Use: Imagination

Swedes, Filmmaking Frenzies, whatever you wanna call 'em.

I enjoyed these as much as I did their originals!





In the case of this last one, it's so well-done I'm convinced lo-fi special effects can be just as impressive (maybe moreso) than expensive CGI. Using computers to visualize the fantastic has become so commonplace that the effect is cheapened - it's now somehow too easy to achieve suspension of disbelief.

When you see creators using alternate, more imaginative means, the "wow" factor does an about-face and your awe reflects back on the ingenuity of the creator moreso than the verisimilitude of the creation. Who said fantasy had to be so real anyway?

That's what imaginations are for.

I'm all for this new "sweding" movement demonstrating that exorbitant effects budgets do not entertainment make.

Sometimes the spirit of giddy make-believe is all you need.

Turn Turn Turn

The song, if you like, or the karmic wheel.

2007 is done now, and the long night is turning into day again for a spell. I was happy to achieve my goals for the year, even if a few came in past deadline. One such was a move back closer to where I was born, for purposes of helping birth new things, meeting recently-birthed things, and birthing one of my own (on paper, not in flesh). That latter is just about outta me now and into the harsh light of day, so it was time to shift the cycle from nocturnal back to diurnal and depart the lonely home/womb office (so essential to grinding out the novel) for one where a flux of people move all around me every day.

Last but not least (to the tune of 22 kilometers not least) was the half-marathon, which I've run three times now - not to my satisfaction, but run nonetheless. It took a year of training to get to that point in the first place, of course, and it'll take a year more, I'm guessing, to get the finish time I'm looking for. That's why, when I woke up this morning to the following animated .gif on Etherbrian's blog, I was tickled beyond 8-bit pink. It's a friendly reminder that it takes time to turn the wheel.

But if you keep moving, things do change.

To every season, then. Through every season.



P.S. Brian accomplished a goal of his own this month, too - breaking into the ranks of printed Threadless T-shirt artists. I've been a fan of Brian's for over ten years and was happy to pick up a design of his through Zazzle shortly ago. Now I'm even more thrilled to be one of the first to shell out for his Interloper From Beyond The Heavens on starburst orange. Join me!

When You Find A Lover

When I die, I'll check outta Dodge having sung more Erasure songs than anybody else's. I've crooned their tunes to the ladies, harmonized alongside friends and family, belted out the oldies and the newies under that ever-forgiving private stage light of the shower head (the true test, instrumentalist Vince Clarke and vocalist Andy Bell believe, of any pop ditty worth a single release).

But these guys don't just write and perform the catchiest Top 40 contenders of my preference. Their album-only tracks are just as good, if not better. The b-sides are instant classics. By last count, this pairing of gifted analog synthesist and gay-outta-the-womb party animal with an angel's vocal range, have created in the multiple hundreds of charming arrangements that stick in your heart and stay there despite all the years did their damnedest to wear you down into a jaded cynic who doesn't believe in true love.

Well, Erasure have been at their game more than two decades.

And I still believe.

Suffice it to say, then, it was one of my life's greatest honors and privileges to download the master tracks for their upcoming single "When A Lover Leaves You" and be encouraged to work up my own interpretation for a contest that'll see the winner's remix officially released. More fun, that the whole batch of us hopefuls (235 total) have our personal takes posted online for other fans to enjoy. There's even a friendly competition amongst entrants to see who wins the popular vote, though this won't determine the top mixist - the band chooses a favorite themselves.

I was lucky I chanced to be browsing Erasure a couple weeks ago and found word of this promotion. Lucky too, I finally had a Mac of my own and could use the sponsored software (GarageBand) to schlep together a mix (I'd have been more comfortable goofing around in my alma mater Ableton Live, but GarageBand - for all its limitations - is a robust little novelty app). Most importantly, I was fortunate to be in the right emotional place for getting across a melancholy rendition of the track - my favorite, it happens, from the new album Light At The End Of The World.

Life's funny that way.

For the record, let it be known that if I had the master tracks for Erasure's entire back catalog to remix at my pleasure and discretion, I might never leave the house.

-Stephen Reese, #184, "When A Lover Finds You"

Perfect Circles

My friend Kevin, who taught me how to properly (mountain and road) bike last summer, has a term he likes to use when talking about what it is we do with our legs while pushing pedals and turning wheels in service of truly badass forward momentum.

Here's my understanding:

It's not just about rotating tires, round and round, to propel you onward across the straights and up and down those hills. You're also working to make your heel revolve on its ankle fulcrum. There is a subtle, gentle pull up, and a smooth, undulating roll down, that together complete the gesture. You don't want to jab and kick at the bike with a series of movements that taken as one, form a right-angled rectangle. What you're trying to do is describe hemispheres with the machinery of your feet.

