Popping the Cherry

Well, cherry blossom season is pretty much over, and I'm kind of glad. Because during cherry blossom season, I can't go to a park without running into scads of tourists and natives with their cameras ready to take pictures.

Holy Jeebus, what's all the fuss? I never understood it I guess, I know it's a treasured cultural event in Japan, but I mean, c'mon, they're just fuckin' trees. And yes, they're pretty to look at, but they aren't the most beautiful thing there is... I think fall is a much more beautiful scene.

Anyway, I guess I should cherish the damn trees, since this will be my last spring in Japan, as I'm heading back to Vancouver in June.

Cherry blossom season is really just an excuse for people to set the tarps out and get wasted. Check out this video.

I saw SAW

Well, I finally watched the SAW trilogy, the first 2 I viewed back to back on a Saturday night, and then I watched the 3rd one the following night. My impressions? First one is the best, 2nd one is not too interesting, the 3rd one is alright. Haven't seen the 4th one, and I don't know if I'll even bother.

James Wan's concept is a great, but the execution (no pun intended) could have been done so much better. I feel it could have been done to perfection in the hands of someone like Japanese director, Miike Takashi, or Hostel director Eli Roth.

I'll give you a brief outline of the first one. Our nice little fairy tale opens with our killer's current victims, two men chained on opposite ends of a dirty restroom, a body with its' head blown off in the center holding a cassette player and a handgun. Each man is given a tape to play, which provides him with a nice dilemma to ponder during his captivity. The history of the killer and the events leading up to the men's current situation unfolds nicely during narrated recollections and well-placed flashbacks, while the actual motive of out killer remains hidden underneath.

The filming itself is done well, the killing and torture methods pretty good, the gore is done pretty well and not overdone, and it has a pretty good plot. On the other hand, the cast is not so great, the acting not very convincing most of the time, and that doll character that the killer hides his identity behind is not creepy at all, it's just plain fucking silly to me. I laugh whenever I see a scene with that creepy doll and the down-pitched voice of our killer. oooooooooo, scary! Tobin Bell as the serial killer Jigsaw is just not convincing, he's not a great actor, plain and simple.

Saw II brings back many features from the original Saw: elaborate sadistic scenarios designed to "test" the victims' to see how far they will go to live. The set-up this time is a hard-ass cop named Eric who watches his son and a few other victims who are mysteriously connected, on video monitors, trapped in a house filled with deadly nerve gas. Eric has captured Jigsaw, but the implacable killer refuses to reveal where the cop's son is being held... unless Eric will play by Jigsaw's rules. The tortures this time are more gruesome than before. The reason this one's my least favorite is that we get to see and hear too much of Tobin. He has a really annoying voice.

With Saw III, the gore is just caked on as it yet again explores newer and better ways to torture human beings. All the loose ends from Saw II are concluded at beginning of the film, and a detective on the trail falls prey to Jigsaw's trap and ends up the player of one of his fucked up sadistic games, this time the only way of escape is by getting a key sitting in the bottom of a beaker of acid. Then we catch up with Jigsaw himself, as he's waiting to die from his debilitating illness; once again he's tended by helper Shawnee Smith. Some interesting stuff happens in this one, Jigsaw blackmails a doctor into keeping him alive, and tortures a vengeful soul into recognizing the futility of revenge.

These are worth seeing once, but I don't know if they're worth adding to the collection for future views or not. Hostel's a better and more interesting movie (for this genre of horror) than the SAW series in my opinion. But I'm not really into the gore that much anymore, I'd really like to see more shit coming out like Ring and Grudge, the psychological stuff. The gore gets too boring too fast.

Love the package/promotion/poster designs though. Very cool.

Leviathan: Massive Conspiracy Against All Life

I heard this is going to be Wrest's final release as Leviathan, but I hope it isn't. You just need to get this. This is so fucking good, it's too hard to believe. One-man U.S. black metal outfit from San Fran, Leviathan, otherwise know as Wrest, has outdone himself.

This has been put on hold by the stupid arseholes at Moribound records in Oct. 2007 due to a legal dispute with the record label. Wrest brought the project back in January, 2008 to release the latest album. Wrest plays every instrument found in Leviathan’s music: guitar, drums (electronic + acoustic), bass, synths, ebow, and vocals.

