| Trent Reznor is my hero of moment |
[Sep. 14th, 2007|09:05 pm] |
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21741980-5006024,00.html
When your US label, Interscope, discovered the web-based alternate reality game (ARG) you'd built around Year Zero, were they happy for the free marketing or angry you hadn't let them in on it?
I chose to do this on my own, at great financial expense to myself, because I knew they wouldn't understand what it is, for one. And secondly, I didn't want it coming from a place of marketing, I wanted it coming from a place that was pure to the project. It's a way to present the story and the backdrop, something I would be excited to find as a fan. I knew the minute I talked to someone at the record label about it, they would be looking at it in terms of "How can we tie this in with a mobile provider?" That's what they do. If something lent itself to that, OK, I'm not opposed to the idea of not losing a lot of money (laughs). But it would only be if it made sense. I've had to position myself as the irrational, stubborn, crazy artist. At the end of the day, I'm not out to sabotage my career, but quality matters, and integrity matters. Jumping through any hoop or taking advantage of any desperate situation that comes up just to sell a product is harmful. It is.
I need to remember: not every license/property/IP I work with is faceless, some of them have real people behind them that care about the work in ways I might not. |
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| Finally finished uploading... |
[Jan. 28th, 2007|06:26 pm] |
The final selection of photos from my trip to Japan are now on Flickr. About time.
Stats:
-3,836 photos taken
-300 put in Flickr set James in Japan 2006
-First upload to set, Oct 23 2006
-Last upload, January 28 2007
-Annoyance at self for time taken, immeasurable
I wonder how long it will take me to finish tagging and adding comments?
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| Flip Shot |
[Dec. 6th, 2006|01:57 am] |
So I'm gradually getting all of the photos posted. Up to the second day in Kyoto (7 days into the trip) but I'll go back and tag and annotate later.
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| Updating quickly |
[Nov. 22nd, 2006|01:16 am] |
...and with few comments. I'll have to fill in the story of TGS another day.
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| Rocket Whale? |
[Nov. 19th, 2006|10:24 pm] |
Finally adding more photos from Japan. (Sorry Chiaki!) I'm going to update these every two days until I'm through all of them. It just takes longer than I ever expect to pick out the good ones and then organize and resize them for posting.
I need to return to Japan before long. I can still feel the energy of Tokyo thrumming in my bones, the pain in my feet that didn't matter because the music was so good, and the overwhelming sense of different that appeared around every corner.
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| First Japan Flickr Update |
[Oct. 24th, 2006|12:27 am] |
I wanted to get at least a few of my Japan photos up so I just took an hour and dug through the first 3 days worth. This is ridiculous. 3 days, 58 photos I posted, and there's a story or note to go with most of them if I take the time to write it up. I have to get ruthless and pick just a few next time, cut it down and keep it simple.
The story of my trip will end up being told in the descriptions of the images. Feels like the best way to keep it all straight.
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| I am returned |
[Oct. 12th, 2006|02:34 am] |
Back from Japan, and it's messed up but the culture shock upon return to North America was greater than arrival in Japan. May have something to do with dropping my stuff at home in Montreal, getting a shower, then hopping on a bus at 10:30pm to Albany, NY. Get into Albany around 4am, crash in a super dingy Ramada, get picked up by Morgan, Kate, and Jason at 11am and go to Hudson NY. Which is very small town America. Head go *squish*.
Morgan and Kate are two of the bestest people in the world. No Joke. Morgan is also my lead designer at work and the guy who got me to come out to Montreal in the first place.
M&K are returning to their native Australia in two weeks.
This is simultaneously awesome and sucky. Awesome because it is the perfect thing for them. Morgan's new gig is with Pandemic Australia and they're going to let him run rampant. Sweet. It's been a while since the dynamic duo has lived in oz so they're happy to return. Goodness abounds.
But it sucks because we've wanted to work on something together for a long time now.
Ah well. Life goes on and it's a small business. We'll do it again another day.
It's going to take me a while to sort through all of my Japan photos so I can just post some nice ones. Expect another update when I manage that. Japan is fantastic is all I can say, and Tokyo is definitely my favorite city in the world, followed closely by Fukouka. |
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| Surprising No One: Dancing is Good |
[Sep. 3rd, 2006|05:23 am] |
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Just got home from getting completely rocked by an Atomic Hooligan DJ set at Metrolium's Summer Breaks. He made my week by playing Underworld's classic Cowgirl. I've never had the chance to dance to Underworld before. My happy level is off the charts. Now I must sleep. |
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| Long overdue update |
[Jun. 28th, 2006|01:29 am] |
So I keep neglecting this LJ, but my personal life simply isn't drama filled enough to post about on a regular basis. So instead every few months I quit lurking on my friendslist and post something. The trend continues. This being my birthday (well, up until an hour and a half ago) and all I may as well mark it somehow. (Outside of the requisite trouble making courtesy of Jason, Morgan, and Justin this evening)
First off, the picture attached to this post was taken with my happy shiny new camera. I hadn't done any shooting in ages because I was just so annoyed with my Pentax Optio 30. Image quality isn't so hot, the motors are really loud, and the action is slow. So a perfect storm of 20% off open box models and the availability of a Canon S2 IS at the local Future Shop lead me to pick one up. Wow. I shot with one of these briefly last autumn while my Optio was in for repairs and really enjoyed it. It's a bigger, heavier camera, but the 12x zoom, much better image quality, and most importantly Image Stabilization, makes up for it. So I've been shooting a little, trying to get used to the new camera. A few recent photos are up on my Flickr stream now.
