I’ve had a hard time getting back into the swing of things since I’ve returned from my trip. Hence, only just getting around to posting pictures from Japan.
Before I left, I browsed through a few Tokyo-based blogs to find some cool spots. When I saw jollygoo’s post on a disposable camera that takes square photos, I knew I had to go to monogram in Gakugei-daigaku to pick one up. Since I couldn’t use my iPhone in Japan, I couldn’t Instagram, so I did the physical-media equivalent. Okay, I guess technically the equivalent would be Polaroid, but shooting with film seemed even more novel (paradoxically) and fun. It was exciting waiting to see how my shots turned out.
Not all of my shots worked out, but I was really happy with most of the results. It’s been a long time since I’ve shot with film, and I think I’ll be doing so more often.
I really wanted to get more cameras to bring home with me, but I don’t know any photo developers in Vancouver that use square photo paper…so I’ll just to have to go back again.
I’m back from my trip and I have a lot to share, but right now I’m still in a sleepy jet lag fog. So instead I’ll just wish Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there. My mum and I are really close, and we’ve been through a lot together the last few years. I’ve been thinking about how my relationship with my parents had changed as I’ve gotten older. I’m still feeling out that awkward process of understanding them as flawed but ultimately good human beings…I hope I can continue to get to know my mother as a person, not just as the woman who helped raise me. Not perfect, but a good person whom I respect and love.
Just a quick note to say that my blog will be quiet for the next couple weeks as I’m going on a trip to Japan. But I plan on taking a boatload of photos and journaling like a mad person, so expect lots o’ snaps and stories upon my return. To everyone who reads my blog, thank you! I hope to have some interesting travel tales to share with you soon.
PS: those cherry blossoms are actually in Vancouver
I should be used to this by now. The Canucks always seem to manage find new ways to disappoint me. This year, it was by capturing their second straight President’s Trophy only to lose in five games in the first round of the playoffs to the eighth-seeded LA Kings.
As we Vancouver fans ask ourselves “Canucks, why I can’t quit you?” ethelthedean has brought up a bunch of other good questions about why on earth we would want to follow a team, even a league, that continually disappoints us.
I had a long response to her post that I could re-post here, but really, you should just head over to her blog, because it’s great. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a heartbreak to nurse.
I really should be working on my term paper, but I can’t rest until I say something about the goon festival that we’re calling the 2012 NHL Playoffs. Yes, I’m upset that the Canucks have woefully underperformed and are down 3-0 to LA. But more than that, I’m completely aghast at the violence we’ve seen so far, and in particular, the rash of violent head shots and vigilante justice.
Brendan Shananan’s inconsistent supplementary discipline rulings are only part of the problem (Matt Carkner gets only one game for cold-cocking Brian Boyle in a pre-meditated act of revenge; Shea Weber’s laughable $2,500 fine for slamming Henrik Zetterberg’s face in the boards). The real problem is a systemic culture of hypermasculinity that rewards violence and shuns those who say otherwise.
Here is a typical example of how NHL players justify violence, a comment made in reference to the incident in the video posted above (I didn’t really want to further sensationalize the violence, but I think it helps illustrate my point):
On Saturday, the Ottawa Senators’ Matt Carkner pummelled New York’s Brian Boyle as retribution for Boyle targeting the much smaller Erik Karlsson’s head for the punchy treatment two nights before.
‘A message had to be sent,’ said Carkner, who was tossed from the game.
Even the Canadian Golden Boy, Sidney Crosby, can’t resist getting sucked into the fray:
Ask an NHL player about the spate of ill will and he’ll tell you some variant of ‘it’s the playoffs.’ As Crosby told reporters after a particularly malevolent day in Philly: ‘A lot of things happen out there from both sides. Everyone is guilty of it. Nobody is blaming anyone here. It’s heated out there and that’s what the playoffs are like.’
Meanwhile, as usual, only players with the last name “Sedin” have anything of value to add to the conversation:
‘You can’t just defend everything by just saying, “oh, it’s the playoffs.” That’s a mindset I don’t buy into or understand,’ said Vancouver Canucks captain Henrik Sedin, whose brother Daniel is out with a concussion courtesy of yet another elbow. ‘How do I put this? In the playoffs, if you do something and you get punished, you are really going to hurt your team. In the regular season, if you do something and you get punished, the way players are punished, I don’t really think it’s going to hurt your team. I think if you show no respect for your opponents, then at least you’re going to have a lot of respect for your teammates, and you don’t want to hurt them.’
