Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo

Today I woke up at 4:30 am to go to the Tsukiji Wholesale Fish Market in Tokyo. I shop in the wholesale markets in downtown LA fairly often, so I was expecting that this would be somewhat familiar.

Though generically similar, this was a whole different animal. (A different Sea Monster, to be more specific.) Giant squid, sea anemones, urchins, and more varieties of clams and scallops than I knew existed. Thousands of varieties of finfish and shellfish arrayed on slabs and in Styrofoam holding tanks, the hall nearly as big as an American football field.

I thought I would be able find Tsukiji by smell from the subway, but I was wrong. I had forgotten the Japanese fetish for cleanliness. Literally thousands of tons of fish move through this place daily, yet it smelled clean and fresh, oceanic in the way that a perfect oyster tastes. Instead I just followed the folks in rubber boots, and that instinct took me directly to the market. I didn't take a lot of photos of the fish themselves, because to photograph them felt like pornography. The array was so sensual it forbade the camera's crude exploitation.

What I was most unprepared for was the frenzy of the marketplace. This place is, quite simply, the agora that the term agoraphobia could have been coined for. A cacophony of whistles shrill as carts and wheelbarrows of fish are sprinted headlong from the auctions to the waiting restaurant supply trucks. The cult of freshness reaches its apogee here. In the main crossroads of the delivery area a traffic cop does a balletic pantomime, punctuated by shrill whistles, conducting the madness with meditative precision.

As a visitor, you have to remain constantly alert to avoid being run over. A single moment's inattention could prove fatal. In the midst of the maelstrom, the intense politeness of the Japanese belies the frenzy. Speedy bows and quick nods are doled out as you dance around the onslaught.

If you ever visit Tokyo, this is an experience not to be missed. (That and the bonus of unbelievably fresh breakfast sushi, only minutes removed from the fleet.)

Read more about the market in Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World.

Enroute to Tokyo (A little politeness goes a long way..)

I'm on my way to Tokyo, aboard Korean Airlines Flight 002. I am delighted by the spectacularly good food. "Sushi on a Plane" seem a much better call than the "Snakes on a Plane" movie... (Also a delicious Korean bibimbob , with a toothpaste tube of fiery chili paste on the side!)

It's rumored that politeness goes a long way in Asia, and I quickly find it to be true, even when inadvertent.

After boarding, I got settled into my seat. Just as the chef Steward emerged from behind the curtain, I dropped my glasses and leaned down to pick them up, the gesture of an extravagant bow. Somewhat startled, but obviouly pleased, he immediately returned my deep though inadvertent bow.

From that point on I was the flight crews darling, a polite barbarian in their midst.

I remember being on a California bound flight several years earlier. A Japanese man was returning from the rest room when he encountered a very old gaijin (Caucasian - barbarian - redneck) lady. He bowed deeply, profoundly respectful of her age and experience. She nodded back with impatience. Since she returned the "bow" he bowed again, even more deeply. This exchange continued for several more bows, each more elaborate and deep than the last. She nodded back, more curtly each time. (I suspected her depends undergarments were at the end of their natural life.) He bowed even more reverently, and she finally snorted in disgust and shouldered her way past him, leaving him stunned in her wake.

This seems a profound metaphor for International relations, how easily we can inadvertantly offend in "misunderestimating" (sic) the motives of others. Let's hope greater care is taken in entering the hornet's nest of negotiation around the North Korean nuclear quesion. (or nukular as our oh so gaijin leader would have it...)

USATODAY.com - Page scandal exposes GOP's gay identity crisis

USATODAY.com - Page scandal exposes GOP's gay identity crisis: "Page scandal exposes GOP's gay identity crisis"

What has been missing from the discussions in the media of the Mark Foley scandal is actually the central fact of the matter. Many of Foley's problems are not related to his being Gay, but rather to his being Republican.

"If wishes were horses then elephants would ride department" Notice that Fox News mis-labeled Foley a Democrat on the O'Reilly factor, screenshot at the left. Fair and balanced, n'est pas?)

