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November 30, 2006
Chennai
Arrived in Chennai last night, workshop during the day, now I am at the GRT Grand hotel. So far, India makes me think about the Matthews, an Irish Catholic family that I knew while I was in High School (to this day I'm in their debt because they gave me the groundwork for at least half of my social skills). Here too, I see groups of people who really know how to sit around a table and have a serious conversation. The effect is incredibly appealing.
Posted by jb at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2006
Waiting in Line
Counter number five at the Indian Consulate was closed this morning. A small handwritten sign, crammed between the glass and some books told everyone to go to counter one. A queue formed at counter one and each of us took numbers which were not really necessary. There is a mania for ticketed numbers at the Indian Embassy. I ended up with two, a pink number fourteen and then a second white ticket with the same number. An attendant handed out the pink numbers to people who were waiting along the sidewalk in the morning. A second attendant replaced the pink tickets with white slips that he forced out of the vending machine by the front door. When I got to the front of the line at counter one I found out that there was an additional processing charge and I did not have enough cash and nobody was taking a credit card so I left the consulate to find an ATM. By the time I returned to the consulate, the counter one line had eased itself out beyond the glass doors and down into the staging area outside the consulate building. We were all waiting to hand over our passports, having waited in a different line five days earlier to hand over the initial application. In one sense, we were elite. There were only twenty of us out a building and staging area crammed with people waiting in one or more lines for the first step visa application processing.
Next to the glass entrance doors, I had one of the best standing spots in the house, at one of the best times of day. Minute by minute small bleak plays unraveled at the ticket dispenser near the door: dashed expectations in three parts. A visa applicant arrives at ten in the morning and approaches the glass doors glad to arrive early and hoping to miss the lunchtime rush. He falters when he sees the line extending outside of the door but the line is pretty short so he perks up. Someone at the end of the counter one line tells him that he is in the wrong line and directs him into the consulate. He then looks through the door and sees tons of people waiting and the first tremors, maybe a look of alarm or a facial twitch play out. He glances around and sees the digital counter. Without registering the number on the counter, he starts looking around for a vending machine and then sees the printer at the door. By this time, I’m watching and waiting for the third part. He pushes the button and gets the ticket. Number 122. He turns around and looks at the digital counter over the line of teller stations: 19. His entire body deflates. He is in the long line. Only 19 people have been served since the consulate opened at 9 AM. His turn should be up in six hours. Everyone in the consulate has a settled, even look. After ten minutes he too will settle in to his chair and begin the long wait. This happened time after time. It helped me pass the 1 ½ hours in the line for passport submission. I'll admit that it helped me pass time because I'm a terrible person.
I get to go back at 4:15 this afternoon. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll get to it all over again in a month when I switch to a business visa. Maybe when I've finished the second round I'll find it less edifying. Maybe counter number five will be open.
Posted by jb at 01:34 AM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2006
Because no Subject is too obscure for an internet site
A website devoted to denigrating those who bunt in kickball
Posted by jb at 11:09 PM | Comments (2)
Sick
[Update: the content of this entry has been edited for, among other things, brevity]
I’m sick, but getting better. I spent yesterday asleep in bed, which is not easy when your room is located in an office.
My appetite has been weird. I’m eating a Quaker Brand Chewy Granola Bar with Chocolate chunks. On the box it says “Enjoy the good things in life.” Someone, somewhere, suffers from a grave misunderstanding. The good things in life cannot include Quaker chewy granola bars. It should read “Enjoy the things in life that remind you of that truck stop where you got sick in the middle of the summer when you were eight.”
I spent most of the day at the Indian Embassy. I am supposed to travel to India for ten days and I am supposed to get a 1-year business visa in order to do this. [...edited section...]
Hope was encouraging. “I’ll write to you when you end up getting transferred from the Indian state prison system to a Thai jail because of overcrowding.”
The embassy provided practice. I got there and hour late and took a number: 123. I looked at the digital “Now Serving” indicator and it read 23, an hour later it read 44. Several applicants were in the back corner, carving their names into the wall. Names or slashed lines. I couldn’t tell. A knife fight broke out near the cafeteria while several applicant began rattling tin cups against their chairs. One of the visa officers came over to me. Would I like to start an “Applicants” football team? I told him that I was not an ex-star quarterback now alcoholic who crashes his wife’s car and ends up in a tough jail in Texas. He looked downcast. I pointed farther down the aisle. Someone in row fifteen was wearing shoulder pads and a helmet. The visa officer walked on down the aisle.