You may recall that last year, the Sedin brothers called out ultimate goon Mike Milbury for being a giant mysogynist toolbag and generally a clueless idiot. I felt proud that the team I support and share a city with could boast two intelligent, respectful and sportsmanlike players who aren’t afraid to speak out against the NHL’s hubristic goon culture. Of course, the Sedins are consistently ridiculed for their “soft” style of play (presumably because they are European), in much the same way that Sidney Crosby is often criticized for his supposedly chippy play (as distinguished from acceptable types of chippy play from players who are identified as tough guys) and tendency to whine (Wayne Gretzky also met with similar criticisms throughout his career). In the NHL, if you don’t fit the mould of stoic gladiator, players, coaches and the media will make sure you’re put in your place, no matter how many points you produce. But as anyone who’s ever watched Coach’s Corner knows, the same questionable behaviour performed by a player constructed as a Good Canadian Kid™ and one constructed as a Euro-Style Softy can be characterized, respectively, as “doing what it takes to win” or “cheap and dirty.” None of it makes any sense. Those in the NHL bubble live in the fiction that there is an honour code for on-ice play, even though it’s abundantly clear to those who haven’t drunk the Kool-Aid that no such code exists, and even if it does, it’s wildly arbitrary and subject to a pre-established narrative.
What’s killing me the most about the Canucks’ imminent demise and the Penguins being ragdolled by the Flyers is that it’s contributing to the perception that pugilism is the superior way to play. The message being sent is loud and clear: the Canucks and Penguins, with their focus on finesse over fists, are not welcome in today’s NHL. In reality, the Canucks are losing because of their anemic special teams and inability to solve Jonathan Quick; the Penguins are tanking because of terrible goaltending and horrific defensive coverage. The other stuff is a side show. Unfortunately, though, violence makes headlines, and the success of the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers appears to be ushering in a neo-70′s era of no-holds-barred on-ice violence. The NHL talks a big game about taking concussions seriously, but clearly they’d rather see things settled on the ice than with supplementary discipline. If their goal is to let every player in the league suffer concussions until they’re all too dazed to question this alarming direction, I would say they’re succeeding.
EDIT: I should note that I realize that the Canucks and Penguins have not been blameless in this “goon fest.” Obviously, Byron Bitz’s hit from behind was inexcusable, and some Penguins players, including Arron Asham, James Neal, and Craig Adams have displayed very violent behaviour in the playoffs. I don’t at all mean to paint the Canucks/Penguins with a white brush and the Flyers with a black. What I mean is that the style of play employed by teams like the Flyers and Bruins perpetuates a cycle of violence that implicates the whole league and de-emphasizes skill in favour of goonery. The problem is a league-wide culture, not individual teams. The Flyers and Bruins are simply taking advantage of a climate that rewards their style of play.
1. That’s nice that you feel so confident after one game.
2. Your arrogance is deflecting attention away from the Canucks’ reputation as a cocky team, so thanks for that.
3. The Toronto Maple Leafs are Canada’s most hated team. It just so happens that they suck right now so people have to let off steam somewhere. Since tall poppy syndrome is rampant in Canada, and the Canucks are successful, it seems natural that everyone wants to cut them down, as opposed to, say, an underdog.
Since my friend ethelthedean was nice enough to nominate me for the Kreative Blogger Award, I thought I should emerge from my April final paper hibernation and participate by sharing seven facts about myself:
1. Tea is my lifeblood. I begin each day with at least one cup of green tea (loose leaf Japanese green tea, usually sencha for genmaicha with matcha powder…none of that wimpy Lipton tea bag stuff for me). I like my green tea to be be GREEN, not pale yellow. This is usually followed by several more cup of herbal or rooibos tea throughout the day, depending on whether I’m at work or at home writing papers. At around 3pm, my brain often stops functioning and I want to take a nap. Instead, I reach for a cup of black tea (with milk, no sugar). If I’m at home, it’ll be my favourite Earl Grey tea (either Secret Garden Creamy Earl Grey or Murchie’s…no other Earl Grey will do). If I’m out, a strong English Breakfast or Orange Pekoe will do (but my favourite non-flavoured black tea is Yorkshire—nice and bold). For after dinner, I like to cozy up with a cup of genmai hoji-cha (roasted green tea with brown rice—very little caffeine). Unless, of course, I’m pulling an all-nighter, in which case I’ll make as many pots of green or black as my body can handle.
2. I used to be terrified of dogs, because when I was in pre-school, my friend’s bulldog chased me (or so I thought—I think he just wanted to sniff me). Now I absolutely love dogs. Our sweet family doggie recently passed away, but I’m hoping one day I can adopt a pup or foster dogs looking for a new home.
3. I played varsity (ice) hockey from 2003-2005. Anyone who’s met me since is usually surprised by this, because I don’t exactly exude the aura of a varsity athlete, or a competitive person, for that matter. But ’tis true, I use to grind the corners and crash the net on a regular basis. I modeled my style of play after Canucks-era Matt Cooke (aka before everyone hated him for ruining Marc Savard’s career). Truth be told, though, I lacked Cookie’s penalty killing acumen and knack for scoring clutch goals, hence my perpetual fourth-line status.
