Happy 75th (and a Lesson Learned)
This Friday would have been the 75th birthday for one Elvis Aaron Presley. It’s an amazingly young age, given that he died more than thirty years ago.
It took me a while to figure out how great Elvis was. When I was a teenager, he was mainly the butt of jokes. But the twin girls who lived behind us and who were four years younger than me were huge Elvis fans. This was in the mid 1970s, when the King was in his most bloated, glitzy phase. They were thrilled when their parents bought them tickets to see him in concert at the St. Paul Civic Center in April, 1977. We teased them mercilessly about the bad taste of it all. Now, of course, I’d happily surrender my opposable thumbs in exchange for a chance to see Elvis perform. So, the lesson Elvis (and others) taught me: when other people tell you about their musical passions, no matter how seemingly bizarre, don’t laugh. Shut up and listen. Otherwise, you might miss something you’ll later regret.
The King is dead. Long live the King!
How I Spent My Winter Break
504 pieces in all, it took Sonia and me four days to complete. I love doing jigsaw puzzles over the holidays: it gives me this luxurious feeling of burning time, like a millionaire torching twenty-dollar bills to light his cigars.
But do I really have to go back to work tomorrow? I love teaching, but would another week of winter break really cripple the university? My biggest complaint about the quarter system (as opposed to the morally superior semester system) is the short winter break. Sigh.
In the meanwhile, the NY Times reports that even old decrepit types like myself can learn new tricks, if we approach our neurons and synapses from the proper angle. “Disorienting dilemma” is the trick, they tell us. That should be a snap, since I spend most of my time in that state these days anyhow.
Anime god Miyazaki Hayao has granted a rare interview, prior to the opening of his latest work, Ponyo, in the UK next month.
Finally, a ray of hope from Kichijoji, one of my favorite neighborhoods in Tokyo: a new campaign to save the neighborhood sento (public bath) by way of rock music. It’s got a back beat, you can’t lose it, and you can get your back scrubbed at the same time. Brilliant!
Welcome 2010, Go Away 2009
Can a decade really have passed since we were all in a panic over Y2K? I remember the turn of the century well: we took our children (aged eight and three then) to a friend’s house in St. Paul to observe the moment with a massive balloon drop down the stairwell, after which we returned to my mother’s and roasted sausages and marshmallows over the fireplace into the wee hours. I was still teaching at UCLA, and we were preparing then to move to Japan the following March, when I began a year-long stint as a visiting research at Tohoku University.
What a decade it was: stolen elections, terrorist attacks, evil wars, brutal politics. Somehow, we survived. It was a tumultuous time personally, as well. I’ve just calculated that my family had seven different addresses over those ten years. That’s too much moving, no? My resolution for the new decade: stay away from moving trucks.
I begin 2010 with too many other resolutions to list here. One very small one: I’m going to spend some time tidying up my homepage (www.bourdaghs.com), so stop by there if you haven’t lately.
We greeted the arrival of the new year last night by watching the “Kohaku Utaggasen” musical spectacular on NHK. It was the sixtieth anniversary of the annual holiday show. Highlights included a very nervous-looking Susan Boyle, a reunited Alice, Mori Shin’ichi looking quite old but delivering a powerhouse performance, SMAP providing a tribute in dance to Michael Jackson, and of course Wada Akiko. There’s always Wada Akiko: a sign of hope, I think, that we’ll survive the next decade, too.
Thanks for visiting this blog in 2009, and best wishes to you in 2010. I hope you don’t have to move during the year.
