CH-CH-CH-CHECK IT OUT!

http://www.gamingunion.net/news/like-assassins-creed-lineage-youll-love-this-fan-movie--676.html

Super special thanks to Kyle for the article!

RESULTS ARE ANNOUNCED TOMORROW WOO!

 For some reason, today I wrote an essay.  Here it is.

An Essay on Travel and the Will of the Human Spirit

 

Stream of consciousness

 

There is a drive in me, and a drive in everyone, and a drive in everyone to move and see and feel the world.  There is something quintessential in the human being that makes them curious and wondrous and afraid or what they don’t know, but human spirit is in that bravery that fights the fear and forces them into the world at any cost.  Why do we need to know what is out there?  Why do we need to experience different things?  Why do we put ourselves in uncomfortable, dangerous, humiliating, incomprehensible situations just to see what’s on the other side?  It is a part of us.  It is built into every gene and it is what keeps us from machines and animals and the stars.  We cannot be trapped in the same routine.  I cannot be trapped in the same routine.  I cannot stand idly by and not create, not see nor feel nor hear nor taste nor touch a new sensation.  I need it to survive and without creativity and fuel for my creativity I will die.  People need this fuel.  People need to create and to build and to destroy and to feel to live.  A man, a woman, a child cannot live without feeling.  No matter how you may fight or try or struggle against the thoughts in your head your heart will push through the haze and the much and the clouds that you build around yourself.  It is in our beings and that is how we are.

 

So why do we travel?  Why is there an urge in me and in you to go places we’ve never been and to feel things we’ve never felt?  There is more than a fascination with other culture, there is more than just seeing down the street you never took but walk by day after day after day and wonder for just that brief moment “Who walks this path?  What lies on this road that I am unaware of despite all my presence and all my knowledge in this world?”  There is something in seeing what man has seen and touched and built and not seen and not touched and not build or even dreamed of.  There is so much feeling and spirit and ghost in a building abandoned, so much to speculate upon, so much to imagine, so much to describe.  This is something people have built, that people have a reason for.  That people had a reason for.  Take the empty street with the closed storefronts.  The alley with moss and rubble and broken things that lay about like a mess left by a toddler.  Neglect and nothingness.  What happened here?  Who was here, why is this the way it is?  Or take the forest.  The tall hidden trees, the secret cliff sides and miraculous twists and turns of a root in the ground.  Has all this sat undisturbed for its entire lifetime?  Has anyone before me seen these wonders, am I the first and only?  Will another pair of eyes ever see this again?  Ever feel what I feel?

 

The small towns, the small things.  Undiscovered shops and alcoves and gazebos are like finding the new world.  Columbus was a part of me, and I am a part of him.  What is it about finding what was unfound, what is it in the sky over a different city?  The joys of trying new food.  Tasting things from a place you have never been, made by hands you’ve never seen or touched, flavors passing your thick tongue that have never crossed your lips before.  There is magic in these things, there is something that people will move and change and try and fight and live for.  There is something in the great flying expanse of the city, and there is something in the complete empty silence of a field.  And there is something about the road that leads you from one to the other.  The road you know well, and the road untraveled.  There is something of moving down this man made path from place to place that pulls at a person and gives them life.  Never has there been a person moving from one place to another void of emotion.  We all feel something when we move.  Whether it is fear or pain or curiosity of the destination, or joy and unwillingness to wait, a fever burning in anticipation, a sigh for the mundane, a question of what to come, there is always something!  We are thinking, always thinking, clocks always ticking and time always running.  Gears shifting.  Turning and grinding, twisting and spinning and pulling us apart and together at the same time.  Collapsing and expanding like an accordion.  This is time, this is time within us.  We are time.  And time dictates how we live.

