February 24, 2014

February 24, 2014

My all time favorite album is Michel Legrand’s “Play For Dancers” which is the U.S. title for “Archi-Cordes.” So when I woke up this morning to do my regular ritual of putting this album on my turntable, I noticed two things.  One, my turntable was missing, and two, the album was gone as well.  In fact, 1,406 pieces of vinyl were gone, missing, not in front of me, and not in the house.  I slowly looked up from the space that was formerly occupied by my record player and I noticed that the Sony wide-screen TV set is as well, now an empty space.  I had to sit down as panic slowly crept up from the left arm to my neck and eventually settled in my brain.  

Although a total surprise, I shouldn’t be.  As I wrote in a previous journal entry, we have been having trouble with a borrower's issue, where our thoughts were kidnapped and then returned to us.  When I walked around the house, I noticed that all the windows were secured and the doors were locked.  I immediately felt that an ex-girlfriend who had a key may have came in and took my precious items away.  Having my first cup of coffee, I realize that this is not the situation due that my wife has strict rules about me making keys for ex-girlfriends, and two, I really don’t have an ex-girlfriend.   This case was getting more troubling to me as the minutes dragged on.  Especially when I noticed that the only piece of art that I have in my collection (of one) is missing as well.  Richard Hamlton’s painting of Mick Jagger and Robert Fraser being arrested called “Swinging London, 67.” Shit, how much more pain can one take on a Monday morning.  The fact that someone (and let’s face it, we have to presume it's the Borrowers at this point and time) took albums, that I think only I can care about.  For instance is there anyone out there that would want the entire vinyl catalog from Paul Jones?

Also over the years, I have been slowly collecting all films and TV appearances from my favorite actor from the late 60’s and early 70’s, Pete Duel, who starred in the TV series “Alias Smith & Jones.” He was born with the name Pete Deuel, but had it changed because he consulted a numerologist who advised him that his original name was unlikely.  Nevertheless the troubled actor shot him self and died in the morning of December 31, 1971.  

Now, noticing that my old VHS tapes of Duel’s performances on “Alias Smith & Jones” were missing like my record collection, I decided to take stock of my life at this moment.   Ever since I left my job one and a half years ago, I have been just focusing on working on my memoir.   But it seems that every fifth page of writing, I noticed the amount of money in my bank account would go down as well.  The more I spend time writing, the less money comes in.   I thought “fuck it, ” I’m moving to Tokyo.  My wife and I purchased tickets to leave for Japan on February 26th, hopefully in time to see the cherry blossom trees on Meguro Dori, as well as trying to locate the old Michel Legrand and Paul Jones albums from the local record shops in Shinjuku and Shibuya.  It is time to make a fresh start.  The one thing I know how that I must keep up on my writing of this journal, and finish off my memoir.  After that, I will let fate take over my life.

February 16, 2014

February 16, 2014

Lun*na, my wife, just finished reading “The Borrowers” by Mary Norton.  I never read this book, or heard of it, till she picked it up as a recommendation from a friend of ours.   The book is about a family that lives in a house in the U.K. and unknown to them, is a group of very small people who secretly live in the same structure.  What they do to survive is ‘borrow’ but according to Lun*na it is more like stealing various goods that they need in order to live.  Not only pieces of food, but fabric, but also small items that can be used as chairs or tables as well. 

I imagine like a lot of people we’re always missing items in our house.  For me it is generally a specific book, but I think the most frequent disappearance is that ‘other’ sock.  How in hell does that disappear on a regular basis?    Or one’s favorite pen or pencil.  I have a tendency to collect bookmarks from various stores, and pretty much they disappear quite quickly in the household.   A very deep mystery to me. 

I dont know about you readers, but Lun*na and I have these series of conversations, which pretty much goes like this:

“Lun*na that movie we saw last night “The…. Oh what ever it is called with…. I forgot his name, but he was in …….  That movie about a heist robbery in …. some European city, you know what I am talking about! ”

“Yeah, we saw it with …. Oh God, what’s his name.  We just had dinner with him …. Oh shoot!  I got his face in my brain, but the name is located in the back of my tongue…. Ah

“Yes, I know exactly who you are talking about, that’s. …. Well, yeah I know who you are talking about.

“Ahh….”

And so forth.  Of course this could be caused by our advancing age, but let's supposed, and this is Lun*na’s theory, that Borrowers do actually exist, and they take our memories away and when in the mood they return them.

The thing is we hear noises in the middle of the night.  Drawers being opened and closed, a creek here or there, or once in a while we hear an object being dragged on the floor.  Once we awake, or the next morning, we don’t see or miss anything.  It is usually later when we noticed that an object is missing or a specific fork or piece of fabric.  I think any normal person would get up from their bed to check out where these sounds are coming from, but to be honest here, I am scared.  While I’m in bed, I wish to avoid anything that is happening at night.   For instance when we had the huge earthquake in Los Angeles in 1994, I stayed in bed, when the quake hit at 4:30 am.  Even with the crashing sounds of objects falling or being smashed, I just couldn’t get myself out of the bed.  When the crisis is happening I want to go back to sleep.   So hearing things being moved about in the middle of the night, is just an excuse for me to shut that off in my world, so I can go back to sleep.

Not too long ago Lun*na and I had another discussion where we could not recall the name of someone or the restaurant we went to the night before.  To my growing alarm, when I looked at her as she was trying to remember the name of the restaurant, I saw something very tiny near her ear lobe.  As she kept on talking, I gently went up to her, to get a closer look, but at the same time, I didn’t want to alarm her.  What I saw was a very small figure, and it seemed that this object was blowing something in her ear.  Lun*na all of sudden yelled “Clifton Cafeteria” as her memory came back, but at that instant, the small figure disappeared, like it didn’t exist in the first place. 

This happened again, when I couldn’t remember a name of a film we just watched the night before, and Lun*na swore she saw something on my shoulder, but I couldn’t feel or see it.  But once she saw it, and comment on seeing something weird near my ear, I suddenly remembered the film.  Which by the way, I can’t remember what it is just now.  Nevertheless, we both agreed that the Borrowers do exist, and unlike the book, they do return certain objects - like that sock, but more important, memories do come back time-to-time.