Last week on Friday, I spent the evening with Anthony Bourdain. I was watching an episode of No Reservations, when an obnoxiously loud commercial came on saying that I can catch Anthony Bourdain in Rochester. I immediately looked it up and it was true! The show was going to be at the Auditorium Theater. The description simply said “an evening with Anthony Bourdain”. I was sold! Both Joel and my brother were a little skeptical. “What exactly is he going to do?” they both asked. My answer was “I have no idea. It just says an evening with Anthony Bourdain. But does it really matter?? It’s Anthony Bourdain!” Kristin and her friend Jon decided to join us. The evening was set – dinner at Kristin’s, followed by the show, and then drinks and dessert at Good Luck.

The show was great! He discussed his travels as well as his favorite foods and places that he visited. It was as if I was watching No Reservations, but he was standing only a few rows in front of me. Crazy!! I really love his humor. I was happy when he mentioned that when traveling, one should really try and eat local foods. Forget about Hard Rock Café or some other American chain! Find a small, local restaurant that has been there for years and eat there. That is how you should experience a new city, new country, or new region. Towards the end of the show, he turned the microphone to the audience for a question and answer session. The audience asked some interesting questions, some better than others. One person asked his thoughts on the fact that it was a Friday night and that the theater was filled with folks who worked in restaurants. He laughed, and when he asked how many people worked in a restaurant, about 1/2 of the audience raised their hands. The last question came from a woman (who apparently cut in front of Kristin, which was not very nice!). I can’t recall the exact question, but it was either what was the most memorable food or favorite food that he ever had. His answer was booze. Typical!! If you watch No Reservations, you would agree. I really wanted to say a few things but did not get the guts to go up to the microphone to do it. “What were you going to say?” you ask. What I wanted to say was this:

“Hi Tony! My name is Veronica. I am ecstatic that you are here. I really love your show! I want to say two things. First, my brother is a chef in NYC. A few years ago he worked at Babbo, and he mentioned that you and Bill Buford stopped by the restaurant and you were noticeably wasted. Secondly, I am originally from Romania. I was so excited when I found out that you were going to have a show on Romania. However, after watching it, I was not so excited anymore. That was the worst show you’ve ever done! What is up with Zamir?? I think that you need to go back and do another show there. I will be more than happy to be your tour guide.”

Perhaps the planets will align and he will somehow stumble upon my blog and read this post. Hmm… I can dream, can’t I??

I was very glad to go to Good Luck for drinks and dessert after the show. It was very fitting, after all. Good Luck was great!! The space is so cool – the brick walls, the antique lamps, and the table décor were great! Also, they have some very tasty drinks and desserts! YUM!! We ordered the chocolate cake and the goat cheese cheesecake. They were just delicious!! I really loved the goat cheese cheesecake. Who would have thought to make cheesecake out of goat cheese? It really worked! I can’t wait to go back to try the rest of the drinks and desserts. I also noticed that they have homemade gnocchi. Hmmm…

Alright, here is the second part of the blog about signs. This will finish them up for this time at least until I find more that I can share with everyone. Have fun!

Please comment I would love the feedback

If it is not in use, then why is it there?

if there is a sign, is there not already a problem?

invisible what? People?

hahaha wow

where are we not supposed to swim?

where am I supposed to park my flying car?

what to say about this one...?

100...mph?

to..ease congestion?

keep left...when there is a huge hole there?

have fun with this one

hahaha wow

evil construction workers..

even though this is not a sign, it is still amazing

how do I get in?

better hope it is not to serious

I am glad they made it plain

watch out for those dangerous gravestones

All customer complaints should be taken care of this way

I hope they have a cell phone

Thanks to whoever made this bilboard

poor cockroaches...:(

what is this gate guarding?!

does this guy still have his job?

bummer, I wanted to cross when cars were moving

does the local trafic have flying cars?

only in America

but...I don't speak dog!

but I already gave my arm and leg last time I got gas!

can buggies go 55?

fine failure

The Daily Star reports that  ‘equal opportunities employer’ / singer Taio Cruz, has revealed that he was asked to write a number of songs that were going to be offered to Chris Brown.

Cruz revealed that his management decided not to give the tracks away because it could damage his attempts to break the US.

Really Taio??? Your management thinks that could damage your attempts to break the US???

Not THIS???

Ha ha ha!

Good luck with breaking the US Taio. You’re going to need it!

Thanksgiving. The perfect excuse to return to our families and rest our worn bodies on familiar territory.  I returned home last night to do just that. The familiar smells of the home I grew up in still fill the air and my now old and lazy dog greets me. I am home.

I woke up this morning and found some excuse to go drive around the old town that I grew up in.  It seems that, in a bizarre fashion, nothing has changed yet everything is different.

As I dive into town I see the public pool, closed for the season, I remember going there as a child. Remembering the excitments of the diving board and escaping the heat, I smile with fond memories. Next to the pool is the park, with the wooden playground, and grassy field that seems to stretch out for miles only to be crowded on the 4th of July. I drive past the familar landmarks that seem untouched by time, the post office…bank…library…the taqueria. These fond places of my childhood, now covered in the orange leaves of fall, bring a lump to my throat and a smile to my lips.

But as I round yet another corner of my small town I see the landmarks that HAVE been touched by harsh times. The cold hands of the economy seemed to stretch over many of my old hangouts. The Rainbow Market, once an icon of my town, now lay vacant with windows bored up and parking lot empty. The local burger joint that my friends and I would race to after school now replaced with a trendy Mr. Pickels, and the old mill demolished for more parking spaces.

And as I drive around, taking in the town that I used to call “home”, I see familiar faces. Faces of friends and acquantences walk around this old town of mine. Never ammounting to anything that the history books would record as, “enough”, yet finding more personal peace then most of us will in our entire lifetime.  They walk around, from street light to street light, in the same groups as I remember  from my high school luches, the only thing missing is me. I smile with fond memories of these old friends.

In conclusion this town of mine as change dramatically, yet it seems frozen in time.  It’s refreshing, yet grounding to see this. Yes, I am home, but no, my home is not the same.  Many of you will find yourselves going back to your own places of orgin over the holiday season, only to continually find what I have found.  But let our generation overcome this. Let us work hard and shift these tides. Good luck, my friends.

Metro tickets in my pocket

I finally drop my weary body onto the bed. It’s nearly 9 at night, and my son pops into my room and wants to go out. It’s Thanksgiving break. He’s 16. Of course he wants to go out. To a nearby pizza joint, about two miles away. Friends are waiting, and he has that open, earnest look on his face that is – well – irresistible. It had been a long day of baking. I was right where I wanted to be. But he wasn’t where he wanted to be.

“Can I drive? Please?”

You’ve never driven at night before, I say.

The fist in my stomach materializes in seconds. Remarkable. If I could package “Fear in a Flash” and sell it, I’d be rich. But who would want it?

“I need to learn to drive at night, Mom.”

I’m so tired, but he’s right, dammit. Each of these steps with him, in the car, has been much more difficult than with his brother. For me. I didn’t think giving him driving lessons would be so wrenching. He’s done well, but the problem is the accident almost three years ago, when my older son was driving and I was in the passenger seat. Only two blocks from home. Flashbacks, still.

My right arm stiffens. I’m suddenly aware of pain.

You’re right.

