What I Want For Christmas...

This is all the rage this season! All the kids want it...

That's Our Luna-Burrito

Moe's or Chipotle don't have anything on this one!

One Year American Anniversary

So this weekend is very bittersweet for me. It was this weekend one year ago that we flew back from Japan. It's so crazy that it's already been one year. Some days I miss being in Japan with such a passion and promise myself that we'll return there for longterm again some day. I still think it's going to happen, but it's going to take a lot of planning. At every point during this past year I kept telling myself "one year ago in Japan we were doing ____________". Well now that it's been one year since we returned, I need to stop living in the past. This year has definitely been bumpy, but I'm extremely optimistic about 2009. It is amazing the friends we've gained or reconnected with and some of the experiences we've had since we've been back. This has all been part of learning, growing, and transforming and it can only get better.

Jingle All The Way

As promised here are a few pics from the Jingle Bell 5K Run from last Sunday. We ran with our friend, Diane. She's one of our yoga/drinking buddies (what a dichotomy), and she used to be a competitive runner. This run was purely for fun, as the route went through the historic San Marco neighborhood along the river during Luminaria. The only difficulty was dodging countless walkers, children, and people that don't run on a regular basis. I do need to get serious about training for the next half marathon in February though.

The Weekend

I find myself in the midst of another weekend. Here's the plan: yoga, beer, sleep, repeat. Just kidding - we are going over to some friends' house later to watch the Gators gam (Gasp! I'm watching football! Somebody check my temperature!). Tomorrow, Akemi and I will run a fun little 5K "Festival Of Lights" run with our friend Diane through the historic San Marco neighborhood in the evening. Tomorrow night is what they call "Luminaria", where several neighborhoods line the streets with luminaries - candles in paperbags weighted down with sand. Doesn't sound that thrilling, but it's actually quite beautiful when there are endless lines of thousands of them. I'll try to take some new photos to post on here and faceboob.

Oh Baby!

So here's the album cover to Mozzer's new album coming out next year. Albeit babies usually aren't that commonplace on the cover of rock albums, I love this photo. Morrissey looks about as comfortable as I do holding an infant. But there's great irony here - Moz in all of his retro-coolness and "Will Never Marry" swagger toting around this little crumbgrabber. The icing on the cake is the Fred Perry shirt with sleeves rolled up. Does it get any cooler than that? And the devilish look on that kids face! He knows something we don't. And who drew on his forehead? Can't wait to hear this one. As usual, I'm sure it won't disappoint.

Netflix Rules The World!

I just got an e-mail today that Netflix now has instant-play movies and tv shows viewable on Mac computers! And to boot, when you view a movie on your computer it doesn't count against your monthly subscription service. Guess I'll be wasting twice as many hours as I already do in front of my computer!

Crazy Dentist Movie

Well, not really so "crazy", but this movie "Reign Over Me" had quite an effect on me. I wasn't sure what to make of it before seeing it the other day, as I had just read a quick blurb about it a while back on the Tokyo Metropolis site, but I knew I was intrigued. Plus, sometimes I don't like to know too much about a movie before I see it. The constant in-your-face trailers depicting every key scene nowadays gives me movie-fatigue, and I'm often bored by the time I see the film in full length. But this movie, starring Don Cheadle ("Boogie Nights", "Hotel Rwanda") and Adam Sandler, is a story about two dentists (can you dig it? I can) reconnecting for the first time in years since dental school. In that interim of time, Adam Sandler's character loses his wife, 3 girls, and his dog in the 911 attack on the World Trade Center and he basically drops out of society in full PTSD mode and lives a reclusive life, independently wealthy from the settlement he received from the loss of his family. Needless to say, this isn't Adam Sandler's typical fare, a very sad story indeed but there are some great comedic moments. I won't spoil anymore of it for you, but I gotta put a plug in for Adam Sandler's crazy Bob Dylanesque hairdo and the cool oldskool soundtrack in this movie!

