Thursday November 24, 9:24 p.m.

Fairly easy day today since I just had the Sisters of the States. The New Yorker was under the weather. Oddly enough, though, she was a bit more on the ball than when she was with me last time at full health. She was doing some major sniffling and sneezing and if hadn't been for that extra pack of tissue I was carrying, I'm not sure how she would have lasted the hour. As it was, she left a good bunch of used tissue on the table.

The Carolinan, on the other hand, was in fine fettle. In fact, she was dressed to kill since she was on her way to a party at the Grand Hyatt in Roppongi Hills after the lesson. The New Kid could take some lessons from her in attitude although I think the comparison is admittedly unfair.

I ended up having dinner at Yume-An, the Japanese-style family restaurant near my apartment. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't have their tonkatsu course like they did in the summer but I just went with the tempura set. It fit the bill.

It'll be a quiet day tomorrow as well since I've only got The Teacher. Then I'm free and easy. I'll head for the gym. I've also gotta send out the first of a swarm of Xmas cards and presents.

Wednesday November 23, 9:55 p.m.

Well, this Labour Thanksgiving has been a fairly pleasant affair. It was a comfortable 15 C as I headed over to the Ginza for some shopping. I was sporting an orange sleeveless vest over a denim shirt. For some reason, I had an urge to direct traffic.

Actually, I first stopped off at Maruzen for the first time in several weeks. I picked up my next book of crosswords. Can't be caught without one on the subway, y'know...although I concede that I'm starting to enjoy my new hobby of sleeping there (with all due respect to Petula Clark).

Being the holiday, the main street was closed down to vehicular traffic but it was more than compensated by the huge crowds walking, or shuffling to be more accurate. Going through the first floors of the major department stores was an exercise in futility at points. But that wasn't the only futile thing I experienced there. I had been interested in getting a trench coat and shoes for The Lady's big party in a couple of weeks. I just had to laugh when I saw the prices on those things in Matsuya, Mitsukoshi and Matsuzakaya. My 5,000 yen worth of gift certificates didn't stand a chance of making any sort of dent in the prices coats and shoes were going for. Trench coats were going for an insane 72,000 yen ($800 US, I think) and shoes were at least 20,000 yen a pair. I think I could've stood a chance if I had decided to go for one shoe. But since I had no intention to hop over to The Lady's house, I demurred.

I was able to get some mass-produced Xmas cards from Ito-ya, the Ginza stationery shop, and I even fell prey to my current "Space: 1999" virus and picked up the CD at Yamano Music. Well, at least I also got some more points on my card there so that if I literally play my cards (from Tower and HMV) right, I may be in for a very good bonanza for discs once the Xmas season truly gets under way in December. Yes, I used Ginza very well today.

Got home for a very rare early Wednesday night home and made some spaghetti for dinner. Rather nice to kick back during the middle of the week. It's even nicer that I don't have to head out until tomorrow afternoon. I even got to see "Trivia no Izumi" for the first time in months. It hasn't changed a bit. However, what hasn't been nice is this new news of yet another case of a little girl getting murdered by a psycho. This time, the incident took place near Hiroshima. The police are on the case. Hopefully, they'll get their man or woman as fast as they caught the kid who had offed his classmate last week

Also, that building design scandal just deepens and expands. Right now, NHK is saying that there are 194 cases of faulty design in buildings across 22 prefectures. It's amazing that Mr. Aneha hasn't been arrested yet but the government said that it would file an official complaint against him with the police tomorrow. Mr. Aneha, meanwhile is continuing to show his erstwhile character by telling the reporters that the government is indirectly responsible for his need to cook the books which resulted in having all these pretty deathtraps put up.

Wednesday November 23, 10:10 a.m.

Well, got my 6 hours of shuteye (yep, I burned the midnight oil again going through the Net). I've just had my breakfast of cereal, juice, tea and a pastry...the default morning meal. At least it's nice and sunny out there. I have to await that supposed early afternoon arrival of the package for The Anime King.

Had a chat with The Satyr. I hadn't heard from him in several months. Looks like he may be game for Sunday's viewing of "Harry Potter" but he's gonna have to check (with his girlfriend). Betty Boop has been keeping a running commentary with me about this dinner (now changed to eel since The OL wasn't impressed with that Vietnamese place) on the 3rd.

The Wild Guy has been doing the same thing with me since we got onto that incense request of his. I got him Wild Strawberries (perfectly named, doncha think?). No, not particularly Japanese sounding but it was produced here.

Tuesday November 22, 11:50 p.m.

Currently watching "Pussuma", a late-night variety show starring Korean-spouting Tsuyoshi Kusanagi of SMAP and Yusuke Santamaria, the loudmouthed tarento. The reason that it's shown late at night is especially evident tonight since the boys with another masculine pair are gleefully judging young ladies clad in skimpy bikinis. What separates this from your run-of-the-mill beauty contest is that the judges get to have the girls make all sorts of nasty poses just centimetres away from their sweaty faces. Nice work if you can get it.

Tonight's stint at the juku was pretty off for the most part. The New Kid made me wonder why he even bothered to show up. He came in half an hour late and although his mother did call in to say that he would be so, he didn't particularly show much humility or come clean on why he was late. I came fairly close to giving him a lecture but held it in. The Beauty Pair have become a little too comfy with their friendship with me although they did fairly well with the grammar at hand. There was, of course, no lesson when it came to The Siberian. It was the usual gabfest. But at least, he was finally cured of his cold. The only good class was with The Milds and McKid. All of this was overshadowed by the special guest in the juku...a cute little kitten that the boss had taken in after she'd seen it abandoned in a garbage pit dangerously tangled up in some wiring. She's currently looking for a new master for it since she can't keep it herself due to some rather heavy jealousy from her pet bunny. If it weren't for the fact that I live alone, I would've been happy to keep the feline myself.

The Madame just sent the big cancellation for Yokohama on the 4th. Just as well...Movie Buddy and Skippy just gave their regrets as well. Maybe I'll just go by myself. Hopefully, there is that buffet restaurant by the East Gate of Chinatown that I'd visited last summer.

Interesting thing about Skippy. From her message of regrets just now and a previous message, I'm getting the impression that things aren't well with her company. Or perhaps her company has indeed gone under since she's now only a part-timer. I'd thought she was a full-timer. I was gonna probe a bit further but thought better of it. If she's gonna say something, let her make the first move. I was taken aback last year when her school funded a faculty trip all the way to Paris. That struck me as a bit decadent. In any case, I'm to see her and The Madame on Sunday for "Harry Potter"...provided that we can get in on only the 2nd day of release.

