On Wednesday, briefly

Wednesday gave me much to post about but I didn’t post about it because Thursday was a dog of a day, by which I mean, it was very busy, in the way that dogs are busy, with their sniffy noses and waggedy tails and the bounding.
Briefly then:
I went to Drinking Liberally – the debut get-together of liberal-type people to drink and chat and network and so on. I found it to be full of potential, even if most people there were clearly devoid of the right social script to go to. Anyway, mundens has the overview, go check his account for more. Fortnightly on Thursdays from now on, worth a look if you’re that way inclined.
And I went to the 48 Hr Film Fest heat to see the premiere of our Jenni’s Angels film, Borkhard Hates You Too. It was fun. And VISUALLY AWESOME. Again, mundens has the scoop.
And I did other stuff that was busy but not blog-interesting, so I’ll spare you.

The Munchy Worlds Hypothesis

The Many Worlds Hypothesis is a solution to a puzzle of quantum physics. Basically, quantum physics produces an impossible result, that the cat is both alive and dead at the same time, and the many worlds hypothesis resolves this impossibility by saying both outcomes are true in different worlds. In this universe that we experience, the cat lives; in another universe branching off from this one, the cat has been deaded. (For a detailed discussion, see here.)
Inspired by this hypothesis, I would like to propose my own. It has been seen that television has produced an impossible result: John Munch is in both this show and that show at the same time. The Munchy Worlds hypothesis resolves this by saying John Munch is on both shows, which are in different worlds.
To elaborate: in every fictional world, there is a separate and distinct John Munch. Each world has its own fictional detective John Munch. Sometimes the universe’s Munch comes on screen (e.g. Homicide: Life on the Street, Law and Order, The X-Files). Sometimes, there are no overt signs of that universe’s Munch. Even so, it is reasonable to believe that he is out there somewhere, whinging about his ex-wives and making with the gallows quips. If we stayed long enough in the world of Grey’s Anatomy, Bones, How I Married Your Mother – he would eventually lurch into frame.
Inevitable corrolary: when you create a fictional world, somewhere in the vast and ineffable depths of that creation, there’s a pockmarked Richard Belzer glaring at you through his specs. Sleep on that, creatives of the world. We must all make our peace with the Munchyness of our Worlds.

Robert Downey Jr.

Just a quick one here. Cal and I made it along to see the new movie Robert Downey Jr. the other day. It features Robert Downey Jr. playing Robert Downey Jr., and he gives an excellent portrayal – not only is he faithful to the source material, but he makes the character of Robert Downey Jr. far more charismatic and charming than you’d believe was possible. You just can’t take your eyes off him.
Also features Gwyneth Paltrow playing A Girl, and she does it well.
I really did enjoy this film. It’s far from flawless – the gender and geo politics are both a bit askew (but then, that’s in line with the source material), and the final fight between Robert Downey Jr. and Bald Jeff Bridges was lacking something or other – but what the hell. Robert Downey Jr.! Whatcha gonna do!
Anyway, word on the street is that Robert Downey Jr. makes a cameo appearance as Robert Downey Jr. in the upcoming film, Not By Ang Lee. Yet another reason to go see that one!