More emotionally-bruised dentist movies please! Dentists need love too.

Two Movies

Just wanted to mention two more movies we watched recently through Netflix.

"Dan In Real Life" - This really wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be more about Steve Carrell's character's home life and getting back into the dating scene, but it ended up being one of those family-get-together-for-the-holidays movies where the perfect family reunites at some unrealistically scenic, vintage house and plays football, has crossword competitions, does aerobics, and even puts on a family talent show complete with a stage. What family does this? It was like watching a 90min J Crew ad. Steve Carrell's comic timing was toned down, and Dane Cooke was typically annoying. Who really likes Dane Cooke anyway? Why he's famous is beyond comprehension. This movie was too much in the vein of "Home For The Holidays", "The Family Stone", "Bed Of Roses", and even a little bit of "Wedding Crashers" and "Meet The Parents" though nowhere near as funny.

"In The Realms Of The Unreal" - This was a bizarre documentary about Henry Darger, a Chicago janitor, who, for most of his 81 year life, prolifically wrote and painted and painstakingly created a fantasy world about 7 heroic sisters, all in the privacy of a room he rented from a couple. His hundreds of paintings are very elaborate in detail, with some being as large as 12 feet in length, and feature scenes from his writings. I personally thought they had a very early-Disney quality about them not unlike "Fantasia", "Bambi", or "Snow White". The novel he wrote (same title as the movie) is over 15,000 pages, the single longest non-fiction work ever written. Director Jessica Yu brilliantly pieces together animated sequences along with interviews of the few people that new this very, very quiet reclusive self-taught man. It was a very intriguing look into somebody's very private world, and some may interpret Darger as having some manner of psychosexual disorder or severe issues left over from his childhood. Yu does not steer you to any particular conclusions, leaving the viewer to take it all in at face value. Highly recommended if you liked "The Devil and Daniel Johnston".

More Old Friends

This weekend was not bad. Got some yoga and running in and met some friends out at Culhane's Irish Pub on Friday night, then an old friend from high school at the same place last night. Work is frighteningly slow, so I'm considering my other options right now, all of which include moving away from this area in some manner - i.e. looking outside of Jacksonville for another practice to get into or rejoining the military. Everything is completely up in the air. I was pretty depressed about it for a few weeks, but somehow I'm starting to feel optimistic again. I realize the economy goes in waves, so at some point it has to get better. I was really kicking myself, though, for getting off active duty last December. I got up and walked away from what I had in Japan to move here. I was absolutely happy in Japan (outside of work; and even work wasn't that terrible) and probably could have finished out my career there bouncing back and forth between Yokosuka and Okinawa since most dental officers do NOT want to take those billets in Japan. Don't ask me why! They have no idea what kind of opportunity for travel they're missing out on. But I screwed up thinking the grass is always greener somewhere else - in my case I thought the grass was greener in private practice, which it isn't necessarily. So now it's time to regroup and plan. I know I bad-mouth Jacksonville and the South in general a lot, but we now have a pretty good group of friends here which will only make leaving harder. Time will tell.

Supergrass Makes Me Happy

Not sure why, but I love a good rockumentary. Case in point, whenever I feel a little melancholy I throw on my copy of "Supergrass Is 10" into the DVD player. It covers their inception as a band, the production of their first four albums, interviews with all the band members, producers, etc., footage of live shows/tv performances, and footage from their multiple international performances. Sounds dull, but it's really, really well-made and makes me all warm and fuzzy, especially when I see their tour footage from Japan. They are just an incredible band and it never ceases to amaze how little they have been promoted in the U.S. Why is that? I just hope they carry on making fantastic, original music. I did enjoy "Road To Rouen", though it was a little slow at points, and I have yet to be inspired by "Diamond Hoo Ha", though I really haven't given it a chance. I rarely like an album right off the bat. Typically, I'll see it or buy it and leave it alone, then months, maybe years later, something will snap in my head and all becomes lucid about how great an album or band it is. This happened to me with Belle and Sebastian. I had quasi-paid attention to them around 2001-03, and then I saw them live in Tokyo in June 2006. Then about 6 months after that, the aural floodgates opened and I couldn't get enough of them! I'm all OC like that. I'm typically into a band when the rest of the world is not.

