Author: DC (Page 21 of 1044)

* (restored)

 

‘I met Lawrence Braithwaite only once, at a now-legendary writing conference in Buffalo in 2001, where many of the so-called “New Narrative” writers – Dennis Cooper, Robert Glück, and Kevin Killian among them – had gathered. Braithwaite was short – 5’4″, or, as he was fond of saying, as tall as his idol, reggae legend Lee “Scratch” Perry – and wore a long football jersey that hung nearly to his knees. A black patch covered his right eye (“Lord Patch” was one of his aliases), and a blue toque covered his bare scalp. He chain-smoked and charmed some of his fellow writers with a funny riff about black and Latino porn stars.

‘Later, that charm turned to menace when he interrupted a panel discussion called “Talking Dirty: Sexual Politics, Pornography, and Desire,” ranting incoherently, irrationally, about the racism of the conference’s organizers. When his tirade was over, he stormed out of the room. In his semi-autobiographical 2000 novel Ratz Are Nice (PSP), Braithwaite describes himself as a “SWOT” – a street tough, someone who’s excessive in force, relentless, even brutal – and the self-portrait seemed largely accurate.

‘Braithwaite died last July at the age of 45, an apparent suicide. He had hanged himself in his Victoria, B.C., apartment. According to police, he had been dead for at least four days before his body was discovered by a neighbour. Many of his friends and literary acquaintances didn’t even hear of his death until about a month later, reading about it on a blog maintained by San Francisco writer Dodie Bellamy.

‘Canadian literature has produced precious few genuine subversives, and Braithwaite – black, gay, working-class, a drug user – was perhaps the most subversive of them all. Though he was barely known outside the small-press community, he wrote two of the most daring novels ever produced in this country: Wigger and Ratz Are Nice (PSP). Both books are composed in an invented patois, an ecstatic, deliberately confounding fusion of street slang, porn, typographical trickery, and song lyrics. Hip-hop, dub, heavy metal, reggae, and, above all, punk dictated his rhythms and sensibility. His priorities weren’t plot and character, but speed and disorientation. He invited comparisons to transgressive writers like Céline and William S. Burroughs. He spelled Canada “kkkanada.”

‘“His work … was very atypical of Canadian literature,” says Arsenal Pulp Press publisher Brian Lam, who published Wigger in 1995. “It spoke more to American literary circles.” Indeed, Braithwaite found his most ardent support among the likeminded New Narrative writers, a coterie of innovative, largely gay writers concentrated in San Francisco and L.A. Kevin Killian considered him a “grand novelist with the sweep and technical bravura of Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Günter Grass, the Joyce of Dubliners, or someone like Don DeLillo.” Of Ratz, Dennis Cooper wrote, “Lawrence Braithwaite’s writing is so original, gorgeous, propulsive, and alive that it almost seems to reinvent fiction before your eyes.”

‘Braithwaite was born in Montreal in 1963, the youngest of four children. More inclined to visual art as a younger man, he studied film at Dawson College and then, improbably, spent 12 years as a clerk in the Canadian military, stationed on bases in Nova Scotia and B.C. “If I was to guess why,” says his older brother, Jack Braithwaite, “it was to get closer to our father.” (The senior Braithwaite was an airport manager and former pro baseball player who had also served in the armed forces.) According to Jack, a labour lawyer in Sudbury, Lawrence was discharged on permanent disability after an accident in which he broke his leg in several places. (Braithwaite claimed the disability was the result of constant beatings.)

‘In 1993, Braithwaite began to focus more on his writing, and one of his stories appeared in Arsenal Pulp’s Queeries: An Anthology of Gay Male Prose, the first anthology of its kind in Canada. He then settled in Victoria, where he wrote his three books – the last of which, More at 7:30 (Notes from New Palestine), remains unpublished – and eked out a somewhat mysterious, resolutely uncompromising, existence. His friend, Robert Garfat, the owner of Victoria bookshop Dark Horse Books, affectionately called him a “fringe-dweller.”

