So this is a story about a promise, or in the very least the sentiment of a
promise. It ends with the morning. A slow embrace to a broken social scene
song, salty smiles and a ticking clock ... ten months or so have passed
since that embrace began, that never had a fixed address. Despite its
nomadic nature, it was best and irresistible! Time was always our enemy
second only to geography and now it seems as if both have become too
overpowering.
To many this tale is a rather trivial one but possibly familiar, trust me
there was nothing familiar to it. The brief windows of time we had,
illuminated many things for me, which I hope to not forget any time soon or
at all if possible. Like letting someone go just because you care so much
for them. In fact I think the more I accept that things simply happen and
grabbing hold of the ones I can, the more enjoyable everything seems to have
become. Don't get me wrong I'm neither advocating anarchism or opportunism,
but rather highlighting the fact that in so many points in time there are
potentials for tiny instances of greatness, in that way Valý represents a
revelation to me. As a typical reminder of this after having returned to
Brighton from the airport, the sun was shining so hard that I thought I'd
sit down in the park with my book. Next to me there were three guys wearing
just shorts and sunglasses, playing poker and listening to some music.
Before long one of them stands up and hands me a cold beer, you know, just
because "they had too many". The next moment the phone rang and a friend
shouts at me to come and listen to the Heritage Orchestra (they've done a
lot of work with unkle and dizzee rascal). Following that a dance along the
beach front to meet a darkened group of friends huddled around a barbeque of
rocks (you know to hold because it was getting cold). Of course I could've
just been in the mood for some distractions but I think not. The timing for
this avalanche of friendly events is too suspicious. I think sometimes you
get caught when you stumble and therefore next year I intend to run even
faster. Thank you all for following what has been the convergence
year, the next one promises to be the best one ever.
Update :
A promise fulfilled. Another part of the weird and wonderful that we
continue to share. Expect more weirdness to follow. Thank you Katrin for
pressing the button, good job!
The Cleansing
27. March TwentyTen
Everywhere we travel there is some mode of transport that is inherent to the
overall experience. Going around Tokyo on the under and overground trains
you'll notice the silence that exudes from your fellow passangers (often
because they are fast asleep). In stark contrast to the mute bodies being
carried between places is the barrage of announcements and litle tunes that
issue from hidden speakers everywhere. Originating from the rock in the
north, trains are magical exciting elements of life, a technology that still
retains an element of its Victorian origin. Bearing that in mind, stepping
on board a Shinkansen (bullet train) is nothing short of extraordinary.
Unlike the daily commuter trains, it is almost entirely silent, most like
sitting on a couch and having your world zoom past, if life were VHS the
shinkansen exist in a constant fast forward state. At 220 km/hour we got to
Kyoto faster than DiCaprio managed to seduce Winslet in Titanic.
Now Kyoto was bombed far less in the second world war than Tokyo, so a lot
of it's original cityscape remaines intact. This means we saw more wooden
framed buildings and more traditional Japanese architecture in crooked litle
alleys and side streets. Temples are sprawled all over the metropolis and
you'll bumb into kimono glad people everywhere. According to the lonely
planet there are only about a hundred or so operating Geishas and Maikos
left in Japan. Unfortunately we witnessed some rather ignorant foreigners
run after one of them and ask her to pose with them which is really bad
form. Walking around in Kyoto is very simply ... different, it feels more
rural, more reserved, more like you're intruding on a culture that has long
since found its purpose. This is a good place to take a break and enjoy the
monks of Nara above and the genius that is Caribou below.
Of course no one can get up early to do touristy stuff after crawling in
during the wee hours, it's called a Holiday not Tourist Camp. We did get up
and about eventually and thought it appropriate to check out the mecca of
Otaku, the electric town
Akihabara. It's an
interesting neighbourhood with an intriguing story but the most commonly
known part of it's history is how it started out as a black market of
electronic equipment after the second world war, growing steadily into the
de-facto place for good deals on anything with a circuit board in it.
Currently it plays host to the a number of interesting arcades (like the
Sega and Taito towers),
Maid Cafes,
electronica and geek merch galore.
