“One cannot go through life linking stringing together the things they enjoy like a rosary.” - Neon Genesis Evangelion

“What ties two people together is that they believe in each other.” - Nana

“My dreams are not of the future.  They’re of the past.” - Naruto

“Just because you look up to them doesn’t mean they’re good.” - Naruto

“Infinite universes means infinite sorrows.” - Noein

“What is more painful?  To cry because you know what you want, or because you can’t find it?”  - Honey and Clover

“If you aren’t remembered, then you never existed.” - Lain

“Sometimes eating yucky ramen can be an interesting experience.” - FLCL

I watched my final episode of Bokura ga Ita this morning, while taking long draws on coffee and chugging down a breakfast shake.  A few anime bloggers have compared the show to Honey and Clover, but I say that the shows are nothing alike, save for the superficial design similarities of the two heroines.

It’s a shame, too.  The show started off with so many good moments.  Were it not for some serendipitous parallels to my personal life, I don’t know that I would have watched the series to its conclusion.  I won’t be watching it again, and I won’t be buying it on DVD.

The big anime news this week is that Naruto is returning.  For the last year-and-a-half the show has spun its wheels.  After rapidly catching up to the manga source material, the Naruto producers made up “filler” storylines while the manga gained ground again.  This Thursday, Naruto: Hurricane Chronicles relieves thousands of fans of their plot constipation, and sends the series forward for the first time since 2005.

The last time I watched a “new” episode of Naruto was at Boom, while writing and performing my final Boom revue, Bite the Bullet.  It seems almost meaningful that my next new episode of Naruto will be arriving as I tech a Groundlings show.

By the way, if you’re interested in seeing this Groundlings show, send me a message.  It goes up on Monday night, at 8pm.  Tickets are free, but you need to get them through me.  I have 9 of them, and 2 are already reserved.

Shanley 7 fans: Jen Polermo’s School for English as a Second Language is probably going to be in the show.  Ha?

After throwing together the single best breakfast I’ve ever made, I watched another episode of Bokura ga Ita, and slurped fresh coffee by the wall-locked window.  Even with only four hours of sleep, a cold morning in the right hoodie can be perfect.

Why so little slumber?  Ending my days without drinking, the circadian rhythms of my youth are returning.  Like the little girl who would stand until she slept, I’m grinding my teeth with too many thoughts.  My uncomfortable cot doesn’t help.  I need a new apartment.  I need a new window.

Sour preamble aside, I made French Toast this morning from the scraps of La Brea bakery bread left in my refrigerator, and some honey-and-cinnamon inspiration.  French toast makes me think of Tokyo.  January made me think about Vienna.  I feel cemented in Los Angeles and sorely miss 2005 – the year I traveled the world.

I had intended to write a Vienna piece during the second week of January.  You know, working from what I remember most — the smell and look of my hotel room in the morning, conversations with Jim, the loud chamber-halls of the armory — but I ended up having a much busier month than expected.  I haven’t written anything except Play articles and Groundlings sketches for what seems like weeks.  If the first month can determine how the rest of the year will go, then 2007 will be the year that Art lost out to Commerce.

At least I’m playing a lot of Zelda.

This may sound sad, but it’s really a flash of inspiration: I should start taking photographs of the locations I’m visiting in Hyrule.  Or any game for that matter.  I know I spend more time than the average player lining up virtual photographs when I tour new game-worlds.  It would certainly compliment the slow trickle of real-world photography coming out of my camera (I’m working with HDR photography right now, with limited success), and the inclusion of game-worlds in pages of travel photography would be an interesting experiment.