Can there be a Halloween Eve? Because isn't Halloween actually the eve of some other thing? I'm gonna look this up...
Dude, I was totally right, it's the eve of "All hallow's day" or "all saints day"! Sweet.
Anyways, it's been almost a month since last I wrote. Halloween is two days away. I figure this is as good a day as any to update. Life is good. I've been thinking today (also in general, but today more than other days) how much I miss Japan. I miss my friends. I miss Aya. I miss Yuki. I miss Taro, Tani, Otsuka, Natsumi, Ayumi. I miss going to izakayas or the Ruby Room. I miss living in the same building as Japanese, Chinese, Ghanan, French, and Brazilian people.
This morning I was reminded how much I miss heated seats on the toilet. brrrrrrr....!
Life's not all depressing, though. I went to the city museum on Friday night for their 10th Anniversary Party. it was a 21-and-over event, with bars and performances throughout the evening. We watched a band called "Earl" play some pretty good country music and they were
followed by a (bizarre) burlesque show. Perhaps it was a normal burlesque show (I've never seen one before), but it was really weird to me. And I tend to feel like I'm very comfortable with public sexuality, etc... hmmm. High point of the evening, however, was when I began to play the piano on the third floor. At first there was nobody around. The first girl that came to listen to me play looked to be about 30 years old, and after I finished a song, she came close to me and said "if you were about 10 years older, I would definitely fuck you tonight." I gave her a wink and a smile and said "I'd be a damn lucky man," and then she walked away. That was amazing. And then it got better. I drew a pretty good crowd with people coming and going, and then after maybe a half hour or so these 2 VERY drunk country boys, Tim and Stephan, came over and just ranted at me and at each other non-stop. At first I just wanted them to fuckin leave, but after about 5 minutes I was just cracking up because they were SO outrageous. They demanded I play ragtime or blues, or some "honky-tonk shit" and when Tim fell over in his chair, he picked it up, yelled "this shit is faulty! I need a new chair!" and grabbed a stack of two chairs and sat on top of those. Stephan yelled in my face to play some ragtime when I started playing the asshole song, so I just sang it right back into his face. Tim said he worked as a cement-layer for the City Museum and they were gonna build some new stuff, but the owner, Bob, didn't have the permit yet, but Tim said "I don't need a motherfuckin' permit! I'll lay cement piles bigger than Cahokia Mounds!" They were very entertaining, and pretty much made the evening for me.
Also, big shocker when Tiffany (Myra's (Brad's (My roommate) girlfriend) roommate) (<-- did you follow that?) started to sing along to "I do." I'm pretty sure I've never met anyone who knew about Jude before I told them,
let alone someone who could sing along with some songs! Needless to say, I was impressed. We shall hang out more in the future.
In other news, my sister has requested I play piano at her engagement party/wedding. I'm not only more than willing to do so, but am REALLY excited to! I've always wanted to play for events like that, but I wouldn't really know how to go about doing it, so this is opportunity number one! heh. The only problem is that most of the songs I know are about breakups. I need to learn more songs over the next few months. I asked her to let me know if there are any songs in particular she wants me to play, but she hasn't given me any. All I've got is that my mom asked me to learn James Taylor's "Shower the people you love with love" (I'm not sure if that's the title of the song or not, but you know the song). I'll have to start making a list of possible wedding/love songs I know/should learn. So far, here's the list:
Shower the People, James Taylor (I looked it up, and that's the actual title)
The Luckiest, Ben Folds
Ice Cream, Sarah McLachlan
Secrets Revealed, Paul and Denes (?)
One Thing to Teach, Paul and Denes (?)
Here We Go, Jon Brion (?)
Can I Stay, Ray LaMontagne
Tomorrow, Sean Lennon (?)
There's probably more, but this is just for starters. I should maybe go for some of the cliche songs, if I can, like "At last," or "The Way You Look Tonight."
Suggestions?