may 31

may 30

yuko was feeling sick today, so i went to the hospital with her.

12:55 - we arrived at the hospital.

12:57 - she finished the half page of paperwork while they took her temperature.

1:01 - the doctor called her back.

1:02 - i started to read my book in the lobby while i waited for her.

1:06 - she came out with prescription in hand. paid roughly $32, left hospital.

1:07 - we went in the building next door to the pharmacy.

1:11 - left pharmacy with cold medicine, paid $20.

this little afternoon trip of 16 minutes and $52 got me thinking, how would this have gone in las vegas..............

12:55 - enter hospital.

12:56 - approach over weight over worked under paid grumpy nurse at desk. she hassles me for not having insurance. take stack of paperwork, go to seat.

1:15 - finish paperwork. re approach counter. seems to be a half dozen mistakes. try again.

1:21 - re re approach counter. things seem to be in order. re re take seat.

1:32 - start looking around the room at who came in before me and after me trying to calculate the order of assistance and how long it should take. a guy with his arm broken so badly that the bone is actually sticking through the skin walks in, im bummed because that probably bumps me back a spot in line.

2:04 - another underpaid over worked nurse open a door that could hold back a level 4 avalanche, "Ion, Ion Smith", i pan the room annoyed at this Ion asshole for taking his sweet ass time and meanwhile wasting mine. the second i realize I'm Ion, i head over, partly angry at me for not knowing better, partially her for having the literacy of a 2nd grader, and a little at my mom for giving me a name that can be botched so easy. she shows me to an empty room. puts my chart in the rack on the door.

2:13 - another nurse enters, takes my temp, blood pressure, asks me about my drug, sex, cigarette habits. looks in ears, nose, "say ahhhhhh"............ leaves.

2:30 - enter dr. so and so, pulls my chart off the door as he steps in, takes a glance, looks me in the eye for .074 of a second, removes pad and pen from his coat pocket, scribbles, "ian your going to be just fine, take two %*&#&# twice daily for the next week", the only reason he says %*&#&# is because he just happened to be golfing with the rep from %*&#&# last sunday, and that seems to make the best sense to him.

2:31 - walk back through lobby on the way to the cashier, broken arm skin blood guy is still waiting patiently, kind of bothers me morally, but glad they didn't bend the rules.

2:33 - arrive at cashier, get hassled again for not having insurance. tell them i have no money and that they can send the $416.57 bill to my mailing address, they might as well just sent in straight to collections for me.

2:54 - enter pharmacy, give them paperwork, get hassled for not having insurance, wait...

3:46 - pick up prescription, pay $48, would have had them bill my address or collections if it were an option.

3:55 - think im feeling better already from the sheer passing of time.

(yuko didn't have insurance either, if she did it would have been $9 for the dr, and $6 for the pills)

may 29

i dont usually like to do these really nerdy tech posts, il leave that to the real bloggers, but if you havnt seen google street view, your missing the.......um....., im not too sure what, but its pretty bad ass! i wont link something so basic, just go to google, maps, street view. they only have 5 cities, but its very worth your while. more than anything id love to see the van, or hover craft or what ever google used to do this. what ever it is, it takes 360 panoramas while moving down the road. yikes, you can even advance down the road while facing another direction!

may 28

may 27

make my japanese tv debut today. i play an american who lived and worked in japan during the start of world war II. its a made for tv movie based on a biography called "my lost japan" about the 92 year old, still working, LA based artist Robert Crowder.

may 26

worked.....kind of, went to a coworkers house for dinner, her family is cool, rad food, her 15 year old cousin made me a pancake, went out, saw some of my favorite guys, listened to good music.

may 25

new kubrick toy. not a huge fan of the film, but the toy is pretty tough

may 24

thought i would do a little music post. here are a few albums im listening to this week. some are older, but worth revisiting

the Fratellis, Costello Music

Battles, Mirrored

The Horrors, Strange House

Undertones, The Undertones

Phillip Bimstein, Larkin Gifford's Harmonica

may 23

got film back today from my tokyo trip, here is a great pic of a DJ playing at a bar called HUB in shibuya

may 22

watched shaun of the dead today. thought about zombies, was relieved that i would never become a flesh craving maniac because im vegetarian. that was followed by the most hilarious visual of me "zombified" thrashing around, tattered clothing, blank eyes, juicy stained chin and tee shirt, digging my teeth in, savoring the consistency and sweetness of the meaty body. camera pans out, im in the middle of a vegetable patch in my neighborhood ravishing huge heads of cabbage. ruthlessly tearing them from the ground and jamming them into my mouth, groaning and signalling to my cohorts that i have just found a gold mine of uninfected victims. i finally stumble out of the dirt with carrot juice running out of the corners of my mouth, scanning for the next to be bitten.

may 21

found a shop in my neighborhood that will make a toy of you. a little bobble heady, but pretty cool. send a photo, 4 weeks later, you are yours!
Do so HERE

may 20

finished reading kerouac's big sur, exhausting in a really nice way.

may 19

been reading about "hypermilers" lately, people who use subtle techniques while driving to boost their MPG. THIS guy got 59 miles per gallon in a stock honda accord and 180 in an Insight. they use simple rules such as over inflating your tires, coasting to a stop instead of breaking, rolling to a start, drafting on the freeway, no AC.....

