First Day of School

The first day of school was kind of easy. I had heard that in the Japanese school system, formalized greetings and respectful proceedings are important. Well - the formalized start of the second semester managed to fill an entire half-day of school on my first day.

I had to catch a 6:41 bus to catch a 7:01 train to make sure that I was able to walk 30 min. to school and get there by 7:45. Everything worked out as planned, but for the rivers of sweat pouring down my face and into my new suit. In the span of 12 hours, I had biked through torrential rain and un-seasonable cold, and was now arriving at school before 8:00 in life threatening heat and humidity. I changed shoes at the door - leaving my polished dress shoes in the lower story of a cubby and changing into my $20 white nikes completing my Japanese teacher ensemble. The kids had home room and I attempted to look busy for an hour or so. Then we had our opening ceremony to usher in the new semester! The vice principal (by far the tallest man in the building at 6.1 plus 2 inches of slicked back hair), took his time getting the kids into perfect lines and whipping them into verbal submission. When he was satisfied with their level of discomfort (and maybe mine), he turned things over to the principal. Red cheeked and rosy, the principal reminded kids that they should continue to be everywhere 5 min. before they were required to be there. Awards were presented to clubs and specific students on last semesters performance. I was given a chance to embarrass myself in Japanese. I was so nervous given the formality of the event, that I thought I might faint. I did manage to eek out a self-introduction, but I wasn't fun at all - I had planed on making a splash, but the formality of the event threw me. The school nurse stole the show with details on the swine flu and how to guard against it.

After the opening ceremony, there was a fire drill. Then everyone in the building spent 15 minutes cleaning the whole school. This happens every day, but because of the fire drill, it was actually really dirty! Kids usually change shoes when they enter the building - this time, because they were required to evac. without changing shoes, the halls were filthy!

As we were in the practice of being everywhere 5 min. early, and having reached the end of the day, the kids returned to homeroom about min. 25 min. before they were scheduled to have done so. I'm sure nothing too school-like got done in this last 45 min. before kids were cut loose. Finally, with the half-day of school complete, the teachers were able to have a meeting and share stories of their summer vacations (about 2 weeks - less for some teachers). I got to introduce myself again and passed around some pictures. It turns out that the art teacher had gone to France and spend 4 whole days in the Luv! The head English teacher had drank her way around Germany (hell yeah!). We all passed out snacks from the places we had visited.

I got dropped off at a bike shop and bought my second crappy bicycle. This one will be on the top floor of the bicycle parking garage near the train station so I can ride it to school and cut my commute down 15 min. to about an hour.

Day 1 - no problemo.

Day 2 was more normal and a bit more fun. I got to teach 3 periods and got to spray a fire hose at a special after-school fire safety training presented by the Iruma-Shi fire department. Junior high school students just look and act like kids after all, thank God. I think I'll be ok.


I know this isn't a widely used blog - but I need a place for longer updates. Pictures and daily micro news will be on Facebook! If your on and you're not my friend, please friend me at mike.solo(at)gmail.com~! If you're not on facebook and don't want to be, bug someone who is on to show off my page sometime~ Awesome.

Bumper Sticker Subtext

This is what your bumper-sticker is NOT stating in the form of a snappy, memorable quip.

[Think Globally, Act Typically]

[.. and therefore I’m morally and ethically superior to all of (you)]

[God Bless America (and to hell with those other jokers)]

[Passive Aggressive Driver]

[Though purchasing this sticker was the extent of my action on this issue]

[Keep Santa Cruz (Wealthy/White)]

[They were passing out these stickers in front of Trader Joes]

[My other car is (that electric wheelchair at the grocery store)]

[Vote out of subconscious fear of dark-skinned minorities ‘08]

[Everyone should do what I think. And I think a lot. Really.]

[And We Complain More..]

[Metallica! (What up, Class of ’89?!)]

[My kid’s an honor student (and put this sticker on my car without asking)]

[Driver actually believes that (you) will change]

[Desperate attempt to be indie-cool]

[Vote to piss off my parents in ’08.. (Unless I’m hung-over)]

[Small Penis!]

I'm sorry.

This blog has been ignored for so long that I'm sure no one even bothers checking anymore. And you know, i deserve that. I've been a lousy blogger. Nearly-a/Over-a year has passed since i freed up the few minutes it takes to pass on even a good word to those of you who take would be kind enough to take the time to read it. It's a selfish and miserable thing that I've done. I have nothing in the way of excuses other than the bewilderment of a mind still heavy from trekking through a mire of joblessness and self doubt.

I've been not-laboring under the assumption that, "if [i don't] have something nice to say, then [I] shouldn't say anything at all". It's a sign of good upbringing, and my get-along-a'tude has never been better for it. Still, it doesn't pay to never bother saying anything at all. so fuck that noise, I'm going to recklessly reclaim this space and spit the truth for the emptiness to bear. {-The audience is now DeF-}

I can't promise that I won't do the same thing all over again, but the fact that I've cleared the room is more than enough reason for me to just sing to myself and fill the void.