Post-48

The 48 Hour Film Comp weekend is now done. Jenni’s Angels had an intense weekend, and got its final cut into the judges with all of four seconds to spare (!). I was in the writing team this year, and my intentions to get up to help with the shoot came to nothing – other errands and tasks took up much of Saturday, and Sunday I just wiped.
This year’s requirements were the character Kerry Post, a perfectionist; the line “Wait a minute”; and the required prop was a brush. Our team had as genre “Superhero” or “Fairy Tale” – we were able to choose. Up at Indigo City we got into some serious brainstorming with almost the whole crew there, pushing through some truly great ideas, but we sifted through to cut ideas that were too big for a six-minute flick, and some that just seemed too technically demanding to be worth risking. Oddly enough, we settled on an idea generated at the start of Jenni’s Angel’s very first 48, passed over on that occasion. We found just the right riff for it this time out.
The writing team then shifted to different premises to work up a script. The team was much the same as the last time I was on it: me, hix and Sean again, joined this time by Chris G. It was an awesome team, each of us bringing different perspectives and strengths to the mix, and best of all we had the collaborative thing going real well. There was no ego in the room as we worked through ideas, shot down bits that didn’t click, elaborated on bits that ran hot, and generally made our way through to a script that made us happy.
By this time it was 5.30am, so we emailed out the script, then hix and I drove around for a while before turning up at Indigo City for the 6.30am actor call. Straight away there was feedback coming from people who had read the script before coming up; we started making a few scribbled changes here and there. As French Toast was put on, furious planning was going on all around us as costumes and props were chased down, filming locations were settled, and technical prep began. Director Lee took me, hix and our four cast into a quiet room and we ran the script. The red pen came out and we chopped and changed the script a bit, and then I decided I was done – Lee and hix and the cast had everything well in hand. I headed away to do the sleeping thing. It was around 8am.
35 hours of intense work followed my departure. I hope the script didn’t have any crazy hooks hidden in it that caused mayhem – I don’t think it did, but…
Unlike previous years, cast and crew are forbidden to watch the completed entry before its big-screen debut. This is only a couple days away: Jenni’s Angels is in Heat 6, on Wednesday 21st May, 9.15pm at The Paramount. I’m hella looking forward.
Thank you to the amazing fellow JAs who made the thing while I was sleeping.
And yay the 48. It is a beautiful thing.

A Fine Day To Linky

This has been sitting in my pile for an age – Malc pointed me at this set of videos in the GUBA library: seminal Brit sci-fi, Quatermass and the Pit and Quatermass II. I have the script books somewhere in a box but have never seen them before – very exciting, from back when TV was filmed live like a stage show.
The Cluetrain Manifesto – written in response to the dotcom boom that had yet to burst, and still brimming with value a decade later. e.g. “26. Public Relations does not relate to the public. Companies are deeply afraid of their markets.”
Last linky I showed you Kate Beaton’s Napoleon eating cookies. This week I show you Kate Beaton getting into an hilarious online fight battle with the Stereotypist!
And that may be all the linky we have time for. We’ll see if inspiration strikes late in the game. The whistles go woo woo!

The Lost Sport

An oddity I stumbled upon yesterday – forgive me if you’ve heard this one… The Beijing Olympics, with sponsorship from McDonalds, are running an Alternate Reality Game right now. (No big surprise – as James Wallis has noted, “ARGs have become a standard part of a marketing strategy”.)
‘The Lost Ring’ ARG has complicated backstory up the wazoo, as is always the case with these things. The bit that fascinates me is this: they’re trying to create a new sport. (Okay, I’m also fascinated by the commitment to different languages on display – game content seems to be divided among about a dozen different languages, including Esperanto.)
The new sport is “labyrinth running”. Check the details here. It’s a timed race where a blindfolded runner begins at the centre of a labyrinth and escapes as quickly as possible; teammates form the wall and hum to help the blinded person’s orientation.
As part of the ARG, groups have sprung up playing this old/new game all over. There’s a bunch of neat videos at the blog of Jane McGonigal (clever ARG designer-person who is presumably a key player behind the scene). The local Wellington crew are going hardout, Jane gives them props and you can see more of their videos and chat on their own site.
The Wellington crowd communicate the appeal nicely: “Basically, Labyrinth Training is a really fun team “sport” we’ve been playing outdoors with a good sense of humour, tea, coffee and biscuits.” (From this page of photos and description.) “Yes, we really gather to play labyrinth running, and yes, we’d love you to join us. No, we don’t take it po-faced seriously. Yes, we are aware we look silly.” (From the NZ site’s FAQ.)
It’s really interesting how this game has been designed – it seems decidedly unGrecian to me, but very in tune with the goals of the ARG which seem to be to build community and cross-cultural understanding. Games historians (or those like me whose parents owned a copy of the book) will immediately click to the comparable ethos of the New Games Movement. The New Games came out of hippie-era San Francisco alternate politics, changing away from zero-sum equations and working productively towards new community-affirming fun. This goes in the same direction, and while there’s a competitive element, it’s much more a communal, team-based, participatory and mutually reinforcing process. (With tea and biscuits, apparently.) The design of the new game is utterly ingenious – I wonder how long it took to come up with? It involves group trust, it can and should be played without language and thus cross-culturally, it invokes ancient forms and symbols, it’s cognitively demanding, it’s physical but not so physical that the participation bar is high… an impressively long list of attributes that serve the greater message.
I’m fascinated to see this ARG at work. I’m not sure if its profile is high or low in ARG terms, and I’m bemused by how the ARG’s aficionados are negotiating the tricky politics of a Beijing Olympiad. But the wider politics of the ARG are very much in tune with mine – games as a medium for communitas? That sounds like a big part of what I value in RPGs, and I’m sure the Creature Collective Ultimate players will also find that resonates. I’m curious about this ARG, and will keep an eye on things as they develop. If you guys come across any labyrinth running, give me a shout…
(also: go the Wellington Labyrinth runners!)

