Yosemite's the funnest Place in the World

This is me and my friend Laura. She keeps us all in check, and makes sure that we're taking care of ourselves. I'm glad that she keeps trying, cuz some people I just can't deal with.

Notice how sweet Laura is. Notice how my face is twice the size of hers... I think we call that Moon face in Japanese... it's not a good thing.

This is one standard picture, of standard tourists.

On one of the hike, Amanda and I got separated from Laura and Stefan. Amanda and I went to the Centennial Dome, which was spectacular, and Amanda found a cool tree. We took pictures of us there, and really, it would have been cooler if we were able to do some more funky things. I like how the photos are really spontaneous, but at the same time, a bit more makeup and glitter is always fun.

This is really cute. Amanda's head sticking out from underneath the tree.

I think I remember seeing a couple of chubby girls playing by the Yuba River, and Amanda pointed them out. Pssst, 'Reiko look at them'... as in, wow, they're so much like us... I am forever chubby girl, well, as long as I'm a healthy chubby girl who's also sexy, I think it's ok by me.

Action shot.

Amanda's so pretty.

This is looking West to the Bay Area. I'm taking a photo ontop of a map inscribed onto a metal sheet.

This is looking East to Baltimore.

I started this fire via the top down method. Peter and Teressa and the rest of the crew came back from their hike. We had some yummy vegan chilli, and started to sing some songs around the camp fire. I was trying to get these guys to sing the Nitingale song. 'What about the protest song? The one with the birds?' After about the fourth time I mentioned it, I think Peter asked me to sing it... And I did. And I just stopped at the first verse. I sort of wanted other people to pick it up. If I was Tara, then I could have gotten everyone to sing with me. I remember when we were protesting at Washington DC a long time ago, she kept singing it when we were marching. Even after everyone stopped singing, she kept going, and people started to join her again. She's got so much spirit, she's amazing.

I had started to drink, a bottle of red, champagne, some grapefruit juice and vodka, but not beer. I wasn't the only one drinking, but I think, I was pretty much the only one that kept going. I pulled a Bernard that evening. Laura said that we all have Bernard moments, but he's the only one that can do it full time.
I just wanted to have fun, that's all.

Oh, and I think I'm less freaked out with Mr. Peter Petty Personality. I joked around with him, and he joked around with me, and I think it's all right.

Teressa and Stefan. They look like siblings, but they are aunty and nephew.

That's Peter Petty Personality. He's not camera shy, he actually looked into my camera when I was taking a picture. Yay! The haiy head belongs to Terresa. She said, 'I still feel like I'm 18.' I think I'm shooting for 23, but good for her for being able to do 18.

I climbed up this huge rock by our camp site in the morning. I curled up under this tree, and thought a bit. I was actually picking black snot out of my nose. And then there was a guy who had come from no where. He wanted to check to see if I was dead. I think he must have been one of our neighbor campers, maybe even the one with the night vision goggle. It's funny, I was thinking about this. And people go to remote places, not so that they could be alone, or so that they could meditate, or pick their nose in private, but so that they could be found. This is kind of cheesy, and half true. I actually, just wanted to feel free.

Freedom from what?

Craziness

I had gotten a sac of cookies from Walgreen yesterday on the way back home from an unsuccessful sex

Safe Room

Volatile.
Park-in day.
Man Salad.
Woman Salad.
Bad Judgements.
Revit.

I remember when I was a kid, I learned about different traditional regional crafts and craftsmen in Japan. There was this one particular gourd carver who I saw on either TV or some book. He used a chisel that was attached to a long wooden stick. His right shoulder supported the chisel and carved into the gourd. After having done that for a life time, his right shoulder had gotten considerably larger than the left, and had developed a huge callus. He hid his shoulder with his kimono, but his body looked odd, and off balance.

He is an image of a hero to me. There is something very beautiful about his malformed body. A life time of work had morphed his body, and his shoulder conformed to fit around the chisel.

From time to time, at the Oakland 24 hour fitness, a retired Oakland Raider's football player comes to work out. He's not a professional football player anymore, but you can still see his training on his body: His massive shoulders and thighs.

Sometimes, some of our bodies are more fit to do certain things than others. Some people come with stronger nails, and can play classical guitar without a pic. Some people have longer torsoe and arms, which make them better fit for swimming.

