It's a Friday night...

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Couple on a Friday night date in downtown Osaka. Sent from my iPhone

I stumbled on this video of an old DCT song (I only knew the Japanese version). As today is not the happiest of days, this was good to see. I am a big fan of Masa and Miwa (Dreams Come True) and I even appear this month in a 4-page article in their fan magazine (in Japanese) where I discuss presentation and life lessons found in a DCT LIVE. We are going to see their Sept 3rd Wonderland concert at Nagai Stadium in Osaka. Can't wait.

As to the idea of Joy, I have been studying Orson Welles this week and found a great interview where he talks about happiness and joy. He said himself that he was not really a happy person, suggesting that that is not important for us anyway. "I'm not essentially a happy person, but I have all kinds of joy. And there's a difference, you know . . ." I agree with Welles's take on happiness. Bits of Joy everyday — or at least here and there — are enough for me as well. Bits of joy and the good fortune for appreciating the good moments are enough to, well, "be happy," I guess...

Shocking law breaker...

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I was just one year old when this photo was taken — my mother was in her mid-30s (JFK was president). I was her fourth (and final) child. I'd say she looks pretty good for a mother of four boys age 1-11. The composition of the photo is not great at all, but the flag in the background is interesting to me. Funny thing, back then, my father flew the flag high in front of our house on holidays and if it was just a sunny day and he felt like it, which was often in the summer. In this photo I think they were at an Elks Lodge or Lions or something like that; they were active in the community.

This interview below is in 1960, sometime before the Olympics in Rome. Such good quotes in here. I love his idea on work vs. play. This man was ahead of his time. Today many of us also feel that the work vs play thing is a false choice. When your life is full and you are doing what you love it is impossible to say whether you "work to live or live to work." Life and work are not separate things to him, he says.

Interview in March of 1960 with the BBC about Citizen Kane (which was released in 1941). I love his comment on where he gets his confidence from.

I am always looking for different sources of wisdom and inspiration concerning presentation, speaking, and storytelling, so this week I have been researching the classic 1941 movie "Citizen Kane." I watched one documentary about the film, then watched the film, then watched it again twice more with commentary turned on. It is truly a fascinating film even today, and it was certainly a pioneering film for its time (and a controversial one, which meant it did not get the huge audience until the 50s or 60s). While watching the documentary about Citizen Kane, it was an on-camera interview of Orson Welles given a few years before his death (he was about 67 at the time) that stuck with me. On reflecting back on his life he said this:

"I think I made essentially a mistake staying in movies,* because...I would have been more successful if I'd left movies immediately. [I could have] stayed in the theater, gone into politics, written—anything. I've wasted the greater part of my life looking for money, and trying to get along...trying to make my work from this terribly expensive paint box, which is a movie. And I've spent too much energy on things that have nothing to do with a movie. It's about 2% movie making and 98% hustling. It's no way to spend a life."

The way he said "It's no way to spend a life" — there was just something so troubling and yet wise. It reminded me that although hustling and putting up with the grind that may not be what we really want to do is also apart of our work. There is no way around it. Yet, the majority of our work — whatever that work/art is —should not be hustling and activities that keep us from our true love, that is, our "art." For example many good new teachers end up quitting years down the road because they found their job "2% teaching and 98% _________." The percentage is not the point, of course, and there is always parts of even the best jobs/careers that are irritating or unpleasant, but life is too short to stay in a profession where you feel you really have too little time or energy to do well what your passion and mission are all about. "It's no way to spend a life," as Welles said.

This BBC clip below contains part of this interview (about halfway through)

Below is a great interview Welles did with Merv Griffin. The remarkable (and sad) thing about it is two hours after Orson Welles did this interview, he died. He was 70. Much too soon.

*And yet, as he goes on to say "...but it . . . it's the mistake I can't regret because it's like saying,'I shouldn't have stayed married to that woman, but I did because I love her.'

At home in Nara at about 6:30 AM. Yogurt is the last thing on the breakfast menu — she insists on feeding herself. She has not yet mastered the spoon....but she enjoys her own approach nonetheless.

An interesting choice of nutritious food items for people who are about to go on stage and speak :-)

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Here is a short article introducing a new documentary called "The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World's Most Surprising School System." While Finland has a strong culture that values education, there is much from the Finnish model of schooling that can be exported to other countries. In Japan day care through elementary school is quite good I think. When our kids are done there, perhaps we can move to Finland :-) I have been inspired by the Finnish model for many years. Those who know me - including my students - probably get tired of my evangelism of the educational model in Finland. I hope we can have a chance to live there for a year or so, but we certainly will visit when kids are older.

Finland's education success reported on the BBC

Why Education in Finland Works. AFT President visits schools in Finland to learn how they have ascended to the top in student achievement.

Euronews Learning World: Finland: First in Class

A conversation with an education expert in Helsinki about Finland's schools.