He goes for the car keys on the kitchen table as I get out of bed, throw on my jeans, and feel in the pocket for a few bucks to give him. Metro tickets. Metro tickets from Paris, in my back pocket.

Paris is only a subway ride away

Did you know that you can get to Paris on the subway?

Let’s be clear – I can walk a half mile, take the subway, get out at the airport, board a plane, wake up in France, take another train, then subway, eh voilà – PARIS. See? Easy. All you need is a subway card, and metro tickets. The rest – well – those are just details.

I keep metro tickets in the back left pocket of my jeans. All my jeans. When I do wash, I’m very careful to remove them, and put them back when the jeans come out of the dryer. After all, Paris is only a subway ride away.

Black cat

We get in the car and I begin to talk about driving at night. How it’s different from driving by day. I don’t know where the words come from, but they do. I don’t know how I can articulate these distinctions until we are right there. In. The. Moment.

He listens attentively. It’s one of the reasons I love him, profoundly. There is no guile. No arrogance. He genuinely doesn’t think he knows it all.

He adjusts mirrors, we back out onto the dark street, and drive. He’s going slowly, as I asked him to. Suddenly, a black blur shoots in front of us and he brakes. It’s disappeared already. A black cat. I fix my eyes on my son; he has blanched, but he resumes driving.

“Wow,” he says.

Do you see how quickly something can happen? And it’s so much harder to react at night.

He nods. We continue without incident, and he parks behind the pizza place as he gets out of the car and I slide over to take the wheel. You did well, I say.

“That’s bad luck, you know. The cat.”

The thought had crossed my mind. Of course. But I will shape his impressions – and my own – into something positive. If I can.

No, I say. I’ll call it good luck. You didn’t hit him, and everyone’s fine. So I’m going with the theory that a black cat scooting across the road in front of us, who lives, promises good luck for 2010.

He shakes his head like I’m crazy, tells me he’ll get a ride home and won’t be late. I watch him walk into the restaurant. He moves like his dad. Gracefully.

Mashed potatoes

You can help me cook, I say.

“I was planning on it,” he answers.

It’s late now, but he’s home. Content. Something in him has changed this week, and I can’t put my finger on it. We argued last weekend, which is rare. I told him some things I shouldn’t have. Or should have. I’m still not sure.

Perhaps I told him things he needs to know, but not in the best way: our financial realities, his dad’s part in that. He was angry with me over a situation I did not create and cannot control. He had a right to be angry, and I was the recipient of his anger. I am the parent who is present, and who will love him unconditionally. His emotions are safe with me, but no less painful for either of us.

There were calmer words a few hours later. And then, the balloons on Monday. Something has changed, and I can’t put my finger on it.

“Mashed potatoes?” he asks.

Yes, I say.

“Did you get sweet potatoes, too? I love your sweet potatoes.”

Yes. And for a green vegetable – peas or spinach?”

“Peas. And stuffing, too?”

Yes.

This scrawny kid can eat, and eat, and eat. And loves to eat well.

“I’ll do all the mashing,” he says.

The future is in each moment

My arm throbs when I must lift, mix, mash, cut for any amount of time. Last year, I had to ask for help. This year, he offers. And a black cat taught a lesson in a way that my words could not. A lucky black cat demonstrated that lives can change in an instant.

I am grateful for the black cat. I am grateful for my son’s growing awareness of the world around him, for anticipating as well as reacting. We will cook together later this morning, and eat together this afternoon. Most likely, there will be a gathering of teenagers here tonight, and their laughter will fill the house.

I will call my first-born later, and we’ll talk for a bit. He is missed.

My job isn’t done yet, but both my sons will soon be men. Good men. And I have metro tickets in my back pocket. Because Paris is only a subway ride away.


© D A Wolf

Big Little Wolf’s Daily Plate of Crazy

Whether you are hoping to find a better job, looking for advancement and a raise, simply needing more money just to make ends meet or trying to live off a fixed income, prosperity and income growth begin at home. It doesn’t matter whether you have an office, workstation, cubicle or a corner of the spare bedroom, prosperity and wealth or increasing your income starts exactly where you start your day, your home.

            According to Feng Shui principles, you receive what you focus your internal and external energy on. If you are focusing on “there’s never enough money,” then you are focusing on “not having enough money” and that is exactly what you receive.  Instead, create positive thoughts and energy to attract more income or a better job. Look around you, what you have mentally and physically energized in the past is what you have today. What you focus on today is what you will have in the future.

Create a Prosperity List

            Your words and thoughts are what create or manifest your intentions. Every positive thought, wish or whim has the potential to move your forward toward prosperity; or if the thoughts are negative, keep you exactly where you are today or perhaps worse off. First, you need to put an end to the negative thinking by telling yourself “No.” Anytime a negative thought pops into your head, just say “no more negative thinking,” and send the thought away or “delete it” or “clear it” from your thought process. Do whatever it takes to get rid of negative thinking to make room for prosperity thinking.

Then make a list of all the positive thoughts you can use to create more prosperity. If you are hoping for a raise your thought might be “my new raise really helps.” If you live on a fixed income your thought could be “my new financial advisor is helping me grown my funds.” If you are hoping to find a new job your thought might be “I love the challenges and responsibility of my new job.” Or, “my new job is providing me much needed extra income plus I’m learning new things”. What you should not hold onto is the specific job. Perhaps the job you thought you really wanted for years is not the right job for your specific talents and will not serve you well. Therefore, the new job you just got will meet your needs better plus you will learn the lessons you need to know for your life journey.

Create a number of variations of your prosperity thoughts so you can use them as positive reinforcement whenever self-sabotaging negative thoughts try to sneak in. Write them on slips of paper and put them everywhere if necessary to help your shift your thinking process.

Energize the Prosperity Areas of Your Home

            Once you have shifted to positive prosperity thinking, it’s time to shift the physical energy in your house to bring it into alignment with your intentions. Be sure to unclutter first the following four areas of your home.

1. Career Area: energize the north area of your living/family room with the water element. You can use a water fountain, a picture of a gently flowing stream or a fish tank filled with 7 gold and one black fish. If the black fish dies or any of the fish do not look healthy, replace them immediately.
2. Income/Wealth Area: energize the southeast area of your living/family room with something wooden, green or a healthy upward reaching plant or small tree. Each symbolizes the wood element which represents new growth, the beginning of new things and income, wealth and prosperity. This would also be a good area to put a wooden money pot with 7 coins (the new US gold $1.00 coins work great) to further energize your prosperity
3. Relationships Area: energize the southwest area of your living/family room with the earth element using such things as terra cotta pots or a vase filled with multiple colors shapes and sizes of silk flowers, each representing a potential relationship that will help you with your prosperity intentions. You can also use a collection of your favorite things to energize your many old and new relationships. Relationships are key to helping you create additional or new income and keep it.
4. Helpful People Area: energize the northwest area of your living/family room with the metal element using silver. You can use a picture of someone like Lance Armstrong and his Tour de France team framed in silver. Or, a silver trophy you’ve received for excellence or a picture of a parent that was particularly helpful. It’s teamwork and people that will help you create and find the prosperity you seek.

You can also energize your office, workstation, cubicle or desk using the same energy guidelines.

Financial prosperity is all about your intentions and creating the positive energy necessary to manifest the prosperity you desire. Remember, get rid of the negative thinking and replace it with the items on your prosperity thoughts list. Then unclutter the Feng Shui areas most relevant to prosperity and energize them to support your intention of improved prosperity.