So we went into a random coffee place and the sleeping guy behind the
counter managed to convey to us that he was 40 years old but stuck in the
mind of a 27 year old (random but thanks). Subsequently he told us where the
best grub was to be found, which he was a super duper thousund percent
correct about (thanks again). Did I mention that Japanese people seem to be
a bit opportunistic in regards to sleep, that is to say they fall asleep all
over the place, those who doubt this claim should check out this excellent
collection of pictures
Nihon
Asleep.
Filled with food, it was time for drink. Jump on the train, hit Shinjuku,
rendevouz with Valý's friends for a random walk in what has to be the
densest population of bars, each which can only hold about four to five
people. Thanks go out to Árni for the massive amount of insider knowledge,
especially the trip to seven erebum before the all night Karaoke session.
The trick is to eat lots of triangle sushi (Temaki) and vast quantities of
green tea from a carton. This will guarantee your transformation into a
Brian Ferry singing machine till five in the morning. Going back home we
chatted a little with this random japanese guy (photo above). He tought us
the vital phrase : Totemo Kawaii, which means really cute. That along with
Wakari masta (I will return) got us through a lot of shop situations. Again
it's Valýs talented index finger that pressed todays picture into creation,
thanks! Next up Kyoto, monkey madness and dear deers.
Dandy Andy and Japanese Funk
12. March TwentyTen
Asakusa is one of the older neighbourhoods of Tokyo. Its golden years have
passed but it retains a lot of its original charm, especially around the
Kaminarimon
gate. Getting over jet lag in Tokyo is not too hard, our first remedy was
hitting an Onsen which is this kind of natural hot spring bath. The one we
chose was called Jakotsu-yu Onsen. We didn't exactly know what to expect,
the woman in the reception shouting at us to back up and buy all the
necessary tickets was a surprise (you choose the shampoo, towel etc via
ticket machine). The second surprise was the segregated bath areas, whereas
the reason became quickly obvious when I saw all the naked japanese dudes,
i.e. no bathing suits required. After reading a little about the japanese
baths and how you can't enter them with a tattoo because of all the Yakuza
members are heavily tattooed, I must admit that my jaw dropped a little when
this rather lean Yakuza guy, with tattoos from his neck to his toes walks
in.
The onsen experience was brilliant in every respect. Some people criticize
the japanese for having adopted a lot of elements from foreign cultures, but
the baths are essentially the most original thing about Japan.
That night after such a relaxing time we thought we'd catch a
couple of drinks, since the jet-lag wasn't completely banished from our
systems, and it felt like we were more in the eastern Europe time-zone than
the east Asia one. There was only a choice of two recommended bars and we
chose the one in Ueno (district next to Asakusa). When we walked in, there
was a crazy japanese funk band and a mixture of japanese people and gaijin
(foreigners). The bar owner dragged me very unexpectedly to come sing
backing vocals to Mustang Sally, and then hey bought the both of us some
drinks and introduced us to everyone "forcing" us to stay there for the
better part of the night. Getting back to the hostel was easier than
expected though.
Tokyo is filled with very very helpful and friendly inhabitants
and two nice buisnessmen helped us most of the way back, teaching us the
occasional japanese word or two. The picture is provided courtesy of
Valy-Chan and was taken in Harajuku, trust me I'm smiling on the inside.
Asakusa Smile
7. March TwentyTen
It's all a bit hazy, so I'm not sure whether three days have passed or four
nights. The last two were very rememberable so I needn't question those but
the rest of the time seems to be periods of gaping wide eyed at the
complete culture turnaround and passing out from exhaustion. All of this
almost didn't happen, as me and Valý were very late to the airport, and when
I say very late, I mean the checkin desk had closed and they staff were
walking away. Don't think I've ever run so fast through an airport before,
and I've done my share of running after planes.
Of course when we landed we
had to run after the last train from Haneda Airport and give the locals the
"please have mercy on me" look for some help on how to get to north-eastern
Tokyo. Once we'd gotten to our hostel, the reception had closed and we
couldn't get in, so the very helpful Taxi driver who spoke no english but
swore and muttered like a samurai took us to a very affordable love hotel.
