Dear Blog, sorry for neglecting you, but I have been busy/lazy when it came to the net lately. No promises on getting back on track with updating you, but I think there’ll be things worth saying soon enough.

I showed my sister some Maximum the Hormone videos last night, and we shared a common moment for an urge… no, a need to mosh to the music. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to tour anywhere outside of Japan at the moment. So I guess I’m just going to have to go to Japan then to see them live

Quick Summary of To Do’s -

• Follow up on ‘Talking to Strangers’ anth (read ‘poke people lots’)
• Finish Editing ‘Clarence’ short film by Aug ‘08
• Complete ‘184′ pitch by Dec ‘08
• Write up ‘A Second Sky’ pitch by Jan ‘09

Had a hectic film shoot weekend (some behind the scenes pic’s posted here). It was very educational to say the least. I was cursing myself for taking on such a huge project when things didn’t go smoothly during those 2 (and a half) days, but now that the hard part is over, I find myself thinking “What should I shoot next summer?”.

I figured I’m going to write something about the film once it’s done, so I may as well do an in depth post once that’s ready to go live, save me blabbering twice about it.

In Other News -

Hmm, let’s see… Oh, FreakAngels just got a little more interesting. It’s free to read, so you really have no excuse not to be following it. I ran into Paul at the DFC launch and we had a nice catch-up. Apparently this comic is taking up a lot of his time, and it really shows why. He’s gone all out on it. Cool stuff. It’s still weird seeing London submerged in water

Sweatdrop Podcast was down for a month due to ODEO’s transition to their new website. It’s up and running again and Episode #13 is now live. Should hopefully have #14 with you by Monday! I just need to finish editing it this weekend.

More up and coming Shakespeare Manga from SelfMadeHero, and Emma announced her involvement with the title “Much Ado About Nothing” and showcased some concept colour art on her site. I must say, that when she showed me the characters in sketch form, I was already sold. It looks like it’s going to be a hoot! There’ll be a plethora of titles coming soon but I can’t really announce any until the artists themselves make them public. You are SO shunned!!

And finally, was invited out to see Hancock tonight. I know that’s not technically news worthy, but I’ve been looking forward to seeing this film for a while, so I’m a little excited XD At least I didn’t do a write up about my 6th viewing of ‘Brick’ and how I really enjoyed listening to Clute and Edwards discussion on their “Out of the Past” podcast, where they broke down every element of the story and the filming of it to show me things I hadn’t even considered before. Like how the introduction scene is so intricately delicious with it’s subtle muted colours and the similar details between the first scene of when Brendan is kneeling down near… woah woah, almost fell into that one!

Okay, end transmission!

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one’s own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane.

I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest, but I know which of them deserve to be followed. And looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally.

# George Orwell - Why I Write

I was helping my sister today with her Uni essay and read this passage from Orwell’s book ‘Why I Write’. It stuck with me all day and I felt like sharing it.

I watched “Paprika” last night, directed by Satoshi Kon. I was surprised to learn that it’s actually based on a novel that was adapted to a screenplay. I can’t quite picture it as a novel after watching that. I can, however, see why Satoshi directed this film, as it reminded me a lot of his “Paranoia Agent” series which he wrote and directed himself.

It’s a visually stunning piece, but I still think “Perfect Blue” and “Tokyo Godfathers” are his best work, but Paprika certainly is a joy to the senses both in visuals and sound. After the movie ended, I had to find the soundtrack on iTunes. It’s funky

Paprika: Don’t you think dreams and the Internet are similar? They are both areas where the repressed conscious mind vents.

I’m also currently reading “Welcome to the NHK“. It’s rather good. I ordered volumes 1 and 2 nearly 3 weeks ago and volume one arrived the day before yesterday. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the book, but I found it a weird coincidence that I finished writing my ‘Static’ short story, which is about a man suffering from agoraphobia, and the lead character in NHK is a recluse with similar tendencies. I should have ordered this earlier XD Would’ve been a good reference source.

Think I’ll go finish reading it in bed.

How does Tekkon Kinkreet the movie, compare to the Manga? Well, right from the get go, you see what is bound to be a cult classic piece of film. The first thing that struck me is how true to the original art-style the animated movie has been. It’s not only the story that makes ‘Black & White’ such a great series to read, but the fantastically quirky art plays a huge role.

I was very impressed to see a lot of originality in the directing of this story and yet they maintained a very familiar pace to the Manga. You can see what I mean from the comparison shots I’ve put together below.

The only differences I saw are purely editorial cuts and splices. Some items from the Manga I’m sure they had in the movie were probably removed to keep the pacing intact. Certainly a lot of scenes were shifted around, more than likely for the same reason. Such as the fight with Dusk & Dawn (which actually doesn’t take place until Book 2), was used as the introduction for the movie. While other small scenes from the book seem to have been cut out completely. It’s not a great loss, although I did at times question whether we fully understood Blacks psyche as much as we do from reading the books. You definitely get a greater understanding of both characters if you read the Manga.

Saying that though, I guess to people who’ve only seen the movie, the character development shown would suffice. On a sidenote, I watched this with the English Dubbing and I was very impressed with how wonderful the voice acting was. Especially the kid who does Whites voice. It’s about time Dubbing stopped being crap on anime XD

Octobers London Expo was definitely the best one yet! It’s gotten so big lately, that back in May it really felt overcrowded. But the organisers had booked even more halls for October so there was room to move and stand. Made it so much easier to meet and greet people.

I don’t normally buy much at these events, as I generally shop for things I want on a regular basis, but this time, there was stuff that I wanted to nab! Got hold of a few Mangas I’ve been meaning to get and I spotted an awesome set of character models of the Serenity crew based on the movie rather than the TV show. Right under the box of characters, strategically placed no doubt, was a model of Firefly ship, Serenity herself. Sold and Sold!!

Let’s see, what else did I get up to?

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