michael lambe's scrapbook

Congratulations and jubilations to Rik Abel today who after years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years of talking about it, is ACTUALLY leaving Headshift today and going FREELANCE! No more corporate cronyism, or annoying bosses or insane deadlines. His life is in his own hands!

…Oh dear.

Just kidding! Really happy for you Rik.

I will be away in Ireland for the next two weeks, so no more posts for a while (maybe) because I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to get to a computer. Going cold turkey, innit. Back in Japan on the 13th – see ya!

I was reading today, about the last surviving veteran of the WWI trenches, the magnificently named Harry Patch, and I was thinking that this remarkable man, at 109, and having all those memories that no-one else living has, he must be feeling pretty lonely. And here’s the thing, he never spoke about the war until he reached a 100 years of age. He’s in a nursing home now and the light coming on in the room opposite his bedroom was what made him break his silence.

If I was half asleep – the light coming on was the flash of a bomb. That flash brought it all back. For eighty years I’ve never watched a war film, I never spoke of it, not to my wife. For six years, I’ve been here [in the nursing home]. Six years it’s been nothing but World War One.

Harsh.
War, he says, is a “calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings”.

It wasn’t worth it. No war is worth it. No war is worth the loss of a couple of lives let alone thousands. T’isn’t worth it … the First World War, if you boil it down, what was it? Nothing but a family row. That’s what caused it.

Which reminded me of a little history lesson from Edmund Blackadder:

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Satoko asked me to take some pictures of Viva Sherry last night at the bar and music venue NEGA・POSI. And being Cameraman-Lambe for the evening – I got in for FREE. I think we all know how much I like FREE STUFF. Anyway, before Viva Sherry played there was another band called 深深 (pronounced “FUKAFUKA”) playing. To be honest I found much of their set pretty boring and I sat there wondering why, with such obvious talent and ability, they would choose to play such dreary music. And then somebody pulled out a harmonica and the guy on the guitar started rocking out and I thought “Thank God for that.” Here’s their encore:

Then Viva-Sherry came on and were entirely marvellous (if a little scary to begin with) and I crawled around at the bottom of the stage, trying to get some decent pictures despite the rather harsh lighting on Satoko. I also took a brief video clip which you can see here. Satoko has a wonderful voice.

And here are those pictures:

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A fresh review up on Deep Kyoto today of the restaurant/gallery Neutron Cafe.

Yesterday, Kageyama-san, Betty and I went on a little day trip to Kobe. Kageyama-san is an excellent guide to Kobe as he often “escapes from Kyoto” to enjoy the more cosmopolitan atmosphere there and also – the good food. The first place he took us was a real Italian restaurant (with a real Italian pizza chef!) near Sannomiya Station called Ristorante R. Valentino. Here’s some pictures of the food:

前菜

Tuna & Olive Spaghetti

Pizza Margheritta

A set lunch consists of pizza or pasta, coffee or tea and desert. We ordered three set lunches; one pasta and two pizzas and shared. It was good value and damn tasty but the pizzas are pretty massive so we might have been better off ordering for two. After that we wandered round the Kitano-cho area to view some of the famous European residences there. This may have been a mistake as it was a super hot and muggy day and pretty soon we were wilting in the heat and ducking into air-conditioned shops at every opportunity. Kageyama-san also took us on a window-shopping tour of some the stores under the railway tracks and finally to bar Piccolo. Kageyama-san described it as the Tsurugi of Kobe and in that it is a “rock bar” it does bear some resemblance. The master here is also a sometime visitor to Tsurugi himself. However, Piccolo opens promptly at 7.30 p.m. and rapidly fills up with a young and varied crowd. It is also spacious and neat and organized. Cool place. Nice beers. Here are some more pictures, just hover your cursor over them for extra information or double click for a closer look:

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Yesterday I went to a bar I haven’t been to before, called “Joao” (pronounced Joanne – Portuguese apparently). Nice place. They had a bit of an event there with all the usual suspects dj-ing and naturally I overdid it on the beverage front. Somehow ended up at The Wellers Club in the early hours of the morning, dancing round like a lunatic. Feeling pretty rough today. Anyway, the bits of the evening I can remember were very enjoyable. Here are some incriminating pictures:

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What is the correct spelling for “kworr”? You know, “kworr” a la Sid James, as in “Kworr! She’s a bit of alright…”. Cwor? Kwaurgh? Quor? Anyway…

Two fresh reviews up on Deep Kyoto today. In one I check out the hype around Café Opal and find it somewhat lacking… In the other I find love at Bangkok Garden. Well, love the food anyway…

Here’s a soppy love song to keep you funtertained till I think of something more interesting to write.

