NY Salad

By Dyske    July 13th, 2007

My father in Japan has been sending me DVDs of Japanese children shows for my daughter. There were some interesting animations in there which were stylistically distinct from what we are used to in the States. Here I’m posting a trailer for one called “N.Y. Salad” (strange name, I know.). At first I thought it was a traditional cell animation, but then there were certain movements that were so perfect in terms of physics that (e.g. the movement of the hair) it had to be done in a 3D program.

After some research on the web, I found this page that explains how it was done. It’s in Japanese, but you can see the computer screen shots and hand-drawn sketches. I love the style, but unfortunately, I’m not so impressed with the content/story.

Nintendo Wii – a hope for dads who want to play video games

By Dyske    July 12th, 2007

Nintendo’s Wii is really kicking ass. I was at my dentist the other day and he told me that he bought one for his family. Now people who I never thought would play video games are buying Wii. It’s amazing how quickly things can change in the game industry.

I used to play a lot of video games, but no longer do, because I now have a daughter. Every now and then I hear about fathers who play video games, and I wonder how they do it. (Are they divorced? Or did they marry an angel?) Playing video games takes a lot of time and concentration. When you have a kid, your time gets severely fragmented at home. Every 5 minutes, either your kid or your wife wants something from you, which is not a situation conducive to playing video games. (When I was single, I used to play Gran Turismo nonstop over whole weekends, stopping only to eat and sleep.)

I recently bought SONY’s PSP, explaining to my wife that I need it to play my portfolio to my clients (I’m a motion graphics designer), but my true motive was to play Grand Theft Auto with my friends. I’m not sure what I was thinking; I didn’t even get around to buying the actual game. My PSP has never played any games. If I know that I’m just going to get interrupted in 5 minutes, why bother? If you are a father who plays video games, let me know how you do it.

If my wife would play video games also, she would have to let me play as well. But the problem is that there is nothing that she would want to play. But that could change with Wii. I might go pick one up.

On a different note: I found a bunch of people on YouTube trying to play the theme song to Super Mario on their guitars. I guess it’s very difficult because the song was written for a computer; so it does not come naturally to any normal instruments. I like how everyone has different solutions. The Korean guy is by far the best, but even he misses a lot of notes.

Red hot art scene in China

By Dyske    July 12th, 2007

Not bad, $2.11 million dollars for a piece of artwork made by a Chinese artist. Since the value of art has very little to do with the production cost, who makes art and where it is made, become irrelevant as long as there is demand for it. This is great news for the Chinese artists. If we took the cost of living into account, $2.11 million is far more than $2.11 million that Damien Hirst gets.

There are now a lot of millionaires and billionaires in China who are eager to buy modern art to flaunt their social status, which pushes the value of Chinese art upwards. So, even the Western collectors would want to join the frenzy since they can stand to make a lot of money.

The art scene in Japan, in comparison, seems quite boring. The reason for this, I suspect, is because they don’t allow the gap between the rich and the poor to get so extreme. In some ways, the art world thrives on that socioeconomic discrepancy. The world’s billionaire list is now dominated by Chinese and Indians. There is no Japanese in the top 100 this year.

“Execution” of the head of China’s food and drug agency

By Dyske    July 12th, 2007

Well, this should shut the Americans up. That’s probably what they were thinking. When I first read about this corruption case in China, I thought “execute” meant something different in China, like shipping him off to an island in the middle of nowhere or something. As the article says, I’m sure it wasn’t just this guy’s fault. This shocking strategy probably helps prevent the Americans from prying too deep into their system.

It’s interesting to note that once you open the gate to capitalism, you can’t stop half way; it’s all or nothing. Now, in order for them to stay competitive in the global market, they’ll have to meet the standard of transparency that other nations expect. I wonder how long their communist government could last.

Golden Japanese Boy

By Dyske    July 11th, 2007

There are a lot of this type of nonsensical craziness on Japanese TV. I wonder this sort of thing goes on in China and Korea as well. If you know of any, let me know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbzH9js0F8Y

ALLLOOKSAME?/TUTTTUGUALE?—Art from Japan, China and Korea

By Dyske    December 4th, 2006

Here is the text I wrote for the catalog for the show in Italy. It describes my philosophy behind this website. The show runs from November 8, 2006 to February 11, 2007. If you are in Torino, Italy, check it out.

1.3 Million People Took the Test So Far

By Dyske    August 13th, 2004

Today, I calculated the number of people who took the test since August 2001. It’s 1.3 million.