Earlier this morning, I sent the blanket message to all the students about my Xmas schedule. Luckily, it coincides with Speedy's for the school. I'll be off for the week...that should be just fine with me since I can't really afford to have too many days off.

The Bohemian contacted me for the first time in several months for dinner tonight. But for obvious reasons, I had to decline but did give the option of meeting me sometime in December.

Well, tomorrow is Japan's Labour Day...nice to have a national holiday in the middle of the week. I think I'm already over the hump with the somewhat arduous night at the juku. Thursday will consist of The Sisters of the States (The Carolinan/The New Yorker) and then Friday will just be with The Teacher. SR and The OL can't make it out that day. I'll have to make my way out to Tokyo to get some Xmas stuff in the form of greeting cards and other stuff.

I'm currently watching yet another late-night variety fest with the comedian duo Garage Sale. On it, there seems to be a former porn actress who may be making inroads into the regular TV industry. Her name is Nao Oikawa (not sure if that's her real name) and if she's successful, she'd only be the 2nd adult video performer to hit it big in the mainstream after the firmly established Ai Iijima. Iijima has been around so long now on TV that there are probably some viewers who don't realize her sordid past.

Anyways, time to shut off.

Tuesday November 22, 7:22 a.m.

I had always wondered why on weather forecasts over here, the meterologists had dryness alerts in the Fall and Winter. I mean, that struck me as appealing to the vain in all of us. Winter storm alerts, typhoon alerts, earthquake alerts...all of these are there to warn us of potentially dangerous phenomena. But dryness?!

Well, I've come to the realization that there is some sense to this minor alert. With the dropping temps, my feet and lower legs have started to flake like the best products by Crisco. Forgive me for being grotty but with my unbearable urge to itch, my feet were leaving a white trail of dust on my black shoes. I would've forgiven a cocaine addict if he/she had mistaken the area around my ankles as his/her next big hit. Time to slap on the aloe vera.

Monday November 21, 11:57 p.m.

I'm back home from my now regularly late Mondays. Well, at least it's better than late Fridays. As it turned out, all that kerfuffle with 004 was nicely smoothed out tonight in class. Everything is off of yellow alert...thank the heavens. As it turned out, both lessons with 004 and 005 were OK. 004 was happy and 005 said that she would probably enlist for more lessons after her 4th one next week. Good to hear.

Earlier in the day, 002 dropped by to say hello after her month-long odyssey in Toronto. Yep, she still misses the city (apparently she didn't read The Big Smoke's distinction as the nation's gun capital). Looks like she's copied my habit of taking shots of food over there. Luckily, I'd had some dinner before I took a look at them. I probably would've taken a chomp out of her album if I hadn't. If she does decide to come back to Speedy's, it won't be for at least another 6 months since she has to get that new job and some extra money saved up. Speedy's a patient man, though.

The lessons with The Class Act and SIL were also OK. It was the first time in a few weeks that I got to see The Lady. I did tell her who I was probably bringing with me to the Xmas party in less then 3 weeks. She looked a bit surprised when I told her that I'd be bringing 3 folks. Uh-oh. So I had to turn down Speedy's request to bring his wife. I couldn't take the chance of antagonizing The Lady. SIL was a good half-hour late for her lesson since traffic was just deplorable in The Big Sushi today, the reason being that President Putin of Russia was in town. I'm sure all those ultrarightist trucks protesting Russia's takeover of the Kuriles didn't help things either.

Speedy's got things planned for us. There is this monthly international party at The Foreign Correspondents Club in Yurakucho on Saturday for which the entire Speedy faculty, including me, will attend. Nothing formal, though. The menu is supposed to be pizza and beer...very blue collar. And then, Speedy told me to keep December 23rd open for the Xmas party for the school. Yes, sir!

Skippy got back to me about this upcoming Sunday for "Harry Potter". Yep, she's still a go but it looks like it'll be just her, The Madame and myself. I was a bit struck by her last comment that she would be having a job interview tomorrow. I thought she was happy with her current job. Then again, I did hear about this kids's school that went bankrupt a few weeks back. Hmmm...

Sunday November 20, 9:31 p.m.

Now, back to "Space: 1999"...

As I was saying before, this space program of my childhood seemed like an offshoot of "2001: A Space Odyssey" in looks, sounds and themes. It was about as different from the pro-US idealism of "Star Trek" as one could get but still maintain this overarching mood of hope for a better life. "Space: 1999" was also an interesting British production of British, American, and Australaisian performers, a group led by three actors from hit US TV shows of the 60s supported by a cast of unknowns in the shaggy-haired and bell-bottomed 70s pretending to be in the world of the 90s.

The final show in the first season, "The Testament of Arkadia" was a show that I'd seen only once and just barely remember as one of those special episodes because of some rather classical life-affirming music and a couple of Alphans who decide to become the new Adam and Eve of this world. On going through the synopsis of it in the Moonbase Alpha website, the writer wasn't hugely enamored with it but from his report and my fractured memory of it, I thought that ep was probably the culmination of what that first season and the original premise of the show was all about: people forced to become pioneers in a brave new galaxy.

"Space: 1999", despite a lot of it going over my head during my childhood, still managed to leave enough of an impact on me so that I actually bought a Transporter Eagle from a toy store. The special effects guys on the show should be well commended for producing an ingenious realistic vehicle. It was modular in that the passenger section could detach from the rest of the ship. The only bad thing was that the command module at the front could not be removed. The Eagle had me in its grips so that I remember drawing it so many times in my scrapbook. I even bought a couple of comic books of the show.

A couple of years later, I got the news that CBC would now be broadcasting the show on Saturdays. I thought that they would just be showing reruns but then I saw the commercials for it. The shots weren't anything I remembered from the first season. Then, on catching this 2nd season after CBC showed the original pilot, everything changed. The theme, the opening credits and the setting were totally changed. Main Mission, the huge airy "bridge" of Moonbase Alpha became the more cramped surroundings of Command Centre. Uniforms were altered and some of the supporting cast was thrown out. Heck, even Barry Morse was let go but comely Catherine Schell was brought in. It looked like the entire show was given a facelift.