 

We fight time, we love time, we embrace it and hold it tight not wanting to let it go, and letting it fly free from our grasp when we are enjoying it, and when we have had our fill we cry for its loss and wonder and confess and question what else we could have done with it.  What other experiences we might have had with it, what other paths we could have traveled with it.  We do not understand it, and it does not understand us.  And when you are done reading this you will check your watch to see how long this took.  And what time you have left before you have to take on your next task.  Or perhaps you never got this far, saw this length and decided it wasn’t worth the time.  For time flies, and the best thing that you can do is take whatever comes to you.  Take it as it comes to you and decide on what to do, or you can step out onto your own path.  Instead of waiting for the road to run beneath your feet, and sprint out to meet it, full force, taking it all in.  You will only get as many miles as you are willing to live, but the forks and the paths and roads are endless.  So try to travel as many roads as you can and experience as many things as you can while there’s still gas in your tank, wheels on your bike, or spring in your step.  Or stop and smell the flowers, take each step with more purpose and meaning and time than the rest, absorb every last second you have and make every rotation of your tires or every shift of your gears count.  Personally, I say you sprint when you can, rest when you can, and take prisoners.  Pick a flower and carry it on the road, don’t you dare forget that sky a few miles back.  Feel what you feel, go with your instincts, see as much as you can, whether that be to examine the pedals on every flower you cross, or to fly through as many golden fields of flowers you can.  There is no loss, no failing, no down side to seeing what you see.  Everything changes a person, and everything is changed by a person.

 

We travel to experience life.  We go to unexplained places to explain them ourselves, and we reach out in the night to grab hold of something that we do not know.  We need to connect, we need to we different and feel different and be ourselves.  Travelling where you want defines you, whether it be crossing the earth in a red balloon or crossing your front lawn just to pick up the morning paper.  We move to connect, to take that road that leads from one place to another, from one experience to another, from one person to another.  The journey changes us, and the destination changes us.  But we can never sit still.  Even in our destinations we move from place to place, changing perspective, changing motive, changing mode of transportation.  Changing our feelings about people.  Travel is about people.  Whether you are on the open road alone, away from every living soul you know, or moving on a train full of people and things you know well and know you well, travel is about people.  Whether you walk a city street feeling utterly alone and unconnected with, or take each step on a desert highway physically alone and on your way to company, travel is about people.  Whether you are going to a place no person has ever stepped or into a world of new people to meet, it is about connecting with people.  The moment you step into a forest sanctuary, you are there because you want to be away from people, be in a place people have never been, or be in a place you heard about from some connection to people.  And the moment you mingle amongst family or friends or colleagues or unknowns you are there because you want to know these people, these people want to know you, you are running from people, searching for one person, or have some other connection to people.

 

Travel is connecting.  Moving is being.  The only time a person stands still is when they are dead.  While at times you may seem at a stand still, your mind is travelling from road to road, place to place, making connections and working things out so your feet can then take you there.  For the person who never takes a step, that one move from the chair to the table can be monumental.  And for some, it is but an inch on a journey of billions of miles, and the combination of body and mind will send that person further than they ever dreamed.

 

I think when people look back, they can find that they have traveled further than they would have ever thought they did in life.  For even the shortcomings and the flat tires and broken axles and rest stops on the journey, you are always experiencing something else and something new.  Enjoy the gas stations as much as the road.  You may never see it again, and it will change you in some way.  Even when you stop, you are moving forward.  You are changing and growing and creating something new.  And something else is creating something new in you.

No particularly big updates this time, just feel like putting something up now that I've got a little time.
Assassin's Creed went very well, I can hardly wait to see it come together.  The footage looks great, and we only had to cut one thing out.  And the best part is, the whole thing will be done in 2 weeks or so!
It's a shame there will be no Albany madness this weekend.  But it is understandable, things must be sorted, priorities maintained!  We will reschedule soon, good sir.
Picking up steam on the senior project; I'm working on the script now.
The Grapes of Wrath is more interesting than I would have thought previously.  Though I'm pretty glad I'm reading it now, rather than in high school.  There's definitely a greater degree of appreciation.
OMG REVIEW: Paranormal Activity.  If this movie is playing anywhere near any of you, make a point to go see it.  Tom Quigley does not say this lightly, but it could be the best movie of the year.  For what it wants to achieve, it succeeds so brilliantly that I was shaken long after I left the theater.  Please see this movie if you can.  Very few films have ever worked so well.
OTHER REVIEW: Zombieland.  This one's also amazing if you can see it.  It really comes pretty close to Shaun of the Dead as far as entertainment value.  So if you liked Shaun, you need to see this one.  It's hilarious, it keeps you going the whole way through, and you'll be quoting it afterwards.  "Not the taste, the consistency."

