About eight years ago or so, I talked with a friend who is also an artist and a calligrapher about a proverb with implications, and then I got proverb written by hand from her. Orin & I were happy just to look at it, so I stuck it in the mirror. I can’t find this important paper because we’re often moving. The luggage that can’t be carried is still in the warehouse in Arizona, so I hope it’s in it. In a picture of the Queen’s apartment where we used to live, I found its photo but the angle was not good! At the start of 2022, I am putting this proverb in the middle of my heart.
The Japanese musicians who I liked but suddenly became a fan of after decades were Hibari Misora, Shizuko Kasagi, Junko Ohashi and Shinji Harada. I was originally a Western enthusiast, so I love rock, soul, funk, avant-garde, noise and jazz. However, there was a “prince”…. I was avoiding him because at that time I thought he was too noisy and nasty. Recently, Orin asked me, “Haven’t you seen Purple Rain?”, so I reluctantly watched this legendary movie, and then I went straight to Prince. I wonder if I have been so crazy since Stevie Wonder when I was in my early twenties.
There is numerous information about Prince, so I don’t need to say much more about him.
In his later years, he was a charity activist, and he had a very sharp point of view, such as criticizing the chemtrails. For all his 57 years, he was an incarnation of something that transcends humans, he was a multimedia artist who maximized the visualization of all the beauty, ugliness, sexuality, and vibrations of these emotions in this three-dimensional world. When I thought he must be Saraswati, Bishnu, Krishna or Shiva, instantly I heard his (?) voice saying, “No, I’m Hanuman”.
25 Dec, 2021, was dancer, choreographer and director of the performance art group “The School of Hard Knocks” Yoshiko Chuma’s birthday. People aired a video celebrating Yoshiko’s birthday and showing their thoughts on Christmas.
Our couple of healer/art/music friends, Frank & Michele was coming after a while. They said that from now on, sound vibration including so-called voice will be the “key” that leads all events to harmony. Also Michele had a dream suggesting this. Wonderful coincidence, more and more Orin and I are really enjoying making tones, sound, melody and music. At the same time Michele has been making “knit-bone” healing cream. One of the ingredients is “comfrey”, comfrey is known as knitbone. It has Alontin in it and helps to mend heal connective tissue and bones.
The end of 2019, after I broke my right wrist, this cream was so useful. The scars after the femur fracture surgery in February have also been cleaned up, and I am grateful to be able to use my wrist and hip. These two fractures of mine were due to a big fall on a frozen road and in the garden shortly after I moved, and I’m hoping for a cream to fix this sloppiness, well. The first thing to do is to learn how to walk on a frozen road.
She is also a member of the Musashino Consortium, and their exhibition this May also featured her remembrance corner. 彼女は武蔵野コンソーシアムのメンバーでもありました。この５月の武蔵美展に、彼女のコーナーが設けられました。その時のビデオです。https://youtu.be/Pp1uPqC_uiE
時空を超えて、彼女の魅力的なシリーズだった ”ポケットプロジェクト” を続けているのじゃないかな。ヒロミさん、どうもありがとう！！Beyond a time and space, She will be surely continue of her strong and charming series “Pocket project”, Thank you, Hiromi!
The other day, about one-third of the way to Greensboro in North Carolina, our car broke down unexpectedly! Finally, a good local repair shop helped us. After a while we got a call that the repair and inspection had been completed, then, we got on the train all the way and switched to the bus to reach the repair shop. There was a “Toys on the Square” shop at the corner of the road. It is as if this toy store is for adults who haven’t forgotten the hearts of children. Or an amusement park for grandpa & grandma. From the retro toys to the new toys, Orin was overwhelmed! The owner of this shop was also like a king loved by toys, and had a mysterious dignity.
Not long ago, after repairing the car, we went to a nearby state park for a test run, and the hunting ban was lifted from October to the end of December. We didn’t notice but somehow the ruts of the car are clearly appearing at the end of the road after the rain, probably not just a few cars, but rather a lot of cars coming and going. Suddenly, we heard a dry gunshot. We heard it menacingly many times, immediately we felt danger we shouldn’t be here.
While we lived Bisbee/AZ, a depopulated area on the border with Mexico, we didn’t think to have a guard dog nor self-defence gun.
Now, in our Newberg community, residents are seriously working on how to clean up gun crimes, along with employment issues, education and neighborhood environmental issues. Newburgh, which has been described as an extremely dangerous city in the United States, even they say so but it’s not so difficult for me to live.
それと、もう一つ。この日は、オリンと私がニューバーグに引っ越してちょうど２年目でもありました。
And one more thing. This day was just the second year since Orin and I moved to Newburgh.
Here the unique restaurant RODGER NEWBURGH, in there is “HIBINO day by day,” which serves a Temari-sized https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temari_(toy) rice ball lunchtime takeout every Monday, 11:30 am to 2:30 pm. https://www.instagram.com/hibino_daybyday/. Nature-oriented ingredients, you can see these cute rice balls are fascinating.『cooking is an art!』This is Chef Ms.Fish’s strong point & policy. Her inspiration and enough experience both come together to make these charming onigiri instantly. Japanese soul food is surely here.
