Somewhere on a mountain above Osaka. The moonlit night. The white glow of the city.
The moon follows me everywhere on this trip. I love the tree. It somehow makes it clear I’m in an Asian city. Canadian cities don’t look like this from above.
A 5 X 5 (five scenes, five seconds) arrangement of scenes from Kamakura, Japan, filmed in March 2005. It starts with a camera pan through a sakura tree, a view of the giant Buddha, and then scenes of surfers. Kamakura is one of the most popular surf spots near Tokyo, and can be legendarily crowded on certain days.
It’s also famous as the hometown of celebrated Japanese film director Yasujiro Ozu.
Hazakura extended
I hear it said that Tokyo looks like the moon. I think the reason this gets said is its abundant silver lighting. Walking through central Tokyo in the semi-quiet middle of the night makes me think of walking through a moonlit forest.
In contrast, Seoul, where I live now, is much more lit by orange lighting. Contrast the Tokyo scene above with the Seoul scene below. I think many people don’t consciously think of it, but it is both the way the city is artificially lit at night and the way the sun lights it (or not) during the day that contributes to each city’s own visual look – but it seems the lighting scheme crosses most of the cities of a particular country.
A 5X5 edit of relfections in Osaka’s Dotombori Canal.
One of the places reflected is the sign for a hotel. Somehow, the scene here makes me think of the sign in Wong Kar-Wai’s latest film, 2046.
scene from 2046
Anyway, I just arrived in Osaka on a flight from Korea. I’m here to change my visa status at the Korean consulate. This canal is fairly close to the consulate.
I’ve bought a Japan Rail pass, so I’ll be spending the next week going here and there in Japan.
Excerpts from March 2005 party at Club Hole in Seoul, party hosted by Liquorice Pizza. I filmed these scenes while VJing. I was in kind of a pit on the right side of the stage. The line-up for the party was pretty deluxe, including Australian hiphop artists Hilltop Hoodz and the famous Korean group Epik High. Also there were MC Hara and a Korean b-boy crew Expression. I’m not sure about the name of the opening group (they weren’t on the flyer), but the traditional Korean flavor they brought to the hiphop was wicked.
I had a camera on the DJ booth, as well one in my hand, but I think the DJ booth one was knocked at some point and I wasn’t able to reposition it till later in the night, when I did manage to get some good shots of the Epik High DJ.
The second clip above is some brief excerpts, showing a few of the VJ scenes, which I recorded onto VCR, showing some of the noodling I did with the live camera feed using the Korg Kaoss entrancer, a live video effector, through which I was feeding the camera signal. Filming with one hand and then live effecting that flow with the other hand. It was a lot of fun.
Here’s the flier for the party. My name’s not actually on the flier as I was a bit of a late addition to the party.
coming soon
This video was made for the same-titled song by Chiharu Miwa (Note: I think their might be a group name, which I’ll find out when I get the chance.) It was made on Miyako island in Okinawa, Japan in the fall of 2003. At the time, I helped her put together a set of videos to go with her music. This is one of them. As I recall, it was made simply in iMovie, using mostly footage from Miyako itself.
Been doing a lot of dog-sitting lately. It’s a love/hate relationship. Here’s what happened when Mocha got into the room I’ve been staying in – my little office/bedroom. Looks a lot like the post-typhoon footage I filmed a month or so ago.
(EDNOTE: insert typhoon footage here)