Foley's alcoholism and totally inappropriate sexual behavior are a direct result of the repression of sexuality in our culture. The war on sexuality is the Republican's stock in trade.

The fact that his fellow Republicans routinely engage in baiting of gay issues creates a climate of shame. There are thousands of gay people in the Republican party (why I'll never know.) They live in a climate of self-hatred that is reinforced by their party's exploitive gay bashing agenda. They are, to an individual, the most miserable people I know.

Think of it this way - take a hose and turn it on full blast. Now try to stop the water flow with your hands. The harder you bear down the greater the pressure becomes. As you stop the flow in one place, the water spurts out somewhere else. Sexuality (of all kinds) operates this way - the more you try to suppress it - the more is flows out somewhere else. Mark Foley's inappropriate behavior is a direct result of a lifetime spent hiding and hating himself. His exploitation of those younger and less powerful is repulsive, but totally in keeping with the hypocrisy of his party.

I know hundreds of well adjusted, productive members of society who happen to be gay. The overarching characteristic we share is an adjustment to our sexuality that is open, freely expressed in healthy ways, and not closeted and hidden in shame.

USATODAY.com - Overseas voting a concern again

USATODAY.com - Overseas voting a concern again: "Six years after problems counting overseas votes clouded the 2000 presidential election, U.S. troops and other Americans abroad face tight timetables and emerging technologies that still make it difficult to have their votes counted."

The article goes on to discuss tight timelines in absentee balloting making it difficult to qualify. My experience bears this out. I will be overseas during the election this year. Obviously I consider this to be a VERY important race.

California won't accept my absentee ballot application until October 9th - just 30 days before the election. Knowing the mind-boggling ineffeciency of Los Angeles city government, I have grave doubts that they will return my ballot to me before I leave the country on the 26th.

Imagine how much worse it is for those stationed overseas, who can't walk into the local dept of elections office with thier application in hand.

Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List - New York Times

Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List - New York Times:

Can you believe this? Given the Bush regime's penchent for ignoring both due process and the law, we're supposed to believe that the removal of Evolutionary Science as an approved college major for students on government grants is an "accident?"

You know, Gravity is just a theory too. Maybe they'll get to work at repealing that next.

Bush trims this year's Texas stay to 10 days. Good thing nothing important is going on ...

USATODAY.com - Bush trims this year's Texas stay to 10 days: "'Last summer, he was not seen as being on top of the job,' says Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta. 'He doesn't want to be seen taking a whole month off right now. It doesn't look good.'"

In DC, it's all about how it looks right?

This may be a cheap shot, but "last summer he was seen as not being on top of the job? Just last summer? Is anyone paying attention?

Memo to the White House - the entire Middle East is melting down. Oh, I forgot - they have a fax machine in Crawford. That was part of what the President helpfully told us when he said the American people "don't understand the definition of work."

(You may remember that comment came when he was asked about his month long vacation in 2001 during which he ignored the intelligence reports about the impending 9/11 attacks.)

I really don't have to say any more on this one - it speaks for itself...

Mel Gibson's Drunken Anti-Semitic Tirade.

Chalk it up to the tequila...

When arrested last weekend for drunken driving,* Mel Gibson, director of the jolly gorefest "Passion of the Christ" allegedly burst out in an anti Semitic rant. (Apropos of what? One wonders...)

He also allegedly verbally harassed the arresting officers. The LA County Sheriff's Dept. is believed to have expunged the description of the tirade from the arrest report.

Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic outburst was 'covered up' - World - Times Online: "the arresting officer'’s original report said: "“Gibson blurted out anti-Semitic remarks about "‘f***ing Jews"’ [and] yelled out "‘The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," then asked [the arresting officer]"‘Are you a Jew?”"

Given the ineptitude and arrogance of the appointments made by the Bush administration, I'm expecting the President to nominate Mr. Gibson as the next US Ambassador to Israel.

Is it any weirder than Stephen Johnson as EPA Administrator, or John Bolton as UN Ambassador?

