The Way of Things

Just got back from seeing the movie "Mirror Mask" in The City, and I was pleasantly surprised. Usually when you see a movie that's lauded for it's effects, you don't expect much in terms ofd acting or storytelling.

I know, Neil Gaiman wrote it, but I've never been a big fan of his work in the comics. I don't dislike it, it's just not my genre, so I didn't quite know what to expect.

Essentially it's a coming of age movie, and one girl's attempt to make sense of a life-changing event. Much like the movie Gremlins was about adolescence. You have these cute, cuddly creatures, that turn into these obnoxious beasties on you when you don't expect it. THis tale was better told, though I didn't like a few parts of the overall arc. I liked that she made her peace with her place in the Order of Things, because that's what maturing is all about; separation, then integration when you've defined yourself.

I liked several themes and a lot of the effects were consistent and not too gratuitous. When building a world, things need to fit into the rules of whatever ecosystem you set up, and that's a hard trick to pull; especially without having to explicitly tell the audience what those rules are. The Toy Story movies are a good example for that; they never said why the toys could only come alive when no none was around, or that they had to; they just did, and they did it consistently with the only exception being acknowledged as breaking the Rules.

I recommend seeing Mirror MAsk on the big screen, preferably in a theater that's not a big metroplex.

Sentience is overrated

Just to dig it all and not to wonder that's fine.
-Van Morrison "Sweet Thing"

Today's adventure in capitalism reminded me of a recurring theme. I took a three hour commute to fill out papers that I could have just as easily have filled out online, watch a video that was utterly hackable without the benefit of beer, and pointless tests proving I can do what I say I can do. -- All of which could have been done online.

People if you're exploit tech types, exploit their potential as well!

There's a miniseries going on in the Marvel series with T'challa the King of Wakanda (thank you Mr. Kirby) defending his land from some enhanced super primates for the old Soviet Bad Guy days -- The Red Ghost. Jack & Stan invented this guy and his cronies to counter the Fantastic Four about an hour after they had the idea I guess, these guys just made so much stuff in The Day.

The big theme is how much the primates loathe us, One goes so far as to call us the "Perpendiculars" and he hates us for cursing him with his brain and then treating him so inhumanely.

Much beer was had tonight on this

Here we go again

Tomorrow, I have an interview at a new agency for a gig at a place where I've worked before. This is a different agency, one based out of San Mateo, and even though they have offices in Oakland, and San Francisco, and the contract itself is in Hayward, I have to go to San Mateo tomorrow.

I’m a white collar sharecropper; I go where the work is depending on which agency has work and depending on the time of year.

A lot of phone centers are gearing up for the upcoming Christmas season, the online companies are the ones around here who have to do the most amount of bulking up. Customers are getting smarter, but there's always going to be problems, so that's where there's work.

In the Spring, a couple of colleges downtown will be getting ready for their Fall admissions run, and they're going to need clerical types.

Summer’s usually when I take off, and stay home with the kids. I was offered a permanent job this last season with a really good company, but things didn’t work out. Ran into a bit of trouble with my supervisor. She ran things by the Pest Control theory of management; for everything you notice, there’s a couple dozen things you haven’t, so if she heard anything even remotely out of the ordinary, it was obviously a trend and obviously had to be fixed right away. Reminds me of when I was a sergeant; I’m getting tired of being some new mid-level manager’s training aid. It's been only a week and a half and I miss working there. There's a lot to be said about a company that takes care of their people the way they did. If I could only have done something different, but I'm not sure what, I’m more confused than bitter about the whole thing. My coworker, who's also a good friend, is at a loss too; usually there's something you can pin down when things go wrong, and in retrospect, you can see where and when the end started, but this isn’t the case here, and that’s quite disturbing.

Only a few weeks into this term at school, and things are going okay. I have another year left before I graduate and so I have to start studying the advertising industry a little more thoroughly now. I noticed when I registered that there’s a Comic Illustration course offered. There might be an opportunity to write a few treatments for some students there.

That and I still draw robots, and design art cars and vehicles when I’m trying to think of new things for my advertising assignments.


Oh well, the gig's not in the bag, so wish me luck.

Hammers & Baseball bats

I've heard that comparison of Savate to Muay Thai.

Muay Thai is pretty popular these days here on the west coast, it was up in Seattle, and it really is here in the Bay Area. You can see its practitioners in various mixed martial arts (MMA) competitions. as well as in several action movies that came out in the las couple of decades.

Savate is quite different. It's hey day was before the War to End All Wars. It's French, and several people have picked it up, and incorporated it into their own systems. Bruce Lee's system Jeet Kune Do(JKD) uses several techniques that Mr. Lee adopted early on, and several academies on both coasts still teach.

There's a decent definition at the Wikipedia site here for Savate and for Muay Thai. Ironically, the article on the Thai style includes a list of video game characters who use it. The only ficitonal character mentioned regarding Savate is Batroc, a character in the Marvel Comics who, though created by Jack Kirby, gets treated more like a bumpkin than anything. I'll write more about that some other time.

The best sites I've come across for Savate is one in Australia here and a JKD site based out of New Jersey, the Basulto Academy of Defense has a really good overview as well as several articles I recommend reading on the subject. Especially this one that relates Mr. Basulto's experiences with training in France, as well as the difference in the style versus asian approaches. There's a really good online glossary of savate terms here.

As an American and growing up in the 70's during the Bruce Lee, David Carradine, Chuck Norris times, everything that's worth knowing about Martial Arts came out of Asia. I first studied jiu jitsu as a kid, it mostlycomprised of joint locks, take downs and the like, not all ground work like the Brazilian flavor the Gracie Family made so popular these days. I studied some kung fu, and tai chi. When I was a bouncer, or worked security, I relied more on my tai chi training than anything else, mostly due to liability concerns.

It wasn't until I moved back to the Bay Area at the turn of this century that I really discovered my western martial heritage. I used to try to find some Salles when I lived on the Franco-German border, but pretty much gave up on the whole scene when I got out of the Air Force.

Savate is one of those topics that keeps turning up in my life. In Los Angeles and Orange County, there's a whole group of schools, but I know of only one person who runs the Amsterdam Gym, Ercivan in the whole Bay Area that teaches, but he only holds private lessons, because his gym hosts Muay Thai and regular boxing. It appears there's just not enough interest around here to support a regular class.


Not yet anyway.

She's gone down

To Antarctica, the 7th Continent. Holly, a friend I met at Burning Man this last year was with a neighboring camp. She's cool as hell, and had a great corporate gig in Colorado, and decided to challenge herself and take a job in one of the world's harshest environments.

It's the Summer months down there, and so she's adapting at the right time. I hope she writes in her blog often.