shinjuku - vid

[mr. sparkle]

hello my FG brothers and sisters,

i bring you yet another armchair gaijin stroll.

this time, we're goin' to shinjuku!


day or night - shinjuku is the shizzle!

this piece is in need of more cutting, 'cuz it's 7:00 - but what the hell??

ain't no big whoop, but i hope you ya'll enjoy!

[Taro Toporific]

i bring you yet another armchair gaijin stroll.
this time, we're goin' to shinjuku!

Hey, it looks look the Shinujuku video screens are busted or something, doesn't it?

[mr. sparkle]

Hey, it looks look the Shinujuku video screens are busted or something, doesn't it?

naw, they ain't busted. that is "P O N G I-V I S I O N". the newest and largest HD display in the world. this was installed with funds from "the family" and the pongi nation is very grateful.

soon every outdoor TV screen will be carrying P O N G I-V I S I O N 24-7 and then it will be all pongi - all of the time

[devicenull]

interesting... from what i understand, that is rather close to where i will be going to school next year

[vince]

It's great that you are documenting all this stuff, because things change so radically fast that in your lifetime you will be looking at these videos of years ago and think my Buddha, was Tokyo *really* like that back in 2004?? - "A Vanished Era"

[mr. sparkle]

my collection is a mere shadow of "The Pongi Archives" though.

i have a little video of the hakone sculpture garden. would anyone want to see that? it's just outdoor sculpture pieces, but some of them are cool. again - no big whoop.


"that is ball within ball" --miss yamazaki

unfortunately, you can't tape the picasso stuff, though. doh!

i'll start compressing it now.

you will be looking at these videos of years ago and think my Buddha, was Tokyo *really* like that back in 2004??

vince, this was tokyo in 2001, so already the years are stacking up.

from what i understand, that is rather close to where i will be going to school next year

aiiight! just where all the action is. might be hard to study with all those clubs around.



distractions you may encounter in shinjuku

start studying nihongo like a demon. no one here understands english.

[Taro Toporific]

interesting... from what i understand, that is rather close to where i will be going to school next year

Huh? Are ya gonna study fashion massage in the Chinese ghetto part of northeast Shinjuku where the video was taken? :P

[vince]

you will be looking at these videos of years ago and think my Buddha, was Tokyo *really* like that back in 2004??


vince, this was tokyo in 2001, so already the years are stacking up.

That's a start, but I'm thinking a bunch more years than that.

William Gibson always says he has a real understanding of Tokyo since he has been there 15 years, but that is not nearly enough time to encompass an entire sequence of cultural reversal or a change of standards from double-standard to triple to quadruple...

[Taro Toporific]

William Gibson always says he has a real understanding of Tokyo since he has been there 15 years, but that is not nearly enough time to encompass an entire sequence of cultural reversal or a change of standards from double-standard to triple to quadruple...

<embarrassed> For once, I gonna have to ask the no0b question....
I always thought William Gibson was too smart to be anything but a just another "commuter" from the Bay Area.
He doesn't have a 3-year visa or anything does he?
</embarrassed>

[Caustic Saint]

Gibson doesn't live in Tokyo - or anywhere else in Japan. He lives in Vancouver, B.C. and has for quite some time.

[Taro Toporific]

Gibson doesn't live in Tokyo - or anywhere else in Japan. He lives in Vancouver, B.C. and has for quite some time.

Yeah, that's what I vaguely (getting senile) remember reading on the back cover of the last novel I read of his ....and arguing with the Japanese director of Oxford Unv. Press about who Gibson was really using for his "Vats of Chiba" details.

Check out
Wired 9.09: My Own Private Tokyo22 Feb 2004 By William Gibson.
I wish I had a thousand-yen note for every journalist who, over the past decade, has asked me whether Japan is still as futurologically sexy ...

....The Japanese, you see, have been repeatedly drop-kicked, ever further down the timeline, by serial national traumata of quite unthinkable weirdness, by 150 years of deep, almost constant, change. The 20th century, for Japan, was like a ride on a rocket sled, with successive bundles of fuel igniting spontaneously, one after another.

They have had one strange ride, the Japanese, and we tend to forget that. ....

[Caustic Saint]

He also wrote a good piece on Singapore for Wired way, way back in issue 1.04 - Disneyland with the Death Penalty

[vince]

OK - Gibson has been *visiting* Tokyo for 15 years, but a lot of people think he is an authority on Japan...

In any case, 15 years is not long enough for example, for him to personally experience an entire cycle of love/hate toward gaijin, such as a 40's Bataan Death March survivor who would be worshipped in the 60's and hated again in the 80's...

[Taro Toporific]

In any case, 15 years is not long enough for example, for him to personally experience an entire cycle of love/hate toward gaijin, such as a 40's Bataan Death March survivor who would be worshipped in the 60's and hated again in the 80's...

Who is .... ?
There are quite a few WWII survivors but I am blocking on the identity of the individual connected to Japan who was, " worshipped in the 60s and hated again in the 80s." It's not like Nixon was ever loved here. :P

[vince]

Well then, how about another example like, cementing over all the orchards for High Tech corporate parking, then years later removing all the cement and planting trees again (maybe I am thinking of Silicon Valley here)...

Just that 15 years seems a long time, but looking at those Tokyo videos after 15 years might feel different than looking at them after 30 years... who knows...

[devicenull]

[Taro Toporific]

[devicenull]

[altar]

Hey SPARKLES!
I'm running a mac Netscape 7.x and Quicktime 6. I'd love to see your footage but my computer keeps freezing at the beginning of loading. Do you have any idea why?

[devicenull]

Hey SPARKLES!
I'm running a mac. Do you have any idea why?

too easy....

[mr. sparkle]

I'm running a mac Netscape 7.x and Quicktime 6. I'd love to see your footage but my computer keeps freezing at the beginning of loading. Do you have any idea why?

um...i'm not really sure. it's running fine on my mac.

sorry.

[altar]

ok, switched to explorer and no problem
Liked the video