We Are Not Afraid
Hal and Masayo posed for Les Levine.
Hal, Masayo and Paul Weitz, this one is by me.
On the wall is Hal’s painting. (Paul Weitz directed “About A Boy” and other popular movies today but we knew him as a playwright in the early 90’s.)
Sorry Hal I don’t have your recent photo. But I like these old photos.
Hal Lum is showing his paintings/drawings at First Hawaiian Center in Honolulu. The exhibit continues to May 3, 2005. “Hal Lum’s whimsical and often organic compositions in brilliant colors reflect his delight in discovery of new places, people, and experiences.”
Hal is a Monkey Gemini and his works represent the spirit of curious and fun nature. Hal I assume is more like Paul Gauguin than Marquis de Sade. Only Masayo who photographed his work and posed for the photo knows the secret.
This morning Hal and I have exchanged a number of emails talking about the passing of a great playwright Arthur Miller.
Just the other day I found out that Catherine Deneuve’s favorite actress is Marilyn Monroe and she mentioned specifically Marilyn in the Misfits. Catherine Deneuve, though mentally tough and had much better childhood experience than Marilyn must know something about the burden of being a sex symbol for the world. Miller-Monroe union and the subsquent breakup was part of important moments in the history of American culture, vis-a-vis of merging of high and low culture, creative collaboration, fame, glamour, political witchhunt, about integrity and authenticity. It is interesting to note that Miller’s daughter Rebecca Miller has become a filmmaker and her incredibly talented husband Daniel Day Lewis has become a supportive husband to her creative work by appearing in her small independent film. They seem to have been spared from the pain and turmoil that Marilyn and Miller have suffered.
Came across this fun article by Miller on his visit to Cuba, writing about Fidel Castro.
From Village Voice, a tribute by Michael Feingold is here.
A tribute from Harold Pinter is here.
Yuri Kochiyama, whose activism led to reparations for Japanese interned during World War II, and who cradled Malcolm X’s head as he lay dying from an assassin’s bullets, died in her sleep Sunday in her Berkeley home. She was 93.
After the war, Kochiyama moved to New York. She began her activist career in the vibrant Black movement in Harlem in the 1960s, where she met Malcolm X, who inspired her radical political development and the ensuing four decades of incessant work for Black liberation, Asian American equality, Puerto Rican independence, and political prisoner defense. Kochiyama is widely respected for her work in forging unity among diverse communities, especially between Asian and African Americans.
Email from Hal Lum and Masayo Suzuki.. who met Yuri Kochiyama.
We were so fortunate to have dinner with her at her place and take a subway
ride with she and her husband. She also came to Honolulu to speak several times and amazingly remembered us at older age.
She was beautiful. (Hal Lum)
A tiny giant in the civil & human rights movements passed away yesterday. Hal and I had the privilege to know her in New York via Noe Tanigawa. I had heard about her for years during the 60’s and was so happy to meet her when we got to new york in the 80’s. Her husband was from Hawaii and part of the 442nd. And to my surprise my mother knew her family in San Pedro. Small world. Masayo
If you missed Harold Pinter on Charlie Rose, go here.
If anybody, it is Pinter who can handle Charlie’s obnoxious questions and turn them into gold. (See my previous post on Pinter – Master and the Caretaker)
The Lovers – Clip from 1963 TV Play by Pinter
Harold Pinter without dialogues? Vivien Merchant, Pinter’s first wife
plays the character. (She was great in Alfie. Got nominated for the Oscar but did not win – not winning is almost an honor).
Yesterday was a day of connecting the dots in today’s film/theater pop culture world, I found out from Hal that the playwright he introduced me as his neighbor in the early 90’s is Paul Weitz who later directed “About a Boy”, “In Good Company” and others.
I have seen two of his films and did not know that he was the director.
Here is a bad picture at Paul’s apartment of Hal, Masayo, and Paul with one of Hal’s paintings in the background. I have another picture somewhere in the pile of my old photos of them in exactly the same position and pose with dark glasses off.
The only thing I remember from the meeting was that Paul Weitz did not like Gus Van Sant’s sudden foray into Shakespeare in the middle of “My Own Private Idaho”. Paul Weitz is a sweet guy, and his films shows the same goodness.
From all around the globe—from Frankfurt to Tokyo, from Prague to Moscow—we have testimony to Shakespeare’s power, his ability to move people of all nations, to inspire them, to shake them out of ingrained modes of thought and feeling, to give them the strength to question and challenge authority. Above all, we see how Shakespeare remains politically relevant to a wide variety of situations around the world; he seems to be taken most seriously by people who find themselves in the middle of a crisis and, in particular, who feel their liberties threatened.
La regina , mio signore , è morta (The Queen, my lord is dead).
Here is Macbeth in Italian from dlsan, the web artist who was a
part-time Shakespearean actor.
(Maximilian Schell is the prominent collector of Josef Albers squares. How revealing!)
Dog Days means:
“The ancient Romans noticed that the hottest days of the year, i.e. in late July and early August, co-incided with the Dog Star (aka Sirius, aka The Great Dog) being in the same part of the sky as the Sun. They thought the star contributed to the heat of the day.”
(Hachiko’s statue is located at Shibuya where I grew up.
My mother moved us to Shibuya when I was a teenager. Here is a photo of Shibuya with Neon Buddha image on the building.)
See or read My life as a Dog and learn about Ingemar’s love for Sickan and the story of Laika, the Russian astro dog who went into the Space.
Vitro Nasu google digital celebration takes place at night. It is more logical to see fireworks at night and besides we get there after google.
After Mozart celebration two days ago, we will have to reconsider this practice of copying google celebration images. It does get boring or contentious. (via wealthbondage)
“We are not afraid” from here.
(This post ia a gift from Vitro Nasu for Hal and Masayo who are old friends . Hal and Masayo posed for this photo by Les Levine. )
Alongside such figures as Nam June Paik, Les Levine is regarded as a pioneer of video and media art. Levine exploits the language of advertising to reveal the state of art and culture. (Via artbook.com)
To get some historical perspective on Levine’s place in
media art, click the circle for 1960 in video at “influence org” ,
Here is an interview by David Gigliotti (1999).
From Ro Gallery, here.
From Philipp March Contemporary, here.
You have searched the Vitro Nasu blog archives for ‘hal masayo’. If you are unable to find anything in these search results, you can try one of these links.
(previous post) 
celebrates 
(via 
