Dark side of the moon

Have you ever wondered what's on the dark side of the moon?

Looks like the Germans have also visited it

I wonder if anyone is watching us from up there...

...and the soundtrack for today:

the kintaro and the koi

Sieto working on my back

What does the blog title stands for and why have i chosen it?
Well the it comes from the tattoo i have on my back, which i've chosen as a symbol for my daughter's life connected to mine.
It derives from the legend of the Kintaro who is wrestling the koi.

The popular Japanese legend of Kintaro, based on an actual historical military hero of the tenth century, is symbolically linked with the image of the koi, or Japanese carp, and both are part of the yearly celebration of Boys' Day. 

Even as a child, Kintaro was gifted with enormous strength, managing to subdue a giant koi, another symbol of strength. 

On that day Japanese families fly the koi flag and renew wishes for their child to be like Kintaro ; strong, courageous, but perhaps most of all, persevering.

According to a Japanese legend, if a koi succeeded in climbing the falls at a point called Dragon Gate on the Yellow River, it would be transformed into a dragon. More generally, the Japanese associate the koi with perseverance in adversity and strength of purpose. Because of its strength and determination to overcome obstacles, it stands for courage and the ability to attain high goals.

Instead of the cherry blossom flowers you usually see in Japanese tattoos i chose to have Indigo flowers to symbolize my love for denim, and Japanese denim in particular.
It was designed and done in a traditional Japanese model by Sieto from Yugen tattoo in the Netherlands.

the snow shovel

Spring is a comin' , i really want to fire up the ol' bug!
But first i need to get it up and running again, only at the moment my aching back is standing in the way of doing that.
So in the meantime here's a few pics from this winter when it looked more like a snow shovel.

lyin' on the couch watchin' movies cause my back is achin'

This hasn't been a particularly good week for me, ever since last weekend i can hardly get up because of an aching back.
The painkillers keep the pain under, but also make me pretty dozy.
So what to do when you can't do anything... well... browsing the net, keeping an eye on the situation in Japan, reading Zelazny, the occasional walk around the neighbourhood with the dog, and watching movies.
Yesterday i watched some older movies from the seventies and eighties, i love old movies btw, mostly the really old stuff from the fifties, sixties and earlier, so these were not that old by my standards.
They weren't even great movies, but enjoyable enough to get me through the day.
First i watched White lightning, a 1973 flick with Burt Reynolds in one of his few decent roles as a good ol' boy smugglin' moonshine and keepin' out of the hands of the Sheriff, Yahooo! It wasn't a screw ball like movie as most of the other flicks he appears in are, this one had a more serious tone.
the second movie was Betrayed (1988), a hard film about a female undercover cop (excellent play by a lovely looking Debra Winger) who investigates a white supremacist group and falls in love with their leader.
In this one the story wasn't giving me good vibes, because it is pretty rough and confronting, but the beautifully filmed locations did.
Both movies had that indian summer southern US vibe which i love, and that always kinda reminds me of my childhood even though i grew up in the Netherlands, the vibe kinda feels like i remember it from back then.
Maybe i'm just romanticizing it, but still... life seemed to be more carefree back then, and it felt like time wasn't moving so fast as it seems to do nowadays.
Don't worry, i'm not going to write movie reviews here, i'm leaving that to the experts, so if you want to read those just check out the imdb, just wanted to share some vibes.
Last movie from yesterday was Disturbia (2007) about a guy who is sentenced to 3 months of housearrest and goes spying on his neighbours to find out the man who lives across the street is a serial killer that slices young women.
Although a bit of an unbelievable story, the tension is built up very good, also check out Sarah Roemer as the lovely seductive girl nextdoor.
It was loosely (very loosely tbh) based on Hitchcock's Rear Window, a true classic must see (almost every Hitchcock movie is).

Neal Cassady white pepper chambray and Buddy Lee chambray cap

This Neal Cassady white pepper chambray shirt i received last week from John Lofgren of  the Speedway Shop in Japan.
It's made in Japan by Freewheelers under the Bootleggers Reunion brandname.
The material and detailing of the shirt really is boss!
It came with some great looking flashers.  Let the pictures speak for themself.

I also got a reversable chambray cap by Lee Japan, based on the railroad caps that were worn in the early to mid 1900's, and as can be seen on the original Buddy Lee dolls.

John is a great guy who'll give you an unequalled service, but unfortunately his shop in Sendai got hit hard by last weeks earthquake and tsunami.
So please support them at Speedway Shop to get their things back on the road by ordering something, did i already mention they sell some awesome stuff? Well they do!
Here's a link to the shop, to order anything just shoot John an email and he'll sort you out
Speedway Shop

He also has an ebay store
Speedway ebay store

Mister Freedom Californians and vintage studded belt

Some stuff i picked up recently to fix my needs as a denim aficionado are the Mister Freedom Californian jeans and this brown vintage studded belt i snagged from the bay.

I had been doubting to get the Californians for some time, but since i honestly really didn't needed any more denim than i already had, it took me until now to get these.
The more fits and pictures i saw of these, the harder it became for me to not get them, and since supplies were running short, i had to decide to get'em now or be sorry forever.
Am i glad i did! They are really the perfect cut, based on the jeans Brando wore in the 1953 feature film 'The Wild One'.
Made of a beautiful deadstock vintage denim woven in the original Cone Mills this is just the pair of jeans to fix my need!

The belt is a find which i just ran into to be honest, the price was so good i just couldn't let it slip by.
Don't know how old it actually is, the leather is hand carved in a beautiful way, and it has a heavy solid brass buckle, brass studs and turquoise and red jasper stones.

pride & joy

My pride & joy is this slammed 1960 jupiter grey ragtop Volkswagen bug, i call 'little red riding hood' because of the red ragtop roof.

Last december it became 50 years of age.
I try to ride it as much as possible, the driving experience of such an old car is just so awesome, and totally incomparable to a modern day car.
Everything is kept in the style of the era it was made in, so no modern stuff in my bug, a period correct radio only plays tunes from the MW band... in mono off course.
I just love the sound of that 30 HP engine in the back... goosebumps!