This week goes out to my second home, the Ginza Farmers Market. We put in the finishing touches on the video over the last week, and although there is some more fine-tuning to do within YouTube, I think it is ready for wider release. Though this has only cracked the shell of the egg, so to speak, of an infinite topic in which I am interested, this has been the largest project I have undertaken since my exit from my former life. I am truly indebted to everyone who made this work possible. Below, allow me to acknowledge the many collaborators who made this video possible, and who support the…
Last week I mentioned some tough critique I had received for my questionable beliefs about the stranglehold the Christmas holidays have over Western society. In particular, MasterDebator had the following to say to my first piece on opting out of Christmas: “Why don’t YOU completely give up Christmas yourself, hurt everyone’s feelings to do so and see how it goes before you broadcast to everyone that this is the morally right thing to do.” Now, I know a gauntlet when I see one. And this particular person has been challenging me to new heights from eating dog food in elementary school to jumping into San Francisco Bay just last year.…
Well, sort of. As always, I was ambitious with my words last week – classic American over-promise and under-deliver – hard to shake some aspects of the culture we grow up in. I originally planned to make a tutorial on how to play music by ear, but the universe intervened, flinging my phone into a a sharp corner – no chance for the case to protect, it was a direct blow to the head, instantly fatal. These things happen in the early blue belt life. In my first year I had two computers fail on me and now the phone. To replace the computers I built a new one, and…
Five years ago on a train station bench in Enoshima, I sang the first lines of this song to my one and only. And here we are now, together and going strong after a difficult transition to this blue belt life. I’m grateful every day to have her by my side – my best friend and greatest critic – this week goes out to you, Flipper Girl.1 1 For those of you who don’t know her, she prefers I keep her photos and personal details off the internet, but to give you an idea the Chilean artist Nacho Vargas did a pretty accurate rendering of her here.
I don’t mean to rain on everyone’s turkey feasting parades. OK I sort of do – it’s a typically American holiday built around frivolous consumption disguised as giving and gratitude. And don’t forget, Christmas is right around the corner! We need to make giving and gratitude a part of our daily experience and not rely on culturally accepted institutions as convenient times to express these, just my two cents. Alright, now that I’ve grinched everyone out, I’ll admit that I indulged in TWO separate tgiving festivities, and I think I made the most of them (see above). Contrary to the normal concept of the holidays as a time to relax…
Check it – OmokageDevTV released the video we made last Saturday in the YouTube green room. It has English subs if you can’t hang with my super-pithy and on-point nihongo. A question I get a lot since giving up alcohol, meat, and spending any money outside the Ginza Farmers Market, is what do I do for fun? Part of me feels that I gave up fun, at least in the modern-day socially accepted sense, to do my life’s work. But then that goes against my other belief that we should emulate children, who have boundless energy and imagination. Even though there is great work to be done here, it is…
For the Halloween edition of the Weekly, I took a detour on the creative front to make another short Tokyo music video. I happened upon this frightening menace at the Nijubashimae subway station on the way to the farmers market on Saturday. Funny, as Nijubashimae is the wrong stop – I was day dreaming (ok I was looking at my cell phone like everyone else) and went one stop too far. But I’m glad fate expedited the process of getting this particular song out there, as it’s been hanging in the books since July 2012.
This week’s big event was the Dream Kids Undokai (Sports Day), for which my school has been preparing for months. I got called in for an impromptu emcee role for one of the events (ok I had a couple days notice). Since I’ve bragged about my speeching capabilities I figured I better record the event and share it for all to see. Oh here’s some more advice for giving speeches – I use these warmups every time I have to speak in front of people and they really get the adrenaline flowing and work out some of the nerves. Try it out next time you have to do anything nerve…
Per the original post on wedding speeches, I recently gave a speech at an Indian wedding – here it is: Speech text (names changed to protect privacy and reputation) Hi, I’m Chris Duss, and Rupal is my mortal enemy. Ever since the moment we stared one another down across the tennis court at age 10, we have been embroiled in a battle for superiority. Like any good rivalry, ours has traversed many areas, from the tennis court, to the bowling alley, to Delores Park bocce ball 2013. Tonight I’m honored to have the opportunity to share with you some of my experience with this great fool. “Education matters. Education matters…
Music has been part of me for most of what I can remember of life, and one of my first memories is hand drumming. Long before I usurped my sister’s electronic keyboard and before I built my first popcorn tin drum set I was using my hands to bang sounds out of just about anything – much to the chagrin I am sure of my teachers and parents. Unlike other parts of my musical life, hand drumming has been with me continuously from that early age – it’s one of the few skills in which I would almost admit to reaching a purple belt level. And so I feel compelled…
