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  • Ian Chun 1:22 on 2006.08.30 Permalink | Reply  

    Untitled 1.1 

    Not finished, not close to finished, more like…just started and haven’t continued…but hopefully posting this will prod me in the right direction.

    Untitled-1.1

    Even after stepping into the cool space of the subway train, the heat stuck to my skin. Fans waving furiously in a desparate attempt to alleviate the feverish feeling only seemed to prevent the coolness from providing relief. A delicate balance between the fire and ice, but an uncomfortable one.

    The closer to Ginza the train got, the more crowded it became. I could feel the coolness being overwhelmed by the heat of bodies jostled by the train; they bumped each other and into each other, and the stickiness of skin against skin was both nauseous and erotic. But I had boarded at the train’s departure point and had a seat to myself — the prime seat in fact, next to the door, and fifteen minutes in that coolness had chilled the layer of sweat on my forehead. Yet, at each sop, the door would open and a blast of the stifling summer air would remind me of where I had came from and to where I would return.

    Fifteen minutes of coolness was all that was needed to alleviate the summer heat, though I could feel the dampness of my under shirt and my boxers plastered onto my ass. The Tokyo summer was in full blast and left no room for wasteful, unnecessary movement. I rose from my seat brushing against sweaty bodies in the train, and I disembarked burshing against sweaty bodies boarding it. Out the door I slipped, onto the platform, and thus began the trudge through a muck of bodies all heading toward the escalators and elevators and staircases. No time to waste, no efficiency lost, for the hot air would not allow it.

    I could feel beads of sweat forming on the tip of my nose, behind my ears, on my forehead just below the hairline. The train sucking air from the station as it departed, drew hot air from the dark tunnels behind it creating a gust of hot, suffocating air. I could feel the eyes of my watcher against the side of my head, the right side. He was somewhere in the crowd, hidden in the waves, not circling like a shark for he was undoubtedly caught in the flow as I was, but shadowing me, observing, judging. The roar of the departing train died away as the rumble of an approaching train began.

     
  • Ian Chun 10:44 on 2006.07.07 Permalink | Reply  

    Bravestory_2 Brave
    Story, originally a novel from Miyabe Miyuki, is coming out this
    weekend. A popular morning show (めざましテレビ) did an introduction of it,
    and I was getting ready for work so I wasn’t listening much but it
    seems Juno Reactor (Matrix soundtrack) worked on Brave Story’s
    soundtrack. Looks like a good movie!

    Description from wikipedia:
    Brave Story (ブレイブ・ストーリー, burebu
    stōrī?) is a Japanese novel by Miyuki Miyabe. The story revolves around
    a 10 year old boy named Wataru, who must enter a fantasy world,
    "Vision", to find a way to save his mother and himself from unfair
    destiny. A manga adaption started 2004 and consists so far of 11
    volumes. An animated film adaptation will be released on July 8, 2006
    and is being directed by Koichi Chigira. The film adaptation was
    produced by Gonzo Studio and will be distributed in Japan by Warner
    Bros. A video game adaptation was first announced for the Nintendo DS,
    and then the Playstation Portable and PlayStation 2 are also in the
    works, due for Japanese release in 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_Story

    Official site in Japanese: http://www.bravestory.net/

     
  • Ian Chun 22:00 on 2006.06.26 Permalink | Reply  

    Not exactly keema curry, but something that resembled it. I peeled a carrot first with each stroke leaving a slice of the orange skin to float gently onto the top of my hand. I half sliced, half chopped the carrot so that each piece was thicker than a slice but not quite big enough to be a chunk. Next came the one Japanese eggplant, and I couldn’t help noticing how once you cooked it, the insides come to resemble the outsides…at least they strive to, turning not purple but a dull, unappetizing greenish-brownish-muckish something. I rubbed off and peeled off the outer layer of an oninon, cut off the ends and chopped into four pieces; I sliced three sticks of asparagas (is there a plural and do you call them sticks or stalks?) diagonally to expose the innards for all their white glory. I cut up four mini-potatoes into four pieces each, and placed the whole lot onto a longish yellow plate.

    No wait, I didn’t put them all on the plate at once, but each in turn.

    I peeled and sliced a clove of garlic and began to fry it in olive oil, then came the onions and carrots, but the asparagas(es?) were feeling a little left out so in they went too, then the eggplant pieces and finally the sausages. Oh yeah, there were sausages–not so big, more stunted than fat. The potatoes went straight into the pot of boiling water. No, I did not peel them first, they were the type that you cook with the skin. Boiled in their skin they were, har har.

    Fry the veggies and stunted sausages, and into the pot! Then came the hamburger. I couldn’t believe how much fat came soothing out of the hamburger as I fried it too. The meat seemed to be wallowing in its own juices as it turned from pink to brown. And then in it went with the rest, fat and meat and heart-stopping goodness. I stood there stirring the concoction wondering about  a girl I had known in elementary school. Today was her birthday, if I wasn’t mistaken.

    In goes the goo, the instant curry galog that turns notsoclear water into brownish muck. I stir some more. Who did I know now whose birthday was today? There was someone most likely. I stopped stirring and went to the shoe closet where I kept my old schedulers. Now I use internet birthday reminders. Or at least I intend to use internet birthday reminders, but they are just as troublesome as transferring birthdates from one scheduler to the next.

    They aren’t there, not in my shoe closet, they aren’t on my bookshelf. Have I thrown them away? Into the trash can, to go to the dump, to be incinerated and lost forever? I lose things so easily.

     
  • Ian Chun 7:47 on 2006.03.16 Permalink | Reply  

    Hurrying Home 

    It has been a while since I’ve written, so a poem.

    "Hurry Home…"

    the click clock of shoes
    the jingle of coins and keys
    the rustle of grocery bags
    the beat of my heart
    as I hurry home to you

    the brisk night breeze of
    the verge of spring
    the soft street lamps below
    the sky’s blend of dark shades
    as I hurry home to you

    As I hurry home to you
    the possibility of dark windows
    of a cold room
    of unforeseen disappointment
    of frightening scenes
    like TV like movies like
    the news
    and I hurry, I hurry home to you

    and the manifestation of
    all the hidden fears
    all the lingering doubts
    all the possibilities, the inevitabilities
    as I pass the empty window
    as I turn the key
    as I open the door

    Surprise!
    shouts the crowd
    Happy Birthday!
    they yell
    a party cracker stings my forehead
    and a warm kiss greets my cheek
    home to you have I come

     
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