There's a very narrow path between old buildings in Shinjuku, not far from Shinjuku Station, that is still, to this day, defying the near absolute "nothing old tolerated" rule of Tokyo.  I'm not sure of its beginnings, but in 1984, when I first stumbled upon it, .....

I got it into my mind to visit Yurakucho on the way home last night.  I could find no logical reason to go there, but when you get the feeling you should do something, you should, so....

It began with the day (in 1991) that I walked  my video camera out to the end of the platform at Hibarigaoka Station ....

In reviewing the "Actually Full Train in 1991 (Why Flex-Time is a Good Idea)" video, and then contemplating the combined total of nearly 2,000,000 views (unfortunately 80% of those at sites that ripped off my video and posted it with idiotic titles and no information), and especially in reading the comments posted at the over-a-million rip-off site, the strange concept of safety through danger is coming to mind. .....

Not being an expert on YouTube and how people use and abuse it, I posted my video clip "Actually Full Train in 1991 (Why Flex-Time is a Good Idea)", to Google Video, without bothering to post it to YouTube (Huge Mistake!).  I noted with interest how viewings climbed up to 200,000 on Google Video, and just when I was thinking everything was going well, I received a message from an e-pal who tipped me off that there were rip-off copies of my file on YouTube, with no attributes, just blatant theft.  I figured some people might download the file and share it with friends, but I never thought people would just take it and post it as though they personally owned it. It's... so... shamelessly audacious/rude/wrong/etc!

After all the time, effort & money I went through in taking, editing and converting that pack-'em-in video, it's amazing how often it's been stolen!  Time to try again...?

"Stolen Video"

Hmmm... some people are shameless it seems.  My video "Actually Full Train in 1991 (Why Flextime is a Good Idea)" was stolen and posted here:

http://www.snotr.com/video/1051

- without even mentioning where it came from.  This is dirty and foul behavior, as if they wanted to display it, they could have (and should have!) linked to the video's proper home, which is here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5127313249780524359&hl=en

Does anyone know anything about www.snotr.com?  Is this typical behavior for them?  I've just.....

I recently ordered some historical DVD's of material from the 1930-1955 time frame, and the color material was fascinating to watch.  The type of material I grew up seeing from that era tended to be (nearly always was) in black & white, and so the border between what looked like the "black & white era" and color seemed to fall right between my generation and the generation proceeding mine.  But switch that older material to color, and add in the new factor that a lot of it was taken with privately owned small cameras loaded with color film....

I was given a free ticket to see "I'm Not There", the bizarre movie about Bob Dylan, and I went out to see it yesterday evening.  I didn't know much about Bob Dylan (except that I liked some of his music), until I read about him on the Internet following seeing the movie.  I would say to anyone thinking of seeing the movie, that it will likely only be interesting if you are thoroughly familiar with Bob Dylan.  If you're not, it's probably not going to make much sense. .....

I used to go out for a beer or two from time to time (here and there in Tokyo, but mostly in Shibuya) with a friend from LA, and one evening he took me and a few other people to this Columbian bar run by a Columbian man he knew (who later appeared in a bit part in a very bad movie here that I can't remember the name of).  Visiting a place like that isn't as big of a deal now, but in 1991, bars run by foreigners were rarer, so it was interesting to go there on novelty value alone.  We had a good time it seems - .....