SUGOI XD (more emma spoilers...i hope no one minds)

Grinder-man was totally awesome. Possibly one of the coolest things I've ever seen. It was definitely unique. I'm not entirely sure how to explain it and just giving a play-by-play wouldn't really give it justice...but there were paper airplanes, ping-pong balls, and of course the guys in suits (or skirts) with cubes instead of heads...the cow's head from human growth and developement class, awesome music, sparks flying terrifyingly EVERYWHERE, annnnd more paper airplanes? It was so awesome. AND the MCJP never ceases to amaze me. Their big room (which i think it actually is la grande salle...so...lol) is one of the most adaptable places and so awesome. Really I think the MCJP is probably my favorite place in the entire world right now. I mean I like being at home and I like being in bed when I'm tired, but when I want to see something interesting or learn something about Japan I would love to have a warp to this place because it is so cool. But I was definitely discussing the big room...so I think I've seen it in probably...three or four completely different configurations. For movies they have your standard seats going up in rows. For Kyôgen they had a few rows off to the side of the stage and the rest were normal. Then for Grinder-man they had seats surrounding the stage but the stage wasn't wear it usually is. In fact the stage was kind of gone they were just on the floor. I'm not sure how many different views I've seen but it is crazy. The projection screens can go wherever and Grinder-man even had something projecting onto the floor.

So let's see...Grinder-man. It was also very stylized. The phrase "highly visual" comes to mind but that sounds kinda stuffy. For a while it felt like every next part was another game played by very creative...Grinder-men lol. They wore masks and shot ping pong balls at each other and then at us. They threw paper airplanes everywhere and ending up abducting a couple audience members and making THEM throw them too. ALSO really cool was that they had video footage that had obviously been taken that day including pre-show footage of the audience. So we got to see them running around Paris as well. They have this one helmet/mask that made me think of power rangers because a whole gang of the creepy dudes jumped a couple of the cube guys and the camera tilted...lol. I dunno...I'm sure none of this really makes sense at all...there's not really a good way to describe it. Really really cool and very Japanese. I'm not sure if it was just that fact that it was Japanese guys or if there really was something about the stylization. So aside from power rangers I also thought of traditional theater (because of the styalized movement), The Taste of Tea (some of the moves were very reminiscent of that and other things I've seen but can't think of where)...so I dunno there's got to be something. Oh oh and definitely sumo during the ping-pong face off or maybe boxing too. A cross between sumo, boxing, and ping-pong? And there was a storyline sort of...in imperfect English about a giant trying to make children for itself and failing most of the time. OH and I forgot about the LIGHTS there was a really cool segment where they wore these lightbulbes on their heads with triggers for graduated electricty or something...I dunno what I'm talking about lol and it really does start to sound insane "yeah light bulbs on their heads!!! whoo!! suh-WEET!" XD lol The last thing I have to say is that we were all really concerned when they came out with the spinny spark things. They were wearing some sort of metal on specific parts of their bodies and would basically...I don't even know the word...make sparks LOL big showers of crazy sparks and we were all really determined to stand (sit?) it down and not run for the door. I was especially convinced after I saw a shower go into one of the guy's hair...lol. Smelly, but apparently harmless...

Well I think I have successfully conveyed my exCITEment over the matter if not the matter itself.

The other thing I've been thinking about today was how it might be worth it to have to wear a dress everyday to be able to express oneself with such exactitude as Emma and all the characters in that book. Then again maybe not, but they really can talk.

Floating Cloud (Ukigumo) is still going on as well....slowly but surely. I'm trying to get at least two or three chapters in a day because otherwise I will NEVER finish it. It's sort of a bummer to have seen the movie before reading the book. That is generally the case with lengthy books and movies. I mean it's always better to read first but if the book is particularly long the consequences are intensified by the time disparity. It takes you two hours to watch the WHOLE story but then a month to read it and the whole time you are saying WHY hasn't this THING happened yet? Everything is so stretched out when really it is the opposite and the movie is just condensed as flaming death.

I was lazy today, oh but I already told you that. I didn't go to the MCJP to read about Keigo, tho I will go tomorrow. I studied a bit and I read a bit and basically just waited until it was time for dinner. The other problem is that I always over budget my time so that I get places on time and what not but I am so punctual that really I just end up OBSCENELY early. Today I managed to delay myself on the way to the MCJP by reading a chapter of Emma in the subway station during my cross from the 4 to the 6. Now TELL me that's not PATHETIC?