Maybe Mel could take "make nice" lessons from Mr. Bolton.
________________________________________

* Clocked going 87 mph in a 40 zone with an open bottle of tequila on the rear seat. Oy!

The Faboo Refugee, or "we might miss a beach day?"

I became a refugee this week, albeit briefly, and with the full resources of Provincetown, Massachusetts at my disposal. (Espresso, Art Films, and T-shirt shops out the wazoo.)

Perhaps I should explain.

I'm spending a few weeks on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts. It's off the grid, so power is supplied by a generator. I bring everything I need across the channel in an 18" outboard.

It's spectacularly beautiful, but the channel becomes impassable in even moderate blows. So when tropical storm Beryl headed our way I decided to go ashore for the night. (I am a little gun shy of storms after losing my beloved dog Lucky to a seizure during a similar storm on the island last fall.)

So I fled, hurriedly packing a few modest effects and beating a hasty retreat to Provincetown. It was funny to me that when I mentioned the storm everyone there responded "what storm?" By and large, urban folks are so out of touch with the weather. When told a tropical storm was on track to the Cape most folks responded "We might miss a beach day?"

Now I am fully aware that this exodus hardly qualifies me for UN refugee status. On the scale of human suffering, breakfasting alfresco on Crepes Forestieré and Cappuchino ranks not one iota.

We in America are so divorced from the suffering caused by natural events, and especially by wars. It takes something on our own shores like Katrina to wake us up. How quickly those of us not on the Gulf coast have forgetten.

This is especially tragic given the blinkered worldview of our administration. Now more than ever, we are strangely divorced from the suffering our actions cause worldwide as well. (See my next post on Lebanon.)

Urban Wildlife Part 26

Yesterday I was riding the # 2 bus through Hollywood and spied a truly stellar bit of urban wildlife.

At Sunset and Crescent Heights, a demurely outfitted transvestite boarded the bus. Despite her wildly unkempt wig, she was conservatively attired in an immaculately pressed suit / skirt combo. The styling would have made Nancy Reagan proud, though the dress was in lavender, not red. I mused that Nancy would have probably skipped the lacy white cuffs, as they tend to drag in one's soup.

So far this is an everyday event in Hollywood, so common as to not even attract glances from the other passengers.

The "wildlife" part was created by her accessories. (As Diana Vreeland sagely noted - it's the accessories that make the ensemble.)

Her dress was accented by a frowzy eared stuffed bunny, peeking its grimy head out of the buttons in her cleavage. The bunny was wearing an old fashioned head-wrap, as you might see in Ub Iwerks cartoons for the treatment of toothache. The bunny faced her, as if whispering private advice as she moved though her day. (A Harvey for the 21st century?)

The whole ensemble was perfectly topped off by her reading material, a dog eared copy of the Book of Mormon.

She slipped off the bus as demurely as she had gotten on, at Sunset and Vine, as befits a star.

How I love Hollywood!

- Will.

The Most Irritating Saint in Christendom?

I'm returning from Italy, where I visited San Gimignano, the home of Santa Fina. One hagiographer has called Santa Fina "The Most Irritating Saint in all Christendom."

Santa Fina accepted the gift of an orange from a young man in her village, and was scolded by her mother for her wickedness. Overcome with regret, young Fina flung herself upon the kitchen table and spent the next five years praying for forgiveness, until she died. Upon her death, the table and the many towers of San Gimignano burst into bloom with violets.
Hmmm, amazing how many of the Saint's lives seem to primarily underscore a fear of sexuality.

If you visit the Duomo in San Gimignano, be sure to check out the horrific last judgement frescos - a masterpiece in the "fear of sexuality" genre.

Despite this sad tale, I beg to differ. I think the title "most irritating saint" has to go to St Triduana of Scotland - who gouged out her own eyes when a young man admired them. She then presented them to him, skewered on thorns.

Yuk!

A stream near St Triduana's burial site is said to restore sight to the blind...

The Undead of the Carolinas

I just spent a week at the beach with the family in NC. On passing through the airport at Myrtle Beach (SC) I am struck by the need for a memo to the good women of the Carolinas.

