In prep for a barrage of international renegade diplomats descending upon Okayama, I cobbled together another decidedly mediocre video to share a few ways of getting around the city – streetcars, busses, taxis, and bicycles – as well as a finding those said ways and other information about information, ya know for tourists.
Another dispatch coming soon with specifics about getting to shrine (ceremony), resto (fancy lunch) and goat farm (party). In the meantime, please accept my humble offering.
This dispatch shares wayfinding tips to get from the main train station, down a covered shopping arcade, over a canal, a stop for coffee (optional) and then to Koraku Hotel (conveniently embedded with a post office and convenience store). Then passing statues and bars, to the Okayama View Hotel – located across from the Birkenstock store ¥100 shop – and over to the Tenmaya shopping area and transit hub as needed.
A lil video in which i mispronounce various words, stumble through “advice”, share poorly made photos, and in general, provide semi-useful instructions for riding trains – specifically the various Shinkansen “bullet” trains to get from KIX to Okayama for various wedding festivities.
A few handy annotations for pals coming to Ryoko-san and my wedding about what to do when you arrive at Kansai (KIX) airport including: getting cash, finding food, hitting up toilet, buying toys and vending items, smoking a dart and a few other fun oddities up until you wander to the train station (more on that later).
Analog loops, guitars, feedback and poetry about impossible alleys, 8 seat bars, villages with book shops, woolen scarves, Fado, Enka, Kathmandu mud, and umbrellas thwarting tactility.
Video features snaps of Thorvald and Thurston in a Provo basement, 2018 making the song as well as artifacts in the environs.
What becomes of the seemingly ephemeral creations we leave behind? Especially in the analog-days?
Consider these in the context of missing cassette tapes made by a now departed poet/activist/scholar Foster and guitar-ing Mikael, who recorded spontaneous youthful riffs in parent’s basement in Utah. In this postcard, Mikael Lewis sings “Wildflower (for Foster)” written by Dave in a clinic in Nepal, then adds some more verses, spiels and a poem called “Occasionally Free” – with lightning, rainstorm and crickets chiming along.
Note: Also available in audio-only via all normal podcast channels and elsewhere in this library.
Ship-to-shore transmissions with shortwave broadcasts from elusive listening posts, soundscapes from slow ships, and freeverse poetry about unanswered communiques, transitory conditions, arbitrary citizenships, invented geography, de-identification, and intentional disappearance.
Features music: “Dream World” by Matt Harding from NYOSSS (New York, Orem, San Sebastian, & Shanghai), plus various shortwave broadcasts of dubious origin, and sound samples from oceans (recorded by Dave and others via BBC sound archive).
Note: Also available in audio-only via all normal podcast channels and elsewhere in this library.
Just riding the Hikari Shinkansen train from Shin-Osaka to Okayama, Japan, looking out the window. No action, narration, or fanciness… just spacing out a window as various scenes flash past. Brief stops along the way, not necessarily arranged sequentially.
Rolling some/elsewhere in Thailand at some point in time by tuk tuk and taxi, plus a spin around the train station in Phitsanulok. Nothing happens whatsoever, just looking out at everyday in a very normal place on a regular day…
Disappearing, invisibility, loneliness, depression, anxiety, being lost, trying to not be found, trying to find white space to invigorate… Sometimes these weave together, other times (perhaps) each remain exclusive.
Gord Downie, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski and me all try to figure out the nuance in different ways atop Turkish street music, trains from Kerala and Moncton, and various ephemeral music snippets.
Note: Also available in audio-only via all normal podcast channels and elsewhere in this library.