‘Braithwaite had attempted suicide at least once before, as a teenager, soon after the death of another older brother, Joey, in a bike accident. Jack ascribes Lawrence’s subsequent anger to the loss of his beloved sibling. “[Lawrence] was a very nice, sweet young guy,” Jack says, “but after [Joey’s death], he just had a great difficulty dealing with society.” Jack recalls several conversations over the years, long late-night phone calls where Lawrence monologued about various injustices, occasionally quoting Kant and Joyce. “He spoke in paragraphs, with footnotes,” Jack says, laughing. “But he was intellectually intolerant of others, and nobody lived up to his standards. Ultimately, it didn’t even matter if I was on the other end of the line or not.” Every call ended the same way, with Lawrence asking Jack for money. When Lawrence died, the brothers hadn’t seen each other in nearly two years.

‘Toronto writer Derek McCormack was at the Buffalo conference with me and met Braithwaite as well. The two stayed in touch, and Braithwaite asked for his help in finding a publisher for More at 7:30. The relationship faltered when Braithwaite repeatedly asked McCormack to send money; he was too broke, he explained, to even afford paper on which to print out hard copies of his book. (McCormack was too broke himself to help.) Around the same time, Alana Wilcox, senior editor at Coach House Books, read an early draft of the novel and encouraged Braithwaite to send a revised manuscript. After several interactions with him, however, she was reluctant to go forward – their phone conversations were, in her words, “difficult.” The manuscript never materialized.

‘“Lawrence constantly felt he was intentionally being kept down,” Garfat says, “because of his race or his disability or because he was gay. And I can’t deny that there must have been some of that; we do live in a prejudicial society.” But Braithwaite was consumed by his paranoia, alienating even those who were most sympathetic to him. Lam describes him as a “tremendous talent,” but in the same breath stresses how badly he treated people. (The two hadn’t spoken in years.)

‘Aaron Vidaver, a Vancouver poet and activist for whom Braithwaite had written book reviews, says, “He had problems with just about everybody.” So much so that Vidaver even doubts that Braithwaite was a suicide. Investigating the death on his own, Vidaver discovered that Braithwaite had numerous genuine enemies – notably, drug dealers and a violent ex-boyfriend – and had recently been involved in altercations so threatening that, uncharacteristically, he called police for protection.

‘“But the problem with Lawrence,” Vidaver says, “was that often his friends couldn’t tell the difference between his paranoia and real threats.” There was no suicide note, explains Vidaver, and, most unusually, Braithwaite’s cherished German shepherd was left chained up outside his apartment for several days before his body was found [sic]. Vidaver is certain that had Braithwaite planned a suicide, he would have made sure the dog was cared for first. The police have concluded their investigation, but the coroner continues to work on the case.

‘Jack, however, notes that Braithwaite died on July 14, the anniversary of his brother Joey’s death. “He never got over it,” Jack says. “But I think he was also tired of fighting the good fight. He always called his own shots, even at the end of the day.”’ — Jason McBride

 

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Further

Lawrence Yitzhak Braithwaite @ Wikipedia
‘Pull Your Ears Back’, Lawrence Braithwaite
‘TURNTABLE INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES’, by Lawrence Braithwaite
lord patch (dub) @ myspace
‘In Memorium to Lawrence Braithwaite’
‘Suggestive reading: Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite’s Wigger’
LYB @ Revolvy
‘Ratz Are Nice (PSP)’ reviewed @ Quill and Quire
‘Poisoned Haggis: On Irvine Welsh and Lawrence Braithwaite’
Lawrence Braithwaite @ goodreads
Book” Biting the Error’
Derek McCormack on LYB’s novel ‘Wigger’
LYB @ DC Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency
Buy ‘Ratz Are Nice (PSP)’

 

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2 music tracks
by LYB

“Just A Sect For Whiteboys In Afrika”

“London bomb sensation (hoffman sub dub the samo samo) lord patch vs david patrick”

 

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3 poems
by LYB

 

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Braithwaite
by Joe Clark

 

In a previous lifetime, I excerpted the only experimental novel I ever found interesting: Ratz Are Nice (PSP). Read the excerpts out loud, in any dialect you wish.

