Delia Tomino Nakayama

29 Mar 2008	Tomi-Talk: Spring Cleaning With the rebirth of spring comes a natural desire to clean out our closets, throw away clutter and begin again.
22 Mar 2008	Tomi-Talk: Angels in Babylon Last August, Peter and I “cat and apartment-sat” for an usual woman named Alexandra Monett de Callatay, a Belgian baroness and widow of Belgian baron and painter Xavier de Callatay.
15 Mar 2008	Tomi-Talk: March Meanderings Greetings all! How goes it? I am finding that I miss the Bay Area a bit more than usual, lately ... Have you been to the ocean, to the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, or walked...
8 Mar 2008	Tomi-Talk: Grant-Writing Blues Greetings all! Please pardon my absence last week; the last couple of weeks were dedicated to getting a grant application in on time ... If you’ve ever applied for a grant from...
23 Feb 2008	Tomi-Talk: Black Pepper Last week we went into Matassa’s as usual, and were looking for black pepper. As is often the case there, one has to ask if something is around as it might not have been unpacked yet...
16 Feb 2008	Tomi-Talk: Money as Religion Greetings all! I hope you’ve had a productive and enjoyable week. We are slowly getting back in the groove and returning to whatever “normal” is here, post-Mardi Gras.
9 Feb 2008	Tomi-Talk: Random February-ing Thoughts Greetings all! :) I write this to you on Ash Wednesday, a day I took no real notice of until moving to New Orleans, as this religious day punctuates Mardi Gras.
2 Feb 2008	Tomi-Talk: Getting in the Spirit Greetings all! Mardi Gras is right around the corner (Feb. 5) and I finally feel as if I’m getting in the spirit of our yearly catharsis of joy and indulgence. The sun came out today...
26 Jan 2008	Tomi-Talk: Random January Thoughts It is still winter (though I keep hoping spring will magically appear, even if prematurely) and quite cold here in New Orleans. I became so used to the the long hot days of summer...
19 Jan 2008	Tomi-Talk: What's in a Name? Greetings all! I hope this day finds you happy and healthy... And that the new year is bringing to you new opportunities and uncharted avenues that inspire creativity and expansion...
12 Jan 2008	Tomi-Talk: Hawaiians in New Orleans Greetings dear readers and yes, I had to rewrite the year when I dated this, still unaccustomed to writing “8” instead of “7”...!
29 Dec 2007	Tomi-Talk: What Have We Learned? I write this to you, last-minute like, on a misty, verging on rainy day in between Christmas and New Year’s Day and I’ll send it in to J.K. in the hopes he’s got room for it for Dec. 29’s issue ...
22 Dec 2007	Tomi-Talk: Prayer Overwhelmed by the news of rapidly melting ice caps and historical wounds opened up by recent threats of demolition to intact housing projects here in New Orleans (which currently claims 12,000 homeless people)...
15 Dec 2007	Tomi-Talk: Forgiveness I was relieved to read in New Orleans’ Offbeat Magazine that someone else (Harry Shearer, a New Orleans entertainer) feels that “Christmastime is a tough time for everyone.”
8 Dec 2007	Tomi-Talk: Being Honest What are the benefits of being honest? Perhaps as they are more subtle than the benefits of being dishonest, they are often overlooked or forgotten.
6 Dec 2007	Tomi-Talk: Winter As the compassionate and crafty arachnid of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web liked to say, “Greetings and salutations!” It seems that winter is upon us and...
1 Dec 2007	Tomi-Talk: Kitty Cat Time Greetings all ~ Ladyfest New Orleans 2007 was a time of unity and new beginnings. Musical collaborations were born and women artists got to know each other better or met for the first time ...
17 Nov 2007	Tomi-Talk: Random November-ing Thoughts There are too many different things to talk about today, so I’ll let “random thoughts” help me make my way ...
10 Nov 2007	Tomi-Talk: Cathartic Parading Greetings all! Please pardon my absence last week; I was in the midst of helping organize “Ladyfest,” a women’s music/poetry/visual art festival here in New Orleans, and...
