Yes, Virginia, there is a 2nd posting

I’ve received thousand of emails since my first posting, mainly from the kiddies, asking me when I would post again. They said that they were becoming “disillusioned” with clicking their carefree little way to Winston’s World, only to find there was no second posting. They said they felt “sad” because an adult had lied to them. So to put their troubled little heads to rest I’ve decided that posting once a week is not a bad target to aim for. To tell the truth, Mr. Thomas has the best idea with See You Next Wednesday. You know there is no point checking it out again until a new Wednesday rolls around. Sorry, but I don't have the dedication to post on a particular day. But from now the kiddies (and you) can sleep soundly knowing that you'll be able to read the next exciting installment that is my life if you come back here in around seven days.

The week in a rather big nutshell

Friday I took as a holiday, but ended up working that night. Although I put in for the holiday about a month ago, the office hadn’t organized a replacement for my regular Friday 7pm – 9pm class. When I put in for the holiday I thought that this class would still be on winter vacation. Thus I was surprised when I got a phone call from the office Friday morning asking me if I wouldn’t mind doing it. Mari already had other plans, and I figured it wouldn’t shake up my universe too much if I watched Mystic River during the day rather than that night as I had planned, so I did it.

I was glad I went because this was the first class for the semester and some of the students had changed. It was a good opportunity to meet these new ones and get the semester going, rather than someone else taking them for one night, and then meeting me the next week. It would have been 3 weeks into the semester before the class had settled down. I use the word “class” loosely. I don’t actually teach them (I’m not trained in teaching, and my understanding of English grammar is tenuous at best), but rather provide activities to stimulate conversation, with some listen/repeat for glaring errors. We played some icebreaker games using English, and all in all it was quite fun. I’ve been doing this Friday night class for almost 2 years and enjoy the people. It is at a community center, and most of the participants are 40 or above. About half have remained with me for that time.

Spoilers follow about the movies Mystic River, The Bourne Supremacy and The Manchurian Candidate. Scroll down to End of Spoilers if you don’t want to read them.





With Mystic River I finished my quest to watch all of last year’s Academy Award Nominees for Best Picture. Having seen only The Return of the King at the cinema I’ve watched the other four on DVD. While Mystic River could justify acting nominations for Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Marcia Gay Harden, Penn’s and Robbins’ performances, while compelling and powerful, were one note. Mystic River certainly didn’t deserve its nomination for Best Picture, mostly due to predictability and a script that has some dips. The killers were easily identifiable, and so it was a mystery with no mystery. The bloody resolution between Markum and Boyle is as agonizingly predictable, leaving it a drama with no drama. At the end Laura Linney has a fine Lady Macbeth speech that comes right out of left field. Pity her character hadn’t been built up to this great moment.

I spent Saturday night at Allan’s place. Allan and I used to work together and we both have a mutual interest in movies. He’d just returned to Japan from his winter vacation back home in Canada. But since Allan has lived here for quite a few years now maybe that last sentence should be, “He’s just returned home to Japan from his winter vacation in Canada”. Anyway, he’d brought with him two movies that are yet to be released in Japan (The Bourne Supremacy and The Manchurian Candidate) and the boxed set of Star Wars episodes IV, V and VI. While we didn’t watch the Star Wars movies, we did watch the 2 and ½ hour documentary that accompanied them on a 4th DVD. This contains enough to keep a fan (or a nostalgic 30-something at least) watching until the wee hours of the morning.

I really liked The Bourne Supremacy. Admittedly the death of Marie at the start was a huge disappointment, some of the editing was seizure inducing, and as Andrew points out the villains’ plot doesn’t add up, but on the plus it was a thriller that never slowed down and had some great action to boot. Bourne’s skillfulness in a tight spot is great to watch. There are solid performances by Matt Damon and Joan Allen, plus Karl Urban looks really sexy in a dangerous kind of way. Even on DVD the car chase at the end was bone jarring. I’m actually thinking of seeing it again on the big screen when it comes.

I disliked The Manchurian Candidate as much as I liked The Bourne Supremacy. It was a dog’s breakfast of a film, with great performances (Washington and Streep) that can’t overcome its stillborn execution and gaping plot holes. This was extremely disappointing as the director is Jonathon Demme, who helmed the superb thriller The Silence of the Lambs. The Manchurian Candidate has a great premise for a thriller, but assumes its audience to be about the age of 6, and so explains almost everything in the first 1/3 of the film, leaving just one surprise that fails to for anyone still there to watch the climax. If the audience had been kept in the dark about the conspiracy then we could have participated in Ben Marco’s search to unravel his memories of the Gulf War. Instead we watch him walk his delusions (which we never call into doubt) all over town as he tries to understand what we already knew an hour ago. The final third is an improvement, but not enough to make up for the previous ineptitudes.





End of Spoilers

Monday was a public holiday in Japan. The holiday is called “Coming of Age Day”, and is (as I understand it) a public celebration for those who have turned or will turn 20 by April 1st. Twenty is the age that Japanese are considered to be adults. The local governments put on a ceremony to welcome the new adults. The young women dress in a kimono, and the young men sometimes do so too, but more often they will wear a western style suit. Recently these events have been troubled by the invitees publicly exercising their new right to consume alcohol, and thus getting well pissed and causing a public nuisance. This has provided good footage for the media (think of the news coverage of “Schoolies Week” in Australia), and Tuesday morning’s TV news didn’t disappoint. How can the modern world survive with decadence and a lack of responsibility rampant in the youth of today? My Lordy, those bad young people make me nervous to step out my front door.

On the same day some not-so-young-adults were also undergoing a similar decline. It was Ted’s birthday, and Sumie had kindly organized a surprise party for him. There were six in attendance, Ted, Sumie, Naoko, Junko, the aforementioned Allan and myself. Although not quite an according-to-Hoyle’s-quorum, it was very nice company indeed. Many drinks were drunk and many problems of this plane of existence were solved. Ted is now the proud owner of the most excellent book Sophie’s World, which I cannot recommend highly enough, The Namesake, which as I’d never read was chosen on it having won the Pulitzer Prize, and the pièce de résistance (that which should be resisted? resistance is futile?), a build-it-yourself cardboard dinosaur. My memory of the actual species of dinosaur is a little sketchy, but I think it was something like Predatorsaurus. It was so dodgy that it is sure to make an appearance in Jurassic Park 4. Grwarrrr! God damn I love 100 yen stores.

Which leaves just the end of winter vacation and my return to work (apart from Friday’s blip) the following day. The less said about having to wake up at 6am on a dark, cold morning, the better.

Here endeth the nutshell