No one is going to write a Kathy Acker–manquée biography of its author, Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite (no relation). They’re both dead, but this may be the news to you in Braithwaite’s case. It was to me.

Self-evidently this gay black Forces vet from Quebec killed himself – the form of demise the culture demands from eldergays and anyone who does not or cannot pay his own freight. I’m not next, but somebody will be, and fuck-me pumps in size 13 will prance on our graves.

I am Shields-compliant (also Paglia‑) in that I cannot deal with novels, a Victorian form even in science-fiction camouflage. I am somehow a dozen pages into Black Deutschland, which title Braithwaite could have lived. Pace Brottman, sometimes the movie is better; it is much more interesting to listen to authors interviewed by an eldergay intellectual Jew, a triple tautology.
 Ratz Are Nice is barely a novel, more of a cultural positioning statement, said culture being “co-opted” and on the verge of extinction (Doc Martens “de‑recontextualized”).

In donning the Black persona, symbolized through the silver jacket, Brian finally does what everyone has been attempting to do throughout the book. Brian is killed – his soul is killed, through that burden of the weight of the Black youth – the Black persona, that persona of deglamoured oppression. He has achieved the goal of being Black but he is unprepared to handle something that the Blacks are raised to deal with through centuries of struggle – you’d suppose.

It took decades of uptight, rule-governed severity and utter yet abject correctness to get to a point where I ate Braithwaite for breakfast. My culture is on the verge of extinction. I memorized the spatial location of his books at TRL, now the only remaining copies (if they go he does), and sat there reading them, pulled apart by booth of my wide finger tipped hands.

I ate fucked-up prose for breakfast. “Last Exit to Victoria”:

…as a child I was told that not knowing the alphabet will cause illiteracy. It’ll send you into a drugged-out gangland life of white-trash nightmares and corner-boy peddling to homosexuals, who are professional players, obsessed with age and willing to drag it and you into emptiness. That in knowing the letters, I’ll know that they assemble to construct various images that become words. Words are the narrative transformation of the images. Printing a page of unbroken words is like a fresh tattoo. It captures a moment/place, sentiment and period. It orchestrates the body in motion as it flexes to move a pen/​strike at a key/​form a fist/​lift a drink or move to a rhythm. The words become the unspoken intertextuality of ethnic, racial and cultural metaphoric speech. The meter of casual dialogue = a rhythm/noise/visual bass, a soundtrack to a post-literate train of thought. […]
Slayer is for the fury and speed and violence that the book has. Deathmetal is the living desire of the neo-redneck burnout. It’s all going after the sport of brutality – the art of hurting someone. The walking jokes, with targets on their backs…. The only violence is the way the words appear on the page, marked by the slashes that connote rhythm of speech and interrupted thought. They are like semicolons = / the // are colons and so are the = signs. Sometimes the – move out to separate speech – someone takes lead//does a solo.

Nobody wanted someone this difficult and “intersectional” in the wrong way. Crocodile tears:

Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite. It’s incredibly sad news. I hadn’t heard from him in years. There was a time there when we were corresponding regularly. He had a novel, an opera, I believe he called it, and he asked me to help him find a publisher. I did what I could – it wasn’t much, but editors did see it, and loved it, but the publishing deals fell through, for reasons I don’t know. Our friendship kind of fizzled out – he wrote to me and asked if I could send him money. I had no money. I would have sent him money if I’d had it. He was a handful, but he wrote beautiful, beautiful books. Beautiful, original books. Bless him.

I got a piece of mail today… from the government of Canada. It is addressed to the Estate of Lawrence Braithwaite. It is the first I knew of his passing. Lawrence lived in my basement suite for three years (’02–’04). He was garrulous, inventive, argumentative, not a great listener, highly intelligent and a disaster as a housekeeper.
He had this big German shepherd dog named Heindrich who went everywhere with him. I had a dog too so we had plenty of opportunity to chat.
I had him up for dinner several times.
Lawrence was a very interesting character.

