imomus | Port of disembarkation

A jet is not poetry
Shooting fire at the lands
Behind it, rejecting them
Violently.
But Japan, port of disembarkation,
Is poetry. By means of violence
I have arrived at poetry.

Electronic birdsong at the station,
Clear green tea.
British Airways lost my suitcase,
Typically.
The seatback map at departure showed hell:
Our position over Watford, Clacton-on-Sea
Rising through storm clouds, high wind.

Here, beyond turbulent Siberia
I'm 10,000 kilometers better off.
The sun shines. The suburban train is
Refined.

'Japan is green', I say,
Because Japan is yellow and I am blue.
'Japan is orange,' says red you.

Reading Sebald's 'Vertigo' I watch my fellow passengers
With the eye of Chris Marker, 'Sunless'.
An elegant ghostlike woman
Drifts towards a stranger's shoulder,
'Regains her composure.'

Tinytidy houses, sunshine on the superlegitimate
City, so endless, so modest.
The electric transmission whines.
The afternoon is restrained, delicate, delicious.
Tinytidy mountains, temples, crossings chime,
The chime bends, fades.
Businessmen austere, schoolkids scruffy-giggly,
The women graceful, or outrageously sexy,
The children indulged.

Advertising seems more self-consciously Japanese
Than I recall: more kimonos, bamboo, plasma screen TVs.
People click at flat tablets - a new model, swivel screen.
But an unemployed man asks me for money:
'I lost my work, even 100 yen...'

I take tea, a hot bath, an afternoon nap,
Far from home, and home.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Welcome back home (o-kaeri-nasai). ;)

~m

that's really sweet.
i look forward to reading more of your adventures in japan (actually, i think it's called living vicariously though you. ;) )

That's very nice... I can see and taste it, and that has somewhat improved my craptacular morning. Have a good trip.

hi momus, hope yer travels are splendid, and always look forward to following along.

i also wanted to share & ask, if there's time.
What you though on city artist vs. small city/country artist?

this seems to be a silly question but i like looking at this, and i'm even deciding on a move based on it, somewhat.

a rough list - of city vs small city artists i'm listening to today:
city artist:
black dice
animal collective
momus
white magic
devendra banhart
boredoms

small city/town artist:
the microphones/ mt. eerie
lighting bolt
feathers
bonnie prince billy
joanna newsome
little wings
bobby birdman

I think it's a false distinction. I think all that's needed is a small collection of like-minded people, and that's easier to find in a big city. Fort Thunder is a perfect example of a group of people jelling in a small city. It's the connections that allow artistic juices to flow: Newsome knew Terry Riley and befriended Devendra and Oldham. Bobby Birdman is connected to Oldham who is connected to all sorts of people. Black Dice comes out of Lightning Bolt.

If you drew a graph connecting each to all you'd get groups but not, I think, a 'big city group' and a 'little city group.'

In your listings, there's more stylistic connections between a 'Fort Thunder group' and a 'new English Folk' group (and then a bunch who don't comfortably fit into either group (like our Momus)).

WELL I WOULD SAY IT DEPENDS ON THEIR INCOME

- MIKE "L.A." FIELD

and the ability to use a caps lock key?

Always has been a quick way to decide who to take seriously. At least for me anyway.

maybe it all has to do with influence. who you know. what you are looking at. what you are reading curently in your life where ever you are. small town or not. being in a small town/the country can be refreshing for yer head if you've been in a city for awhile. 2005 is the year of the country folk!!!

-jon arno (NYC)
peace
ps momus japan is full of love.

I love San Soliel. It's one of my favorite movies of all time.

Wonderful! Now do a haiku!

i'm afraid you can't write poetry

LOL
i thought of it more as a rap!

Think of it as a cross between blogging and poetry: bloetry. In fact, if people can call their little handmade radio shows 'podcasting' why don't we call this 'bloecasting'? If you hear a cool bloecast, say 'That cat can really bloe!' To tell your friend his bloetry is really great, just say 'Man, that really bloes!'

I have a friend who used to write emails in this format, i.e. in short lines and stanzas, with the semantic line breaks, all in lower case. They carried information well, but where also poetic. They were delightful, and she used to write so many of them that she blew her carpal tunnels. The speech recognition software that she's had to use as result cannot replicate her old style. I miss it.

Anyway, okaeri! Yakimochi!

(Hey, that story could become a great Momus song; feel free. :) )

While reading this, I had 'Afternoon Tea' playing in the background. Seemed fitting.

You are Ray.
And Japan is your donna.

I love "Sans Soleil." I friend of mine has transcribed the narration (http://www.markertext.com/sans_soleil.htm), with a few links.

Reading your blog everyday this past summer I'd imagine the Japan you wrote about. Until I wanted to go to Japan. See what you wrote about in front of me, not just in my head. So now I'm actually going. I leave in May, for a year.

Thank you for all the inspiration, dear Momus. And I hope you have a lovely trip. I'm sure you will. Oh! And your bunny really is uncommonly cute.

Love,
Darling
http://difm_darling.typepad.com/bloodyviolentrevolution/

PS: I can't wait for the 25th. I'm so excited to hear the album.

hello imomus...

i am heading to berlin in a few days for a stay of six months. just now i was googling "berlin street fashion" and your livejournal came up. anyway, in the post i read you referred to satsumas, which i have never seen outside of louisiana, so i was wondering where you are from and how you came to be in berlin.

-amy

Hi Amy, satsumas are eaten everywhere, aren't they? The orange fruit?

I'm from Edinburgh Scotland but I wander all over. I moved to Berlin because it's Europe (I have an EU passport) and it's cheap and extremely funky. I really love living there, actually. I just wrote a 'what to do in Berlin' article for a BBC magazine, but I can't post it because it hasn't run yet! But I'm sure you'll find the cool stuff. (Hint: trawl around the Alte / Neue Schonhauser Strasse in Mitte.)

hmmm... interesting, i just read up on satsumas. apparently they are originally from japan. i lived in new orleans for two years and was very struck by the satsumas there because they were green on the outside but orange on the inside, something i had never experienced before in the realm of citrus fruit. (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/images/1112744578). i guess they really have satsumas elsewhere but i never noticed because they were orange on the outside - my research reveals that the warmer the area where they are grown, the more green they stay on the outside. right. anyway, thanks for the berlin tips.

when does your bbc article come out?

I think it's in the March issue of Olive magazine. The British Olive, not the Japanese one. (Nor the Japanese satsuma, for that matter.)

i heard you are a fan... where exactly is it?

(in berlin now!)

Port of disembarkation

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city artist vs small city artist

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beautiful

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Russendisco