User:Eishagishi
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| Eishagishi ca. 1992 |
Paul here, living these days in Albuquerque, in "The Land of Enchantment" New Mexico USA. Hajimemashite! Porco Rosso is my sentimental favorite though I love all of the Studio Ghibli films. At one time I was a professional pilot with an FAA ATP certificate for single- and multi-engine land airplanes, plus commercial privileges for single-engine seaplanes and gliders - Marco's character in Porco Rosso resonates quite deeply with me. 飛ばねえ豚、ただの豚だ。 (Tobanee buta, tada no buta da. A pig that doesn't fly is just a pig.?) I love that line!
In previous lives I've worked as - digital cinema projection install/service tech, airline MD-80 aircraft maintenance planner, part-time college Japanese language teacher and tutor, and later at the same school, part-time instructor teaching aviation courses (and was a volunteer faculty adviser for that school's anime club) in Las Vegas, NV. Also, escaped to SoCal for a few years working in the aerospace field as a spacecraft controller and software engineer in El Segundo and Long Beach, CA. Worked my way through college and flight training as a stagehand on the Las Vegas Strip (lighting and sound and projection), TV/movie production technician (camera, video, tapeworm, TD), studio projectionist on the movie Casino, and IMAX Dome projectionist at Caesars Palace. Taught spotlight operator and video projection classes for the stagehands union IATSE Local 720. Also spent 31 years as a volunteer youth leader/instructor with the USAF Auxiliary (a.k.a. Civil Air Patrol) Cadet Program. Even got to escort a small group of CAP cadets on an International Air Cadet Exchange trip to Japan in 1995. I'm semi-retired now, servicing digital projection installations and still occasionally working as an on-call film projectionist, most recently on the limited 70mm roadshow releases of Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" in 2015 and Christopher Nolan's 70mm roadshow release "Oppenheimer" in 2023.
Hobbies - collect Japanese movies (500+ on film and UHD Blu-ray to date), movie theater posters (40+ Ghibli-related ones out of 120 total to date), soundtracks, sheet music, art books, and souvenir roadshow program pamphlets for the "Kinema Kawasumi Archives" collection I started in 1999. Study Japanese language whenever I can, and volunteer as a reader's theater performer and tech with the NM JACL Players. Oh, and occasionally still help out with this Wiki project.
Skype name: eishagishi
Kinema Kawasumi Archives Facebook page
Jaa ne!
"Eishagishi" (映写技師) = projectionist. Yoroshiku ne!
オタクはつらいよ (Otaku wa tsurai yo It's tough being a fan!?)