My Current Insanities

It possibly wants a cheeseburger. I don’t know what it’s thoughts on monorails and civil disobedience are.

A table away from my farewell meat-eating party was another farewell meat-eating party.

This is the HalfCamera app. It does diptychs in the style of a half frame camera.

Can you feel the groove?

No, you can’t. Because he took all the groove for himself. He, the Michael Jackson of Miyakonojo. Only the cows and scarecrows tend to bear witness, but this night he brought his light feet to the streets.

I don’t know if it’s the city that’s doing this or if it’s the local power companies, but a lot of the chronically empty spaces (Where failed businesses leave empty lots in their wake) around Miyakonojo have been filled up with solar panels.

Being situated on a very wide, flat, mountain plateau gives the city access to a lot of light. As the area ages out of being a commercial center I think turning into a center for green energy (If that’s the plan) is a wise move.

Coffee and jazz at Milestone cafe in Miyakonojo. One of many things I need to do before leaving now done.

Ah, back when photography was new and exciting and I was doing all of the things first semester photography students do. 

Ah, back when Japan was new and exciting and I was doing all of the things new arrivals with no money or internet but enough cash to develop film do.

This one of many uncountable small Shinto shrines that dot the countryside of Japan. They’re great sources of cooling shade during the summers here. It was shot with a Holga WPC120 camera. I was always unsatisfied with my ability to get the timing right on the manual shutter. And with 120 film steadily getting rarer and more expensive to develop, I couldn’t really bring myself to use it more often. I did like it though. Real primitive Ur photography type of stuff.

It’s funny how quickly things changed here. 120 film wasn’t too hard to come by even though it was slightly pricey and took a few days to a week to get processed when I arrived five years ago. Now I’d have to buy the film online from a different country, or travel to a big city like Fukuoka, Osaka, and Tokyo. Even in the big camera stores in those places film takes up less and less shelf space. And I’ve only ever seen old fellers in those sections. The times they are a changin’, as the old song tells us.

Assuming my friend Grace didn’t eat my WPC120 in the years between my return to Halifax this summer and when I loaned the camera to him (he lives in Dartmouth, yo), I might get it back and convert the spools to hold 135 film. That’s also getting hard to buy and use, but it might have a year or two left to it.

This is the excitement of Miyakonojo at night. Shot with the Olympus Pen E-P3.

I never make the mistake of telling myself that I’d be living a lot more exciting life if I was in Tokyo or Osaka. I lived in Seoul for a long time and my life wasn’t particularly exciting there either. Excitement is for people who can tolerate beer, cigarettes, and other people. 

It’s funny though, I associate certain types of music with the places I’ve lived in Asia. Seoul brings The Good The Bad and The Queen album to mind. Not sure why on that one. Dare by Gorillaz as well. Must have been a Damon Albarn phase for me. Cheonan brings What’s Going On? by Marvin Gaye just because Cheonan looks like somewhere the album would take place. Taichung brings the Pussycat Doll’s When I Grow Up (Watch on mute) to my head. I can explain that one since the local English language radio station was obsessed with it and played it non-stop. Switching to the Taiwanese stations didn’t make the music situation any better.

What about Japan? 

I’ve only lived in a single spot here since I’ve arrived. That’s the thing about job security and a good employer: Not so much moving about. I don’t have a Fukuoka nor Tokyo song or record since I’ve never been in those places long enough to make associations with them.

What about Miyakonojo, then?

I think I may need to leave the place for good before I can let the devil of nostalgia make those associations for me. I’ve been consuming a wide variety of music here. But I did discover that I can do this song pretty well at karaoke and this song even better. 

That has to count for something, doesn’t  it?

Here’s the top secret project I was working on. Nice, hey?