I am fascinated with the idea of body as tool. I like meeting people, and finding these peculiarities in their bodies. It's not glamorous, but is very honest. I want to find old people who have been pursuing a particular craft/interest/proffession, etc. An old doctor, an old pottery maker, an old basket weaver, an old soccer player, an old ceo, an old...

Academia

Here's a piece of writing that I had just recently dug up. It's time to rewrite the past.

Super-Girl
In third grade in Japan, my teacher, Mr. Yamaguchi had an orthodox but widely accepted mode of education. He had a strong personality, and his devotion to students was irrefutable. When a student failed to turn in homework, he would take the student into the bathroom and hit his or her behind with a meter stick. Since I absentmindedly forgot my homework most frequently, I could say that I had spent the most time with him in the bathroom. It wasn’t that corporal punishment was particularly hurtful or even shameful, but the act affirmed my identity as a remedial student. A few months before these incidences I lived in Houston, Texas, and I had excelled in my schoolwork. So much so that the teachers wrote ‘Super-girl’ on my report cards. It is amazing how a change in the environment can flip a person’s identity from a super hero to a challenged student.
When my family moved again 4 years later from Japan to a suburb in Maryland, I experienced another transformation. Although I lived in America for the first 8 years of my life I had lost my English tongue. In classes such as math and art, where English is less important, I showed definite merit. I went on to take Advanced Placement classes in high school, and received the highest grade in art and 4’s in calculus and chemistry. Subsequently my college years were filled with passionate art making.
I grappled with socio-political and personal issues through my art. Along with my colleagues I petitioned my University to sustain and strengthen my area of study. We formed our own performance and installation art collective, Optic Tongue. Through Optic Tongue we applied for and received grants with which we organized and created public art. Our impetus for art making was to communicate to a wide range of people about difficult issues such as racism, and sexism. Most of my work involved installation art, which altered the environment and encouraged the viewers to interact.
In one such artwork called ‘the Gift Project’, as part of Optic Tongue, we made four thousand 3” x 3” packages and distributed them all over the campus. The packages contained a personal artifact, a website address to an open forum, and two lines of quotes. The quotes were obtained from personal accounts of prejudice, of someone either being the victim of aggression or the perpetrator. The quotes were altered to erase all specific details of time and place. The subject of the passage was replaced by “I” and “you” to make the passages more immediate to the reader. An example would be: “I was forced to watch my children be taken and gassed while you laughed hysterically,” and “I burned your house because I don’t like your kind.” The packages were meant to generate a more open discussion around difficult topics such as racial violence by personalizing painful interactions to an I/you, or enemy/victim relationship.
One of my most significant enemies was Mr. Yamaguchi. One day, I confessed to him that I hated school, and I hated him with emotional ferocity that left him speechless. He must have been surprised. Next quarter, he resigned from the full-time teaching position, and taught only one class, Chinese Calligraphy. The notoriously mean teacher was turned into a Zen monk who never scolded a single student thereafter. In my mind I was the cause for this, and my heart felt like a fist that could defeat all the evil-doers. That fist and belief in myself as inherently ‘good’ helped me through obstacles.

weak

Monday
Tuesday Hin got knocked in the head, and we got mugged.
Wednesday Sasha, the writer who writes about octopus with 8 dicks. He is my albino neighbor who walks around with a bull whip. There's more to say about him and his cute friend. And a sweet date.
Thurseday Gun shots. Hi Kelley, havn't seen you in ages.
Friday Party, inebriation, social tension, and possible racial tension. Getting kicked out of my friend's bar, jeopardizing her job, while my other friend's completely insulted. Liberating my motorcycle... that's in progress.
Saturday Bye bye Hin, thanks for the plan. Yay Architecture tour.
Sunday Call me head docent, bitches. A possible setup with a billionaire? Thanks to you, John and Robert. like as if that's really going to happen. Bloody fucking Sunday.
Monday A meeting at the studio, gotta love them. Another date that didn't happen. Another one. sheesh. Hin says, believe in destiny (but that's not my style). The crash of the financial giant. My drunken neighbor who kept banging on my window at two am in the morning so that I would let him into the building. I told him, do it again, and I'm calling the cops. My apartment manager, mr/s. weirdo transvestite, got really annoyed by the drunk dude, and started sweeping the hallway and my welcome mat at 3 am in the morning. This is a fucking nut house. The grocery lady noticed an uncanny resemblance between me and Sarah Palin.... and my neighbor called me a cop hore.
Tuesday An interview with new yorkas. Jobby search. Writing. Searching. Bored. Two pimples on my face from no where.
Wednesday More jobby search. Lets talk, Barbara Drucker, Efren Gutirez, Ed Kaplan aka job teasers. I hate teasers, I hunt them down.
Thurseday I just want to die~
Friday Laura Keyser. Hello! Application due. Phone interview with the unemployment people.
Saturday San Jose, Green tour.
Sunday Bloody fucking Sunday
Monday
Wow, my life is.... I guess what it is. Not really proud of it, you know what I mean? But at the same time, it's entertaining. In some ways, it's kind of fun that so many people that I know are unemployed... it's like summer break.

