Omi woody arch tour

[imomus]

Spent the weekend amongst delicious wooden architecture in Osaka, Nara and Omi Hachiman, where Henri de Charpentier (a Japanese homosexual dandy with pocketwatch and lorgnette) and Phirip (glitch bracken cake maker and performance artist) conducted their warabimochi sukiya tour, pointing out traditional Japanese wooden buildings as well as colonial-style wooden constructions by anti-property missionary architect William Merrell Vories, who believed that Omi was the centre of the world. The town has certainly become the centre of my August, and I'm becoming convinced that we should all live in wooden houses, make wooden instruments, and soak all day in wooden baths in public bathhouses. A bath made just for one, even a nice deep spilly cedar box-bath, is a prim bourgeois error.

Comments

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Harry Partch

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Montclair State is the sister college of my olde alma mater, and is about a 40 minute drive away from my door: a fitting home for the artifacts of an eminent Affected Provincial (http://www.livejournal.com/users/lord_whimsy/463.html?mode=reply).

'Seventh Day' is my favorite Partch piece, but I can see you appreciating 'The Letter'.

I've heard of Henri. Would be curious to know more.

W

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Henri de Charpentier writes tankas and practises, alas, as a protestant Christian as well as a provocative homosexual (he had a pretty teen catamite with him during the tour, a Japanese youth of Grecian charm and radiant good looks, who flopped around in a bored abandoned way, or picked specks of dust off his mentor's waistcoat). Henri keeps a web page here:

http://cvnweb.bai.ne.jp/~comte/

You can translate it by pasting that URL into Amikai and clicking the righthand radio button:

http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/web/

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Charpentier (which appropriately means 'carpenter'), Phirip dressed as a warabimochi seller, and the handsome 'catamite', Omi Hachiman, yesterday.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Is the gay subculture aesthetic in the Japans differ greatly from the Western equivalent--or is 'subculture' a misnomer in this case?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I don't know, is the short answer. I've read Mishima, who describes gay sex in Tokyo parks not unlike the kind associated with, say, Hampstead Heath in London. In the Tsutenkaku district of Osaka there are streets with transvestite prostitutes just like there are in Montmartre, Paris. There are gay and very camp comedians on Japanese TV just as there are on British TV. Tokyo has gay-friendly districts like Shinjuku Ni-Chome and Shimbashi. And so on. Here things are somewhat more discreet. The law makes no specific provision for homosexual behaviour. Nobody is 'in-your-face-out', but also nobody is out to condemn or vilify or induce guilt or 'convert' the gay. Discretion is the watchword.

Here's a history of homosexuality in Japan:

http://www.geocities.co.jp/Berkeley/3508/japanesehistory.html

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

A Catholic dandy, yes--and only a deathbed conversion at that--but a Protestant one? Very Angels in America, no?

My coterie of catamites are a local gayboy 'hardcore' hip-hop outfit who are rumored to moonlight as phone sex operators. They're always trying to convert me, which is flattering.

Many thanks for the information. I shall investigate...
W

[sparkligbeatnic.livejournal.com]

I was out there last weekend with my girlfriend. A friend and former member of Dumb Type did a dance/video performance in the old theatre. We tried some of Phirip's delicious mochi and purchased her CD. I was suprised to find out that she had performed at an event organized by a friend who used to live in Barcelona, known as "The Wrong Festival". Also she had hosted two of his friends, from Barcelona, who also visited me during their trip to Japan. Small world.

One of the highlights of the day was the Kecak Workshop (http://homepage1.nifty.com/starcage/fibonaccikck.html) run by Akio Hizume. His sculpture/installation in the sake warehouse was also really good.

Can we expect a future Momus album to be played on wooden instruments in Just Intonation, with Fibonacci rythms?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Wow, from the look of your blog we seem to be resonanting on all the same frequencies!

[encyclops.livejournal.com]

I understand that there's at least one public bathhouse here in San Francisco that's of the variety you're talking about (and not of the variety that keeps condoms and lube in fishbowls every twenty feet or so). I've always wanted to go and experience it but I'm afraid to, because I don't really know how to behave and don't want to look like a stupid pretentious gaijin (at best) or a brazen pervert (at worst). Are my fears foolish, and if so, how should I overcome them?