To wit - it is highly recommended that redheads, blondes and others of Scotch - Irish descent entirely eschew black eye makeup.

Black eyeliner is best left to raven haired beauties, the undead, 16 year old goth chicks, and the New York Dolls. (in that order...)

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | 'Ethics training' for US troops

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | 'Ethics training' for US troops:

"As military professionals, it is important that we take time to reflect on the values that separate us from our enemies."

- Lieutenant-General Peter Chiarelli, commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, commenting on the US Military's new ethics training initiatives.

Part of the problem is that the distinction of who the enemy is has been blurred from the onset at the very highest levels of government. The Vice President's deliberate slight of hand in tarring Saddam Hussein with the 9/11 brush has led to confusion at the rank and file levels of the military and among the citizenry.

I've met thoughtful, educated officers who understand the geopolitical complexities of the region and have a clear idea of the mission. But there are also a lot of 19 and 20 year olds, jacked up on heavy metal and Hannity and Colmes who equate being Muslim with being a terrorist. Add to that the daily stress of being a soldier engaged in the occupation and you have a recipe for disaster.

The reductivist television media doesn't help. In addition to ethics training for the military - I think we need Ethics in Government, Civics and Journalism training for the American public as well.

Pope Visits Nazi Death Camp - Los Angeles Times

Pope Visits Nazi Death Camp - Los Angeles Times: "'In a place like this, words fail,' Benedict said later at a memorial ceremony in Birkenau. 'In the end, there can only be a dread silence, a silence which is itself a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent?"

The Lord remained silent? Didn't the Lord touch Anne Frank, Martin Neimoller, and countless others to resist the war and raise their voices against the atrocities of the holocaust?

The more pertinent question is why did Benedict remain silent? The Pope was a member of both the Hitler Youth and the German army during the holocaust. To give him a fair shake it should be noted that he joined the Hitler youth after it became compulsory, and that according to biographers - "he wasn't a very enthusiastic member."

I find it profoundly disturbing that the spiritual leader of one of the world's largest religions sat idly by while millions of fellow human beings were slaughtered.

To answer the Pope's question - when I think God isn't speaking, I usually find it is me who isn't listening.

ABC News: Bush Brothers No Longer Back Harris

ABC News: Bush Brothers No Longer Back Harris: "She retained ChoicePoint to remove felons from the voting rolls, ignoring complaints for years that the firm had continuously removed legitimate voters, ones who often had ethnic names."

Surprise!

What amazes me is that the woman who perpetrated one if the most public election frauds of this century expects to run for the Senate in the first place. Her name is so tainted by electoral scandal that even the Bushes won't back this horse anymore.

57,000 legitimate voters were denied the right to vote in Florida due to Katherine Harris' retention of choicepoint to purge felons from the voter rolls. These citizens were denied the right to vote simply for the crime of being black, and likely democratic votors in Jeb Bush's Florida. Katherine Harris' office instructed choicepoint to use the loosest possible matching standards - eliminating thousands of African - American votes.

As an example - if a white man named Samuel Walton Jr committed a felony in Texas, then an African American Sam Walker Sr might be disenfranchised in Florida. Harris instructed choicepoint to match on only three letters and to ignore suffixes like Jr, Sr the II nd etc.

Never mind her outrageously transparent partisan meddling in certifying the 2000 election result in Florida....

The telling thing is that the Bush's aren't backing her, not because she is a fraud and a cheat, but because they feel she wouldn't win.

This fits right in with the "get my way at any cost" ethical myopia of the Bush family, and the climate of corrution they have created in Washington.

Bush's Plan to Seal Border Worries Mexico - New York Times

Bush's Plan to Seal Border Worries Mexico - New York Times:

"White House officials said Mr. Bush assured Mr. Fox that a permanent National Guard presence on the border was not being considered."

Nah, surely the deployment is just just till the midterm elections are over...

George W’s Palace in Iraq – On Time & Under Budget….

