We Live Where We Are

Preparation, "H" for "Holgaroids"

Ever since buying my Holga, I've been on the hunt for the elusive "Holgaroid," a polaroid back for the Holga body. Last week, at Village Vanguard, a brilliant retailer of kitsch here in Sendai, I found it. Tucked into the corner of their toy camera display (I am amazed at how popular Lomo seems to be here) was a small sign with a picture of the Holgaroid back. I asked one of the clerks, in very tentative Japanese, if there were any in stock. She flitted off (I swear some of these girls have bumblebee wings) to the back room to check. When she returned, it was with empty hands and an "I'm sorry I just killed your dog" kind of face. I looked around for a few minutes, marveling at the Famicom pillowcases and severed rubber hands. It was like going to a thrift store where you didn't have to wade through junk and everything was new.

All of the sudden, the girl buzzed up behind me, tapped (stung) me on the shoulder, and presented me with my long-sought holy grail of instant gratification. Yes, yes, and yes.

The next day, following our writer's workshop, I promptly wasted two packs of film before I figured out how to load, shoot, and unload the film properly. At around $15 for 10 exposures, this was a relatively expensive learning curve. But oh the glory when the clouds parted and I shot that first successful frame of trains leaving the station. The burst colors, the soft focus, the tunnel-vision vignetting. I'm really going to have to start budgeting my film expenses.

I'll post some of the shots once I find a place to scan them. Oh, and I did a double exposure of Freddy Kreuger's face hovering over a statue of Colonel Sanders.

This weekend should be productive. Julianna and I want to visit Matsushima Bay, one of the "three most famous sights in all of Japan," and I might do some recording with Louise and go around to a few pubs distributing CDs and trying to line up shows. We played at a cultural festival two weeks ago, in Watari, and I still need to post a few pictures of us, along with the crazy guy who played Chinese violin whilst atonally singing.