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July 31, 2005
Jackson Heights
While in New York City last month, we took a evening excursion to Jackson Heights, a neighborhood that is home to many Hispanic and Indian immigrants. I always liked ethnic neighborhoods (other than the East Asian kind everywhere, which I am usually a bit weary of), and I wasn't disappointed when we got there. An elderly lady in sari here, a group of Punjabi girls here checking out the latest Bhangra in a CD shop here, and plenty of yummy-looking restaurants everywhere.
We also noticed off the main street in the residential area, there were real people living in the area; people (presumably) working in New York City, not just immigrants, but working-class families, young professional couples, students. Balconies with clotheslines, a few new condos, charming old houses probably there since the time the area was a magnet for newly arrived Jews and Italians, now seemingly occupied by young struggling artists. A real melting-pot, in short. Jackson Heights is, I learned upon coming home, one of the last bastion of 'walkable community,' a holy grail of today's environmentaly-minded hipster politics.
Alex Marshall, author of "How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl and the Roads Not Taken" says about Jackson Heights:
"It's been a ladder for an emerging middle class for most of its existence, and it still is. Latin Americans, Koreans, and Indians have replaced or merged with Italians, Jews, Germans, and Greeks. These changes have often been wrenching sociologically. But the bottom line is that Jackson Heights is still where new immigrants come, get their first jobs, and move up" (How Cities Work excerpt taken from the author's web site).
After decades of shopping malls replacing the city centers, it seems today's immigrants find America as a suburbia; why is Jackson Heights different? Marshall says that the presence of New York City as a massive economic center that provides jobs is an important factor. Also important is the city's mass transits.
"we see how transportation determines form and thus lifestyle. People live differently in Jackson Heights, and most of New York, because they get around differently. (...) we see the uniqueness of the street-based life that non-car-centered transportation produces. There is a closeness, an intimacy to life, in Jackson Heights that must at times be suffocating but which I often yearn for. We gave up something when most of our cities opted to build highways and Interstates, rather than train lines or subways" (from the same source).
Word up, bro. Word up! The question, though, is how we can bring our communities back to life. Can we build public transportation, and critical mass of demand for it, in today's America? It seems almost plausible in cities like Seattle, yet we see so many obstacles: money, bad planning, bipartisan politics, real estate prices...
Posted by Akira at 3:46 PM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2005
TodayFM
My headphones started magically working today, after a series of failed troubleshooting attempts. So I plug into TodayFM, this Irish station I used to listen to a lot over there. I really like Tom Dunne's Pet Sounds, this show that comes on at a time there that works out to be office ours here.
So this afternoon these guys are talking about tape. Measuring tape, you know, which they called "rolly tape." I love that kind of description. That stuff is awesome.
I forgot to mention the reason they got on to talking about measuring tape in the first place was 'cause of this guy who called in, worried about his girlfriend who was going to her best friend's hen party where there would be a stripper.
Posted by Dipika at 3:43 PM | Comments (0)
July 26, 2005
Blue
Jewels were in my dream yesterday, little pellets of sparkly diamonds and pearls.
They were floating in water, a blue-plate kind of water like pools in the rice fields of Kyushu.
Posted by Dipika at 6:47 AM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2005
Contents
Today I decide to clear out my desk and find, what is this?, six pen caps. Just little plastic caps, without the accompanying pens. One each of red, blue and, I guess you’d call this “clear.” Three black ones, too. All Bics.
I’m racking my brain trying to think up where there might be pens with unattached caps lurking around the house. Weird.
For some reason there is also an envelope, one of those window ones, with my name on the front. It’s full of change, mostly pennies, with a couple of quarters tossed in. I don't remember putting it there.
Also in my desk drawer are a pair of scissors, masking tape, an empty box that used to have a dozen #2 “Blackstonian” pencils, and two unopened boxes of staples. No stapler.
I returned the staples.
Posted by Dipika at 3:18 PM | Comments (0)
July 24, 2005
diary of a sushi helper (1)
It was a very slow night. These bright summer evenings make people late for dinner, which means we work overtime no matter how slow it is -- there're always those people coming at 9:50 pm wanting a meal.
Mr. H (a regular customer who always orders a spicy tuna and Broadway rolls) was his usual self again, waiting for us when we got to work at 5pm. Either the notion doctors are always busy is wrong, or he spends every spare bit of time he's got with us.
Later, I served a very young couple of international origins (I think the guy was from Taiwan, and the girl looked very Northwestern with very dark hair, heavy, dark makeup. Doesn't it get rather hot under the sun, goth girls?).
The couple (around 18, or 20?) was very adult-like and doing everything proper. The amount of knowledge in things Japanese, particularly related to sushi, that Seattleites have astounds me to no end.
Things got rather interesting after the meal, however. The Taiwanese dude, after polishing his yakisoba, pointing at the Japanese menu hung over their head, said "doesn't that say a monster?" The girl looked totally embarrassed and clearly didn't want him to make this blunder. He was persistent, though, and as I couldn't see what he was pointing at, I went around the bar to see. The sign said "Kappamaki."
Of course. If you were really into Japanese etymology, you'd have already known that kappamaki comes from kappa. Kappa is a mythical creature that appears in Japanese folk-tales (it also appears in Monkey! TV series, which is a Japanese adaptation of the Chinese "Journey to the West" story). Apparently, the monster's favorite vegetable is cucumber.
