Today was the day that Ginji and me finaly got reunited with the rest of our family. In advance on our happy reunion the plane landen one hour earlie than planned.
This afternoon I got in my car and drove to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. I immediately went to Starbucks to get myself a capucino. I sat down in front of the gate and goofed around with tetris on my iphone a bit. Then I saw my family again through the glass window comming out of customs. They carried too much lugage, even so much a woman from the JAL groundcrew came to talk with me saying my wife carried way too much lugage. You wont believe what she took home, she even brough sashimi in a coolbox.
The best second best thing are all the presents they brought back. So much cool Japanese stuff. I love Japanese toys ad my wife brought a lot. Tomorrow we will unpack everything and I will definatly get my kicks!
At the beautiful age of 34 I notice I act more like a kid then when I was 19. I have quite the busy life but more and more recreation is going back to the eihties and early nineties for me. I also notice I listen to a lot of old late eighties metal lately, going out on my skateboard and when I see Stussy is bringing back some old skool stuff I get so excited and go "Hey I knew when we all looked like that".
One of the things that caught my eye lately is the remake of the Vanessa's Lunch Box. The Vanessa Lunch Box is a 1/12 scale electric remote monstertruck by Tamiya which was first released in 1987. I always wanted to own a remote car when I was a kid but my parents never let me since they thought it was a waiste of money, ofcourse I obeyed.
Now it is 2008 and I bought the Luch Box. I actually want to give it to my son Tooya as a welcome home present when he comes back this friday from a two month holiday in Japan. I am looking foreward taking him out and goofing around with the RC monstertruck. I tried it out in the livingroom today, it goes fast, very fast. I think Tooya will destroy the house and it is definatly a toy that requires supervision... hell, I can drive some laps as well.
Yeah, it has been a while since I last posted but a hell of a lot has happened and I am back to work which leaves no time for week day postings. I have some updates on my life. First of all the iphone. Last monday was a beautiful day. My iphone got deliverd at my work. I couldn't let it deliver at home cause I had to ID myself at the mailman and I had to pay some money to get my iphone.
I was happy as a child. When I got home I unpacked it. I was kinda nervous. WOW, what a cool device. First thing I did was to instal my new mobilephone data, placed the simcard and then I hooked it up to my Mac. The features are so cool. The least interesting thing is that it is actually a phone. i feel kinda studpid when I use the iphone as a phone cause it feels like putting my ipod at my ear. I like to have the world in the palm of my hand. I love how the internet works. That I can check my google account and that I can watch stupid youtube movies. I enjoy checking out the weather (yeah stupid, I know). It is great. I can compare with a shift wave of my finger the weather in Holland and the weather in Tokyo where the rest of the family is.
I needed some time to get used to using the ipod feature. It is amazingly cool on the iphone, looks great but it isn't as easy to control like my old ipod. I always had my iphod in my pocket or my back when I cycled and I could skip the songs yhrough my coat. Now I have o pull it out of my pocket. Still, I dont complain, itunes looks awesome on the iphone.
I bought this very cool skin for my iphoen. I bought a speck skin. Speck is American but the name is an old Dutch name which means bacon. I also use a screen protector. I like to treat my stuff with care and I need to use my iphone for at least two years!
Noah and the Whale are a folk rock band from Twickenham, London, England formed in 2006. Their name is a marriage of the title of one of the band's favorite films, "The Squid and the Whale," and the name of the director (Noah Baumbach).
I recently discovered this band when I was browsing the internet. I checked out some of their songs on youtube and later listened to their album "Noah & The Whale". I like indie folk music. These day's it is what I listen to most. I love the video of this song called "5 years time". It is an easy listening song. The video could be a scene out of a Wes Anderson film. Aparently the band and I share a love for this filmmaker. Please check out there video!
I had a five week holiday, wow, I can't believe five weeks went by so fast. In those five weeks I have been living together with Ginji and our two cats. My wife and our other two childeren are on a two month holiday to visit family in Tokyo. Since a party of five is too much Ginji and me stayed behind and had fun in our own way. Those five weeks have been a blast but like everything it came to an end.
