Shots from the Lip

Can I travel long distances again?   Once again I got some form of gastro problem - food poisoning?  The result was a horrible experience returning to LAX.  At least my arrival was after the Memorial Day weekend traffic, and I was able to get a day and a half of recuperation.   Here it is, the afternoon of the 31st and I am functioning once again!  It is hot outside - temperature reached 25C this afternoon.   We had one day of temperatures like that in Tokyo - I bought shorts for that day from Uniqlo.  Alas weather turned colder again the day after I got my shorts....such is life. Regardless,  I have classes again this week and bank meetings......and picking up the dry cleaning......normal tasks at hand...... And perhaps, my mind will think of something witty and whimsical to write in future days on the blog - today my mind is blank........

 I arrived on the 20th, with Joanna meeting me at Haneda Airport.  Ziwei met us at the Imperial Hotel after check-in and we had a sushi/tempura dinner before I got to soak in a bath that night.......I soaked each night here as we do not have a tub at home....such is life..... And then we walked......4 straight 15,000 step days.  Ziwei joined us in Tokyo for 3 nights and we the three of us spent the weekend together - Saturday in Kanagawa and Sunday in Shinjuku where, after getting some watercolor paints from a seven-floor art supply house, tiredness caught up with me and I slept for 13 hours. Monday the 26th - we did Blue Note-Tokyo.   How wonderfully nice to have a 6pm dinner show with world-class jazz and surprisingly reasonably priced good food!!!   I could easily adapt myself to a couple of shows a month were I to live here.....this was great!!! On Tuesday the 27th, we went to Jingu Stadium to watch the Swallows vs the Dragons in a pitcher's battle...

 Japan baseball has not done much to reduce the length of a game as MLB has done.  Last night, Joanna and I went to Jingu Stadium for a game between the Yakult Swallows and the Chinuchi Dragons of Nagoya.  We left after 6 innings of a 1-0 pitchers battle - 2-1/2 hours for 6 innings.......... Too slow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  A boring game of lengthy proportions is not my proverbial cup of tea..... I got up at 1am and spent 40 minutes on the phone with Chase due diligence which put a hold on my Saphire credit card account.  How can I really complain if the bank, seeing an expensive expenditure, puts a hold on the account?  But really - a hold over the Memorial Day weekend?  Try to get that fixed....other than at 1am in Tokyo??!  Regardless, I used that card for breakfast from Wendy's this morning and it worked, so getting up early was indeed beneficial! Today is my last day of a wonderful time with Joanna and her family.  How the hell did I get...

 Sometime in June, I will seek help to transfer photos from my iPhone to my Windows computer so I can 'enhance' this blog.......until then, words only......such is life..... I've passed by Blue Note-Tokyo before.......Lew Tabakan/Toshiko Akioshi appeared there when I was last in the neighborhood.......I did there tax returns in the mid-70s when they lived in North Hollywood and performed in the States. They have two 70 minute sets a night - 6pm and 8:30pm.   We did dinner (which was quite reasonably priced) and thoroughly enjoyed the attention paid to me as a cane using old fart who got to use their private elevator and had a taxi waiting for us to take us back to the hotel after........ With top flight entertainment, one can view the schedule and easily go to You Tube and see music videos of those performing......... This was a thoroughly enjoyable evening in Tokyo!

  I love big tax bills because they show just how corrupt the system can be!   I made money over the years by reading legislation like this and hopefully finding things that lobbyists included (they were the ones writing the damned bills – certainly not the elected legislators who never read what they vote for) for the companies and industries they represent that I might be able to apply the benefits for the clients I represented.      The New York Times, on 26 May, 2025, listed six ‘tidbits’ of interest.  Three of them are of ‘real’ interest to me:   Tax breaks for the U.S. Virgin Islands:  The United States collects a minimum tax on income that companies earn overseas.  Since the creation of that tax in 2017, the U.S. Virgin Islands, a territory, has been treated as a foreign location for the purposes of the tax.  This legislation would create a new carve-out for income earned on the islands, a generous change that is expected to r...

 Yesterday, exhaustion caught up with me - after 4 days in a row of 15,000 steps a day, I simply could not function - Joanna and Zhiwei joined me for teppanyaki at the 51st floor restaurant in the Sumitomo Building in Shinjuku.  After, we went to a 7 floor art house supply store where I could have spent so much more time, looking at cakes of watercolor paints  that are not available in the States.   I thought that Blick Art Supply was a big store - it looks like a small, 'mamma/pappa' store compared to where I was, yesterday.  I surprised myself:  my total purchase was less than 5,000 yen!    Tonight we go to the Blue Note for a 6pm dinner show.  Tomorrow we go to Jingu Stadium for a baseball game.  Tomorrow morning I return to the barber shop I used to go to - shave and a haircut time!.........and if I can find it (assuming it is still there) I will go to the Hall of Fame Cafe where I spent so many happy moments during prior trips ...