Can you imagine being a black anglo Quebecker saddled with the name Braithwaite, redolent as it is of token tragic-mulatto Radio-Canada TV personalities? Basically every black person in Quebec de l’époque presumptively had the name Braithwaite. I’d leave too, but not to Afghanistan, and I sure as shit wouldn’t pick Victoria, B.C., where the only other gay black male is halfway to a decathlete, handsome, winsome, smart, a dense pack of muscle with ten inches uncut and the luckiest white bf. Everybody wanted him. He’s the minimum ante you need to survive as a non-Amaechi gay army of one.
Put enough ones together and you get a real army. Not sufficient for Braithwaite – but it’s early in my process, and all I can save are the animals I don’t eat or wear, not every wayward soul you or I didn’t know we cared about till he died. Early in my process, but it’s happening.

 

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Book

Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite Ratz Are Nice (PSP)
Alyson Books

‘This Victoria, British Columbia, author’s second novel is one of the riskiest books yet from Alyson, publisher of cutting-edge gay titles. (His excellent debut, Wigger, appeared in Canada in 1994 and, unfortunately, received almost no critical notice.) It is difficult to read, with typographical symbols and codes, forward slashes, idiosyncratic spelling, acronyms and self-invented slang meant broadly to indicate the radical and transgressive nature of the voice serving up the narrative: “Wot’z Sparker’z subjet: Killer//ras enuff to be on that tree of life of hiz n hiz familiez’, buddiez absorb’n light.” The unconventional text follows several mods, skinheads, hardcore punks and other socially dissonant young men on the streets of Victoria. Sex is a connective tissue among them all, and–amid the drugs, drink, slam dancing and violence–there are even quixotic expressions of tenderness and love. Neo-Nazis mix dangerously with racially mixed punk scenesters; the protagonist, Edison, is a black skinhead. Edison describes the rivalry between two gangs that form the core of the culture called PSP (Pure Street Punk). These guys aren’t straight, but neither are they gay, and their edgy sexual mutability underscores their daily lives in the musical, social and emotional zones of PSP. Fearlessly experimental and antiestablishment, Braithwaite’s story is too disjointed for clarity; the lives of the punk boys get tangled up in a knot rather than interconnect expressively. This is a tough read, but hardcore, punk rock kids and souls sympathetic to the down-and-dirty street lifestyle may recognize something meaningful in all the distortion.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘Ratz Are Nice (PSP) is incredibly good. Lawrence Braithwaite’s writing is so original, gorgeous, propulsive, and alive that it almost seems to reinvent fiction before your eyes. Novels just don’t get any more exciting than this one. It gave me hope.’ — Dennis Cooper

 

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Excerpts

Flücky seemed to be able to forever look without changing physical appearance to fit comfortably anywhere with anyone’s fantasies.
He’s yammering and yelling the parts to YDL’s Skinhead88 – really loud and does a bitch about a vespa. Flücky waz a scruffy and noivus dude. He kept hiz hair at a length btwn these onez here and not the otherz. He waz a bit more posh in hiz selection of dress. Hiz sharkskin waz tailored to his train of thot. A special night it waz not – he just favored it sometimes – when he got a call to go out, hang wid the crew. Flücky was a bit ridiculous.

-Why are homosexuals always so obsessed by everything-
Chubby walks toward me. I thot he waz going to try and stomp on me. But then battyboichailz never do anything without a group involved and they don’t like to get their hands dirty. That’s why they have those Skin wanna be/SA types = Q-patrol/marching up and down the street.

The possibility of Elie going to school without getting the crap kicked out of him/was next to nil…. He was condemned to an existence filled with disjointed signifiers//​schizoidNigger/chimp/mallrat. The biggraçoons in the white collar hood thumped him blindly/​mad eyed bruiser/​detestation of the little retard. A nigger and an idiot is, too much, close to the truth than could be handled.

