Meet Bruce and Toby

  Babies are so cute.
On Sunday I bought some baby corn at the farmer's market.  I was very happy to find it because it's not so common and it is very tasty.  Babies always taste better for some reason...veal, lamb, spring piglet, salmon eggs.  I guess animals grow out of deliciousness as they get older.  It is true for vegetables too.  

   I brought the baby corns home and unpeeled them.  Inside I found two new friends.  Bruce is the green one and Toby is the brown, tiny one seen in the photo above.  I am now living with Bruce and Toby and raising them on baby corns.  I am hoping to see Bruce and Toby grow up and turn into a beautiful moth.  Then I will take out the baby corn and put in some wool socks for them to eat.  On weekends, I might bring them, in their jar, to the beach to enjoy the ocean breeze.  What else do moths like to do for fun?   

 

On a clear day

This is the view of Los Angeles from a street in the hills called Mulholland Drive. When I am feeling sad or anxious I like to go up here and look down on the city. Distance makes me feel better sometimes. It's funny to think that there are millions of people down there, in those buildings. Some are making breakfast, some are sleeping, one of them is watching Die Hard 2, "Die Harder"...but all you can see is buildings and cars and smog.

The photo below is the view from the other side of Mulholland Drive. This is what people in Los Angeles call the Valley. This is where Universal Studios and TV studios are. Mickey mouse also lives here. He is just a cartoon mouse, but they built a very large building for him to live in. I don't think they realize that he is just make-believe. He lives there alone. Minnie moved out a long time ago.

Dog Squish, Shark punch!

Lately I have been having funny dreams about animals attacking me.

First I had a dream I was in the bathroom of my elementary school in Shimane and a very small dog came in. He was so tiny, not even as big as my foot. When I put my hand out to him he bit my finger. I stomped on this tiny dog and squished him under my shoe. He became very flat and dead.

I was afraid he had rabies.

Later there were signs up all over saying "Ken Tanaka Puppy Killer".

I wouldn't step on a puppy in real life if he bit me. I might stop petting him though.

The next day, I had a dream I was surfing with Ericsurf6 from youtube (you can see video below of us in an earlier post at the wave machine in Japan).

A great white shark swam under us as we surfed and Mr. Eric said

"When they bother me, I just swim down and punch them in the face."

I was afraid to punch the shark because I have never been in a fist fight before. I didn't think a great white shark was a good first time opponent.

I have never seen a great white shark in real life, but I have seen hammerhead sharks and reef sharks while diving. I even pet a reef shark once, his skin was rough. He liked to be scratched right behind the gills. I have also swam with a very excited male dolphin.

This morning dolphins swam by me while I surfed in Venice. Sometimes you can see them catching waves. They don't have surfboards, instead they bodysurf just like Barrack Obama.

LEARN FLUENT SPANISH WITH REMI AND KEN?

My most popular videos on youtube are the three "How to speak fluent Japanese without saying a word" lessons that I did with Remi February. Remi is an artist who makes videos and also contributes art to shows with me in Los Angeles. She makes very nice creatures.

You can see some on her webpage.

Remi and I have been friends since we started doing videos a few years ago. She is very handsome.

This new video is footage of me on my trip to El Salvador with David Neptune and David Ury. I learned a few spanish words, so Remi and I decided to do a silly parody video of our "How to Speak Fluent Japanese " videos.

If you haven't seen those videos, you should watch one of them first :)

HIdden Mosters are all around you.

There are monsters everywhere. Monsters are all around us all the time, but sometimes you have to look very closely to find them. I found Toby, the monster in the photo above, living inside of a foam mat. It's a foam mat that you place under your bed for extra comfort....So Toby is the monster under your bed.

Can you see Toby? The swirly circles are his eyes, and he has a little triangle nose. I am going to draw a picture of Toby soon. Maybe i will give it to him for his birthday, I think it's in December. His birthday is close to X-mas, so I have to think of two gifts to get him. It's not so easy.

My friend found this monster on the bottom of my t-shirt. I washed my hands and wiped them on the shirt, and this photo shows the wet spot. When the shirt is wet, it reveals the monster who lives inside it. His name is Motoaki. You can only see his right eye (the white dot) because he is closing his left eye to wink at you. the big white rectangle is his mouth. and he has tiny little legs. You can see his full right leg, but only half of his left. This is because he is bending part of his left leg and doing a yoga pose. It was morning, and he always does yoga in the morning. He is a very health conscious monster.

I didn't even know that he was living in my shirt until my friend pointed him out to me. Now whenever I am wearing that t-shirt and feeling lonesome, I just moisten it and he comes out to visit me.

Do you have photos of any monsters you have met? Please send them to me.