The rain yesterday and today has just been wreaking havoc on my mood. Not in a mood to sit home, not in a mood to go out, not in a mood. And a small health issue for the past few days. Almost went to emergency today but seem to have gotten past it, but a doctor’s visit may be called for shortly.

In the meantime, have dug the CPAP machine out of storage and fired it up. I have 4 different masks and they’re all fucking uncomfortable. Woke up after 3 hours and almost literally tore the mask off my face. My gf says that if I do it every night, maybe I’ll get used to it eventually.

One “benefit” is that today I smoked only about 10 cigarettes instead of my usual 2 packs. I think I’ve hit the point where I need to stop. Let’s see, in the past I’ve tried cold turkey, acupuncture, hypnosis, the patch … what else is out there?

I’ll have what will likely be my last business trip to Tokyo next month (at least for this job). I’ve been going to Tokyo since 1994, up to six times per year, but aside from a one day trip to Fuji and Hakone and a day spent at a concert at the Fuji Speedway, I’ve never traveled anywhere in Japan. So this time I’m planning to extend my visit by 2 days and take a quick tour of Kyoto. Any recommendations?

Today, in bed most of the day, watched several things ….

Blu-Ray disc of Jeff Beck Live at Ronnie Scott’s. Filmed last year at the legendary jazz club in London, this captures Beck in a rare small club, playing at the top of his form with a great band (including Vinnie Colaiuta on drums). Clapton comes out to duet on two songs; Jimmy Page is clearly visible in the audience but doesn’t come up on stage. Fabulous video, audio and performance. Also some very nice interview footage as part of the bonus features. Unbelievable that bassist Tal Wilkenfeld is just 21 years old (and has already played with Allman Bros, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock as well as Beck).

The other was the Criterion Blu-Ray of The Last Metro, one of the few Truffaut films that I hadn’t seen up till now. I did not know that this was the 2nd part of a planned trilogy, with Day for Night being part 1 and part 3 never completed. But some of the character types in Day and Metro are quite similar, even though the circumstances in the 2nd film are much darker. Truffaut plays the director in Day, an obsessed man in love with movies even though the film he’s directing is a trifle. And Steiner, the director in Metro, is similarly obsessed and even bears a physical resemblence to Truffaut. Bisset in the first and Deneuve in the 2nd have some similarities, ditto Leaud in the first and Gepardieu in the second.

Set in Paris during the German occupation, it details the efforts of a theater group to do the “the show must go on!” bit, with a surprising emphasis on the plight of French Jews during that era. Catherine Deneuve is radiant as always and a young Gerard Depardieu as a young actor who moonlights with the Resistance seems to slip into his role effortlessly. Great line in there, Deneuve’s husband, a Jewish director whom she keeps hidden in the cellar of the theater, reading to his wife from a book of propaganda, something along the lines of, “in addition to usurping our theater and films, the Jews take all the best looking women.” And ain’t it the truth?

Hongkie Town
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