You're aspiring to perfect circles.

As some of you already know, this summer I'm going to ride the Tour of Courage in support of my former colleague Rich Wilkins and his current battle with cancer. The aforementioned Kevin will be kicking my ass in this race. As will the several other friends and colleagues who comprise our team. For this combined effort, we hope to raise money to aid cancer research and prevention.

If you're able, folks, I'm asking you to please chip in with a donation to help me reach (and surpass) my personal fundraising goal of a thousand clams. Any bit helps. Me, I aim to paint some perfect circles for Rich. Let's see what we can do together.

This is the link to my donations page: Reese Rides For Rich

And if you haven't seen the source site yet, here's Go Rich.

Clymonistra

If you're like me, your life was changed by an ambitious trilogy of fantasy books written by Philip Pullman and entitled The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass (together known as His Dark Materials). I fetched the first one from a shelf at my local small-town bookstore way back in 1996, then purchased it solely based on Terry Brooks's foreword promise that "You are going to love the Golden Compass."

It was a bold claim. And the chap was right, too.



A while ago, New Line Cinema optioned the rights to make His Dark Materials as their second big-screen fantasy adaptation (to follow Lord of the Rings, of course); and I say without irony, His Dark Materials is (while not a work without flaw - whose is, really?) the only modern fantasy epic worthy of succeeding Tolkien in a fictional milieu still cluttered with elves, orcs and evil Dark Lords.



Now. Less folk know about His Dark Materials, though the books sold very well and won multiple awards. Pullman's is also...weirder...and riskier...material than what Tolkien produced. Ergo, New Line's marketing department are going to have an uphill battle filling seats for opening weekend of The Golden Compass. And I wager there won't be a second or third film made if the first one doesn't turn a profit. These fantastical shenanigans always cost a pretty penny to visualize, as you well know.



For this reason, I want to show you one of the early advertising ploys they've cooked up to generate awareness of the property and also reveal a bit of Pullman's interesting cosmology. In his story, a given character's soul is externalized (and personified) through an animal totem who represents that individual's unique traits. For children, these "daemons" change shape and species to reflect the unanchored identity-wandering and soul-searching of youth. When we become adults, our daemons solidify into one animal form and remain as such until our deaths. It's a neat idea.



What New Line's done on the Golden Compass website is set up a personality quiz that results in a daemon being assigned you based on your answers. I think it's a brilliant gimmick to communicate one of the books' more memorable concepts and stoke excitement for the film. So, I invite you to take a look and meet your daemon (find the functionality under the DAEMONS menu).

Mine's a wolf, and her name's Clymonistra.

(Thanks to Bill for the link.)

The Interweb Rools

I've been all gaga and frothing at the mouth about Facebook for the last couple weeks, madly telling everyone it's the best implementation of the internet yet.

And it is. Truly.

But this is even better: Kiva

Thanks to Drew for the link.

Nerd Summit

Site's been quiet, but the weekend was anything but.

Mini Nerd co-founder and Chief Technology Officer David Roberts was here visiting from Ontari-ario. We managed to cram in a business meeting and two family visits between excessive geeking-out, watching lots of Deadwood, cheering obnoxiously for the Leafs AND the Flames, playing multiple chess games (all of which I lost), reuniting with old friends on Facebook, checking in on Dave's wife (and the upcoming spawn in her belly that was responsible for Dave's quick visit here and now before it's born and prevents our hanging out for 20 years), plus the conspicuous consumption of fine scotch, beer and wine. I also drug Dave around Cowtown on foot while grabbing groceries, seeing the doctor, applying for a passport, and getting my rear bike wheel switched from Tacx-compatibility to road-readiness (of course, it's winter here again and snow now drapes the streets afresh).

Last but most notably, Dave (never a cook in the past) taught me his wife's pad thai recipe (which was delicious), got my wireless internet working (FINALLY), and helped me celebrate the first birthday of Mini Nerd (30 March, dontcha know). We've revamped the site's look for spring and introduced two new functionalities: a slideshow of Mini Nerdchandise available at Cafe Press (find it at the bottom of the sidebar), and the Monstermasher (up top).



The latter is a realization of randomized exquisite corpses for Mini Nerd readers courtesy of a classic illustration toy dear to dork chilluns of the 80s (including myself): the Mighty Men and Monster Maker. I bought a scanner specifically for the purpose of getting the wicked interchangeable art plates from the Maker into digital format for the Masher. Then Dave laid down some sweet code to build Vampire Ape Mad Scientist Superhero Mummies for us all.

