There's a neat little restaurant nearby - Akira - that serves some pretty good food for lunch. Well, "neat" probably is not the best word for the restaurant. The carpet is torn and tattered and battered and bruised. An old picture of James Dean is on the floor where he (James) can only see everyones shoes; a flat screen television is sticking out the side of a shelf and is planted at such an angle that only a few patrons near the door and the guy taking orders (who also doles out the rice) can watch it; padded milk crates are the chairs; a white board describes the day's menu - usually A, B or C is what I can recognize and order; two garage doors at the opposite end of the restaurant that (I hope) are permanently closed; lots of wooden pegs from a ship of some sort lining the walls; a big hot soup pot with a ladle and soup - usually miso - where you can serve yourself, and so on. Then there's this:
This photograph was taken before I figured out how to take advantage of the existing lighting and not force the flash to go off. As a consequence, it has that bright streak near the center that distracts my eyes, anyway. The Kanji characters in the circle identify this menu as a 'special'. There are shrimp and fish and clams on the menu too. The texture of the paint caught my eye, especially the drips all over the place. It gives just a hint of Jackson Pollock and makes for the title of this post. Who knew that dripping paint could do so much? I especially like the fact that one wooden peg was removed in order to show the entire menu.
On second thought, maybe the word, 'neat' does describe this place.
2 comments:
Speaking as a specialist on splatter Art not recognized either in the US or abroad - I would have to say that since there has been no new art schools for over three decades now the answer is not Art. But then you mentioned that they moved one of the wood sticks which destroyed the symetry of the work - then I realized yes - Yes - it must be Art! Their act of intention says the world is flawed and they used splatters to underscore this flaw in humanity and civilization. You have found the first really new Art in more than 30 years! Or it could just be that they wanted everyone to see the last two words which are don't piss off the cook he has a really big knife for a meat cleaver! ;-)
messy is the new neat.
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