We've managed to move into our new home in Chicago this past week, despite the fact that our contractor is still working on it.  We've been able to set up the bedrooms, at least, and it now looks like the major work will be finished by the end of this week, so perhaps we can set up the other rooms soon.  It's the first time I've lived in a construction site since 1989, my first year in grad school at Cornell.  The new graduate student family housing complex we lived in then wasn't completed in time for our move-in.  Cornell gave us a couple of months' free rent then, but I don't think we'll make out as well this time around.

   Tomorrow morning I help pack the kids off to their first day of school, and then I jump in the car and head back up to St. Paul to help my sister look after my mother.  She's still in rehab, trying to recover movement on her right side, not to mention speech.  It's going to be a long haul for her.

   It's funny, because I promised my youngest that this would be a relaxed summer, a real summer vacation with lots of visits to the beach, playing games, etc.  That was before we bought the house and learned of my mother's illness....  But I am thankful to have a new home and to be able to spend time with Mom when she needs a hand.  And in the hospital, we see lots of sad situations that remind us that things could certainly be worse than they are. 

 

   Misora Hibari picks up a new fan, from beyond the grave.  Understand, please, that she will be doing this regularly for the next three or four hundred years.  Make sure you check out the film clips at the linked site:  quintessential.  And one small correction:  Hibari made well over 100 films....

   Back home in Chicago now for a week or so to get the family moved into our new place....

   For the umpteenth year in a row, I missed the Fuji Rock Festival this summer.  It sounds like it was a gas.  Unfortunately, Imawano Kiyoshiro had to cancel his scheduled appearance due to poor health, but Flower Travellin' Band did their psychedic acid rock reunion thing, according to the Daily Yomiuri.   

    Meanwhile, the Southern All Stars, masterful hitmakers since the late 1970s and my wife's favorite band, are going on hiatus for a couple of years.  Their send-off concerts earlier this month were a huge success, it would seem. 

    Director Toshio Lee's new film, Detroit Metal City, sounds interesting.   The hero is the lead singer of an enormously popular death metal band who in his heart of hearts wants only to be a soft J-Pop idol.

   I've had a bit of personal good news in the midst of the gloomy past few weeks.  Earlier this summer, for the first time in several years I sent out a couple of short stories to literary journals to see what would happen.  On this, my 47th birthday, I've just learned that one, "Invasive Species," will appear in Avery Anthology #4, out later this year. 

   Finally, here's an audience video of Ray Davies' appearance with The Kooks at the V Festival in England a couple of weeks back (NME's story on the event is here).  The Kooks recorded their latest album, Konk, at Ray's studio (Konk Studios, of course), and at V they played the old Kinks' classic, "Victoria."

X+Y chromosones = Dan Quayle

X+X chromosones = Sarah Palin

   Greetings again from St. Paul.  It's been a rollercoaster ride here as my mother has spent the last eight days recovering from surgery.  It's been more difficult than we had hoped it would be, but as of yesterday she's moved to a rehabilitation unit at the hospital.  The next few weeks will involve intense speech, physical, and occupational therapy to try to get back her usual capabilities.  There's reason to hope she'll recover fully, but also lots of opportunity for worry....

    My sister and I have been trading bedside shifts at the hospital.  In my off hours, I've been correcting the proofsheets for the translation of Natsume Soseki's Theory of Literature and Other Critical Writings.  Now I'm working on the book's index.   It should come out from Columbia University Press this December.  In my mind, the book will always be linked to my mother's illness.

   I'll be heading back to Chicago this weekend to help out with the move into our new home there as well as to take care of other accumulated business.  Then it will be back up to Minnesota.  As things stabilize here, I hope to resume blogging a bit more regularly:  it'll be something of a novelty to string words together just for the sheer pleasure of it.