I made some Scrapbooks, they are really quite magnificent.
This is my workbench with stack of Scrapbooks (don’t look too close).
These multipurpose, archival historical record capturing and creating “devices” will make their way out into the world to find forever homes – one here in Japan, maybe one for our family and the rest to friends in BC who I think will love and stuff.
Details include:
Hand sewn with waxed-thread side binding
Ukiyo-e calendar front covers
Sento calendar back covers
Black foam core back board
Green/tan kraft card front board
A4 white cardstock block
Lined rice paper front piece (w/ “message” stamp)
Trimmed shodo paper inserts
Various envelopes for item storage inside back cover
Non-fungible “hitchhiker” currency inserted in above envelope
Colophon on last blockpage with quirky self-portrait, notary emboss, red ink sig & #AlwaysBeKind stamp
Lousy photos, great scrapbooks
Notable that I used my “foot pedal operated overhead laser scanner” to capture steps along the way as well as put a “vintage” iPhone on a tripod facing the bench so maybe one of these days there will be a video documenting the process. It won’t necessarily be “good” but it might simply exist.
The scrapbooks however, as mentioned above, are magnificent by any possible measure (says me ;)).
Whittling away on my poetry / musings book project “circumnavigation, of sorts” / working title being more appropriate to the process than I could’ve imagined…
Digging into so many diaries, journals, notebooks, scrapbooks and what have you to find messages to a future self from various incarnations of someone who might be me.
Gotta say, the scribbles are sometimes quite emotional, sometimes surprising, often times amusing, other times well,… hard to say except noting ‘I was always trying & always making’
As I’m stumbling along on my “healing ramble” series (please watch the intro video for overview and disclaimers, not unusually, finding myself a little bit overwhelmed with all the artifacts, memories, items, even data, to share. So, rather than obsess over it just putting it all out there, even if it’s a bit redundant.
The next “real” dispatches from the series include my “tips for travelling with a chronic illness” (which is rather practical and logistical stuff), plus another entry from Sri Lanka, another from Nepal, a tough one from Pacifica California, more from other places i forgot and maybe I’ll even fill in the missing gaps from Adelaide Australia, Austin Texas, and crossing Canada looking for a home.
In the meanwhile here are the fronts of some notebooks and a postcard which allude to some of the above.
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
“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.
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)
Notebook: from Royal Tenenbaum’s / life admin notes and various musings, summer-autumn, 2019
Explaining the obvious: I fill notebooks/journals of poetry, notes and musings (as well as scrapjournals which contain paper ephemera) and then transcribe (which no editing), then stash them into old-timey suitcase, which usually live in a storage locker faraway from where i physically exist.
I snap lil snaps of the cover before hibernation to remind myself of these lil tomes which remind me so much of where i was when the words were scribbled.
To prevent the snaps from vanishing into a folder (digital shoebox as it were), compilations ensue, placed into this archive for my reference, and for you to peek at if you have a notion.
Some of these have been shared previously somewhere maybe but who’s to say. Carry on.
Museums and galleries in Japan, as well as various temples/shrines and assorted other places of note, often offer inky stamps to collect and stamp in one’s own notebook – or if forgotten, on slips of provided paper. These are usually rather large and sometimes the ink pads are a bit worn out. Nevertheless, i seek these out and stamp in my ever-present scrapjournals.
This collection is collected on a ramble around Matsue, Shimane-ken at the Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakomo) museum and later, at various galleries around Kurashiki, Okayama-ken.
classic Field Notes by Draplin Design Co. (orange)
Explaining the obvious: I fill notebooks/journals of poetry, notes and musings (as well as scrapjournals which contain paper ephemera) and then transcribe (which no editing), then stash them into old-timey suitcase, which usually live in a storage locker faraway from where i physically exist.
I snap lil snaps of the covers before their hibernation to remind myself of these tomes which in turn remind me of where i was when the words were scribbled.
To prevent the snaps from vanishing into a folder (digital shoebox as it were), compilations ensue -placed into the this archive for my reference, and for you to peek at if you have a notion.
What follows is a compendium of various school reports about various topics – while required by school assignment in most cases, i made to be archival. These dossier utilize the same techniques of “scissors and glue to combine narrative and images in a non-linear collages” as i use for all most all my projects from newsletters, fanzines, chapbooks and other small-scale publication (including digital projects like podcasts for that matter).
Journal: Lost Life / notes, musings, ephemera, 2014 (“Steel, Steal, Still, Stir me heart”, red)
Explaining the obvious: I fill notebooks of poetry, notes and musings (as well as scrapjournals which contain paper ephemera) and then transcribe, then send them into old-timey suitcase which live in a storage locker faraway from where i physically exist.
I snap snaps of the cover before hibernation to remind myself of these lil tomes which remind me so much of where i was when the words were scribbled. To prevent the snaps from vanishing into a folder (digital shoebox as it were), compilations ensue, placed into the this archive for my reference and for you to peek at if you have a notion.
Journal: Lost Life / notes, musings, ephemera, 2013-4 (birdcard, red)
