The Cycle Of Life Like A Rolling Stone

Searing summer made for some delightful cycling, with seemingly less rainy than is normal for this time of year.

But I also got to ride to see an exhibition of the Rolling Stones being put on in Setagaya, but it wasn’t as good as the show for Bowie a few years’ back.

Cop A Gander At These Rippers Too...

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    豪のクリスマス・ソング：Six White Boomers

    オーストラリア風のクリスマス・ソングの中では「Six White Boomers」が伝説的な存在となっているかもしれない。 　理由が多数ある。 　まずは、1960年にリリースされたので恐らく初めて広く知られたオーストラリア風のクリスマス・ソング。 　そして、歌ったのはロルフ・ハリス氏という多彩なパフォーマーだった。今でも82歳にもなっている同氏がイギリスでは「典型的なオージー」を思い浮かばせるだろう。 　同氏がオーストラリア・イギリスを始め、広く・深く・長く愛されている。歌だけでなく、絵も上等、話術も最高だし、漫画もすぐる手入るし、少年時代では水泳チャンピオンだったハリス氏。 　この曲はサンタがオーストラリアにやってきた時にはトナカイの代わりにカンガルーの力でゾリを動かしたという話だ。 　曲にでるブーマーは「熟成している雄カンガルー」という意味だ。 SIX WHITE BOOMERS Early on one Christmas Day, a Joey Kanga-roo, Was far from home and lost in a great big zoo. Mummy, where’s my mummy? They’ve taken her a-way. We’ll help you find your mummy, son. Hop up on the sleigh. Up beside the bag of toys little Joey hopped, But they hadn’t gone far when Santa stopped. Unharnessed all the reindeer and Joey wondered why, Then he heard a far off booming in the sky. Six white boomers, snow white boomers, Racing Santa Claus through the blazing sun. Six white boomers, snow white boomers, On his Australian run. Pretty…

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    The Lions Won’t Eat You…As Long As You Can Outrun The Gazelle

    Blessed with more time than I’d expected yesterday afternoon, I got to have some fun with the statues at the closed Yokohama Zoorasia. My Astuto bicycle got some great shots running away from wild animals, including a pack of lions chasing a gazelle. It reminded me of my schooldays, when I was the slowest runner in the entire school, and a friend joked that it wouldn’t matter if a wild animal chased our group down, as all they would need to do would be to run faster than I could. Painful, but true! I’d often toyed with a visit to Zoorasia, so was glad to finally make it, and pleased…

  • Riding Along the River

    Summer is not always the most pleasant season in Tokyo as it’s stinking hot, humid and frequently raining. Sometimes, though, nature turns on the charm and you get some delightful goodies. This week’s sunrises have been precisely that. Blessed (?) by a series of bicycle mechanical failures, Kangaeroo.com got a day to take it nice and slowly along the banks of the Tama River forming the boundary between Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture, resulting in these delightful pictures.

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    Ringo’s Ring-in, Awesome Aussie Anime Highlight the Fab Four’s Oz Oddities

    Just as the Beatles created an iconic scene with their 1966 arrival in Tokyo wearing traditional Japanese happi coats, so too did the Fab Four make waves when they toured Australia two years earlier at the height of Beatlemania and establishing a quirky relationship with Down Under at the same time. 　羽田空港にてハッピー姿で飛行機から降りたビートルズが日本で1996年講演の代表的な場面となった同様、その2年前オーストラリアに訪ねた時も「豪州らしい」イメージがあると同時に同バンドがオーストラリアとの一味違う関係を築いた。 Australia’s archetypical Beatles image features the Fab Four standing around while holding didjeridoos, an indigenous Australian instrument that Ringo Starr on the far left of the picture appears to be tackling with greater fervour than bandmates Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison. 　その典型的な「オージーっぽい」場面は、1964年6月に撮られた4人が豪州先住民の楽器であるディジェリドゥを吹いている写真だ。立派な写真だが、問題が一つあった。 It’s a great pic, but the only problem is that Ringo’s involvement in the…

  • Heading Out On A Bird-Brained Mercy Mission

    Another extreme heat warning has been issued for the Tokyo area, but that’s not gonna stop me from heading out on a bird-brained mercy mission. It’s bird-brained in more ways than one as I will go to visit Dino, our ailing rosy faced lovebird who is hospitalized in Yokohama. She is, according to her vet on a phone call last night, doing OK, but the core problem of her being unable to poop remains a sticking point. I’ll find out more when I leave work early today to ride through the heat to see her and the vet, but the state of affairs is casting a pall over my lifestyle…

  • Get Off Of My Cloud!

    Riding today was like floating through the heavens at times, reminding me of one of my favorite songs by the world’s greatest rock band: The Rolling Stones‘ Get off My Cloud. I’d have loved to have been able to keep the scene for myself as I rode through the mists along the Tama River, sometimes staying above the clouds as I rode along the levy. Thoughts were a bit too cloudy for my liking, too, as I go through another character-building, growth stage, I guess. Wasn’t a great start to the day. Struggled to sleep again, as I have for months. Was late taking off. Went in to wake up…