Anne McKnight
@annekmck
bibliophile, minimalist, literary historian of subcultures. "Professor McKnight is very caring and knowledgeable. However she picked more eccentric pieces of literature and film to discuss." 2026~Long Take: Kurosawa Akira as World Cinéphile (Minnesota)
The tofu aisle in the grocery near Sophia University, a very cosmopolitan area, has a ton of varieties. The familiar, organic, packaged soon do u sets (209 yen), and faux mascarpone (189 yen). Inspiring, in variety..
An event I attended in Shingu this morning, 500 miles from Nagasaki, waited for a municipal siren/moment of silence at 11.02 to begin. Marking the dropping of the bomb on Nagasaki.
Stuffing all the green and blue into my eyes...near Kushimoto, on the way to the Nakagami Kenji symposium in Shingu.
Islands seen from the train near Susami, the Pacific Ocean, off wakayama prefecture.
You don't see these so often anymore but the retro Showa era displays always get me. This one even comes with a menu. Tokyo
Everything's an app but the app for the drink machine will get you 3 free drinks. Otherwise it will run you about a dollar a pop.
Fusion soba with parmesan grated on noodles, broth and raw egg, with a bit of olive oil and seaweed, ground pepper. Soba tea, cold. A financier. Soba water for drinking after pouring in leftover broth. There's a painted tiger because the owner likes tigers and often wore tiger-themed jackets. Kyoto
Posting some everyday food photos from walking around and watching tv. A "morning show" with a raste test of 20 kinds of frozen cool Chinese noodles. It's so hot! Here the chefs are comparing all kinds of measurements w an eye to which size & design makes for the best vehicle for sesame sauce. Yum!
I love that there are train stops in Tokyo named after very specific logistical functions. Just leaving Distribution center (circulation might be better but worse in English and I like the feel of busses distributing people). You can see a fleet of airport busses in the background here, in orange.
Just catching up on news. A 7 earthquake in Kumamoto, on kyushu in the south. Earthquakes are measured exponentially in Japan, so 7 is considerably stronger than 6. Kumamoto also had flooding and is slated to be hotter than body temperature tomorrow...here a reporter from nhk surveys damage.
Thanks to LA Filmforum and a friend saw this lovely film made with Blender; it was packed. Lovely intimate convos threaded through a story of making art, across distances. Especially appreciated that the urban animal figures didn't cave to speciesism--a pony is this race/ethnicity, a rat is that.
I am unable to find the cite for this strange rhetorical move as all the cites between Bridges & Kahlenberg are missing from this document: "The ancient practice of augury provided an intricate battery of norms for extracting information about the future from the activity of birds (Burkert 1985)."
Two stories of goats at the Rose Bowl... chomping away at the brush and greenery.
Went to the academy museum for the first time in a dog's age to see a colleague talk. To my surprise, the Chris Burden sculpture at LACMA was absolutely thronged with festive people on a Sunday night. It's very nice to run into the city-ness of a city unexpectedly, on the fly...
the Internet Archive is great and I donate to it regularly, but sometimes you run up against depressing reminders of why all that material is there--because it has been thrown away or de-accessioned by a (here, CC) library and is no longer part of a valued knowledge base, tho not at all "obsolete."
"A potato shaking hands with Edward Jenner, claiming him as a fellow vaccinator. Watercolour by John Leech." Found doing course prep.
YVR, my favorite airport, and now favorite conference center. What a blast seeing friends, panels, and books old and new at AAS 2026.
Not sure what the discourse of ICE is failed" is all about, but they're sure re-upping in the LA area. Yesterday in Glendale ... Camo dudes sauntering across the crosswalk by the dozen.
My Kurosawa book spotted in the wild at City Lights, in very good company!!!
Any favorite film-related podcasts to recommend? Starting to do PR on my new/upcoming book--below, spotted in the wild at the PFA, in Berkeley, where I first became an actual moviegoer!--and I've never really done interviews before on the interviewee end, trying to get a good feel for possible vibe.
...a big tumbleweed just rolled up to block in my neighbor's car. But meanwhile, merry holidays and happy (accidentally beneficial companion) planting for the new year to all!
Still an absolute legend. Nothing like All the Things lined up in a single space...
Shinjuku station, 3pm Saturday. Godzillas as well as frogs, many teachers stepping up to the mike.