In the chaos of Iraq, one project is on target: a giant US embassy - World - Times Online

(Photo - not the US Embassy in Iraq, but Kew Palace, the Palace of Mad King George III of England.)

The one aspect of the “Iraq Reconstruction” that is on time and under budget is the building of the new 104 acre US Embassy complex in Bagdad, which the Bagdadi’s refer to as “George W’s Palace”.

The US Embassy in Iraq is nearly as large as Vatican City, and will feature the largest swimming pool in Iraq, as well a movie theatres, a shopping mall and food court, and its own electrical generating plant and water pumping capacity. At 104 acres the US embassy under construction is nearly 6 times the size of the White House complex in Washington DC, and will be the largest embassy in the world.

Despite the political cover about bringing “Freedom” to Iraq, as is so often the case, our commitment to “Freedom” only applies to situations where involvement is conducive to US strategic (read business) interests. Mr. Bush’s commitment to spreading Freedom and Democracy seems to fail him utterly in dealing with the genocide in Darfur. The Bush administration's real aim with this war was to create a thinly veiled US protectorate in the Middle East to ensure the flow of oil into the 21^st century.

There will likely be an ongoing series of oil wars in this century as the world competes more and more for finite petroleum resources. China and India’s populations are growing at an exponential rate, and much of the third world is industrializing rapidly as well. All of this will place greater and greater importance on keeping oil flowing to maintain US strategic dominance. (One thing the Bush family understands all too well is ruthlessness in the preservation of empire.)

What is not being adequately addressed is the impact in furthering and fostering terrorism that Bush policy is having. The annual State Department report on Terrorism documents a threefold increase in the number of terrorist incidents worldwide in the past year, with most of the increases related to the war in Iraq. While statistical methods account for some of the difference – it is clear nonetheless that Bush’s war is making the world a far more dangerous place.

The primary reason Osama Bin Laden declared Jihad against the US is the presence of US Troops in Saudi Arabia. Bush has now laid the groundwork for a permanent US base in another Middle Eastern country. (The military is also building extensive “temporary” forward bases in Iraq.) Bear in mind that the “temporary” forward bases built in Europe and the Philippines during reconstruction after WWI are still operating nearly fifty years later.

Bush has also imprisoned and tortured hundreds of Muslims without charges or trial, many of whom the military and state department have now determined are not, nor ever were terrorists. This is breeding growing resentment toward the US worldwide, and assures a constant supply of disaffected people willing to engage in terrorist attacks in desperation.

Imagine if we had a leader of vision, who had the courage to allocate even a portion of the 811 billion this war is costing to development of energy alternatives. Imagine also if the US had spent that money building wells and helping the poor around the world to become self sufficient, rather than propping up vile and corrupt tribal empires who abuse their own people to enrich themselves and their corporate lackeys in the US. We would have been able to retire the terrorists permanently when their funding from oil sales dried up.

The Bush administration speaks of spreading democracy, yet continues to protect, fund and defend some of the vilest oligarchies in the world.

CNN.com - Bush rejects tax on oil companies' windfall profits - Apr 28, 2006

CNN.com - Bush rejects tax on oil companies' windfall profits - Apr 28, 2006

When asked about a windfall tax on big oil's record breaking profits, the wishful Alice in Wonderland logic of this administration surfaces again. (The tax would fund development of domestically produced energy sources.)


Rather than taking responsibility for an active role in our future energy security through prudent reinvestment, our Decider in Chief would prefer to leave it to his buddies in big oil.

"My attitude is that the oil companies need to be mindful that the American people expect them to reinvest their cash flows in such a way that it enhances our energy security."

and then later in the same statement -

"One reason there's tight gasoline supplies is we haven't built any new refineries since the 1970s."

By this odd wish-logic, the same companies that haven't reinvested a dime in new refineries in forty years will now auto-magically forgo the profit motive and begin to reinvest in alternative energy. Perhaps the president has detected a sudden upwelling of community spiritedness in his big oil cronies?

Let's not forget that corporations exist solely to increase their own profits, and are legally prevented from taking actions that would reduce their own profitability. In the current climate of gargantuan CEO salaries, consolidation of privilege and energy robber-baronism the reinvestment Bush imagines will simply never take place.

