What's to tell? Much, yet too little.

Writing lots of music. I'm still working on "Give and Take". Also, finished the collaboration project for lyrics class with my fellow classmate. Entitled "Captain", it's the tragic tale of a sci-fi actor and his painful lack of career after his T.V. series has ended. Very humorous.

I'm pretty sure that Jeff Zipp and Jesse Schooff are now known as "The Face Beneath". Please make a note of it.

Posted at 12:56 PM | Comments (2)

There's a second trailer up for A Scanner Darkly, the 100% rotoscoped film coming out this summer, based on the novel by Philip K. Dyck. Interesting that there's some background music in the trailer by M83, whom Jeff and I were discussing the merits of yesterday.

I'm so terribly disappointed by Canada's Olympic hockey team. They've now lost to Switzerland, Finland, and Russia. The teamsmanship and overall performance from such talented professional players was utterly poor. Wayne Gretzky is the GM, and let's just say that this wraps up a particularly rough year for him.

Angela and I are going to a concert at the QE tomorrow night. Philip Glass is bringing and orchestra and choir to Vancouver. They'll perform the score of the film Koyaanisqatsi while the film plays in on a big screen on stage. This is a must see opportunity if you're a fan of Philip Glass, which I think I can now say that I am.

Posted at 02:13 PM | Comments (8)

Something awesome is happening. A style is starting to gel between Jeff and I. It's an awesome sound. Looks like we're close to completing a full collaboration, both in terms of music and lyrics with Give and Take. Jeff is close to completing his awesome masterpiece The Angel Who Smelt of Ashes. There's a dark electronica sound here, hovering somewhere between Massive Attack and New Order. This excites me. I can't wait until we've finished.

Posted at 08:50 PM | Comments (2)

The internet's latest time-sink hobby is re-cutting scenes from famous movies to make trailers that imply the movie is about something entirely different than was originally intended. That is, these faux trailers are misleading. Hilarious is the generic feel-good family drama trailer that is now called "Shining". Then there's the latest internet sensation called "Brokeback to the Future". Kind of makes me want to crack open iMovie and do my own thing.

Posted at 06:04 PM | Comments (0)

I'm a little bit out of myself right now. Sort of in that mood where you see yourself going around an doing all this stuff on autopilot but aren't really feeling it a lot. Especially true when interacting with people I don't know very well or have much in common with: "Oh yes? Really? Interesting. Neat." It's like there's a spool of automated responses that just plays through in such occasions. You wonder when the next "real thing" is gonna happen; good or bad.

Chatting with my lyrics class collaboration project partner has been nice. I forgot how nice it is to meet new people you have stuff in common with. I have this fear that 90% of the culture I consume and the people I meet are going to bore the hell out of me, and it's true. Unfortunately, I react to this by not meeting more new people or seeking out much new culture, which is completely the wrong thing to do. Nadia's approach was always the best: to just drown yourself in new people and culture and then once you've sorted through all the mediocrity you can hopefully have a good collection of the exceptional. Must remember to get out more. It's good for the soul.

Another reason I might be in a bit of a funk this weekend is because of seeing Brokeback Mountain. Now of course, this is one of the best movies of the year. Undoubtedly, it will win the Oscar for best picture (if not for the virtue of it's artistic merit but because Academy has been very good these past few years at patting itself on the back when it comes to empowering minorities). A good movie gets real and powerful emotions across, which my empathic personality absorbs with gusto. Regrettably, movies which encapsulate bleak, lonely, difficult, and ultimately tragic and unsatisfying lives get right to my core, and infect it with pessimism about life. It's why I'm so eager and at the same so hesitant to see movies like Syriana and Munich.

Our new VoIP-based Shaw Digital Phone lets us make long-distance calls around North America with impunity. So I've been trying to get ahold of Nadia in Montreal and Michelle in Victoria. Sadly, they're both very busy right now.

♥ Angela... ♥

Posted at 09:27 PM | Comments (3)

Oh yeah.

I presented Human Accessories to my lyrics class on Tuesday. It went pretty well. I got a good response regarding the production and a few constructive criticisms which I generally agree with. I also posted it in the Creations section the other day, but I forgot to mention it here. So yeah. It's up there. Go listen if you want.

Posted at 12:54 PM | Comments (4)

Let's preface-rant a bit here before I really rant. I can't stand how the United States is handling it's foreign policy right now, particularly towards the middle east. Invading Iraq was wrong. A less heavy-handed approach needs to be taken towards Palestine and Israel. PBS recently did an interview with Lawrence Wilkerson that you all need to read. Lawrence B. Wilkerson was Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of State from August 2002 to January 2005. In the interview he said that the justification for war in Iraq was "a hoax on the American people, the international community and the United Nations Security Council". Strong words, and I agree. I have no love for this sort of policy.