Monday was my first day of work again. I love my job. I am living my childsdream. I am a cop. I love it! I have great collegues and a very interesting job. In fact it is so damn interesting that a shift flies by everytime. Unfortionally I can't talk much about my job. I definatly can't talk about my day or what happens, if I could this blog would be interesting instead of boring like it is now :)
Well, monday was my first day as a detective. Unlike in the US a detective isn't a promotion. It is a different sort of work within the Dutch policeforce. It is specialised work, there are my different specialities like big cases like murder, vice, youth. For one month I will be working violence and tread cases. I have quite a bunch of files on my desk. My job is to hear witnesses, to write down complaints, the arrest and hear suspects. It is pretty cool work and it isn't in uniform which is kinda relaxing cause I can wear what I want and I am not wearing a bullitproofvest all day long. Only when I go out I put it on.
This week was pretty intens. I am still alone with Ginji who went to my parents after school. Afster work I picked him up, we went home, did some housekeeping duty's and finaly could relax at 20:30. Much, much, much respect to single parents everywhere!
Today's flick after a week of work was Hellboy: the golden army. I have been looking out for this movie since the news came Guillermo del Toro srated working on the new Hellboy.
I love the dark horse comics by Mike Mignola. Ron Perlman is perfect as Hellboy, respect to that man for wearing so much, I dont know what he is wearing but it's a lot!
I enjoyed this movie a lot, it looked like a fairy tale. The message was choice, like in the dark knight. What side should outcast's like Hellboy, Ape and Liz choose. I loved the ending. It wasn't evil that was defeated, it was defeating a brother to save mankind who dont give a fuck... makes you wonder, huh?
Ginji is a true acrobat, a master in ninjutsu, a human spiderman. Since his birth he has been climbing in anything that can't be climbed in/on like Leonardo diCaprio in "what's eating Gilbert Grape".
Today his goal was the closet, look at him sitting there under the all seeing eye of the late great Frank Zappa.
I think the video of the song "windowlicker" by Aphex Twin is the most evil video ever made. It isn't cause of the offensive sexual remarks, cursing and the disrespect towards women but the idea that is pure evil. How the women turn, their faces which become an evil version of Richard D James (the aphex twin) when they get in the car. The dancing and the song windowlicker it self is demonic. I seriously think it s as scary as Rosemary's baby by Roman Polanski. There is this everlasting suspense something very evil is about to happen but never does.
I can't understand this song becae kind of a hit record. it is pretty bizar, it has some strange beats and weird tempo changes. I totaly love it but it definatly isn't mainstream. I once saw this interview with Richard D James where he explained how he made his music when asked. He dont sleep, the moment his body gets tired and his mind goes into that haze he makes music which result in weird but yet beautiful tracks.
RUN-DMC - Rock Box The previous post got me going with the old stuff. The first crossover of hip hop and rock. Dont be mistaken, it wasn't Aerosmith and RUN-DMC, it was ONLY RUN-DMC with their classic "Rock Box". I love this song. Please make it through the video cause it's the same picture all along... but a damn cool picture, did anyone say KANGOL?
The Beastie Boys - (You gotta) fight for your right (to party) This song became a huge hit. Three very angry NY kids kicking it at a party. They translate the universal horror of all teenage boys when they rap "your mom threw away your best porno mag". Fair to say as much credit of this awesome track goes to producer Rick Rubin who you can see in this clip, he is the bearded dude with the slayer t-shirt.
Anthrax - I'm the man Now something different, a heavy metal band making a hip hop song and a parodie. This is actually quite funny. Check their clothes.
The Beastie Boys - No sleep till Brooklyn Another Beastie track, a classic. Pretty funny video. Performance by Slayer's Kerry King (guitar Solo, well, after the gorilla).
When I was twelve I went to graphic school. In the US it's what you call high school. This was 1986. I went from my small city, Schiedam to the big city. Every day I went there by train. In those days Rotterdam suffered from a large amount of heroin addicts, dealers, bums and prostitutes. Their gather place was the front of Rotterdam Central Station. The place where this innocent twelve year old arrived by train to go to school. I have seen a lot there, drug use, fights, dealing and even some people dying on overdose.
