Natto Natto Mon

Here's a video I shot and Lee-Roy edited of our friend Abo trying natto, a Japanese delicacy, for the first time. Natto is fermented soy beans and is the definition of an acquired taste. Many people say it smells like stinky feet. I like to describe it as tasting the way a dumpster full of rotting garbage smells. It is also incredibly viscous; to get to the bean, you have make it through the slime. Our natto was served to us at We Be Sushi in San Francisco. I recommend the restaurant, but maybe not the natto (although I think everyone should try it at least once... it builds character). The guy walking out of the kitchen near the end of the video was our waiter Simon, who likes to eat natto for breakfast.

AboNatto from Lee-Roy Lahey on Vimeo.

Landscape

I like to think the landscape of my soul (if such a thing exists) would look like nature--a forest, some vision of the Northwest in rain surrounded by lakes and sea, mountains and trees--an evergreen soul. Either that or Hawaii where I grew up, the ocean rising and receding, wet dunes out to the shallows, then the reef. I've disdained the idea that it could resemble anything like Los Angeles, held together by the silvery black tar used to seal fissures in the streets, a strip mall on every corner selling surprising things like art and culture (amazing what treasure and good times you can find in a strip mall), the sewage sea that is, nevertheless, the sea. Yet I have to begin to admit these things are part of me, part of the air I breathe, from the Venice beach cruisers to the Lincoln-Navigator ladies talking on their cell-phones to me in my white Toyota Camry. Perhaps I'm becoming this way or perhaps it's always been in me, along with all the other things, and perhaps finding myself in this state is not as terrible as I thought it would be. Perhaps it's even kind of soothing.

Poem Play

Sea Forest

Let's set booby traps in the sea,
wade through redwoods and tramp on ripples.

Listen to the roaring of the woods,
the crashing of the trees.

Can you hear the rustle of waves?

Me, As a Cartoon

If you haven't already noticed my new profile image, yes, it's me as a cartoon! My "crazy, crazy talented" (as a friend puts it) fiance created this. I love it. My fantasy is to star in a Miyazaki feature, as a cartoon of course, someone like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. And, folks, if you haven't already seen My Neighbor Totoro, it's the most delightful cartoon feature ever!

Get Out Enjoy The Sunny Weather

Oh my, I haven't posted in a long while. What have I been up to? Wedding planning, still reading Haruki Murakami's Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman--just finished a story called "Man-Eating Cats" (great title, very good story)--read a really disappointing novel whose title I won't mention, petting the non-man-eating cats, fighting a sinus infection, working, freelancing, swing dancing, enjoying the spring, the birds chirping in the morning, the gentle cats lazing in the sun rays, the plant growth, rediscovering walking in my neighborhood, thinking about Obama for President, dealing with taxes, worrying about driving on a spare, watching Lee-Roy buy more and more Pez, feeling guilty, feeling depressed about feeling guilty, going grey, moisturizing, watching Twin Peaks, gestating, stretching muscles that haven't been stretched for months, coming to terms with the fact that I will never be a ballerina again, that with each passing year my body becomes less and less capable. The piano sits in the living room silently calling to me. I don't practice. I don't has been my most recent mantra. I'd like to change that to I do, I do take this life to be my one and only.