For more great Feng Shui ideas on how to improve your life check out Feng Shui, So Easy a Child Can Do It at www.patheydlauff.com . This book is an easy read and makes a great Christmas present.

selamat berjaya kepada semua pelajar yang sedang menghadapi SPM 2009..

Edge of Desire - John Mayer
Album: Battle Studies

OK guys this is my version of how i think John plays it.
I think its pretty close, if anyone has any suggestions, please leave a comment.
Im not entirely sure about the very last part of the Intro/Verse, but i think its virtually there.
This is an amazing song,listen the song to get the timing of the picking right,
its pretty straight forward! Good Luck!

Intro/Verse

	Amaj7
e |------------------------|
B |--------0---------2-0---|
G |----1-----1-----1-----1-|
D |--2---2-------2---------|
A |0-----------0-----------|
E |------------------------|x2

	Dmaj7
e |--------0---------2-0---|
B |----2-----2-----2-----2-|
G |--2---2-------2---------|
D |0-----------0-----------|
A |------------------------|
E |------------------------|x2

	Bm7
e |------------------------|
B |--------3---------2-3---|
G |----2-----2-----2-----2-|
D |--4---4-------4---------|
A |2-----------2-----------|
E |------------------------|

	E
e |----5---4---------------|
B |------------3--3-2------|
G |-------------------4-2--|
D |------------------------|
A |--2---------------------|
E |0-----0---0-------------|

	Amaj7
e |------------------------|
B |--------0---------2-0---|
G |----1-----1-----1-----1-|
D |--2---2-------2---------|
A |0-----------0-----------|
E |------------------------|x2

Whole thing repeats.

Chrous

There is a picking pattern in the Chorus but i havnt figured it out yet,
it's a bit hard to hear, its just these chords played interchangeably.
I just strum them, sounds ok to me:

"Dont say a word.."	"..with me"
	Dmaj7	then	A/Asus

	   0r		  and
e |------0----2---------0-----0-----|
B |------2----2---------2-----3-----|
G |------2----2---------2-----2-----|
D |------0----0---------2-----2-----|
A |---------------------0-----0-----|
E |---------------------------------|

Bridge thing after Second Chorus:

A F#m D A
A F#m D E
F#m D A A

This Riff is played throughout:

	Riff 1

e |------------------------|
B |2-3-5-3-2---2-3-5-3-2---|
G |----------2-----------2-|
D |------------------------|
A |------------------------|
E |------------------------|

Back to Chorus:

	Dmaj7	then	A/Asus

	   0r		  0r
e |------2----0---------0----0-----|
B |------2----2---------2----3-----|
G |------2----2---------2----2-----|
D |------0----0---------2----2-----|
A |---------------------0----0-----|
E |--------------------------------|

Riff 1 is played throughout this last chorus and through to the end of the song
along with this Riff also:

	Riff 2

e |4-5-4-0---0-4-5-4-0---0-|
B |--------0-----------0---|
G |------------------------|
D |------------------------|
A |------------------------|
E |------------------------|

Any feedback, leave a comment! Thanks.

We’re too tired to go through it all…Mr. President, your resume is showing….lucky us….

 Tying shoe laces when you have a Rotator Cuff Injury feels like wadded up tissue paper being pulled apart. My muscles felt dry and brittle. I didn’t want to walk around with my shoe laces flopping about me, didn’t want to risk falling down and I wondered what germs, gross things and types of puddles my laces would flop through. The first couple of months I left my shoes tied and just daily shoved my foot in, creating accumulative tear down of the ankle cushion. I wondered what would happen first, the disintegration of my shoe ankle or healing of my shoulder. I’m not a sandal or flip flip wearer. I have skinny feet, especially ankles and heels. Finding a shoe that fits usually takes a long time and now with my injury, trying on shoes couldn’t be done. But there was one day shoes found me. The right shoes.

After having a frustrating week of increasing pain, daily struggles, doctors appointments and trying to figure out the disability papers I decided I needed to go for a walk to clear my head and seek peace. I needed a new feeling in my soul. I decided to ride the bus to Jack London Square and walk around the water front. There’s some benches out there with nice views. Sitting out in the sun and cool breeze would feel nice. My bus map with all the city lines on it showed that the 51 goes there, I thought. In reality the bus turns left at 7^th street. When this happened I wondered if this is a detour, if we will return to Broadway and end at Jack London Square. Where does this bus go? I grab the 51 bus line map route I see on the bus. Without the mix of other bus lines that my map at home has, this bus route map clearly shows that the 51 does turn left and travels to Alameda.

That’s OK, Alameda has a street that leads to a beach walk and a yummy Mexican Food Restaurant that I adore. Park Ave. also has many fun shops; even though I can’t pick anything up, I could look around. That could be fun or frustrating, if I wanted to pick something up and it hurt. I would try to keep my mind frustration free.

The waterfront walk was nice. I enjoyed the different birds, the sun, the breeze and being out of my home– a constant reminder of things I can’t do. On my way back to the bus I passed a shoe store which reminded me of my need to find easier shoes to put on. In the window display, I saw some shoes I would like if both of my arms worked. I liked the colors and styles of many shoes. They were fun, different, comfortable looking also dressy enough to wear to a nice event. I was thinking I should continue walking and go home. I can’t try on shoes by myself. But something, I don’t know if it was my curiosity or avoidance of returning to daily struggles at home, I went in. Questioning myself for reasons of being there since I didn’t have the ability to try on shoes, I walked around the store slowly, lightly, uncertain as if I might just turn and leave on any whim. I saw more well crafted shoes, and pleasing colors, then I saw “It”. A shoe with no laces, just a draw string. The shoes were black, gray with powder blue stitching, a cute style, something I’d even wear if I wasn’t injured. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to put it on myself. I stood there looking at it, taking it in, wanting to try it on, and afraid I couldn’t do it myself. I had already had the last several days of struggle and defeat in every thing I had to do. Today was suppose to be different. Today I needed to experience a new energy for my soul, no roadblocks. I needed to give my frustration load a break. I kept standing there looking at the shoe and twice workers asked if I needed help. They probably thought I was weird or spacing out on drugs or something, just standing there in front of a shoe, yet not trying it on. I decided I should explain my situation if I get asked again. Right then a 3^rd person asked, “Do you want to try on something?”

I decided to be brave and just say it. “Yes, this one, but….uh..i,…may need help…putting it on…and taking it… off.” I quickly looked down and felt the warmth of embarrassment in my face. “I have a rotator cuff injury.”

I’m 39 and I need help putting on my shoes. I mentally chastise myself.

“Sure, I can help you if you need , but this shoe was designed by someone who has had a rotator cuff injury. Healing from surgery he designed this since it’s easier to put on.”

Wow, what a cosmic score!!! I misread my bus map, wound up in Alameda where I, still got to walk by water, ate at my favorite Mexican Food Restaurant, and now found a shoe that works for me. It’s called the Alameda made right here in Alameda. How cool is that? Wow! It’s comfortable and I can put it on and take it off by myself AND WITHOUT pain, no crinkly tissue paper feeling in my shoulder. I am still wearing it today. Ah, this day was good.

Remember the joy when you received your 1st set of keys to the house as you turn of age? Or the excitement on the vast possibilities and future jubilation when you turn the keys to your new home? Or sweet nostalgia as you handled the keys to a very special box where memories and precious things are kept? Keys mean so much…a place of security, a home you call your own, or something you want to keep secret and only you would know and understand what the contents mean to you.

