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Showing 7 posts tagged photograph

SORT OF SCARY STUFF IN JAPAN 01 - “BAD LUCK OMIKUJI” During our one day in Kyoto I became rather infatuated with these tiny pieces of folded up paper tied to strings. The reason for my infatuation was simple: they looked pretty cool, and I’m a sucker for stuff that looks pretty cool (my wife Vicki is a perfect example of this, she is often a devil woman who will stop at nothing to steal my cozy winter cap, but she looks pretty cool, so I married her). Anyway, my infatuation turned into an all out obsession once I learned the story behind these tiny rolled up pieces of paper. Here it is… The various temples and shrines of Japan all sell fortunes, called Omikuji. If you draw a good Omikuji you fold that sucker back up, shove it in your pocket, and take it home and enjoy the hell out of your newfound good luck. But if you draw a bad Omikuji, well, your basically doomed, unless you follow these three simple steps… 1. Don’t freak out, play it cool! Whatever you do, definitely don’t call your mom for help, that’s pathetic. You can beat this thing. 2. Once you have your cool under control, casually begin walking around the shrine until you find a string or branch that has several other bad Omikuji tied to it. 3. Tie your Omikuji to said string or branch and run like hell (unless you have high blood pressure, if that’s the case you should probably just walk fast). If you follow these three simple steps all is good, you have nothing to worry about. Basically what will happen is that the “Divine Spirit” will use it’s special skills to exorcise the bad luck. Think of the Divine Spirit as a big fat sponge that soaks up evil instead of water. Anyway, I thought that was a really cool, albeit mildly terrifying, aspect of Japanese culture. Here’s a few more pictures of some bad luck Omikuji… High-res

SORT OF SCARY STUFF IN JAPAN 01 - “BAD LUCK OMIKUJI”

During our one day in Kyoto I became rather infatuated with these tiny pieces of folded up paper tied to strings. The reason for my infatuation was simple: they looked pretty cool, and I’m a sucker for stuff that looks pretty cool (my wife Vicki is a perfect example of this, she is often a devil woman who will stop at nothing to steal my cozy winter cap, but she looks pretty cool, so I married her).

Anyway, my infatuation turned into an all out obsession once I learned the story behind these tiny rolled up pieces of paper. Here it is…

The various temples and shrines of Japan all sell fortunes, called Omikuji. If you draw a good Omikuji you fold that sucker back up, shove it in your pocket, and take it home and enjoy the hell out of your newfound good luck. But if you draw a bad Omikuji, well, your basically doomed, unless you follow these three simple steps…

1. Don’t freak out, play it cool! Whatever you do, definitely don’t call your mom for help, that’s pathetic. You can beat this thing.

2. Once you have your cool under control, casually begin walking around the shrine until you find a string or branch that has several other bad Omikuji tied to it.

3. Tie your Omikuji to said string or branch and run like hell (unless you have high blood pressure, if that’s the case you should probably just walk fast).

If you follow these three simple steps all is good, you have nothing to worry about. Basically what will happen is that the “Divine Spirit” will use it’s special skills to exorcise the bad luck. Think of the Divine Spirit as a big fat sponge that soaks up evil instead of water.

Anyway, I thought that was a really cool, albeit mildly terrifying, aspect of Japanese culture.

Here’s a few more pictures of some bad luck Omikuji…

COOL STUFF IN JAPAN 15 - “IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER” If you don’t know what famous SNL sketch is being referenced by my title than you are most likely a delinquent kid who could use a visit from motivation speaker Matt Foley. I’m embarrassed to even write this as I love my wife, but not only did Vicki NOT get the reference, she also went on to add that the van in this photo is nowhere near a river. I clearly married a delinquent who likes to rub it in. Damn.  High-res

COOL STUFF IN JAPAN 15 - “IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER”

If you don’t know what famous SNL sketch is being referenced by my title than you are most likely a delinquent kid who could use a visit from motivation speaker Matt Foley.

I’m embarrassed to even write this as I love my wife, but not only did Vicki NOT get the reference, she also went on to add that the van in this photo is nowhere near a river. I clearly married a delinquent who likes to rub it in. Damn. 

COOL STUFF IN JAPAN 14 - “TWO OPTIONS” As far as I can tell I’ve got two options… 1. I can let this rather mysterious photo stand on it’s own as a photograph and not ruin it with some stupid caption.  2. I can write something about Clark Kent’s regrettable business trip to Japan where he had several awkward encounters in Japanese phone booths. Damn, I think I just went with option two without even realizing it. High-res

COOL STUFF IN JAPAN 14 - “TWO OPTIONS”

As far as I can tell I’ve got two options…

1. I can let this rather mysterious photo stand on it’s own as a photograph and not ruin it with some stupid caption. 

2. I can write something about Clark Kent’s regrettable business trip to Japan where he had several awkward encounters in Japanese phone booths.

