OK, so around noon I drove over to Berkeley to drop off the two rolls of color I shot with the studio lights. I should not have done this. I should have waited until I'd developed the black and white and tossed them in the trash if the black and white turned out badly, but the hell with it. This development business will happen when and if it must. The day has gone slowly, but driving to Berkeley to drop off film and then on to Telegraph for lunch - a very good pasta lunch - followed by an afternoon nap is my idea of progress. How long has it been since I've walked through the band of grifters, hustlers, wacko's and tourists on Telegraph? Probably not long enough.

The last episode of Musashi played this evening. Jotaro died alone defending the village children, Matahachi died a couple of episodes later defending Otsu from assassins, Matahachi's mother died of old age on her way to her home village the episode before, but Akemi and her baby seem to have made it and Musashi and Otsu escaped through the slaughter in the city. Otsu was a stick figure in Kurosawa's Samurai Trilogy, she fares better here. Matahachi's mother was a complete flippo in the Trilogy - enough to give you a different take on matricide - but here she's only a semi-flippo hateful little old lady. The Musashi myth, a key to understanding the Japanese character? To understanding our own? Who knows? Musashi the movie is good stuff, Musashi the reality would be at best, well, wearing.

Besides, I have this new Chinese Kung Fu series I'm watching now during the week. Chinese women who are not Otsu "follow Musashi no matter what" look alike's, but rock 'em sock 'em fantasy figures with backbone, character and the blood of innocents on their hands.