I read somewhere that author Dan Brown has an hourglass in which the sand flows for one hour. He uses it when writing to tell him when it’s time to take a break.
Every morning I sit at my desk and get lost in the pleasure of exploring kanji Chinese characters. I knew immediately that a 60-minute hourglass was exactly what I needed as well. I ordered one at the hobby store Tokyu Hands (¥13,500/$150/100 euros/£.90). It arrived recently and has quickly become a fetishised object.
This precision instrument is a thing of simple beauty and perfect utility. When I look up and see that the contents have trickled to the bottom, I know it’s about time to stand up and do something physical before sitting down once again, inverting the glass, and diving back into the Japanese language.
--Julian
Nice to have the sporadically clogged conduit flowing freely again. I added three books to the "Books I Finished in 2009" folder today.
—David
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.
I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.
Cheers,
tomorrow i catch the train to more southerly climes. last week when i was there i watched a kite hover over the pasture in front of the assistencia. it's a floodplain. cattle are still grazed there though at this time of year the pasture is empty. right about sunset i stood by the fence and watched the kite climb into the sky. it hovered and dove many times. continually missed its mark. finally it managed to pin something to the earth. then it struggled into the air and flew to the top of a large oak to eat its prey.
had peculiar dreams last night. they were very vivid. i was by turns angry and crushed. i rolled around until tangled in the duvet. bashed my arm on a protruding wall plug.
have most of a sock knit. i'll knit the other on the train while i listen to podcasts and watch the other passengers. that's really the great appeal of trains for me. you sometimes encounter very interesting characters. other times you spend the trip avoiding the bathroom and the doleful mouth-breathing gawps of drunken degenerates. i suppose even those are interesting in their way.
wellidy. i go.
In an old part of Tokyo in the late afternoon, I passed a narrow alley. The houses faced each other, almost touching, and pots of flowers and plants filled the available space. The sky behind had turned red, and I felt a sudden and unexpected rush of love for the density of human existence; so many lives being led so closely together.
Tokyo at sunset
chaos of humanity
ache of affection
--Julian
We go to the movies a lot here in rural Chigasaki, and usually stumble out from our aisle seats when the end credits begin to roll. We do it with no thought other than that the film's over, and there always seem to be others making a quick exit.
Yesterday we went to metropolitan Tokyo to catch a film that hadn’t made it to local screens. What astounded me was that everyone stayed in their seats during the end credits. As the names were slowly presented for minutes on end, I looked around at my fellow audience with growing incredulity. I noted that a few were quietly checking their phones, but otherwise no one spoke or moved until the lights went up.
I can only guess this was etiquette: a show of respect toward the film, any film. The one we’d watched had been a crime against cinema; Dave White deftly and accurately describes it as “a swirling suckpool of incoherence.” But no one moved anyway. I suspect this is uniquely Japanese behavior and, now that I've thought about it... I like it.
What's your end-credit behavior?
--Julian
The New York Times, along with much of the rest of the media, gave George W. Bush and his cohorts a free pass during the run-up to the Iraq war. They apologized for that lapse later, and seem to have learned something, too. They are not shy about criticizing Obama and company when they deserve it. On the editorial page today:
The Obama administration has clung for so long to the Bush administration’s expansive claims of national security and executive power that it is in danger of turning President George W. Bush’s cover-up of abuses committed in the name of fighting terrorism into President Barack Obama’s cover-up.
Read the rest here.
--David
This is the latest in my series of unpublished letters to editors. This one didn't appear in the Financial Times.
Dear Editors:
Farhan Bokhari, in his article, "'Vikings' of the frontier land refuse to yield," quotes Hakimullah Meshud, leader of the Taliban, as saying: "First stop, an Islamic state in Pakistan, second stop, attacks on India." Am I the only one who, disregarding the commas, was startled, on first misreading, to learn that Hakimullah wished to prevent Pakistan from becoming an Islamic state and to end attacks on India?
—David