I wasn't a huge fan of the 2nd season of the show. I thought that "Space: 1999", instead of keeping to its metaphysical themes, decided to firmly follow the "Star Trek" way. There was an alien science officer by the name of Maya from the planet Psychon (as opposed to Spock from Vulcan) who, instead of using cool logic to solve problems, just changed into whatever animal or alien creature to fight the forces of evil. Commander Koenig became more of a Captain Kirk with fisticuffs (I'm sure "Mission: Impossible" helped out in this regard) and romance (although instead of the woman in every spaceport, there was Helena). Heck, even the tech on the moon was beefier: there were huge laser cannons and fortified Eagles guarding the base. And the stories were getting eerily similar to a lot of old Star Trek episodes (Alpha meets God, bouncy sentient white globes in underground caverns, etc). Now I am a Trekkie but not a fan of sci-fi shows that try to copy Trek. All this Trekkifying is no surprise since the new producer of the show was Fred Freiberger, the guy who had overseen the final season of Star Trek before its demise. Not only was I not a fan of his changes...it would seem that Martin Landau was far from one either...not a happy camper. And in fact, according to one interview years ago, it was said that this was when his marriage with Barbara Bain was starting to approach rocky shoals, ironic considering that they were in many more clinches in the 2nd season than they were in their chaste 1st season.

So, "Space: 1999" quietly left the airwaves for good after that 2nd season, only to be seen in reruns on various affiliates and then later on sci-fi channels. Landau and Bain didn't truly hit bottom, though, until they appeared several years later as the guest villains on "The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island". Oy vey! The only thing more pathetic than seeing Russell "The Professor" Johnson dance around in a pre-game introduction was seeing the once slick couple of Martin and Barbara not even pretending to do a good job of crying off into the sunset after being defeated by the former castaways (wait a minute, there is possibly one thing even sadder...the possibly forced cameo appearance of a clearly ailing Jim Backus). However, after that nadir, Martin Landau came back with his supporting actor Oscar nods, Barbara Bain seemed to retire (aside from a guest role in "Moonlighting" ) and Barry Morse popped up in stuff like "The Martian Chronicles" and commercials. He'd been offered the part of the father of Tommy Lee Jones' Sam Gerard in the movie version of "The Fugitive" but declined. All of the majors from the first season are still alive and kicking. In fact, I only found out a few days ago that in the late 90s, some of the original cast, including Landau and Bain, came back to a sci-fi convention and did a spoof of the show. Very sporting of Landau considering that he was now known as this high-falutin' Hollywood character actor in motion pictures.

However, the thing that finally wrapped the tale of Moonbase Alpha was in the form of a short video coda that had been shown perhaps at the same convention. It starred a visibly older Zienia Merton reprising her role as the Audrey Hepbernesque Sandra Benes. Considering that it was 23 years later, the character was made to look exactly like her self back when the moon had still just blasted out of orbit. Not a great move...she looked more preserved than naturally aged. However, the video was effective in its poignancy. Benes had sent this message in an electronic bottle stating that the Alphans had finally found their new home and begun settling it in a finally successful Operation: Exodus. She even gave a convincing crying near-breakdown which, I'm sure, had some fans tearing up. And in her final speech, she resolutely confirmed that the two seasons were very much tied together when she gave her tributes to the ones lost from the 1st season and referred to Maya from the 2nd season. To be honest, the 2nd season seems to have started some years after the events in the 1st season so anything could have happened. Still, I wasn't crazy about Koenig's mullet in the 2nd season.

So, now that the saga of Moonbase Alpha has gone into the history books of pop culture, what next? Well, of course, there has to be the movie or TV remake. And why not? "Battlestar Galactica", with a 3rd season confirmed, is now beyond being a successful rehashing. I'm sure "Space: 1999"'s number will be up soon considering Hollywood's current desperate predilection to strip mine the vaults of old TV shows. And if anyone mentions any potential problem with the year 1999, I would tell them to just change it. Make it "Space: 2099" or for those optimists, "Space: 2059". Besides, real Earth has yet to put anything remotely close to Moonbase Alpha onto the Moon. While some producer mulls this blog entry over from the comforts of his huger-than-my-entire-apartment balcony in Santa Barbara (no relation to Ms. Bain), I'll be looking at the Moon, grateful that life hasn't imitated art.

Sunday November 20, 6:52 p.m.

Had that lupper with The Madame today. I waited for her at Meiji-Jingumae Station for about half an hour since she was running late with her class. It was a nice day out by the Harajuku-Omotesando adjunct, although with the winds it was rather chilly. A lot of folks dressed up like Eskimoses, to quote a line from "The Christmas Song". A couple of armoured ultrarightist trucks drove by as usual berating its usual Imperial songs.

The Madame ran up the stairs out of breath and in need of a washroom. So I kinda gave her the juvenile teasing of mentioning things like Niagara Falls and apple juice. However, her bladder was strong enough until we got to Fujimamas. This time around, we got the 2nd floor. It was the first time for me to be placed up there in the large loft while it was The Madame's first time for her to go there for any sort of brunch. I had "The Plate" (pancakes, sausages, bacon, potatoes and biscuits with gravy) while she had some sort of scrambled eggs which can be put into some sort of fajita wrapper. As usual, it was up to me to finish off what she left over (yes, it was a bit of an arm twist....heheheh). Fujimamas wasn't all that filled up, to be honest. Hmmm...perhaps I will never really need to get there all that early to partake in the brunch.

The Madame seems to be determined to keep my Sundays busy for the next little while. She suggested the idea for going to Yokohama for dim sum. She rather surprised me when she said that she'd never been to Yokohama in her life. For a Torontonian, that's like saying that one's never been to Missisauga. Well, we'll have to do something about that. I've sent the word out to Movie Buddy and Skippy to see if they are interested.

The two of us ended up walking from Harajuku to Shibuya since we were rather stuffed. The Madame looked for a card in Tokyu Hands and then we stopped by the Swarovski crystal shop in Bunkamura. Since we were in the neighbourhood, I showed her The Lady's house. Well, if she isn't gonna come to the Xmas party, at leastI can show her the place. We took a walk through the neighbourhood...since it was indeed a residential area, things were very quiet as we walked through. I didn't push her again on the topic of inviting her to the party since I had failed in each of the three previous times; she's made up her mind.

Back home now watching NHK News. Looks like that idiot architect Mr. Aneha is reaping the rotten fruits of his labour. The government found out that two more buildings may not be up to specs in terms of earthquake resistance. The probe Hayabusa failed to make its landing on the asteroid Itokawa. However, there was some good news when Sydney Olympics marathon champion, Naoko Takahashi, won the Tokyo International Marathon today. Plus, the Chiba Lotte Marines finally got their victory parade down the main street of Chiba City. It sure talks of the size of Metropolitan Tokyo when neither The Madame or I had any inkling about either event happening.

I'll resume "Space: 1999" later on....

Sunday November 20, 9:45 a.m.