Anyway, my nose is still stuffed and I am having trouble keeping my fever down. The office is celebrating with a call at 9:30 this evening. It should be a pretty long call. That’s the sort of thing you do as a tourist.
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Posted by jb at 06:58 AM | Comments (5)
November 19, 2006
Current Events
"Iranian dissident Zahra Kamalfar has been living with her children under unspeakable conditions in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport for 73 days. A one-time demonstrator against the extremist theocracy, she escaped from an Iranian prison when on a two-day furlough to visit her children. She ended up being buffeted from country to country. Now in imminent danger (possibly Monday, if the Russians cooperate) of being taken back to the Islamic Republic..."
Posted by jb at 08:03 AM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2006
More Notes from Long Lost college Friends
Hi, JBBV,
It took me a long time to think of a factoid. I don't normally think in
factoids. But i am thrilled with your having presented me with a way to
communicate that won't overwhelm you. I am on board.
I was a Funeral Director for a year, ending in April 2006. I have seen
hundreds of dead bodies. One of the embalmers where i worked had a sticker
on her car which read, "I see dead people." I wore a black suit every day.
And one for the present: I live in a tailor shop. I manage the tailor
shop. The tailor who owns it lives here, too, and we are domestic partners.
There is a tangerine tree by our balcony which is sufficiently confused by
the perpetual summer here that it often puts out a new crop of tangerines
before the last crop is even ripe-- and while the crop before that one is
still hanging, juicy, from its branches.
--
Posted by jb at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2006
All is right in the world
"Birdwatchers who gathered to see a rare swallow on the Angus coast were horrified when they saw it being snatched and eaten by a hungry hawk." from the BBC, via BoingBoing
Posted by jb at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)
November 13, 2006
Excerpt
From Anne Applebaum’s book on the Gulag:
At one point during the late 1930s, the authorities suddenly decided that prisoners undergoing interrogation were to receive no packages from their relatives whatsoever, on the grounds that even “two French rolls, five apples, and a pair old pants were enough to transmit any text into prison.” Only money could be sent, and that only in round numbers, so that the sums could not be used to spell out “messages.” Yet not all prisoner families had enough money to send…
To solve this problem, the prisoners of Butyrka resurrected a phrase from the early days of the Revolution, and organized “Committees of the Poor.” Each prisoner donated 10 percent of his money to the committee. In turn the committee purchased food items for prisoners who had none. This system went on for some years until authorities decided to eliminate the committees by promising some prisoners “rewards” of various kinds for refusing to participate. The cells fought back, however, and ostracized refusers. And who, asks Shalamov, “would risk placing himself in opposition to the entire group, to people who are with you twenty four hours a day, where only sleep can save you from the hostile glare of your fellow inmates?”
Posted by jb at 02:47 AM | Comments (0)
November 08, 2006
YouTube AMVs
So I've been a bit obsessed with music videos, stop motion animation, and animation music videos on YouTube.
On the stop motion animation side, there are a batch of movies from famous and not so famous animators available; most notably Jan Svankmajer: Czech surrealist filmaker. He's been a major influence on Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton among others.
Death of Stalinism in Bohemia
(I want to post some of his other stuff but this is not really the right forum)
Brothers Quay: Stephen and Timothy quay. According to wikipedia, their best known work is Street of Crocodiles.
Wladyslaw Starewicz influenced the Brothers Quay
The Insects Christmas: A Russian Animation piece from 1913
A random movie: creature comforts
I will post something later on YouTube music videos but for now:
The Shins Pink Bullets:
This video was created by Adam Bizanski, an Israeli director. He did this as a personal project and then gave it to the Shins. After they saw his video, they decided that they would use it, which is kinda neat and in reverse.
[Update: Ach, YouTube removed this video. Here is the ifilm link]
There is a ton of stuff on the anime side. A search for AMV in YouTube (by no means the only channel for this stuff) yields 145,000 videos.