 Today will be a day of rest - at least compared to the past four days:  15,000 steps each day, Wednesday through yesterday (Saturday).  It is now 7:36am and soon we'll go to a Singaporean breakfast.  Joanna stayed over since Wednesday.  She will go home tomorrow, after we go to the Blue Note for an evening of jazz. Today we meet Ziwei and go to the 51st floor teppanyaki restaurant that we went to 13 years ago.......and after, we will go to an art supply house where I want to purchase Japanese watercolor paints......and after, get what we need to get at Daiso. .......and later.......reading, drawing, painting.........and perhaps a walk through the Imperial Palace gardens......this is a wonderful, 'deja-vu' experience!!

 After my evening bath - a daily ritual with a bathtub and abundant hot water to soak in! - I slept through 5am, read for an hou, back to sleep until 8am - to the overpriced Imperial coffee shop where I had an hour to luxuriate with three English language newspapers and pancakes. Off to Kanagawa for a day with Joanna and Ziwei.  Kanagawa is quaint - there are single family dwellings and it is a young place - children everywhere we walked - and we did walk!  We had tomato ramen lunches. And I got to be with Mio, my grandcat! Has anyone read the 1,000 page plus 'big beautiful tax bill' that the Republican Congress passed?  Is it likely than any US legislator will read the damned thing? Once upon a time - whenever a major piece of US tax legislation was past, I read - and I read thoroughly!  Let me tell you, without having seen it, that this one is no different than any other large piece of US tax legislation ever introduced and passed - there are 'freebees' in abu...

 It is Saturday......I walked my ass off during the past three days:  15,000 steps a day!   And I am tired!!! Staying in luxury is both expensive and limiting:  there are no alternatives nearby the hotel for breakfast.  12 years ago, the restaurants that opened at 8am - if they are still there, now open at 10am.   The nearest Family Mart is close to a half-mile away.   And this is a tea culture - no coffee machine here in my room.....dammit! On Monday, for the third time I will go to the Ginza Muji Flagship store, a venue without English language assistance where I have already spent over 3 hours in search of items that they simply do not sell here in Japan - what Katherine wanted were items for export only........and Muji's VAT system is awful.  Such is life. Today - if it does not rain - we'll go bike riding in Kanagawa.  The riding culture here is quite different from that which I have experienced in Santa Monica:  bike...

 29 degrees outside yesterday - too hot.......and the humidity is always there to remind you how uncomfortable it can get here........the lack of humidity in Santa Monica is something we took for granted...... 23 degrees will be the high for today....21 and rain tomorrow.....dammit! Regardless, it is now 6:24am.  I got up with the light of dawn, shortly after 5am when it was daylight here.  Last night the three of us had Cantonese food with Shanghai spices.  It was a nice evening!  I got back to the hotel and took a bath.  Joanna and Ziwei took an evening walk.  Joanna came back after- I was already fast asleep. Today I hope to get to Ochanomizu and do some 'deja vu' walking through the areas I once strolled in Tokyo.  I will try to get to the Hall of Fame Cafe for lunch.   Tonight......a jazz club??? Two days behind, I just watched PBS Evening News.  The House Republicans just passed Trump Tax 2025...........America was once an ide...

 United Airlines is lousy! The food was bad.....they did not provide the proper forms I needed to get through customs.....they were simply sloppy - far too sloppy for the price I paid.   I will not fly United again. Joanna met me at the airport on Tuesday afternoon.  We drove to Tokyo, checked in at the Imperial.....and walked to Jins where I ordered (finally - I needed new glasses!) glasses (substantial savings compared to US) that I will pick up on the afternoon of the 27th.  Ziwei met us at 7pm and the three of us went for Japanese dinner.  I made it staying up til 8:30pm, took a bath and went to bed......up at 3:30am.....it was light out at 6am! I went out at 6:30am and walked.....nothing open.....I got back to the hotel and had a pancake breakfast (expensive) at 7:15am.  I got the computer wifi working at 8:15am and now, at 8:54am, I will read for a half hour and then take the JR Line to Yodabashi Camera-Akihabara.  This afternoon, I will go ...