Space: 1999

(I've decided to be kind and warn you if you aren't into sci-fi, just steer clear of this entry.)

Seeing that I do have a bit of, or too much, time on my hands depending on your point of view, I've decided to set this piece of cyberspace for one of the programs of my childhood. In recent entries, I've been talking a little about this strange series starring thespians from old 60s US TV hits so I thought maybe it's better to get all of my yah-yahs on this topic in one big burst.

Anyways, my first glimpse at "Space: 1999" was through the promotional commercials before its premiere on CHCH-TV, Channel 11 in Ontario way back in the early 70s. Even at my small age, I was somewhat intrigued by science-fiction. However, at the time, I hadn't realized that actors Martin Landau, Barbara Bain and Barry Morse had already made their marks in TV legend through "Mission: Impossible" and "The Fugitive". I barely remembered the iconic theme song and opening credits (match striking a fuse, the tape recorder, etc.) of "Mission: Impossible" as I was only the age of 4 during its heyday with Landau and Bain. As for Morse, you can imagine my surprise on seeing my first episode of the original 60s version of "The Fugitive" and catching this actor playing the tensely intrepid Lt. Gerard. Apparently, he was known as the "most hated man on TV in America". That's quite a thing to read considering Morse's Perry Como-esque take on Professor Bergmann ("Moon blasted out of orbit? Spend the rest of my life careening through outer space? Enh...that's life...what's for dinner?")

I saw the first episode "Breakaway" on a Sunday at 5 p.m. on the aforementioned CHCH. Back in those days, I was starting to catch onto the original "Star Trek" with Kirk, Spock and McCoy. "Space: 1999" was no Star Trek. It reminded me more of "2001: A Space Odyssey" in look. Somewhat more realistic-looking sets? Check. Grand music? Check. Sterile pastel uniforms? Check. There was the opening teaser of the astronaut going berserk in the nuclear waste facility on the moon before he finally collapses with the camera doing a close-up on his gray eyeball. Then, suddenly this timpani roll came thundering in and introducing us to the actors in the opening credits with this amazingly epic orchestral score and the titles over Moonbase Alpha. Then I got another shock after the Eagle falls and explodes when there was a musical 90-degree turn and I got all this 70s electric guitar during the part where the montage of the upcoming episode was flashed at us at warp speed (I've always wondered if Landau and Bain, being "Mission: Impossible" vets, had anything to do with those opening credits) before returning to the orchestra. I knew then and there that things were gonna be different with this show. And the concept of that first episode and for the series was high enough for even a dense 8-year-old like to understand. Still, there were a lot of episodes in which I didn't have a clue as to what was going on.

Well, with the benefit of more than 3 decades passing by and seeing these eps again, I've been able to finally figure things out. There is also a website called "Moonbase Alpha's Space: 1999" that has provided a lot of info on the series, including episode descriptions and reviews. In it, the creator of the site mentions that "Space: 1999" went more into the more cerebral and more metaphysical themes...at least in its first season. Ahhh...that's why John and Victor were eons old and using telepathy in a black hole...gotcha. There were definitely some episodes whose ideas were just a little out there for young me back then. Some 15 years before "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Space: 1999" was dabbling into alternate universes, black holes (even before the term was publically acknowledged), and space brains although it also went into the conventional themes of monsters from outer space and hostile alien races.

However, "Space: 1999" and "Star Trek" converged when it came to the basic structure of the characters and setting. Like the Kirk-Spock-McCoy triumvirate, there were Commander John Koenig (Landau), Dr. Helena Russell (Bain) and Professor Victor Bergmann (Morse) along with the regular supporting crew on their "ship", the Moon itself via Moonbase Alpha. However, things seemed more congenial, surprisingly congenial considering their circumstances, amongst the top three than with their Star Trek counterparts. In fact, it wasn't until I started watching the 1st-season episodes again recently that I noticed that there was a bit of a potential romantic triangle with Russell as the apex.

As I said once before, it is interesting to see Martin Landau as the lead in this British production somewhere between his successful sepia-hued days as Rollin "The Man With a Thousand Faces" Hand in "Mission: Impossible" and his Oscar-calibre work in movies like "Ed Wood" (him, Bill Murray and Johnny Depp in the same flick?!) and "Crimes and Misdemeanors". In his first season as Commander Koenig, Landau played it pretty serious and moody...about as rock-like as his craggy face. But then again, when you're the commanding officer of a base whose moon gets blasted out of orbit for all of eternity....well, let's say you probably wouldn't be Marty Sunshine either. Then there was his wife at the time, Barbara ("JOHN!") Bain. I guess having been married for 15 years helped in their onscreen relationship. There was a very comfortable familiarity between those two. As for Barry (Oh...John) Morse's character.... well, as I said before, you couldn't faze Victor with anything, even the sight of a black hole just brought out even more wistfulness and a bottle of brandy from him.

"Space: 1999", aside from its use of then-cutting-edge special effects, was also notable for its unflinching unreluctant use of some rather gory images from time to time. Some charred corpses did pop up in a few episodes and one episode featured a brutal psychopathic attack on the poor Commander. I do recall having the cushion nearby for some quick escape when those things came into view.

Another point was the music in the first season. I do pay attention to BGM and I thought that the music in that show was very key to setting the mood. The theme certainly got me awake (and since my renewed interest in the show, I have downloaded variations on the theme) with its clash of orchestra and prog rock. Even the orchestra took on a bit of a Latin nuance at the end of the theme. Yesterday, during my stopover at Yamano Music, I actually found the soundtrack to that first season and gave it a listen at one of the listening posts. I'm about to show my otaku character but after listening to some of the tracks without the images, I just thought that there was a fascinating similarity between the music of "Space: 1999" and that of anime legend "Space Battle Cruiser Yamato". Both shows had a lot of epic orchestral music and some electric guitar thrown in for good measure. Also both shows were produced around the same time. It does make me go hmmmmm. Space: 1999 also didn't hesitate to borrow a couple of established classical pieces. One was "Mars" from Holst's "The Planets" for the episode "Space Brain" and the other was a very mournful piece (I can't remember the title just now...but I think it has the word "Adagio") which was used for "Dragon's Domain" and for a segment in the original version of "Rollerball" with James Caan.

Ahhhh...time just flew by too quickly. I've gotta continue this later.

Sunday November 20, 12:42 a.m.

Nice long day yesterday. Strangely enough, the elder of the two sisters was actually quite vocal in her adopted tongue of English. I wonder if there had been a sudden eclipse. However, I took full advantage of that fact and made sure she got a lot of talking in. Ironically, soon after that breakthrough, she had another one of those mother-daughter catfights in the corridor during my lesson with her younger sister.

