Like I said in the previous entry, Mitsuwa isn't located in Staten Island, but, really in Edgewater, NJ, which, like I also mentioned in that same previous entry, is a pretty damn nice place.
Me and David ended up meeting at the Times Square station, which, almost always has some kind of RPGish (RPGs are Role-Playing Games) music blaring in the background. Today, it was this woodwind instrument which was being played by someone who looked like a native of some kind of Central/South American country. We joked about how it sounded like a typical "Town Theme," and as per usual, we did the claw gesture and laughed about it.
From there, we made our way though Time Square's crowded streets to The Port Authority, to catch a special bus that goes straight to Mitsuwa. It cost $2. Yeah.
Essentially, Mitsuwa is a strip of Japanese stores and a supermarket. There was a store that had clothes and toys, and all this other shit, then there was a bookstore, which had lots of manga. Manga are Japanese comics. They also had magazines, novels, how-to books, because, you know, it's a bookstore. It needs to have that shit. But, yeah, back to the first store I mentioned. Oh man. They had some badass Tetsuwan Atom (Read: Astro Boy) track jackets. Yes (claw gesture). Those looked pretty rad. I so need to go back there with mad cash (the track jackets were about $70), and grab them up. Hopefully, by that time, they'll have Anime shirts in my size (they only had kid sizes). They also had katami mats, kimonos, Noh masks (demon masks), those wood slippers...anything that was random and Japanese. They also had lots and lots of toys. Man, Japanese toys make me wish I was like, 9 again.
I ended up buying a shirt with the Kanji (a type of character in the Japanese written language meant to represent a word) for "Samurai." It's a black shirt with the character in red. Yeah, it's typical, but, it's cool looking.
After that we hit the bookstore. We walked around and wondered aloud about the manga section, which we eventually stumbled upon. Manga's great. Yes, Western comics are fucking awesome, but, yeah, manga has it's own look and feel that, quite frankly, Western stuff doesn't have. I mean, I can read Y: The Last Man, DMZ, or anything else on Vertigo (they're an Independent comic company), love it, talk about it for hours, and re-read it, but, the same can go for Death Note, or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
All that was left was the supermarket. We walked around just taking it in, well, I was. Today was the day where I broke my "Mitsuwa Virginity." Okay, that was corny. I'm sorry. Eventually, we hit up the food court and I got some Katsudon (it's egg, mushrooms and a pork cutlet over a bed of rice; it's absolutely delicious), then purchased some snacks (well, I did). I got 2 instant Curry cups, these little biscuit cookies filled with chocolate, and a little bag of baked bean cakes, which were really fucking good. David got 3 bottles of Sake (pronounced sah-KAY; it's a Japanese alcohol made from rice). We had to call Jerry and ask him about the stuff.
We then basically bullshitted and filmed a new episode of David's Vlog/show, The Robot Diaries. Eventually, that'll be up.
We had an ending theme when we got back to the Times Square station in the form of this one dude, who like, is a one-man band (you know, I don't know his name...). It's him, an acoustic (guitar), and some drum pedals attached to something or other that when he moves his feet, they simulate a more full drumset. Hopefully, I explained that well.
That's...pretty much it.
[END]
Today, I am hitting up Mitsuwa, a Japanese mall that is located in Staten Island, with David (of The Robot Diaries fame).
Should be interesting.
EDIT: Actually, Mitsuwa is located in Edgewater, NJ, which is a pretty damn nice place.
Oh, I forgot to mention something:
I'm reading this book, and, yes, it's very good.
R.I.P. Mr. Vonnegut.
I so need to read Slaughterhouse Five.
I'm really fucking tired this week. Thank God it's Saturday, which is my Friday.
Oh, last night. Last night, oh man, fucking I saw Jon Chang's (ex-Discordance Axis, vocals) new band, Gridlink play at this bar/restaruant/club called Mo Pitkins (yes, it's a dumb name). It was, to say the least, one of the best shows I've been to, ever, not to mention, one of the more important ones. It's an important show for the sheer fact that it was to be the only show that they would be playing for the whole year. And, yes, I was fucking there. It felt like I was part of something special. Hell, there were probably like, 30, 35 people there, tops. Also note that that night was their second show, ever. Their first show was in Tokyo (I think).
After the show, I did get to tell their guitarist, Matsubara (he plays for Mortalized, an awesome Japanese grind/death band) how fucking sick the show was, and I did get a chance to speak, albeit briefy, to Jon Chang. I mentioned how I saw him at a Melt-Banana show a couple of months ago. I also made my claw hand gesture (I made it all night; it might have been captured on film) as I mentioned that they, Gridlink, played Discordance Axis' song, Sega Bass Fishing (it's named after a Dreamcast game; think about that), in their set. They also played Castration Rite, another Discordance Axis song, which was pretty badass, if not awesomeness itself. But, the real kicker was that they improvised a song to wrap things up. Essentially, the improv song sounded like something off East West Blast Test's second album, Popular Music For Unpopular People (awesome record, BTW), which, is a really funny seeing as how, the drummer in that project, Dave Witte, was Discordance Axis' drummer. Oh snap!
