this week we are in possession of the holy, possibly magical, and critically important key (on inscribed wooden plank) to neighborhood trash/recycling cage feel like this is a huge step up in my "integration(TM) into Japan Society" will take responsibility diligently of course

1 bossanova singer 2 goofball sidekicks on the bus to performance with guitar, flute, and her sweet voice singing ~ in Portuguese (!) #japanlife #singing #okayama #onthebus

【Peter Barakan's Music Film Festival 2026】 昨年も皆様のおかげで独自のラインナップの上映権を取得することができました。今年もお力添えいただきたく、クラウドファンディングを実施いたします。充実した内容で継続させていきたくぜひ、ご確認いただけますと幸いです。 camp-fire.jp/projects/951561…

i've got to that point where I've compiled many things I haven't had a chance to tell you about Picking up second edition of "misasa sojourn" chapbook Dropping off "Nepal aerogram" which will count as number three in the series Visiting an ancient kiln with hundreds of years of pottery shards stacked in magnificent unruly piles A solo late morning movie to see Tokyo Rhapsody about Sakamoto Ryuichi A picnic today at a pond/lake with preschool (I made a video) Continued saga of a tragedy in Mexico Return to Onomichi Hospital on Wednesday Wife sings in Portuguese with a bossanova trio tomorrow Ichiro is almost 6 years old We're going to #Vancouver for much of July in August #SlowFraser mother-in-law for some of the time, I can barely process all of this at this moment Likely speaking gig July 29 at the planetarium, ticketed Many other things Did I mention the Guess Who at PNE on August 23? letter received from Nick Bantock OK bye

Diary, last Sunday, possible repeat in a giant greenhouse conservatory, (is that what you call them or is that where music is played or is it both?) with a remarkable therapeutic coffee and a croissant as good as any in the world (yes I'm very serious), exquisite chair, cacti and palms abounding, edges of typhoon rain pounding above, body head spirit ~ all of above aching, the post hospital blur, the pre-everything else fog, so I write letters, postcards / maybe to you, maybe to other others, doesn't really matter as eventually everyone receives a postcard eventually, sort of anyway {add a disclaimer here} Have you not yet received a postcard? Sometimes I send telegrams instead of or along with, aerogrammes are no longer permitted however Thank you to M&S at Beck for unofficial medical assistance and general kindness note: yes I purchased the last two loaves of bread and a magnificent raisin pastry and toted home by bus in the pouring rain, survived nevertheless, (added a photo of me standing in the rain and a weathervane in case I forgot which way the wind blows) I'm so fortunate

Semi-pro Picnicer (concerts, hospitals, trips, splash) #video dispatch from a tiny island with check-ins about: seeking G minor; hospital notes (me and others); Ryoko's gigs; Dr. Raul's demise :(; Vancouver-ish trip #SlowFraser; possible Shipyard hangs, Planetarium spieling gig, and Guess Who at PNE. Giggling kids and splasy-ness around. So we go on, wonderful and otherwise ~ peace to all strugglers and strivers #okayama #japanlife #vancouver #ukulele #diary #storytime

waiting at bus bench reading spangled letters (& sharing with you)

this Ramen is making a face which sorta matches how I feel a bit confused, a bit ambivalent, a bit peeved, definitely flummoxed, doing my best yet feeling a bit of a mess, avoiding despair with many tiny steps & tasks (yet all the doctors and *everyone* tells me to "go slowly")

#JusticiaParaRaúl (us together @penmachine's 41st(?) birthday party, maybe 2009, Burnaby)

Dr Raul quoting Charles Bukowski just days before he died violently in Mexico. I'm just so flummoxed and deflated.

me under the mosquito net in the caboose, tended to administrative scrivener type tasks, printing hues and lost aerogrammes ~ and yet and yet, here comes a whole story, a cinematic journey of "imagined lives" youtu.be/lZuNI84m4zc?si=vwad…

in a giant glass house conservatory filled with cacti and tropical plants next to a bakery with an ancient grain wheat bread and a comically large coffee, my head hurts so much yet the pounding typhoon rain it's good for my Sasquatch heart I'm scribbling postcards Found 1 "2025 edition" new year card within ¥84 stamp already on it but no address! (needs one more yen) If you didn't receive this one and reply in the next 5 minutes, I'll send your way. As long as you're friendly and kind *Japan only

Making the Personal, Universal – Japan Cottage musing In the garden, lighting mosquito coils, I catch up on a recent hospital visit with a spinal tap in scenic Onomichi, complete with various medical acronyms; earning Cub Scout badges; a terrible incident on Christmas Eve morning in Jerome, Idaho (one usually doesn't walk away from that); my wife's two upcoming concerts, including a bossa nova trio singing in Portuguese... An interruption as Ichiro checks my hydration needs and a somewhat low-key hint about a somewhat low-key (ha ha) trip to Vancouver this summer, code-named "Slow Fraser" (with the unannounced possibility of returning to a storytelling stage for the first time in 13 years). But also strawberry picking, sockeye salmon grilling, oysters with my mother-in-law, a hopefully magical orca appearance, and shipyard hangs. See you? Onwards to thanks for the support around the Advocate project, which is now sold out, including copies sent to mentors and teachers. And now, the next in the series: "Misasa Sojourn," about a healing visit to a radon-infused hot spring, with observations about rural depopulation, Nobel Prize laureate Madame Curie, and a circuitous snowy trip home (picking it up from the printer shortly). Also firing up production on Dispatch No. 3, "Nepal Aerogramme," which features a different form, time travel, and a new design technique. And a note that my rather Dickensian style of keeping a paper ledger, as though I'm selling these at a flea market, isn't working out all that well for certain life-administration purposes, which I'm being intentionally vague about. Oh right—the very satisfying spoken-word-poetry-meets-post-rock-ambient-cinematic-soundscapes sorcery project with Winterkeep continues to grow, with many more stories, and is now available on vinyl and CD. Not cheap, but priceless, and I'll send you a postcard, of course. Plus, in a sudden turn of topics, tragic news about an environmental doctor in Mexico brings back memories of almost magical days effectuating positive change in Vancouver in the mid-2000s, and then winds to fond wishes for anyone and everyone going through a tough time with loss, pain, or grief. I see you, and I'm cheering for you as best as my battered brain and achy eyes can do. #vancouver #slowfraser #storytime #poetry #zines #hospitals #catchup

