DRIVEWAY MUSEUM CANDIDATE

I'm not familiar with any of the driveway museums that dot the world, never having had a driveway before, but if I were I'm sure that Asobi, my new driveway by Sogyu, would be a worthy candidate for inclusion-- maybe in the minimalist Japanese/Asian driveway section, given the Sengai Zen connection.

It would be quite at home as well alongside Picasso's driveway in the cubist section, since Asobi definitely features cubist elements. Nor would it be out of place beside Andy Warhol's driveway, for that matter; it lies in the realm of Japanopop, if you put soup labels on some of the stones, with a few dayglo Marilyns and Maos scattered around. Asobi transcends genre.

Needless to say, I'm not on the board of any driveway museum, but if I were I would point out to the driveway traditionalists thereon that Asobi would not even be out of place beside Michaelangelo's driveway, as partly depicted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, or DaVinci's driveway - which stretches out into the distance behind Mona Lisa - or among the impressionist driveways of later years, if you blur your eyes a little or don't wear your glasses - I bet Monet had a nice impressionistic carriageway beside the pond at Vernon; Dali's Daliway would be excellent company as well, partly because the title of my new driveway is, as indicated, Asobi, which comes from the somewhat surreal moment at the end of its creation when, in the pro tem driveway studio in front of my house, Sogyu was applying the final touches and I asked him why he had put the circle, square and triangle just there and he said 'asobi' ("play," as in having fun). And so it was-- and is, fun.

I'll have to put a plaque on there somewhere. And mention that it's not for sale, so passing driveway collectors will stop ringing my doorbell.

COSMOS REARRANGEMENT RAMBLE

Sogyu the garden landscaper and his crew are recreating our driveway over these few days - during the slow time of their work year - fixing up the numerous minor but collectively uberniggling problems like the vulnerable subsurface drainpipe along here, the recidivist potholes there, there and there, the narrownesses over there and down there, the unevenness at the back that is so startling in the dark, that stone wall bulge, that property line arrangement-- and those big stones in the way, to say nothing of the accursedly recurring ironweeds as I call them, and the unsnowshovelableness of the whole-- I could go on at greater length, but who has the time I have stuff to do...

I could fix the whole thing myself except it would take about 10 years of random nows and thens, and so would in the end be unprofessional and inadequate, not to say slapdash, or at worst completely undone - I do have other requisites in my life, after all, as I've just indicated - plus if I did it my way I'd have to do it myself, which is perhaps the worst aspect, given my innate disinterest in driveway restoration as a fulfilling personal activity.

Anyway, when you hire a professional the result is so much better in so many ways. In this case, in addition to getting to see Sogyu more often - he's a great guy - one of those ways is a driveway worthy of the name-- a nice, artistically scaped driveway, created in much-practiced fashion. If I did it myself I'd fill in a couple holes one weekend, dump some gravel here and there some other weekends, hope for the best for a series of intervening and subsequent weekends - no man is free who owns a house - then have to do the same plus alpha every couple years, but Sogyu zones right in, bam, knows precisely how to make the driveway say Yes! and stay elegant for a good long while, plus he has all the right devices.

I could as I say do it all myself with my merely two hands using rakes, shovels and picks, plus hours, days, years and my aching back, on my days off after I finish all the firewood that's stacked up all over; one has priorities, and dry firewood is a big one round about next January and beyond, when I wouldn't only be looking out the window lamenting my non-optimal driveway, I'd be shivering for lack of heat and cursing my inability to grasp the relative importance of things, and at my age no less, when I should have known better long ago...

Yes, it is best to keep on with the firewooding, gardening, composting, editing and other things I have on track in terms of my own skills and capabilities, and engage the hyperefficient and artistic Sogyu and crew to create a passage worthy of the World Driveway Museum, a wider, more elegant and eloquent driveway that next January and beyond I can gaze upon from the toastiness of my window and think my, what a wonderful arrangement is out there.

Ongoing secrets to a happy life, these skilled rearrangements of the cosmos...

AS TO THE DRIVEWAY

Our good friend Sogyu came by the other day to talk about our driveway, we want to have a new driveway, nothing fancy mind you, just one that doesn't develop potholes every year and that can be shoveled in winter - given that we live on such a slope - and so that Echo can drive right up close to the house in the winter and fully open the car door, yet not slide down the mountain.

Sogyu built the stone wall in front of our house several years ago and did a great job, so there he was on a chilly evening ready to talk driveway, and in one of my usual seeming non-sequiturs I asked him about his monkey problems way out where he lives in the countryside over on the other beyond of these mountains, where all those monkeys must be ogling his garden day and night, and he said he didn't have a monkey problem, a statement that rendered me speechless as he went on to say that he did have a deer problem though, they had put up high nets around the 2 or 3 thousand soybean plants they'd planted last year, but then while they were away for a time the deer had chewed through the netting (large opening!) and then through all the soy plants, a total loss.

