kerpucha or w/e at Super Deluxe

haha, i know the kanji now to post...anyways, i didn't like most of what i saw, if i had known what i know now perhaps i would of thrown together a slide show or something. getting on, my favorite was the glowstick animation. at first it looked like the same crap i've seen done w/ glowsticks, but when they started doing the dolphin and that dog like thing walking it got really good. they also did a good job of syncing the beat w/ it. i'm tryin to remember, there was something else i liked a lot that came just after the glowsticks but my memory is failing me... moving along then, the performance art gets some kudos from me, but only b/c he used space invader guys as the bugs and i'm a retro kid like that; but as for whether it was art or not...in my opinion no, but it seems just about anything flies these days so w/e. i said i'd comment on the izat and i will not let you down. i liked the black and white pattern, and it ends there. they looked very impractical, could they move their arms very much? enough to work all the zippers and what not? i was sitting in the front at that time and they both were being dressed by 3 other guys. they started to remind me of Maggie Simpson's snowsuit (the star one). the tour guide world traveler had some pretty pictures; the one architect, white woman...german i think?, had a slide show that didn't show any of her buildings, just people working on them, a dog, and her daughter so she gets low scores from me. the other architect i remember, japanese man with pink shirt, that did the ceilings was...boring i found, except the one slide of an apartment like building shot from the outside i found cool. the wrapping paper guys was mostly yawns, though i thought he hit on a few pieces. the 2nd guy up that did the mannequins i liked b/c i'm a big fan of those bright colors, i especially like the crazy reindeer.

today's work

i finished revising what i showed yesterday during crit and it looks much better. the only problem is that the image has become more complex and thus i'm taking more time on it. i'm feeling really pressured, i have a feeling i might need to cut down the length of this animation or something. i'm hoping that the next page won't take me as long and perhaps be able to even have a 2nd page done by sunday. on a small side note, i haven't been able to get my adobe CS3 to work, and it took me 2 weeks to just get my computer working, so this makes everything even trickier; will continue to work on it.

on the eve of the crit of 5/30

so i did a sample of what a finished product is to look like and am happy with it. i did a good job of using things that i can reuse to help quicken the rendering of these images. i have yet to do the samurai and salary man since these will be black silhouettes that are animated i need to take more time with them. i'm feeling comfortable, my expierence with illustrator gives me comfort that i'll be able to complete that part of the project with ease; however the flash and audio part of the project have me a bit nervous since this territory has barely been charted. But i don't think this is a bad thing, b/c this anxiety of getting to the unknown will push me to finish the parts i know quicker.

i look forward to crit tomorrow for feedback and a glimpse at the competition.

signing off

tired of working

so i've done more pieces of my illustration and tomorrow i aim to assemble them into an image. i'm happy with the way things are going, though there are times i wish i had done something different, like after seeking that graphic on the sake barrel in Ohara i really wish i could somehow make a sake barrel, o well.

back to my project, i'm not really having too many problems besides time since these labs are open for limited times; back on main campus i would usually work, take a long break and come back later in the night but thats not an option here. tomorrow i plan to wake up a bit earlier, not fuss about on my laptop (i damn that infernal contraption to the pits of hell), and i won't need to get my discount student train pass, since i also did that this morning.

so yea, tomorrow i put the pieces together so you can all see wednesday sort of what it will look like, and i'll save the files in .gif format so i can post them up right quick...

need food, i'm off

so i guess its time to work...

so i just realized i didn't blog last week so now i'm behind in this too, yay! my favorite spot in Kyoto? well does the Onsen count, i think that was in Ohara though. besides that i really liked that art exhibit, Jakachu is now on my mental list of favorite artist, i wish they had some bigger prints of his work, but there is no such thing as "big" in this country. The ink paintings in the first couple rooms made me want to break out my ink and water colors again, its been a while since i've worked in those mediums. the detailed patterns in the colored pieces at the end were even better, i wonder how long he took on each piece. the 1000 buddha's didn't do it for me but the readings on the flip side of that temple about Miyamoto Musashi and the different archery contests were very interesting to me, esp. that 24 hour shoot off, those guys must of been really strong to be able to shoot that many arrows for 24 hours straight. the arcade, or shopping mall, made me sick...the consumerism in this place makes me wanna throw up. like all that seems to matter to the average japanese person is working, getting drunk, and buying the latest bullshit...it sorta goes along w/ that reading; "always tearing down and rebuilding" or as i see it now "always throwing out the old (and it isn't even that old) and buying the lastest crap." i was out at bars saturday night in Hiroshima and talked to some girls and got the same vibes.

i just got in here to work on my project, so i'll post after i work a bit

Lateral view

i just finished the reading, it was long. i'm not sure what to comment on, he pretty much talked about the differences between the east and west. i felt he was pretty dead on for the most part, such as the gestures, b/c i alrdy knew them from the little anime i have watched, though i've yet to see a real japanese person do these, they all seem pretty stoic. i couldn't help but feel like this guy is another one of those people who have fallen in love with the east and have rejected the west. also, he talks a lot about how superious things are, but then goes on to note how things are changing. if the east is so great then why are they taking all these "inferior" ideas from the west? i feel like there are other contradictions made, such as he points out the architectual diversity and how its sorta like disneyworld, but later he goes on to talk about how a spanish style house doesn't always mean its a spanish style store. Tokyo is a pretty remarkable city, i think thats something all could agree on, but i felt his judgement of the west a little harsh. if America was all one race it would certainly make things a lot easier, plus like i mentioned earlier, if the east is "superior" then why is it taking so many ideas from the west? perhaps the point he was trying to make, especially since he mentioned it so much, was that the japanese are constantly tearing down stuff to build new and this is why they borrow so much, but I, as an artist, have become obsessed with originality and it seems like Japan may lack this, they take the best of other cultures and internalize, and this makes me wonder how they became so nationalistic at one point, when the have no national ideas. Japan and its people are overly modest and i feel what will ultimately hold them back.

ok i'm done ranting, i'm not sure if that'll make sense to anyone. to sum up, i liked the read and much of it was accurate, but Japan in its constant search for the new and best has failed to provide the world with something new and better, besides its collage style collection; sorta like college kids downloading music off the net, they have a great collection, but they haven't given anthing back.

i'm sort of a socialist, so all this capitalism makes me a bit sick at times and perhaps thats the reason for my lashing out...in other news my computer is still a piece of shit.

][_ove ][_oomis

found my spot

so yea, i'll start w/ the important part, i found this place i believe it to be Shinigawa (according to a sign) and its right next to the Roppongi-ichtome subway stop and Swedish embassy. it is a bunch of gardens between huge office buildings, one giant building (bigger then allt he rest) is all glass and looks awesome. one of the gardens was very Zen looking. i like this place b/c the gardens could be transposed to nearly any point in Japanese history.

i want my project to be about how a lot of the old customs are still kept even though things have changed greatly, specifically the samurai-esqe things. i'll have sketches tomorrow.

adding a link

not sure if there's a specific spot for links, but after searching through this quickly i was unable to find one so here's my link:

http://japansummer07.blogspot.com