Aight, I'm done.  Taste the rainbow.

WAIT.  I lied.  Go see Black Dynamite too.  It is flawless.

Now I'm done.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not stressed or anything.  It's been a while since I updated, and I feel like doing so again will help straighten my own affairs out.  There's a lot on the plate (surprise!)

Let's see... we'll start simple, and go from there.
I've had a huge craving for curry since about Friday.
Moving on.

School.  Looks like it's going to be a good term.  Very long Mondays (class 12-9), though broken up in the middle with Improv, a very excellent class that is always fun.  Other'n that, literature of the great depression seems like it'll be fun.  I've already read most of the Great Gatsby (which I had never read before) and it's quite excellent.  Then Wednesdays and Thursdays off for work (which I will be doing this week... 2 days!  That's a lot of money!)  One class on Friday which I haven't been to yet.  Looking forward to it anyways (Producing Feature Films).  Senior Project is also taking off this term, and it looks like I've finally really settled.  Instead of doing the Neil Gaiman story as planned, I will be doing a short-form adaptation of my original story, Spectrum, in a form appropriate for pitching the film for feature production.  While I would have liked to do the Gaiman story, I wouldn't be able to do much with it.  So I think this will be much better in the long run.

Film front.  Well, I guess I already spilled the beans on the senior project.  I'll be looking forward to shooting that as soon as I can, though it may be after winter break.  I'd rather shoot in the fall, but I doubt I'll be ready in time.  Maybe some of it... Anyways, lots of other things on the mind.  I'm producing another senior project which is definitely shooting in the fall, and it is going very well.  Very very professionally done.  Better than the others I've worked on so far.  I'm also planning on producing at least one more, Mr. Anderson's project.  That should turn out rather well also.  But back on my personal front... editing the Mirror's Edge spoof we shot over break.  Just need some B Roll shots of pizza and we'll be good to go.  But the real project in mind right now is Assassin's Creed.  There's a short film contest for the second game, make a 6 min film that relates to the games and incorporates certain themes, etc.  I think we have a really good shot at it, and we're going full force at it.  So God willing, we'll at least place.  Here's hoping!
Captain Baxley is THIS CLOSE to being done.  All we need is the credits and some ADR work.  It should have been done by now.  It should have been done!  I'm sorry to the world for it taking so long!  But it looks truly amazing, and I cannot wait to show it to all of you.  It's far and away the best work I've done so far.

Other.  Aikido has been taking off this year.  Its been a source of stress, getting everything in order, dealing with the botched schedule, and suddenly dealing with lots of new people and having to teach what I only know so well.  I definitely feel like someone else should be teaching the beginner's class, but technically I'm the highest ranked in our style, so it really has to be me.  Thankfully my "students" are very helpful and want me to succeed.  They give me lots of advice, and I will be doing my best not to let them down.  Even though I may not be the best, I will teach what I know with fervor and determination!
I'm getting more and more excited for this convention in November.  To think about having a whole Quigley Films panel for 3 hours... twice... is blowing my mind.  I've been going through what I can show, and what they might want to see, and just thinking about how some of the other panels have went, it could be so much fun!  That reminds me-- at NYAF there were some press people at the panel!  They liked the movie, recorded the panel, and asked us if we wouldn't mind them putting it on the air!  So either earlier tonight (I was in class and couldn't listen) or sometime soon we could very well be on the radio!  How's that for publicity!
And on the topic of New York... I can definitely say that Ninja New York is my number one top restaurant.  My experience there over the weekend was absolutely superb, and I will tell you why.  Obviously there is some bias here; it's as if the restaurant was specifically catered to my tastes.  You go down an elevator and then through a secret passage to get to dinner, where you feast in an underground NINJA VILLAGE.  You are served by a very clever, funny, and entertaining ninja staff who will set things on fire, make explosions, and pop out of sliding doors.  And the food is excellent.  I will still have to give it to Morimoto for absolute deliciousness of food, but as far as Ninja goes, everything was DELICIOUS, presented in a PHENOMINAL manner, and came in huge portions.  The course I got literally had two appetizers and two full entrees in it, the second of which was a 22 oz ribeye steak.  And to top everything off, they had one of those ridiculous Japanese toilets in the bathroom.  Let me tell you, I have not laughed so hard in a very long time.  Listening to Mitch struggle with the beast and go through the most awkward process of his life was the funniest thing these ears have yet heard.  And then I got to go through it myself.  Let me tell you... that thing literally has a homing device and a laser sight that targets your "rear portal" BULLSEYE every time.  We know because we all tried it.

