Slow down! Or read some Murakami. Or Auster

Life moves pretty fast. But if you don't slow down you won't notice...
I mentioned last week my desire to slow things down and reestablish a connection with the world around me. And I believe I've had some success, due to the fact that I've being reintroduced to Serendipity again. If you spend your days rushing from one bit of internal mental sludge to another, the wonder of her beauty will pass you by. For instance:

I'm walking an Osaka street, looking for the place where the film fest is being held. It's called Planet...something. So I walk, singing to myself that B52's song, "Planet Claire." I find the theater, right next to a athletic field called, Claire.

One of the films I saw, "Doubles" was scored by Yamashita Yosuke, who I'd seen at EC a week before.

My friend gives me a CD of Latin Music. Two songs are by Matsuda Mio, again, who I'd just seen at EC.

Meeting new people at a party, then seeing them the next morning in photos on a completely different person's blog.

Seeing two gigs a week apart and finding the drummer for both bands is the same guy.

I suppose you can say that these kinds of things aren't so unusual in the fishbowl of the Kyo, or the larger fishbowl of Japan. But don't you think that fish, with their short memories, are also prone to coincidence, as they circle the bowl again and again, going, "Whoa! Deja Vu!"

On the turntable: Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains, "The Catalyst - Santa Cruz, CA 11/01/04"