These skeleton key necklaces are a continuation of my obsession with them – their simple beauty, or for some, their extremely intricate details. Popular in the late 1800s, these keys conjure images of vintage furniture, classical homes, Gothic churches and antiqued chests. The possibilities of imagination are endless when the old (the key necklaces) and the new (your outfit) co-exist in fashion and style.

If you love key necklaces, check out : {keys of inspiration ~ part II }

*SOLD OUT*

At sino naman hindi excited uminom sa ganitong araw.  Two days before Manny Pacquiao’s fight.  Wohooo!!!

We both have a passion for big accessories and they’ve always been important to us from Day One. They can help make an outfit or make you feel different. Maybe a ring brings you good luck, or you got it as a present and it means so much to you. It’s a feeling that you get when you put something on that is special.

  

if you dont have it, what is it worth living for? 

I really need some good luck now.  I’ve been waiting for some really good news.  So … when my seasonal owl and ladybugs began visiting, I started getting very excited.  Did you know that the scientific name for a Ladybug is Coccinellidae?  Haha.  Yeah, I had to look up some info. on my friends.  I realized, really fast, that even though I had heard somewhere in the past that Ladybugs and Owls were considered mythical beings of good luck (or something like that), I was like, well … I really DON’T know, and I probably should figure some of this out. 

The ladybugs have visited me now for about three years.  They travel into my bedroom, scatter around and make their homes in various nooks and crannies.  I never quite know where they end up, but I figure they leave at some point because I can never find them.  Supposedly, in Italy, that’s how they bring good luck.  Nevertheless, they make me very happy.

The unfortunate part about this story is that the numbers began dwindling over the years, and only a few have began showing up as of lately.  So, now I have to question, is this because of Global Warming or is it because my luck is starting to go sour?  Well, I sure hope not, BUT my key that maybe my luck is not running out?  The owl. 

Yes, the owl, who is, supposedly, lucky in the Japanese tradition.  They are seen as “divine messengers of the gods.” Mind you, I got that from Wiki, but I’m assuming that one is pretty close to accurate. This makes me very happy because … MY owl, keeps reappearing every year about this time to greet me with her (I belive it’s a she– I also call her Alice.  Don’t ask.  I’m not quite sure about this decision myself), beautiful, “Hu-Hoo … Hoo-Hoo-Hoo … “

I love it.  Alice greets me every year, perches outside my window in my tree and “Hoots” me to sleep.  It’s a lovely experience.  I recommend everyone find a neighborly Alice with whom to become friends and possibly bring a little luck, as well.

One of our favorite new consciousness websites, RealitySandwich.com, is now featuring excerpts from Rob Brezsny’s Pronoia is the Antidote for Paranoia, Revised and Expanded. Want to get a taste of Brezsny’s optimistic outlook? CLICK HERE to read “Glory in the Highest, Part One.”

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
November
© Copyright 2009  Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): There was a time when wetlands were considered dismal and unproductive. At best they were thought to be a waste of space, and at worst stinky breeding grounds for insect pests. For over 200 years, many marshes, bogs, and swamps were filled with dirt and transformed into places suitable for farms, houses, and recreational areas. But all that has changed in the last 30 years. Science has rehabilitated the reputation of wetlands, showing how crucial they are. They clean toxins from water, help control floods and soil erosion, and are home to more biological diversity than any other ecosystem. The coming weeks would be an excellent time for you to make a comparable conversion, Aries. Something you once demeaned or underestimated could become an inspirational catalyst.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In the coming weeks, you will have the potential to articulate what has never been spoken before and to name truths that everyone has been avoiding. Uncoincidentally, you may also be able to hear what you’ve never been able to hear up until now and tune in to truths you’ve been oblivious to. As you might imagine, Taurus, you must fully activate both of these capacities in order for either to function at its best.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Nature’s rhythm is cyclical. Everything alive waxes and wanes. If you’re smart, you honor that flow by periodically letting parts of your world wither or go to sleep. If you’re not so smart, you set yourself up for needless pain by indulging in the delusion that you can enjoy uninterrupted growth. According to my reading of the astrological omens, Gemini, this is your time to explore the creative possibilities of ebbing and slackening. Ask yourself the following question, which I’ve borrowed from the Jungian author Clarissa Pinkola Estes: “What must I allow to die today in order to generate more life tomorrow?”

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Pregnant women sometimes have unusual cravings. From the fourth to sixth month of her daughter’s gestation period, for example, my friend Marta was on occasion beset by the longing to eat toothpaste. I’ve known other women who fantasized about nibbling on mud, coffee grounds, and chalk. Fortunately, they all resisted the urge, which is what health practitioners recommend. Instead they tried to figure out if their bodies were trying to tell them about some legitimate deficiency of vitamins or minerals. I offer this to you as a metaphor to keep in mind. As your own special creation ripens, you may experience odd desires. Don’t necessarily take them at face value.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): It might be tempting to turn your home into a womb-like sanctuary and explore the mysteries of doing absolutely nothing while clad in your pajamas. And frankly, this might be a good idea. After the risks you’ve taken to reach out to the other side, after the bridges you’ve built in the midst of the storms, after the skirmishes you’ve fought in the Gossip Wars, you have every right to retreat and get your homebody persona humming at a higher vibration. So I say: Be meticulously leisurely as you celebrate the deep pleasures of self-care.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Hey Rob: I was having trouble finishing my novel  — typical writer’s block. So I sidetracked myself into making silly creative projects — papier-mache chickens, masks made out of junk mail, collages incorporating bottle caps and dryer lint. I can’t say any of it is ‘art,’ but I feel creative again and my house is full of colorful stuff I whipped up myself. If you wait to be perfect, I concluded, you’ll never make anything. I tried something I knew I’d be bad at, so failure didn’t matter. Now I’m branching out with my inadequacy — not waiting for Mr. Perfect but having a beer with Joe Flawed, forgetting to be right all the time, admitting that I haven’t a clue. I’ve become smilingly, brilliantly dumb. -Inappropriate Virgo.” Dear Inappropriate: Congrats! You’re doing exactly what I want to advise all Virgos everywhere to try.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): At a yard sale today, I paid a dollar for a stained, pocket-sized horoscope book with many of its pages missing. The reason I made such an odd investment is that it had a forecast for Libra for the first part of November 2009, and this forecast struck me as even more useful than the horoscope I had composed for you. As a public service, I’m providing it here. “The graceful dragonfly lives for just a few months. But a sequoia tree’s time on earth can last 2,000 years. In the same way, some bonds, some creations, some worlds, endure for a mere blink in eternity, while others are destined to outfox the ravages of time. What will be the lifespan of the dream you recently hatched, Libra? It is time to decide and take action.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Your anti-role model — the person you should be the opposite of — is the Scorpio warrior, U.S. General George Patton, also known as “Old Blood and Guts.” He once said, “Practically everyone but myself is a pusillanimous son of a bitch.” That’s an attitude you should especially avoid in the coming weeks, since your success will depend on you seeing the best in people — even if they sometimes don’t seem to warrant it. P.S. It may be OK to think of yourself as “Old Blood and Guts” if and only if you dedicate your ferocity to the service of smart love and ingenious collaboration.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Congratulations, Sagittarius! Free Will Astrology’s Task Force on Creative Suffering has confirmed that your current dilemmas are exceptionally interesting and useful. You have demonstrated an impressive talent for getting embroiled in riddles that promise to bring out your dormant reserves of vitality and ingenuity. The dumfounding questions you’ve been wrestling with are high-caliber tests that have drawn you closer to the heart of the reasons you’re here on Earth. Take full advantage of this beautiful mess, my dear. Chaos this fertile is hard to come by.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): When Dante was nine years old, long before he became one of Italy’s supreme poets, he fell in love with Beatrice, an eight-year-old girl he met at a May Day party. They never had a close relationship. In the years after their initial encounter, they met infrequently, and both eventually married other people. But Beatrice played a crucial role throughout Dante’s life, although she died at the age of 24. She was not just his muse, but also his “beatitude, the destroyer of all vices and the queen of virtue, salvation.” Dante even wrote her into his Divine Comedy in the role of a guide. Is there any person or influence in your life equivalent to Beatrice? Any once-upon-a-time blessing that might be ready to give you the fullness of the gifts it has been waiting all this time to deliver?

