I went out on the piss last night, so I'm not quite up to a repeat performance tonight. Instead I've opted to stay home and watch a marathon of Star Trek TNG movies! I just finished Generations and I'll comment on it later.
First though, I'd like to show off some postcards from the January '82 Japanese issue of Starlog before midnight rolls in.
I will not be unhappy to see 2011 put behind us, even though I think I also said that about 2010, this time I really mean it. As Spock might say: Live Long and Prosper!
I'm sad to report that aged chimp, Cheetah, of Tarzan fame has passed away at the age of 80. For an always informative obit, check out the Wonderblog.
I'll always remember an appearance on Letterman by then 75-year old Maureen O'Sullivan who recounted an amusing anecdote of the simian. "Cheetah bit me whenever he could. The [Tarzan] apes were all homosexuals, eager to wrap their paws around Johnny Weismuller's thighs. They were jealous of me, and I loathed them."
This is just a tad racist, but funny.
Sweet, sweet WWII propaganda:
Let's all raise a glass and salute one of the greats!
As Christmas continues winding down and New Year's starts creeping up, I unexpectedly received a lovely present today, that of a Handkerchief bearing a タツノオトシゴ pattern. That's the Japanese word for Seahorse, 竜の落とし子 (Tatsu no Otoshigo, Child of Dragon.) Since 2012 will be the Year of the Dragon, this gift is quite apropos.
Hey, that reminds me of an old Mickey Rourke movie. Which trailer for 1985's Year of the Dragon do you like better?
So the hanky was nice, but do you want to know the best thing that I received all season is? I only got two Christmas Cards this year. One from my surrogate family in Tokyo (with the cool dog) and the other was a mostly-handmade one with a self portrait of the artist within. I haven't heard from Michiko in ages and out of the blue I get the most adorable drawing ever! Sigh!
Finally I'll leave you with a gag that I scammed from this very blog from 5 years ago:
I spent Birthmas Eve at an Anglican Church service (the Minister is the father of a former student) whereupon I crooned a few Christmas tunes in Japanese. Last time I had forgotten my glasses which made reading the Japanese most strenuous, whereas this time I had remembered them and am rather proud of my renditions of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear", "Adestes Fidelis" et al though reading the prayers and such were beyond my capability.
Birthmas Morn was spent opening my vast amount of presents received from Santa (a heater purchased the night before a Japanese Mikan orange) and a 3D poster of Batman 251.
During work, though I'd hinted around for the previous two weeks, I only received 2 gifts (and one guilt-trip prezzie). I got a lovely hat that is too big for my head from my class of 6 elder ladies and some cakes from Fukushima that are these sweets with beans in them that I don't really enjoy but ate tonight (I gave two away as well.)
I did though give out a few presents to my co-workers, Axel got a Daisy, some gals got these long-eared rabbit friends of Gloomy and the rest got Christmas Carol CDs that I'd burned that morning. (That led to the guilt-prezzie of 2 expensive chocos from my boss.)
After work, I hooked up with my gal-pal Hitomi who was also alone on Christmas night and we had a blast.
We went to dinner at Capricciosa and had a set of salad, pasta & pizza. One of the waitresses was a former student and upon entry, I mentioned it was my Birthmas and at the end of the meal, we were treated to a Strawberry cake!
I gave her a HTF Bag, some socks and a Willy Wonka Chocolate Bar (it wasn't a winner.)
She gave me a humidifier, a Bobble-Head Batman, a Spiderman book cover and a Thor Pez! BH-Batman enjoyed the meal and when he got home, he met up with his arch-nemesis, Bobble-Head Colonel Sanders! (I'm going to have to do a bit better on her birthday!)
Finally we watched Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and it was surprisingly good. You have to switch off the grey matter once or twice but then it's non-stop action. Well, not quite non-stop. Just at the most climactic moment (Spoiler alert: Tom is about to press a button and save the world), the movie screen goes blank and a little usher comes in and apologizes because the Subtitles had stopped working. It took a few minutes to repair but that gave us the opportunity for a much-needed pee break and we got to see a 10-minute segment over again where Tom gets pummelled by the bad guy.
Good movie and even better...Doraemon Popcorn Brains!
Though I had to work today, I still managed to have a pretty darned good Birthday. More details on that later but before I retire, let's take a peek at my hastily-thrown together Birthmas Tree.
As usual, I didn't acquire all that many gifts and I'm too sleepy now to go into detail about them. I have free time tomorrow, so that'll leave ample time to showcase my loot.
Thanks to all the well-wishers for the pleasant thoughts about MY day-o-birth and I suppose, kudos go to that other guy as well.
Anyone else been somewhat busy this last week? (Rhetorical question alert.) I know I have. I'll start off with a diorama of origami that's is sitting on the sink in the Men's Room at Sendai Station. I am rather surprised that no one has swiped it. I know I was sorely tempted.
I'm a little behind on my postings so I missed talking about 天皇誕生日 (tenno tanjobi or the Emperor's Birthday) and Festivus on December 23rd. From now on though that day will be known as Happy Coelacanth Discovery Day! It even has a theme song!!
Alternatively, here's Turner Movie Classics tribute to those who are no longer with us. (An aside to BigBob, how many do you think DJ knew?)
On the Evening of the 23rd I was asked to once again play Kris Kringle only this time it was at Ernie's Bar. My plan was to go to a Lindy Hop dance and then swing over to Ern's about midnight. Unfortunately the bus I was on took an alternate route and once I noticed, the driver wouldn't let me disembark until I was halfway across town. So Plan B was to check out some lights at Nishi Koen and then kill time at Liga. I saw some of these last year but they're worth repeating.
This one is rather creepy. A witch standing outside her gingerbread house awaiting victims while two cupids hover over it keeping watch!?!
I finally made it to Liga and had a few gins, sang a few carols, gave presents to the gang there and changed to go to Ernie's. A bartendress from there is moving on to greener pastures and I got to sign her farewell card. Cool stuff:
As usual, Santa was rather popular with the gals at Ern's.
After each of the ladies received a present from St. Nick, a few of us head over to Shaft only to discover that it was closed. So as not to make it a complete waste of time. Santa posed with the gals at Bunny's Bar and then at BBs.
Before heading home to feed the reindeer, Santa made another brief stopover at Liga and sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."
