lovegeek Blog

Just a few pics from the weekend in Osaka, taken by our good friends Lia ‘n’ Kell. Club Noon, Umeda.

My dad collects old match boxes, he has around 200 from around Australia. So when I saw these puppies in a antique store on sale for 200 yen (roughly AUD$3), I had to grab them. Hon thinks the man was sad that I swiped his entire match collection in one go, but they have gone to a good home.

Hon has also documented them on his flickr.

The lovely Eugenia Lim (who appeared in the ‘art school dropouts’ issue of lovegeek zine) will be showing off her latest work at KINGS ARI in Melbs as of the 28th November. The exhibition features photography and video work that Eugenia has been working on throughout the year.

So, if you are in Melbourne pop in for a visit. Flyer below:

Photos from Yatanish, an area in South East Osaka where I teach one day a week. Now that the weather is getting cold, there are cute nanny style seat warmers on the chairs as Yata station. I also snapped this kid quickly as he couldn’t stop staring at me and he was damn cute!

The Portable Film Festival is doing a showcase on UK director Woof Wan-Bau’s work. He has done some really cool stuff, and there is an interview with him on the portable blog. I particularly like his take on software:

Portable: When animating, what software do you find yourself working with primarily? Any one program you could not live without?

Woof: For me, software is a means to an end. They’re also very specific tools, and I try to be aware of that, in that I make sure that there is a reason why I’m using certain software and the aesthetics that come out of them. I always keep an eye out for new technology, but I’m not very interested in participating in the whole ’space race’ of effects.

I was always stressed that I didn’t use software correctly, or that I was not up to speed on the latest and greatest technology. But I think if you use the software, like Woof says - as a means to an end - you can really make it work for you.

Go to the portable front page all this week to see his works.

Has a new fancy artsy space, reviewed here in RealTime mag. Boo that they didn’t have this “large green screen cyclorama for compositing work with the luxury of live keying to Final Cut Pro and three XDCam-Ex 3 High Definition Cameras” when I was a student. DAMN YOU! Damn you all to hell.

My friend La La lived in Japan for a year. She documented her time here with illustrations and writings, which has inspired me to do the same. Beginning today, I am going to capture images from around my area on Hon’s new camera.

Here’s what I got on my walk:

This project was beginning at SBS just before I left. I got to see a bit of the rough footage, but the online effort has turned out amazing. Check it here.

These two puppies have been keeping me pretty occupied of late.

Osaka Cafe Lunch is a beautiful little collection of all the cute cafes around my area and beyond. I have been scoping out cafes and finally found a soy latte that didn’t taste like poo, YATTA! (side note: I am lactose intolerant, not just an inner city wanker).  And it also features my favourite haunt Enjoy Cafe, where I had my birthday dinner back in August.

And for animation motivation, I picked up a copy of 100 Japanese Motion Graphic Creators for the year 2008. I have decided that a year in Japan is just not complete until I dust off my After Effects and make a decent animation/film. The book comes with a DVD packed, onedotzero styles, with cool videos to get me inspired.

These little treats are published in both Japanese and English, and you can probably pick them up at Kino Books in Sydney if you were interested. xoxo