I was still speechless though so I didn't think to ask what kind of netting they had used. Reason I asked about monkeys - as if you don't know by now - I've put some netting on hoops over my rows in the garden, as a prototype test against monkeys mainly-- the wild pigs haven't bothered me much yet, but now that I have potatoes (cue theremin riff)...

I know that the deer come through every night and would gladly eat just about everything I have planted, as they have in my prenet past, but I can tell they seem especially to desire the tender leaves of delicious boston lettuce, the delicate fronds of luscious rainbow chard and the toothsome bunches of savory spinach, because every morning when I come out to check and harvest for lunch I see where the deer have fervently tried to push their hooves through the net, or maybe it's their noses, deer fervency can be pretty intense.

I picture them straining for all those illicitly free green preciouses-- just inches-- mere inches-- away from yearning teeth-- and falling short. The vision warms my heart with delight as I tighten the nets once more. These are tough, multifiber plastic nets, with no sign (so far) of deer teeth attempting to chew through them. Sogyu, being a nice guy, must be using tasty cotton nets... Though I still don’t know if these nets of mine will withstand the wiles of monkeys, who have oodles of godgiven time and hunger to outsmart me...

As to what's happening with the driveway, I have no idea. When Sogyu comes again this weekend, I'll be sure to ask him why in the world he has no monkey problems.

DANCING WITH THE RAIN

On hurricaney Saturday afternoon we took a chance and drove around the mountain, then along through the steep valley to visit Yamauto on its closing weekend, low and scudding clouds shrouding the whole already mystic way. Seems though that our mountains keep most of the rain on our side; though cloudy over there, there was no rain for a long while; there were even patches of blue sky above the strong breezes.

There was a bit of a change in the ongoings though, because from Saturday the local villagers began to take part in the festival, teaching traditional crafts, songs and dances. In the photo at left, a village 'grandma' shows Yamauto participants how to weave rope/cloth sandals (rice straw can be used too) using one's big toes as the loom.

It was food to be among all those smiling faces of always fresh intelligence, seekers every one – the music was grand and the sky played along with all its bag of tricks, from shimmering mists to patches of turquoise, drops of gold and sudden rainbows (the best kind).

Met many new friends and saw dear old ones again—saw Sogyu once more in a long time, as hearty as ever, and Nanao (poet) and Isamu (painter; painted the tepee just above). Even when the rain fell at last for a time, strong and steady, it was part of the music and the party, that kept on dancing with the rain.

Isamu, Nanao, Sogyu

Isamu, Nanao, me

******

[In comments to my earlier post on Yamauto, below, intriguing perspectives on Japan's future from Ken Elwood.]

[Later update: just found Goa Gil's photo album of his all-night performance at Yamauto on September 1.]

YAMAUTO 2007

Yesterday being a fine Sunday with weekend work mostly done, we took the afternoon off and drove around the mountain into the beautiful steep-sided valley on the other side, that I've posted about here (Monkey Soup) and here (Sparrow's Inn), it is all as beautiful as always, knocks me out every time. We have to do some serious exploring there, along those streams, up those narrow side roads…

We were heading for the village of Kutsukimura, site of Yamauto, an annual campout eco-event that has a long and growing history under various names, all organized - moreso now than before - by our good friend from way back, Sogyu,

former monk, world-scale zen gardener, stone wall builder (he built our front-back stone wall) and now caretaker of Yoshida mountain in Kyoto. (That's Sogyu with Allan Ginsberg.)

Back in the days when the kids were here we used to take them every year and camp, or just drive out to Sogyu's house in a remote valley accessed only by a narrow winding road that partly travels along along the edge of a deep gorge, beneath steep mountain faces. Many small hamlets along the way, beautiful sights amidst the now lush rice paddies surrounded by forested mountains, a clear fast river running, you want to stop at a dozen places along the way and just get out and walk around, maybe take a swim…

After a long ride we arrived at the village, where Yamauto was being held for two weeks straight, all-night performance music on the weekends, spontaneous music breaking out all the time otherwise,what with craftsmen selling drums, flutes, didgeridoos and all manner of soundmakers; there was a glass blower, folks selling jewelry, clothing, all kinds of natural breads, baked goods and honey, juices, lots of natural food restaurants and cafes there among the trees, and what amazed me was that it was all centered around Sogyu's house! I didn't even recognize the place.

We hadn't bought a festival ticket because we weren't going to camp, only wanted to visit a couple of hours just to see old friends and reconnect, see what the event was like these days, but there were no one-day tickets, so we were thinking maybe if Sogyu was there we could get in for a while just to walk around (we've known Sogyu pretty much from the time we moved to Kyoto in 1980). Turned out he wasn't there, he was finishing up a Tibetan shrine in Taiwan! But just mentioning his name as our old friend got us first class treatment. It was a great and musical couple of hours walking around, talking to friends, eating fine food and looking at all the beautiful stuff. We're going back next weekend again for the final days. Maybe Sogyu will be there.

And then of course there's next year...