I became more interested in this after running across what still may be the best AMV I've seen. I don't know the anime but the song is Am I Awake (They Might be Giants):
The mix is changing but it seems that 90% of YouTube AMVs are still Naruto/ Bleach/ Dragonball remixes glued to Rock/Rap tracks and it's inspiring and all that but I like looking around for less obvious songs and clips. With that in mind, I started by searching for various songs and some trends emerged in the anime choices. It turns out that some anime just seems to attract people who post a wider variety of music
AMV: FLCL, Song: Jerk it out, which kinda fits since half of the anime seems to center around the forcible extraction of items directly from the protagonists head
AMV: FLCL, Song: Concerning the UFO Sighting near Highland, Illinois, by Sufjan Stevens. I like this because it works and its is not obvious.
AMV: FLCL, song: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
AMV: FLCL, Song Clint Eastwood by the Gorillaz
FLCL/ Ataris: I shouldn’t really link to this because it’s a bit too close to a standard AMV song (there are at least six Naruto/Ataris AMVs). Oh well:
AMV: Spirited Away Song: I still need to figure that out. It’s appealing though. Does sound Disney, per viewer comments.
Powerpuff Girls/ Belle and Sebastian: I can’t link to that.
Bugs Bunny/ Tribe Called Quest: I can link to that. This AMV is great [Update: the video has been removed due to terms of use violation. Almost all AMVs violate copyright so this happens a great deal. Sooo... I will replace it with the non-AMV Dangermouse Gray Album video, which shares the same spirit. The Gray Album was pulled offline a few years ago but the video is still around. This is a "must see" before it is yanked off YouTube]
So there is an Anime called Air, which makes it hard for me to find an AMV that uses La Femme D’Argent as the soundtrack
Which makes me think of Thievery Corporation (no AMV’s yet)
Alphaville, Forever Young, the quintessential 8th grade slow dance song of the mid 80's. The anime is Ginga Nagareboshi Gin: I don’t know anything about it but it looks just post speed racer. The video is not very good but I am posting it because the song is reasonably obscure.
There is an Aphex Twin AMV out there but it annoys me for some reason (it might just be too similar to thousands of other AMVs.) Instead, I am going to put up a different AMV. How is it linked? The director of the anime behind this AMV also directed the anime used in the Aphex Twin AMV. I'll post this because I like Boards of Canada and Cowboy Bebop. The video is a bit hard to watch, with endless scene transitions, but the song is great
It pains me that Apples In Stereo does not have a YouTube AMV yet
Aretha Franklin/ Fruits Basket (I know nothing about this anime but seems kinda annoying)
But no Astrud Gilberto yet..
Tori Amos has been linked to a few AMVs. Here's an appealing mix of Spirited Away and A Sorta FairyTale Kinda slow, yes, but sweet.
So this does not really fit (it is a different music video genre) but here is a second Tori Amos Song, Happy Workers, set to video clips and scene sequences from the video game Silent Hill. Much, much less sweet (Silent Hill is a bit of a gruesome game)
The same director has posted a fabulous AMV using an anime called The MAXX (adapted from what I assume was a comic series) and a song by Thom Yorke The animation reminds me alternately of noir comic books and R Crumb. Like the They Might Be Giants video above, this AMV stands alone as a real music video; this time in the vein of the FeelGood Inc video by the Gorillaz
Speaking of actual music videos with animation (instead of AMVs) Zero7 has a terribly appealing music video with a "Waking Life" feel. I like Sia's voice. If only I could find an AMV that used "Breathe Me" that did not use Naruto clips (for the record, I really like Naruto-- it is the storyboard equivalent of Harry Potter-- it is just used in far too many AMVs: 31,421 almost uniformly poor videos at last count. Part of the problem is that the Naruto Animation style and pacing does not lend itself to good music videos). There is a better version of the Breathe Me video on Sia's MySpace page.
And, because I'm browsing through the Tori Amos AMV list, here is a Tori Amos cover of the first half of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" set to an AMV
Also, in the semi related "Artists whose names begin with A" set, I've run across a Raffi sounding song called "Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot" apparently written by two ex members of ABBA. This video is entirely goofy and just a smidgen less addictive than the $&%^* BananaPhone song
And, lest you think that YouTube animated videos concern themselves only with modern/ popular music suited for the young'uns. Here is an animated video version of John Coltrane's Giant Steps by Michel Levy.
And... from the good people at Information Aesthetics, an animated video based on a moving FedEx Logistics map
Anyway, that does it for the A’s for right now. MTV is dead. Long live cheap online video. Digital, it seems, killed the video star.
Posted by jb at 09:43 PM | Comments (2)