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I would love it if you could find a sword that could cut itself. Or a fire that could burn itself. Or some water you could wash. But even if you can conjure the magic to attract an experience that simply resembles one of those marvelous paradoxes, it would set in motion a series of epiphanies that would liberate you from an inferior paradox — a confusing absurdity that is not worthy of you and that has been draining your life force.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The planets are aligned in such a way that suggests you may be able to experience an orgasm solely by meditating. This rare cosmic alignment also means that it’s conceivable you could generate money or attract new resources by following your holy bliss, or that you might stumble upon the tricky treasure you’ve been looking for in all the wrong places. But I can’t say for sure that you will actually be able to capitalize on any of these remarkable opportunities. It will depend on whether you can more fully express one of the skills that is your birthright as a Pisces: being wild and disciplined at the same time.

Homework: I invite you to launch a crusade to raise the level of well-being everywhere you go. Report results to FreeWillAstrology.com.

CLICK HERE to learn more about Rob Brezsny’s “Free Will Astrology.”

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Hi guys and gals, I’m sneaking in here for a quick blog post before Brendan subs tomorrow.

You probably know by now that tomorrow (well actually, in local UK time, less than 45 minutes!) brings the start of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). If you don’t know about it, why not? Where have you been all year? And more importantly, where will you be for the next month? Hmmm?

Anyway, the LitDen has several people entering NaNoWriMo this year, and several of our friends are also going to be suspending their personal social lives for the next thirty days in order to bleed out 50,000 words.

So I’d just like to say a very big GOOD LUCK! to everyone taking part. If you need any moral support/cups of tea or coffee/chocolate/sedatives/straitjackets etc during the month, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

Good luck gang, I’ll see you all on the other side.

Er, hopefully…

Oh, and not forgetting… Happy Halloween!

You have not lived until you wake up one morning as a kid and find, right under your bed, a cup containing water and a raw egg floating on top. My great-grandmother would cure us of the ill of The Evil Eye by praying and running an egg over us while we were sleeping. When we’d wake up to find the egg half cooked on top, she’s say “See? You had The Evil Eye but now it’s gone.”

It seems like at Halloween a lot of superstitions come to life. Black cats are bad luck, so is walking under a ladder, or using your left foot to get out of bed. Though many of us consider superstitions to be devoid of any validity, and maybe even beliefs of the uneducated, I’d be lying if I said that at times I have not avoided doing something “just in case.”

Here is a list of superstitions that I’ve inherited from family:

1) It is bad luck to pick up a coin that is heads down.

2) You shouldn’t put your purse on the floor, because your money will escape.

3) When making tamales, only one person is allowed to put them into the pot to be cooked. Otherwise, they’ll turn out badly. I can’t tell you how many times my greedy child hands were slapped out of that tamale pot.

4) El Ojo. The Evil Eye. When someone envies you or covets something you are or you have, The Evil Eye infects you and you become restless. Kids are especially susceptible to The Eye.

5) You should not use your finger to point at a rainbow. This is especially hard to adhere to, since my first instinct when I see a rainbow is to yell and point, “LOOK, EVERYONE, A PRETTY RAINBOW!”

6) A full moon will induce labor in pregnant women who are just about due. My great-grandmother was a midwife and she swore births increased during a full moon.

7) Dreaming about a funeral, but only if you see the casket, means that you are about to get an invitation.

8 ) Your bed shouldn’t face the doorway. I think the significance of this is obvious.

I feel silly typing some of these folk beliefs, but they are such a significant part of culture and family that in a way, they are comforting. Rituals, if you may, to make us all feel better and more in control of our lives when we really have none. To be honest, if I ever have kids there might be nothing to stop me from cooking an egg under their bed when the kid just. Won’t. Sleep. It might not do anything, but it will make me feel better.

What are some of your family’s superstitions? Share them in the comments!

KimuTaku: Full Throttle! aka The Aerodynamics of Luuuuve

by Ender’s Girl

The Cast:
Kimura Takuya, Tsutsumi Shinichi, Shibasaki Kou, Kuroki Hitomi, Takenaka Naoto

In a Nutshell:
Commercial pilot Shinkai Hajime sets his sights on earning another stripe, but must first navigate through workplace issues, personal dilemmas, and unexpected romance at All Nippon Airways.

(SpoilLert: Moderately spoilerish, but nothing to lose sleep over, haha.)

Aerodynamically Challenged

On the surface, Good Luck! looks as sleek as a newly minted airbus, with all the modern trappings of a workplace renai. But the plot encounters some, uh, turbulence due to contrived situations and mediocre writing in the first half.

The opening sequence is promising enough with its brisk editing, modish music and saturated tropical hues (very One West Waikiki… look it up, heh). But after the initial thrill of watching a tan, toned, topless (!!!) Kimura Takuya sprint through downtown Honolulu in the first few minutes, the rest of the first episode, well, never really takes off.

The pilot *wink, wink* episode is usually a pretty reliable gauge of how the rest of the drama will play out. There are some exceptions, of course, as some dramas get progressively better and end up surprising you, while others get progressively worse after a pretty promising start. Good Luck! is no such exception. So why does this drama fail to, uh, leave the ground? *more winking* Hmmm, let me count the ways…

Good Luck! may be technically smooth and glossy (TBS certainly didn’t stint on the production values and overseas shoots, I’ll give ‘em that), but the story also suffers from faulty writing and (amateurishly) tries too hard to string together what the writers must have thought were Cute Rom-Com Moments and Cool Pilot-y Moments (they must have been contractually obligated to include at least 3 of each per episode, heh). Many situations have a manufactured feel, and seem like they were written in as mere springboards to An Important Moment in the story.

Case in point–Important Moment # 1: Guy meets Girl for the first time.

The Springboard: In Episode 1, Kimura’s character (the rookie co-pilot Shinkai Hajime) makes a rather bumpy landing after the captain (a dear old man whom we see far too little of) is debilitated by back spasms mid-flight. As soon as the plane is on the ground, a visibly PO’d member of the technical ground crew (who is obviously a SHE, and obviously the Main Love Interest in the story) confronts Shinkai and berates him for, er, not taking better care of the frickin’ plane. I’m not a pilot, but any knucklehead would know that in an in-flight emergency, a SAFE landing is better than a SMOOTH one. A “lowly” mechanic telling a pilot off for any negligence (real or imagined) immediately triggered a red flag for me. Dude, it just doesn’t happen. In the airline industry, you can’t change the pecking order anymore than you can tow a Boeing 747 ten inches using your teeth and a metal chain. So this encounter was obviously contrived to create sparks between the two. Goshdarn, I hate it when the writers do that.

