a few years ago, i attended a seminar at a youth conference with my church youth group, and there was this guy there who did a presentation on how evil certain bands are, etc. one of the videos he used to back up his point was a tv news story on a teenager who committed suicide after kurt cobain did. i think the aspect of the whole presentation that i found most repugnant was the implication that the kid who committed suicide wasn't in any way responsible for his actions, nor was the mother who had failed to notice symptoms of depression in her son. it's strange that the speaker never really addressed the subject of people who commit suicide after reading dickinson, poe, or plath. i guess the implied point is that literature is much less powerful than music wrt inducing impressionable people to make life-changing decisions. that's a rather strange view for someone who believes in a living, breathing word of God, sharper than a double-edged sword. i'm also unamused by the view of a god that is so impotent that he can't stop his followers from being led astray by a rock tune. so, in honor of all of those who truly believe that what i listen to is going to cause me to jump off the deep end, i d/l-ed nirvana's _nevermind_ at work today.
um, my life. saturday was the town bon-enkai, where the population of sanbongi tries to get the foreigner drunk. sorry all, but a big nfw on that. good food, and i met a few cool people, but all in all i'm sorry i went. sunday i went to the furukawa baptist church. i showed up about an hour and a half early, so i waited in the cold sanctuary, falling asleep and trying in vain to decipher the brochures they gave. "lessee...nothing here about sacrificing my first-born...good good..." it wasn't a bad service, though, and seemed pretty grass-roots, which was definitely a plus in my book. after service we all had lunch in the dining hall downstairs, and it was pretty tasty food. i didn't have to pay since it was my first time, but it's usually 200 yen, a steal. and i met a couple of people with english skillz, which was cool. definitely not as bad as it could have been. that night i went to the gym to shoot some hoops, and i stumbled upon the Seekrit Society of People who Play Basketball on Sunday Nights (SSPPBSN for short). i played some good d and flung passes at teammates when they weren't expecting them, so i had fun, and my teams won a few games. cool.
monday was the kindergarten. lots of fun, home by 2. nuff said. tuesday was more napster, and wednesday i balled with the junior high team. more defense, though my passing was off. thursday was the elementary school, and i hung with the first graders, the first group in a while that invited me to eat lunch with them. they rock. that night i was the town office b-ball practice, and my legs were sore from the day before. i played like an old man. oh well. we still won, mainly b/c of the efforts my teammates put forth. today i napstered some more, as previously mentioned. just marking time till my winter vacation...
been listening to: nirvana, steve earle, emmylou harris, big country, echoing green, the cocteau twins, aleixa, and the rentals.