INTERVIEWING THE INTERVIEWER! My Toho Kingdom Q&A Is Now Online!

Yours truly at the Godzilla statue in Hibiya. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I've done countless interviews over the years, but it's a much rarer occasion (to say the very least) for me to be the subject of an interview. So I'm very pleased to share Patrick Galvan's interview with me that has just been published on Toho Kingdom.

Patrick did a fantastic job with his interview, and it was great to have the opportunity to address the questions he asked. 

Check it out, and let me know what you think.

How Times Have Changed...

Mt. Fuji on a cloudy day. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Ever since I've moved to Tokyo, I've started blogging a lot more. Of course, it makes sense. During my first three years in Japan, when I would get home to Nakatsugawa, Gifu, from visiting Tokyo, I would usually be exhausted. I often took the night bus to and from Tokyo, so blogging was about the last thing I wanted to do when I got home.

But now that I'm in Tokyo, blogging is much more convenient for me, and I'm enjoying it more. As a matter of fact, according to this blog's archives, in the entire year of 2013, I only made 26 blog posts. However, for the month of August this year, I have written 29 posts (including this one).

So I have blogged more this month than I did for the entire year two years ago. I must say, that's pretty incredible.

As usual, keep it here for more updates on the coolest kaiju events happening anywhere in the world!

THIS BLOG'S NAMESAKE FEATURED IN A TOHO FILM! Who Knew the Crazy Cats Were So Crazy?!

A screen shot taken from the Crazy Cats comedy Damasarete Moraimasu (1971), which was partially filmed in New York. Damasarete Moraimasu © 1971, Toho Co., Ltd.

Recently, a friend of mine gave me a copy of the Crazy Cats comedy Damasarete Moraimasu (1971), in which members of the gang go to various locations in America, such as Hawaii, New York, and Las Vegas.

During the New York sequences, in which Crazy Cats Hitoshi Ueki and Kei Tani dance and sing around famous places in the Big Apple, a movie theater screening the film Pigeons (1970) is clearly (but briefly) visible.

Why is that notable? Pigeons is an alternate title for The Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker, after which this blog was named. (Technically, however, this blog's name owes more to Gene Siskel's reference to the movie title on an old episode of Siskel & Ebert than it does to the film itself, which I've still never seen.)

All that aside, I was floored to see that this blog's namesake actually made it into a Toho film! So I guess this blog is officially Toho canon then, eh?

August 25: A year old

What a year it's been!

On August 25, 2009, I created this very blog. I had no real expectations for it, and I wasn't sure what direction it would ultimately take. While many blogs come and go, I'm very proud that this one has made it this far.

On the blog's first day of existence, I posted a notice about Akira Takarada's appearing in a stage adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard. Less than a year later, I would assist Mr. Takarada throughout his entire stay at G-FEST. (I picked him up from the airport and dropped him off at the airport security line. I was the first and last person who saw him in Chicago.) For this reason, I decided to use the above photo of Mr. Takarada from G-FEST's Sunday morning interview to illustrate this blog post. It certainly feels like it's come full circle!

Now we officially start the second year of Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker. I hope it's just as fun as the first!

The inspiration for this blog's name

Finally, the video containing the inspiration for this blog's unusual name makes it back to YouTube!

As a longtime Siskel & Ebert fan, I love watching old S&E videos on the Internet. One of my favorite clips was their review of the 1987 children's film Benji the Hunted. This particular review is famous (infamous?) for the fact that Ebert recommends the Benji film when he, earlier in the program, panned Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.

In discussing other strange movie titles, Siskel mentions one of his favorites. That was all the inspiration I needed.