got me thinking about hacking my energy consumption, but i dont drive. any suggestions aside from the obvious turning off lights? im thinking charging my gadgets at work, always unplugging things when not is use. i just learned that a toster or coffee grinder can use power when not in use! getting all modern and more efficient light bulbs......

may 18

today my 2 favorite podcasts incorporated advertising in their intros. :(

may 17

worked one hour, rode a bus for almost 3, took a nap on the banks of a river.

may 16

im not even really sure what to say here

may 15

started watching a rad web only sitcomish series called the burg. definitely see the end of tv down the tunnel somewhere. watch when you want, uncensored, bottom up DIY, what more could you ask for? and oh yeah, its crazy clever and funny and so williamsburg sceney

watch HERE

or feed with iTunes

may 14

watched alfie, listened to the new el-p album, I'll Sleep When You're Dead

may 13

may 12

started building my rietveld chair today, end results soon. (how suspenseful!)

may 11

heard a conversation today about DIY, and that a great new model isnt about doing it yourself, but doing it FOR yourself. intangible acts, dont see a doctor, eat garlic. your record label is screwing you, put out your album not because you can, but because its good for you.

can you think of any?

may 10

may 9

back to work. jackass number 2

may 8

tokyo!

stopped in fukuoka city for a few hours, bagel lunch, met the manager of the apple store, speaks rad english, tried hard to sell me $500 buds for my pod, we both laughed. underground used camera shop, they proudly displayed a $6000 leica. went to a Gerrit Rietveld show, saw a dozen "red and blue" chairs, got a hobby kit to build my own. saw some cherry vintage nissan's, saw a russian juggling bowling pins, so obvious. local tv station was filming a segment with an actor dressed as a tiger wrestling random volunteers in the middle of a concrete park down town. fukuoka is famous for pork bone ramen being sold in make shift booths on the street, all afternoon i say guys chopping frozen pig bones right on the sidewalk. hopped on a 16 hour bus bound for tokyo, tired, started to doze, glanced at the tv, a VHS version of tango and cash was playing. arrived in shinjuku at 9 am, wondered to a nearby park to gather myself, a camp of homeless people were starting to wake up and cook a communal breakfast. met my old friend, went to shibuya, bought a tofu headed robot, got a tee shirt from a vending machine style clothing store, relaxed in a GAINT park. tried to see a Darger show, but the gallery was closed that day, went to meet a friend of a friend, we couldnt find each other in the chaos of hachiko square, walked to harajuku, 4 chee pizza, got kind of lost. went back to shinagawa and saw the Darger show. it was less about his work, and more about his mysterious life and work habits. to be more productive he opted to sleep in a dining chair instead of a bed. went to the contemporary gallery, saw the usual suspects, warhol, lichtenstein, roushenburg, delighted to see stills from barney's new film. went to takebashi to the modern gallery, fairly disappointing. back to an izakaya in harajuku, beers, met funny shoe sales girls. got on the last train of the night at 12:30, packed. walking in shibuya midday, a walking parade of japanese fascist cruised by, maybe the first time i have ever felt uncomfortable in japan. back to yoyogi park to a huge swap meet that happens once a month, mostly used junk from american garage sales. got my photo taken for a fashion mag, went to akiba, the "geek" neighborhood in tokyo, needless to say, i didnt get it! an unbelievable amount of electronics, from every angle, games, computers, spy cameras, phones, lights, really anything that has anything to do with plugging in, tons of comics and anime and porn, usually all wrapped up in one. lots of acting on the streets, full sound tracks and costumes. oh an toy stores. left akiba reeeeally confused. went to meet a friend, stopped by a legendary used under ware store, it was stranger than ANYTHING i have ever seen. walked by a KFC, the kernal was wearing a spiderman costume. went to a british pub, heard great music, got a ticket to take a "shuttle" to a UK rock club, the shuttle ended up being one of the guys working the bars moms car. 10 of us smashed in and blasted down the road to the club. went down to colours studio, four stories underground to British Pavillion, heard amazing music from a half dozen different dj's. live painting being done on the wall of the club, vintage art books on display at the bar, $7 heinikin's in a vending machine next to the bar. left at sunrise, ate dinner with the painter and his friend, took a cab to the station, witnessed an amazing car crash, slept 3 hours, went to meet a friend of a friend, she brought her 3 year old daughter who could understand english, ate, went to the beach, played in the ocean overlooking the entire tokyo metro across the bay. met a friend, went to roppongi, notorious western tourist part of tokyo, it was filthy beyond belief, we left asap, stumbled upon a club at 6 am, most patrons were in a quad out front still dancing and drinking like the sun wasnt up and the freeway next to the club wasnt mashed with business men headed to work. slept, met an internet friend of a friend and her coworkers, they all spoke cool english, wondered all over tokyo all day, ate awesome indian cheese curry and mango mousse. had some beers, went to an arctic monkeys party with a german guy, we met his old friends, my new friends, to cooool japanese rockers, danced listened to great music, the dj had a camera and projector set up, and would put the jacket to what ever her was playing then under the cam so we could see exactly what was being heard, how nice. he played fake tales of san fransisco followed by girls just want to have fun then alfie wrapped up with manic monday, huge balls eh? sat in a parking lot drinking canned beer while the final sun rose. slept a bit, rode the subway an hour to meet an old friend from california. went to an art show, got on a bus to head south for 3/4 of a day.

may 7

just get off a 16 hour bus ride from shinjuku station. ahhhhhhh tokyo!