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Mikey goes to the pub. Going to Joanne-Matsuri tonight. Will explain more (with pictures) later…

This is HILARIOUS!

Occasionally, I receive comments on this blog of a colourful turn of phrase and I don’t publish them. Just to make things clear, let me explain my policy on “bad language”. I think there’s a time and a place for it and this blog isn’t it. To be precise; any variation on the f-word is not going to get in. The c-word (fond though I am of it) is also out of the question. Words beginning with w, s or b.s. are allowable but only under circumstances of extreme rage (when describing politicians for example) and then in a slightly modified form: “Tony Blair is a w**ker” or “Shinzo Abe is full of s#t”.

I have this policy because I am very much aware that a wide variety of people visit these pages (including colleagues, students and my sister’s two very small children) and if they encounter such language they probably won’t want to visit it again. I also think that overuse of such choice vocabulary can become a kind of verbal tick that can disable you from expressing yourself more eloquently. Basically, “eff this and eff that and eff off over there you effer” makes you sound a bit thick.

Rich and eloquent cursing of a religious nature (HolyMaryMotherofGodandAlltheSaintsPreserveUs!) is however entirely acceptable, because I’m Irish and we think that way.

Speaking of which, a particular Sweary Mary of my aquaintance wanted to know if I had any plans for the summer. Indeed I do! From August 1st until the 13th I will be in Ireland. I’m going to spend one week in a little bungalow just north of Dublin, with my parents, sister and her husband (I’ll be on the couch) and then I’m going west to Achill for a few days. I’m looking forward to catching up with my cousins after an interval of 16 years. I’m also going to be able to catch up with a couple of old college buddies; Michael Staunton (who I haven’t seen in 10 years) and good old David Holloway. David writes: Dublin has changed beyond recognition in the last 16 years- the last few times I’ve been there it has changed radically within periods of about a year- it’s a very interesting place these days.
I do hope by that he doesn’t mean they’ve knocked down lots of lovely old buildings and put up ugly new ones…

Now, I am pleased to announce that over on Deep Kyoto I have finally received my first comment. Or at least the first comment that doesn’t mention testosterone. It’s a nice clean comment of an encouraging nature from a complete stranger and it made me very happy when I read it this morning. More like that please!

School’s out for summer! Yay-hey-hoo-hoo-ha!

Ahem. There’s a fresh review up on Deep Kyoto of Café Bibliotic Hello! today. I first went there three years ago on the recommendation of one Duncan Flett, and then somehow forgot all about it until my colleague Helen Bisset reminded me of it today. In the intervening years the Palm trees have gotten a little bit out of hand.

Nice place though (if a little pricey).

And following on from yesterday’s mini-rant, here is further confirmation of the ineptitude of officials: Japan Admits Greater Nuclear Leak

Here’s my favorite quote today, after earthquakes in Niigata caused fires at a nuclear power plant:

Drums with low-level nuclear waste fell over during the tremors, and some of their lids were found open. Water containing radioactive material is already known to have leaked from the plant into the sea, but officials say it will not harm the environment.

Well, they would say that wouldn’t they? That’s what officials say. “Everything is alright! Trust me! I’m an official!” Pardon me if I detect a whiff of radioactive bullsh*t. For me the question is; why does Japan, being super earthquake prone as it is, subject also to typhoons and tsunamis and every other possible natural disaster, why does Japan want to litter itself with nuclear power plants? Is this not ENTIRELY MAD? Am I hopelessly naive in thinking that positioning a nuclear power plant over a major fault line is just a teensy bit careless? There are 53 of them you know, 53 operational nuclear power plants in Japan. Is this not quite a few?

Ah well, I’m sure the officials will take care of it. I’m sure they are in Niigata right now, personally sorting out those tipped-over barrels. So we can all rest easy in our beds.

There’s a fresh posting up on Deep Kyoto tonight for those who need to drown their sorrows in an ambient atmosphere: The Flying Keg

(Update: There’s a good overview of Japan’s nuclear power industry up here: Japanese Fears Over Nuclear Power Industry)