Mid Term Blues

iPod morning commute music: George Harrison, All Things Must Pass, disc 1 (1970)

This is, of course, considered Harrison's best album, and remains very listenable. This morning, I was struck (for who knows what reason) by how good the song Wah-Wah is. Most of the songs are leftovers from his Beatles days, but perhaps that was when his songwriting was at its peak, as he competed with John and Paul for disc space. He never made an album as consistant again, though he came close on his swan song, Brainwashed in 2002 (Cloud Nine from 1987 wasn't too shabby, either). Good morning music.

My wonderful half-day mid-term test period has gotten off to a lousy start with an emergency teachers meeting at 4:30 today. Instead of getting out of here by 1:00, I've been stuck in limbo.

Not stuck, exactly; I did get down to Nipponbashi (Osaka's main electrical appliance/computer etc. shopping area) after lunch and managed to pick up a used compact digital camera, a Canon S50 (their first 500 mega-pixel camera in 2003) for about $140 ($699 new, but these things depreciate in value almost as fast as my Japanese house). With Tatsu going to Thailand this weekend, and Alisa to DC/NYC this summer, we figured they need a small camera the could easily stash in their pocket.

Oh, I even got a 1-month guarantee on it! Whoopie!

On a serious note, my sister-in-law, Ann's, father died last week. I found out from my folks when I talked to them last Sunday. I called Ann and talked for awhile that same day. You could hear the sadness in her voice. I sent her a quote from John Steinbeck's To a God Unknown in which he writes quite movingly about death. She wrote back that she will read it at the service (or Mark will, if she's too sad). I wish I could be there.