Comments on: Bowling For Geisha

By: Bowling Balls

Bowling Balls — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:22:01 +0000

I really like the samurai pictures. They do give you what seems to be a breif doorway to the past.

By: wordwolf

wordwolf — Thu, 12 Feb 2004 17:41:01 +0000

Forgot to mention, too! I’ll be in China for the rest of the year, starting in May. If all goes according to plan. If Lisa’s in the southeast at all, she has an ally or point of retreat in Fuzhou. I have some extended family there, too.
I’ll be mostly based in Fuzhou– I already know it well, and I’m wondering where that pagoda is in the photograph you posted. Don’t recognize it. Must find out.

By: wordwolf

wordwolf — Thu, 12 Feb 2004 17:36:14 +0000

Okay, so I wasn’t the sex-addict roommate in question. I never doubted it for a moment. Really.
As for Kurosawa films, it looks like everyone’s comments have covered the lot, but I should mention that The Hidden Fortress is not only a great film, but it’s the film that backs Lucas’ testimony that he conceived of the Star Wars trilogy in one go. (He may not have mentioned that he stole the whole plot from this one film.)
It’s got everything– the comedy-duo Droids on Tatooine (“We were made to suffer”); the rescue of the Princess; the burning of aunt & uncle figures; the Hidden Fortress (though it’s not the Death Star); the Obi-Wan / Vader duel; and Vader’s true visage and character.
And it proves once and for all that the light saber descends not from the samurai sword, but the six-and-a-half-point long spear.

By: mgrasso

mgrasso — Thu, 12 Feb 2004 17:33:50 +0000

Heh. Yes. “Tired of Sex” was very much a sophomore year song for me and considering the living situation I was in, it was very apt.

By: wordwolf

wordwolf — Thu, 12 Feb 2004 17:27:38 +0000

I’ve never enjoyed a post-and-comments combination as much as this one, perhaps. Japanesey and Chinesey and Weezery and College Memoriesy.
Holy crap, this happens to you guys too? Actually, it’s more of a steady state with J and I; I’m the morning person, she’s the night owl. In the winter it gets particularly absurd, with me going to bed at 8:30 and waking up at 4:30.
T and I have almost mathematically exclusive sleep sets, because I need eight hours and she only needs 12 or 13. . . every other day. I’m a morning person by emotional preference and a nighthawk by work preference, but all I really need is a stable pattern. T’s habits swing in and out of phase. It’s insoluble. We only have two compatible equilibriums: either 03:00 or later to 11:00 (since I can’t physically sleep later than 11:00, even getting less than eight hours), or 01:30 to 07:00, with a one-hour nap for me in the afternoons. I probably need a Venn diagram to explain what I’ve just written.
“Venn. He must have bored his parents to death.” – Eddie Izzard (probably paraphrased)
But seriously, it’s the only thing that drives a recurring wedge between most compatible couples.
And then what so hey now: crushes on lesbians and sex-addict roommates! I was about to panic (or do a gleeful dance?), until I read “sophomore-year”. So that’s all right then. Were you referring to my Bizarro World counterpart there?
And I get more the “Costanza” award, despite loving “Pink Triangle” mostest. “I drive ‘em to lesbianism. . . he brrrrings ‘em back!” I’ve lost count. Three, I think.

By: amberley

amberley — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 15:07:39 +0000

Seconding the recommendation of Yojimbo, its sequel Sanjuro, Kagemusha, and Hidden Fortress. I haven't seen Throne of Blood but imagine it's good, too. While not a Samurai film, no Kurosawa filmfest would be complete without Ikiru, which Roger Ebert considers Kurosawa's greatest film. Scott Morse had a recent comic book about Kurosawa's life (among other things), called The Barefoot Serpent. Although not directed by Kurosawa, you should check out the Samurai Trilogy (Musashi Miyamoto, Duel at Ichijoji Temple, Duel at Ganryu Island) starring Toshiro Mifune, and Chushingura (about the 47 Ronin). Mifune (I think it was him) was also in a very fun western whose name I forget, as a samurai teamed up with a gunslinger in the American west. But then I also liked Sunset, and Six String Samurai. Also, check out Zatoichi films. Do you watch Rurouni Kenshin on Cartoon Network? Although it's only showing weekly now, all 22 DVDs are available from Netflix. As for comics, Lone Wolf and Cub should be available in all 28 glorious volumes at any decent comics shop. And Usagi Yojimbo in 17 volumes and an ongoing series.

By: krustukles

krustukles — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 09:55:30 +0000

We do a lot of things on purpose to eke out a wee bit of together time here and there. But most of the couple-y behavioural rituals are too nauseatingly smushy to commit to e-print, and probably reveal more than you wanted to know about the household habits of your friends. The main thing is you have to do it on purpose or it won’t happen. Then, a blurry three years later you’ll pull your head of the pile of dusty periodicals you’ve been snuffling and go, “Hey, did I have a partner around here somewhere?”

That being said, I will hopefully never indulge in the degree of interpersonal intimacy my parents did, i.e. going to the bathroom in front of one another. Eeuw. I can tolerate those few minutes without my partner, thanks.

By: robotnik

robotnik — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 05:24:33 +0000

We’re there.

By: robotnik

robotnik — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 05:12:07 +0000

Holy crap, this happens to you guys too?
Oh yeah, all the time. It’s one of the reasons our ever meeting was so unlikely.

Since Pinkerton is in a lot of ways about Rivers’s year at Harvard, I as an undergraduate also found a lot of the songs on that album saying things about my own life
Yeah. I was in my first year of grad school when Pinkerton came out so while it wasn’t quite the same (no lesbian crushes or sex-addict roommates – the grad dorms just aren’t that interesting) it was still a good soundtrack to a fairly isolated and often unhappy year.

Oh, in the original post I forgot to mention what made the gift to L of the prints even more atrociously cute. (This isn’t really in response to your comment, but I’ll bury it down here in the comment scroll anyway.) The prints haven’t arrived yet, so I used my Xmas present to her – which you and Julia will recall was the Amazing Xyron 500, bought the day I saw you two in Harvard Square – to make stickers of the two prints. I think the fact they were in sticker form was as exciting to her as the present itself. (Milhouse: “Mrs. Krabappel wants a paper on Henry VIII, and I have to score at least a pumpkin sticker or better.”)

By: robotnik

robotnik — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 04:54:49 +0000

Damn, I could stare at that photo for days. There’s so much I want to know about these guys.
Exactly! That’s how I feel about almost all these pictures.

“Holy crap, look at the size of those hats! Retreat!”
Hee. LOL! as the kids today say.

You know, they just smoked some killer opium, wandered into a hat shop, and demanded the proprietor to make them these hats. “Spare no expense, we fight for the Maharaja!”
ROTFL! as the kids say.

They walked back up the mountainside proudly wearing ther new hats, but were totally shot to death by their fellow troops.
ROTFLMAO!