Lyrics Approved by a Registered Dietician

My group of friends in St. Louis are fun no doubt, but none of them share a similar taste in music that I do. Let's just say me and Dave Chapelle have a similar choice of favorite groups and his Block Party movie was fantastic. Spending some time in California gave me the chance to listen to some excellent music rollin around OC in Adam's Prius. I'd just recently gotten a couple of Dead Prez cds. If I would have opted to get a third, it would be Let's Get Free. On this album is a fantastic song recommended to me by Adam.

Having a sister who happens to be a registered dietician makes me appreciate this song even more:

(Genius lyric: Lentil soup is mental fruit/And ginger root is good for the yout)

Its all love . . .
I dont eat no meat, no dairy, no sweets
Only ripe vegetables, fresh fruit and whole wheat
Im from the old school, my household smell like soul food, bro
Curried falafel, barbecued tofu
No fish though, no candy bars, no cigarettes
Only ganja and fresh-squeezed juice from oranges
Exercising daily to stay healthy
And I rarely drink water out the tap, cause its filthy
Lentil soup is mental fruit
And ginger root is good for the yout
Fresh veg-e-table with the mayatl stew
Sweet yam fries with the green calalloo
Careful how you season and prepare your foods
Cause you dont wanna lose vitamins and miner-ules
And thats the jewel
Life brings life, its valuable, so I eat what comes
From the ground, its natural
Let your food be your medicine (uh huh)
No excederin (uh uh)
Strictly herb, generate in the sun, cause I got melanin
And drink water, eight glasses a day
Cause thats what they say
They say you are what you eat, so I strive to be healthy
My goal in life is not to be rich or wealthy
Cause true wealth comes from good health, and wise ways
We got to start taking better care of ourselves
They say you are what you eat, so I strive to be healthy
My goal in life is not to be rich or wealthy
Cause true wealth comes from good health, and wise ways
We got to start taking better care of ourselves,
be Healthy yall . . .

Hashers in the News

A couple of reporters from the St. Louis Post Dispatch recently joined the St. Louis Hash House Harriers for one of our Sunday runs. I was mentioned in the article that appeared in the paper today. There were also a few pictures in the printed copy of the paper, you can see me to the right of the plunger in the picture included with the article here.

Finally, you can get results when googling my name in the news. I am well on my way...

Southern California

I've spent the past week in Southern California on business/pleasure. My friend Adam from Japan was kind enough to host me over the weekend and we got to do some pretty cool stuff, including checking out the Cut Chemist of Jurassic 5, hitting up some nice beaches and big waves, a bit of sailing, hashing with the Orange County Hash House Harriers, eating at a pretty darn good izakaya and posing for some sick jump shots.

I heard a song on the radio out there that I knew instantly was dope. Here is that song: Crazy - Snoop ft. Nate Dogg

I'll be back home for Thanksgiving, I don't know how much more of this 90 degree zero humidity November weather I can take...

Screen Shots of the Champs

My roommate Ryan spent many nights collecting screen shots of various web sites featuring the Cardinals in their terrific run the last few weeks.

Pretty interesting stuff...

World Series, 2006: My Story

My story is one of hundreds of thousands from the night the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series. I was not in the stadium to watch the game but managed to be standing outside the gates when the final out was recorded. Here's what happened:

My roommate Ryan and I got downtown to Mike's loft on Washington just before first pitch of Game 5. We joined a fairly large group of friends in hopes of Jeff Weaver continuing his October mastery of opponent batters. We became nervous when we fell behind early. Sporting an assortment of Cardinals players' masks and a photoshopped Kenny Rogers face, we cheered them on and were rewarded when the horrid Tigers defense allowed us to pull ahead for good.

I motioned that we would all leave the loft and make the twelve block walk down to the stadium after the 7th inning. It was tough to pull away from being able to clearly watch a close game on TV, especially since the game was by no means out of the Tigers' reach. We arrived on Clark St, just outside the stadium and were joined by thousand of other jubilant fans waiting in anticipation for the moment. We were barely able to see a scoreboard inside the stadium to see the game situation. We mostly just reacted to the crowd's reactions.

