tribute to Mom” memorandum log and love of receiving cards and letters which are stashed lovingly in handmade scrapbooks and shared with family.
Plus quick hits about festive cards (and evidential delays), poems, time traveller photos, letterhead, stationery and Ryoko’s Kinome office.
+ Name checks for new Papas, Steve Rapport (Mostly Rock n Roll), David Bowie 83, and Hotel Monterey and lost/odd Christmases + brother Anders.
With Ichiro strapped on whilst outdoors, Dave and some dodgy camera work walk around the yard and gardens of our home in Okayama, Japan. Stops include: picnic area(s), Ryoko’s tool shed, location of upcoming house addition, various wood piles, bamboo grove, Mother’s vegetable garden, the kura grain barn turned art studio and (of course) a persimmon tree.
Appearances by father Takeshi, Ryoko of course, and the neighbour lady stops by to see the cutest baby.
Tsuchida Yard and Garden: Kei-truck with shelf project
Rocking a plaid track suit, Dave catches up about an exhibit of postbox haiku and paintings at pal Mac Kobayashi’s goat farm and in Shibuya by dDesign and shares the story of the post box haiku and painting plus details of: Kathmandu, Nepal; Muscat Oman; The Vatican, and Olympia, Greece (including accompanying postcards of course) and riffs about importance of personal archeology and making things for future generations while drinking including coffee and jamu and digression about persimmon chutney.
Special ahoys to Gary, Beth, Arild, Jared, Erin, Sandra, Lance and especially you.
Postbox haiku exhibit corner at Rural Caprine Farm (more to come)
Yup, that’s it, just a fun time lapse of re-papering some doors on a table using an iron, cutter knife and tape at Tsuchida Cottage, Okayama, Japan.
Added “Margaret Yang’s theme” music by Mark Mothersbaugh from Rushmore just for a little something. No instructions or usefulness, just fixing some doors. Carry on.
A riff about (son born June 23rd 2020) Ichiro Stanley Thorvald Olson’s name including the kanji meaning and katakana writing plus inspirations behind each of the monikers and anecdotes about grandparents, teachers, parks, brothers and ice hockey by proud parents Dave and Ryoko in front of the family altar in Tsuchida, Okayama, Japan, August 2020 (Reiwa 2).
It’s so cute! Ryoko cutting cloth, threading needles, and sewing diapers for baby Ichiro (in belly at the time), upstairs at Tsuchida Cottage here in Okayama, Japan.
Added “Girl” music by (appropriately) Belly from their wonderful Dove album. Just for a little something something – no narration, instructions just rocking the sewing machine and adding love for his ‘lil bum and whatnot.
Update: I told/asked Tanya Donelly of Belly (+ Throwing Muses, solo, Breeders etc etc) about using the song and she replied enthusiastically and kindly (note: her other job is a post-partum doula)
Join us for tea at Tsuchida Cottage, Okayama for our 1st wedding anniversary. We’ll play some songs, catch you up on projects, share some scrapbooks and stories, plus update about baby including gender if curious. Was a live stream… not its not :)
Originally live-streamed via Facebook on April 21, 2020 / check out original post for allll the comments and more fun etc.
Miss 604’s capture of the live stream from Tsuchida Cottage, Okayama to West End, Vancouver
With a coffee and pyjamas, Dave riffs about types of scrapbooks, ways to make from scratch, reasons for making (memory and flow), a bit about creative process and keeping organized, handy tools and supplies, and other ways to fancy up your books with inky stamps, postage stamps, stickers and up-cycled meta scraps. Plus hey, fun for the family, liberate the items from shoeboxes, put on an album or two and go with the flow.
Wearing a smoking jacket at Tsuchida Cottage, Dave riffs on recent activities including: planting vegetable garden, playing piano, buying baby clothes, and sort-ganizing archives including digging out loads of books. As such, shows books by Douglas Coupland, Nick Bantock, Gary Snyder, Ethan Hubbard, and reads from Jack Kerouac’s American Haikus, plus riffs about Tintin, fire lookouts and mailing postcards.
Recently my “whole life archive” from 4X+ years of creativity arrived after a trans-Pacific journey to my home is Tsuchida, Okayama, Japan… so, I made a little video spiel – or tried to rather – while sort-ganizing the artifacts the “kura” (grain barn). However, the video was out of focus and the sound well, non-existent (guess i don’t know how to use this new gear… sigh).
This clip (which i didn’t know was filming) of puttering around in schleppy work clothes (and a fine hand-crafted hat) exists… so, here’s a little clip mixed with still photos of putzing around my life’s worth of books, records, scrapbooks, tools, trinkets and whatnot and finding some interesting things (while trying not to be overwhelmed by all the memories and dauntingness of it all).
No narrative per se, just an excuse to play you a song and say hello… carry on.
I was *clearly* saying something fascinating here :) – probably about Kerouac, scrapbooks, artifacts, vinyl etc and likely say “personal archeology” & ”intrepid” + mention stash of amusing hats, lounge wear and of course, smoking jackets but, you will just hafta trust me (or don’t, that’s cool).
Importantly this song: pal George H. wrote music and sings/plays (but says its not “finished” so don’t tell him unless you wanna tell him you LOVE it) – the words are mine from escapades in NYC 1990ish. Anyhow, thanks for coming along for this flashback.