 Irv and date picked me up at 2:45 and we made it to the Improv at 3:30pm.  There are two rooms there - we had the smaller one and by show time, it was packed.  Paul Theil flew in a day early from NYC and Paul, Cindy, Mike and two of Cindy's sisters came to the show. There were 12 of us in the Wednesday evening workshop.  7 of us performed.  2 more, former workshop students, filled the roster for performers - these two had stand-up experience.  One of them opened the show.  One of them closed the show.  I was next to last to perform - I was prepared.  I memorized my script.  5 of the others still had to read their scripts from stage. I had 15 planned laughable moments that I wrote in my script.  I had 'counters' - I hit 8 of them.   All fellow comics, upon leaving stage, give the accolades.......did I deserve any?    Well........there was a comedy booking agent talent scout in attendance.........she wanted to spe...

 Here it is, a bit after 11am on an overcast, miserable day in Santa Monica.  I got out at 7:30am this morning for the last ride prior to flying to Tokyo on Monday.  My helmet, gloves and pants clips are packed and I am looking forward to some slow, casual, weekend bike riding in Japan with Joanna and Ziwei next weekend. We got the final order of appearance list for tonight's show and I am 9th to perform out of 10.  At first I was 'annoyed' as I wanted to go on early and get it over with......then I realized that Jonathan Leigh Solomon, the workshop coordinator and professional comic, placed an experienced perfomer, not from our class, as #10......and likely thinks that I will give the most polished performance from our class. Of course I am prepared and expect to give a great performance!!!!!  But the unanswered question is will I generate laughs???  I think I can write funny.  I believe I can pause properly and generate laughs from my unexpected comm...

 After a few days of truly enjoyable afternoon weather, we are (sadly) back to temperature and wind that feels like the high 60s in Santa Monica......but then, it is still too damned cold in the mornings - again. I did morning chores and breakfast at home prior to going out for a morning bike ride today.  While it was overcast, I did get out when it was 16 degrees (62 F) and while it was crummy outside, it was, at least, a bit warmer.  And after getting home?  I took a bus ride to the dry cleaners......such is the life of a retiree!   This afternoon was picture taking time - I will draw from one of the pictures tomorrow morning.....and then color it in prior to Irv picking me up for our trip to the Improv........... Not much to write about today - better to have something than nothing at all......

 I've been reading - with emotion - my Improv script between 2 - 4 times a day, every day, for the past 2 weeks +.  Yet it is my afternoon walks where the frequency of my reading repetitions tests the recall I will need for Saturday's performance.  I walk a long walk - as do many others I seem to be passing more and more.  They talk aloud.  I talk silently, trying to recall my repetitions.  So far....so good.....yesterday, right after, I looked at the script and I only missed one tag.......I'll get it all right by show time........and if not, I'll just have to fake it while on stage......... What will I be thinking during my afternoon walks after Saturday's show? I do know that Leica has upgraded its Leica Lux app that I have on my iPhone.....and that my Leica CL batteries are fully charged and the camera is ready to take with me on a photo shoot at any time.   I also have both a pen/pencil sketch pad and a watercolor paint sketch pad......3 ...

 Small shit that has to be done:  cash US$ for Yen;  Get international roaming from Spectrum;  add $$ to Schwab account and teach Katherine how to use it;  Dress rehearsal time!!!!!   .....and at the end of tasks, start some pen and ink drawings that can be watercolor painted over.....! I started today with a walk to Trader Joe's for milk.  I will get out to do my tasks in about a half hour......but before that........R*E*H*E*A*R*S*E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will take a watercolor pad with me on the trip - pen and ink drawings that I will hopefully do some paint overs in the afternoons.........will the pages remain in the pad or will I take pages and tape them to a small easel that fits in my backpack.......I think I favor the latter.......

 Yesterday, for the first time, I sketched directly with pen.....no hesitation lines - and it felt good...! Today, prior to Freddie's class (but after John Achorn's performance), I 'culled' my pencil holder of all but a 5 micron, a 10 micron and a 10 sharpie.  I will draw every morning - practice (at least, in my case) will never bring perfection but should show improvement in my work which, I expect, will increase my happiness with what I am doing.  I LOVE THIS!!!!! Freddie's class today is pure entertainment because the drawing of a boat requires more practice than I've done......eventually a boat will be drawn - but as part of urban sketching - Yokohama Bay????? Regardless, Freddie's flock of female followers and his appeal as a Fred Rogers-type for these ladies is pure, unadulterated entertainment!  Will I get to painting today, prior to my hour of class before lunch?  Good question.....we'll see.......

