the sky

amory street, cambridge, ma; and chichu museum, naoshima, japan.

kyushu

N700 at odawara station

punctual, speedy, and hydrating—the shinkansen does it all.

going nowhere, seeking no victory

saturday, before dinner at 900 degrees in manchester, NH—a pizza parlor with no similarities to this new york museum of pizza diversity other than the name—we saw japanese swords at the nearby currier museum of art, which also contains a stunningly difficult laminated desk by jere osgood.

The narrow view of natural farming says that it is good for the farmer to apply organic material to the soil and good to raise animals, and that this is the best and most efficient way to put nature to use. To speak in terms of personal practice, this is fine, but with this way alone, the spirit of true natural farming cannot be kept alive. This kind of narrow natural farming is analogous to the school of swordsmanship known as the one-stroke school, which seeks victory through the skillful, yet self-conscious application of technique. Modern industrial farming follows the two-stroke school, which believes that victory can be won by delivering the greatest barrage of swordstrokes. Pure natural farming, by contrast, is the no-stroke school. It goes nowhere and seeks no victory.

fukuoka masanobu, one-straw revolution

more fukuoka here. context is important: the pizza would have been better had greatness not been keenly anticipated.

katachi

by tokumaru shūgo, stop-motion animation by kijek/adamski.

primitive

this quite remarkable performance by enra is certainly worth watching.

happiness comes from good coffee

i have been buried beneath a pile of paper for days, but emerged briefly for a cup of coffee last friday morning. on the table for show and tell was the kodawari coffee issue of brutus*, another reminder (as if we needed one) that in the elaboration, codification, production, and reproduction of nuance and detail the japanese yield to no-one.

*(more)