And Little Miss Grouchy Mechanic (Shibasaki Kou) herself… the feeling of annoyance each time I saw her was like living beside an airport, and each second of your miserable existence is permeated by the rumble of jumbo jets overhead. It. Never. Really. Goes. Away.

Yah, we know, her parents died in a plane crash 13 years ago and she’s carried this ginormous chip on her shoulder ever since, yah we know she became an airplane mechanic to make sure the planes under her watch are in tip-top condition, yadda yadda. But you can’t fully sympathize with her because she just grates on you. Her sullen face and snappish ways don’t exactly endear the character to you, as she seems to be in this perpetual state of PMS (which can also stand for: Plane Mechanic Sub-humanoid, hahaha). She talks like a bleepin’ ventriloquist, too: blinks a lot but never moves her mouth and lower facial area. How does she do that? Amayyyzing!!! Jeesh.

I guess that’s why the Co-PilotShinkai + GrouchyMechanic love arc was a letdown for me. There was always that niggling feeling you were being set up for IT, and manipulated into saying, “oh how cute, look at them spar, they keep pushing each other’s buttons, oh how cute they are, ad infinitum, ad nauseam…”

Flights of Fancy

There are other such plot contrivances in the first half of the drama, especially when the story overplays the human angle inasmuch as the passengers are concerned. I can see why the writers thought that injecting all the human passenger drama would give a show about jumbo jets some kind of a SOUL, but the accompanying implausibility was downright counterproductive, to say the least. I was shaking my head a LOT in certain episodes, thinking, man… these Air Nippon passengers have got to be the most spoilt travelers to ever ride a plane. All they ever do is whine and complain and browbeat the crew into acceding to their every whim, realistic or not. In the first episode alone, Shinkai co-pilots a flight bound for LAX, but the airport is suddenly closed to traffic after a fire breaks out. A businessman on board throws a tantrum on the freaking plane and demands he be taken to Los Angeles pronto! for the earth-shattering reason that a business deal might fall through if he isn’t there in time. Jeesh. What this really is, is a Springboard to Important Moment # 2: When the Pilot gives the “Why We Do What We Do” speech. So Shinkai ditches flight protocol by leaving the cockpit to confront the Truculent Traveler and make him see the Error of His Ways, and explain why trying to land a plane in a burning airport is, um, A REALLY BAD IDEA.

The implausible scenarios just keep coming: In a later episode, a politician demands to be let off the plane mid-air because he’s afraid of flying. Whoopee. Another passenger refuses to let the plane take off without seeing her dead hubby first (okay, that episode was really sad, but I’m including this for illustrative purposes). Still on another flight, a doctor raises a stink when a sudden thunderstorm prevents the plane from landing at Narita, because there’s some sick kid back in Tokyo whom she needs to operate on. What pissed me off was her unreasonableness and misplaced sense of entitlement, in demanding to speak with the pilot and singlehandedly convince him to turn the freaking plane around and force a Narita landing, thunderstorms be damned. (Geez, lady, you ain’t the only competent surgeon in Japan, and if the medical procedure were such an emergency, I’m sure other doctors would be more than happy to save that poor kid’s life.) That whole episode = Logic FAIL!!! I mean, I know that the crew are committed to making a passenger feel comfortable and relaxed during a flight, but appeasing their antagonism and indulging their outbursts will serve no purpose at all.

What’s odd is that Good Luck! aired in the post-9/11 world, where flight attendants and plane marshals supposedly have wider legal latitude in dealing with Difficult Customers. Maybe the writers of Good Luck! conveniently forgot the other side of the coin: a passenger gone haywire poses a significant risk to the REST of those aboard, not to mention the flight crew, and must be dealt with AS SUCH. There’s only so much room to try and placate agitated fliers, because there are bound to be a few on any flight, on any airline. But when push comes to shove, when passengers become hostile and physically aggressive, then any airline worth its propellers should have the proper security measures in place to address these types of situations. Isn’t there some sort of Escalation Protocol? When reasoning with them fails, inform them (politely, but firmly) of the possible consequences of their actions. If that fails, threaten them with jail time. Handcuff them to their seat. Pump ‘em full with sedatives, if needed. I mean, for crying out loud, on any given commercial flight there are 300-odd people jammed in a metal cylinder whizzing at breakneck speed 10,000 meters in the air. Will everyone just let the freaking pilots do their freaking JOB? Which is to fly the freaking plane and get people from point A to point B in one freaking piece. True, emergencies happen, the unforeseeable can change a flight plan and all that, which is all the more reason to trust the crew to make the decisions and the judgment calls that only THEY are trained to make. And besides, we all know that in the Real World, passengers generally do as they’re told. All that drama aboard the Air Nippon flights in Good Luck! was just that… DRAMA.

When there’s no undergirding logic to the dialogue and actions, the story loses steam before it even leaves the ground. A drama without a feasible plot is a rudderless ship—er, plane. Mediocre writing is the proverbial bird-caught-in-the-propeller of any film or TV show. And you know what happens to the aircraft when a flock of wild geese gets sucked into the blades…? Crash and burn, baby.

Liiiving on a Jet Plane

That being said, what probably prevents Good Luck! from taking a complete tailspin into Drama FAIL!!! territory is the improved writing in the latter third of the story. In these final episodes, the implausible situations are (thankfully) jettisoned and the plot streamlined as the main characters’ trajectories come to a head. Important Decisions need to be made, and Formidable Obstacles must be hurdled. Old Grudges and Past Sins are revisited, and the Requisite Confrontations must take place before Personal Healing can commence. Lives are re-examined and motives are questioned… Self-doubt and recrimination are Dealt With. But it is the Human Spirit that Triumphs In the End. And, well, you don’t ever complain that it does.

I found myself thoroughly involved (and just as satisfied) with the final 3 episodes, as the denouement kept me on the ragged edge, asking– Will Shinkai ever get to fly a plane again? Will Koda (Tsutsumi Shinichi) and Togashi (Kuroki Hitomi) end up together? Will Koda ever forgive himself after all this time? Will Ogawa (Shibasaki Kou) forgive HIM? Again, you know your buttons are being pushed and you’re being set up for something, but this time, it WORKS. Maybe it was the heart-stopping climax, or the acting tour de force from the main cast (with the notable exception of Shibasaki Kou), or the writing having a more natural feel than the first few episodes. At some point the drama stops trying too hard to bear the onus of its own lofty ambition—i.e. to make an Ultra-Cool Pilot Drama with a Heart. And when that happens, as the final episodes prove, the story becomes more of a human drama dealing with real people and not mere stereotypes, something less artificial and more personal—and thus, infinitely more believable.