With Busch Beer in hand at the gates of Busch Stadium, we cheered and waited, waited some more, drank some more, gave grateful fellow fans a drink or seven. Waiting, waiting and then...there it was. Unmistakable pandemonium as the game ended. We had no view of the field and no way to see the score or situation, but close to a hundred thousand screaming fans in the vicinity proved beyond a doubt that we had just won the World Freaking Series. Hugs and high fives, pushing and bumping and jumping, beer showers, confetti clouds in the air and a barrage of fireworks that lasted what seemed like five minutes set off just a few hundred feet behind us...

For some odd reason (perhaps Halloween quickly approaching), I had chosen to wear my Horse face mask the entire evening. I recieved many odd looks from fellow fans outside the stadium, but as one passerby cleverly noted, "Hey, why not?" My vision was obscured quite a bit by the mask, so I was quickly separated from my group of friends as the gates of the staduim opened and the crowd rushed in to view the postgame awards ceremony. So instead of going down as close as I could to the field to check things out, I decided to stand directly in the middle of the concourse behind the bleachers, rock my horse face mask and my So Taguchi jersey and hand out high fives to my fellow Cardinals fans. I believe I ended up standing there for about 45 minutes, giving non-stop high fives to Cards fans who were delighted to slap hands with a Cardinals-loving equine as the filed out of the stadium. I am not sure, but I may have personnally congratulated 500-1000 people.

Finally, my arms aching from the slapping, my friends reappeared. We headed out of the stadium, pouring into the exploding streets, complete with riot cops, horseback cops and plenty of rowdy fans. I was briefly separated from friends once again and happened to meet up with my sister Lynn and her boyfriend Rob, who were lucky enough to attend the game legitimately. We paused for a few photos with a banner I had made for her for the game. It was a personal message for Mr. Taguchi, in Japanese, and I thought for sure it would be shown on the Fox broadcast that night, but unfortunatley was not, to my knowledge.

As another odd twist to the situation, I had previously agreed to go rock climbing this weekend with friends at some cliffs five hours away in Northern Arkansas. We had planned to party after the game, then a sober Jon would point my Honda CR-V south and drive a car full of happily sleeping drunk Cards fans to hopefully arrive sometime around sunrise Saturday morning. After bidding good night to Lynn, Rob and some of their friends, I had to get moving to get back to Washington Ave to reconvene the car-pool. I ran a couple blocks north to Market St, high fiving and screaming at random. When I reached Market St, of course the street was bumper to bumper, no one moving an inch and no one minding that it was after 1am and they were sitting in traffic. Horns were blaring, windows wide open in the cold night and screaming fans provided a sensory overload.

Sensing an amazing opportunity, I got between two lanes of traffic and started my own victory parade. I ran into the stationary oncoming traffic with my hands out. The occupants of the noisy cars were happy to oblige as my high five score for the evening began to approach a couple thousand. I ended up running about seven blocks in total, all in the three foot gap between lines of stopped cars. My lungs and eyes burned from the CO2 intake, my ears were ringing from the yelling and the horns and I was nealry picked off by cross traffic as I crossed a surprisingly moving Tucker Blvd, but it was unreal.

Finally, I heard someone shout "FINGERHUT!" Perfect, it was Jon and Katie, who I would soon be travelling to Arkansas with. We walked the last few blocks back to the car and got set for the trip. I made a few sloppy calls to friends not fortunate enough to be born Cardinals fans for a bit of bragging, then hit the road. After a short gas stop in the suburbs and startling the late night gasoline patrons, we were on the road. Jon took the wheel, downed some Red Bulls for the long night of driving, and I watched the inside of my eyelids replay the night's unbelievable set of events.

St. Louis Cardinals, 2006 World Series Champions

+Some photos from the evening (Jenni B+
+Photo slideshow from Caitlin+
(more coming soon, if I recover my camera after that night...)

Cards, On the Brink. World Series 2006

Look at this, St. Louis. Three games won, one game lost.

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of spectation. I was lucky enough to attend two turning point games recently. I was in the Bleachers on the last day of the regular season as we woefully lost to Milwaukee, but clicnched the NL Central title when Atlanta finished off the surging Astros.

I was there again in Game 5 of the NL Championship Series. We pulled off the victory then to go up 3-2 and came up big when Yadier Molina hit the go ahead home run in the top of the ninth of Game 7.

I must say my favorite moment of the run came when So Taguchi hit the most unlikeliest of home runs off Billy Wagner in the NLCS game 2 to go up 7-6 in the game and totally deflate the Mets. I celebrated with dozens of friends at Nick's Pub and basked in my Japanese connection. My bro, Taguchi.

