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  Ian Chun 23:50 on 2007.12.22 Permalink | Reply  

  KEEP Christmas 2007 

  What can I say? I am honored to be friends with a guy who throws the greatest parties. Honored because he gives people with dreams a stage on which to promote themselves and their activities–aspiring artists, musicians, writers, business people, NPO causes…

  And at these parties, as we listen and look at the works of these creators, we grow into a family–exchanging names at first, smiles second, laughs and drinks. We talk and discover each other, and KEEP each other in mind until the next KEEP when our relationships climb the next step on the ladder to lifelong friendships.

  Or we don’t. We stay firmly on that first step each time we meet, and that’s OK. Okay because we KEEP smiling and laughing in spite of our unfamiliarity with each other. Immersed in the familiarity of KEEP, we shrug off the dust of our memories and revel and relax and renew our bonds, if only for the night.

  Thank you Yoshi, Yonex, and fellow KEEP creators (and today’s creator Kiho). You are my inspiration and motivation. Merry Christmas!

  毎回最高のパーティーを開催してくれるやつの友達と呼べて本当に光栄です。なぜかとういうと、彼は夢を持つ人たちに舞台を与えるからです。アーティストの卵、ミュージシャン、ライター、ビジネスマン、NPO活動をしている人たち・・・

  そして、このパーティーで聞いたり観たりしながら、僕たちは一つの家族になりつつある。初めは名前をお互いに教え、次に小さな微笑、そして笑いそして乾杯。お互いに喋って、お互いに発見して、お互いに想ってKEEPする。次のKEEP、僕たちの関係が一生の友情という梯子の次の段を登るまでに。

  それか、毎回会うたびに最初の段のままに止まる。でもそれでもOKです。僕たちはお互いに不慣れにもかかわらず、笑い続けるからだ。KEEPの親近感に漬けて、薄い記憶の誇りを拭くからだ。一晩だけかもしれないが、友情を蘇って楽しもう。

  Yoshi、Yonex、そして他のKEEPのクリエーターたち、（特に今日のクリエーターKiho）、あなたたちは僕のインスピレーションとモチベーションだ。ありがとう！そしてメリー・クリスマス！

  Yoshitaka, and newt are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    newt 9:16 on 2007.12.23 Permalink

    nice pics guys, happy holidays! is yoshi back in town? say hi to the gang for us, we are in malaysia the maldives before heading back to LA (for good). take care!

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    Yoshitaka 11:45 on 2007.12.30 Permalink

    Thanks for great pics and words. im honored to be your friend too!

    Newton, yeah, i was back in tokyo. i had a blast in there. maldives sounds awesome. hope to see you guys again in somewhere!

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  Ian Chun 0:56 on 2007.12.21 Permalink | Reply  

  Five things about Tokyo 

  Five things I like about Tokyo:

  1. the juxtaposition of the quaint and quiet with the massive
  2. the thousands and thousands of restaurants
  3. the millions and millions of people
  4. the oases – rooftops, sakamichi, cafes
  5. so clean!

  Five things I don’t like about Tokyo:

  1. the hypochondria caused by the juxtaposition of a mega-city and a culture of cleanliness
  2. too far to the ocean
  3. too spread apart to stop by anyone’s home much less your own
  4. too many people concern about becoming rich (including myself)
  5. gaijin and Japanese treating each other like shit
   
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  Ian Chun 9:03 on 2007.12.19 Permalink | Reply  

  Short film: “My name is Lisa” 

  I just came across this poignant and wonderful short film about a young girl dealing with her mother’s Alzheimer’s disease. The young actress playing Lisa is amazing!

   
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  Ian Chun 0:51 on 2007.05.26 Permalink | Reply  

  Ashes and Snow – thoughts 

  

  Sitting on an artificially created island, Odaiba is as much a
  symbol of Japan’s technological achievement as Ginza is the embodiment
  of luxury. One of Tokyo’s numerous centers of entertainment, the area
  is literally a floating world to which one escapes to for pleasure―just
  outside of Tokyo, just beyond reality.

  And so it is both ironic and fitting that Gregory Colbert’s
  exhibition finds itself erected at the entrance to this oasis of
  fantasy. “Ashes and Snow” is an idyll that seeks to evoke a collective
  memory of humanity’s marriage to nature rather than its domination of
  it. Simultaneously, it creates a bubble that manifests our innocent,
  perhaps fickle, desires for an older, simpler, more natural state of
  being.

  Stepping into Shigeru Ban’s construct for the exhibition, one enters
  a sepia-toned temple; a solemn, monumental space in which a wooden
  walkway floating on a sea of crushed granite guides you through a
  hallway of enormous photographs. Hung between pillars that reach to the
  sky, the images depict a symbiotic, poetic relationship between
  humanity and nature that is at once foreign and familiar to most
  visitors because this is Tokyo and Japan―the epitome of urbanity
  removed from nature in a culture that celebrates the essence of
  nature’s beauty by artificially extracting it from its natural
  environment.

  Despite the focus of the exhibition’s publicity on its
  documentary-like aspects―these are photographs and videos taken on his
  travels through more than forty countries and regions, images
  unadulterated by digital technology, images exhibited in a “nomadic
  museum”―Colbert’s imagery are far from a documentation of human
  interactions with animals. Rather, the images are sculpted and arranged
  to suggest through form and tone a vision of cohabitation, an ideal in
  which humanity does not dominate the earth, but celebrates it together
  with its other residents.

  The experience is religious and fantastic. Gazing upon images of an
  ideal from the darkness sparks the imagination to dream of adventures
  to an exotic, foreign world that is purer and more innocent than our
  own―an Eden from which we were banished, a paradise to which we aspire.
  In the darkness, we retreat into reverie, imagining ourselves as limber
  in the water as our brother whales, imagining ourselves conversing with
  the wisdom of elephants, imagining ourselves side by side with the
  dignity of the wild cat.

  A journey to “Ashes and Snow” is a journey to a world beyond Tokyo―exotic, ideal, natural, foreign and fantastic.

  Ashes and Snow, #2@Amazon.co.jp: ￥ 3,821 （税込）