Japan dreams and Jesus; more Michelle Shocked

Had elaborate dreams of a spur-of-the-moment return to Japan last night, where I spent the whole trip taking cellphone photographs to prove to my girl that it actually happened. I remember being at the school where I once worked, meeting several familiar faces, and a few unfamiliar ones - like a Japanese teacher with an enormous, bushy beard, which would definitely count as unusual; teachers were gathered in a parking lot for some sort of Shinto or Buddhist ceremony (?) while I showed my former coworkers the photos I took of the previous night's venture into Tokyo. I also got more than a few names wrong, as I tried to say hello to people I recognized (I comically mistook a big-bodied, beautiful in an I'll-kick-your-ass kinda way female gym teacher for her very short, compact, un-beautiful male counterpart, much to my embarrassment...).

That's about all I remember of that; it was the fruit, it seems, of an especially deep and indulgent sleep, since I was under for something like ten hours. I woke up, peed, and then promptly got a buzz at my door; I picked up the "door phone," thinking maybe it was some pornography I'd ordered - I've been wanting, thanks to Robin Bougie, to revisit some Golden Age of Porn classics - and instead was invited by someone named Asher to discuss (it sounded like he said) "the morality of Jesus Christ." I didn't invite him up. Now I return to my computer where my morning is to be spent lookin' at an advance copy of Chris Walter's new book... my head is feeling a bit wonky, needless to say. Maybe I should go get a coffee before I proceed...?

Re: Michelle Shocked, I'm most amused by the final sentence here, which is obviously from some hapless bar employee trying to fend off the intrusive reporter's questions as to whether their Michelle Shocked gig is to be cancelled. (In case the link stops working, the paragraph in question is: "The only U.S. date that has not canceled Shocked at this point is the Harmony Bar in Madison, WI, where a person answering the phone Tuesday evening responded, 'I won't know a damn thing until the boss comes back in eight days.'"). I can't really explain why I find it so funny - I am even amused by the intrusive reporter's INCLUSION of the quote. It's like: "the internet versus the real world," with the internet trying desperately to confirm that its victory is final... the crazy thing is, it's not at all clear WHAT Shocked was saying during her Yoshi's performance; saying the audience can tell the Twittersphere that she said "God hates faggots" is nowhere near the same as HER saying it, as a simple, sincere declaration; you can tell the blogosphere that I like the taste of mushrooms, if you like, but the fact is, I hate it. And coming from someone who, like it or not, has been seized as a lesbian icon, who was playing in San Francisco to a crowd she must have known was heavily bepeopled with gays and lesbians... the "real" story seems a little different from the one the internet as a whole is getting so slathered up about, which seems to be running on oversimplification and outrage ("Michelle Shocked says 'God Hates Fags!'" ...uh, not exactly).

(She probably emerge looking very good in the "real" story, either, mind you, but...).