I ended up getting home at about 2 in morning, because, yes, although it said that the show was to begin at 10:30 PM, Gridlink didn't go on until about 12:00 AM, mainly because of shoddy planning (on the venue's part; apparently, they told people that the show was canceled over the phone), and that, yeah, they had an opener (there were supposed to be like, 4 other bands that night, but, like I said, shoddy planning). He was interesting, not to mention totally fucking awkward. If I was to describe it as anything, I'd say it sounded like Merzbow meets Napoleon Dynamite. Oh, and his name was Chaos Character or something like that. He gave me a demo CD. I'll have a full report on that, eventually.
I took some shitty pics with my phone. I'll try and get those up here.
Yes, 7 minutes to go.
[Done]
Oh yeah, here are some links:
Gridlink's Myspace
Discordance Axis' Myspace
Mortalized's Myspace
Enjoy!
I've been working Overtime most of this week, so, it's safe to say that I'm feeling a tad bit on the tired side. Egh. Hopefully, the money would have made it seem worth the trouble (it almost never is).
The weather is really nice outside, so, hopefully, that'll cheer me up, because, yeah, I've been feeling like shit for the last week, or two, or four.
Last night, I learned how to play Discordance Axis' Killing Yield on guitar. It's not really all that hard of a song, and I tried playing Tokyo, my absolute favourite song by them, on guitar to the Cide Projekt (it's like, fucking Casio keyboards and a drum machine; they've covered a few DxAx songs, they sound sick) cover off of Our Last Day. I just need to work on it. I've got to learn a handful of songs by them, seeing as how they're like, my main influence for my musical endevour, The Red Spectra. Among the songs that I'd love to learn by them is Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, Macro, Ulterior, The Inalienable Dreamless, The Necropolitan, Alzhiemer...and soooo many more. I know that the Pikadorei DVD (it's a DVD which contains one of their final shows as Discordance Axis; it was shot in Japan) has fucking guitar tabs (YES) in it, but, it's a pain to sit there with a pen and paper writing them out.
I also came up with something for one of my other random music projects. It sounds New Wavy. Ha.
I keep meeting really awesome people (Read: women) though how or whatever on the Internet, and yeah, it's like, I've come to the conclusion that I'd be a stud or whatever if I lived anywhere else in the country. Seriously. Thanks LOL Gods. Thanks.
Eventhough I've washed my hands twice since lunch, they still smell like BBQ sauce. Well, slightly.
Oh yeah, I'm at work, in case you were wondering. I probably should have mentioned that earlier. I've got to learn how to properly construct these. I just randomly go on and on and on and on. I'm writing from the heart, man. Fuck yeah.
I was reading At The Mountains Of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft, but, abandoned it. Not a bad read, but, I've just been yearning for some more Haruki Murakami. I ended up putting At The Mountains Of Madness on hold right now to focus on After The Quake, a series of Murakami's short stories based on the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Underground maybe my next purchase. Or Kafka On The Shore. Or, maybe, just maybe, the last fucking Harry Potter book. Yes. I'm like, what?, the last human being on the planet who hasn't read it. Pennie (my ex; we're still on good terms) gave me the third degree about that, jokingly, of course, but, yeah, I've told her and anyone who asked or has yet to ask me about it that I am patiently waiting for the book to be published on paperback. I'm waiting. Patiently. Supposedly, it comes out on 08/20/07. JEAH.
Speaking of Pennie, earlier this month (the 6th) was officially a year since our break-up. Shit. That was a rough time for me. I mean, we still spoke a fair amount, but, there was all of this anxiety. It was killing me. We also had a temporary falling out when she confessed that she had met someone else. She had felt the need to address this the night before my 23rd birthday, which already was just not the time or place to drop a bomb like that on me (they weren't going to give my birthday off, and I was working OT that night; really frustrating). What made it hurt was that, obviously, I still loved her, and with what she was telling me, for months, we were to reunite. (insert dramatic ciggarette puff here) I kinda flipped out on her and almost totally ended our post-relationship friendship. Well, actually, I technically did end it, but, a few hours later I asked if she still really wanted to be friends. She had repeated what she had said during the arguement ("I'm sorry for doing this to you/ you mean a lot to me/ I still want to be friends with you") and I told her that I just need some time to relax and get my head straightened out.
I probably didn't talk to her for about 3, 4 months, but, it was needed. Ugh, I hate talking about this. No more.
Anyways, I've got another hour and half here. Hopefully, it'll go by fast. I want to enjoy some of that nice weather were having.
[DONE]
