繊細なギャングスタ

高2の夏、カリフォルニアで1ヶ月ホームステイしたことがある。その時のホストブラザーまだ3歳とか4歳とかやったかなぁ。ホストファミリーの中でも一番印象に残ってた彼。彼の写真も今ここ私の手元にある。彼のその後が気になってた。親が容赦なしに厳しかった。強烈なクリスチャンだった。そんでもってなんか雰囲気家族が暗かった。

今日なにげに彼の名前をグーグルってみた。ヒットかました。すぐに分った彼の顔。彼のブログで胸が詰まった。ギャングな文豪。繊細すぎた。ダークすぎた青春時代。2004年から始まったブログも2006年で終わっている。2007年には更生（別のウェブページにて発見）2008年の今、彼はどうしてるんやろうか？

　
You're still beautiful boy though...
Do you remember me?

不動猫

キッチンの床を箒で掃きたいのに、タイソンがブロック。動かない猫。はぁ、もお一緒に掃くで！ＭＯＶＥ！どいてんか。でも動かない猫な君。かわいいっ☆

「タイソンは腐った猫じゃねぇー、タイソンはゴミなんかじゃない！」

そこだけグルッと囲って掃きました。タイソン只今ストロベリーにてオヤスミ中。タイソンの居座ってた現場だけごみ散らばってます。

白のソプラノリコーダー

絵を描いてるとき、窓からひんやり冷たいかぜが。
これは夏の風じゃない。つめたぁ～。夕方4時のこと。

ええ、私のリコーダーはソプラノリコーダーでしかも英雄で華麗な「白」です。白に憧れたんですよ、あの頃なぜか。学校指定の黒と白のを買わずに、いや買ったんですが、白も買うでしょ、そりゃ。絶対白の方が乙女チックでしょ。絵になるでしょ。

その私の愛するリコーダー、わざわざ日本から持って帰ってきたんですが、（アルトリコーダーをまんまと忘れた）なんとこちらシアトルのＩＫＥＡでリコーダーがどっさりとかごに、いかにも処分的に売られてるんですよ。私は愕然としました。友達がみつけたんです、まず。「あるよ。」と笑いをこらえるかのように。何気に振り返ってみてみると「ソプラノリコーダー＄１．９９」で売られてるんです。

えーーーッ！そんな安いの！そんな扱いでいいわけ！私の「白のソプラノリコーダー」のイメージがダダ崩れ。

でもですね、そのＩＫＥＡのソプラノリコーダーは見るからにチャチかったので、なんとか許せました。友達の罠にははまらないように気を静めました。オモチャな感じでしたね、あれは。買っときゃよかったかも。音が違うでしょ、絶対。

そんな私のソプラノリコーダー・しろのこだわりが今日のペインティングに現れたのでしょうか？

そんなところです。クラムチャウダーが美味しかったです。

今日のリコーダー

♪薔薇が咲いた　（本気吹き）
♪ポーレチケ
♪気球に乗ってどこまでも　（指揮者件）
♪えーでるわいす
♪コンドルは飛んでいく　（でも私木琴担当やったからなぁ）

■今日の自分部屋カラオケ♪関白宣言歌いながら泣きそうになったよ。さだまさしと一緒に手拍子してるＮＨＫな気分やったよ。

■まぁ別にええんやけどさ、人生上手いこといかんわなぁ。冷めるわ。そうやったんか、お前はそうやったんか。ガクッ。ドテ。ちょっとまだなんか期待するけど、無いわなぁ～～。♪薔薇が散った・薔薇が散った・真っ赤な薔薇が～。

マイ・コン

数日前にも書きましたように、マーサーミニマート（中国系アメリカン経営）へ今日もジャパニーズスナック棚チェキしに行って参りました。今日はやはり「ブラジリアン・プディング」限定ポッキーをゲット。う～ん、ブルーべりーの方がよかったかなぁっ。まぁお味はそんななんてことない「あ～予想してた感じの味（薄！）」めっちゃしっかり味わいながらが悲しい。もおなんか、お茶の心みたいな。戦時中のドロップキャンディーのような。思わず目も瞑ってしまうこの味覚。おそれいりました。

ローズ引き寄せ大失敗。ローズ大人気！


ローズ待ち伏せ大成功。


エイミーがこのコンビニのドン。このファッションはお決まりです。イングランドでゴルフをやってたような気さえしてきます。始終笑顔だったのがローズのだんなのサニーです。意外でした。写真好きなんでしょうか？カメラ目線おもっきりしてくれてました。

"I have a dream" by MLK, Jr.

オバマがドイツでスピーチした日。
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama　delivers a speech at the victory column in Berlin Thursday, July 24, 2008. More than 200,000 people.

今日はＭＬＫについて書こうとしてたところ。ちょこっと昨日の夜とかキャンバスに絵描いてんけどね、消したのよ。ちゃんとやり直そうと思って。んで今日夕方ＮＥＷＳ見てたら、昨日描いた絵がなんと今日のオバマのスピーチのあの状況とまったく同じ絵であせっちゃったわよ。何々？オバマはキング牧師？いやいやまだまだでしょ。若造でしょ。私が思うにキング牧師はオプラ・ウィンフリーだと思います。

"I Have a Dream"
===========================================
Martin Luther King, Jr.
delivered 28 August 1963,
at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.
===========================================

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!


==============
A World that Stands as One

カール発見一大事！

昨日のこと。おじいちゃん友達のマイコー久々に元気かなぁ？とか思ってたら、スーパーでマイコーに出会ったぁぁ～。よかった☆生きてて。

今日、カール食べたいなぁと一瞬「贅沢」な理想を描いてしまった。絶対カール派。ポテトチップスは口にしません。仕方無し他のスナックをもとめにコンビニへ。ぐるりと一周したところでさてと、本題のスナックコーナーに目線を合わせたところで！！ジャッジャーん！なんと私が目撃したのは「カールチーズ味！」びっくりね、まさかまさかの盲点ここにあり。私がどれだけカール派かというストーリーをローズオバちゃんに力説。しかも3メートルは離れてるところから。でっかい声で。

詳しく言うならその昔、Ｌａｒｒｙズという今のメトロポリタンスーパーマーケット（徒歩10分弱）にカールが売ってあった。でもＬａｒｒｙず倒産して、メトロポリタンになってから、カールが棚から消えた！値段も３００円くらいで高かったし。もお一つの場所はインターナショナル・ディストリクトの「宇和島や」遠いのよ、バスで３０分。まぁ一本で行けるんやけどね。しかもバスストップは家から３分のとこに、すぐ近所にあるんやけどね。はっきり言ってね、宇和島やには協力したくないわけよ。行くのは一年に1回ぐらい。2回はあるかないか。日本のモノは「ダイソー」で買い物する。でもカールはないんよね。だからゴマせんべい。

しかもさ、このコンビニ（マーサー・ミニ・マーケット）の値段ときたら、もっと高く取れるんちゃうのってくらい、安い。カール＄１．６９。ポーッキーも5種類あったよ。基本は＄１．９９から。限定品もおいてある。そんなのアメリカ人には分らない日本語でかかれてある。私だけソワソワ。なくなったらどうしよう～。次の入荷まで待てるかどうか自信がない。すごい大げさモードでアニマルな世界。それからさやエンドウのスナック。あれは2番目に好きなパフ系もの。勿論おかきも豊富に。びっくりしたね、そこの棚はよく全体をみると、ジャパニーズスナック棚だった。なんかそこだけ近所の「ヤマザキ」ふうで懐かしい。ありがとう！マーサー・ミニ！夢のようです。カール食べながら、ご飯頂きます。