I became interested in Arabic geometry and zilij around the same time that the “Moroccan trellis” type of quatrefoil pattern started showing up everywhere. I’ve got a camera case, computer screen wipes box, and even a kitty litter mat with variations of this pattern on them. I’m both delighted by the availability of this design, …
The song that most caught my attention on Twin Gate when I first listened to it was “Unforgive You.” It’s such a haunting track, and the specificity of the person described made me wonder who it was written for. Actually, I think that’s how I came to find miko’s blog, as she explains there exactly …
It was a bit hard to keep my concentration up to get through this translation, but I’m trying to do like that one lady told Picard and “Never give up [my] music.” (A gingerbread cookie to whoever gets the reference and can cite season & episode number. Ahaha…) It didn’t help that I recently got …
When I first introduced my project to make an unusual bookshelf, I mentioned that it ultimately was to go in a particular corner of my room. While I’ve already unveiled the finished product in the post about my program’s exhibit this past June, I wanted to show what it looks like in situ. I also …
I had bought issue #44 of Rock and Read back when it came out in 2012, solely for the GACKT article. In 2013 I learned of YOHIO through his collaboration with GACKT on the song “Sakura, falling.” It wasn’t until this year, when I sat down to translate the aforementioned GACKT interview, that I realized …
This interview comes from the November 2012 issue of Rock and Read (#44). The interviewer is Ayano NISHIMURA. Usually, I don’t mind if someone posts a copy to their own site of a fan translation I’ve done (as long as they link back to me), but given how much work I put into this one …
With this year being the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII, I used one of my projects in printmaking last spring to pay homage to Mr. Lash Blast by Covergirl Jenova. The assignment was drypoint etching. We had to work the plate gradually, pulling prints as we went. I didn’t really make good use of … Continue reading
It was like 2AM and I had been checking short Japanese compositions on Blackboard, explaining in words that もってくる and もっていく are not interchangeable, and that I think it’s weird that many people seemingly use “take” and “bring” interchangeably in English. What a jumble of words, I thought, and deciding that pictures would make things … Continue reading
The Beginning This little furball came to live with my family near the end of the year 2000. I don’t remember now if he first started coming to our apartment in November, or if that’s when he stayed there for good. Either way, at first, we thought he was really old because he was dirty … Continue reading
It’s time to slowly reveal the products of this spring’s adventures in printmaking. Woo! I’d shown my warm-up linocut letterforms before, but I hadn’t finished the J at that point. When I did, I hand-printed these letters again to practice registration (aligning the paper to the plate properly) because I figured that would be a … Continue reading
A week ago I accidentally published my draft of The Air Moon Chapter 5 Part 2 in a fit of sleepiness. I immediately changed its status back to “draft” thinking that I could “unpublish” it, so to speak, but it only half worked; the post did become unavailable to the general public, but when I … Continue reading
Sorry if anyone following the blog got the draft version of this in their email; I was sleepy and accidentally hit “Publish” instead of “Save Draft.” ^o^; That version hadn’t been edited for clarity, and was missing the last two pages of this chapter. I wanted to hurry up and finish but things kept popping … Continue reading
The first four months of 2017 were all over the place. I was pretty tired being both graduate student and part-time faculty. It still seems a bit funny to me that this is what I’ve ended up doing. Teaching Japanese while studying Art Education. I was trying to get away from gray areas and here … Continue reading