27 Oct 2007	Tomi-Talk: Shiny Objects Upon returning to New Orleans after being in The Big Apple and Boston for a week, I must say I felt swayed by all of the shiny objects I was exposed to far from home.
20 Oct 2007	Tomi-Talk: Visiting Toyo Greetings all. I write this from Maplewood, New Jersey, a suburb outside of New York City. It is the first time I have gone on vacation in about two years.
13 Oct 2007	Tomi-Talk: The Green-Eyed Monster Greetings all! I hope you are faring well and entering into fall with lessons learned from the summer, armed with an invigorated perspective ...
6 Oct 2007	Tomi-Talk: Turning 40 Greetings all! I write this column on Oct. 3 and indeed, as the title proclaims, I greet my 40th birthday today! :)
29 Sep 2007	Tomi-Talk: Random September-ing Thoughts Greetings all! Another tip of the hat to neighboring columnist Takeo “Babe” Utsumi. I am amazed at the pieces of news he finds for us. And his sense of humor is very unique, don’t you think?
22 Sep 2007	Tomi-Talk: The Ancestors I have heard people say that they feel connected to their ancestors. And that they give spiritual offerings to their ancestors, who guide and protect them. I was always a bit puzzled...
15 Sep 2007	Tomi-Talk: The Edge of the World Greetings all! I write to you from the French Quarter in New Orleans, on a rainy Thursday afternoon.
8 Sep 2007	Tomi-Talk: Respect I have been thinking about the different ways in which the word “respect” is interpreted. Particularly, about the contrasting contexts of Japanese and American culture and how the two cultures define or show respect.
1 Sep 2007	Tomi-Talk: Love Greetings All! Since I last wrote, we’ve moved from the Marigny to the French Quarter, to a “slave quarters” apartment. It’s small but works for us, and is centrally located, especially since Hurricane Katrina.
18 Aug 2007	Tomi-Talk: The Cat Came Back During this humid, brain-frying New Orleanian August, with heat indexes above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, it is hard to write anything of substance, I am sorry to say.
11 Aug 2007	Tomi-Talk: Something something, something to say
4 Aug 2007	Tomi-Talk: A Californian in New Orleans Although I like to think of myself as a New Orleanian, the truth is I am a native Californian. I’ve chronicled the contrasts of living here versus there in numerous columns, so...
28 Jul 2007	Tomi-Talk: Poetic Musings meshing back into her folds each day another puzzle piece to replace all the days i was away
14 Jul 2007	Tomi-Talk: Creativity A memory recently came back to me of being at Ocean Beach in San Francisco about 20 years ago. I was enjoying the freedom I always feel being by the sea and carving out an eye in the sand.
7 Jul 2007	Tomi-Talk: Keeping in Touch Greetings all ~ I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since I have written to you ... Please pardon my absence! I have been busy with all sorts of activities and challenges...
9 Jun 2007	Tomi-Talk: Victory Greetings all! I hope you are enjoying the end of spring and are making exciting plans for the summer ...! I will be teaching poetry classes again in Lafayette (a two-hour drive from New Orleans) and of course working out the songs Peter and I wrote over the past year...
2 Jun 2007	Tomi-Talk: Time Have you ever traveled to a place that altered your sense of time? Or had an experience that made you view time differently? It’s an odd sensation to travel to another part of the country or world, especially by plane, and suddenly be not only in a different time zone, but also...
26 May 2007	Tomi-Talk: Generosity Please pardon my pontificating ways; I know I can be a bit redundant and overly florid, too ... At the risk of sounding cheesy and/or didactic, I did want to share with you a realization that’s been culminating within me over a period of time and has finally permeated...
19 May 2007	Tomi-Talk: La Vie Est Triste Sans Confiture Recently I was reminded of a French saying, one that was told to me years ago by an Italian-Swiss woman visiting California: “La vie est triste sans confiture,” which directly translated into English is, “Life is sad without jam.”
5 May 2007	Tomi-Talk: Listening Are we listening? Not just to words or intonations, but to the birds singing, the beating of our hearts, the footsteps of our children ... Listening to eyes, watching their expressions and noticing them change...