I'm starting to appreciate my commuter naps on the subway. Since I had JJ after the kids, I took the long way around the Oedo Line...about a half-hour or so. Although I'm conceding my advancing age, at least I'm feeling rather refreshed afterwards. Ah...just another one of those adjustments to turning 40.

JJ was also having a pretty good day after some recent stumbles on her fluency. I was quite relieved since I had been worried that she would get so discouraged that she was gonna drop me. I was slightly distracted by the juggler outside the Starbucks. Kinda felt sorry for him since he didn't really attract all that much of a crowd. Then again, it is November in Tokyo. People have been shivering lately at the falling temps, so I can't realy imagine too many folks willing to stand outside to watch a juggling act like they did during the hot summer.

Afterwards, I went to the Ginza for an hour before meeting with The Denmother and her Scouts. I was there on the tail end of the customary weekend closing of Meiji Dori. I took a peek inside Yamano Music. Yup, the Xmas CDs were out along with tribute discs to the late Minako Honda. There are definitely a number of discs I want to get but gotta think about that budget.

At 5:30, I met the group outside of Bic Camera in Yurakucho. The Denmother was there along with Scouts Q, C and B. It's quite fortunate that The Denmother is quite a talker since the rest of the group is so quiet. When Scout S finally showed up, we made our way to this Italian place called Bravo just on the Hibiya side of Yurakucho. I've been there before once or twice in the past decade. I'm not sure what I would call it in the Italian ranking of restaurants (trattoria?) but it's classified on its name cards as a bar & grill. The dish portions would make it an equivalent of an izakaya. We were sharing a lot of dishes: some good stuff there although the portions are pretty small....Rosemary Potatoes, Porcini Mushroom & Minced Chicken Spaghetti, and good ol' traditional Lasagna amongst other things.

As I said before, The Denmother is quite a talker. Usually when there are a whole bunch of talkers, I clam up and just take in the ambiance. But it seems as if whenever there is a dearth of conversationalists, my verbal abilities decide to kick in so for the first couple of hours, it was basically just The D and me gabbing with some support from the other Scouts. Then, The D's only son joined us as advertised. He's definitely one mighty hip-hopping guy: he's got the look and the fashion of a man ready to krunk and krumple like the best of them in LA or NYC. And yet, he's a pretty regular soft-spoken and friendly guy...not a bit of attitude as might be depicted on an average MTV video. I envied him and his mother's relationship...by his admission, they are more buddies than mother-son although The Denmother did admit having to bounce his head a few times. Gotta admit that The D is not your typical middle-aged mom, either. The son indicated her fashion sense and I had to admit it was unusual once I realized it. Her shirt was a quilt-like patchwork of various colours and images. Certainly, I couldn't really see The Elder and her more traditional mother bonding like these two. And I have to admit that my parents have always been parents. I was quite surprised and delighted that her son could get along quite well with a fuddy-duddy like me although I was slightly taken aback when mother and son told me that I reminded them of dear ol' Dad in appearance and demeanor!

We finally got out of Bravo around 10-ish or so. It was quite cool outside by that point which meant that the others were freezing. Scouts Q, C and S decided to make their ways home but The Denmother, Scout B, the son and I decided to get one more drop to drink. We did a bit of searching around Yurakucho until we settled for the Lotteria burger shop in the basement of the huge Fujiya Building. Obviously, smoking was very much allowed there since there was a constant haze and my nose was starting to act up. The Denmother was asking me about my probability of getting married. I said it was pretty low. I didn't feel too badly about it, especially since back at the Italian restaurant, The D had related to us about the trials and tribulations that The Songbird was going through with her fiance concerning her upcoming wedding, which includes an overbearing future mother-in-law.

At last, we broke up close to 11. The D's son was off to Roppongi for an all-nighter at his dance club (man, what a cool mother....he's only 19 and he can shake his bootie all night), and Scout B was off for home. So it was just The Denmother and me for the ride back home. She's also based in Urayasu so we had a nice little chat. Yep, it would be nice to keep in contact with her and the Scouts. A lot quieter, on average, than Skippy, The Madame and all those folks from their year at the ol' school but still good fellows.

Looks like I've got another delivery failure notice from Yamato which means that another package for The Anime King is on the way. I've rescheduled it for delivery on the holiday Wednesday.

Gahhh...this is stuff that just unnerves me. I mentioned last night about all the shootings in Toronto. Well, some gang thugs rubbed out a potential witness at the funeral of the guy whose murder that the witness had seen and that the thugs had instigated. My blood just ran hot and cold reading that bit of news. There was the usual outrage from the police and politicos but I just got the impression that they're just helpless after a summer of gun violence. I can only hope that the mayor will finally declare war on gangs.

Well, anyways, later today, I'm off to see The Madame for lupper at Fujimamas. I'm thinking about getting there a bit earlier so that I can get a bit of Xmas shopping done. I've already got an Xmas card from The Entrepreneur.

Friday November 18, 10:03 p.m.

The Teacher was having some major pain problems with her neck today to the extent that I was wondering about cutting the lesson short. However, she held on for the full 90 minutes. It was just another talkfest without looking at any article today. She gave me some advice on getting a trenchcoat when The Lady's party comes around. I think it'll be just a little too chilly by that night for me even to wear my full suit. Even the cheapest ones will set me back about 10000 yen. Ugh! And I have to get a pair of new dress shoes since the leather is starting to crack.

I did pull off a minor miracle and went to the gym for my second day in a week. A bit more crowded than usual due to an aerobics class in the studio area and some extra bodies in the gym area. In fact, I couldn't even finish off my workout with the usual half-hour treadmill since they were all taken.

Just came home after the gym, had lunch and planned for the kids' lessons before setting out again to see The OL. Looks like the Toranomon Starbucks has also gone Christmas in terms of BGM. The OL herself seems a lot more happier since she got the word last week that she could enter Aoyama University. Good for her. She also gave me another restaurant tip on a good dim sum place in Omotesando.

Got word from The Denmother. Looks like I'm to meet her and the others in front of Bic Camera in Yurakucho at 5:30 tomorrow night. Because of my lesson with JJ tomorrow, they had to do a bit of rescheduling so I hope they're not too, too sore with me. I've already had to go through with all of that crud with Speedy this week.