Now that I've set that position, let me also express my extreme disgust for the kind of asshattery that is being perpetrated by certain Muslims around the world over a bunch of cartoons shown in a Danish newspaper months and months ago. People are dying now, because a bunch of conservative fundamentalists have sticks so far up their asses that they can't take a joke. Granted, broadcasters and media publishers have to show respect for other people's religious beliefs. But for GOD's sake, chill out: it's just a bunch of cartoons! Is it worth human life? When South Park or Family Guy portrayed Jesus as a regular guy with a bunch of cheap parlor tricks up his sleeve, did we see puritanical Christians burning down the Comedy Central or Fox Network headquarters? Or rioting in the streets? Or boycotting American products?

No, we did not. This kind of behavior is without precedent and not acceptable in a modern world community. If someone's bombing your house, or torturing your neighbors, or making a concerted effort to eradicate your culture, then I'm on your side; I've got a beef with what's being done to you. But if someone pokes fun at your spiritual or cultural leader, well, it's not polite, but that's life. Write the paper an angry letter, if enough people do the same, they'll apologize and retract. But don't blow things up, set things on fire, or do anything that costs human life. That's going WAY too far.

There seems to exist a climate in these conservative Arab countries of extreme religious fundamentalism which simply can't coexist with the rest of the world. Indeed, the president of Iran recently told a group of students that he would like to see Israel "wiped off the map". Hate is a powerful tool for driving a society, and even more powerful when it is coupled with religion. This isn't about Islam, and given that I'm dating someone of Arab heritage it CERTAINLY is not about race. This is about a culture of intolerance that exists in many countries. It is the culture of "our way is the right way". Really, I don't care how things are done in other cultures: I respect cultural diversity. What I do care about is that you approach the world with a respect for different points of view and a value of Human life.

Now an Iranian newspaper is holding a daily competition for best holocaust cartoon. It seems that in this climate lack of respect for human life (and indeed, human life itself) is a small price to pay to protect the sanctity of religion. That's something I'll never agree with. It's bullshit, and personally, I think God would be ashamed of it.

My favorite part of the whole situation is the thick irony. The Danish cartoons featured a theme which depicted Islam as a violent religion. Now conservative middle-eastern Muslims have responded through riot and arson.

Wow, you guys certainly proved them wrong.

P.S. - Read this.

Posted at 06:38 PM | Comments (2)

On the walk home from the bus stop I pass a schoolyard. The students are long since dismissed by the time I come by it. Today however, I saw a girl standing on top of a platform on the jungle gym. She was leaning on the guard rail and staring off into the distance. Perhaps she was watching the setting sun or looking at the Vancouver skyline. I have to say that it was an image that captured me, to see someone so young in such an introspective state. She did not seem to be sad, just considering. It made me remember that when I was young I was not always naive or ignorant but sometimes sat and just thought in solitude about live and existence. I briefly wondered if it would make a good photo: this young girl staring out into the horizon, the city, the setting sun, with such a degree of thoughtfulness. Youth, facing the expanse of the future. But then I remembered that men such as myself don't take pictures of random young girls, that is considered to be weird, thanks to the efforts of a very small yet particularly sick group of deviants within our society. So I fell from my own introspection and settled back into the ordinary groove that is my place in this boring, depressing reality.

Posted at 08:33 PM | Comments (2)

Things are settling into a nice groove around here. I've been spending a lot of time playing with Illustrator and hanging out with Angela. Other than that, life is fairly uneventful.

The older generation might think it odd, but sometimes it's very hard to pry a significant other away from the T.V. or computer when they're really into a video game. Perhaps too difficult. Maybe Denai and Jamie will be able to relate to this song by comedy group Tripod as well as Jen was able to.

Hardware hack of the moment: Whiskey Bottle computer.

Posted at 09:58 PM | Comments (5)

Time for an update.

We've moved into our new home, and it is awfully spiffy. It was a long and arduous process. Sunday was marred with much childish squabbling and hefty moving in the rain. I caught a cold and missed work on Monday. Nonetheless, we had told our landlords that we would be out of the house by Monday night. So that evening I was forced to move, while sick, which only made me sicker. I was a wreck and missed another day of work and my class.

I have a car. Steph's car. A 2001 Ford Focus. I need to assume ownership of the damn thing and get it insured, quite an arduous process, it seems. An "Out of Province Vehicle Inspection" was required, which the tires and rear brake shoes failed, requiring an expensive replacement. Now I remember that the freedom of owning a vehicle requires you to empty your bank account.

Then the old landlady calls me today and says that the new tenants claim that we didn't clean the place well enough before we left (which is bullshit not only because we did a good job, but also because we were rushed to do so by them when they announced they needed to move in that very evening). So she deducts $40 from the return of our damage deposit so that she can hire a service to clean up whatever mess it was that we left behind (apparently the fridge wasn't very well done). Ladies of household, take note: next time you clean the fridge you may charge your husband/boyfriend $40 for this service. Oh and get this, then the new tenants have the GAUL to call Iain to ask him if he knows how the stove works. Limey bastards.

I'm so spent. Right now I'm just crawling towards the next weekend. I really hope nothing else comes up between now and then.

Posted at 09:10 PM | Comments (4)