Awwwwwwww jazzy.

Please enjoy the fruits of our labor, and if you're able, help support Mini Nerd in its second year online by picking up a Blorthos Cap, a Vampyric Horse Saddlebag, or a Mini Thong. We've also got t-shirts, bumper stickers, buttons, mugs and steins aplenty!

Here are photos from what was a great (if short) visit with my lifelong friend. I thank his wife, nascent kid, and cats for letting me borrow him a few days. Let's make it an annual tradition!


He cooks.




He codes.




He's a keeper.

Go Rich

I just heard, and I want to tell everyone else.

So please meet my former colleague Rich Wilkins, one of the most kind and caring folks I've encountered. Rich and I never got close, but given more time working on the same projects, or hanging out in the same peer groups, I'm sure we would have.

The moment I was introduced to Rich I knew we shared a love of people and life. Those times we ran into each other, there was always a warm exchange of hellos or jokes. It disagrees with my arguably delusional worldview that a human being of his caliber would get sick, but I also know he'll face the challenge with commitment, strength, and a spirit I've never seen shaken.

Here's the site his friends, family and coworkers have made for him. Browsing it will show you the kind of man he is:

Go Rich

We're All It

Tagged by Kerrie with this bit of navel-gazing. Consider yourself tagged too. I'm an innie, and here's my lint:

Where did your last kiss take place?
In an aeroport.

Who knows a secret or two about you?
Most folk.

Three words to explain why you last threw up:
Beer, wine, gin.

Have you ever burned yourself?
Mostly the sun does that.

What's crazy to you?
Inattention.

Who is probably talking a load of crap about you right now?
Nobody.

Would you ever want to be a model?
Not really.

Do you tell white lies?
Only to protect.

When is your next party?
Tomorrow night.

Who do you want to be with right now?
Myself.

How do you handle a break up?
Make new stuff.

Your motivation for tomorrow?
Do my best.

Last person to hurt you?
Shannanigans.

Last person to make you laugh?
Doogie.

Have you ever cleaned up someone else's vomit?
Nope.

One best friend or 10 aquaintances?
All of the above.

Favorite food?
Pizza.

Most favorite person?
Too many to choose from.

Are you an emotional person?
Sure.

Do you like your name?
Yep.

Do you dance naked in your room at night?
No, but I critique my reflection.

Biggest fear?
Fear.

Favorite place to be?
Happy.

Do you hate anybody?
Nah.

Does anyone hate you?
So I've been told.

How many people do you trust fully?
Probably too many.

But Then!

Ever participated in a chain story?

You should!

It's where one person starts a tale, throwin' down a scene or sumthin', then tosses in a cliffhanger and lets the next person pick up where they left off. The new scribe either preserves the tone and advances the plot with their addition, or goes all anarchist and takes the action in a completely different direction.

It's like Exquisite Corpses (which I'd love to implement as Mini Nerd functionality, somehow), except with words instead of drawings. Sometimes the gameplay works better in theory than in practice, but I find it's always worth a few goes before switching to a game of Balderdash, Taboo, or Qbit.

To that end, I present this link to an online version of chain-storying - Ficlets - and invite you to enact tomfoolery with me.

Thanks to Lisa for the link! Hope you get in the game, kiddo. I also dare Teresa, Bill, Mike, Dory and Montreal Lisa to mince some words. And Bronwen, I'd love to write a chain story with you.

We Love Big Brother

George Orwell (mentioned here last month in errata) posited humans would hate the idea of constant surveillance.

Turns out, we dig it large - at least if it's "men", and not "The Man", who're watching.

Blogs are a fair example of how, given our own terms and voices, we love to splay open, sometimes messily, our inner feelings, aspirations, observations and creations for a theoretical (and theoretically vast - yet intimate) audience.

It seems facetious to quote Shakespeare, but life can be a stage.

Where I'll dare to expand the Bard's assertion is to say, within our roles and responsibilities as employees, family members, friends and lovers even (loosely, "official" capacities), the stage is much like that in the theater, where we exchange our tragic and comic masks (among others) to "put on the best face" for a temporally present and captive audience, as it were.

On the web, in the blog - I would suggest - we get a more direct link (har har) to someone's inner machinery, their more raw and unpolished cogs of personality.

Can I go so far as to say, if everyday face-to-face life is a "stage" (sometimes a "screen", if we aim larger than life and have decent eyes), words and pictures on a monitor (like words and pictures on paper, possibly) are a "book" (for lack of a corresponding physical setting where written narrative is staged).

