The other small show I got into was finally published. It’s just an online exhibit but it’s neat nonetheless. There are quite a few really interesting photos on display especially from the Chinese and Japanese artists present. If you’d like to check it out and see my atrocious headshot the link will follow. When they asked for a photo of myself I just grabbed the only headshot I had which was from my JET interview last year when I still had really long hair and I looked like I had been awake for several days. I don’t believe in taking selfies so that was all I could get without setting up my lighting equipment. Anyway, tangent and embarrassment aside here it is: https://www.exhibizone.com/emptiness2022

On another note I’m heading home for the holidays which is really exciting despite my generally not fitting in in my home town. I grew up in the most conservative area of Colorado and since 2016 it has only gotten worse. When I went home last year I was really put off by the insane amount of Trump paraphernalia everywhere as well as the now ubiquitous “Let’s Go Brandon” stickers and flags. I’m thankful that I was raised by two extremely progressive parents, both in their own ways. My mother is infinitely empathetic and caring and my father is deeply distrustful of authority and basically anyone who claims to know what’s best for the functioning of society. Thankfully all of my childhood friends are still sane and when I go home it feels like nothing has changed. I don’t think you have that kind of relationship with anyone that you didn’t grow up next to. I’m definitely going to take a lot of photos because this year I have my mirrorless instead of just my Hasselblad which is what I usually take around with me. I will miss my weekly river excursions but thankfully there is a giant-ass river that runs right through my home town that I can visit. It’s probably where my affinity for bodies of water comes from. Also train tracks, but that’s a whole other story.

On the weeb front I’ve been rewatching Violet Evergarden for the eighth time. It is easily in my top five pieces of media ever. I’ve watched it so much that I know a lot of the dialogue by heart even though it’s in Japanese. It’s an interesting show to watch without subtitles because it goes really quickly from simple, heartfelt dialogue that I understand completely to complex sentences full of military vocabulary that I will likely never remember fully. It’s also a great showcase for the power of Japanese voice acting. I’ve been watching anime since the mid 90’s and I will admit that while dubs have gotten better by leaps and bounds there is still something different about serious professional Japanese voice work. Over there it’s treated like a genuine profession with schools and training whereas here it’s seen as something you fall into when ‘real’ acting doesn’t work out. It’s not something I was particularly sensitive to until I learned enough of the language to distinguish generally good from bad acting. I suppose some of that is always obvious even if you’re completely in the dark but it certainly intensifies as you get deeper in your understanding. I could probably write a short book about this show specifically but it comes from an animation studio called Kyoto Animation which has produced some of the best anime ever made, in my opinion. Their biggest one in the west in K-On which is unironically one of my favorite things ever made despite it being a silly show about high school girls playing in a band and drinking tea. I only have two tattoos on my body and one of them is a reference to K-On.