Crazy Full Moon

Monday

Tuesday Hin got knocked in the head, and we got mugged.

Wednesday Sasha, the writer who writes about octopus with 8 dicks. He is my albino neighbor who walks around with a bull whip. There's more to say about him and his cute friend. And a sweet date.

Thurseday Gun shots. Hi Kelley, havn't seen you in ages.

Friday Party, inebriation, social tension, and possible racial tension. Getting kicked out of my friend's bar, jeopardizing her job, while my other friend's completely insulted. Liberating my motorcycle... that's in progress.

Saturday Bye bye Hin, thanks for the plan. Yay Architecture tour.

Sunday Call me head docent, bitches. A possible setup with a billionaire? Thanks to you, John and Robert. Where do you go on a date with a billionaire? The parking lot? Bloody fucking Sunday.

Monday A meeting at the studio, gotta love them. Another date that didn't happen. Another one. sheesh. Hin says, believe in destiny (but that's not my style). The crash of the financial giant. My drunken neighbor who kept banging on my window at two am in the morning so that I would let him into the building. I told him, do it again, and I'm calling the cops. My apartment manager, mr/s. weirdo transvestite, got really annoyed by the drunk dude, and started sweeping the hallway and my welcome mat at 3 am in the morning. This is a fucking nut house. The grocery lady noticed an uncanny resemblance between me and Sarah Palin.... and my neighbor called me a cop hore.

Tuesday An interview with new yorkas. Jobby search. Writing. Searching. Bored. Two pimples on my face from no where.

Wednesday More jobby search. Lets talk, Barbara Drucker, Efren Gutirez, Ed Kaplan aka job teasers. I hate teasers, I hunt them down.

Thurseday I just want to die~

Friday Laura Keyser. Hello! Application due. Phone interview with the unemployment people.

Saturday San Jose, Green tour.

Sunday Bloody fucking Sunday

Monday

Wow, my life is.... I guess what it is. Not really proud of it, you know what I mean? But at the same time, it's entertaining. In some ways, it's kind of fun that so many people that I know are unemployed... it's like summer break.

Self and self and self

It's me again. Thanks.

Some empowering comments of late.
I hanged out with Ruchama and her sister a couple of days ago. She was telling me how she had heard stories about me (eeeeeeeeek), and how cool she thinks I am. Wow. She said that she wanted to be like me. Double whammy. Misguided poor youth!

I remember a few years ago, I told Hin the exact same thing. I told him, when we were eating at the Asian Ghetto, that I wanted to be just like him. I had a big huge smile on my face, and was completely sincere when I said that. He's just so different from me, complete opposite. Really. I had grown up in America, in a middle class family in the suburbs. I had been loved by both of my parents. Hin is coming from a working class family in dense urban Hong Kong. He was really inspiring. He left America just yesterday. In parting he said that I had changed something in him. Cool. I hope it was his hygenic habits. :p

Sharl definately changed somethings for me. We were talking about what it's like to be single, and this 'dating' thing. Yuck. I'm sort of inhibited, I suppose. I'm curious, and I want to enjoy life. I want to make more friends and be less of a loner all the time. Sharl said, 'Do what you want. It's your life.' .........

so unemployment... unemployment...

Here's a link to my artworkworkworkwork http://reikomatsuo.blogspot.com/ (I'm working on the cows now... bit by bit, they're becoming abstract. Headless cows, three legged cows, scratched obscured cows, and the likes.)