Well after this I will go home and eat some cereal and probably at that point be listening to Nova and thinking about bed. You know you listen to a radio station a lot when you grow attached to pretty much every song they play. Even the ones that were annoying and the ones that made you go, "huh?" become like old friends over for a round of Idiot and freshly baked apples. Does anyone know how to bake apples or what exactly is involved besides sticking them in the oven? Because after that extended conversation in Emma about them I found myself fairly DROOling.

Here are the spoilers tho...the apples I think don't hurt the plot but this may::

x_x

what is emma's deal? mr. elton was so cool i thought altho i have to admit that frank is better. but even him, what was that thing she said about decidedly when to throw in some coldness when things were getting a bit too friendly? really and truly what is her deal? why can't she just rejoice in the fact that she is having this crazy awesome funny conversations?

also emma's dad is a riot altho it's funny cuz he's like an extreme version of me lately. i've turned into a kind of "you'll catch your death out there" person too. *sigh* AND PORK ROAST!!! I'LL JUST HAVE NONE OF IT!!! (kidding...lol i thought that was funny tho...fry it but make hella sure you don't roast it)

Did you read about the IT workers skipping out for Star Wars? It was in the yahoo news. I was amused. I still haven't seen it. I'll get around to it though; I'm sure there's no hurry.

The question tho is WHATEVER am I going to do toMOrrow????? aside from make my near-daily appearance at the MCJP, i really have no clue. maybe i will go out for some food. there is one sandwich place in particular that i'm sure i will never be able to decide what to have at and would really just like to try it out ten times to make sure i experience the best thing they have...maybe i will go there.

did i tell you about the survey i did? I don't think so. I think i was distracted while writing the other day. Wellllll this guy on the street who I thought was just going to ask me some questions ended up taking me up these swirly stairs to this apt-office where there were all sorts of other bored pedestrians sitting at computers watching commercials. he put me to the task. I saw one for some sort of coffee? and another for a cheeto-like cracker thing. altogether it was pretty much like other surveys i have done only it was french so it felt like a cultural experience. (a rarity may i remind you)

i write more entertainingly when i'm excited i think...

speaking of french tho. emanuel and i were discussing once again the distressing student miguel who has become pratically fluent in his oral expression in i think actually under a year. he's bonkers and it drives the rest of us absolutely nuts. i tend to think of it from a pedagogical perspective and would really like to know exACTly what it was he did to attain such jealously provoking ease with his pronunciation and everything. he just floooowwwwssss and it makes everyone cry. as long as i focus on pedagogy i don't cry tho...so i try to be scientific :D

well i should leave as i am pretty hungry and tired. you know, next time i discover the best place in the world i hope i have some really good friends with me because it's kinda lonely going to all these performances and such by oneself. technically i should leave off there but i feel i should clarify that i do like going by myself and would not skip out just because it's only me, and of course there are certain advantages in attending on one's own such as retaining the afterglow longer...such as...even an hour longer if you are writing your blog after riding the subway in anticipation of enlightening your friends. but then i think it's good to have a nice balance between enlightening your friends and having your friends with you.

incidentally my friends were all having a party for emaneul which i didn't find out about until this afternoon and of course i had had my grinder-man tickets for a month already.

i don't think any of them really wanted to go with me. in fact i probably invited them a month ago.

lol

or i may have given up. I had been trying to drag them out there since march lol during the anime festival thing...haha

oh you know...i'm gonna make this even longer and less organized by tagging on some acute observations about encores:

i don't know if it's just here or if it's everywhere but people really seem to EXPECT them nowadays. here we are clapping and it's not eNOUGH that they just bow, and bow again, and probably bow again, annnnd then walk off. i always wonder how encores work. in band we used to have one ready if needed, but in these big performances the lights don't come up as if it's over; you just clap until they come back even if it takes a couple minutes (rufus). tonite was an interesting situation as there was no encore, which was fine with me, but i think it had some people confused. in fact maybe the house was confused. what happened: so they bow and bow and bow and go off yes...and the lights are still down and the music is still playing and we're stilling clapping but it's starting to taper...and then they came back...and left...and then we were still clapping and the lights were stilllll down and the music was stilll on so when left to our own devices we decided to clap to the music which was of course probably or at least to a me a mutually fulfilling act. They came back and we applauded more and they left again and this may have even happened AGAIN. i can't remember how many times. we loved them obviously and they loved us but i really wondered what was going on. were people expecting an encore? was the house expecting an encore? I would blame it entirely on the audience if not for the lack of houselights coming up. that was odd and i think the performers were sort of wondering how many times in the end they would be required to bow.

okashii ne

the word "okashii" always makes me think of that scene from A Taste of Tea which also makes me think of Grinder-man.

wow tho i really have to leave haha it is TIME

nite! ;D