RANmagazine: Don't Try This At Home (MANGA)

  

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This is the latest RAN comics strip from my buddy and our illustrator/writer/wierd dude Adam Pasion
Check out his site--http://www.biguglyrobot.net/

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RANmagazine: SISOSIG-YardWork

By J.L. Gatewood

Greetings fellow Also-RANs. I'll save the lengthy introduction; you should know me by now, or at least have read that one "Gaijin Superstar" volume of this tome, issue 4 if you need to refer back to it. In that one, I introduced myself as the staffer here who actually came under his own volition, with out the aid of psychedelic drugs, extortion, or other dark influences, to JapanLand. I started this journey physically in 2001, but really before that as a teen in 1991 growing up in the Nikkei infested sprawl that is Los Angeles.

I'm penning this edition of SISSIG "Yardwork" because some of us need to maintain our lawns, our mental greenery. Specifically, living here in Japan for certain lengths of time causes us to want to peer over our psychological fences and stare at our neighbor's seemingly lush gardens. Stare at their seemingly soft, carpet like turf, and HATE. Don't be decieved though. The grass is not as green over there as you think...

Since being in and outta Japan for 10 years, people have started regarding me as some sort of "Life In Japan SAGE" or something to that effect. Don't be fooled though; I have been known to go days on end absolutely HATING this place. Any mention of conversation about medical care, government, taxes (and payment thereof), grocery shopping, traveling during Golden, Silver, and New Years week, or buying a plane ticket back to the States-- has the same mental effect on me as if Freddy Kruger scratched his hand-knives across a chalkboard a mere 2cm away from my ears... やだ。Guess what y'all, I'M HUMAN TOO! I get tired of being in a different environment...even though I CHOSE to be here under my own volition. The key here though is, I don't go raining on someone else's parade about it every 5 seconds.

Some of y'all out there are fed up with Japan for various reasons... That's good. Healthy too. Maybe it's time for you to move on to something new. But God gave me two ears for a reason... I heard ya TWICE the first time, ya dig? So please spare me the re-run and don't keep spouting the same "GTFO Japan" spiel to me everytime you see me in Kanayama, in Sakae, and Mei-eki. Maybe I like it here man... Maybe I can put up with JapanLand's ideosyncrasies more than you... Maybe I like those things that you hate...

As for me being a sage on AllThingsJapan... Well, no. I don't pretend to even come close to that moniker; anyday you'll find me asking for advice from someone as well. I can only tell you what works for me. Everyday is a struggle, but for the sadist in me, this is why I love my experience here. Because its hard work. Not everyone can do this. Not everyone is able to pick a life up and set it down in a totally foreign spot on Earth and make like its the same thang, different longitude. Then again, not everyone can be an astronaut, basketballer, or hip-hop superstar. Just like drinking, you should know when you've had enough and just say no.

It's not giving up, or giving in; its moving on and finally letting your lawn grow the way its supposed to grow. As for me-- Well like my homie Adam P said in this same column in issue 4-- "נρη 4 ℓуƒє вιт¢нєѕ!"
When I've had my fill of this joint, I'll save you the drama, and just push away from the bar, take my ball, and go home.

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Here's my last article from RANmagazine. Tell me what ya think!

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RAN Magazine Issue Five. Happy Golden Week!

This is Issue Five for May and June 2010.  Happy Golden Week!

Look for the hard copy in the usual spots soon; looks like our printers took an early holiday...  Ahh, well, with this great weather who can blame them...

RAN Magazine Issue5 May/June 2010
Posted via web from RANdom musings from Nagoya

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Thank you Nagoya! We ROCKed THIS TOWN!!

To everyone that was there: thanks for coming-- I'm still exhausted from Friday, so I'm late in posting some pix of the event.  Also if you have some pictures you want to share, please share them here or just go ahead and email them to editor@ranmagazine.com

Thank you for coming out and supporting Haiti and RAN magazine.  

Here's some pix from our photo editor Achim Runnebaum.

Posted via email from RANdom musings from Nagoya

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J7TV: Blogcast for 2.7.2010... yeah, I'm late.

Click to Play

Been really busy and forgot to post this joint.... whoops! Here I'm talking about bein' cold in my apartment... How to use Google Apps to help publish a magazine... Bitly Pro... Nagoya Haiti Benefit Concert. Check it out!

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RAN Staff Brainstorming Session for Dec09 Issue...

Download now or watch on posterous

RAN staff why japan interview teaser video.m4v (18726 KB)

We can't take a single break here, lest our readers get furious for not tickling their intellectual sphincters on a bi-monthly basis...  So back to the lab with Nagoya's Furious Five to come up with another way to make you go hmmm.....

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RAN Magazine. Issue One. DONE!

Just want to say to everyone that had a hand in making this happen... Thank you from the bottom of my soul. You know, I came back to Japan last year on a mission. I wanted to be able to become successful, being able to do something I love to do, in the land that I love being in. Most people thought I was off my meds when I left a decent job in Atlanta in the States (the job payed well, but I was pushed so far out of my field, I became rather bored with it.) to come back here.

But since the day I got back here in Japan, I was on a mission to achieve my dreams. I seeked out like-minded people, both old friends from before, and new ones I just met. We put forth an idea. That idea was basically, "why not just go ahead and do our thing. We're photographers. We're writers. We're designers. We're entrepreneurs. We are dreamers AND doers."

So we did it. I have the first copy of RAN Magazine in my hands... and along with the other 999 copies from our first print run, we will show Nagoya that there is more to the gaijin (foreign) community than just a gaggle of loosely-connected slackers enjoying an almost free ride here on the other side of the planet. Much more.

I invite you to check out our magazine... join our facebook fan page, follow us on twitter.

Once again, thank you everyone.

PS, you can read the entire magazine.... ONLINE>> http://sn.im/ran-mag-aug2009

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