Oh well. That's enough blathering from me. I think now I'll go watch "LOUD quiet LOUD", the rockumentary about the 2004 reunion of the Pixies.

This Is How I Feel

This is "No Alarms" by Radiohead. I just watched their 1997-98 tour video "Meeting People Is Easy" and was reminded how much I love this song (as well as the entire album "OK Computer").

Be Kind Rewind

We watched one of the most original recent movies the other night - "Be Kind Rewind". I'm not going to give away the whole plot, but in a nutshell Jack Black and Mos Def, after accidentally erasing all the tapes in the video store they work at, recreate a whole slough of famous blockbuster movies. And they do it in a way that is so ridiculously simple, that it's genius. The movie was directed by Michel Gondry, who, if you're familiar with his stuff, uses almost sinfully simple techniques to create cinematic illusion and effects. He's done a handful of some of my most favorite movies, including "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", "Human Nature", "The Science Of Sleep" (which was kind of a dud), as well as a host of videos with Bjork, Beck, Lenny Kravitz, and others. In "Be Kind Rewind", the remade movies are called "Sweded" movies, which was Jack Black's attempt to explain the high price and long wait for movies (i.e. the movies had to be imported from Sweden). It sounds ridiculous, but the cheesy remakes are hilarious! Below are the original movie trailer, Michel Gondry's "sweded" movie trailer, and a cool Beck video for "Cellphone's Dead". Enjoy!

Election 2008

So right now I'm watching the election results with baited breath. This is the first election that I've paid so much attention to. I'm sooooo wanting Obama to take this thing and put it in his back pocket!! It's funny because I really do respect McCain for what he went through as a POW, but I just absolutely do not want his party to continue their reign of ignorance and bullying anymore. My wife just came to the epiphany today that should something happen to him, then Caribou Barbie takes the con - uuuuh... yeah, scary stuff! I try to stay out of political discussions at work. Our little office is basically a family business, and if they knew my political predilections they would probably fire me (which may not be all that of a bad thing as I am now seriously considering going back on active duty). Something else I've come to realize is that many of the people I grew up with now consider themselves diehard republicans. When did this happen, and how come I didn't get the memo?? These were people that were more liberal than Jerry Garcia when we were growing up and now all of sudden they've become the moral majority - self-righteous, overly-religulated automatons! Maybe I didn't do enough as a true friend to prevent this from happening. Maybe kids have something to do with it. Seems like once people start having kids they start turning "red". I took a turn towards the dark side during my residency over 5 years ago, but then realized the error of my ways. After being stationed overseas and talking to plenty of foreign people, I've come to the realization that the U.S. may or may not need McCain, but the world definitely needs Obama. Godspeed, Obama-chan!

Dancing At The Eclipse

Friday night was kind of fun. Akemi was still out of town, so I along with my brother and sister-in-law decided to kick it old skool and go out for some Middle Eastern cuisine followed by dancing at probably the only club around that still has an "Old Wave" night, The Eclipse. In rare form, Lysa and I pre-partied at the house first with a few drinks (Tony was the DD), then headed to Kasbah, a great little pan-Arabic cafe for hummus and kibbi (sp?) and also to share a hooka. We smoked a lemon/strawberry/orange hooka that was really refreshing. It's usually a relaxing ambience there, complete with belly dancers, with the crowd being mainly college students. Following, we went to The Eclipse and caught the final hour (1am-2am!) of the night - normally the best. It was a little bittersweet though because the place wasn't so crowded like in its heyday of 15 years or so ago. No more real Goths, 80s freaks, or art-school kids - just kind of generic lounge patrons that would be just as at home at a sports bar. The music was pretty predictable (a good thing!) with the prerequisite Smiths, Siouxsie & the Banshees, R.E.M, etc. etc., but also Wu-Tang Clan - huh? Don't recall hearing them in the 80s! We had a good time but it was a little sad. Or maybe I'm getting too old for that sort of thing. All things must pass!