This album has those everything that makes Leviathan great. The chillingly atmospheric parts; those black 'n thrashy parts; those creepy frog from hell croaks, moans and screams that sometimes come close to sounding like 100,000 nails scraping against a chalkboard. This is quite similiar in style to Tentacles of Whorror, but not so trebly. These are relatively long-winded compositions, but even with the majority of the tracks running from eight to 13 minutes, there's so much layering and directional shifts going on that you won't be bored or disappointed. Wrest easily outdoes most of the other "renown" one-man US Black Metal acts out there. This is one of the best of the genre, and I think this'll be getting much play on the days and weeks to come. This needs to be fully digested.

Tracklist:
1. Vesture Dipped in the Blood of Morning 05:22
2. Merging With Sword, Onto Them 10:58
3. Made as the Stale Wine of Wrath 08:44
4. VI-XI-VI 07:09
5. Receive the World 07:48
6. Vulgar Asceticism 09:20
7. Noisome Ash Crown 12:55

fLuX dEsIgN wOrKs update

Just added quite a few new pieces to the portfolio section of my site, so please take a look when you have a minute. Here's a direct link:

Breaking Bad

What does it mean to "Break Bad"? According to the book by Steve Mitchell "How to Speak Southern" it means To behave in a violent, wanton, or outrageous manner for no discernible reason.

Starring Bryan Cranston as Walter White (Our Main Protagonist), Anna Gunn as Skyler White, Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman, Dean Norris as Hank Schrader, Betsy Brandt as Marie Schrader and RJ Mitte as Walter White Jr., this has to be one of the most original and interesting shows on TV since David Lynch'sTwin Peaks. Great writing, excellent casting & acting, and highly enjoyable. Considering the concept of the show and its' "adult" subject matter, it is done with the upmost taste and originality, with one of the best scripts ever written. The show does not promote crystal meth use in any way, but focuses on the harsh realities of the drug war/trade in an objective and compelling way.

Here's the basis synopsis: The main character, Walt White is just an ordinary chemistry teacher w/ a part time job working at a car wash to make ends meet. When he is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, he has to wake up and suddenly figure a way to deal with it. Realizing that he needs to provide financially for his pregnant wife and special needs son once he's gone, Walt puts his chemistry skills to use by creating a rolling meth lab w/ one of his former students, the hip hop mofo Jesse Pinkman, who teaches him about the "bidness" of drug dealing. The two set up shop in a converted Winnebago and before they know it, the boyz are making top quality product and the cash is rolling in.

Of course, making and selling crystal meth doesn't comes without its share of problems. First of all, you can't just cook it in your house. Next problem. Hank's brother-in-law is an obnoxious Drug Enforcement Agent!

What this show portrays is how an essentially good person can make some bad decisions in desperate situations. There are some extremely hillarious parts, but definitely of the black nature.

That's all I will tell you, if say anymore, it will spoil it. Just watch it. It's not on DVD yet, but you can download it from various places. And yes, there are torrents out there for it.

I can't recommend this show highly enough. I can't wait for the 2nd season.

A Real PEACHY Commercial

I don't know why I love this series of videos so much. The catchy jingle plus the cute Japanese girls dressed up in some kind of peach uniform doing that cute little dance gives me a major boner, they just look so cute and shaggable. In case you're wondering, it's a commercial for a really healthy peach yogurt drink that's supposed to help you shit really good, hence the black "shit" charcters in this ad. If you wanna see all 3 ads, go here.

Mini Theremin

I've been looking at this for awhile and finally bought one just a few days ago. This a pretty fun little gadget that works just like the original, but obviously on a smaller scale. And at ¥2,300 for the kit plus a magazine, it's a steal. The same company, GAKKEN, has a series of these "do-ot-yourself kits that are quite fascinating, I'd like to check out more of them.

For example, they also make diy kit for a stereo pinhole camera, a mini telescope and a mini phonograph player. Very cool shit. Gakken's theremin kit includes an 86-page book on the theremin and other electronic musical synthesizers, and of course a mini theremin for you to build and play. All text is in Japanese, but the instructions for assembly are well-illustrated.

Now a bit of history. The theremin, invented in 1919 by Russian scientist Leon Theremin, is one of the world's earliest fully electronic instruments, and is also unique in that it was the first musical instrument designed to be played without being touched. The eerie, other-wordly tones as heard in the films mentioned above are created by the proximity of the player's hands to the metal antennas, with the resulting radio frequency interference being transformed into musical tones. Funky!

Here are some links to videos that show you how to use this amazing little box:

Playing Movie 1
Playing Movie 2 (in Russian)
Playing Movie 3 (in Russian)
Tuning Video