By that I mean, rather than preoccupy ourselves with appearances, outer dialogues, visible actions in the "real world", here we're concerned with what some can't disclose in person: their unspoken secrets, cherished hopes and dreams, closely-guarded shames and hesitations...what they "really think".

Is the web the best way we've found yet to achieve that universal inner connection some folk have sought for centuries? Is it the killer app for shared consciousness?

I'm reminded of Dan Simmons' "datasphere" from the Ilium/Olympos cycle of novels, something a little juicier and more inclusive than William Gibson's earlier (and equally prescient) conception of "the matrix", or cyberspace (which seemed less about connecting people than it did making cold, hard information available to those with the skill to access it). The old ARPANET vs. the interweb?

Whatevah.

Our cyberspace of today, our datasphere, is more cluttered and searching, more base and primal, than either of the above fictional constructs. If we choose to engage on a certain level, it feels...human.

An old question, yes, but I'm still asking it. Though technology distances us, can it nonetheless facilitate an intimacy of mind?

You tell me.

P.S. The link that inspired this ramble just sort of mysteriously appeared one day in my Favorites list. I never put it there myself.

Thank you, Big Brother.

Be Your Own Big Brother

iTarot

I haven't tried this yet, but I intend to soon:

iPod Tarot Deck

In the meantime, why don't you?

I'm It

Tagged by Absent Canadian with the following:

Five Things You May Not Know About Me

1. I was the last boy in my school to learn how to ride a bike.

2. I was strangled twice, once by a family member.

3. In my Citizen Kane paper during film school, I repeatedly, mistakenly referred to Orson Welles as "Orwell". My teaching assistant found it "very clever".

4. Rightly, a woman I love slapped my face in public.

5. I'm training for a half-marathon.

Now, you're it.

And by you, I mean anyone reading this who blogs, and especially these usual suspects: Edie, Sunny, Teresa, Pucca, Clem, and Art.

You're It

I propose some communal navel-gazing to start off August.

Who Are You?

Found the above through Bill Slease at GigaGiggles; the site offering it is FULL of many other interesting diversions, so I encourage you to rummage around there too - but for now, we have this personality test called Johari that compares what you think of yourself to what others think of you. It's sure to start some conflicts; better yet, some reevaluations; and potentially best of all, greater self-awareness for everyone!

Tagging Absent Canadian, Edie and her folks, Mr Curry, the Dark Knight, the Grumpy Bear, Dawne, Pucca and Zeri with this. If you're reading along and you blog, consider yourself tagged too.

Let's see some self-obsession!

Music For Meaning

I've been digging for a blog topic a while now but nothing struck me. Probably because I've been too busy redesigning my website.

I finally found something - where I least expected it, as usual. I promised myself I would never do one of these things, but this is too entertaining to resist. Mostly because it's about meaning generation, and my favorite thing to dig for, after all, is meaning.

So, onward (and it should be noted Nox didn't tag me with this, I did it all by myself):

Instructions: set your iTunes on shuffle and use the song order to answer the following questions.



Q) How does the world see me?

A) Right Where It Belongs - Nine Inch Nails

What if all the world's inside of your head?
Just creations of your own
Your devils and your gods all the living and the dead
And you're really all alone
You can live in this illusion,
You can choose to believe.
You keep looking but you can't find the woods,
While you're hiding in the trees



Q) Will I live a happy life?

A) Alarm Call - Bjork

I have walked this earth
And watched people
I can be sincere
And say I like them

You can't say no to hope
Can't say no to happiness

I want to go on a mountaintop
With a radio and good batteries
And play a joyous tune and
Free the human race
From suffering

It doesn't scare me at all

I'm no ****ing Buddhist
But this is enlightenment

The less room you give me
The more space I've got

This is an alarm call
So wake up, wake up now
Today has never happened
And it doesn't frighten me

It doesn't scare me at all



Q) What do people really think of me?

A) Sex On The Flag - KMFDM

SEX ON THE FLAG, GIVE ME RESPECT OR GIVE ME DEATH
SEX ON THE FLAG, NO RESPONSIBILITY
SEX ON THE FLAG, YOU GOTTA HAVE SOME FANTASY
SEX ON THE FLAG, CRACK DOWN AND CRY FOR ME



Q) How can I make myself happy?

A) Work It To The Bone - LNR

Come on let's work
Come on let's work it to the bone bone bone
Gotta work it to the bone
Gotta work it to the bone
Gonna work you 'til you sweat
Gonna work you 'til you get wet
Come on work...to the bone bone bone



Q) What should I do with my life?

A) O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.



Q) What is some good advice for me?