Second, I'm going to take a vacation. Shock, horror. Technically I took a vacation a couple of years ago when I went to Scotland for 2 weeks. It was nice, but it was a family visit. Checking in with relatives is lovely, but it's not really a bounce about holiday in unfamiliar territory.
So due to a lucky draw at work netting me a tidy little bonus I'm able to take right off to the other side of the world. I leave for Japan September 16th and return October 7th. Very, very excited. I plan to see Jeff for a few days while I'm over there, hit the Tokyo Game Show, and visit other friends in Japan who I met in Vancouver. (Watch out Chiaki, this means you!)
It's late, I need to try and sleep, and I hope this little update finds you all well and happy.
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| Traveling and updating. |
[Feb. 15th, 2006|11:57 pm] |
Haven't updated in many moons. So here, have a stack of photos. Went to New York two weekends ago with a crew of 50 from work. We headed down there in a bus to see the Pixar exhibit at MOMA. Which we did. Unfortunately it was extremely crowded and there wasn't a lot of stuff on display. Coolest piece was a zoetrope constructed using various Pixar character action figures posed in different key frames. Spin the whole thing around really fast and then hit it with a strobe light. BAM! Animated dancing characters. Nifty. I could have spent a day or two in MOMA, but it was so incredibly crowded that I bailed after a couple of hours.
New York itself sure made up for the 'meh' of MOMA crowds though. Holy crap. It's like the whole world got scaled by 2 or 3. It's absolutely massive. I could spend weeks just walking that city and exploring, and I think I'd only cover a small fraction of it. You'll notice my photos are almost entirely of buildings. That wasn't intentional, but they were just so varied and interesting that I couldn't quit shooting. Must have looked just like the tourist I was. I shot over 400 pictures, only uploaded 70 or so. I don't rock nearly as hard as ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) inri33r so my pictures don't have clever names. Never mind that my camera and skill just cannot compete.
The fact that my hands shake never used to bother me, but now when I start taking pictures it drives me nuts. Forget using any kind of zoom, the hands will shift the photo out of focus instantly. Whatever camera I get in the future will have image stabilizing. (Although my experiments with a variety of cameras while mine was in for repair showed me that IS only helps a little.)
The short version of other news: Work is generally excellent. I'm rocking the new project and the team kicks ass. They've pulled together a solid first-playable in record time and we're well on track to have a fun little game on our hands. Also, A2M is shipping me to GDC in March. Yay for GDC! Boo for San Jose! (Was in San Fran last year, but the conference center there is booked up this time so it's back to San Jose)
Also, I learned the basic steps of the Tango and fully intend to learn how to do it properly.
Also, also: Finally started going to the gym. First week. Everything hurts. Lots.
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| Heading for Vancouver |
[Dec. 24th, 2005|12:37 am] |
For anybody paying attention to this thing that I never update:
I'll be in Vancouver from the 29th of December to the 2nd of January. I can be reached via my gmail account and have few firm plans. New Years will happen at The Eatery. I also plan to eat as much sushi as possible while in town. Other than that, I'm around and about. |
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| Flickr Update |
[Nov. 23rd, 2005|12:20 am] |
| [ | music |
| | MU - Paris Hilton (via pandora.com) | ] |
Finally got around to uploading a bunch of photos taken while wandering Montreal. My camera is still at Futureshop for repairs, so in the meantime I've been trying out other models. Buy one, return it before the two weeks is up, try another. Gone through the Pentax Optio 60 and currently on the Canon S2.
Optio 60 is the new version of my busted Optio 30. Decent image quality but I'm not a big fan, same issues that the 30 has. Lack of responsiveness when taking shots even from a half depressed button. I took all of the Montreal parkour shots with it.
The Canon S2 is nice. Really, really nice. Even has image stabilization but my hands shake too much naturally to make it count in low light conditions.
Next summer perhaps I'll look at an upgrade to a Digital SLR, but I should really try to shoot more with just the camera I have first. No point in heavy duty hardware if I can't take advantage of it.