When I told the kid this, he was jubilant, and put his ricebowl on his head to mimic the monster he named correctly (kappa, a water monster, has a saucer on his head to keep his head moist when over-ground). This annoyed his already reddening date a lot, and in her rage she knocked the bowl off his head. It still had some rice in it, unfortunately, and both kids were covered in rice as a result. Very amusing, and juvenile; I was actually relieved though to see that the kids can still act stupid.
Posted by Akira at 2:30 PM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2005
Bad Fiction
Attacking efficiently was their specialty. When they did, they had zero sense of remorse. The cold, steely edge of their tools of destruction drove them tirelessly to their work.
The hour of doom had come, at last, and the cluster of cells in the soon-to-be-pillaged landscape had borne out the night knowing the fate that awaited them in fear, in loathing and in desperation the way Charles Darnay may have awaited his tribunal.
Areas of the pink, fleshy landscape were soon excavated, as were the toothy places where millions of smaller beings writhed, then caved in to the aggression of the steely metal swords.
Bright, startling lights blinded them, beams ricocheting off shiny surfaces designed, clearly, to aid the objects of destruction in their search for cavities to pry.
Today there were two fillings.
"So we'll see you again on August 17?"
Next time, there would be four.
Posted by Dipika at 6:34 PM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2005
Day trip (2)
This guy on a cell phone near our table is drinking a bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper, they are playing The Cure over a dodgy speaker system and a simple breeze is lifting cigarette butts a few inches at a time towards downtown.
We're back in Capitol Hill.
Some time has passed since we left the city, so on one of the hottest days of the year with blue skies and perfect views of the mountains it made sense to go for a drive.
Exploring the surrounds of Seattle is cool because every time we leave, we find something new. Granted it won't always be, but for now, little excursions lead to the Olympic Peninsula or Victoria, B.C. Today we stuck around for a day trip, hitting a waterfront just north of here.
This song just came on, Pictures of You. Boy, this is reminding me of high school. Time to go.
Posted by Dipika at 9:15 PM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2005
10 Reasons D's Cell-less
10. Cell phones interrupt conversations. (“Mind if I just take this?”)
9. Or they make you have needless conversations. In New York, people once called from their cell to say they’d be four minutes late. (Also: “I’m at the store, honey. Should we get the yellow one, or the white?”)
8. Invisible electronic waves would concentrate around my head.
7. I have a calling card. Enough minutes left to call Ireland and Japan for plenty of birthdays to come.
6. People find you. All the time.
5. Potentially dangerous. Don't talk and drive. Enjoy the scenery, or a tape mix from high school or something.
4. $$$. Sorry, but I just don’t buy any of those “savings plans.”
3. They move around when they ring.
2. I can always borrow Akira’s in a bind.
1. I like pay phones. Really.
Posted by Dipika at 1:01 PM | Comments (2)
July 11, 2005
DandA at Confounded
This Thursday, Dipika is part of a group giving readings from Kuhaku, the first book of local independent publisher Chin Music Press. The event, titled "Voices from the Void" is part celebration of the book's publication, part art exhibition with works of Kozyndan and Chin Music's various projects presented. Akira will spin some music from Japan that he writes about in CMP's blog, there will be some junk food from Japan, and it's FREE! So if you are in the area this Thursday, make sure to drop in.
Date: Thursday, July 14
Time: 7 pm
Place: Counfounded Books, 315 E Pine Street (Capitol Hill, Seattle)
Posted by Akira at 5:50 AM | Comments (0)
July 10, 2005
This is Our Youth
Saw this show at the Little Theater up on 19th the other night called "This is Our Youth," written by Kenneth Lonergan and directed by Mark Gallagher.
Gallagher also did "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," which we saw last year and absolutely loved. The humor in this one was kind of similar, like when the characters use sock puppets, do kung fu with hockey sticks or act out silly death scenes in slo-mo.
It was about kids, about 19 to 23, I'd guess, living in New York and doing pot and having no issues with money because they haven't been loosed from the $$$ lines of their parents, who are way successful but also sort of messed up because of it.
So the kids can't truly be independent. Big conflict to them means disagreeing about fashion or whether people's personalities change as they get older. Then death comes into the picture.
Death is big and real, and the main character suddenly gets it that for too long real life stuff has been pushed "off to the side."
The smart, rich kids in this play got no attention growing up, so they turned inwards, retreating further into themselves until surrounded by only darkness.
Then, when they got their first chance, they migrated towards the nearest bright lights.
To their heroes.
Who might just be lame, older versions of themselves.
Who could have been brilliant, but dream of nothing.
Posted by Dipika at 6:25 PM | Comments (0)
July 5, 2005
Sailboat
Party cloudy and not much wind, so the motor did most of the work on this little sail around Lake Washington on Sunday. Akira helped pull in the line on the starboard side. A relaxing and low-key loop, exactly what we needed.
Posted by Dipika at 6:20 PM | Comments (0)
July 1, 2005
Boat Festival
So tomorrow we’re going sailing.
If the weather holds, that is. We’ll check out this wooden boat festival on Lake Union. That's the plan.
The first time I did anything like getting out on the water was at the Traditional Wooden Boat Festival. A handmade boat. A beauty. People on the ones scooting past asking if we’d like a cup of tea. All that you could hear in that cool breeze was the clear call, as natural as clouds and summer.
I took a sailing class after that. Hope I remember to bring my boots.
Posted by Dipika at 1:46 PM | Comments (0)