AB(log)

My friends often mock the fact that I tend to turn my nose up at anything mainstream, particularly in music, but also with films. Being interested in more obscure titles, in the films that hardly anyone can claim to have seen, can be something of a mixed blessing. Sometimes it leads to seeing a film that’s just simply dull and insipid; sometimes it leads to seeing something truly amazing and eye-opening. In the case of ‘The Happiness Of The Katakuris’, it can only be described as leading to watching something totally fucking weird.

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I am a massive fan of videogames. I love to collect retro games consoles, and then pick up seminal games of yesteryear that I’ve either owned previously or know is a good franchise, but have never got round to playing. However, despite owning far more consoles and games than the average fan, I very rarely devote much time to playing any one game and it’s even rarer still that I actually finish a game.

Not so with the Resident Evil series. Ever since I played the remake of the original Resident Evil on the Gamecube (I was a late-comer to the survival horror franchise), I’ve been totally hooked, and have completed every Resi game that I’ve managed to get my hands on subsequently. Recently, I bought Resident Evil 2 for the original PlayStation off eBay and settled down to further zombie romps.

Graphically, RE2 hasn’t aged well. The textures are horribly pixellated, the animation is wooden, and the collision detection is laughable - whole pieces of a character might pop in and out of existence as they converse with you. The problems are exacerbated when blown up on a 40″ HD TV, but then the makers didn’t build the game to be played on that format.

But the technical limitations of the game didn’t make one shred of difference to my enjoyment of the game. Featuring full speech, beautifully-scripted set pieces and a general sense of foreboding, Resident Evil 2 still had all the atmosphere that I’d been spoiled with on the Gamecube and Wii previously. And, once again, I found myself playing through the entire game. This equated to roughly 5 hours of play - this struck me how much shorter games used to be; something that I actually pine for again. I enjoy single-player adventure games but today’s offerings are all epic monsters - stretching out into 30+ hours of gameplay before you even begin to approach the end of the game. With so much competing for the consumer’s attention these days, it’s becoming less and less likely that they can invest this much time in any single game. I certainly can’t. My girlfriend won’t allow it…

So, thank god for eBay and retro gaming - there are still many Resi games I haven’t played, and I can safely say that I’ll be sourcing all of them. I just might have to play them on my old TV instead.

… so get over it? This is the rather crude and colloquial message from Stonewall in order to promote awareness for their equality for all campaign, snapped on a district line train bound for Wimbledon today. While it’s rather direct manner got my attention, I couldn’t help but think that naked aggression is not really the right tone for promoting equality - surely you cannot fight fire with fire. The name Stonewall is also a curious choice. According to the dictionary, stonewall means:

verb

1. obstruct or hinder any discussion;

2. engage in delaying tactics or refuse to cooperate

Again, hardly the kind of descriptions one would wish to associate with a message of equality. Looks like Stonewall need to employ better brand guardians.

Outside of work hours, the choice of activities for a person to fill their time with virtually limitless. A huge number of these activities are those that will provide us with opportunities for growth, whether that be in the form of increased knowledge, a fun hobby, or at best, a marketable new skill. The ultimate realisation of spending free time in this way, is the entry into flow, a mental state proposed by psychologist Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi. When flow is achieved, the participant is fully absorbed in what they are doing, without any self-consciousness, without any accurate perception of time, and with barely any effort expended in the task at hand.

My own battle with the use of my spare time wages on; sometimes I win, and I do something constructive, rewarding; and sometimes the TV wins, or my games console wins, and hours are wasted without any meaningful involvement from me. This blog would be a useful flow activity - and it’s constant updating at the beginning of this year was actually rather effortless once I had gotten into the groove, and I found it rewarding in and of itself. It even led to adventures around London, the A-Z Project, which in turn led to further flow activities - taking photographs and writing subsequent posts. But this fell by the wayside rather quickly. Why? Because at the beginning of these things, it takes an expenditure of effort to gain momemtum, to beat inertia. Also, in this particular case, there is the expenditure of money!

