Okochi Sanso Villa
The former villa of the silent actor Denjirō Ōkōchi (大河内 傳次郎 — 1896-1962)–most famous for starring in Akira Kurosawa`s Sanshiro Sugata, among many others and at his peak, was one of the top jidaigeki stars–lies lost in the back of Arashiyama’s bamboo groves. Called Ōkōchi Sansō (meaning Ōkōchi mountain villa) the estate of one of [...]
The Bamboo Groves of Arashiyama
In the western part of Kyoto along the Katsura river lies a heavily templed area known as Arashiyama. Most famous of all the beautiful century old wooden structures is the Tenryu-ji Temple complex. Tenryu-ji Temple (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), head temple of the Tenryu-ji Rinzai Zen sect, was built in 1339 by Takauji Ashikaga [...]
The Face of Climate Change
America on the rocks – the updated national symbol of the United States: the dumpster diving Bald Eagle. How many can you count?
The Delhi on the Corner – Pop Zeitgeist
I asked my soul: What is Delhi? She replied: The world is the body and Delhi its life. –The poet Ghalib quoted in Khushwant Singh’s Delhi: a Novel It was almost ten years ago but I don’t suppose I’ll ever forget the first time I arrived in Delhi. This was back in the day before [...]
Pop Zeitgeist The Kids Are All Right
“Everybody passing through here is somebody, if nobody in the outside world.” — Patti Smith, Just Kids In one of my favorite scenes in Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee [...]
Eulogy for the Modern Era
It is somehow fitting that I write a certain kind of eulogy for two men I didn’t know, a week after the fact of their unrelated deaths, from Tokyo of all places. Nothing is as it was. Not that it ever was, but there is a seemingly palpable sense of hyper-reality lurking about these days, [...]
Photo of the Week Sean Lotman
I was born in the 1970s, which means I came of age in a crossover generation straddling both analogue and digital cultures. Many of my peers are now in the vanguard of Internet media, yet many of them, like myself, grew up writing school reports on typewriters and making mixed tapes for the girls we [...]