Anyways, on THAT note... let's change subjects.  I want to do something awesome for Halloween.  Ideally I'd like to go to some place that's legitimately haunted and abandoned with a close group of friends and just do something truly spooky.  But we'll see how everything shapes up this month.  I think I want to go as my own strange version of a scarecrow.  Something like a cross between turnip head from Howl's Moving Castle and a creepy real scarecrow.  Then some of my friends wanted to do a fucked up version of Wizard of Oz thing, so maybe that will happen.  Either way... I want to do something cool, and now just go to a party.  Those aren't as memorable or meaningful.

I think I would very much like to live in New York City while I'm still young.  There really is something about it.  I think I will make it happen.

All right, I feel pretty sweet right now.  Hope this update was useful to everyone!  In some crazy cosmic way!
Catch you on the flip side.

This thing still amazes me.

Tom took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Relies on love and friendship to bring him happine..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

...about updating. Oops.

Who knows where to start? Uhhh We'll start with this weekend and work backwards.

Alfred was here over the weekend, much to my surprise. I got a call last Wednesday from the man, asking when I got off work and if I wanted to get dinner. "Are you in Philadelphia?" I asked. "I can be in about 45 minutes" he replied. Apparently he was nearby with his parents on business and decided to drop by. And when he was here, we decided he should just stay the weekend.
AND WHAT A WEEKEND IT WAS. Let me preface it by saying I am lucky to be the first to have the pleasure of seeing Alfred drunk. That night we had decided to go to a bar where some of my compatriots wanted to meet. Let it suffice to say Alfred has the tolerance you would expect him to at -30 lbs. Thursday was a fun and lazy day, with movie watching and good old-fashioned hanging out. And then Friday came.

Fun side story. My friend Berlacher is in a band called Pizza Face, a party thrash metal band that themes itself around early 90's chic and parties and pizza and ridiculous concepts therein. www.myspace.com/pizzafaceband worth checking out. At any rate, they tour around the neighboring states occasionally and have developed this new theme of never having the same lineup for two consecutive shows whenever they play. This came about because somebody always has to cancel and they find people to fill in. Well, this time that happened to be me. So I got to dress up like a villain from a 3 Ninjas movie and play bass on stage in front of a metal crowd. It was quite fun, even if Alfred, who was supposed to dance around on stage with us while quasi-dressed as Rufio, decided at the last millisecond not to come on stage.

Saturday was on set. I've been producing another production workshop film over the last few weeks, and we shot last weekend and this weekend (countless stories and jokes about this) and this Saturday was the biggest day, full of extras and a church and children. It was a fun day, productive albeit long, and just a fun time. Alfred did well as both a grip and an extra (and I can't wait to see that lion's mane of his sticking out in the background of the church). And to top off a most righteous day... we got to see the Goonies in theaters that night. Talk about the most fulfilling moment of my life.

Sunday was the final day of production, a quick and easy shoot that went well and left everyone in high spirits.  And in high anticipation of the wrap party that evening.  But first-- parkour.  We got in a good session I had been dying to have all week Sunday afternoon, it was wonderful.  Much was learned, and it was good.  Then the wrap party (at the same bar.  Again, stories.) was stellar.  We all had a blast, and it was well-earned.  Again, Alfred and his amazing tolerance went to town and it was quite a sight.