Birthday Blues

Today I turned 37 years old. It was a pretty uneventful day. Akemi is out of town for one week doing the Hot Vinyasa yoga training in Ft. Lauderdale. I ended up not seeing any patients today. I took an afternoon nap and attempted to watch a Netflix movie, which was unviewable because of a scrape on the disc. I went to an hour yoga class, then my brother took me out for dinner at a Thai restaurant along with my niece and mom. I'm 37 and physically I feel great. Mentally, though, I've been in a lot of distress this year. I think I've made a series of bad decisions which all began with separating from active duty last December. The economy is bad, work is deathly slow, and I don't want to be in this town anymore. I grew up here but I feel the equivalent of culture shock. I'm considering my options, but I'll have to make some kind of decision on what I want to do ultimately by the end of this year.

Some Recent Music

Hi again. There's a couple new albums out now that I downloaded that are pretty notable:

"Dear Science" - tv on the radio - A fantastically, funky Prince-meets-Beck creation that is really unique. Highly recommended. I caught on to them via NPR. Hey, it may be the "liberal media elite", as they say, but I betcha Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity aren't listening to cool, new music like this!

"Re-Arrange Us" - Mates of State - Married couple Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel put together a collection of songs with a poppy Lush/Blonde Redhead sort of sound. Very happy and boppy, but endearing. Apparently they've been around for a few years, providing a track for an AT&T commercial as well as the house band for the touring version of "This American Life" with Ira Glass (another NPR staple). They caught my interest from an ad on my facebook profile. Damn popups!

"Way To Normal" - Ben Folds - If you're new to Ben Folds, this is no masterpiece, but if you're a pretty ardent fan of his like me, you'll still appreciate this album. Some of the tracks (almost all are labeled "explicit") seem to have curse words in them just for mischief's sake, but there are a few moments reminiscent of the genius of "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner" (e.g. "Cologne"), as a well as a great live track entitled "Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head)" which sounds like a bizarre fusion of "Private Eyes" by Hall & Oates with "Benny & The Jets" by Elton John.

Enjoy!

Some Recent Movies

In the past I've donated money to NetFlix just because I haven't been watching the movies fast enough in my plan. Lately, however, we've been trying to catch up so I've seen a few interesting flicks:

Black Snake Moan - An interesting morality play on confronting our personal demons (as well as Christina Ricci walking around in her underwear for half the movie). Both her, Samuel L. Jackson, and Justin Timberlake do a fine job and I was pretty well entertained. It's a pretty good portrait of the Deep South as well.

Bourne Ultimatum - We own the first two movies on DVD, but for some reason it took me over a year to finally get around to watching the 3rd and final installment. It's basically more of the same fights, car chases, and Jason Bourne scaring the hell out of Julia Stiles' character, but it's definitely just as enthralling with some well-received closure to the Bourne mystery. I'm wondering if they'll continue the franchise...

White Light, Black Rain - The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - Of course you know from this title that this is no easy fare. Of course it's very depressing and sad, but it does not lecture to the U.S. or to Japan. It is very informative, though, and it was also interesting to see how little Japanese youth know about the course of events in 1945 (from the Tokyo street interviews at the beginning of the movie).

Hot Dog!

These images are from a recent posting from the Shichirigahama site I always check. The photographer is a local there that always takes lots of photos of surfers. He must commute up to Ginza quite a bit too because there are pics from the city and the train on there too sometimes. I wonder if this miniature dachshund is really enjoying this? This would freak me out taking one of my tiny dogs out there and attempting to surf!