This evening, I constructed a shrine to So. I included a personal photo with So, a life-size So head, burning candles and poker chips. I made sure the attendees bowed as they passed by. "So lays down the sac bunt, Rodney picks it up, tosses to firs...it's high! Eckstein scores easily, Cardinals go up 4-3!!!"

Tomorrow, I will not be inside the stadium. I will be watching and waiting for that final pitch when we prove the 'experts' wrong. I will join my sister Lynn when she emerges victoriously from the stadium. I will join my friends for a drink and a dance down on Clark Street. When the Tigers go down and St. Louis is once again the World Champion, I will applaud these guys and embrace St. Louis.

Go Cardinals.

Chuck Berry, Blueberry Hill, St. Louis

On October 19th, 2006, American Legend Chuck Berry turned 80 years old and celebrated by performing for a limited audience at the local bar Blueberry Hill. Thanks to my roommate, I was lucky enough to get a ticket. It was my first time seeing Chuck, even though he performs monthly at this bar just minutes from his home in the St. Louis suburbs.

His son, Chuck Berry, Jr. and his daughter also took the stage to help him perform. Before the show, the owner of Bluberry Hill, Joe Edwards, took the stage to wish Chuck a Happy Birthday and read a heartfelt letter to Chuck from Bill Clinton. The mayor of University City named the day Chuck Berry Day and two congresspeople took the stage to give their support as well.

Finally, the man himself took the stage and performed some of his classics. Here are a few clips I captured:



Clip #2
Clip #3

Lewis & Clark Marathon

Last Sunday took me out to the suburbs of St. Charles to attemt my first full marathon. My sister Katie and I had been on a very loose training program for the last 4 months. I was fairly confident I would finish, but not so sure what the clock would read when I crossed the line. We started nicely packed, almost 4,000 runners split between the half and full course. A large group of St. Louis Hashers made it fun, running with people you know. (A couple hashers also set up a couple beer stops on the course, which was appreciated by this guy.) For most of the first 13 miles, I ran with a fellow hasher Postage Tramp. It was good running and talking, I was able to keep my mind off what was ahead.

Unfortunatley, many of the runners were only doing the half marathon, so after that the course emptied out and I was running by myself. At about the 16th mile, my legs bagan to throb. My muscles tightened up and threatened to cramp. I was forced to walk for a lot of the rest of the course. It was serious pain, relieved little by the torrents of rain that came down over the last 4 miles. Luckily, Biscan was there towards the end and finished the last 2 miles with me.

I finally crossed the line, wading through 3 inches of rainwater and dodging lightning. My final time was about 5:31. I believe that is over a 12 miniute/mile pace. My first half was at 2:05, so I am a little more proud of that than my final time. Overall, I'd say the results were a little disappointing, but I am glad I tried it. It's good that I have at least one under my belt now. I certainly have motivation to do another one to improve on a time I know I can beat.

Another runner in the race was Dean Karnazes, who is attempting to be the second man ever to run 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states. The Lewis & Clark Marathon was the very first one in his quest.

The race fee also included photos apparently, I received a this link in my e-mail yesterday. Apparently they snapped thousands of photos of the runners, then mathced their numbers to their e-mail addresses. Pretty cool system, but I don't think I'll be buying any of these photos. Feel free to take a look.

Impressions of a City Well Done

I arrived in Portland, Oregon yesterday evening, pleasantly surprised by the lack of nagging security that supposedly has been instituted recently. Got a taxi to the Rose Quarter, the area of the city across the river from the center of the city, but home to the Blazers, NBA's troubled franchise--the Rose Garden and the beautiful Oregon Convention Center. Although I am staying in a hotel that will go unnamed that shakes whenever a truck drives by or someone slams a car door or blows their nose, the overall experience is pleasant. (I'm hoping Mt. St. Helens behaves itself.)

