Scribbler's Cafe: Art Appreciation

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Art Appreciation - Yakuza style

I’ve learned recently that the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) have a taste for fine art – particularly that of French Impressionists such as Monet and Camille Carot. Some of these paintings, they have even taken from famed Paris museums at gunpoint. Suddenly the romance of the Gambino’s pale in the face of such a violent pursuit of beauty. This peiece, Monet's Impression of Sunrise, was one of the paintings that were stolen. It has since been recovered.

There is a Marc Chagall exhibit this month in Osaka. If I can manage a time to go, I will keep my eyes peeled for men in sharp black suits with crisp white dress shirts, accessorized by tattoos and hands without pinkies.

The desire I have for unsuitable men is an age old tradition. Women have been falling for thugs since the Spanish conquistadors, since the Russian revolutionaries, since James Dean and Marlon Brando. Attraction to dangerous, terrible been has long been a derailment of the civil lives of women.

My internet connection was down for a week. I felt like I was in solitary confinement. I’m back again.

I was hoping Toru would visit me, but he was unable to. I was feeling rather disappointed, but my friend Laura (the girl from downstairs) spent the weekend playing with me. On Saturday, we walked around the Okamoto area with Kiomye. Then yesterday, I got a babysitter and we went to an open-mic reading in Hommachi. It has been so long since my stories have had a live audience, I forgot how gratifying it is to see and hear people respond to my ideas and art. I feel very lucky to have finally found the English-speaking literary community of Osaka. I will be a regular fixture on the scene.

I got a call from one of the women from the community class I used to teach. She was asking me out to lunch. (Using English that I taught her! Very cool!) Apparently, six of my old students have planned a lunch to meet with me. I’m so touched. It’s been two months since I had to quit. (My full-time gig got all huffy about my little class on the side.) I can’t wait to meet with the ladies.