I always figured it like this…your average joe normal–casual–battyboichail–are peds man. They wont ya/​when you’re starving/​on the street/​they wont ya – it’s all control. They go weekend hunting looking for ruffboichail’z. They wontz to be quickened… I Edison basically loseout 3 ways.

So he met him…
You should haf seen hem he waz a beauty/areal lil’-darlin in blk stingy brim, new harry and a snorky pair of old oxbloods…. He jus sits by himself n readz n drinks til his crew shows up – a book, hez got always spread eagle, pulled apart by booth of hiz wide finger tipped handz. Hiz face pulled into it. I wont to go over n talk to him, alot, but I never got the noive….
It was amazing. Why doez he look at me like that, real sweet, wid thouz big blk eyez n that smoik.
I saw him the other day wid that gutter Skin, Eddy, sittin ontop of a newsbox on the street. Jus starin down at me. He’s too rude. He’s too stackt – what a neck, such a smile. He’s got lips, up close, that could stop a speeding train. So soft, I could use my mouth n finger to meet it and leave myfist to hold my heart.
It’s fun to see all of it go down. It waz, whatelse could happened wid thoze 2 – wot goez on inside…
He couldn’t even come over and say hi wottup. How long could I keep readin that fukkin book…. He waz caught, somtimez, starin back, but he don’t come over or say hi…. Iz he goin with that bonehead?

 

*

 

*

-I LIVE LIFE ONNA TILT,
MUFFAFOOKCA!!! KNOWLEDGE PHET!!!-

So he had issues. …and this lil wigga at the food bank, day before last, was hassling him for 60¢ for a likkle fake point of uppertunity that he had alledged to have fronted him. He waited every lunch hour on the lawn inna ramble of garbage bags, sleeping bags and karate kicking prison toned grads who had made it from the juvi to the pensive state higher learning institutes — tummies as tight as a ripple chip practicing the fußball kicks — aiming their strikes at the street corner cams, they would knock out for the common wealth, while hoping to hook up or peddle their trade with a bwai pimp who went by the name of Jimmy the K. It was Jummy the K who walked around with a pimp cup, woht he got at a micky ds, which he had glued shellacked gummy bears, polished glass, bamma rubies and latino figurines he all got from the gumball machines at the mall.
…and it was Jimmy the K woht was giving Assassin hassles for the .60¢. Jimmy the K approached him as Assassin did his dance wave, bending his ankles side to sway, dipping his hands into his empty pockets for change that was long gone, since last xmas, and swept My tar with his peepers, and the edges of the sidewalk beneath him, for a dropped fatty butt to roll a slut with.
pphhzzzzt!

…and he said ‘where’s my money b@tch’ or something like that woht you’re suppose to say from a downloaded skit and he cackled something bout Assassin being a ‘rip off artist’ or something and Assassin said this and that and that he didn’t ‘owe him shit’ after sayin “woh” or something and questioned the entire integrity if the issue and the credibility of the dastardly wigger — which Jimmy the K feeled that he had to now defend, and all that street cred sitiation, which seemed a lot more important than what a media hooper would give a fookc about on any given channel or press.
So was it time to swang? a woh/woh? Woht time was it? was it time for a knuckle up? awo, wanna juggle, wigga? too early to handle your liquar?
-muffafookca-
b.u.t. nada, the chins kept their wiggle and the hands remained untransformed into knuckles and the crowd never really gathered and the street reverands never came out to settle. All woht got done was a crizkid, who use to be a sk8er, who made graf typos all over the downtown core, come running up to the Jimmy/Assassin with two triple “A” batteries in his hand and says;
-Don’t make me restrain you… Pphhzzzzt!- which the horse throat bettys with broken pagers pointed and chuckled at that.
-I come get my shit tomorrow…you’re my fookcin bitch-
says Jimmy and stroles back to the garbage bag fortress under the tree and chats it up with bearded chick with a dick.