Now just to explain love hotels are just like any other hotels except you
can only either stay a night ("Rest") or stay by the hour ("Stay"). This
means that even though it cost about the same as the hostel, you have to
vacate over the day hours. Suffice it to say we made it to Asakusa Smile and
more hilarity ensued, I'll leave that for the next entry.
Films loaded, cheese that smile
17. January TwentyTen
12:45 -- Overslept, loaded up on angel food cupcakes, everything is set
up, now finding the right sound
12:57 -- First kind of movement recorded, no regard taken towards quality,
just get the stuff in there.
13:19 -- Starting on the vocals, holy crap the built in microphone is
really not up to the task.
13:56 -- First vocals in, theme is on the difficulty of
getting people to get their thumbs to button mash.
14:03 -- Ok, small break for Angel food cupcake, no internet usage though. Next up will be drums.
15:03 -- The levels are now kind of ok, it's a really really short song but it kind of works. I think this is enough for now as a proof of concept.
If it took me roughly two hours and fifteen minute to do one song then
I guess if I did a proper immersive music day that would last for 12 hours
then I might possibly get six songs out, which isn't close to the twenty you
are supposed to
Since I left you
16. January TwentyTen
As always even if you don't end up doing what you intended to do, just the
mere action of doing pushes you forward. I for one never know the end result
of my plans and productions. In fact if I did know, I'd probably loose
interest and not follow through on anything, how am I so sure ? Well,
everytime we'd sit down to solve a physics problem, the fun part would
alway lie
in understanding the premise, formulate, derive and juggle things till the
solution would drop out of some maths heaven. Once you could see the
answer the most painful bit was writing it down so you could actually prove
to others that, yes, this is how it all works.
Today was going to be one of those days where I was going to do
something of value. Lets just say I got waylaid rather early on by
two brilliant brainblurps. The first one is about writing,
called Fysigunkus ( Jay Hathaway ) the blog entry goes on about the kind of
clash between content and creativity ...
Cold content
farm. From his musings I slid via these amazing tube-slides of the
internet onto Randsinrepose's rant on how to understand gamer geeks.
A rather intelligent piece on
Gaming the system
He makes some pretty compelling arguments on the way we think about games
and what makes them tick. Definitely worth a read for anyone interested on
design. This leaves me well prepared for tomorrow which I shall call
procrastination sunday deluxe.
I leave you all with this wonderful video of the coolest hermit in the
world.
Akimashite Omedeto
31. December 2009
To hell with endings, let's talk about beginnings. I suspect everyone
has been looking forward to the next year, the one which is going to make
everything good again. Who am I to say they're wrong. Sometimes belief just
works. Even though it's just another revolution around a flaming ball of
gas, we should all enjoy this ride. Among the things to take into the future
could be stuff like
nosaj thing
He keeps me rotating the volume knob clockwise for more Intensity!
From the land of all-culture, their not just tiny but micrometer wide
snowman
can easily fit in my future breast pocket, according to the greeks my heart
is cold enough to easily keep a snowman alive.
The crazies above are Melt Banana, they are noisecore and know how to jump.
They would have easily fitted into our custom of literally getting up to
jump into the new year. A particularly good new year eve's memory stems
from my grandmother taking the leap, maybe holding her third glas glass of
port, smiling as she sailed through the air into the coming year.
Age is no excuse for being young.
But always before having a blast, put on your hardy party hats,
and be safe, as per instructional party picture below.
Holy Fuck ... it's Unicorn Powah
17. December 2009
So Scott asked me the other day .. uhm how would you describe our gig
that's hitting the Brighton on the 17th. As I know Scott fairly well I
gave him a couple of options. It's uhm like pointy cone horse skewered pop
by humans or a herd of rythm bangers putting the beat to you.
I think he actually took me seriously and used one of those as descriptions
to lure innocents to our gig. It'll be fun I'm sure, just as it was super fun
to see the above band, Holy Fuck at ATP. It was slightly embarrasing at the
office yesterday when it snowed outside and I shouted a little bit from the
excitement. Felt good though, sometimes when missing the birthrock I need to
blow out a little, like a homesick pufferfish.
Don't let your daughter-in-law eat your autumn eggplants.