Well, there's been a pretty major scandal uncovered but it doesn't involve the usual politicians or other celebs. It actually involves architects and building inspectors. A very sheepish architect came clean and admitted that he had deliberately falsified documents regarding the structural integrity of buildings that he'd had a hand in designing and were then constructed. Basically, the buildings don't meet up to specs in a Shindo 5.0 quake. To add context, the quake that brought down Kobe in 1995 was a Shindo 7.0, a million times more powerful than a Shindo 5. In other words, those residents who've moved into several new condos and apartments in the past few months in Tokyo, Yokohama and Kawasaki have been royally screwed.

The loser architect said that he had done the dastardly deed so that he could push through his projects at a lower price and a quicker pace. If he could pull off such a stunt, I can imagine that there could be others who may have fallen to The Dark Side. You can imagine the phone calls that rang in today. The scandal reached all the way up to the prefectural level with Governor Ishihara of Tokyo, for example, holding a press conference this afternoon. And NHK News has just issued methods on how cheated tenants can get justice. Man, imagine finding out that you've been living in a house of cards. Hmmm...I wonder if Mr. & Mrs Kuroda know about this...

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Thursday November 17, 11:28 a.m.

As expected, I didn't get up until 10:30 this morning after staying up til nearly 4 a.m. scrolling through this website dedicated to "Space: 1999". Part of it was to assuage my just-as-fat ego after the events of yesterday (however, I'm starting to get that sense that this whole mountain is just a molehill...I'm still reminding myself that she is a paying customer). The other part is just another more harmless trait of mine that wants to explore nostalgia (as people of a certain age are wont to do). I'll probably have more comments on this in the entries to come. However, I did want to point out that on another website, people were struggling to come up with some sort of explanation for the huge continuity changes between the 1st and 2nd seasons of the show (for those who haven't seen a single episode, you may just leave now for the next several lines). Certain members died in unseen accidents, Commander Koenig went on a redecorating spree, etc. I'd say that the show just changed producers and let it go. I mean, this is like trying to explain why James Bond has changed appearance over the decades....ahhh, I get it. He's really another one of those rebellious Time Lords like The Doctor and The Master, and he just regenerates whenever he's mortally wounded or outquipped by a villain...ah, what my eyes have seen. The Broccoli family can be rest assured in their knowledge then that they could potentially still have seven more Bonds before luck finally runs out for the world's greatest superspy. But back to the future...as for the grand rationale for the big changes between Season 1 and Season 2 of Space: 1999, just use the alternate universe theory. I cannot come up with any other reason for the 1st-season Koenig to get that horrible mullet in Season 2.

Anyways, I got word from The Denmother. That long-awaited meeting between those old students and me is coming off this Saturday after all. Despite me throwing a wrench into the proceedings (didn't want to do it, I assure you) with a lesson with JJ, she got back to me and said that things were still not solidified yet and that there would still be something.

Well, I gotta get some domestic stuff done and then prep for The Manager and MK tonight.

Thursday November 17, 1:00 a.m.

Well, I certainly got a wake-up call yesterday...or maybe it's better to say that I got torpedoed. Here I was stating that Student 004 had been a great addition when I got an e-mail forwarded from her via Speedy. Apparently, the feeling of Monday's lesson was not completely reciprocal. She was happy with the first part of the lesson with the business articles but then she nailed me for just doing general conversation for the last half hour in the lounge. I had absolutely no idea that she was dissatisfied at all during those 30 minutes.

Once again I had to keep my bile in check and sent a quick response to Speedy. I let him know that if 004 had not been happy then I would do my utmost to be better. However I did defend myself in stating that she had initiated the happy talk segment, not me. So I naturally assumed that it would be the regular format. I knew obviously she was a high student but I didn't realize she used English everyday at work.

Speedy kept me CC'ed through the quick series of spin doctoring e-mails between him and 004, stating that perhaps I was trying to get to know her better as a student (no, I wasn't...I was just following procedure). To 004's credit, she emphasized in two e-mails that she'd had absolutely no qualms about the regular classroom lesson but that she would like to keep things strictly business from now on. Speedy gently admonished me that she is a paying high-level customer and that she expects top quality for her top yen. What? And I was lowballing her? Speedy did redeem himself by stating that I had no reason to defend myself and that he had every little confidence in my abilities.

It looks like the crisis has been averted but I will be having a very serious talk with her on Monday about ground rules. I think the first few minutes will be awkward though; I don't hide bad news very well but I'm sure with a bit of groveling apology, I should be able to keep myself in her good graces. But the damage has been done. She's asked to go down to just an hourlong lesson which will drop my pay a bit.

Yep, I'm acting like a spoiled prima donna but then again what can one expect from a guy who's had a very good track record all these years teaching and making students laugh? That's the flip side of taking my work seriously. I'm gonna take any sort of criticism personally. I know that I'm gonna have those few students who won't take to me but it's not gonna prevent me from still feeling a sting when I do get dumped.

Speedy took me out afterwards to that oden place that we had gone to a few weeks earlier. I thought it would be just to celebrate getting my visa extended as had been planned. Instead, it turned out to be a pep talk reassuring me that my job was safe and that 004 bore me no ill will. Ugh! I hate those types of outings. I should know...I did that once myself to an errant teacher and once good friend almost a decade ago during my own thankfully brief time as a supervisor. As I recall, he didn't particularly take the session too happily either. Well, this time I was on the wrong end, but I have to admit that Speedy did it a lot better than I did.

As most of the above has been generated by The Dark Side of me, it would only be fair to let The Light Side give its two cents (but only two). Perhaps this wake-up call will nudge me in being a bit more harsh on some of the laggards in my flock like the kids, The New Kid and The Beauty Pair. They are all paying me money (not a lot of it in the latter two cases) for a good lesson. If they don't want to try, I still have to deliver something.

In other news, I did register my visa extension at City Hall. The lady there was annoyingly patronizing...she enunciated her Japanese so affectedly (in the assumption that I could understand her better) that I didn't think she was Japanese at all. However, her name plate told otherwise. But it was only a 5-minute endurance test.

Had quite a lot of e-mail in the box (a lot of it being the spinning between Speedy and 004). The Madame accepted my invitation for lupper at Fujimamas on Sunday. In fact, she had been there before and enjoyed it. She'll also be OK for Harry Potter on the 27th with Skippy. Movie Buddy initially also accepted the call but later retracted it when he once again realized that he and The Sylph already had other plans.

Well, it's been a day...not necessarily a good one, but it's been one.

Wednesday November 16, 7:29 a.m.