The trick for myself then, is to offer up this effort on a daily basis, to grow a habit of being productive, and not spending night after night in front of some screen variation or other. And, even if it involves a screen, it needs to be something that provides me with growth, such as self-initiated projects, software training, or learning a new language. Having experienced flow myself, most notably during big projects at work, but also during revision periods for GSCEs way back in the day; I know that it is a very useful and resourceful state to be in, and enables amazing successes to be attained. Donkey work becomes engaging, tedious revision becomes fun and challenging and new projects become exhilirating rather than daunting.

Achieving flow for me would enable me to make this blog something worthy for people to read, would help me learn the skills that I need for the next path in my career and make my spare time just that much more worthwhile. I mean, just how many more Simpsons re-runs can I watch before I realise there is more to life

My second mumblecore film of the day, after watching ‘The Puffy Chair‘, and my second Aaron Katz film in a week, after watching ‘Quiet City’. And if ‘The Puffy Chair’ is a good introduction to bedhead cinema, then ‘Dance Party, USA‘ is definitely one to be avoided.

The film is meandering and pointless. Actually it doesn’t meander, its just pointless. The plot fixates on the sexual exploits and slightly dark past of a 17-year-old dysfunctional boy and his extremely unlikely romance with a pretty blonde who calls him an asshole one evening, then begins kissing him the following day. None of the characters instil any empathy towards them, and the dialogue is infuriatingly stilted, to the point where it couldn’t possibly be believable that young Americans talk that way at all.

But, having said all that, I didn’t actually mind watching it. The short running time helps that - but despite all these niggling flaws, it’s actually still compelling to watch - if only to find out if anything of note actually happens. Which it doesn’t. ‘Dance Party, USA’, then, is definitely one for mumblecore afficionados, something which I don’t consider myself yet either.

‘The Puffy Chair‘ caught my attention when it was listed on the ICA website last year, but considering my gross error of judgement in going to see ‘Into Great Silence‘ (a 2-hour dialogue-less film about Carthusian monks) and subsequent derision from my colleagues, I decided against it.

Last night I Sky+-ed it from FilmFour and watched it today. It’s a film from the indie film movement dubbed as mumblecore, or bedhead cinema. According to wikipedia, mumblecore is…

‘…primarily characterized by ultra-low budget production (often employing digital video cameras), focus on personal relationships between twenty-somethings, improvised scripts, and non-professional actors.’

I’ve seen a few films from this kind of stock before, including ‘Quiet City‘ (seen at the ICA recently) and two DVDs I own, ‘Funny Ha Ha‘ and ‘Mutual Appreciation‘. They all have their moments, but this is probably the best I’ve seen so far. There are a few moments that irk; most memorably the annoying childish impressions the two leads employ when trying to show the closeness of their relationship; and occasionally the film descends into slightly contrived melancholy and one very implausible scenario, even for the Americans.

But overall, the characters of Josh and Emily and the portrayal of their relationship feels very real. They are plagued by the nonsensical arguments that can creep into all relationships - the trivial things that become big things as the tension escalates. Josh in particular deserves special merit, not least because the actor that plays him is also one of the writers of the film, but also because he shows real moments of emotion that break up the one-dimensional tone that so characterises this type of film.

‘The Puffy Chair’ isn’t a brilliant film by any means, but it’s an interesting piece, and it’s certainly a good introduction to anyone interested in low-budget, bedhead cinema.

The 50 Best Pun Stores, including some fantastic vernacular typography, as brought to my attention by the latest issue of Creative Review.

Fantastic vintage illustration for this old trading card set, Wacky Packages.

Actionscripted beauty from a very talented Flash-man, Mr.doob. Inspiring and depressing in equal measure.

Science meets art (incidentally, my two strongest subjects way back in school) in this geeky periodic table table. I once learned the periodic table off by heart from the back of an English dictionary. The elements weren’t even arranged by element number, they were arranged alphabetically, and I still learned them by element number. My science teacher promised me six merits and thought my memory was so impressive that he would bring in the local paper to do a feature on ‘the boy who could recite the periodic table’.

He didn’t come in. And I got one merit instead of the promised six.

Bastard.

True story.