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| Forgive me but... |
[Nov. 13th, 2005|12:54 am] |
| [ | music |
| | P-Love - Laches pas les etudes, Gertrude | ] |
ARGH! I have the hate. I feel jerk-like for making my first update in more than a month a rant but... FUCK!
I saw Lord of War tonight. Thought it would be black humour stuff. Gun running is bad, main character is gun runner, he will learn a lesson, and funny but possibly ugly jokes will be told. This is what I expected from the trailer.
What I got instead was every nasty little piece of information I know about arms dealers and the global weapons trade wrapped up in a single character who parades around on screen for 2 hours, threatens several times to have a conscience, but in the end goes on his way providing the tools for human beings to murder each other.
Arms dealing is not news to me. I'm an information junky, I know about most of the current armed conflicts in the world. 80% of Africa scares the shit out of me, how on earth things will ever reach some semblance of peace in many nations on that continent is beyond me. The fact that bastards the world over, particularly first world bastards, see that as a market opportunity makes me sick to my stomach. But to have it all placed in front of you by slick narrative and clever editing, to have a concentrated dose of this information hit your brain... it makes me rage. What's worse, I wish it had gone farther. I wish the director had used some of the time he had Cage narrating to point out the very specific people and very specific companies and countries who deal in this stuff. Instead he leaves it right to the end and almost, almost, makes Cage's character seem like the lesser of two evils.
This has taken my cheerful disposition and kicked it in the nuts.
And in the middle of it all that persistent non-stop game designer part of my brain is asking how I can evoke this rage in a game. How can I use my medium to tell this message that pisses me off so much. Because this is a story that needs to be told in as many ways as possible. |
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| Update from the new place |
[Sep. 25th, 2005|10:09 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | p-love - Palisades (extendomix) | ] |
Life continues to settle in bits and pieces. Finally moved into my own apartment, although the bathroom sink is still on backorder. Now I just have to unpack, put up blinds, build the bed/bookshelves, pick up a couple of futons etc. So far the only thing I don't have screws for is the bed. Go figure.
Big flickr update, hence the post. Pictures from my last few days in Vancouver, a few shots from the first day in Montreal, a ton of photos from the Under Pressure graffiti festival. Had to upgrade to a Pro account so I could create more sets.
A2m is working out well so far. Different workflow than I'm used to, and I joined the Teen Titans team right at Alpha, so it's a bit hectic. Still, this is probably the strongest looking alpha I've ever seen and we're almost beta 1 and the game continues to get tighter. With a couple of months before gold this is going to be a well polished brawler. Heck of thing to land on for my first console title. They've already done so much great work on it I'm just diving in trying not to break anything and carry my own weight.
Made it out to a show last night on the invite of my first local completely-unknown-previously acquaintance, the multi-talented Neale McDavitt who was doing the visuals. It was a launch party for a DJ who goes by the moniker p-love. Had some technical issues and had only rehearsed once with the other musicians who were accompanying him live so it was a bit rough, but when it worked it was beautiful. He tours with Kid Koala and his style is definitely reminiscent of Koala's but is quite distinct. Neale's visuals were a pleasant accompaniment to the tunes, not big flashy over the top stuff, but simple imagery used well. Following p-love’s set I think the next band was called Moondata, or at least they’re part of Moondata. Couple of drummers, keyboard, guitar, bass, sax, trumpet, couple of vocalists. Straight up improv the whole way through and it blew my socks off. Not fast enough to get me dancing, but just blissed out in the middle of the music, watching the people on stage work magic.
Bah, time for bed or I’ll be useless getting to work tomorrow. Hope all is well with the rest of y’all.
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| Back to no home access |
[Sep. 10th, 2005|10:16 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | MTVstyle rap junk from cafe radio | ] |
Quick update from a net cafe. In a temp apartment while the bathroom and kitchen of mine are completely rebuilt. Temp apartment has no showerhead. Reminds me of using the garden hose to get rid of the salt after swimming in the ocean all afternoon.
People who have heard me rant often hear me go off about copyright, privacy, and DRM issues. Go watch this, then pass it on to everyone else you know. http://www.lafkon.net/tc/
It's a well produced short piece about why Trusted Computing is an oxymoron. The style reminds me of What Barry Says (http://www.knife-party.net/flash/barry.html) |
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| Alive. Well. Happy. |
[Sep. 7th, 2005|01:31 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Mother's Dead - Q Burns (via pandora.com) | ] |
I can't believe it's been a month already. Still feeling transient as my apartment is a temporary holding pen while the bathroom and kitchen of my new place are being torn apart. I'll continue to live out of a suitcase for a couple weeks yet, but the upside is a shiny new bathroom and kitchen. Also, the walls of my bedroom were purple, or fushia, or something purply. Being repainted while the other household surgery occurs.
