Mar
Posted on 25th March 2009
Hump Day- am I right or am I right? Yesterday, I had a long but fun day of shooting a video for the upcoming This American Life live shows next month with that major poonhound David Rakoff and also the lovely and talented Laura Krafft and Jackie Hoffman. It was a bunch of fun and at one point I ate half of a delicious pastrami sandwich. I have to remind myself to put the other half in the fridge or in my stomach later. Or maybe it’s too late already. What’s the shelf life of room temperature cold cuts? Anyway, I am excited to see how the video turns out.
In other news, as I sit here getting it all started today (or whatever it is I’m doing sitting here with no pants on), I thought I would talk some more about my hot rock band Valley Lodge’s invasion of the great nation of Japan earlier this month. Among the many highlights of the trip (and forgive me if I already talked about this- the jetlag has killed my short-term memory) was the hot coffee in a can that was available from vending machines on pretty much every block in the entire country as best I could tell. For about a buck or so, you can get all kinds of different deliciously hot cans of coffee at a moment’s notice. My record is five cans in one day but I brought it down to an average of about three a day after I started to get a little jumpy on the record-setting day. The can above was purchased on the street in Nagoya. I bought it because I liked the design on the can, not because I thought it would remind me of home. The coffee in this particular can was a bit too sweet for my tastes but I think I drained it anyway. I mean, hey, why not?
Adding to the coffee-in-a-can excitement over in Japan was the fact that Hollywood’s Tommy Lee Jones was on a lot of the hot-coffee-in-a-can vending machines over there. Apparently he is the spokesperson for Boss coffee, the brand of champions I am assuming. I don’t know if the remarkably crappy photo of him has something to do with one of the other ads he did for the coffee or if Tommy Lee Jones doesn’t bother looking in the mirror before photo shoots. “Tommy, when you show up for the Boss photo shoot, make sure you haven’t slept in three weeks and are still drunk from the night before- that would be really helpful,” I imagine the photographer saying to him. Needless to say, Tommy’s bad headshot didn’t stop me from buying tons of delicious Boss coffee while I was in Japan.
Another thing I really loved about Japan is that they have cartoons of adorable little animals and assorted other beings on pretty much everything. Take that weird chocolately spongy thing above that I saw in a convenience store. Sure- it’s chocolate so you want to buy it anyway, but that rabbit really takes it to the next level.
In the end, I didn’t buy it myself as my focus at the time was candy, but I did manage to have a little fun with it while we were still in the store:
And finally- speaking of Colonel Sanders (mentioned in the previous post)- here is a photo of a plaster (or maybe he’s made of something else. I’m not a doctor!) Colonel Sanders/Uncle Sam I saw in a gift shop in Kyoto. There was a part of me that really wanted to take him home, but then I realized pointing to where it says “Uncle Sam” and giggling a little bit when friends came over was maybe not enough to drop the 30 or so bucks they were asking for him. I’m sure I’ll kick myself for that decision one day though.
Oh yeah- one more thing. Above is a completely pointless animated GIF I made of me standing in front of some sort of nurse-themed whorehouse or something near our hotel in Tokyo. Did I end up going in? No. Did I totally want to go in? Totally! Alas, I am too delicate.
Oh, and finally, here is another song from the new Valley Lodge album for you. It’s called “Break Your Heart.”
More from my blog here »