As new as all of this was to me so was my school. There I learned about heavy metal. That time I mainly listened to rock music. There I first heard the sounds of Anthrax, Metalica, Slayer and Megadeth. Later we took a serious d-tour to death metal when the first album by band "Death" was released, some super awesome shtuff. The white kids mainly listened to metal and the black kids listened to hip hop. There was this one kid who was so into hip hop. He was always wearing a headphone listening to NWA, Ice-T and public Enemy. We always talked about music, soon we came to exchange our music on tape's. From him I learned this awesome music what was hip hop. Still pretty unknown and underground at the time.
I always loved metal, no matter what music I listen to I always come back to my metal. Same with hip hop. There are times I dont listen to any hip hop at all. Sometimes I wonder what it has become. There is rarely a hip hop track I like these days. I love the Roots and Rasco and I have to be 100% honest that I dont really get into the hip hop scene and know what is available in the underground scene but still. I dont think any hip hop produced today can blow me away like NWA, Paris or NWA did when i first heard it. Those guy's weren't out to become big stars and a commecial succes. Those guy's were telling about their lives, about what was bothering them, the injustice, their struggle.
Here are some tracks from back in the day that I love!
NWA - Straight Outta Compton This is as rough as it gets. NWA showed what living in the bad part of town was about before Holywood took an interest in it. This made a big big impression on me, still does. This is as good as it gets.
Paris - The Devil made me do it Some years later Paris hit the scene and blew me away with one of the most evil sounding rap songs in history. The devil made me do it makes you think about how the rich abuse the rest of us.
Ice-T - OG Original Gangster Probably the man with the meanest face alive. Before his acting carreer he was actually one of the worlds best rappers. Immortalised himself when he started a hardcore band named Bodycount.
Bodycount - There goes the neighborhood "Dont they know rock is just for white's, dont they know the rules?". The perfect marrige. Ice-T the singer in a metal band. It aint exactly hip hop but what the hell, these are my favorites ain't they?
I love nerds, I love nerdy discussions. I am a pretty big nerd lover eventhough I am not a nerd. The definition of a nerd is: "a person who passionately pursues intellectual activities, esoteric knowledge or other obscure interests that are age inappropriate rather than engaging in more social or popular activities".
I know many people call themselves "a nerd". The slang "nerd" is even cool, so it is cool to call yourself a nerd. The thing with the nerd is not participating in social activities cause it simply isn't your thing, you are alone in your love for... whatever. So some dude reading manga all day in his attic room who have no friends and no social life is a nerd.
Anyway, there is a lot of cool stuff to be found online about nerds, one of my favorites is the conversation in Clerks 2, Star Wars vs LOTR!
I was browsing to some of the photo's on my computer, there were some really old ones. I found this one of my oldest son Tooya. He is on holiday in Japan now. This picture was taken last year. He loves to act like a pirate... ARRGH!
On monday I had to take my son Ginji to the hospital, he had an appointment for an MRI scan of his head. Cause he is 4 years old he had to go under narcoses. Man, oh man, it was horrible. We had to be there at 07:45 in the morning. I went cycling cause Ginji loves to be sitting on the back of the bike. In the hospital he had to change his clothes into this pyjama. We had to wait for two hours. Ginji wasn't aloud to eat or drink anything an dhe was pretty bad and pissed of, trying to climb out of his bed. Then finaly he could go downstairs and get sedated. The thing was that they gave me this cream to put on his hands. This cream sedates the hand for a needle pinch for the narcose. Before leaving to the hospital I was fighting Ginji to get it on his hands and cover it up with a folie bandage. I barely won the fight. For his narcoses he foght again which made the doctors choose to sedate him with a mask. It was kinda funny to see this angry struggeling boy being so calm and sleeping in 5 seconds.
In an hour I got called he was in the room to wake up. THere he was sleeping in his bed, he had this thing on his toe so they could measure his heartrate. I was sitting there, there were more childeren there waking up, this one girl was crying and making a lot of fuss, she was such a cry baby. Anyway I was sitting there, Ginji was as calm as can be. I was watching his heartrate monitor and suddenly it went from 99 to 78, it stopped, then started. This whole time Ginji was sleeping quite and the nurse came to look, she didn't hurry, looked at Ginji and then the monitor flatlined. Ginji was still breating though and the nurse didn't worry. She told me the machine had a mallfunction, pretty weird, huh?