All in Line, Saul Steinberg's post WWII book that was re-issued last year is the first art book I have purchased - I love the whimsical 'atmosphere' of Steinberg's sketches which are so intricately and carefully thought out that one simply does not realize the thought going into generating something like this. Today at drawing class I decided what I want to do pen sketches/urban sketches and urban photography..... but later follow-up with watercolors to enhance the sketching.......... I was at the SMC Emeritus office today, along with other summer enrollees who discovered that what they had wanted was not what they had gotten:  I wanted photography but got chorus instead.  I got it fixed this morning. 13 years ago I walked around the Imperial Palace three times with Jon Gat.  Do I think I can, 13 years older, do a complete circumnavigation?   Who knows........but I will have on a backpack with sketch book, pens, camera....... In 2019, in NYC, my early morning wa...

 What a joy to be in a seaside beach city on a day like yesterday.........in a word:  wonderful!  But today we'll have a high of 25 and we'll be back down to what the previous week's weather was like if the advance forecasts are to be met......such is life.......when we moved here I purchased and set up a mini-Weber kettle bar b que.....and have yet to use it because it's been so fucking cold - perhaps not for others but for me, too damned cold to have the patience necessary to do things the right way. One more book to go:  I have about 100 pages left of Heartwood by Amity Gage.  I'm reading this on my Kindle - now that I can get Kobo on my Fire, I will use both the Kindle and Kobo apps on both my computer (Surface) and the Fire......and I'll let Joanna get my phone and Fire linked to work outside while in Japan..........and await TianTian's working with me on the MacBookPro the next time he's here in LA....... So what's after completion of Heartwood...

 After two days of morning bike rides, I slept in 'til 8am and over-dressed for a walk, first to Trader Joe's for eggs anad then to CVS for my blood pressure medicine.  By 8:30am it was 20 degrees outside......and now, at 10am, it is 26 (82F).  Today I'm going to take off my thermal undershirt and just go with my T shirt - it should be hot enough outside today....... Carlos was here today for monthly gardening.  He'll be here again on 7 June, after I've returned from my trip to Japan.  Only a week left prior to my trip.........and a week of rehearsals for next Saturday.......... Ah well - time to do today's tasks at hand and then go out and take advantage of a beautiful day by the beach

The temperature should have been hotter than it was when I got up at 7am.  Yesterday's 'prediction' showed 15 or 16 degrees (C) at 7:30......only it was 11!  The beach was in fog - weather for biking sucked.......such is life.....still, I got an hour of riding in - I love that!!!!! And then I finally got to meet my new primary care physician at UCLA Health - Jeffrey Fujimoto.  We went through the 'normal', first meeting stuff and then he asked if I wanted to do blood testing today.  I had always assumed that were I to have breakfast (which I did before the meeting), then no blood to be taken.  Fujimoto said it really made no difference......so in came the techie who scared out my veins sufficient to draw 8 vials of blood.  Then there was the scheduling and updating of specialists, et al....... All in all, I am happy to finally be getting up to date at UCLA........had they not gotten their act together, frankly, I would leave for St Johns......... It is no1 ...

 Is it just another mirage giving us false hope that there'll be a summer-like weather for a while?  Yesterday was great - After TianTian came in from the north, we went to Din Tai Feng in Santa Monica (with $15 parking - no one listened when I suggested we take the bus) and the whole afternoon was simply wonderful, with temperature high enough and winds low enough for me to shed the jacket and just wear the sweater outside.....it was nice! The weather continued - I was up at 7:30am today with the temperature already at 14 degrees (C) and a cloudless, bright, sunny sky above.....time to go biking along the beach even though it was not yet Friday - hey, if tomorrow turns out to be lousy, at least I'll have gotten in a great morning as the paths were finally cleared of sand dunes and it was still too early for many to be out....today was a perfect day to spend an hour of slow, casual cycling by the beach. .......and if it is like this tomorrow, then I sure as hell will be out ea...

