Takao’s journal: Day2 (May 16)
Friday was a long day. It started with a meeting with Rick from the documentation department. Rick and his coleague Brian are going to be with us during the whole week, following our activities with video cameras. Excellent! i visited Chikamatsu Sensei’s Japanese class for ten minutes, and talked to the students in Japanese. It woudl have been a bit hard to talk in English with a hazy jet-lagged head. i don’t remember what i talked about too well except about Gatzby, a Japanese brand of hair wax that i use to make my otherwise-straight-hair curl. Elliott said his “American” hair would not curl…
Then i went to Northwestern Univ to do a lecture on Dumb Type’s work, showing video clips and explaining how the sceneography was integral with the concept. The lunch they served (Turkey sandwich and latatuille pasta salad and pop) was exquisite. i quickly returned to DePaul only to miss by a half an hour the meeting with Student Center management which was at 2:45pm. The meeting was postponed.
The Japanese Multimedia Week kick-off reception was to start at 5pm, so i quickly returned to my hotel and changed to my suits (costume for the performance). i love my Dior-inspired suits which were tailored by my friend who is a costume designer back in Tokyo. The reception turned out to be fun. We were on the 2nd floor, with a buffet of grilled vegetables, cheeses, olives and soft drinks. Kiku-s music was very nice and stylish. Downstairs was Queer Prom dance party in preparation. There were balloons all over the dance floor. Miho, Chikamatsu Sensei and Prof Laura ’s daughters found a heaven there, having fun playing with the ballons, so i went down to join them. Ann had brought the chiar i was going to use in the peformance. So, i tested it and did just a little bit of demonstration. Me too had a huge fun with the little angels!
After the reception was over, Kiku and his partner Aiko and i went out for a glass of wine. i then explained my ideas for the show. Talking through your ideas helps heaps to clarify and better understand your ideas. i was more confident now, and even more inpired by it. Again, i was falling off my chair, so went home quickly, but by the time i took bath, checked email and went to bed, it was past 1am. i had 3 to 4 hours before waking up early thanks to the jet lag. i was going to suffer constant lack of sleep for some more days.