Damn, I think I just went with option two without even realizing it.

FLASHBACK FRIDAY 06 - “GEOFF THOMAS: SCORPION CHEWER” I figured since I’ve been posting a bit about my film school experience lately I’d just keep the ball rolling for this week’s edition of “Flashback Friday”. The polaroid you see here was taken during the creation of a film I made during my junior year called Method for Self-Defense Against Scorpions. In this exclusive behind-the-scenes photograph you can see my main man Geoff sitting before a microphone and smiling like the happy man that he is. You probably assume that he’s doing a voiceover of some sort. In reality this is not the case, what he’s actually doing is chewing on Peanut Butter M&M’s in an effort to create the nice crunchy sound of a violent scorpion being devoured. Once the M&M’s were gone we spent the rest of the evening stomping on eggs and throwing cantaloupes. It was quite messy but worth it as the sound effects turned out to be pretty damn good in Method for Self-Defense Against Scorpions.

FLASHBACK FRIDAY 06 - “GEOFF THOMAS: SCORPION CHEWER”

I figured since I’ve been posting a bit about my film school experience lately I’d just keep the ball rolling for this week’s edition of “Flashback Friday”. The polaroid you see here was taken during the creation of a film I made during my junior year called Method for Self-Defense Against Scorpions.

In this exclusive behind-the-scenes photograph you can see my main man Geoff sitting before a microphone and smiling like the happy man that he is. You probably assume that he’s doing a voiceover of some sort. In reality this is not the case, what he’s actually doing is chewing on Peanut Butter M&M’s in an effort to create the nice crunchy sound of a violent scorpion being devoured. Once the M&M’s were gone we spent the rest of the evening stomping on eggs and throwing cantaloupes. It was quite messy but worth it as the sound effects turned out to be pretty damn good in Method for Self-Defense Against Scorpions.

PLACES OF JAPAN 08 - “SUMO TENT RING” I say it’s a Sumo Tent, Vicki says it’s a Sumo Pit, but then she changes her mind and says that it’s actually a Sumo Ring. Since she’s obviously not sure what the hell it is I decided to follow my gut and go with “tent”. Obviously Vicki wasn’t too happy with this decision and punched me in the gut, so I crossed out tent and wrote “ring”. Everyone wins. Anyway, this tent was literally two blocks from Vicki’s Grandmom’s house, how cool is that? I like picturing Vicki’s cute little 89-year-old Grandmom sneaking out at midnight and participating in an “Underground Senior Sumo Club”. As awesome as Fight Club was, I think a similar film starring Vicki’s Grandmom and my Grandpa Herb called Senior Sumo Club would be much funnier. High-res

PLACES OF JAPAN 08 - “SUMO TENT RING”

I say it’s a Sumo Tent, Vicki says it’s a Sumo Pit, but then she changes her mind and says that it’s actually a Sumo Ring. Since she’s obviously not sure what the hell it is I decided to follow my gut and go with “tent”. Obviously Vicki wasn’t too happy with this decision and punched me in the gut, so I crossed out tent and wrote “ring”. Everyone wins.

Anyway, this tent was literally two blocks from Vicki’s Grandmom’s house, how cool is that? I like picturing Vicki’s cute little 89-year-old Grandmom sneaking out at midnight and participating in an “Underground Senior Sumo Club”. As awesome as Fight Club was, I think a similar film starring Vicki’s Grandmom and my Grandpa Herb called Senior Sumo Club would be much funnier.

CUTE STUFF IN JAPAN 01 - “BOX FULL OF AWESOME” No, they’re not mogwais, but still, pretty damn cute. My only gripe is that I wish the one in yellow was wearing blue so they could be named Alvin, Simon, and Theodore. Also, thank you everyone for your brilliant replies to my previous post where I asked the following question… “At what point after midnight does it become safe to feed a mogwai?” Although I received several different ideas and suggestions, they all seem to suggest that an 8am pancake breakfast with a mogwai would be safe. What a relief! Thank you! High-res

CUTE STUFF IN JAPAN 01 - “BOX FULL OF AWESOME”

No, they’re not mogwais, but still, pretty damn cute. My only gripe is that I wish the one in yellow was wearing blue so they could be named Alvin, Simon, and Theodore.

Also, thank you everyone for your brilliant replies to my previous post where I asked the following question…

“At what point after midnight does it become safe to feed a mogwai?”

Although I received several different ideas and suggestions, they all seem to suggest that an 8am pancake breakfast with a mogwai would be safe. What a relief! Thank you!