ben frost tokyo weblog
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jan 2004 page 1 page 2
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i am your slice of life
i just returned from poland for the european ten pin bowling championships - there was tough competition but i managed to come out on top - view the final scores here. one of my students gave me her website today - cool stuff view it here. found a great site today that made me shiver - the man who fell asleep. check it out.
hmm i need another picture for today i think. what can i find of interest . . .
ok here's a pic i did for cream magazine in hong kong - im gonna send the original to canada for the thoughtcrimez show. . it was a picture about fairytales but it had to be more gory than the original ever suggested. i appropriated the style and pose from an art nouveau pose. i like it, but there's something whacky happening with her face. reminds me of a girl i used to date. this is perhaps the only painting i have done in tokyo since i have been here.. oh well. theres always another day for such things.
the original is a little over A4 - gouache on paper. the blood motif is seeping into my work - bleeding man - citylights and this. yet to understand the significance if any.
saw master and commander: the far side of the world yesterday. russell crowe is pretty good. being australian i suffer from cultural cringe on an unprecedented scale but he is very likeable in this film. a very man orientated flick - swashbuckling action with a bit of scurvy and a few cannon balls thrown in to boot.
also viewed the last samurai. was interesting if only tom cruise wasnt in it. but then again it was an odd film and cruise is an odd method actor. he looked really haggered. old and so fucking american. gave a good appreciation of japan and the honour and discipline involved in their history. sad story the way they turned western.
also saw an episode of the goodies - 'the loch ness monster'. the 3 go to scotland to help the zookeeper of the royal zoo to find a monster. funniest moment when tim is accosted by the bagpipe spider - one bite and you'll dance the highland fling until you die. bill odie music is great. had a guest appearance by stanley baxter as head of the scottish tourist board - a fantastic 60's black and white film comedy star - one film that stood out of his that i loved completely was 'father came too' cool british stuff- -heres a nice pic overview of the goodies site , counting the episodes there are close to 100 - as a child i was obsessed with them but they dont seem to be so amazing now.
took this pic of a box outside a clothes shop near tokyo station. i have see a few around in a similar style. i really want to make some. there's something amazing about fresh crisp cardboard. another one i saw had a bunny on it in pink and white.
things are so difficult to find. i went in search of this particular vodaphone shop to sort my bill out. forget it. get yer photo of the panda box and go back to the bar.
watched delicatessen yesterday. i love this movie.
met up with scott and traded alien secrets. the effects of teleportation created these photographs as we left planet roppongi.
went to super deluxe and house. was cool.
blue velvet.
party last night for cindy.
got some good video footage of a drunk guy on the train when i was coming home. japanese people seem to get so incredibly drunk. he was wobbling around trying to stand up, waiting for his train.
ahh - always nurturing my refined mental life. photos taken of hot food vending machines.
had a few drinks tonite after work with jim, andrew and luke in kinshicho. andrew was talking about running with the bulls in spain. sounds cool. i wanna do it. it comes up in july. hopefully i will be in the same vicinity to do it this year. also heard about this danger thing in japan where these guys ride down a huge hill on a massive log. people die and get broken bits all over. i think i might pass on the log. . .
i succumbed to a taxi fare of 1860 from kinshicho to monzennakacho. as i came out of the alleyway there was this japanese guy whistling some tune.
'wicked sound!' i said . .
'are you russian mafia?' he asked me.
'of course!' i replied and exited westward . .
the non linear wounds of circumstance.
i wanna have a car and a daschund.
my new camera is cool. its a sony T1. 5 megapixels. smaller than a pack of cigarettes.
music is the currency of the silent. rocking out on the subway i can see it now. air guitar over the sleeping salary men. that'll show em.
counting black sheep to get to sleep, u can count me first.
theres this lady who lives next door who walks her cat every day at about the time i leave for work. so funny. i must try and get some pictures.
if u went swimming in a stream of consciousness, would you take pool pony.
invite the neighbours and their cats. sorted.
i throw you away. i am the flowers in your dustbin, the poison in your human machine. . . come get me ..
im still hurting from snowboarding. i have like some kind of muscle in my chest that i pulled whilst throwing myself repeatedly at the ground in the snow. when i sneeze it feels like cannibal corpse. snowboarding was fun. i am keen to go back and hurt myself some more. on the weekend i saw lost in translation, battle royale, all the episodes of the maxx and michael moore's the awful truth. bittorrent is cool. get it. lose any other file sharing business.
bought some new books yesterday - will self - dorian and lullaby by chuck palahniuk
am thinking of curating a group show with john peters in sydney somewhere for late this year. i need to start organising some shows for oz when i get back and have to get onto the uk.
i am bleeding from the ears to get in front of a canvas again.
sometimes i read the news in the paper and wonder why i would ever want to go back intot the rest of the world. everything here is like a paradise. there are no worries. lots of money, lots of girls, lots of wide eyed people ready to do anything crazy. i have a uk work visa which i need to use in the next year and a half
got back last night from a week of snowboarding in myokokogen in akakura - about 5 hours north of tokyo by bus.
it was great.
there were eight of us staying in a big tatami mat room guest house with breakfast and dinner included every day. it was quiet and laid back, lots of drinking and onsen action. heres some fireworks.
