With about a week left here in Washington, I finally made it out the national zoo to see those pandas. Me and a couple of other people followed this thing they called the "Asia Trail." They called it that because it was lined with some bamboo, and, as we all know, that's all it takes to make something Asian. They even line some of the habitats with fake plastic bamboo with spiky tops. Now that's dedication.
Today was pretty fucking hot, so a majority of this trail consisted of wading through crowds of little children with unnecessarily expensive cameras, and looking for these animals which were tucked away in the farthest corners of their fake forests, but to little or no avail. In fact, even after walking past 5 "Fujifilm Photo Spots" for the giant pandas, the first panda we found was this one.
Unfortunately, it had wandered beyond the fake bamboo perimeter, and was immediately cast in bronze by lasers. So I took a picture with it. But a little whiles after this we finally find them indoors in their feeding place tank pseudo-mountain top thing.
This is one of those rare instances where the backdrop actually looks somewhat kind of maybe real... kind of.
And here's that image 35 times a second with slight variations inbetween.
TANGENT.
So tonight I caught an episode of this comedy series on HBO called "Flight of the Conchords," and it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. EVER. It's awkward comedy, akin to the Lonely Island and Stella, but in a New Zealand accent, which makes it even better.
Here's a video that will make absolutely no sense to you outside of the context of the episode, but hopefully it's intriguing enough to make you order HBO and watch it on Sundays.
Oh, and go watch Sunshine, it's fucking amazing. Here's the trailer:
Why yes, the trailer tells you absolutely nothing about the movie, other than the fact the Scarecrow is in it. But still, go see it. It reminded me a lot of Event Horizon, if you remember that movie, only a LOT less creepy and void of a screaming Lawrence Fischburne (which, in the case, is a good thing). And it's as visually beautiful as The Fountain, only with a plot that a normal human being would actually be able to follow the first time through. Point is, I embedded the trailer in my blog, thus alleviating you from one extra step to click a link and then press play. Thus, through the transitive property, you must go see this movie.
And for those of you who are amazingly bored, here's a damn good time-killer of a game. It's the first decent DDR based flash game I've come across. ENJOY IT CUZ I EMBEDDED IT IN MY BLOG VIA MY AWESOME HTML SKILLZ.
here are several videos of Ira Glass, the host of This American Life (guy that was 2nd on my list of fucking awesome voices), giving some guidelines to good storytelling.
i think it's vital stuff for anyone with an interest in writing for film or television, which i don't... so i've seen this a thousand times and still suck at storytelling. i just watch it to listen to him talk.
so there you go. now noone has an excuse to suck at storytelling. ... except for me.
i've never really had the inclination to "embed" things in my blog. i'm not an html savvy guy, so i figured i'd just provide the link, and they could see whatever it was for themselves.
but i am embedding this video, from This American Life, cuz i saw it a long time ago, lost the link, and finally found it just now. and i think it's worth watching, so here goes:
This American Life is a GREAT radio show, perfect for passing the time when you're doing tedious tasks on photoshop, or just sleuthing on a lazy sunday afternoon or whatever. you can listen to full episodes at www.thislife.org, and see clips from their show on showtime.
'my reputation,' '24 hours at the golden apple,' and 'the allure of the mean friend' are some of my favorites.
and of course, ira glass high up there on my list of fucking awesome voices, second only next to jeremy irons
shut up. i'm here because the metro system here in washington fails to see the financial benefits of running 24/7 and actually closes. so now i'm stranded here in the office until it opens.
i should take advantage of this and do a lot work. but i'd much rather spend the next 5 hours changing everyone's screen-saver to something profane... like a baby chimpanzee jerking it into a banana peel, or this:
it's 1:24 in the morning, and i'm 2/3rds, wait, NAY, 25/36th of the way through writing a script for a documentary i'm getting progressively less interested in completing.
i kinda feel like this
and that is me trying to suffocate american university to death with my claws of fury, cuz this place blows... hard.
their dining hall costs 15 bux a meal. but me and my friend greg figure if we go in with a duffel bag full of tupperware, we can get out 15 dollars worth. so we fill up our shit, and this southern bitch who looked like a walking banana split came and yelled at us, and made us throw it away.
so in the end, i paid 15 bux for some tater tots and to dirty up my tupperware.
and the food tasted like i imagine how this would taste
but i didn't want to leave empty handed, so i took the first thing i could find, which was this basket of napkins.
I couldn't find much time at Narita airport to do an update, so alas, the final post for my Japan trip is being done back in LA.
One of favorite places to go in Japan is definitely Shibuya; all the lights and gigantic tv screens makes it feel like Times Square, only cleaner.
The pink and blue neon sign in the background is for HMV, probably Tokyo's largest media chain, comparable to Virgin in New York, selling music and movies from around the world.
HMV stands for "His Master's Voice"... sounds kinda totalitarian if you ask me. Good thing they stuck to the acronym... like KFC.
Unlike music stores in America (or those that I've been to anyway), many Japanese music stores have their own sections for indie music.
I didn't snap a picture of it, but right as you walk into the store, you see a rack that has the current top 10. Of what chart, I have no idea, but it does make deciding easier. I picked up a compilation album for a group called Mr.Children (no space), which has actually been around since 1987. Throughout my trip I had their name all over the place, on the subway, on TV, etc, so I was glad to see they has just released a greatest hits album, so to speak, called B-Side.
What I particularly like about them is that their music spans all genres, rap, rock, blues, even electronica, which is rare when for what could be technically classified as a boy band (except they've gotten much older since their start... and man band just sounds weird.) B-Side is a great album to pick up if you ever get the chance to, whether it be in stores or online.
Of course, around Shibuya you'll still find the lesser known artists busking outside of subway stations or on any street corner that can manage the space.
These guys probably had the most elaborate set-up I had seen to date, with a projector and everything. They were reminiscent of a cross between Linkin Park and System of a Down, which I liked, so I picked up their album.
Shibuya, like pretty much any city in Tokyo, has several arcades, and this drum game it by far the greatest game ever made... EVER. They sell it in stores (with a smaller version of the drum, of course), but it can't play on American playstation 2's, which sucks major balls.
Check it out, London Police in Japan, woot.
Here's a wide shot of just a small part of Shibuya.
And the same place at day time. There are a lot less people...so to speak, but it's still cool.