Anyway, when Ginji woke up he was a true monster, I swear, Godzilla had nothing on him, he as just too bad and too angry which is something he never is cause he is the sweetest boy alive. He had to drink some juice and he ate about eight biscuits. Then we could go home.
In the evening he was so tired, he fell a sleep on the floor in the livingroom, I fell asleep on the couch a few hours later while watching Buffy. I woke up at 3 in the morning, still had to shower so I did, then went to bed. Ginji woke up at 6 this morning. I was still tired. I went walking with my dog and had a nice luch. Then I had a killer headache. I lied on the couch the rest of the day and I just got of it.
This was the price I had to pay for yesterday. I realised I had some stress, was really busy which made me tired. I also realised I really miss my wife. Normaly when she is on her family visit in Japan I always miss the kids more than I miss her cause we talk almost daily on the phone. Now I really miss, it is so much easier to do things together and she really does a hell of a lot more than me. Still 3,5 weeks before she comes home... and I have to start work on monday again!
Yesterday I was checking out Taryn's blog, a box of graffiti chocolate. On her blog Taryn had posted a clip of a commercial by Converse featuring super producer/rapper/singer Pharrel. I replied to the post saying I regret it Pharrel going so commercial. One thing led to another and soon we were talking about conflict diamonds. Immidiatly I had to think of this awesome clip I once saw on youtube from a song by Kubus & Bang Bang. Kubus is a Dutch beats producer. On his last project he works together with English poet/rapper Bang Bang. Bang Bang is t he kind of person who translate what he see's in the world into his poems and lyrics. Not so long ago I saw this show about them on tv and I was stunned by Bang Bang's personality, the life he lived, the life he now lives and his way of trancending all his actions to get attention for the people who need it in the world.
Kubus and Bang Bang made a song about conflict diamonds. The clip shows some very famous MTV faces showing of their bling and the people in Sierra Leone who pay for those diamonds with their lives. I think you all should check out this video!
If you like the music of Kubus & Bang Bang, here's another cool clip!
Well, yesterday after seeing the mummy, tomb of the dragon emperor, I felt like doing something usefull with the remaining time of the day. The mummy wasn't that good, in fact it was awefull. What else, well, lets make some truffels.
I will tell you how I always make my truffels. I learned it from my wife and I use the ingredients and the tools she always use, all credit goed to hear!
Melting chocolate
If you make truffels you should make a lot, it is irritating work and you make your kitchen dirty so it is best to make a lot, plus you have to use some whipcream and you should use all. For one carton of whipcream you should use three chocolate bars of 200 gram each. Importand is to use two bars of milk chocolate and one pure chocolate bar. Take a pan, put water in it and let the water boil. Then place a smaler pan and put it in the pan with boiled water, let it get really hot. Then pour in all of the whipcream right from the pack. Break the chocolate and put it, strir it and it gets all mussy.
Prepare the mall
Take a plastic, tupperware, flat box, cover it with bakingpaper. Then pour the melted chocolate in it. Put it in the fridge. It was to cool down and it has to get hard. This will take at least 12 hours.
Cutting the truffels
The next day you can easely take out the big chocolate truffel plate by lifting out the bakingpaper. Losen the chocolate from the paper and turn it over, then cut it into little blocks.
Cacao powder
Then put the cut pieces in a box with cacao powder, close it and shuffle it around so the cacao powder get stuck on the truffels.
Ready and enjoy
Now you have truffels. Best is to put these truffels and keep them in the fridge for another day so they get a hard cover which makes them crispy.
Tip
Use chopsticks to eat the truffels cause your hands get really dirty by grabbing them and it is an ideal excersise to practise your chopstick skills if you dont have any!
A strange social creature who love and protect the righteous and battle the wicked. I am married to a beautiful and sweet Japanese girl and we have three amazing childeren. I am so kicking it and loving it on this planet. I love my job which make me do the above.
This little place on the web I will use to show you a bit about the life I enjoy. It might not be all that special and exciting to you but it is to me and that is all that maters... anyway, be more than welcome!