Baggage

The weekend before last I flew up to Bethesda, MD for a two day Navy Reserves symposium for medical/dental officers. The meeting was good because I got to see a few people I haven't seen in years and years (kind of like Facebook!). The flight left something to be desired though, not so much because of the 3 hour delay departing DC, but because of the new rules for baggage. If you haven't flown in a few months, you may not realize that most airlines charge you a fee to check a piece of baggage in - i.e. $15 per bag! What a rip off! Long gone are the days of checking multiple bags (not that I regularly did anyway), but what this is now doing is creating a new class of cheapskate passengers who, in order to forego paying this fee, don't check any bags in and instead lug all their shit onto the plane and cram it into the overhead bins occupying every square millimeter of space. Their baggage may pass the maximum size allowance, but it's still pretty damn big nonetheless. I've learned not to stow anything in the overhead bins, especially if its fragile, but God forbid if you have to put a laptop computer up there. You can pretty much kiss it goodbye! What it boils down to is that people bring way too much crap with them, even for domestic travel. My solution is that they shouldn't charge for checked baggage, which goes into a cargo hold, but instead they should charge according to how much volumetric space inside the cabin you and your bags occupy. Yes - that means obese people pay more! Extra-large bags and extra-large people are directly proportional to a less comfortable flight for me and plenty of other small/slim people who can pack a little more frugally and take up less space. How many times have you been on a flight and had a beefy arm or thigh of a neighboring chunkster taking up to a quarter of your space? Oh, and get this - when the beverage cart came out, they charged not only for beer and soda, but also for water! WTF!! And God love the flight attendants - I really empathize with them because they don't make these rules, yet they are often the targets of the wrath of ignorant, inconsiderate people.

Hey, enough of my ranting!! Here's a pic of me and my buddy Paul, and Paul and his wife Efrat, at the Dogfish Head ale house in Gaithersburg, MD. Paul's currently in his anesthesiology residency at NNMC. It was quite the weekend of ethnic foods. Friday night we had a menu of Israeli dishes prepared by Efrat and a neighbor (both are from Israel); Saturday we had Indian; Sunday we had Ethiopian. Gochisosama deshita!!

"It is what it is"

Yeah, I was away from the states for a couple years, but when did this expression become the phrase sensation that's sweeping the nation? It seems like I hear it everywhere now! Who came up with this? Was it in a commercial or a movie? I've overheard somebody saying it at least five times in the past two weeks. It sounds like such a cop out, to be used when you can offer no real insight into a matter or situation, kind of like "c'est la vie" or "call a spade a spade". It's an automatic conversation ender. Maybe that's a good thing. The next time I'm in line at the bank or the grocery store or on a plane and a stranger tries to spark up meaningless conversation, I'll just offer up "it is what it is" and turn away or close my eyes and pretend to nap. I predict it's going to become as ubiquitous as the expression "dude", being applied to everything from high school exams to traffic fender benders to presidential debates (e.g. "Senator McCain, what are your views on the $700 billion bailout of our country's largest financial institutions?"; "Well Mr. Moderator, it is what it is" (cue relentless applause)). Just wait, "IIWII" is going to replace "WWJD" on bumper stickers. They'll be T-shirts, buttons, motivational posters. America is becoming the "It is what it is" culture! "It is what it is" fever -- catch it!!

Word Of The Day

boondoggle |ˈboōnˌdägəl; -ˌdôgəl| informal
noun
work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value : writing off the cold fusion phenomenon as a boondoggle best buried in literature.
• a public project of questionable merit that typically involves political patronage and graft:
: they each drew $600,000 in the final months of the great boondoggle.

AKA - What I'm doing this weekend in Bethesda, Maryland as part of the reserves. Be back Sunday night!

Photo Of The Day

Saw this on the Beatles site as part of an article on the release of a DVD entitled "All Together Now" coming out on 20 Oct (my birthday!) about the creative process behind the "Love" album and Cirque Du Soleil show. Geez, I hope I don't get sued by Paul McCartney for posting this!

Vinyasa Uprising!

