big red dot

Ever since seeing the music video to the song ‘Yellow‘ by Coldplay, where Chris Martin walks down a deserted pre-dawn beach in slow motion while singing along to the lyrics of the song at regular speed, I’ve wanted to have a go at it myself.

Slow motion is amazing. You know? When I first saw the Matrix I was blown away. The slow-motion camera spinning effects they used for the fight scenes kick more ass than any other fight scene I can think of.

So, now I have a camera. I don’t have the ability to do any bullet-time stuff, that involving having an array of cameras all connected by sophisticated shooting programs, but I do have the capacity to replicate the effect in the song Yellow.

I chose do it with the Scientist rather than Yellow, as I like The Scientist better. I shot it all myself- so it’s a close-up image, which sadly doesn’t render into slo-mo too well. Full body shots allow for cool stuff like slow-motion running and gestures. As it is, you might think I’m just walking slow and mouthing slowly, when in fact the video on me has been slowed down by 50%.

As it is, I think it’s pretty awesome. The sync-up is pretty much perfect. I’m looking forward to experimenting more with slow-motion and other filming techniques.

Yesterday I had Canadian Mike and Alex round and we finally got down to some serious Axis and Allies gaming. Mike had his parents bring the game over with them when they came for his wedding last month. We wanted to play last week but ended up just playing Halo and Rock Band at my place.

Well, yesterday we got stuck in. I was Germany, Mike was Japan- the Axis, and Alex played all the Allies, the UK, US, and Russia.

What an interesting game. From the start I was fascinated by the very static set-up. Compare this to another of the MB gamesmaster games- Shogun, which I know well- and the fixed set-up seems like a big mistake. Even compared to games like Risk, where every set-up is randomized, ensuring every game goes a different way.

In A&A though I think it would work. We only played one game, and for only a few rounds as it takes a long time to get through one round, but I think the fixed set-up would work, because the game is long, complex, cumulative, and there’s a lot of choices to make and a lot of interplay between what your allies do and how that effects your enemy.

As Germany I was fighting in the European theater, mostly land-based with tanks, on the Eastern front against Russia, with the Uk slowly building up its sea and air power to the West. Mike was fighting in the Pacific with Russia, but finding it necessary to retreat from the US build-up on the West coast.

The connection comes as his battles and successes against the Allies over there impacts how much the allies have to spend on troops on my fronts in the next round. If he kills a lot of Allies, they’ll have less money, and they’ll have to split it at least 2 ways.

Then throw in America. The game seems like a very faithful replication of the broad strokes of the war. The UK is very hard to kill, with lots of sea battles and bombing raids going on. Russia and Germany are engaged in a drawn-out combat that distracts Germany from extinguishing the UK. The Japanese can destroy Pearl Harbor early on. American joins the fight late.

As we played I found myself thinking- ‘It makes perfect sense the Americans joined late. It makes sense the war with Russia is what allowed the Allies to have victory in the West. It’s a fascinating replication of an interlaced world in microcosm, of seeing how all things were connected. I’m looking forward to playing next time. I want to be Germany again and see if I can’t crush Russia a little faster.

Last night I dreamt my arm got broken after I jumped/fell off the top of a waterfall. I also did a lot of internal damage, and knew I was going to die within 2 days.

It was very vivid. The pain of my arm not working, it being bandaged up- that was all very real.

Why was I at the top of a waterfall? I think I was following my sister Alice. Did she push me? It’s possible.

Also I found my beard had been shaven.

Yesterday I headed out to Emily’s Fajita Party in Kunitachi. It was raining, I got lost for about an hour on the way there, but Amy Mcdonald’s ‘Mr. Rock and Roll’ and a case of Asahi saw me through.

People I met-

- Emily- Emily! The hostess, teacher, artiste- her work currently on show at The Pink Cow.
- Jeremy- Fairly drunk fella soon headed to Oz to become a pilot.
- Greg and Alycia- Married programmers- good police.
- Tim- Navy dude, big fella, just came from paint-balling.
- Peter- Teacher, went fishing over Golden Week but no fish!
- Christoria- Traveling Texan.
- Josh- The man mountain, now shaven-headed and sporting a bandanna, belongs in WWE!
- Connor- A guy with crazy eyes.
- Scott- Who has a photo show on Drunken Japanese Salarimen in The Pink Cow at the moment. Wore a knitted sweater with skulls on.
- Stanley the manley- Navy dude, longest stint in a submarine without a break- 78 days!
- Belinda, Kay, Theresa- Emily’s friends, maybe teachers also.
- An Italian girl who appreciated me saying- ‘hey beautiful, I love you!’ multiple times in Italian (that’s all I can say…)

Events-

- Drinking Margaritas! (Strong. Though I sneakily made a few virgin ones for Jeremy after he drunkenly spilled 2 or 3 drinks on people.)
- Petting cat Gidget and dog Arlo.
- Weighing myself in pounds. 190?
- Arm wrestling! I was against this from the start, but got roped in, ultimately taking the crown. The toughest was against navy dude Tim- I was totally shocked I beat him.
- Drinking Texan beer- Bocka?
- Going to buy cigarettes in the rain.
- Disco dancing!
- Making and eating fajitas.

I had a great time- thank you Emily for organising! I stayed over, woke up at 8am on a sofa, got back home at 10, and slept through until noon. Sweet!

Today I stripped 3 stories in the Jabbler’s Mons series of about 2000 words each.

This is down to video. I made the Arakawa River video, which is long narration clips split by titles. After working on it, the only parts I like to re-watch are the titles- because they’re FUNKY, and tied up to the beat. The narration bits are long, static, and dull.

Compare that to my frisbee video, which is a lot of shorter faster more diverse cuts, with a diverse range of people in them, and I like watching it again and again.

So- apply that to writing- every bit that I skip over now- the dense description bits, the bits I don’t want to mess with because I know if I do they’ll unravel- they need to go!

Now all of those stories, which one stood at a bloated 6,000 words each, are fighting fit, lean and mean at around 4,000 words each. That’s pretty good.

Watched 3 Seinfelds. Went to the Gym, talked to Dean. Watched Eastern Promises. Not a Viggo Mortensen fan AT all. Not terrible, but only worth watching as I had no other movies to watch.

Hoopla.

Maybe I’ll make that review blog now. Yeah, I guess so. Doesn’t have to be on the front page for it to BE there. Like this random blog! Will only be seen by people who LOOK for it. Or who have the RSS. Yeah.

My buddy Canadian Mike painted the opening scene from my story Killin Jack the Malakite, check it out here.

Feel free to comment on his rendering of Jack vs. the Bunnyman here. Was it what you expected?