[A note on the soundtrack: Loved it from the start! Such infectiously funky, up-tempo tunes! I also liked the statelier pieces used for Important Dramatic Moments, which made my spirit soar. And the whole feel of the theme song by Yamashita Tatsuro, “Ride on Time” (despite the English lyrics making NO SENSE whatsoever), perfectly mirrors the warm, mellow colors suffusing the hangar as the cast members pose languidly by the jumbo jets in the end credits sequence. This song is best listened to on a lazy Sunday afternoon; it evokes a future free of worries, and just beyond the horizon—an endless blue sky of possibilities. Plus, every time Kimura turns around wearing those Ray-Bans and his Kimura Smile of Awesomeness, my head explodes. Ouchy.]

[A note on the airline industry inside stuff: I really was impressed with the production values, and all the efforts of the drama to (literally) bring you into the cockpit, and witness how those pilots and flight crew Work It. From my standpoint, all the flying stuff seemed credible enough, though somewhere in Japan, a REAL aviator (or two) might have screamed, “That’s NOT how you maneuver the center stick, you eejit!!! Baka! Baka!” (Or something to that effect.) Wow, All Nippon Airways must have given TBS the keys to one of their hangars and told the production staff, “Planes are all yours, baby. Go crazy!” Lolz. At first I wondered why TBS didn’t use JAL (being the flagship carrier and all), but that would have been pushing it. Hehe. So ANA it is.]

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (haha)

I was very much caught up in the interesting dynamic between the senior flight attendant Togashi, and the perpetually dour, audit-happy cyborg-pilot, Koda. I just want to get this in: as far as the East is from the West, I adore Chief Togsahi as much as I, well, abhor Ogawa the Grouchy Mechanic. Amid a gaggle of flaky, flight(y) attendants, Togashi’s sensible, down-to-earth ways are refreshing indeed. Kuroki Hitomi is terrific! She nailed the maturity and grace of a flight attendant past her prime, the quiet sadness and wistful irony over a lost love, her dedication to her passengers, and the warmth of her smile belying the defeat in her eyes. Love her!

As for the Flying Cyborg Koda, most ably played by Tsutsumi Shinichi (he’s well-built and good-looking, I’ll give him that. a true hunk in the sense that Kimura isn’t, heehee!), for the first few episodes I must admit being peeved with him, going around like a heartless Tin-Man-Robot-God-Inhumanoid who’d ground his pilots if so much as a speck of lint was found on the windshield—or something like that. NOT the kind of dude you’d want to mess with: piercing gaze, stiff upper lip, obsessed with propriety and rules and manuals, who can’t stand it when a “Maverick” (look–an homage!!! an homage to Top Gun!!! I managed to sneak it in! My Pilot Movie Reference # 1! *ka-ching!* hahahahahahaha) like Kimura’s character flies a plane using his heart more than his brains. Ahaahh—thought I, welcome to the Jedi Master Koda School for Losers, where reverse psychology and sadistic cruelty are but a two-pronged approach to Making Pilots Better here at All Nippon Airways. Whip them into excellence! Mess with their heads—they’ll thank you later! Wonderful.

But then, maybe that’s exactly the kind of person a pilot ought to be. As the story progressed I found myself agreeing with Koda more and more with each flight decision he executed, each judgment call that he made, even if they sometimes ran counter to what the Pampered Passengers demanded, or to what Average-Skilled-Pilot-With-Compassion-in-His-Heart (read: Shinkai) sometimes so misguidedly pushed for. Aside from his competence and cool efficiency, what won me over to Team Koda was the fact that among everyone else, he never lost perspective, and refused to be swayed by sentiment or public opinion. He had a JOB to do, as did the crew, and he never let them forget that. We learn later on of his involvement in the plane crash twelve years prior, which further explains why he would ride everyone so hard. But history or no history, I’d still be on his side. Let’s just say that I’d feel WAAAAY safer riding a plane if I knew Koda was the skipper. Sorr-ee, Co-Pilot Shinkai… but it’ll take more than niceness and a good heart to be an excellent pilot. *shrugs*

As much as I adore Kimura, it really is Koda’s character that’s better-written and more… complex. This is seen especially in the second half of the drama, when he grapples with past demons as well as more recent ones. And you cheer him on his journey, until he finally breaks free from his own personal prison of guilt and self-condemnation. This sounds like trite crap, but it’s only when you’ve first forgiven yourself can you truly enjoy the forgiveness of those whom you’ve wronged. Kimura’s character Shinkai is ostensibly more likeable than Koda ever is, because Shinkai is this Good-hearted Everyman (and a bit of an Underdog, as well) out to prove his Worth in the world… How’s that for likeability? But the real meatiness of Shinkai’s character only comes out in the final two episodes of the drama, when his personal life unexpectedly takes a nosedive (pun intended). Life IS unfair. Life SUCKS. People, circumstances, even your own self, can let you down. It is how Shinkai comes to terms with this adversity that causes his character to truly shine. I love how Episode 9 takes the viewer along his downward spiral of disbelief, denial, anger, bitterness, and defeat, before a fresh tail wind of hope (in second chances), and faith (in himself and in others), and the promise of love, lifts him out of the depths.

On the Wings of Love

As I’ve said, the Koda-Togashi love arc is definitely one of my favorite secondary-lead romances. As early as the first episode it’s clear that these two share a Past, and that their relationship Did Not End Well. But you continue to root for them, you can sense the strong feelings rippling underneath the impeccable professionalism, and you can’t wait to dig up the rest of their history, can’t wait for the story to take you back to What Happened Between Them—and you suspect it had something to do with the fateful 12-year-old plane crash. Maybe the writers of Good Luck! do Mature Love best—obviously, the Koda-Togashi dynamic is light years more satisfying for me than the Shinkai-Ogawa engineered romance. As the Senior FA, Togashi’s warm disposition is a perfect foil to Koda’s stony aloofness. You hate it that he’s so mean to her, but you know he loves her still, after all these years, after all that’s happened since. Mature love has something that young love, sweet love doesn’t: again, perspective. Mature love has perspective, one shaped by the passage of time, by experiencing some loss, by growing up a little, by moving on, by LIVING. And it’s attributable to both the writing and the spot-on performances from Tsutsumi Shinichi and Kuroki Hitomi, that despite their limited scenes together (they’re JUST supporting characters, after all… would it were not the case! heehee) and sparsely dished personal history (you really have to read between the lines to milk it all out), it’s entirely believable that these two persons once shared a deeply committed love, but lost it to chance, or choice, or circumstance. Some of their scenes together actually frickin’ made me cry—that’s how emotionally invested I was in their story. How both individuals find their way back to Love (in a most satisfying manner, too!) isn’t so much a happy ending as it is a new beginning, as they learn to let go of the past before forging a new future—together.

(Screencaps: www.gel.com.au/koala/goodluck/characters.htm)

And as a corollary, I can’t stress enough how disappointed I was when the Shinkai-Ogawa chemistry fizzled, sputtered–and DIED A THOUSAND DEATHS!!! (You see, I had just come off watching Pride and Hero, both dramas with the good fortune of possessing that elusive winning formula: excellent writing + fine acting from BOTH LEADS + terrific chemistry = Romance WIN!!! So am I being a tad too harsh on Good Luck! for being such a dismal Romance FAIL!!! between the two leads? Perhaps, perhaps not. Damn you, Pride and Hero, for setting such high standards!!! *Charlton Heston mode: shakes fist at Statue of Liberty* Damn you all!!! /end rant) To be completely fair (and I’m not *just* speaking as a Kimura Fangirl here, see), what made the Shinkai-Ogawa scenes borderline watchable was Kimura Takuya himself, and the 4,505,233 megatons of pure, undiluted Kimura Awesomeness that he brings to all of his roles, all of his scenes, all of his dramas. The Kimura Awesomeness sometimes made me fuhggedabout how insufferably obnoxious Grouchy Mechanic was (an emotionally tepid, one-dimensional performance care of Shibasaki Kou’s Acting FAIL!!!). All she ever did in this drama was sulk and skulk (around the hangar) and give Shinkai the Evil Eye. The only rational explanation I could think of for her behavior was that she’s actually a robot—and probably self-assembled too, which would explain why she was so good with the machinery, hahaha. I seriously wanted to kick a wrench in her direction and scream, Oy! lassie, you pissy little missy, don’t waste your time—and mine! Just… go fix a propeller blade, or something! Go… screw a plane! Hahahahah—geddit? Hahahahaa… Jeesh.

