Season's Greetings

*Click to enlarge

*For coloring fun!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Doodles

"Doodles" by Taro Gomi is a great coloring and doodling book. This 368-page book gives us endless pleasure and humor and promotes imagination and creativity for kids from 3 to 99.  Here are only few examples by me.

http://www.chroniclebooks.com/tarogomi

 

 

A Voyage to Brobdingnag

Bobby and Goofy

 

 

 

Hitch! Part 2

North by Northwest

North by Northwest

Psycho

Hitch! Part1

The Birds

The Birds

Vertigo

Feline Forest

She was in the community garden near my place.
Her owner put her in the bush with leash. She was still...and owned the forest.

Anti-Capitalist Dogs

Dogs also occupied Wall Street at Zuccotti Park

Man's best friend

En Plus from 3 Pieces in the form of a Pear

My husband and I arranged an Erik Satie piece for 2 pianos "En Plus" from "3 Pieces in the Form of a Pear". He played guitar and I wrote lyrics, sang, and drew the story. This piece is Satie's answer to the criticism he received that his music is without form (sonata,etc...).

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Wish she could write a book...

It is very fascinating to think how Willow the cat traveled from Colorado and turned out to be on NYC street 5 years later.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/nyregion/theories-on-cats-trip-from-colorado-to-new-york.html

Petition for NO NUKE in Japan

 

I am really worried about Japan.

Although the cozy tie between nuclear plants operators, government, bureaucrats, regulators and media was revealed after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the new Noda administration seems to have toned down in its denuclearization policy that the previous prime minister promised without actual plans.

It would be totally insane if they don’t learn a lesson from Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the ongoing Fukushima disaster.

Since Chernobyl, it has been pointed out that the claim that Japan would experience blackouts without nuclear is only a propaganda myth created by the Japanese nuclear establishment.

I thought I have to do something this time.

http://sayonara-nukes.org/english/  
 

If you agree with this, Please sign your name.

This is for the children still exposed to radiation, animals left in the evacuation zone and have died, and for our own future!

私の住んでいるニューヨークから見る震災後の日本はとても危うく見える。

原子力産業と政府・官僚・メディアの癒着が暴露されたにもかかわらず、菅政権は脱原発の具体的な指針を示さずに解散したため、野田政権の脱原発の主張はトーンダウンしたようだ。放射能ジョークで大臣が辞任、新防衛大臣もウォール・ストリート・ジャーナル(13日電子版)に、景気低迷には憲法改正して武器輸出！などと原発事故の意味が全く分かっていない発言を行っている。

いま、広島・長崎・福島の被爆の経験が生かされないとしたら、正気の沙汰とは思えない。チェルノブイリの事故当時から、原子力なしでは日本は停電するというのは、原子力村(メディア含む)のプロパガンダにすぎないと指摘されてきたが、今度ばかりは、何かしなくてはと思った。

http://sayonara-nukes.org

このサイトの呼びかけに賛同した方は署名をお願いします。
今も被爆を続ける子供たち、警戒区域内に残されて死んでいった動物たち、そして私たち自身の未来のために！

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Gender Bender

It's a Wonderful Life

Chef Is Prepared

                         An earthquake and a hurricane in a week in New York....

In Sync

*Click to enlarge

Please Please Me

Yoga Guru

All Quiet on the Ocean Front

Masculin Féminin

Recent Paintings

 

This was inspired by a "Movie Palace" from the twenties. It looked like a spaceship with a very tall ceiling and a huge ceiling light. Naturally, it was dark, but somehow it became bright when I painted this.

This paintnig was inspired by a Kimono sash pattern in an old Japanese black and white film.

2011 : A Cats and Dogs Odyssey

On the way to my favorite art supply store on Sunday morning,  I met a white and gray kitten on the storefront of  a pet supply store.  She was too shy to say hello to me.

On the way back at the same storefront, an orange kitten named Charlie said hello.  He was relaxing and enjoyed the sun as well as the store owners.

On the next block, a small black pug running behind the old black lady walking two other dogs. I saw her and the dogs several times, but never talked to her before. As soon as I started petting the black pug, the lady introduced him as “Spike Lee”. The adult beige pug is “Grace Jones” and a big Chow Chow is “Elf”. Everyone was very friendly, especially Miss Jones. She sat on my feet, matter of factly and didn’t leave. The lady asked me if I had any animals  and we found out that both of our pets came from shelters. She had 8 cats at home as well. I asked if her dogs and cats got along OK. She said yes and said “If they try, they can do it”.
She didn’t look like an affluent type. She might be one of the old lonely cat ladies who had a pack of cats (and dogs) in a tiny studio. That’d be kind of animal abuse for sure, but also highly understandable, especially if I lost my husband and had no children.