Ron: Done

And with that, I’ve finished draft 3 of Ron the Body.
Good. It doesn’t feel any different to knocking off any other bit of work – I know from experience it takes a while to sink in, and there’s still a bunch of reformatting, spellchecking, etc to do before I can truly put it in the finished file. Not to mention a bit of punching up the synopsis and cover letter when I get pitching the damn thing again.
I slipped about a month over deadline on this. Not too bad, in the grand scheme of things.
Best of all, it feels like Ron is done this time. Sure, I could go back and do another draft – it isn’t perfect. Nothing ever gets to perfect. But what I have now is a draft I’m happy with and proud of and, most importantly, that I think is publishable. Just got to find the right publisher, namely one who thinks the same.
So, yes, it’s good. I’ve had versions of this moment twice before – finishing draft one in ’06, and finishing draft two in ’07. Both those times I knew there was more work to do. Right now, looking at those final words? I’m done.
I love the final words of Ron. I remember exactly where I was when they came to me – sitting on a rock formation in Wadi Rum, in Jordan, looking at the sandy desert and the blue sky. They were the perfect words to end the book, and they’ve stayed unchanged through all three drafts. They’re probably my favourite words in the whole thing. It’s good to see them again.
—
Other writing-ish things:
1) Unearthly: Cosmic Heroes, an RPG supplement for superhero gaming, has garnered another review in the last month, this time a nice five-star bit. I’m pleased. I don’t have much time for the freelance writing at the moment, so it’s good to see this is still getting sales and good responses.
2) Oddly enough, I am a featured interviewee in issue 26 of Doctor Who fanzine RTP. I still haven’t got around to organising myself a copy, but it is mentioned in the Zeus Blog issue review: “Speaking of intelligent opinion, the Morgan Davie interview…” *blushes*
3) I’ve picked up another freelance writing contract with local computer games company Sidhe Interactive… last time it was writing spot dialogue for the new movie-based Speed Racer game (I’m finally confirming this now, I figure the NDA won’t kick my arse now the game is actually on release in the US!), this time it’s another project that I also can’t talk about, but promises to muchas super fun.
4) The 48 Hour Film Fest is here again, and this Friday I’m saddling up the ol’ laptop and rocking along to join the elite writing team of doom. This time we’re gonna break the 48 entirely. It’s gonna rock. I direct your attention to the team’s 2006 entry, Monster Hunter Iv: Beyond Repair (cowritten by me and with me in a prominent acting role as well):

And the even-better 2007 entry, Destination Earth, in which I held a flecky board and carried things around the set because that’s hella important too:

Enough of this madness. Now to do the sleeping thing.

This election is the important one

In New Zealand, in the US, wherever: this election, the one coming up? This is the important one.

