Life: Farewell, Ozaki-san

Ozaki-san was my mother's friend for over 50 years. They befriended when they met in a college of arts in Tokyo. When my mother sang (she majored voice), Ozaki-san played accompanying piano. Their friendship had been like that.

I remember playing with her kids when I was a kid.

As I left the town, my contact with my parents and Ozaki-san diminished. But when I got back to the town, they were there. Most recently, in 2011, Ozaki-san served as a witness for my first marriage, showing up in the municipal office (Japanese marriage is civil marriage, and requires two witnesses).

It was around that time when I learned that Ozaki-san had pancreatic cancer.

Occasionally over the phone-calls with my mother, I heard how Ozaki-san was doing, like, she had a surgery but the doctors found the cancer inoperable, or she went to Tokyo to get new immune-boost therapy.

My colleague studies pancreatic cancer, and through his presentations I am familiar with the dire statistics for pancreatic cancer. The overall 5-year survival rate after diagnosis, currently in the US, is 4-6 %. The rate is not so different in Japan. Since pancreatic cancer is hard to find, doctors tend to know it too late in an advanced stage. It was the case for Ozaki-san, too.

Pancreas is a critical organ, secreting digestive juice to GI tract and releasing regulatory hormones such as insulin and glucagon to bloodstream. Cancer there can be devastating, and it was to her. The cancer continued to consume her. Last few months was basically terminal care. She was in and out of a hospice. As a long time friend, my mother was involved in Ozaki-san's care.

Ozaki-san passed away on 4/28/2014 because of pancreatic cancer and its complications.

Everyone has to go through his/her own and unique path in life. In the journey we interact with others, sometimes briefly, other times for a long time, in good ways or in bad ways. The interaction between my mother and Ozaki-san was unique in the length and the depth. My mother is fortunate to have had such an interaction, such a friend.

Farewell, Ozaki-san.

Book: "Tango Nuevo" by Carolyn Merritt

Are smartphone and the Internet making reading books obsolete? 

In many ways I am old-fashioned, and I buy and read books. As with many other people who read, I have a few piles of books bought but unread. Yet.

A book I recently finished reading, finally, is "Tango Nuevo" by Carolyn Merritt.

This book was written by an anthropologist who dances Argentine Tango herself, visited Buenos Aires, and interviewed a number of Tango dancers and instructors. It's nowhere near a dry, academic work. On the contrary, it is full of living dancer's raw opinions and feelings. I could relate immediately to many of the comments (and questioned some, too).

This book successfully captures many aspects of Tango culture.

Here I pick a few aspects you can find in the book (in my own words). Tango enthusiasts may be familiar with them already and may know what I am talking about. 

"There is no 'Nuevo'...'nothing is new'-type of view for the dance"
"Some people are nostalgic, and Tango can feed the nostalgia"
"Young and pretty wins in milonga"
"Some shun same sex dancing"
"'Leader (even crappy one) is somehow better than follower'-type Chauvinistic culture" 
"Good dancers matter...elitist approach"
"Social tango dance in milonga vs stage Tango"
"Traditionalist and purist vs 'kids'"
"Bad old dancers"
"It's hard to make business out of Tango in Buenos Aires"
"Tango is a major tourist attraction and an industry in Argentina"
"Tango addicts and the 'dealers'"

As an anthropological work, this book should serve well for a snapshot of fleeting Tango culture, taken around early 2000's and published in 2012. 

Although some aspects are not necessarily pleasant, or are rather even disturbing, for me it was enjoyable read overall. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the culture surrounding Argentine Tango.

Dance: Hugo and Celina US tour 2014

Last summer I introduced Hugo and Celina from Argentina in this blog. Simply put, they are superstar performers in Argentine Tango. Appeared in Broadway and world traveling shows.

They are back in the US for a tour (shows and workshops).

After my divorce, I am keeping a distance from a few people around (until it cools off) and do not feel like I am in the position to directly promote their event in Oklahoma City right now. I'll let the host do his job for proper promotion. 

However, I want to make this blog entry for the dancers' sake. My (somewhat awkward) current position has nothing to do with their artistic excellence. I can attest they are great dancers who can pull off awesome stage performance and do excellent workshops. They are easily a head and shoulders above from other guys from Argentina who claim to teach authentic or whatever social Tango out there. 

Stage Tango and social tango are different games. In general who can dance stage tango well can dance social Tango well too. But reverse is not always the case.

There is somewhat religious aspect in Tango. A believer of a Tango style can vehemently oppose or trash other styles. But I say, stop closing your eyes and open your eyes. Embrace the difference and diversity of Tango.

So, here I suggest readers of this blog to check out their US tour. As in the photo, they'll go through (San Antonio TX), Dallas TX, Oklahoma City OK, Champaing IL and Hilo HI.

Promoters in each city should be able to provide more details. Facebook should be a good source, too.

Facebook also says today is Hugo's birthday. Have a good one, Hugo.

Science: American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting 2014

The AACR annual meeting was held in San Diego this year from 4/5-4/9.

What I noticed this year was further integration of genomic data into the research and clinical processes. 

For example, nowadays when you have breast cancer, it is subtyped based on marker expression and genomic analysis. Based on the size and spread, the stage is determined as well. The subtype and stage generally guide how the treatment is done. We know a particular subtype responds to a particular drug, but not to other drugs.

The genomic information is becoming an integrated part of clinical practice. Researchers are identifying more markers for more cancers (e.g. liver, lung). The information will soon be a basis for novel clinical practice. Translation of information can be quite rapid.

A drug proven ineffective to a cancer can be repositioned to another cancer based on the genomic data. This way, they can save time, effort and money for costly drug development.

As I wrote in last year's entry, big meeting is a good opportunity to catch the trend, catch up with learning and networking, or even for "sightseeing" a research topic.


Overall cancer research is making a progress.

Although someone I know jokingly referred the big AACR meeting to "mega-church", and I sort of agreed with the comment, as long as progress is made, I wouldn't complain.

[The reception party on Sunday night. This dancing crowd is unusually educated bunch. 15% MD PhD, 26% PhD, 18% MD, 13% MS, 15% BS, 10% undergraduate, 3% other, something like that (maybe. this guesstimate is arbitrary and I will not take responsibility for the accuracy). There should be the AACR president himself here. People who know joys of life would value lives more, I suppose.]

[San Diego bay from the convention center]