Friday, April 01, 2005

april fools day

well, today was not really like april fools day at all. Except when the hair elastic that was holding four rolled up pieces of cardboard on the back of sylvie finally came loose and the cardboard went rolling around on the little farm road I was driving down. It was really funny somehow. But that was well past 12 and anyway, noone played any jokes on me at all.

I thought it was time I gave Sylvie a little publicity since she is really one of the best things in my life right now. Thats not to say that my life is boring, but rather that Sylvie is fantastic! I love scooters. Even when its raining it seems like an adventure. I have to get all dressed up and I feel like Im always on some kind of mission. Its so much better than cars. In a car you are in a seperate world - the outside passing by is almost like a movie. you can only see it, you cant smell it, touch it taste it - on a scooter you feel so much more engaged with the environment you pass. Plus its nicer to go slower, you get to look at things much more. Sure it takes a little longer, but you dont mind because its so much more fun. I like when the traffic is busy because it means I get to stop more at traffic lights, which give me the opportunity to look around, and also to warm up a bit ( its sort of brutal on the hands at this still cold part of the year )
also the gas milage is amazing! and the insurance too. the insurance was about 90 dollars for a year, and actually I dont even know how much it is to fill the tank. there is no gas gauge, just a light that starts blinking when its running low! When i first got Sylvie I thought I had driven her around quite a bit, and though I didnt think I was almost empty, I thought maybe a top up would be good. The gas station guy looked rather irritated when he brought the bill - 74 yen! ( about 80 cents) I have never paid more than 4.50 for gas yet. Im totally buying a Sylvie part two when I get back home - though perhaps I will take a look at electric ones. That would be good to stop using gas.

Today I went swimming after a long time away from the pool. Oh I really love pools. I would like to make a movie that takes place almost entirely at a pool. somehow a movie comes to mind more than a photo series - though maybe I will meditate on that, since movies arent exactly my line. well, this summer I may go back to my pool portraits. I really like that project - but I would rather do it with a medium format camera if possible... then again digital would be good since I could take a lot of shots - its dodgy getting the timing right with handstands.... I would like to do it really well - the way I see it in my mind. I wonder how to do that exactly. perhaps it would need to be lit? ah - do I want to go to photography school. I do, but then again, maybe there would be a lot of annoying assignments that would be a waste of time and money. If I did a BA in photography, I would be the older serious student among all the fresh faced 19 year olds perhaps. I dont know - but I would really like to have some kind of professional training. But then again, I dont want to do it for a living. And there's the thing.... on the other hand if the world ends in 7 years ( which its predicted to, and which a crazy monk I met on the bus to Nagano told me as well) then I will wish I just did what I wanted and let the money and other things sort themselves out.

Anyway its friday night, and is it really so terrible to be home alone with a bottle of whiskey, an ice cream sandwich and swimming pool stories lapping in my head? well, it could be a recipe for depression, or inspiration - as usual it depends on me more than anything else....

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