On the same block, my friend for several years greeted me from the windowsill. Her name is “Bardot”.  According to her owner, she is Phoebe, but before I realized that fact, she was already Bardot to me and my husband and she didn’t seem like minding it. Bardot is a skinny black and white cat with a big black mole above  her lips. She is not a glamour like Bridgitte Bardot but  somehow unconventionally cute, so we decided to call her Bardot.
Anyway, she meowed in a strong husky voice and came down from the windowsill to the street. I petted and massaged her. As if I pushed an invisible button on her body, she kept rolling and rolling.
It was hard to leave. When I tried to leave, she looked at me and meowed again, so I had to stay. Finally I left but she was still rolling without any sign to stop. I watched her from several steps away to make sure if she was OK since  It was a prime dog walking time. Suddenly, she started to clean herself and jumped up to the window to go back to her owner.

I was relieved and missed my own kitties at the end of the odyssey. Chef was busy enjoyng nap in the sun and didn’t care about me at the moment. Fireball came and smelled all the dogs and cats I just met.

9 Years

 

April 28th was the 9th birthday of Chef and Fireball.

Monday?

Petittion for save animals in Japan Evacuation Zone‏

Lots of animals are still left starving inside of the nuclear evacuation zone in Japan.
However, Japanese government banned to enter the zone today and no one including evacuees and animal rescue groups would be allowed to enter without official permission.

Please sign the following petitions to Prime Minister of Japan. The first one is to allow animal rescue organizations access to the evacuation zone. The second one is to ask the Japanese Government  that the act of starving animals left behind must be made illegal.

Thanks a lot and if possible, please spread the word.
The Big Sleep

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/26/save-animals-in-Japan-evacuation-zone/
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/24/Make-animal-starvation-illegal-in-Japan/

警戒区域内に取り残された動物たちを助けるための署名にご協力お願いします。
動物救助団体が20キロ県内に入れるようにする署名と、残された動物たちを飢え死にさせる行為を違法にすることを求める署名で、どちらも菅総理宛です。被災地のことを考えなくても外圧には弱い日本政府に対して、いくらかでも有効であることを願っています。

Chef & Isaac

 *Click to enlarge

The Big Sleep in Japan Extra

A Real Mean Duck in Inokashira Park

From Dec 9, 2010 Post

                                                   Chinese Mean Bunnies

From Oct 18, 2010 Post

The Big Sleep in Japan Part 2

The main reason of this visit was seeing my almost 98-year-old grandma. Nothing is wrong with her yet but it is inevitable for her to be getting frail.

今回の帰省の一番の理由は、もうすぐ98歳になる祖母に会うことだった。どこが悪いというわけではないが、衰えていくのは仕方がない。

The 7^th memorial of the death of my favorite film director Kihachi Okamoto was during my visit. So I went to Ikebukuro to see his films and immensely enjoyed them. I decided to visit his grave near my parents’ place. And near the same cemetery, I found a "cat street" on the way to the Toshiro Mifune’s grave. In no time, two friendly cats with attitude showed up.
私の一番好きな映画監督である岡本喜八の七回忌も、帰省と重なった。池袋で喜八特集を見て大いに楽しんだ後、実家の近くにある彼の墓参りをした。同じ墓地にある三船敏郎の墓に行く途中、いかにも猫道な狭い路地を通った。すぐに二匹が現れ、親しみと好奇心、威厳を同時に示した。

More incidents made me think about life and death: my grandma’s mind occasionally experiencing a fine line between the past and present, the 100th anniversary of Taro Okamoto’s birth, my aunt giving me the watch of her recently late daughter (my cousin), etc...   Although these experiences are not exactly happy, I wasn’t depressed either. Somehow, I accepted that life is a part of death and vice-versa.
祖母が時折、過去と現在の微妙な線上にいることや、岡本太郎の生誕100周年、最近亡くなった従姉の形見分けなど、生と死を考えさせる出来事が続いた。うれしいことではないが、落ち込みもしなかった。生は死の一部で、死は生の一部であることを受け入れられるようになってきたのかもしれない。

Later my mom and I went to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka.

I was very jealous of the little kids who were able to get on the Neko (cat) Bus from "My Neighbor Totoro".

母とジブリ美術館へ。ネコバスに乗れる小さな子供たちがうらやましい！！

 
Then we went to a Neko Cafe near the museum. A Neko Cafe is one of the new trends in Japan; a cafe with several free roaming (or sleeping) cats, and customers pet and play with them. I had been a little worried that it could’ve been abusive for the cats. As far as I saw, cats are masters here like anywhere else.
美術館近くの猫カフェへ。動物虐待を心配していたが、私の見た限りでは、猫たちは他の場所と同じように自由で、人間を従えていた。