I'm currently watching an old episode of "Space 1999" on SuperChannel. Quaint program, considering. Even in 2005, we can only wish for the fake technology of Moonbase Alpha. This ep was "Earthbound", guest starring Christopher Lee in a rare good-guy alien role. I used to watch "Space 1999" on CHCH-TV on Sundays. For the time, the special effects were top-notch (it was filmed a few years before Star Wars premiered) and were reminiscent of the stuff used on "2001 Space Odyssey". Martin Landau did his best with his dour version of Captain Kirk while Barry Morse was his congenial sidekick, Professor Bergmann. It's a bit nostalgic seeing Landau in this strange interesting part of his career, between star turns in "North by Northwest" and "Mission: Impossible" and his Oscar-worthy character roles later on. I wonder how William Shatner feels about him (although he should be happy that he finally got his Emmy).

Well, I should be getting things tidied up for the trip to City Hall and then the gym. I'm pretty much ready for the lessons tonight. Student 001 is one of those people that I consider an "auto pilot"...I don't really need to plan (although I already have something in mind) for her; she can just take any ball and run with it. I also have something ready for Student 003 but I'll need to refine her plan at Speedy's.

The weather is getting chillier for sure. It's only going up to 12 C today (which I would translate into "freezing" for the natives here) and it was only a couple of degrees warmer when I entered the living room. Still only 16 in here.

Tuesday November 15, 10:37 p.m.

NHK has just wrapped up its half-hour devoted to the wedding today. It was surprising that the media was allowed to televise the reception. It just looked like a regular wedding reception although the guests were of a far higher calibre. For example, Governor Shintaro Ishihara of Tokyo, the big boss of groom Yoshiki Kuroda, gave the opening speech and toast. I think it was a good choice that the dinner was French; I don't think the governor would have liked a Chinese menu (inside joke).

Meanwhile. George W. Bush has touched down in Japan via Osaka International Airport to head over to Kyoto for the big meeting with PM Koizumi tomorrow. Security is obviously very tight. For some reason, Bobby Valentine of the Japan Series-winning Chiba Lotte Marines and batting legend Sadaharu Oh greeted the President when he got onto the tarmac.

Hmmm...tonight's stint at the juku was a bit off. The New Kid was a bit down in the mouth tonight, and The Beauty Pair was just plain lazy. I did get a nice box of yatsuhashi as a souvenir during their trip to Kyoto, though. However, I'm gonna have to buckle down on them. Only The Milds and McKid were their dependable selves. The Bohemian cancelled out due to his cold. Considering his whacked-out condition last week, I'm glad he chose the safe option.

It'll be another nighttime series of classes tomorrow night with my second stint at Speedys this week. Beforehand, I will have to head over to City Hall to register the fact that I got my visa extended. Then it'll be my first stint at the gym in a while.

Tuesday November 15, 2:26 p.m.

I just saw the press conference of Mr. and Mrs. Kuroda (nee Princess Nori)...all 5 minutes of it. Not surprisingly, it was the usual bland platitudes of making the best life possible together, and of course, the media lapped them all up like thirsty cats to milk. It was an interesting point I found from CNN. Thanks to a 1947 law, Japanese princesses apparently only stay that way until marriage. Basically, if one is born a princess, she won't die as one unless she wants to spend the rest of her life as an old maid. It's kinda like the reverse of women who marry into the Imperial family. However, Mrs. Kuroda isn't the first to become a commoner; there have been other instances of princesses-turned-paupers...er, I mean, regular folk.

It'll be interesting how Sayoko Kuroda's life will turn out over the years. Will she now be fair game for the media since the all-powerful Imperial Household Agency, which could put many dictatorships to shame, no longer has control over her (or that's what I assume)? Will the paparazzi of magazines like Friday try to snap shots of her buying groceries or blowing her nose? Will she actually get rid of that ridiculous Imperial way of speaking (the folks in the Palace all sound like spirits from the netherworld...I thought Emperor Hirohito renounced godhood back in 1945)? Will she actually let down her hair and actually take natural pics (perhaps throw up a Peace sign) instead of having that eerie sleepy-eyed smile which raises my hackles?

Methinks, no...not completely, anyways. She's been a princess for 36 years...old habits die hard and she does have an appearance to keep up, commoner or not. However, I think she will slowly thaw a bit now that she will be surrounded by regular folk; without the Imperial Household Agency around her, I think that shroud of Imperial reservedness will become more permeable. She's already gotten practice in shopping at supermarkets and driving a car (those themes from "Bewitched" and "Green Acres" are now playing in my head) so the conversion is beginning. And I just cannot believe that within the halls of the Imperial Palace that the folks all speak that affected way all the time. I was watching some footage of the Princess as a little girl; she did sound normal enough in her uniform. And some other footage of Mr. Kuroda in a very normal situation had him speak like a regular guy, although his appearances in front of the press had him taking on that linguistic formality. They will probably gab (and fight) quite normally at home in the rarefied heights of their condo in Akihabara. I'm sure Crown Princess Masako has had some rather choice words to say in secret to her hubby over the years since it's been documented that she hasn't been a happy camper (shades of Princess Diana). However, unlike the open-book life of the British Royals, the IHA has kept a Darth Vader-like Force grip on any news leaking out to the ravenous press. The press, for the most part, hasn't raised so much as a pinkie on the point of increased access to the Imperials probably because journalists could get some rather nasty repercussions. As I said the IHA has some scary power considering that the Imperial Family is a mere symbol of state.

Meanwhile, as for schlubby big me, I'm still trying to make ends meet.

Tuesday November 15, 9:36 a.m.

Got another one of those slight rockings as a wake-up call. Well, a 6.9M quake wouldn't usually merit such a label but it hit several hundred kilometres up north so it wasn't too strong here; however, it did last a good long while. The tsunami warnings popped up all over the north Pacific coast until about a half-hour ago when the all-clear was given.

Pretty chilly in the apartment although not shiveringly so. It was about 15 C in the living room; now with all the appliances on, the temp is at a balmy 16. Looks much colder outside though. It's gray and overcast with some rain slated for later in the evening. Not particularly great marrying weather although Mr. Kuroda looked uncharacteristically but unsurprisingly jaunty as he made his way to the Imperial Hotel to get wedded with his Princess. The wide shows all led off with the coverage of the impending nuptials between the civil servant and the soon-to-be former Princess Nori. The wedding itself should be taking place in less than 90 minutes. During the weekend, the Princess made her official goodbyes to the Emperor and Empress. Sure there wasn't a dry eye in the palace. Sometime after 11 today, she'll be known as just Sayoko Kuroda, employee at some ornithological institute in Chiba. She says that she intends to use the train like everyone else (although there will always be a ring of security around her...I, for one, would love to see how that's gonna work during rush hour). Perhaps I might see her sitting across from me sometime. Still, I would be more amused if she were sitting across from a bunch of cellphone-sporting, cosmetics-applying Harajuku girls.