Montreal has been treating me well otherwise. A month ago I said "I think I'm going to like it here." and so far I haven't been wrong. There's just more life here than I can ever remember in Vancouver shy of Commercial Drive during World Cup or Illuminaires. It'll be interesting to see what kind of transformation winter brings, but I'm even looking forward to that. Snow! On the ground! Seasons! Nifty.
I'm happier than I remember being in a long time. I'm generally a happy person, my resting state is Optimism, but a year and a half of a project for a dying system can be draining. I went through several periods of zombie-like limbo during the development of Rifts. Far as I can tell I've never been depressed, but I certainly wasn't 100%, I got the job done and let work swallow me whole. I can literally mark the point where things started to get better as the afternoon I was informed by Nicholas that he and some woman whose bed he was occupying were coming to abduct me. Knowing Nicholas and trusting that he would put me in a life threatening situation only if the potential for mutual amusement was extremely high I didn't worry too much. Shortly there came a scratching on my door and in burst Nicholas and the aforementioned woman who has a bed. In such circumstances was I introduced to Jhayne. From that point forward for the next few months I proceeded to be introduced to new people at an alarming and invigorating rate. Many of the people I met are now on my friends list and brightened my last few months in Vancouver enormously. That gave me my only regret when it came time to get on the plane and head east, but I've been keeping tabs on you lot thanks to LJ, and phonecalls, and the psychic friends network. (They watch you while you sleeeeeeep)
I really do need to get to my bed, so I'll cut this short. I'm going to try and update my LJ more frequently, and my flickr account now that I've found this Uploadr widget. You lot manage to update and I appreciate knowing that you're well and even when you're not you're resilient and our friends are never far away to prop us all up. We'll see how this goes but I may end up using LJ as an actual journal type thing while I make some use of brainofjames.com to put together the game biz related stuff I've been working on. |
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| Flickr Post Test |
[Sep. 6th, 2005|09:28 pm] |
Experimenting with Flickr blogging tools and the handy dandy Uploadr. Used Uploadr to put up some shots I took around San Francisco while down there for GDC this past March. Going to require some more poking, but Uploadr doesn't seem to let you view a large version than "tiny thumbnail" when working with multiple photos.
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| Montreal minus e-mail |
[Aug. 6th, 2005|08:32 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Nitin Sawhney - Homelands - Free Form Five Mix | ] |
I think I'm going to like it here. Went for a wander from the apartment last night, found a club/restaurant district (around Saint Laurante and Avenue des Pins) and picked something at random. Ended up having Mexican as my first meal in Montreal. Quesadilla was tasty, but the salad and beans that came with? Fairly useless. It was nice to sit out on the street and watch everyone go by. Some real character in the buildings and the people around here.
Trying to get gmail working, it seems the hotel wireless hates it, but is willing to let everything else work veeerrryyyy slowly. If I don't respond to an e-mail or an LJ comment it's probably because the wi-fi is has hiccuped and left a wireless loogie in my laptop.
Now, time to call Monsieur Lacombe. I hope I don't wake him up, what are the sleeping habits of an indigenous Montreal illustrator? |
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| Almost gone |
[Aug. 1st, 2005|11:50 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Martin Solveig - Essential Mix 621 2005.07.23 | ] |
Movers coming tomorrow morning to take away my things. Going to be an empty apartment again in just over 12 hours. Except for the couch that folds out into a sofa bed, free to a good home if anyone wants it. I have this suspicion that somehow the place won't feel any different when everything is gone. I've rarely actually lived anywhere. Most of my accommodations have been places to sleep, work a little, and sometimes play games. I've never actually felt at home anywhere in Vancouver. I love the city in a weird way, but having visited a few interesting places now I think it may be like first puppy love, Vancouver being my first city. London has a sense of history and a mass of people who moved with a purpose. San Francisco is funky and feels alive. Glasgow is similar to London but with Scottish accents and more family. The 24 hours I was in Montreal showed me a vibrant city that wears its culture on its sleeve.
My apartment has always just been a shell to contain my stuff. In all the time I've been in Vancouver I've accumulated a total of 2 things to hang on my wall, a print by Bua and a stencil/acrylic piece by Steve Rolston. Nothing else adorns the walls. Hardware and books get piled about haphazardly.
This is one of the things I hope Montreal can help me fix. The new job is supposed to be close to 9-5 which would leave me time for a life. In 4.5 years of being in Vancouver having a life has been a novel concept. A combination of some time to myself and winter weather which necessitates staying indoors should encourage me to create a lived in space. So now I'd best get to breaking down and organizing my stuff so the movers just have to pack it and go, the last thing I want them doing is trying to sort out the rat's nest of wires around the projector.
I fly out Friday morning and still have lots of people to see, but if I haven't seen you and you'd like to say adios then give me a shout and I'll try to accommodate you as best I can.
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