Om My God! Where have I been? What's up with that! I've become the world's laziest blogger. Sorry kids! I have been really slacking. Let me update you since I last blogged. I started my new job. It's a great office, with nice people, but it has been a slow start. My patient load has been minimal and I've been working at getting referrals. Anyway, my life doesn't revolve around that completely. I've been doing a lot of surfing, yoga, and a little travel. Akemi and I attended a yoga conference called "Vinyasa Uprising" in Miami Beach from 10-14 September. It was my first, and not to make it too cliche, but it was "enlightening". I had a great time, as well as a couple ass-kicking sessions. I've driven through Miami a couple times on my way to Key West, but this was my first time to actually visit the city. I was pleasantly surprised. I actually really, really enjoyed it. I don't why, but I had these preconceived notions of the whole city being like one big scene from "Scarface". It wasn't like that at all. Yes, it was very ethnic (filled with great restaurants), but I didn't fear being shot and I didn't witness any drug deals going down. (OK, now that's just being racist, you bastard). As far as the conference goes, I'm a very open-minded person (dare I say liberal? deep-down, yes, but don't tell anybody I told you!), and this event challenged my perceptions to the max. Yes, there was the physical aspect of the yoga classes, but there was something deeper going on there too, complete with lots of yogi spiritualists, meditation, and sanskrit chants. No, there was no Kool-Aid drinking involved, but I think something snapped in the spiritual recesses of my mind. Suddenly I have this insatiable urge to drop out of society, travel to India, and become a Vedic monk in the middle of freakin' nowhere for a few years. For a moment, my third eye opened and all became lucid.

And then I went back to work on Monday.

But anyway, check out a few photos. Also, I've been posting boatloads of photos on my Facebook page. Just look me up under "Bernard Hofmann". More posts to come, I promise.

Super Fuzz

This post goes out to my good friend, Philip, who I've been friends with since 7th grade. Here's a clip of one of our favorite bad 80s movies - "Super Fuzz"; it's so bad, it's great! It came out in 1980, starring Italian actor Terrence Hill (that's his Americanized name) and Ernest Borgnine. Terrence Hill was in a bunch of spaghetti Westerns in the 60s and 70s, including a great one called "My Name Is Nobody". "Super Fuzz" was actually directed by an Italian director, which is probably why even though this movie was filmed in the U.S., something about it doesn't seem quite American. It seems like some kind of wacky European comedy. I even wonder if Terrence Hill's voice was dubbed over or he tries extremely hard to cover up the Italian accent, but he has a really strange, unplaceable accent in this movie. I remember watching this countless times on HBO back in the day. Enjoy Philipa!

Life Is Good

Hey all. Nothing new to post recently - just been busy with my new job, which is great by the way, and Reserves last weekend. Looking forward to a four day weekend coming up this weekend, then another Reserves weekend following, then two consecutive weekends out of town - Miami then Washington D.C. September's going to be fun! Now I just need to motivate myself to start running again. I've been reading a book on running technique and even subscribed to "Runner's World" - now I just need to get my lazy butt out there and do it! It takes so much effort to get into a very regular routine, but it only takes one week and a little bit of apathy to completely fall out of it. More to come soon...

Movie Seasoning

I have to confess a guilty pleasure, which for some of you may bring my masculinity into question. I've watched the movie "Before Sunrise", directed by Richard Linklater, multiple times and I finally watched "Before Sunset" from Netflix last night. I had to do so after Akemi went to bed because she doesn't like movies that are all dialogue, as is "Sunset", and have no real climax or resolution or "denouement". Also, Americans tend to talk too much (I know Julie Delpy is French, but it's still an American-made movie). But somehow I enjoyed the first movie because the dialogue is so rich and Ethan Hawke is a pretty decent actor. The second movie is not great, but somehow it also covers a lot of great topics in the dialogue that you may not get in pretty much any other movie. I was not totally happy with the ending, though I can't think of a good alternate way to end it. It does, however, end with a great Nina Simone song. Nina Simone is like seasoning for movies - if you want to spice up an otherwise bland movie, throw in an obscure Nina Simone song and there you go -- instant art house masterpiece! Here's a few other movies that have strategically used Nina songs: "Point Of No Return" (American remake of "La Femme Nikita"), "Stealing Beauty", and "The Dancer Upstairs". All movies I somehow liked, but which are definitely cult classics - using the word "classics" loosely. Here's the song from "Sunset". Enjoy!