“If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.” – IPCC head Rajendra Pachauri in November 2007

We have three years to start making serious changes to how human life operates. These changes cannot be made at the individual level, or even at the local level. The needed changes must happen through governmental structures. Only governments have the ability to make these changes happen.
I do a lot of thinking about and talking about climate change and what the individual can do. I run a big programme in a university course on this subject, even. Driving less, consuming less, turning off your electronic devices at the wall, using the heater less, all of this is important. But right now, by far, the most important environmental action is political.
This was the message in Al Gore’s 20-minute followup to Inconvenient Truth, which debuted in March this year and you can watch it here, at the TED site. (Bonus: seeing him amend the Inconvenient Truth’s list of countries that ratified Kyoto to include Australia. The U.S. is now all alone in refusing.) This was a key message in the material supporting Annie Leonard’s great Story of Stuff short film resource on the consumption cycle. It’s been turning up everywhere. That’s no accident.
Let’s be clear: unless we, the citizens of our various democracies, forcefully put climate change on the agenda for the governments that will lead us through the next few years, then the entire mode of human life will be pushed into catastrophic change. This is, incredibly, not hyperbole. The stakes actually are that big.

“If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, CO2 must be reduced from its present 385 ppm (parts per million) to, at most, 350 ppm” – NASA climatologist James Hansen, April 2008

This can happen. It is entirely possible. But it is up to us.
This TomDispatch is a good overview of 350 movement. Remember that number, you’ll be seeing a lot more of it in the next year or two.

Shihad, Flesh D-Vice and a Postcard

*** EDITED – SEE END OF ENTRY
So I’ve been listening the heck out of Shihad‘s new album, Beautiful Machine. (You can listen to much of it over on their MySpace page.) It’s good, and occasionally great, and I think over time will settle comfortably into “second best” in their album catalogue, right after the unbeatable Killjoy.
The ‘had are a funny wee band. A Welly high school metal covers band that grabbed its own sound and then never stopped evolving. Going through their catalogue and every single album debuted a new sound for them. They’ve never hit the big big time, but they make a living from their music and they’re pretty much entrenched as NZ’s favourite band. Their reputation as a live act is deservedly big. There’s apparently a band biography on the way that I’m really keen to read – squaring the circle on their many contradictions will make for some fascinating content.
So, nice album. But that isn’t what this post is about.
—
When they started out, Shihad were managed by Gerald Dwyer, himself of seminal Kiwi hard rock band Flesh D-Vice. (Is that even the right label for Flesh D-Vice’s music?) This new album reminded me of a Flesh-D-Vice oddity I’ve had sitting in my drawer for a while now.
In ’06 I picked up the hardback ‘The List of Seven’ for a couple bucks at a book sale. This is a fun riff on Sherlock Holmes and pulp action by Mark Frost, co-creator of Twin Peaks. When I went to read it, a postcard fell out of the pages.
On closer inspection, it turned out it wasn’t a commercial postcard – it was a photo that had been used as a postcard. The photo showed a wee girl wearing a hand-knitted Flesh D-Vice jersey. The postcard on the back had a Wellington 1990 postdate on it, sent by “Jennie & Ian” to “Sue and Gerald” in London. The writing mentions getting back from a Faith No More gig and that “Shihad played really well”.
(Shihad’s 1990 support for Faith No More was one of their earliest big moments.)
As I looked at this card, eventually the penny dropped – this was likely a postcard being sent to Gerald Dwyer. Why else the Shihad mention + Flesh D-Vice knit? (I tried to check out some facts – was Gerald in London at the time of Shihad’s big gig? Was Sue his partner? No luck.)
Further realisation – the book it was in as a bookmark is a ’93 release, so at the time it was being used as a bookmark it was already three years old. The photo was a keepsake for someone, and should properly be returned. But to who? I didn’t have the first idea where to look. Dwyer himself died over a decade ago. I traded a few emails with Karl from Shihad, but he couldn’t figure it.
So I now hand over to the internet. Maybe someone will Google Flesh D-Vice or “Gerald Dwyer” and find this post. Maybe a reader will know someone who knows someone – everyone knows everyone in NZ. I’ve got this photo/postcard that someone might care about, and it’s easy enough for me to pop it in an envelope.
Here’s the card (click for big version):

EDIT: The postcard has been returned to its rightful owner!