"Obey Consume Repeat!"

Dec 14, 2008
Taipei, Taiwan

We left Japan this morning and headed for Taipei. Home with my mom for the rest of the year. A much needed break and the unparalleled comfort only mom can provide.

Here are some of my overall impression of Japan:

1. Japan is one large mall/covered arcade. Every train station has a department store attached to it, all urban centers in Japan (Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto) are all centered around places to shop (i.e multiple department stores within blocks of each other).

2. You could get lost in all major train stations and or live there for days.

3. My favorite things in Japan is the Shinkansen, and the best bargain you can have in Japan is the JR Pass.

4. Sushi is incredibly fresh in Japan, even the 20% off ones that you buy at the super market after 5pm.

5. Japan has a really interesting relationship with sex, marriage prostitution, evident in the multiple red-light districts that is a part of every city or how high school girls will sleep with men for easy money to pay for things such as their cell phone bills or a new outfit.

6. The Japanese are incredibly polite but the politeness is a facade.

7. The Japanese culture is for the good of the many and not for the will of the individual, obedience is highly valued, they don't even jay-walk.

OBEY CONSUME REPEAT feels like a good summary of my glimpse into the Japanese culture.

Japan certainly has many virtues, nearly a 99% literacy rate, and nearly 100% employment rate as well. It is extremely clean and modern, certainly a city of the future in many aspects. It is unparalleled in many of technological advances, such as a cell phone that can record and play TV shows, or with direct link to your credit card for you to make purchases simply by waving your phone at a censor. Yet the combination between advanced technology, obedience / lack of individual will, "strange" relationship with sex, pornography, marriage, rampant consumerism .... the combination only makes me think of movies such as Blade Runner or Novels such as The Handmaid's Tale. None of which depicts a future that I am excited for or eager to participate in.

I think I will skirt the modernized cities of the world for a little while. I think I prefer something with a little bit of rawness, something with a bit of an edge to it for the next destination.

Plan on Being Suprised

Nov 1, 2008
Los Angeles, Ca

Home again. 10 planned days and then 1 extra due to a canceled flight in Argentina was really not what I expected at all. As I mentioned before, the markets here are not what I was secretly hoping for. I was able to get myself out of that frame of mind and not be disappointed by whatever expectation I may have. After all, I want "Wok the Dog" to be about how people really do interact with their food and for it to be a social-political examination at the very basic action that governs our lives.

Yet I must admit, the interesting thing about Argentina and their markets is from the point of economics. There are large European chains in BA, such as Carrefour but its the small businesses that really seems to be everywhere. It makes you wonder about the fate of these small business over the next 10 years as Argentina strives to become a first class nation. I do wonder about countries who strive for modernity and advancement - if one day, they will all become a version of America. Or is it possible to dream of a different way of being a first world country?

"Do androids dream of electric sheep?"

Then what is the purpose of this journey then you ask? I had left in hopes of new images for the series, or inspiration for a new series that I can began...I am not sure that I came home with either but I was able to really reconnect with an old friend in new ways. Relationship is about relating right? The time we invest in each other and in our relationship with one another. I think that sometimes we get too preoccupied with simply investing time in our significant others that we forget that we need to invest real time in our friends as well. An occasion dinner in which you catch up on event highlights is not always enough.

If nothing else, I got reconnect with one of my favorite person and we got to share new experiences together. Maybe this trip was about living and not about working.

Bellamie and I talked a lot of about being "damaged" in these past 10 days. My thought was always that there are of us who are and then there are those you who are not damaged. She begged a differ and believes that we are all damaged. What is the point then I ask? The challenge is in how we deal with our damage, our scar tissues and how we move on from that. In the light of this view, I suddenly understand why we live in a city full of work-a-hoilics. Its easier to work than to deal with our challenges, our wounds.

Perhaps that reason why the shooting was not great on this trip is so that I can live for a moment, deal with my damageness again (as it never goes away apparently) and invest real time in my relationship with my friend.