Look how well the policy of "just trust big business" worked for the Enron employees who lost everything.

It appears that on this extremely sensible proposal Mr Bush is still the decider and he decides no.

BBC NEWS | Business | US war costs 'could hit $811bn'

BBC NEWS | Business | US war costs 'could hit $811bn'

Gosh!

811 billion here and 811 billion there; pretty soon you're talking a real deficit....

Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools

Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools

I'm a HUGE political junkie - to a degree that many of my aquaintences find somewhat odd. (I watch C-Span, can name my Senators, House Reps, and the Prime Minister of Canada for example.)

I am repeatedly dismayed by how little my peers seem to care about our government and its institutions. Young people seem to have no idea how our government works, or even what democracy is. (Neither does our president, so maybe that is where the trickle down theory actually works.) For the record Mr. Bush, "democracy" does NOT equal "freedom". Egypt is a nominal "democracy" and also one of the most brutally repressive regimes in the world. Sometimes they co-exist, and other times they do not.

The "No Child Left Behind" Act has made this alarming trend even worse with its focus on testing in math and science. Schools are teaching what they need the kids to test well in. This focus helps retain their funding, and alas, civics is nowhere on the list. Every teacher I know says "No Child Left Behind" is the worst thing to happen to our schools in decades.

Sandra Day O'Connor recently said:

...Civics "was routinely required at several levels in high school, and it was integrated into the grade-school curriculum as well. And that just has disappeared."

The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools is seeking to reverse this trend. This is an important idea, as what we teach in grade school and high school "sticks" more than we know.

I am getting ready to attend my 25th year high school reunion. At my 20th I was stuck by how politically engaged my classmates were. Our school had a very stong emphasis on both civics and on social responsibility, and it has paid off in a group of engaged, aware and committed adults. (many of whom can name the Prime Minister of Canada, fer instance...)

Mahler and grief...

I just returned from a trip to New York, where I went to a performance of Mahler’s 2^nd Symphony (The Resurrection Symphony) at Riverside church in Harlem.

It was a reunion of sorts, as my stepfather and both of my brothers and their wives were there. There were also many family friends.

This part of my personal universe revolved to a great extent around my mother, who died of liver cancer four years ago. This made our reunion a time of both joy and sadness for all of us.

Those of you who know the symphony will know the music is beautiful and transcendent. Mahler’s themes of death and resurrection, loss and questions of faith are so deeply suited to holy week and springtime. The group of us who shared a common loss gathered together. Memory was our constant yet unspoken companion, a melancholy and beautiful undercurrent.

Beautiful because my mother died, as is often said and rarely experienced, “with dignity.” Due to her diabetes, she had been preparing herself and all of us for the fact of her passing for many years. She died quietly at home, surrounded by loved ones, at the time and place of her choosing, and in the kind care of Dan my stepfather and an amazing hospice team.

I realized that for many of her friends I was a gentle reminder of the loss. My face carries the contours of hers in a way that those of my brother’s, who favor their father more strongly, does not.

I was escorting a family friend to the church. As I stepped out of the elevator to meet her in the lobby, she commented on how much I look like my mother. After that she remained still – savoring the fleeting moment of resurrection.

At the church, swept along in the strains of the Mahler's music, I saw one after another of us lost in memory.

As the symphony lilted and crashed through the church, I sensed a nearly sanctified energy of loss and rememberance among our guests.

I wandered the valley of doubt as I observed my youngest brother Adam weeping deeply. Something in Adam’s gentle nature makes him the most profoundly marked by loss. Who creates a world with this much pain?

The music reached its glorious crescendo; Mahler’s strangely coherent cacophony of faith overcoming darkness. I felt a a gentle awareness growing.

The reminder I provided to our guests of my mother’s face wasn’t just for them. Running my hand across my check I had an inner realization - she is in me, and always will be.

We left the church, sweeping into the soft April night in near silence. Each one of us had been moved by something more graceful than a piece of music.