16. December 2009
... so says a classic japanese saying. Have absolutely no idea what it
really means but it keeps echoing back and forth in my head so maybe putting
it up there will keep it there.
When did we get too old for birthday balloons, well this little css birthday
picture is for the merry birthday kids of today, wish I could pop
balloons with you both and eat cake ... so so much cake.
Has it really been 16 weeks and 4 days
14. December 2009
I had absolutely no idea, this is how long (among other things) it's taken
me to scan in the film containing these images from a night of poetry and
stuff.
Bryndís in the photo above was tremendously entertaining, I think she might
have been in the choosing process right at that moment, you can almost see a
smile there as if she's made some sort of decision.
The night kept pulling us forwards and towards nicer and nicer things, jazz
and an unexpected rendezvous with former darklords. The last time I had
darkness, there was this nightmare that my hair was getting cut by
some strange vacuum cleaner which would intermittenly stop until I fed the
coin machine some more silver, I blame Moon the film. Only about a week now
till I return to the land of proper cold and afternoon depression, it is one
of the happier thoughts that circle my brainsphere these days, that and
pancakes.
Ghost Songs
11. October 2009
Like glaring into a murky crystal ball the imminent future keeps shifting,
twisting and turning. One day I'm having tremendous tuesdays at work (I
prefix the days with adjectives to make overtime more appealing), and the
next I'm joined by a host of beautiful people, participating in the late night
cupcake facediving club ( Icing-ur a nebba ).
So for the future self, think about this : trainrides to Edinburgh, Llama
rides over Peruvian mountains, tubular bedrooms in Tokyo or boxcar rides
along the Great Wall. There are always smaller adventures happening all the
time, one was in the Fabrica Gallery, Tina Gonsalves project Chameleon. In
a couple of words it's an emotional algorithm video installation. In a few
more words, you walk into a darkened space with faces hanging in the air,
static. Approaching them they awaken and react to you, they are mirrors made
up of strangers you've never met. Feel sad, so will they. Jump around with
joy and they'll cross into the ecstatic. Empathy is a special emotion that
seems very disproportionately distributed among the humans. Some seem to
have it, some can't see further than whatever they are feeling at the moment.
It was very interesting to see a computer pick up on my emotional body
language, unflinchingly and it reminded me of the work that japan is doing
on using small furry seal robots to allow old people who are all alone to
have something react to their touch. So however the future plan pans out,
I'm just content with interesting things to float on past the present now.
Just like honey
15. September 2009
This is the third time I've started this entry. The first time I was going
to talk about how facebook is the internet equivalent of a blackhole,
although I really do like it. Secondly I was going to go on about how I've
been hearing interesting things on the street whilst going from A to B, as
you do. Young men describing massive fights involving their mates and oddly
their dad. Young girls voicing their opinions on my appearance quite loudly
on the train etc. Basically my ipod has shielded me from hearing most
of this, which is slightly regrettable as some of it is quite funny, bottom
line, I prefer life to pass by like a music video where I'm the only viewer.
Although I don't clearly remember which song was playing in the background,
I'm very glad I managed to capture this moment on celluloid, it has a slight
feel of a nineties music video. His shirt reminds me of the My So Called
Life series. They're just so
sincere and oblivious to anything around them. Such good times. Hectic
weekend ahead of me, I'll be sure to type about it in good time. People
might want to check out
Tokyo Cube, I'm sure you'll love it.
A Ram in Shadyon
14. September 2009
This is a story of minor violance. It starts with a bystander going his ways
about town. He's in a bit of a hurry, so he grabs some coffee for a legal
shot of adrenaline and patiently sips the warm liquid waiting for his
double decker transport. Once it arrives, the caffeine has taken hold and
the need to get on and get going is quite strong. Now what happens next is
unexpected and always a surprising event for the would be passanger, a man
walks to the other side of the bus and starts shouting at the bus driver.