After work today, I quickly jotted down the addresses of several local snowboard shops and set off. (I'm currently in the market for snowboard gear due to the cheap summer prices and lack of buying options in the midwest.) I got the lowdown on what I need from a helpful local, Gavin. The lack of sales tax on anything bought in Oregon is a nice incentive as well. I continued to walk and enjoyed viewing the urban environment of central Portland. More people I've seen out riding bikes since I was in Beijing; Many one-way streets that may make driving a challenge, but makes crossing a cinch, look one way and cross; A general superb urban mix--residential areas mixed with retail spaces and offices; A Kumamoto-like streetcar system that is a cinch to catch and even has hooks to hang your bike (not to mention it is free in the downtown area); A multitude of bridges over the Williamette River that divides the city, connecting the two vital areas of the city, all with wide sidewalks and gorgeous views of the river and skyline; The newness of most of the structures and general cleanliness.

After about 24 hours here, I haven't seen too much of the city. I have enjoyed the 75-80 degree temperatures after a blistering summer in the Lou. It's a pleasure to walk around Portland and take in the sights. First impressions of a place may not be accurate over the long haul, but this place ain't so bad at all...

Hash Publicity

Recently, a local paper, the Riverfront Times sent a reporter to join the Big Hump Hash, held in the St. Louis area every Wednesday night. Although I've only joined that hash a few times due to my schedule, I know how wild they can be. Check out the article here to get a taste.

Arribas grandes to Duzzy Cum and Pee Pole, Sunday Hashers who got mentioned in the article.

Kitago-jin and NYC

Met up with Mr. Derrick Simpson in NYC this week. I was in town for work, staying in Norwalk, CT. After an epic birthday night out Saturday night, I had the sense to get a taxi to the airport for my 6:30 am Sunday morning flight. Met up with my co-worker Ajith and we were off to NYC. Got in and made our way to the city and met Derrick in the Village.

We spent the day checkin out the hoods, made our way over the the WTC site before hitting up Battery Park then parting and heading to Norwalk. Ajith and I took the commuter train back down to the city last night and met Derrick and another Miyazaki JET, Todd, for an awesome tabe/nomihodai at Izakaya Kenka. Fight! Few more drinks and back to the burbs for us.




Ajith and I leave town tomorrow night, having been treated very hospitably by both co-workers and friends from far away.

Midwest Storms

This past Wednesday brought one of the largest storms in recent memory to the St. Louis area. I had the (mis)fortune of being out of town and not viewing the spectacle firsthand. Trees littered the unlit streets when I came back the next night. It was this video that made me realize how powerful it was. Video taken at Busch Stadium the night of the storm by someone other than myself. Just an amazing clip...

Kumamoto, One Year Gone

As I sat near the pool at Hampton Inn in Grand Junction, Colorado today, I thought back one year. If I remember correctly, I had just arrived in Bangkok, Thailand after three years in Kumamoto, Japan.

These days I am very absorbed in working, travelling around the country teaching people how to use some software that will probably make their jobs easier. But to think back on the year that's gone by since Japan is seriously a mental excercise. Not so much the whole year, but parts. Here's how it broke down:

15% - Travelling in amazing Southeast Asian countries.
35% - Poking around the internet under the guise of looking for a job.
50% - Working in an office space environment with a little bit of travel intermixed.

Wouldn't that be nice to have a few of those percentages reversed? Seems to make sense to me. At this point, I still haven't figured out what I am working towards. I enjoy my job and I like travelling and the teaching aspect of my job. I think I am using my talents to an extent. It is very possible I could be doing more either here or in a different part of the world, but how would I know? I am trying to find the motivation to get my shit together to buy a house, because that's what people do, right?

I cannot pass up to opportunity to live in St. Louis at this point. I have all of my sibblings living within a mile of me, parents not too far away, and extended family. I have a close group of friends that I can chill with any time. Some of the videos and photos I have been posting have been ordinary and silly no doubt, but it is home.

I hit up a local Japanese restaurant for dinner tonight and enjoyed some delicious sushi and a nice 22oz Asahi. Got a few messages that St. Louis has been shredded by a storm. Trees down everywhere. I get back tomorrow night and surely there will still be some destruction to witness. Fast years going by.

Dueling Arches in the Night

Mr. Ebel tries to signal friends from afar by waving an illuminated frisbee wildly at Fair St. Louis. They were eventually attracted to the mad waving. Photo taken by Mr. Biscan

More Lou Videos

Jon Biscan and Ben Klein create their specialty, a freak head at 3rd Degree Glass Studio on Delmar Ave, St. Louis, MO. Check out their site Fuoco.org


A spirited game of Flippy Cup transpires at a backyard barbeque on The Hill over 4th of July weekend.