women's club

My mom is president of the Stamford Women's Club, which has just celebrated its 100th anniversary.

hiroko's wisdom

As y'all may know, Hiroko writes an interestingly random anecdote in her company newletter. Now, we have collected those anecdotes into Hiroko's Hitokoto ("Hiroko's Last Word").

isekan


isekan, originally uploaded by renfield.


Hiroko and I were looking for some good fish, and happened upon a fairly new place called Isekan in Azabujyuban. Sat at the counter and watched them pull lobster, giant oysters, and fish out of the tank and slice-n-dice them right there. Only in Japan can you get your food so fresh it's still wiggling! We had all kinds of stuff; sushi, clams, grilled fish...it was all fresh and damn good. Service was a little buggy because the place is still new, and it was a tad pricey, but we ate way too much and enjoyed it thoroughly. Definitely a good place to take (and freak out!) the tourists.

journalists in jail

The United States of America now officially puts journalists in jail. In relation to a grand jury investigation of whether or not senior White House officials broke the law by knowingly disclosing the identity of an undercover agent, a reporter (who didn't even write about the exposed agent) is going to jail for not revealing her sources. Not the reporter who originally did expose the agent, not the government official who originally exposed her.
I don't care what your party affiliation is, not even Kafka could make up a story this assinine. This is not about the letter of the law that every citizen is compelled to comply with a grand jury investigation. It is about the spirit of the law; the right of a free press to investigate exactly these kinds of blatant political machinations.
The saddest part of this story is the Silent Majority of American citizens who are too drunk on reality tv to get off their couch and care, or worse yet who shrug and say the loss of the very freedoms that define America is a necessary evil because of the "war on terrorism" whatever that means. Most of them get their so-called "news" from Fox, so issues of journalistic integrity are a non-starter anyway.
A century from now, students of American history will look back on the early 21st century and compare it to the days of McCarthyism and Stalinism...assuming by then citizens still have the right to study history freely.

gajoen demo


0066, originally uploaded by renfield.

Put up the photos from the demo we did last week at Gajoen in Meguro. Niina-gosoke looks bad-ass, as always. Amazing how good things look when a pro takes the photos. Plus, Gajoen is just a stunningly beautiful place. A bit overly gawdy, but awesome nontheless.

miri & carrot cake @ cravings


miri & carrot cake @ cravings, originally uploaded by renfield.


Miri is the owner/chef of Cravings. She cooks Real American Food, and she's funny and cool. My mission(s):
1) Help her set up a wireless LAN so that I can hang out all day w/my laptop
2) Hook her up with my poppyseed cake and apple pie recipes
3) Get her to Supersize my brunches