Well, while all that hysteria plays out on the TV, I'll be just ironing and getting ready for my lessons tonight at the juku. I somehow managed to lose my invitation to the reception.

Tuesday November 15, 12:50 a.m.

I guess my Mondays are just gonna be late ones now. I had my first official Monday night lessons with 004 and 005 at Speedy's. I end up finishing at about 10 instead of the 7 that I once had with The Company, and then I usually have a bit of shop talk with the big boss himself which means I probably won't get out until 10:30. Ah, well...at least, I feel that I'm actually accomplishing something. 004 is a bundle of joy...the perfect high-level student. So far, she's eager to do anything I ask. Kinda reminds me of The Hawaiian who's now firmly established in Australia. As for 005, I had to do it the hard way but I finally got her out of her shell. She finally revealed herself to be the grammatically high student both Speedy and I suspected she would be. The photocopy of the text turned out to be way too easy for her (some of the muffled laughter from her when we took a look at it kinda hinted at that) so we quickly extrapolated away from that stuff. It's always so difficult with these shy types...and they wonder why the lessons don't go so well. It takes two to tango, that's why.

Apparently 002 will be making her way to Speedy's next Monday but only to visit. Speedy isn't too sure whether or not she will renew with us since she's already got a contract with another major English conversation school.

I ended up having only The Matron for the morning lesson, and then SIL for the afternoon. It looks like the new regimen of newspaper articles is a good one for SIL.

Well, it looks like Bush will be meeting with Koizumi in Kyoto on Wednesday. I think that should put the security guys here in Tokyo at ease considering the Princess' wedding is later today.

Man, I'm beat. I'm just lucky I don't have The Beehive this week but I'm wondering how Monday nights and Tuesday mornings are gonna be like from now on.

Monday November 14, 7:15 a.m.

It was a quiet night last night. Just watched the usual "Before/After" episode. A bit more heartwarming than usual. The customer of last night's show was a guy in his late 60s whose chronic leg injury was so severe that he hadn't seen his 2nd floor in ages. The architect to the rescue was able to design and build a new interior for him and his wife so that it was much more user-friendly for him.

Then I watched "Revenge of the Sith" in its entirety on the DVD with commentary by the usual suspects: George Lucas, Rick McCallum, etc. I was a bit disappointed that the commentary was once again parallelized; that is, the various speakers gave their contributions separately. That was one of the few things I was disappointed with in the DVDs of the first trilogy. Episodes I and II had the boys all together and chatting it up. I didn't think they ended up just yakking all over the place in those discs like so many casts did in other movies. Episode III was somewhere in between. Lucas was all by his lonesome while McCallum and one other guy were together. Then again, time was also an issue (the yak tracks were laid down just three weeks after the movie's theatrical premiere in the US), and I surmised that the parallelization was so that Lucas could focus on the plot points while the others could address the scenes technically.

As for the commentaries themselves, I was amused by McCallum's statement right at the opening crawl about Lucas' determination to keep the acting/writing/action on the same template as those old Flash Gordon serials...something that Lucas had been hawking ad nauseum about for years. And like Lucas, I'm sure McCallum's opener was in part a defense against the critics' harping about the stylized performances by Messrs McGregor, Jackson, McDiarmid, Christensen, etc.

My argument is that the original Star Wars could get away with that sort of thing since it was the first of its kind and so at that time the hackneyed acting and writing could be seen as a bit of cute homage to the serials of the 30s and 40s. And of course, maybe...just maybe, Lucas was safe with his devotion to that sad cinematic religion in "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" (although the former movie is considered to be the best overall in quality....tellingly, Lucas neither wrote or directed it) for continuity's sake. Of course, overall, Lucas was working with three relatively unknown commodities in Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, actors who really didn't have established careers at that time and so were relatively more amenable to the Lucas technique.

But since then, thanks to all the fans and media over the decades, the ethos surrounding Star Wars and the Jedi just deepened to truly become this pop-cultural religion. The stylized acting and writing in homage to those serials of long ago (at that time, Flash Gordon was indeed the Star Wars of that time) haven't been able to support this new trilogy. And frankly, huge event movies (of which Star Wars and Jaws were the very first) are a lot more numerous than they were during the late 70s, and not only that, they are now starting to include better writing and acting (see Spiderman). We wanted to have that same level of writing and acting for this new trilogy. What would Episodes I to III have been like if the script and performances had been on the level of, say, "Lord of the Rings"? Certainly, the story of the Jedi in their heyday (and that's only relative since it's assumed that Darth Sidious had controlled even the knights right from the get-go) would have only benefitted with the rejection of the "Flash Gordon" acting and writing. It was a different time (for both the setting and for the viewers watching the films) and a different approach to the early episodes would have nicely distinguished them from the later somewhat hack-acted but action-packed movies. In a nutshell, the times, blockbuster movies, viewers and the actors have outgrown the acting/writing in a Star Wars movie. This is a point that Lucas quietly tries to quash in his last line of the DVD when he says that the two trilogies should actually be seen as one 7-hour movie.

And as for the actors themselves? It's also quite telling that in all of the commentaries for all of the movies, only Carrie Fisher has come on to give her two cents. I very much doubt Liam Neeson would ever give George Lucas the time of day let alone come onto another Star Wars project.

Now in other news...

I did start that essay for my Permanent Residency bid. I was quite surprised that I could write a lot of it so far as much as I did. I've just been writing about my history when it came to my long interest in this country. I guess it was something that has been bubbling to get out. For sure, this blog has rather helped me in my writing. Still, I'm not quite finished yet and I have to translate the whole thing into Japanese.

Security is gonna have a pretty rotten day tomorrow. Not only is it the big wedding day for Princess Nori at The Imperial Hotel but I just found that George W. is also supposed to be here for talks with PM Koizumi. As for Princess Nori, it'll mean her demotion to commoner. Now, this would be an interesting idea for a "Bewitched"-like reality show. Imagine a former royal having to get a part-time job in a 7-11. She'd be the politest cashier in the entire franchise. Certainly the concept could be a whole lot more entertaining than the recent movie version of "Bewitched".

I got some intriguing news from The Wild Guy. He hinted that a mutual friend of ours has had a big change in his life....and it isn't marriage. He said that it would be better if the news came from the friend himself. I wonder if George Takei has been influencing a few people lately. Hmmm...