The bus driver being not exactly Ghandi shouts back at the man. This
culminates in the man spitting in the bus drivers face. I just want to get
going I don't have time for this nonsense, I know that's a bit selfish but
they were both behaving like idiots and honestly should've just arranged a
duel of spitting if that's their weapon of choice instead of holding up all
the passangers. Well, the man having expressed his vitriolic views just
walked away. The poor bus driver had no such luck and called in to the
station that he'd have to get replaced. At this point I started losing hope
of getting to my destination on time and as that thought ran across my mind
an impatient car tried to get past the bus but failed spectacularly and
crashed into the front side of the bus. Taxi !
Paris I love you but you're bringing me down
12. September 2009
So I haven't seen anyone frantically waving us from the bus in quite some
time but we did witness this most extraordinary road vehicle passanger
combo. What was essentially a quad bike going really fast with what appeared
to be two border collies balancing themselves on either side of the farmish
looking driver. It was like how I'd expect people who grew up in the i
circus to go about their business.
I haven't really talked much about Paris. I felt like the
city was very consistent and beautiful with its broadly paved roads and lines
going indefinitely into the distance. The people however were a mixed
bag, the cool cats tended to suck their thumbs on the Metro, but mostly people weren't of the kind of London Glamour sorts. Saying that, Paris is still an incredibly visually arresting city. Finding out about any gigs or musical events
turned out to be too hard especially in the end of July. Finding galleries
and places to feast your eyes on however is dead easy.
My favourite was without a doubt
Parr's World
The article on Parr is a
very good read and has an interesting slant on how Parr is viewed by the old
hardcore scene as a pitiliess Thatcherite, someone who has no compassion
with his subjects, although I think that's a bit harsh, even though his
pictures often show people in a rather embarrassing light. I feel
compelled to share this picture as well, it's one of those machines back
home that explode clouds into existence.
It takes a lot of precision work to make clouds. Deep underground the
cloudworkers are hard at work on bunny dragon and dog clouds. Don't believe
me ? Well just check out the
Cloud appreciation Society
I'm sure they'll set the story right.
Hope you all have interestingly shaped clouds blowing past your heads.
Why all the mime hate ?
10. September 2009
This is going to be short, I'm too in love with the new toy to be able
to write anything remotely sensible.
What can I say other than the scanner works a treat. At the time I mimed
them my interest of taking their picture, they were just sitting there
all silent and slightly bored. I've also added a new feature to the blog
so that readers are now able to click on an image to get the larger file
version. Not sure if this feature will make it into past photos ... maybe.
In Bocca Al Lupo
9. September 2009
For every occasion there's an opportunity. This is what I kept telling
myself on last night's train journey, desperately trying to enjoy the book
I'd placed in front of me. The last three nights have been filled with
overtime and practices, which is good since it gives me more to let my mind
wander and ponder on. As for the drumming I'm not quite up to the level of
the extremely well prepared drummer below
but I definitely felt like him when I was almost alone in the office tapping
away at what must be one of the loudest keyboards ever. Malcom the drummer
is an amazing dude by the way. Every morning me and my flatmate would walk up
to the [car pool] pick up point and every so often the number 27A bus would
go past us and there Malcom would be frantically waving the morning to us,
the biggest Cheshire cat grin ever on his spikey haired face.
There's another guy as well that does
this at the studio. At eight in the morning he'll raise his arm as high as
he can, so that it drags his head from up under the monitor edge and then
he'll wave back and forth like he were mimicking a windshield wiper.
So to tie this back up to the beginning, every occasion has an opportunity,
trains are for reading, origami and heads on shoulders, work is for getting
into the flow of things and chair surfing and finally these little
brainfarts are for chaotic tales of this and that. Overly energetic morning
people and family photos from Paris.
It's a brighton time
6. September 2009
Woke up this morning thinking that the neighbours were trying to get me back
for last nights aural interest in
Moderat
at a decibel defiant setting. Skipping the morning schtick of cleaning face
I
kind of just walked outside and noticed the two Jazz guitarists that were
responsible for the wake-up music that I incorrectly blamed the neighbours
for. It's always great to be proven wrong about
something like that. This first week of the year 29 is off to a sublime
start. I don't have any photos yet to prove this statement, I could possibly
whisk up some pudding and other bad puns instead. I do however have some photos from
the recent trip to Reynisdrangar and Myrdallsjokull.