4. I’ve worked at two different florists, and although it was fun being surrounded by big, beautiful blooms all day, I actually prefer modest field or garden flowers over showy orchids and roses. Some of my favourites are ranunculus, ixia, waxflower, lysimachia, green viburnum, and peony.
5. My boyfriend and I love eating at izakayas. We love to cook and avoid eating out when we can, but that’s our one real indulgence. Good thing we’re going to Tokyo in two weeks!
6. I can’t bear to pick my favourite books, so I guess I’ll have to just list a few writers that I love: Haruki Murakami, Milan Kundera, Evelyn Waugh, Hiromi Goto and Heather O’Neill.
7. I’m obsessed with carbonated beverages, but not so much synthetic pop like Coke and Sprite. I like my fizzy drinks to taste like fruit, so I usually go for fruit juice blends (or ginger beer). Or I’ll just mix my own, with sparkling water and juice. I would happily replace my regular kitchen faucet with a water carbonating contraption, given all the bottled beverages I drink!
Now all that’s left is to nominate seven other blogs I love to read:
2004. I couldn’t stop listening to The Bands That OK Computer Birthed. I didn’t think of it that way at the time, but how else can you describe my perpetual playlist of Snow Patrol, Elbow, Doves and Coldplay?
Okay, so I wasn’t solely devoted to those bands. I got sucked into the whole garage rock and post-punk revival thing too. The Strokes were okay, but I wanted less Velvet Underground, more Gang of Four and Joy Division. Mostly, I wanted more Brit. Franz Ferdinand fit that bill nicely. But while Franz (and Kaiser Chiefs, and early Arctic Monkeys) were good for a dorm-room dance party, they didn’t quite speak to my angsty teenage soul (I was 19, it still counts) as the aforementioned quartet did.
Of the four, the biggest disappointment to me is Snow Patrol. Elbow and Doves are still actively not sucking, and I’ve expressed my love of Guy Garvey before. Coldplay were never really too far away from U2 territory to begin with, and therefore didn’t quite capture my heart in the same way. But Snow Patrol…those fuzzy guitars, those awkward-quirky lyrics, that lanky Irishman Gary Lightbody…It pains me that basically everything they’ve done post-Final Straw has been bullshit (except this). I’m still shaking my head at how they went from this awesomeness to this ultimate suckage. How did they get so drippy? You’re still cute, though, Gary.
In any event, I love their first two albums for all their understated idiosyncrasies, but in 2004, Final Straw was my soundtrack. “Spitting Games”, “Grazed Knees” and “Tiny Little Fractures” helped me nurse lingering crushes, “Chocolate”, “How to Be Dead” and “Ways & Means” helped me process my fracturing family life, and “Run”? “Run” is just a great stadium singalong (and far superior to its Grey’s Anatomy-soundtracking progeny, “Chasing Cars”). (PS I also loved Grey’s Anatomy, too, but that was 2005, and I think it’s safe to say it sucks more in 2012 than Snow Patrol does). The first time I saw them live, at The Vogue in 2005, was of the best times I’ve had at a concert, especially at a big-ish venue. The second time I saw them, at the PNE Forum (terrible venue) in 2006, the sound was awful but I bumped into a cute boy who I went on a few dates with afterwards. The third time, in 2009, they were opening for Coldplay at a show I was reviewing, and they almost outshone the main act. I’m going to be in Japan when they’re back in Vancouver in April, but it’s not like they’re going to play “Starfighter Pilot” anyway.
Still, Snow Patrol et al. drove me straight into the waiting arms of the perfectors of atmospheric rock with earnest vocals, my forever favourites, Radiohead. So I have Gary Lightbody and the boys to thank for that in part, anyway, no matter how much A Hundred Million Suns sucked.
On a semi-related note, is it just me or does the Sherlock theme (so obsessed with that show) sound exactly like a Doves song?
I apologize if this post was more self-indulgent than usual. I’m sad, and this is how I wallow.
I keep losing those that are important to me. Each time I think, I’ve failed somehow, to stay connected; to be there for them; to keep them alive. Then I think, No. That isn’t fair. Yuki was old and ill, and her body decided it was time to go. We didn’t have to decide for her.
As a proud German Shepherd, Yuki was never really one for cuddling. She loved playing fetch, napping at the foot of the door, and receiving back massages. I keep thinking I hear her tags jangling from her collar. The house is too silent.
Goodbye to my sweet, loyal, trusting friend. You were part of the family and we all loved you. Thank you for all the joy and laughter you brought us. I’ll always remember you.