Old Friends, New Beginnings

The internet is a wonderful thing. It really is. I have been able to get in touch with so many old friends lately, some whom I haven't seen in 17 or 18 years. It's amazing. One of my best friends from high school, Matt, contacted me through Facebook. The last time we spoke was in 1990. Our lives have made interesting twists and loops since then. In honor of my friend, Matt, I posted a beautifully edited video of John Lennon's song "Starting Over". He's a huge John Lennon fan (as am I - even had a chance to visit Strawberry Fields in Central Park, NYC as well as the John Lennon Museum in Saitama, Japan). Cheers, Matt!



Sorry, I'm getting all teary eyed!

Muy Caliente!

I don't have anything interesting or funny to write about today so I'm just pasting this story about this Olympic javelin thrower I got from Yahoo! news. Didn't mean to offend any female viewers of my blog, but, yes, she is a cutie.

Paraguayan heartthrob breaks our collective hearts
By Chris Chase

Leryn Franco is just your run-of-the-mill javelin thrower/pageant queen/model with her own calendar. But during the Beijing Olympics the 26-year old Paraguayan became so much more to the American people; she became our javelin thrower/pageant queen/model with her own calendar. So, my fellow Americans, it is with a heavy heart that I regret to inform you that our favorite Paraguayan athlete (sorry Jose Luis Chilavert) was eliminated from the Olympics this morning after failing to qualify for the javelin finals. Take all the time you need.
Ms. Franco became the object of our attention after she was noticed by NBC cameras during the Parade of Nations at the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Fourth-Place Medal's fledgling Investigative Unit discovered her identity eight magical days ago and since then our schoolboy crush blossomed into unrequited love.
Leryn -- can we call you Leryn? -- didn't return our collective calls, but we didn't mind. We knew she was busy preparing for her event: the javelin throw. She competed this morning, finishing second-to-last in the qualifying round with a throw that was 12 meters short of her personal best. It was a disappointment, to be sure, but not altogether surprising. After all, Leryn's goal was never to medal; it was to win the hearts of men and women worldwide. And in that event, Leryn Franco won gold.

Codeword: Iceland

Just conducting a little experiment here. I'll explain later (maybe).

The password is: Iceland

Are You Ready For Some Football!!

Eh?

Those who know me must think I'm on drugs. This is no great confession - I don't know diddly about football. Gasp! I've never been a bonafide fan, and I'll get more into that in a minute. Last night, Akemi and I were invited by my new boss to attend a Jaguars pre-season game against the Miami Dolphins. He's a season ticket holder. I wanted Akemi to witness a real American professional football game and all the sensory accoutrements that go along with it -- the food, the noise, the smells, the sounds, the people. Oh, especially the people! Where else do you get to see as many people standup in reverence for the playing of Lynyrd Skynyrd as you do for the playing of the national anthem? One large man wearing a Dan Marino jersey actually stood for the entire duration of the game yelling gibberish. Nonetheless, we had great seats, ate an awesome Polish sausage dog and a bag of hot boiled peanuts, and enjoyed the company of our gracious hosts.

