The Japanese have a word for severe social withdrawal: hikikomori.

It refers to people, usually men aged 18 to 35, who refuse to leave their homes, and often won't even leave their bedrooms. They do not socialize and they do not work or attend school. For an "official" diagnosis, the Hikikomori must do this consecutively for at least six months. However, many spend decades alone in their bedrooms, some even dying there, having isolated themselves until they're without friend or family.

One researcher compared its growing prevalence in Japan to homelessness in the US — Americans have millions of homeless, whereas Japan only has about ten thousand homeless. Yet, an estimated 500,000 to 1 million Japanese Hikikomori exist — and those are 2010 numbers.

France 24 English did a segment on it:

Rent-A-Sister

The phenomena has given birth to an industry of women for hire, known as Rent-a-Sisters. They are not social workers, nor are they professionally trained. They're paid (usually by the victim's parents) to visit the Hikikomori and talk with them. At the start, it's usually through the bedroom door, and over months or years becomes a face-to-face relationship. Eventually, it can lead to outdoor accompaniment, and, hopefully, cause the afflicted to move out on their own and start a normal life.

I found the topic rather interesting and it checked my Unorthodox Work box.

Amelia Hemphill has a BBC short on the Hikikomori and the Rent-A-Sisters program:

More Info

There is more info on the Hikikomori Wikipedia page: and an entry on Psychology Today. Some former Hikikomori even have a magazine, HikiPos.

For an even deeper dive, there's Saito Tamaki's book, Hikikomori: Adolescence Without End, which was the publication to first bring the phenomena to a wider audience within Japan.

"Taking the Highest Average score from each year (with over 1k reviews) let's see how different the Academy Awards canon would look if Letterboxd chose the Oscars' winners for best film. This list excludes Documentaries, Shorts , Concert films and Limited Series."

I agree with much of this.

I disagree most with 2007. There's no question in my mind that No Country For Old Men is a better film than There Will Be Blood.

Got taken to Donna's for a birthday dinner and these photos and more were what was up on the wall. Visit that fantastic restaurant to check them out, or if you're too late, they're on photographer Finn O'Hara's website:

Finn O’Hara - Photographer / Director | PERSONAL | 0

Selected work of Photographer / Director Finn O’Hara. Based in North America. Represented by RSA Films.

Finn O'Hara - Photographer / Director

Mossy.Earth is a member-driven organization that works to restore wild ecosystems, support wildlife and biodiversity, and help fight climate change.

Their YouTube channel has some very interesting and informative videos outlaying their projects.

Here's one on a forest they flooded in 2022:

And another on rewilding a Butterfly meadow:

Check out their site at mossy.earth and consider becoming a member.

I've been a fan of JSG Boggs since first hearing about him in the 90s. He passed in 2017, but I've been thinking about him lately as I'm about to launch A Tiny Bell.

Boggs did one thing and he did it very well: he drew money.

Here's a scenario: Boggs goes out for lunch, and while sitting there having his sandwich and drinking his coffee, he finishes drawing a $20 bill he'd started days earlier — just one side of it — and signs his name as "Secretary Treasurer." He then offers it to the waiter as payment for his lunch. If the person declines, he pays with "real money" and goes on his way. But, if the person accepts his art as money, Boggs expects his proper change from the twenty along with a receipt.

Boggs then sells the receipt and the change to an art dealer and the art dealer goes to the address on the receipt and attempts to purchase the Boggs bill from the waiter. If successful, the change, receipt, and bill are then framed as a complete piece of art which is then again sold by the dealer to a collector.

If Boggs used the bill to purchase a non-consumable, that item is also part of the finished piece. For instance, he once drew five one thousand dollar bills and used them to purchase a $4999.00 Virago motorcycle:

Fascinating, yes?

Lawrence Weschler wrote a great book about Boggs, Boggs: A Comedy of Values, and there's a good, low-quality 15 minute short about him on Youtube with the same name:

Anecdote Alert!

I once tried to convince Boggs to let me design him a website and he could pay me with Boggs Bills. He didn't have a site at the time, but he didn't hesitate — the proposition broke his rules and he declined. Very disappointing, but completely understandable.

All this talk about money reminds me of my first trip to Los Angeles. May, 2010.

I was in a West Hollywood Target. In the checkout line, I got stuck behind behind a man who was taking an inordinate amount of time to pay for a 2L bottle of orange soda. The holdup was because he insisted on drawing on his bills before surrendering them to the cashier.

Wanting to leave the shop, I offered to pay for his drink to speed things along. The cashier checked his progress and turned to me and said, "He's almost done." Indeed, he was, and when he handed over the second bill and left with his purchase, I asked her what was up. She shrugged and said, "Dunno. He always does that. They're the same every time."

I asked if I could have his bills in my own change and she obliged. To to this day I carry them with me for luck when I travel. Here they are:

For more info on this Boggs, visit the official site: The Estate of JSG Boggs — which I did not design.

Childish Gambino's new video may be his best yet, which is saying something. Give it a watch or two and then check out the lyrics.

The less this video and song make sense to you, the more I would encourage you to check the analysis of the lyrics on Genius. And yeah, I could have done without the Nudy part, too.

If you're one of those folks who has a mom worth celebrating, remember to give her a call. It's Mothers' Day, Fool!:

What. The. Hell?! Of course, it's from Mr. T's Be Somebody or Be Somebody's Fool:

When I travel, I try to focus on something ubiquitous and mundane that recalls the location. In Autumn, 2017, I spent three months wandering the orange groves of Oliva, Spain, and was particularly taken with the tool sheds and utility boxes. I decided to document them. Here, I've gathered my favorites.

"Polanoid was invented because the magic of Polaroid pictures, the thrilling Edwin Land story and because the charm and touch of Polaroid cameras hit us like a sledge hammer." So says the founders of the Polaroid archiving website that is not only still running, but has new posts as of just a few days ago.

"Hungry for real analog, good smelling pictures in a digital world, we decided to swim against the stream and to reset our focus and start the biggest, best and most instant online photo community ever. Stuffed with millions of Polaroids, collected and uploaded by Polaroid addicts all over the planet."

All of the above pieces are by member, alodia, but Polonoid has many members.

Things Magazine has compiled an archive of Pelican Book covers from the 1930s through the 1980s. I first found this archive back in 2008 and am delighted that it's still online.

The entire archive can be viewed on the Things Magazine website.