A week out of the hospital, got a little session in the kura studio today making the "verso" of the Nepal aerogram collage piece which will be "daveo dispatch vol. 3" which will be a double sided, tri-fold stand-up broadsheet Hoping to go to the printer in Bizen on Tuesday to pick up vol. 2 (misasa sojourn, second printing) and drop this next piece off My gosh pals I spend untold dozens of hours on these obsessing over all kinds of little quirks and details to make special… Did a little bit too much today and really spun out and exhausted but it's such a thrill to create And it doesn't really count unless you've made a big mess which, oh my heavens I did I'm trying not to share the details but just wanted to say these things out loud Art indeed heals broken hearts and sometimes strengthens body definitely nourishes soul

re: #Canucks fans around the world Listening to #CanucksTalk and enjoying @JamieDodd & @ThomasDrance name check the bit about Coach Manny Malhotra acknowledging "Canucks fans around the world" as we're out here, (Japan and otherwise)

here I am Thursday evening, a week ago was still in hospital with the spinal tap now coming home from another hospital visit which involved I tried injection and bonus paperwork Since returning home, I managed to go through a significant crash and bounce (the typhoon and pressure changes didn't help) from the whole hospital and discharge and travel experience And finding myself especially more brain fogged, zonked out and clumsy than usual -including the delightful incident occurring in my earnest attempting to putout dinner and catch up the dishes last night when i knocked a glass pitcher off the side of the counter, it didn't break! But it landed right smack on one of those giant glass bottles of soy sauce which did break, badly! so our beautiful wooden floor was flooded with high grade soy sauce drifting under all the fridge and cabinets with glass everywhere looking like a crime scene. The towels used for cleanup were so stinky that now into the burnable trash great cause no further injuries while cleaning up tidied up extra glass containers for making vinegar and syrups which were also stashed in that corner and located a bottle of boxed sake tucked away so that's good I guess Also managed to knock over the trashcan strewing dozens of empty packets of medications all over the floor yet the good news is I was carrying in my adorable (sorry, he insists on cool now) and *not so little guy* in from the bath after he himself zonked out on a towel just outside the bathtub room Changed into awesome pajamas, tuck him in under the mosquito net but then he stumbled himself back awake to say "we haven't read a book yet" Also last night at dinner he said "when we go to Canada, we should really plan our outfits to coordinate, like not the same outfits but like a theme" or something to that effect (I would write in Japanese but it doesn't really matter, you get the gist) Anyway, here I am staring down a basket of laundry, with a tall glass of iced water with a dash of lemon in it, the soy milk maker is running, the dishwasher is running, the washing machine is running, tomorrow is a preschool picnic yet and yet Oh I also walked halfway to the bus stop thinking "maybe I didn't lock all the doors" I walked back, found the door I left unlocked and then came home to realize I left the whole sliding patio door which faces right out to the carport and the street and everything wide open, secured only by a mosquito screenGood for ventilation, not good for security(while I'm not concerned about robberies, my father-in-law is very diligent about such matters) Yet here I am I'm thinking about the news about my friend from those heady salad days in the 2000s in #Vancouver when "everything seemed possible" we pretended it was about technology but really is about community and connection and conversation and exploring what seemed to be a seachange in the way cities, networks, governments, corporations, communications, what we used to call "news", and everything could reinvent and democratize or whatever (spoiler: didn't really work out that way) leveling the playing field = ha while I was slow on finding out about his passing (he was a PhD in environmental studies who had studied/taught at university of British Columbia then moved back to his native Mexico City) and now learned seems there's nefarious action surrounding his death :( There's an investigation, I don't want to dig too deep because right now I want to remember his magnificent smile, his frequent hugs (yes I'm a hugger living in a country where hugs don't really exist aside from very unique and sporadic experiences and they're not lingering long hugs like well anyway… I digress as usual) I'm thinking about him and I'm thinking about all the people he touched and I'm thinking how all of us who put ourselves "out there" speaking and presenting and sharing and teaching and learning and simply showing up, documenting and sharing and so on, the things that we do in the actions that we take ripple on for decades in ways that we couldn't possibly expect I found photos of him and me and another prolific brilliant gentleman who blogged, podcast'd, podcast'd about home recording, made creative commons music (remember friends, we are talking about mid 2000s before Twitter, when Facebook was just a thing and a few universities, RSS was everything, blogs hooray if you could roll your own, Creative Commons was the way forward, the shareable web, the read write web, smartphones weren't quite there yet but digital cameras suddenly were decent computers had leapt into easy creative machines rather than rather expensive things for business and coding and we were freed from the constraints of maybe 5 MB of Web hosting space if you knew how to FTP things [I realize that this is just technology sidelines to the life of a man now dead and the life of a man speaking to you from a cottage in provincial Japan still sometimes wondering how I got here and wondering how I'm still alive but here I am] The people we met the people we hold onto the people we stay in touch with or don't but we still hold onto them when things don't disappear, artifacts and such, all that personal archaeology, all that living all that sharing Now in this present moment, no need for chopping wood or carrying water so I make rice, fold laundry and so we go on, so we go on