So back to football fandom. When I was growing up, if there was an athletic event being viewed on tv, it was either boxing, tennis, or soccer. My dad couldn't stand football, especially when it delayed his beloved news or 60 Minutes. He was like Kathy Bates in "Waterboy" - "Who wants to watch foosball and all them gorillas jumping on each other?". Thus, football never affected me the way it does other people. I've never lived or died the way others do on how their team performs. In fact, it always puzzled on what kind of criteria people went by in choosing "their" team. Is it where they live? Is it where they've lived in the past? Is it the team mascot? Is it the team colors? Is it the players? Is it the coach? Is it because they played some form of organized football themselves? I've seen many obsessed Gators and Bulldogs fans who certainly did not attend those schools - some of them looked like they could barely count to ten, much less fill out a college application. Sure, I grew up playing football with neighborhood friends, but it was never more than throw, catch, run, tackle (anybody remember "smear the queer with the ball"?). I never learned the rules, positions, plays, etc., and I never made any effort too. I couldn't tell you the difference between a full back, a half back, or a running back - isn't there a hunch back, a baby back, and a flap jack in there somewhere too? I kind of caught a lot of flack for my apathy from my friends in dental school when everyone was mesmerized by Steve Spurrier's reign of victory with the Gators - it just appalled people that I didn't give a flip. Well you's just un-Amercan, boy!!

But now that I'm all grows up, I'm really trying to make an effort to understand and appreciate football. I'll get there, just give me time. If I work real hard, watch all the games, and study all the stats, maybe one day you'll see me on the jumbotron at a Jag's game, shirtless with a teal and gold afro, just dancing my little heart out to "Sweet Home Alabama". When you dream, dream big!






He hasn't blinked in half an hour! Is he is still breathing?

European Street

Friday night we went out to European Street Cafe at Jax Beach. They have an outdoor patio as well countless import bottle and draft beers. Their selection of British, Belgian, and German beers is quite impressive; plus, they have 2-for-1 happy hour from 2-7pm. So after toiling over yard work for a few hours we met up with Diane and Rob for some drinks and shenanigans. No explanations needed - the photos say it all. And wouldn't you know it -- someone always ends up showing their butt by the end of the night!

Toe Stand

Rob has been taking photos of clients at the studio demonstrating each of the 26 poses of Bikram yoga, which he will display on the walls of the reception area. For mine, I did toe stand (Sanskrit name: Padangustasana). I didn't have the best form for this demonstration, but it was good enough for government work.

Your Redneck Past

I stole this video clip from the Albino Bowler; hope he doesn't mind. It's a phenomenal rendition of "Your Redneck Past" by Ben Folds Five. I'm getting in touch with my redneck past - not a difficult feat in Jacksonville, Florida, despite the fact that I was raised by German immigrants in a fairly open-minded household. My father, though, really tapped into his inner-redneck - hence, the gun collection, the genuine ostrich skin cowboy boots, and the Ford F150. It really is true, though; every country and every culture has its own redneck demographic. I even found them in Japan - e.g. the oji-san truck drivers with their tricked-out semis, and the "yan-kis" (or "young kids") with their tacky clothes and mullets (along with 5 illegitimate children all crammed into a booth at the "all-plates-are-¥100" sushi restaurants). Next time you travel abroad, keep your eyes peeled. You're bound to see someone else with their own redneck past.

BeerFoam-san

So I'm digging through some old photos tonight and I come across a packet of postcards that were complimentary when we took the Kirin Beer Village tour in Yokohama back in January 2007. I had completely forgotten about these; don't hassle me about that - we stumbled out of that place in such a drunken stupor, I was lucky to make it home with my house key, enough fare for the train, and both shoes on my feet. Anyway, they feature a character soooo cute, I think I'm going to have to scratch my eyeballs out. His name is Ecojiro, and my best guess is that he's supposed to be the "foamy, hoppy goodness from a perfectly pulled pint of refreshing Kirin lager" (thanks for the royalty on that one, Kirin!). The reason I think that's what he's supposed to be is because of the last image below. Look at how wistfully he's gazing at that smiling bottle of Kirin beer. Don't you want to go to your home, little beer-foam guy? Your bags are packed. You've got your tickets in hand. What's wrong with you? Are you too good for your home?





Only in Japan can something from a beer advertisement be so freakin' cute. Ecojiro-san truly is a friend of nature (and drunken tomfoolery). If you have any thoughts on what else he may be, please share!