28 Apr 2007	Tomi-Talk: Poetic Perseverance Greetings from New Orleans! As I was cycling up St. Charles Avenue last night after “making groceries” at Zara’s (located at the corner of Prytania and Josephine streets), trying to make it on time to hear some music way uptown at a cafe on Danneel Street by Soniat...
21 Apr 2007	Tomi-Talk: The Courage to Connect I just received a very heartfelt letter from someone who read my column for the first time, a recent one titled “Trust.” I must say the letter brought tears to my eyes, for it was of a confessional nature.
14 Apr 2007	Tomi-Talk: Being There Hello everyone ... After a rocky first week settling back into New Orleans, I am still smiling, knowing that I’ve been extremely fortunate to find old friends still standing (and smiling, too!), housing and music gigs ...
5 Apr 2007	Tomi-Talk: Trust What could possibly be more powerful than power, money or fame? Some would say family, love and faith. And I wouldn’t disagree, but I think trust is one of the most potent resources one can develop and maintain in one’s life.
27 Mar 2007	Tomi-Talk: On the Road Again Hello everyone! :) Well, as the title of this column suggests, I am leaving town and heading back down to Louisiana.
17 Mar 2007	Tomi-Talk: ‘Random Thoughts’ One of the best Japanese American events to go to during the wintertime is a crab and spaghetti feed. I am trying to remember the one I went to several years ago ... I was lucky enough to find free tickets somehow, perhaps through Hokubei Mainichi?
6 Mar 2007	Tomi-Talk: Play It Through Greetings all ...!  The title of this column comes from something jazz maverick Miles Davis once said to one of his drummers. I personally admire his immense creative vision and resonate with his need to “step outside the box.”
17 Feb 2007	Tomi-Talk: Grove Street Poem ‘valentine’s day’   two zojirushi thermos lunchboxes on the corner of parker and martin luther king jr way or “old grove steet” (japanese americans could not own property below grove street back in the day)
9 Feb 2007	Tomi-Talk: Being Hapa I have mentioned Hapa events in the past and within a larger context (i.e. traveling in Japan or living in New Orleans). I’ve briefly talked about what it is like to be Hapa or Haafu (being mixed with Japanese in contrast to being “pure” Japanese), but I’ve...
27 Jan 2007	Tomi-Talk: Living Treasures At last Saturday’s Community Works’ “If They Came for Me Today/Japanese American Internment Project” event at the SF Main Library, emcee journalist Wendy Hanamura wisely pointed out, “We are all living treasures...
13 Jan 2007	Tomi-Talk: Night Poem whispering through the darkness / as if on padded feet like a stealthy cat / a spirit creeps through the hallway / and wakes me up
30 Dec 2006	Tomi-Talk: Change Greetings all! Happy New Year and many good wishes to you ... Do you write New Year’s resolutions? I try to give myself a full month after the first of the year to write mine, so that they are sufficiently challenging, but not impossible to accomplish. I hope it will be a tremendous year for all of us, which happens to be the Year of the Boar or the Pig in the Chinese astrological calendar.
23 Dec 2006	Tomi-Talk: Oakland Chinatown Poem “delicious food co. in oakland chinatown/canvas bag/free refills”
16 Dec 2006	Tomi-Talk Greetings all!! Pardon my absence; resettling in the Bay Area has required a lot of busy-ness and scuttling about from place to place, attending to “this and thats” of all sorts ...
28 Nov 2006	Tomi-Talk: Bike Riding Dream Poem Greetings all!  I hope you had a good turkey day ... I was delighted to eat some very fresh and softly-rendered California roll at the Tanemuras as well as an incredibly smooth and coconut-bottomed flan made by their future son-in-law ...
18 Nov 2006	Tomi-Talk I’ve been putting together a jazz improv band with three other musicians...
21 Oct 2006	Tomi-Talk Whimsy has struck my mood and I want to write about my green-eyed, grey and brown, snowcap-chinned tabby cat, Sabona.

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