I have no idea who this is, I think it was a tourist giving someone the
thumbs up. I'd love to give more people the thumbs up, like the homeless
dude in the Lanes that makes all the really amazing origami creatures.
They're not beginners stuff, he looks kind of surreal, the way he's
surrounded by this forest of small paper animals. Like this othe guy
Slinkachu who takes size to
a totally new cute dimension. It's good, tiny tiny good.
Apart from the black volcanic beach already setting a rather gloomy tone,
the kind of separation between the two in the background and the girl in the
foreground make it a slightly sad picture. I like it though, you can see
Doorhole Island on the left. Which is where the picture below was taken
from. It's not a very special picture, I just like the colours, or the
almost complete lack thereof.
So there you go, a start on the new year and everything. Maybe this time
I'll actually get round to writing a content management system and an rss
feed, although I think facebook integration would possibly be more
effective. Tomorrow ... great things ... the day after that ... nostalgia.
It's good to live again.
To many this tale is a rather trivial one but possibly familiar, trust me
there was nothing familiar to it. The brief windows of time we had,
illuminated many things for me, which I hope to not forget any time soon or
at all if possible. Like letting someone go just because you care so much
for them. In fact I think the more I accept that things simply happen and
grabbing hold of the ones I can, the more enjoyable everything seems to have
become. Don't get me wrong I'm neither advocating anarchism or opportunism,
but rather highlighting the fact that in so many points in time there are
potentials for tiny instances of greatness, in that way Valý represents a
revelation to me. As a typical reminder of this after having returned to
Brighton from the airport, the sun was shining so hard that I thought I'd
sit down in the park with my book. Next to me there were three guys wearing
just shorts and sunglasses, playing poker and listening to some music.
Before long one of them stands up and hands me a cold beer, you know, just
because "they had too many". The next moment the phone rang and a friend
shouts at me to come and listen to the Heritage Orchestra (they've done a
lot of work with unkle and dizzee rascal). Following that a dance along the
beach front to meet a darkened group of friends huddled around a barbeque of
rocks (you know to hold because it was getting cold). Of course I could've
just been in the mood for some distractions but I think not. The timing for
this avalanche of friendly events is too suspicious. I think sometimes you
get caught when you stumble and therefore next year I intend to run even
faster. Thank you all for following what has been the convergence
year, the next one promises to be the best one ever.
A promise fulfilled. Another part of the weird and wonderful that we
continue to share. Expect more weirdness to follow. Thank you Katrin for
pressing the button, good job!
but I definitely felt like him when I was almost alone in the office tapping
away at what must be one of the loudest keyboards ever. Malcom the drummer
is an amazing dude by the way. Every morning me and my flatmate would walk up
to the [car pool] pick up point and every so often the number 27A bus would
go past us and there Malcom would be frantically waving the morning to us,
the biggest Cheshire cat grin ever on his spikey haired face.
There's another guy as well that does
this at the studio. At eight in the morning he'll raise his arm as high as
he can, so that it drags his head from up under the monitor edge and then
he'll wave back and forth like he were mimicking a windshield wiper.
So to tie this back up to the beginning, every occasion has an opportunity,
trains are for reading, origami and heads on shoulders, work is for getting
into the flow of things and chair surfing and finally these little
brainfarts are for chaotic tales of this and that. Overly energetic morning
people and family photos from Paris.
I have no idea who this is, I think it was a tourist giving someone the
thumbs up. I'd love to give more people the thumbs up, like the homeless
dude in the Lanes that makes all the really amazing origami creatures.
They're not beginners stuff, he looks kind of surreal, the way he's
surrounded by this forest of small paper animals. Like this othe guy
Apart from the black volcanic beach already setting a rather gloomy tone,
the kind of separation between the two in the background and the girl in the
foreground make it a slightly sad picture. I like it though, you can see
Doorhole Island on the left. Which is where the picture below was taken
from. It's not a very special picture, I just like the colours, or the
almost complete lack thereof.
So there you go, a start on the new year and everything. Maybe this time
I'll actually get round to writing a content management system and an rss
feed, although I think facebook integration would possibly be more
effective. Tomorrow ... great things ... the day after that ... nostalgia.
It's good to live again.