Foto Friday

6ixth – Jeff Chouw’s photo exhibition of Opposition MP Chiam See Tong campaigning in 2006 — is now online on Chouw’s site.
(Found via Tan Pin Pin’s blog. And coincidentally: Yisheng’s just posted his review of the 2006 exhibition up on his blog.)
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An extract from the NYT feature on Yoshiyuki Kohei’s series on park voyeurs (picked [...]

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Yamamura Koji

I’d like to see Yamamura’s latest animated short — an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Country Doctor.
Anti-whaling video for Greenpeace

Atama Yama — about a miser who has a cherry tree grow out of his head

Yamamura Animation – English version website.

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Phoenix Talons

凤爪。 Why the grandiose name? An early form of marketing? Cognitive dissonance at work? Then again I don’t like eating chicken feet. But I know many who do. This snappily edited short video’s for you:

(found on Yi-sheng’s blog)

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Randomness #520F

Whew! The Japanese Film Festival’s over.
If you missed this year’s movies and the Q&A sessions with director Ichikawa Jun and actress Yoshiyuki Kazuko (who seriously looks like she’s 50 and not 70+), Stefan has taken very detailed notes.
Q&A with Ichikawa Jun
Q&A with Yoshiyuki Kazuko 
I may not always agree with his opinions or like his writing, [...]

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Ievan Polka x Vocaloid2

First you wonder: “What the heck is this?” You listen to the whole thing, then click the play button because you can’t quite believe what you’re hearing and seeing. Then play it again. And gradually, imperceptibly, you find that you can’t pull yourself away…

Everything you need to know about the context [...]

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A “fit” between technology and usage

Steven Poole recalls his increasing frustration with successively souped-up versions of MS Word:
Microsoft Word still uses the metaphor of the page, the computer screen that imitates a blank, bounded sheet of physical paper. For me, this is outdated and unimaginative. It has become a barrier rather than a window. And there is always the distraction [...]

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Vocaloid 2; Value from Efficiency; User-Generated Content distribution

I’m still impressed with the abilities of the Vocaloid 2 software (found via Boing Boing). Put in a melody and lyrics, and the software generates singing.
It sounds pretty good. Try this sample:

The opera sequence from Final Fantasy 6 – one of the most touching sequences from the best RPG I’ve ever [...]

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Randomess #406V

The Japanese Film Festival’s still on btw. Last day 23 Sept. Most of the Imamura films have been screened, but we haven’t started on Ichikawa Jun’s and Yoshiyuki Kazuko’s yet. In other words, come watch
TimeOut writeup on JFF 2007
Steven Levitt explains why you don’t get much good analysis of current public policy.
Charles Landry [...]

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Thoughts are messy things

Lots of interesting things. Even more ideas and ideas; possibilities skittering welding sparks. How to untangle and unravel everything and then rethread into words and reweave into paragraphs — papers and emails — without losing the original ideas?

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In Amsterdam for IBC 2007

Taken outside the Oude Kerk. The flagstones are uneven, giving the ground a lumpy look. This bronze addition fits right in — referencing the specific uses of the area and its immediate physical environment.

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