A) Drama! - Erasure

One rule for us, for you another
Do unto yourself as you see fit for your brother
Is that not within your realm of understanding?
Well then, poor unfortunate you
There are a myriad of things that you can do
Like pick up a pen and paper, or go and talk to a friend
The history of the future
No violence or revenge

Your shame is never...ending
Just one psychological drama after another
You are guilty, and how you ever entered into this life...
God only knows the infinite complexities of love



Q) What do I think my current theme song is?

A) Lips - Ambo

You know we say the damnedest things my love
We must see something here that's invisible to most
Her lips are slightly parted and wet and soft and full
They enrage and confuse and clarify my ideas
And when they speak they sometimes break my heart
I lift my eye for the help to come
I don't know what the help will look like



Q) What song will play at my funeral?

A) Knowing Me, Knowing You - Abba

No more carefree laughter
Silence ever after
Walking through an empty house, tears in my eyes
Here is where the story ends, this is goodbye

Knowing me, knowing you
There is nothing we can do
We just have to face it, this time we're through
Breaking up is never easy, I know but I have to go
Knowing me, knowing you
It's the best I can do

Memories, good days, bad days
They'll be, with me, always



Q) What is my day going to be like?

A) Masterhit (Parts 1 & 2) - Front 242

You know me and I sure know you...
Every one of you.

You seem so...tender

Give me some more of the warm little beasts
I'm so fond of

Master, I'm so glad to feel your presence
But you don't seem to share my impatience
I relied upon you to break the silence
I cannot understand your reluctance

Master, I feel so warm and I'm so happy, oh master
Give me some more of the warm little beasts
I'm so fond of

You seem so...
I could melt the frozen wall you raised between us
And now I'm on the other side, you seem rather surprised

Constricting viscous rings around your warm body
Holding you tied, holding you tied...and I feel so happy

You seem as tender
As the warm little beasts
I'm so fond of



Q) Why am I here?

A) Come To Me - Bjork

Come to me
I'll take care of you
Protect you
Calm, calm down
You're exhausted
Come lie down
You don't have to explain
I understand
You know
That I adore you
You know
That I love you

Jump off
Your building's on fire
And I'll catch you
I'll catch you
Destroy all that is keeping you back
And then I'll nurse you
I'll nurse you

Come to me
I'll take care of you
You don't have to explain
I understand



Q) What will people remember me for?

A) Tread Water - De La Soul

As I walked along my journey,
I thought 'What have I just learned?'
Always look to the positive and never drop your head
For the water will engulf us if we do not dare to tread
See I look past all my worries, which is something you must do
Though you're fed up, throw your head up
With this advice from me to you:
And that's to tread water



Q) What song will I get stuck in my head tomorrow?

A) All Apologies - Sinead O'Connor (written by Kurt Cobain)

What else should I be?
All apologies
What else could I say?
Everyone is gay
What else should I write?
I don't have the right
What else should I be?
All apologies

In the sun - in the sun I feel as one
In the sun - in the sun
I'm married
Buried

I wish I was like you
Easily amused
Find my nest of salt
Everything's my fault
I'll take all the blame
Aqua seafoam shame
Sun burn with freezerburn
Choking on the ashes of her enemy

In the sun - in the sun I feel as one
In the sun - in the sun
I'm married
Buried
Married
Buried

All alone is all we are



Q) Are there people outside waiting to take me away?

A) Black Dove (January) - Tori Amos

She was a January girl
She never let on how insane it was
In that tiny kinda scary house
By the woods, by the woods, by the woods, by the woods
By the woods, by the woods, by the woods, by the woods

Black-dove
Black-dove
You're not a helicopter
You're not a cop-out either
Black-dove
Black-dove
You don't need a space ship
They don't know you've already lived
On the other side of the galaxy



Q) What will this year be all about?

A) Is Blood - Ambo

What is blood, tell me is it blue?
Like a river, flows from me to you
Tributary of veins upon my wrist
All lead to a sea of pain and bliss

The sea is the heart, mind and soul
No one on this ocean has control
Not even God, He allows the choice
The ocean rages - I rejoice

Laughing and bleeding inside this storm
I look up, I scream and am forlorn
Back and forth I dream and deeply sleep
From nightmare to peaceful dreams I keep

I'll tell you a secret... listen well
I still taste Heaven, seized by Hell
And in this seizure that wars in my soul
I find great peace in flesh and bone

So war and wage within my sky blue blood
We'll build a bridge and cross over the flood

Tagging Mike, Neil, Art, "Spy Pucca", "Dark Knight" and "Enmity Bear" with this.