Jump High

Naturally, I agreed to help Hiroki with the music for his movie. I didn't know exactly what helping make movie music might entail, but I'm always happy to lend a hand. It wasn't until a few weeks later that I got the call. "Hey, man. Do you think you can come by the studio for a few hours tomorrow afternoon?" What was it that I agreed to do again? "Oh yeah, sure. Wait. Where?"

I met Hiroki and a few friends on a sunny Saturday afternoon on the rolling hills of UC Santa Cruz. His friend, Bret, was an electronic music composition major and had access to a very nice, and very expensive looking, studio. "But only for two hours, kids." Hiroki didn't waste time, I shook hands with a confused looking girl holding a violin while Hiroki flipped open his laptop. He leaned back in his chair with a very director-like demeanor, "Ok, in this scene the main character is going to meet the girl who shapes the storyline from here on." I realized that I knew the actor who is playing the main character. Neat. "And right.. here.. she starts to dance".

Hiroki explained what kind of music he was interested in for this and other scenes using pretty vague, sweeping descriptions and was content to leave the details up to me and the violinist. "Yeah, something like that - but a little bit more uplifting." or "I like that melody, can you play something along with that." and "Yeah! That's perfect!" I wasn't sure if I was actually helping or not, but Hiroki seemed pretty optimistic. Bret had us record samples so that he could play our instruments back with the midi keyboard. "For post-production." Right..

I recorded some ambient, distant sounding pieces with no particular rhythm or meter and some plucking parts on a few chord progressions I'd been kicking around. The violinist didn't say much, but she could wail. When we were in between one thing and another, I starting twiddling around with a little do-dad that I've been meaning to turn into something. "Hey, can I get a loop of that? Do you think we can use it?" "Sure thing." Before I knew it that little song was falling around me like rain and a sweetly sad violin melody was playing over it matching the final scene and fading out to black and the ending credits. "Ok, time's up. That should do, guys. Thanks a lot."

I went to the film school's premier in the media arts theater, not really knowing what to expect. I walked in half-way through a futuristic sci-fi thriller about androids gone bad. I found a seat and laughed along with a pretty full house as the next group poked fun at a stereotypical action flick. I saw a movie or two with almost zero dialogue and an anti-war themed movie. One director had made a cute educational film about clouds. Finally, Hiroki's movie came on.

"Jump High."

I was very impressed. So much had changed from the rough work-in-progress I had caught a glimpse of in the studio. The music really knocked my socks off. The "post-production" Bret had referred to might have been called "studio magic". The genius had managed to take those 30 seconds of music and fully orchestrate them. There were piano parts in some places and percussion parts in others. The music matched up with the visuals and the tone of each scene so well that it was clearly written specifically with each scene in mind. I might have been a bit biased, but I thought Hiroki's was the very best movie at the premier.

"Jump High" will be submitted to various film festivals and will probably kick-start Hiroki's super-star career as a film maker. ..

And here it is~ http://fdmsoftserve.ucsc.edu/videoarchive/showvideo.php?film=438 love that music by "magic pants!"

Santa Cruz, CA. Home (yes, that's right, I live in California~). Living room - a very short commute from my "cozy nook" (cupboard under the stairs). wireless beer.

so, yeah! i took a cheap place in santa cruz with some groovy house mates, including one little dachshund! i've got the space under the stairs partitioned off with a curtain and that's fine by me - beats hostels any day of the week. santa cruz is alright too - i can pop into the city, but i've got none of the high-rent or car-broken into situations that go with living there. i've got some exploring to do - there's some good hiking round these parts i hear!

and sorry for the massive long-time-no-blog. i've been busy-as, running all up and down the state getting shit all set up~ BUT i've got nothing but good news! got some great gigs set up and some fantastic supporting talent! i can't frigging wait for march 17 when The Psycrons land at the San Francisco International Airport and we embark on 7 days of non-stop rock touring~! so many good friends are coming out and my parents too! everyone's been so supportive. it's great.. thank you. thank you. thank you.

for all my efforts, it doesn't look like i'm going to land any sponsors this time around. so - what i've got going is a highly organized way of spending all my time and money on an odd extroverted hobby of sorts. i'm still hopeful that my well-documented success will pay off in some serious attention next time around~ i'm not out yet!

Chelsea, MI. home home home. post cake, (haza!) magnificent 7 on the tv.
here it is!

this is my dad's birthday cake~ it was awesome!! sharon ran into some difficulties and she said that it didn't turn out exactly how she pictured it. still, you'll agree it's pretty slick. she told me a few tricks of the trade. now, this is a professional secret, but you might try cola as a replacement for water next time you whip up a cake. it's also recommended that you slam the bowl of batter down on the counter for the length of one oprah interview just for luck. or was it bubbles?

here's my dad's new wallet:

Chelsea, MI. home for the holidays~

holiday cake!! ha! i'll finally get to eat some that sister cake~