No changes the past couple of days....this is what I will work with......... Improv script as of 6 May 2025     ‘PANTOMIME, MULTI-SHIRTED, I PLACE EASEL ON PODIUM, ADD BIG PICTURE, TAKE OFF YELLOW HANSHIN TIGER HAPI COAT, ORANGE SHANGHAI TANG LOUD SHIRT, BLUE GRATEFUL DEAD BIKE SHIRT.  I STILL HAVE ON A RED ‘ME’ T SHIRT……I BOW…..AND SAY:   ‘THIS IS A HELL OF A WAY FOR AN OCTOGENARIAN WRITER TO HAWK A FUCKING BOOK!’   My scripted performance follows…..   Once upon a time I had the penultimate Los Angeles mid-life crisis – can you top this? : I left the states in 1990, returned in 2023 and in-between spent only 7 weeks in the U.S. – 7 weeks in 33 years.   I left with the American dream – a Santa Monica-style family with two cars in every garage ……………and two cars with on street permit parking.   I came back to discover that there were no longer gas stations on every corner – you now had to belong to UCLAHealth…or St Johns….o...

This is from Bloomberg, 5 May 2025:   The Internal Revenue Service  lost  31% of its auditors  from buyouts and firings by the Trump administration, departures that are likely to hamper the agency’s ability to go after tax cheats. More than 3,600 revenue agents—who are responsible for collecting tax payments—have left the IRS, according to an agency watchdog report. In addition, 18% of revenue officers who oversee challenging tax cases and 10% of tax examiners, the front-line employees who review returns, have also left the agency, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a recent report. Once the system is wrecked, can it be put back together again? The IRS system collected revenues and disbursed them.......was it efficient?  Hey, it worked and while there was undoubtedly inefficiency, there was nothing set up to replace it were it to be dismantled.........and it definitely is being dismantled. What about both ...

 Ideally, I can go bike riding every Friday, Saturday and Sunday only the weather this past week sucked.  Thus, after staying in bed late on Sunday, I finally got out for a morning's exercise after two weeks.......I LOVE IT!!!  Alas, Mystic Journey Bookstore is no longer......they likely had their lease through the end of April because the place was vacant as I biked past on Sunday morning.   There are three bookstores left in Santa Monica.  Since discretion for me means not saying what I think about these facilities because I might -some day-be carried by one or more of these stores, I won't say a thing.........but this just might be a good example of ESP - go ahead - read my mind - what do you think I am thinking????? Regardless, over the next week+, I will rehearse, rehearse, rehearse my script for the 17 May Improv gig:  There'll be no podium - no script for a long speech.  Just me and a memorized script, hoping that I've got the timing right ...

 .....and yet,at 9am, it was time to get up and go out on a ride; something I haven't done in a couple of weeks because of both health and the weather. It was 15 degrees (C) at the beach.  While there was little wind, the clouds were ominous.  Still, it felt good to get out.  I recognize that soon in my life I will no longer be able to bike ride like this, two or three days a week.  Thus, I will treasure these times. We did a late lunch at Marugame Udon in Sawtelle yesterday - then went to both the Daiso Market (where I got 4 additional tubes/colors of watercolor paint) and Jinica(?) Market for take away......absolutely great spaghetti and meat sauce and dessert, the latter of which we had some outside of the store before going to the bus stop to go home. It is 16 degrees now....clouds are expected through 2pm when there will be some sun.  Temperature should be up to 18 this afternoon........and I will be indoors, painting!

 13 days a year - Fridays for the symphony/Sundays for opera.  I'm on my own....solo......and I like it!!! I left home after breakfast, around 8:40am.  I got off the E Line at 7th Street and went across the street to the Starbucks I normally go to for a cup of coffee prior to a concert.  Boarding the train again does not cost anything because I returned to the Metro within 90 minutes. After the concert, I also took the E Line one stop to 7th Street but got off at Figueroa and went to 5 Guys for a hamburger......next time I will take away 5 Guys burgers for both of us. Regardless, I got home and with the sun shining and little wind, I took another long walk, 'rehearsing' my stand-up gig material as I walked.......and forgot to write yesterday.........but here I am, this morning!!!

 Something was wrong - we should have had $$$ in our Schwab brokerage account only we couldn't find it in their online paperwork.  Thus, this morning I went first to Schwab, to find out there was a communications matter that should have been sent to me a few days back - only it never came.......regardless, matters taken care of at brokerage. Then to the bank where caution was in vogue as the bank declined a credit card payment for hotel reservations in Tokyo at the end of May rather than approve something that should not have been.......they even tried to call me.  Alas, I never answer the phone.......regardless, both the card situation and the brokerage money transfer went through (I think) after my meeting at the bank after my meeting at the brokerage.......and since I got back on the Big Blue Bus within the 'grace period', I only paid a senior citizens discount fare for one way.... And then we went for our respective interviews with the head of the volunteer program at...