All in all, amazing weekend I won't soon forget.  Unfortunately I have to get ready for work now, so I'll have to save some stories til later.  But look forward to next episode-- Stories from the Set, projected schedule, and how my lung just exploded OW-- Okay...  My lung is okay.  Don't worry about it ;D

I think everybody needs this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMr52bCXNdU 

Los Angeles <3

Here's the down and dirty of what happened over the last week.  I flew out to LA to the infamous Anime EXPO, biggest con in the US, to show Alfred Leebop.  Number one: LA is a pretty sweet place.  Granted I was only there for a few days, I like the difference in atmosphere between the east coast and the west.  There's just something cool about it.  I stayed with friends from Drexel on co-op over there, which was also cool.  Also got to hang with Townie Paul, acquaintance and old friend of my brother's.  Also very cool, what an awesome guy.
As for the convention, it was absolutely awesome.  There was so much to do and so many awesome things to see.  I got to see a trailer for the new Trigun movie coming out, and I am SO very excited.  Got to see the Mega64 panel, which was also righteous and full of secret content nobody else has ever seen.  And then of course, there was Leebop.  In a HUGE room, I drew in a crowd upwards of 200 people, all of whom seemed to really like the movie.  Then for the Q&A, I got tons of awesome feedback and ideas for future projects, things THE PEOPLE would want to see.  And then at the end of it, I had to sign a few autographs.  My mind was blown.  I didn't even know what to do, so I just drew smiley faces.
So then I come home, and I find out last night that Anime USA in Virginia loves us SO much that not only are any people on our panel getting in free because we are officially invited guests, they want us to do as much as we can for the convention.  So it looks like we'll be doing two 3-hour Quigley Film panels, covering not only Leebop but whatever the heck else we feel like showing and talking about!  RIDICULOUS!

So yeah, fun times.  I believe I will be coming home this weekend just to visit briefly, although the timing seems to suck for a couple of reasons.  Either way, I need to just get home for a day or two and relax a bit.  I'll be back again soon, I promise.  In the meantime, everyone should come to Philadelphia.  KK?

I'd like to take a moment to thank Arnie Roth and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for giving me a more than enchanting evening last night.  The Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds concert was incredible and extremely well-executed, and I could not be happier with the fact that such a thing exists.  

On a much more comical note,  allow me to describe a situation to you.  You and a pack of friends are sitting in a car, stopped at an intersection after such a concert, listening to the CD of the live performance you just saw.  As you sit in the car, still high on the show and into the music coming through the stereo, you notice that crossing the intersection in front of you is a lone skinny old woman in a wheel chair, scooting her way ever so slowly across the street directly in front of you.  You then realize that the music playing is the battle theme from Final Fantasy VIII.  Everyone silently watches the woman cross the street.  The worlds most inappropriate juxtaposition of imagery and music.

I like to imagine she gets into random battles with cars.

At any rate, this concert has inspired me to get back into the FF swing, try to finish some games, maybe start some new ones.  I hope it goes well, because I miss those worlds.

The challenge will be the BUSINESS!  Busy I will be, next week is Anime EXPO, America's largest anime and japanese culture convention in Los Angeles California!  I will be gone from Wednesday to Sunday, and I expect to have the most baller time ever for a few reasons:  1. It's the biggest and best con in the country.  Best events, most people, and just all around excellence.  2. YOU'RE gonna be there.  3. I'm flying to LA to show my movie.  Fun times!

So, no guarantees I'll get in another entry before then, but possible there will be one at some point next weekend, who knows!  ProbablynottillafterIgetback.  Then two weeks after that is Otakon!  Holy wow!

But for now, I got some errands to run!  Stuff to take care of for the week, and then I'm gonna settle in and play some Final Fantasy XII.  It's been a while.

OH!  p.s. Cool tidbit: I got an email from a gentleman from Germany who says he's a big fan, and that he would really like to see Leebop, but can't make it to the states to go to a convention to see it.  A man after my own heart.  I'm sending him a copy right away.  But man, GERMANY?  How does this stuff happen??