Thanks!!

I watched Queen of Versailles at the theatre (tax deductible!) and it’s only touring in a few towns now BUT the DVD/BluRay come out Nov 13 (just found out) so it should be on Netflix in 6 more days! (and who knows, maybe streamable too).

Jiro is DEFINITELY on Netflix streaming right now (also on DVD and BluRay). I’ve watched the stream only, but I’d love to see it on BluRay just because it’s so gorgeous. Anyway, you have options.

Also one of the commenters (see above) said it’s streaming free on Amazon Prime. I’m not sure what Amazon Prime is (lol @ my consumer ignorance) but I like the sound of “free”.

I hope that helps!

Can all the movies you review be found on netflix or elsewhere?? I really wanted to watch your last one Queen of Versallies but i couldn’t find it. I’m interested in this one as well . Please let me know thanks

Excerpt:

And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. don’t just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn’t do it any better.

If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can’t be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.

Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.

Pour yourself a beer though, so you can say “aaaaaah!” with Yoshikazu when he attempts to define “umami.”

One of my favorite points:

“…some people tend to assume that doing work you love is free of difficulties and that everything will be well in your life if you just switch careers. It is not. Doing work you love may cost you dearly, especially in the initial stages, and everyone choosing such a path should be willing to pay the price of admission.”

I’ve chosen this path, passing up opportunities to work in the field I chose for college, and after 6 years I’m finally seeing the rewards for my struggles and dedication.

Thanks for the insight and ideas!
Kyle

I think just 2 parts. I was having a hard time keeping all my ideas within the word limit. I didn’t want to just list a bunch of things without analysis, so I’ll deal with other approaches/strategies in part 2.

When will it be published? I’m writing it right now (wanted to get comments first to adjust for part 2) but publishing schedule depends on the boss (and how soon I turn this in, anyway).

I don’t know if I can recommend westerners to follow working their asses and sacrificing family, because people here are not built to withstand such treatment.

Well, of course, neither can I, which is why I ended the article with more or less that caveat.

About the family name, tradition, etc.– okay, but did you hear what Jiro said about his own parents while he was visiting their grave? Daaaaaaamn. He’s totally putting it out there.

This is precisely the reason I stuck to approaches to work and kept the psychoanalysis out of the article — we really don’t know enough about this family to make a judgment. All we can do is speculate. But once the cat is out of the bag, I’ll speculate he is a good loving father who thinks a lot about his children.

What I’m asking of readers here is simpler though– can we learn anything from this guy? Can we apply some of what he does to our own lives? We don’t have to copy everything he does. Even Jiro’s younger son, who apprenticed with his father, doesn’t do exactly the same thing– his restaurant, by his own words, offers “a more relaxed atmosphere”.

I’m sure us westerners will remain casual and continue to watch sports on weekends (I do)– applying mindfulness and practicing love of the work we’ve chosen isn’t going to destroy that though, but it could help end the misery so many people feel at work.

Life doesn’t have to be a succession of TGIFs.

This article is very interesting and I hope to see the film before you publish Part Two. BTW – how many parts? And when will the next be?

I don’t know if there is a choice, though. In Asian cultures, as far as I know, you obey your elders. Even as adults, there is none of this “cutting out toxic relationships” concept. One cannot simply “cut” family ties, as easy as people do here in the West. Secondly, in Asian cultures, you’re responsible to maintain your family’s good name. Therefore any resentment or conflict within the family must be kept within the family and to the outside world, we must show that we’re strong and united.

The movie is great and when I saw it, it made me yearn for life back in Asia, the values I was taught. The lessons are great but I don’t know if I can recommend westerners to follow working their asses and sacrificing family, because people here are not built to withstand such treatment.

It’s a bit like the Peter Principle, but not so much about the level of ability as the level of enjoyment you get from your job.

I guess what I am saying is that if we think of complex corporate jobs you don’t have the leeway to stay in one stop and just master what you are doing, you either do this and get bypassed for promotions, or you chose to go up the ladder often at the cost of moving away from the job aspects you like.

It’s amazing how reframing your attitude can totally change the situation. Great article.

Your comment was eaten by spamfilters (not sure why, the server is bananas) but I just fished it out. Already replied to the points you make in my reply to Amy.

However, I’ll add– his relationship with his sons seems to me to be very loving one.

The fact that he couldn’t see his children much while they grew up might not have been his choice, or it might have been the “tough love” choice of doing what he could to save them from poverty and destitution (because he grew up an orphan and was abandoned by his father when he was 7).

The invitation to jump to conclusions is certainly there, but there really isn’t enough information for me to say “this is what was going on with his family.”

His present relationship with his sons, however, I see as one of strong love and caring– I can see that in the way the talk to each other and about each other and the way they care.

Just as an fyi, I work for a government agency. Finding your niche and work that you love is not limited to being self-employed. It’s about keeping your heart and mind open to opportunity and not being afraid to try some new things.

I get what you’re saying, but we have a circle of artist/academic friends, and the tenure-track folks are the one-percenters of our world!

I mean, many of us teach or have taught or are looking for teaching jobs just so we can eat. And these are adjunct jobs I’m talking about– no benefits, nothing. The tenure-trackers are buying homes while the rest of us are looking for ever-cheaper rentals (some even couch-surf on occasion).

My wife and I decided to skip the teaching thing and focus on the creative work, and make it work come hell or high water. It hasn’t been easy but we’re making progress- though we’re still definitely “the working poor”.

One of our friends who used to be a “famous” artist is now a tenured professor because of economic pressures– when she complains to us about money, we laugh to her face. “You eat at restaurants!” we tell her.

Then again, she’s not an investment banker.

Wealth is definitely relative!