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Some cool Biography images:

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Image by Josh Liba

I've been tagged! Again.
10 more random things about me:

1) My favorite music largely comes from eras before I was born.

2) I fall asleep instantly in direct sunlight. This effect is multiplied greatly if I am in the rear passenger seat of a car.

3) I have (had?) a stuffed panda teddy bear named Boo-Boo, and I'm terribly sad that he has gone missing.

4) I'm a hopeless romantic, and I'm not going to Paris ever again unless I'm with someone.

5) I procrastinate anything having to do with rain. Like windshield wipers or umbrellas. I've lived in New York for almost 4 years and STILL do not own an umbrella.

6)I seem to do better when I procrastinate, and I don't know what that says about me.

7) I'm half in love with any girl that's shorter than me because it's already rare. Unless they're underage. Then it's just disappointing, because they're probably on their way to outgrowing me.

8) I have been to Hawaii 8 times. All to the same island - Oahu.

9) I drew a lot of manga and was one of the first featured artists for the JapanTown Anime Faire (San Fran) in it's fledgling years. Although not into the cosplay scene, I have always wanted to do it. But have had neither the time nor skill nor courage to don a costume and blue hair.

10) I imagine I would do well as a motivational speaker. Partly because you never get to see short Asian motivational speakers. We just don't do that kind of thing. But can Tony Robbins get over the Great Wall? Didn't think so.

Donald Keene at home: Tokyo, 2002




Image by aurelio.asiain

One of the greatest, maybe the number one Western specialist in Japanese literature. A charming person and a kind friend also, always eager to share his immense knowledge. This photo was taken in October, 2002, and he is signing a copy of his Emperor Meiji's biography, not for me but for Enrique Krauze. The tape recorder there belongs to Enrique, who was making an interview, then published in Letras Libres.
www.letraslibres.com/index.php?art=9223
www.donaldkeenecenter.org/cu/ealac/dkc/
www.keenefoundation.org/
www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/essay/20060118dy01.htm

Last of these links opens the autobiographical serial Keene has been publishing in the Yomiuri for the last 48 weeks, ended today (Dec. 23) with these two paragraphs:

" Some readers of my serial have expressed admiration for my ability to remember so much that happened long ago. I, on the contrary, am more aware of what I have forgotten. Recently I had the occasion to take out some old photographs. They show me standing next to other persons, all of us smiling at the camera. I don't remember either the places or who the people were. I search for a clue, perhaps words written on a wall in a foreign language, anything that might reveal in which country the picture was taken. All that survives of these moments are some photographs without captions.

"I have often regretted that I haven't kept a diary. A diary would surely help me to recapture much of the past. But perhaps it is just as well to have forgotten so much. If I remembered everything, I would recall things that frightened me when I was a small child, teachers I disliked at school, friends who I thought had betrayed me, people I loved who did not love me. No, it is probably better not to try to remember. I hope that this chronicle, for all its deficiencies, has at least suggested how one human being spent an essentially happy life." (Chronicles of My Life in the 20th Century).
This photo belongs to The Asiain Gallery.