Dialogue

February 13th, 1995

It’s been a busy week. I’ll go in anti-chronological order. Today, Jamie and I played hooky. We called in sick early this morning and yes, I do feel a little guilty about it—but not too guilty. We watched a few movies and stuff and just kind of hung around the house. We went into town to pick up the movie “Maverick” and get some groceries and bread and Shizawa had a case of Stags Leap ‘88 Cabernet. Got two bottles of that even though it was 3800 yen a bottle. The FAFSA also came through. I’m kind of wondering if it will be cursing my chances to send it. Either that or it might be a waste of time. But there’s no question, on the off chance I get in somewhere, we will need support. Anyway, I talked to Andy earlier in the week and he said he was looking for a car. In the letter, he says he’s found a ‘61 Mercedes. Sounds cool.

Yesterday we went to the Hakone Open Air Museum. They had some amazing sculpture. Of particular interest was a dynamic sculpture by a Japanese guy named Shingu Susumu. It was maybe 12m high. I tried to sketch it, but it didn’t turn out right. The two moving parts consisted of sailcloth stretched over a steel frame. It was called “dialogue,” or something like that. Two sections were moving both as a response to the wind and to each other. It was really, really worth seeing. There was also something called the symphonic tower. It was a tower with designs of colored glass all the way up the 60 foot tall cylinder. The Picasso exhibit was extensive, possibly too extensive. The air was crisp, and it was beautiful out. It was a thoroughly enjoyable short trip.