Okay, so maybe by the time I reached the last two episodes of Good Luck!, I wasn’t exactly hurling invectives (and my dad’s tool box) at my TV screen anymore. Whatever you think of Shibashaki Kou’s acting (or lack thereof) in this drama, you still want those two lovebirds to end up together—because it ain’t exactly rocket science or particle physics to figger out that Kimuradoramas like Good Luck! ARE REALLY ALL ABOUT THAT. Airplanes, hockey rinks, race tracks, and the various characters and dilemmas wherewithal—are but the shifting, interchangeable mise-en-scene to a KimuTaku Romance, whose one inviolable law is that KimuTaku Always Gets the Girl. So by sealing their, um, turbulent, oft-interrupted romance with a tender kiss on the beach in the final episode, the Shinkai-Ogawa love arc finally takes flight—and soars off into clear azure skies and the warm Hawaiian sun. And what else can you do but give the happy couple a thumbs-up and wish them, “Good Luck!”

I just LOVED the family angle of Good Luck! because these scenes had that normal rhythm that was sorely missing from the rest of the drama (aside from the Koda-Togashi moments, that is). No stilted situations here, or encounters that just screamed: “Trying too hard!!! Logic FAIL!!!” Kimura has marvelous chemistry with the actors playing his dad and his brother—nothing forced or self-conscious, just the normal relational dynamics within a family. Those family scenes were moments of such honesty and emotional connectedness, and affected me more than a dozen of the Requisite Romantic Encounters (with their manufactured sparks—boo! hiss!) ever could. The longish sequence in Episode 2 where Kimura visits his family while contemplating resignation made my eyes mist over; also notable is a later scene where the family go on a midnight fishing jaunt. In Episode 9, Shinkai’s hospital scenes with his father are as moving as they are uncontrived, and I kept hitting the rewind button because I couldn’t get enough of their respective performances. Had the Love : Family screen time proportion NOT been so effin’ skewed, Good Luck! could have actually turned out a great drama.

Meet the Motley (Flight) Crew

Of the supporting cast, I particularly liked the actor playing the Chief Purser Ota, that persnickety little ajusshi (er, wrong language, I know) so lovable in his earnestness to Do a Good Job. And of course, there’s Takenaka Naoto as one of the Air Nippon pilots (a character so incongruously named Jane Naitou), who in Good Luck! reprises his inimitable role as Hentai-with-the-Many-Accents. The first time Takenaka Naoto came out in Good Luck!, I fairly sat up and screamed, it’s that “German” conductor from Nodame Cantabile!!! Sans the white flowing wig and the fake Mr. Potatohead Nose!!! (Man, in Nodame Cantabile he was just SO debauched… but SO fascinating, lol.) Seriously, who can play the part better than this guy? He reminds me of all those men (in real life) who have no redeeming physical attributes whatsoever but have no trouble at all scoring some babes. (Must be the sense of humor. Ain’t it always the sense of humor?) Here in Good Luck!, free of that ridiculous disguise from Nodame Cantabile, I found Takenaka Naoto to be no less hilarious—more so, even. His sarcastic, off-the-cuff one-liners (delivered with such incongruous panache!) were SO hysterical to watch, especially when aimed at Kimura’s character, that you wonder how much of it was ad lib. Brilliant!

The other minor characters were forgettable at best (like Shintai’s mental Korean neighbor, so very YAWNNN for me), and annoying at worst (like that rookie flight attendant Fukaura who has the hots for Shinkai and creates trouble for Pilot Koda somewhere in the first half of the drama). Natch, it goes without saying that my favorite characters (aside from Kimura’s Shinkai Hajime, for as you all know by now I am bound for life to this man and his 4,505,233 megatons of Kimura Awesomeness) are Koda (Tsutsumi Shinichi) and Togashi (Kuroki Hitomi). Kuroki Hitomi is just sooo lovely!!! And Tsutsumi Shinichi, I gotta admit, is one Hunk with an Attitude! Heehee… I can’t decide if I’d go with Tsutsumi Shinichi’s chiseled face and Terminator physique over Kimura Takuya’s, er, whippet-like frame and less conventionally handsome features, but I MUST say that both men are incredibly good-looking male specimens, a double-whammy of stupendous yumminess!!! (So who wins? I do!!! I do!!! Hahahahahahaha)

Air KimuTaku, Ready for Takeoff!!!

I’d love to see Tsutsumi Shinichi in whatever other stuff he’s in, but my heart and soul are unabashedly Kimura Country. Whatever I’ve said about how Good Luck! was written, or how Co-Pilot Shinkai’s character was written, I have nothing against Kimura’s performance. Kimura’s comedic timing is pure frickin’ gold, baby, every single time. I don’t know how he does it—it’s one of those things you either have or you don’t. And this guy’s got it wholesale. He’s a winner, that one. I’ve got to tell the guy (to use pilot lingo): “You. Have it!” Hahahahaha. He’s so handsome here that I often forget what those little white characters near the bottom of my TV screen are. It’s only when that fickle, treacherous camera leaves his face that I remember they’re supposed to be the fan-subbed lines of dialogue that I kind of NEED TO READ in order to understand the story.

Which brings us to: “How to really enjoy Good Luck!, despite its flaws:”

Whenever Kimura Takuya appears in a scene: Hit pause. Play. Pause. Rewind. Play. Slow frame. Rewind. Play. Repeat all over again.

Good heavens… Seeing him so uncharacteristically clean-cut (with hair shorter than his collar line–whoopee!) and looking so dapper in those crisp white uniforms with the pilot stripes, and the aviator shades—–I lose, man. I lose it. I lose it completely. I hit pause, go to the nearest corner of my room, and start to CHEW ON MY BIG TOE. Because that’s JUST WHAT YOU DO to survive the KimuTaku Onslaught of Awesomeness. (I’d sometimes wonder whether Air Nippon ticket sales, er, skyrocketed while Good Luck! was being aired in Japan. Wouldn’t be surprised if they did, heh.)

IF Kimura were THIS cute in all his other stuff, the universe as we know it would simply explode in an endless haze of pixie dust. So it kind of works out that he has to have the hair of a troll figurine in most of his other dramas. He’s really doing it to SAVE THE WORLD from total annihilation!!! Ain’t KimuTaku just the best?

Gaaahhhh. I obviously have some more toe-chewing to do…

Ride On Time – Tatsuro Yamashita

All precious stones are actually just stones, which you may not pick  up if they are lying on the streets. Its we human who give importance to these, its we who sell these and buy these thinking they will bring so called good luck.

                                               — A.V : )