Last Day of 2005

Out the window of Hakuba Backpackers

This year I've grown spiritually stronger thanks to the great leadership and care of the church. I am expanding my knowledge of the Bible and finding new meaning in life. I am blessed to have made so many good friends this year and to have experienced life to the extent that I have. I pray that I can make sound decisions this coming year, learn from my mistakes, and do what is right in God's eyes. Amen

Excuse me officer...

Here's a poster mock-up from one of the pics shot yesterday. It's a lot more work than you realize to be a clone. I pretty much passed out when I got home I was so tired. Anyway the shooting is all wrapped up and it now comes down to editing and compositing. I'll be putting up a few links to Simon and Jason's web sites soon.

PENDULUM SHOOTING BEGINS!

The shooting of "PENDULUM" started today. Here's a look at one of the bad-ass yakuza characters I'll be playing. Since there are 17 different identical clones, I have to do multiple takes with slightly different variations for each one. Without giving too much away - the takes are literally killing me! More to come...

Romeo Must Die

Was out till 7:00 AM this morning partying with Damir and a bunch of his friends. Met a Japanese guy from Minnesota who said he was living in St. Cloud which was cool because I don't think I've met anyone from MN in the whole six years I've been in Japan. Nothing like reminiscing good old MN. The house party was a fashionable collection of photographers, rugby players, and cosplay bunny girls strutting around serving chocolates and champagne. Made me wonder what the hell I was doing there. Later we all went to the park and lit off fireworks - a typical Japanese summer tradition. And of course everyone wanted to take photos or get their photos taken. The after party in Ropongi just reminded me of how seedy the place is. *Reminder to never go there again.

Woke up at 12:00 and miraculously made it to my Korean lesson. I vow to study more seriously from now on.

After my lesson I met up with Jidai and we put some verses down on one of his tracks. Not really sure how it will turn out but he seems to think it'll be a hit. Should be mixed down sometime next week. Jidai's style is heavily funk influenced, which may or may not blend with my style. It'll be interesting to see how it comes out to say the least. Had fun doing it anyway.

International Day

Met up with J (China) for a suit fitting this morning; had Korean tongue soup and banchan for lunch with Chi-Myung (Korea); and later in the evening, hooked up with Skalah (US) and Sohch (Japan) from The LP and did a track for their upcoming album "Untold legends." Still not sure about the style of beats they using but it was fun. I guess I liked their darker soulful beats.

Love to all my brothers and sisters out there WORLD WIDE...You know who you are.

Damir Speaks

Found out today I'll be playing the lead yakuza part in the upcoming short film Pendulum! Yokata! Probably no dialog, but should be fun. Went to church today to study Korean for an hour. The class is taught in Japanese and the text is for Japanese students, so half the time I don't have a clue what's going on. It's like studying Japanese and Korean at the same time.

Had a few drinks with Damir who's doing his own style of music here in Tokyo. I asked him what his name meant and he explained it over a track. I never really asked him about his past before and was suprised with his response. I should post it up in the hip-hop section later. For some reason I can't post mp3's here...Check out some of his stuff at http://www.damirworld.com

Tech-geeks

Spent most of the day over at Matt's place. Dudes got MAC on lockdown. Hooked up with a few new loops to boot. Basically just geeked out over our elecrtonic gadgets for making music. Also hooked up with the dude from LP Skalah. We're talking about doing some collaboration beginning next week. He had some pretty tight beats so I'm looking forward to going to the studio to lay some lyrics down. Tomorrow is a big day for all of us...may God be with us.

Batman Begins

Went to Odaiba with Mayo to check out the movie Batman Begins. Great flick. As can be inferred from the title, the movie is about the beginning of the Batman legend. The back history of how Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale, becomes the crime fighting hero of Gotham city is explained in detail. Rather than focusing on the crime fighting aspect, the direction of the film focuses more on how Bruce copes with his fear and anger. He is basically a moral man, but he is bent on striking fear in the hearts of criminals. The rendition of Gotham city, with it's multi-level train system and the massive centralized Wayne Enterprise building reminded me of Bladerunner in a dark, futuristic, overpopulated, metropolis kind of way.

According to one of my sources, tomorrow is Star Festival Day! You'll be lucky to see any of em though cuz it's rainy season. Anyway...enjoy the stars!

Happy 4th of July!

Met up with Jason Koo, a Chinese American director. We talked about the possibility of me playing a yakuza type part in his upcoming film "Pendulum" Not for sure yet. Sounds like fun though. It's weird to have so much time off now. Guess it's time to get productive.