I'm running low on photos from Japan. Again. Soooooooo more of Lily (and Licoln too!).

She's looking more mature here isn't she?



Being silly. Though...I think in reality she was complaining that my reflector was too bright...oops.



More the real Lily giving me a big smile runnign towards me :)



Still being silly :)



And Lincoln giving me a, "...what? I LIKE my hand!" look :)

Sibling Sam and his wonderful partner, Dandylion, have been here since Friday, and have been wonderful houseguests and great to have around. Friday, when they arrived, Mr. Man made a wonderful (vegetarian) pasta dish. Saturday, we all went to "Men in Black 3" (review below), then they took us to Jackson Diner, the local world-reknowned Indian restaurant, which was great. Sunday, we went our own ways, pretty much, but yesterday I took them to see "Potted Potter" (review below) and then to John's Pizzeria in Times Square, which was awesome. Today, we have to go to work, but they're going to cook for us! Fun. Sam is meeting with theater people today to get them interested in producing his one-man show here, which would be very cool.

---

Other than hosting, it's been a quiet weekend. I just did house-y stuff, but also got moving on some important projects (like "Sorcerer"). It was hot and humid and gross this weekend - I hope it doesn't get worse than this, but it's only May, fer pete's sake.

---

"Men in Black 3" - very fun. I liked it a lot. The aliens were awesome, particularly the baddie. Emma Thompson always is welcome. Tommy Lee Jones looked OLD... poor guy. Michael Stuhlbarg, who was so awesome on stage in "The Pillowman" a few years ago, was a delight as the alien who sees possible futures. So, very much worth it. Also, we saw a bunch of previews. Aside from the amusement in there being a "Great Gatsby in 3D" coming out, I must admit that "Snow White and the Huntsman"'s trailer flipped my switch from 'why would I want to see that' to 'OMG I have to see that'. Also, Prometheus looks really cool.

---

"Potted Potter" is a quick tour of all 7 Harry Potter books by two really goofy British guys. (huskyteer, I suspect this was the Harry Potter show that you told me about in London a few years ago.) Some of it was really funny, like the audience-participation Quidditch game (which involved a beachball, two adorable audience kids as the Seekers, and one of the cast guys as the Snitch). But mostly it was pretty dumb. A good time was had, but I wouldn't recommend it.

---

In book news, I read "God Says No", a sort of mournfully funny book whose first-person protagonist is a young Christian black man trying to deal with his homosexuality - getting married, then taking an opportunity to disappear and actually be gay for a while as long as God makes him straight at the end of a year (which, surprise, doesn't happen), and going to an ex-gay program. It's a great read, but somewhat frustrating because he really is kind of a dimbulb. The part that made me LOL was when he referred to anal sex as "the famous thing that gays do", because he was too scared to actually call it anal sex. So it then became 'the famous thing' through the rest of the book. Anyway, the book is by James Hannaham, who's the brother of a friend of mine, and it's very much worth the read.

Now I'm reading "Anathem", in it's brick-sized physical manifestation, and several things on the Kindle, including the second Game of Thrones book, E. Nesbit's "The Railway Children" (which I haven't read since I was a kid) and the Discworld "Eric" book, which hasn't really grabbed me so far.

---

Enjoy your short week, Americans, and everyone else, enjoy the rest of it!

Alas...even here, in what seems like a nice countryside, there's the big electrical towers. Oh well...people need electricity right?



Another view of a lazy countryside. Of course, planting all the rice is backbreaking manual labor but...it IS peaceful.



I haven't posted him in a while. So hello to Danbo :)

Here's the second panel report. As before, please feel free to offer any corrections re transcription, attributions, etc.

( Summary )

( Reflection )

I am taking the plunge and attempting to provide panel notes for two panels I attended. If there are any misattributions or errors of transcription, please let me know and I'll be happy to fix them. These were originally written for a class at Antioch and take the form of a summary/transcription (as objective as possible) followed by a personal reflection.

Description:

Race and class are two identities that exist in tandem, one never really trumping the other. What are the ways they intersect, diverge, conflict? What happens when our internal race/class state differs from an external race/class assignment -- and what factors go into forming internal/external states in the first place? This panel will look at the realities of how we exist within and negotiate race and class without privileging either concept.

The panelists were Chris Wrdnrd, Eileen Gunn, Saladin Ahmed, and Nisi Shawl. There was no moderator for this panel.

( Summary )
( Reflection )

A view from the 47th floor restaurant in Shinbashi on a rainy day in Tokyo last week.



Yup. A rainy Tokyo.



There was some ominous looking clouds over Shinagawa today. Yikes.

Went for a walk along some freshly planted rice paddies today with mom nearby where my parents live in Chiba.

Definitely springtime.



Some bulldings reflecting in the rice paddies.



An older man was taking a walk along the paddies too.