-WOh/WOh!!! Am I foockin Citizen!!!!!?-
The chase was to fly the bird to the mystery god. Woht’s the lesson of the day? Calculate. What does the math say of the bolts of energy to the ratio of the falling body subdued. The bus stopped and so did Assassin’s heart after the jakes came with the 8th 50,000ths’volt to the corpus = …and the coroners report read, “oh well”.
{8 cops} 〈 Heart stop x the 8th blast?
Do the math…hakim

 

 

*

p.s. RIP Marian Zazeela. ** Conrad, Hi, Conrad! How’s it? We often seem to be in the same cultural space without knowing it. Interesting. I loved the 7038634357 piece, like I said. I liked the first maybe ten minutes of Mark Fell/Rian Treanor, but then I thought it became a total mess. I missed Saturday, but The Friday concert was great. Phew, Aaron Dilloway, and Marc Baron were all fantastic. I’m glad you liked the PdT shows. I need to go see their current ones. I haven’t seen much art that blew me away. The Pinault show has some good things, especially the Fischili/Weiss sculptures, but it’s mostly just a rich guy showing off his purchases. The Lafayette Anticipations show is only okay, not so great. I’m curious about the Heavy Metal show at the Music Museum. Nothing amazing so far. You good? Things good? Happy world beyond Easter to you, pal. ** Tosh Berman, Ah, you had ‘Alice’. It wasn’t really even a game per se, or a strangely built one. Interesting re: the earthquake. I remember that. We just had a couple of cracked windows and major bookshelf tipping and spillage. Thanks, Tosh. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey. PT2 is up on my agenda for today. Panting. I remember ‘Billy Liar’. It’s strange how strong the UK was in film during that era. Really so many of the best films came from there. Nowadays it seems pretty dreary. Lots of ‘intelligent’, well-mannered movies but the daring things are very far and in between. You could s the same thing about the US too, btw. ** Bill, Hi. He did very interesting work. Those were the days when games were an actual art form, very experimental at times, and those games were even widely played. Very different than now. 7038634357, who’s an extremely cool guy, said yes to us using his track, so we’re very happy. I don’t know ‘Impaled’. Hm, dare I? I’m of the opinion that his photos and collages are a lot better than his films. ** Steve, Oops, feel better, man. I haven’t seen the making of ‘Kids’ doc, but I am curious to. The things the young guy in ‘PGL’ recounted from his stint in Clark’s film are actually shocking. Like ‘lucky he’s not prison’ shocking. Everyone, Here’s Steve: ‘For Artsfuse’s April “Short Fuses” column, I reviewed the climate change-obsessed new album by Montreal band FYEAR. (Scroll down the page to “jazz.”). ** Nika Mavrody, It was indeed. ** Gramski 😘, Hi, thanks. You underestimate our film’s non-conformity relative to the conformity that big festivals want from films that they accept. Sad world. But we’ll see. 2025, gotcha. Well, missing the Olympics is probably to your residency’s benefit. But, yeah, come over and do the pure Paris. With a cupcake in tow! Thanks, hugs. ** Harper, Yeah, it just seems like you’d regret if you don’t go, and surely it will result in some kind of colourfulness re: your depiction of ‘him’. Do tell how it was/went, yes, thanks. Games back then were really different. The form hadn’t settled into the fighting/hunting/war-like genre it is now. There were seriously strange games. Here’s a post about my favorite games of that era if you’re curious. Big up! ** Mark, Hey, Mark. A monthlong birthday, very nice. Someone else here just saw Laurie Anderson, but I think in SF. Lord Byron, interesting. Yeah, I can see the value of that dive. DL Alvarez is an old pal of mine from the Queer Punk days and even prior. Super nice guy. I’m good, so close to the film’s finish line I can … I was going to smell it, but it doesn’t have a door, so … see it. Good to see you! ** Justin, When we meet and have an inevitable coffee or something, I’ll spill the beans. I never keep journals. Well, I did as a young teen, but my nosey alcoholic mother found where I hid them and read them and sent me to a psychiatrist, so I stopped. I guess ‘I Wished’ has a journalistic aspect at times. Anyway, thank you. What are you up to? ** Darby🥙, Hey. I do remember that, yes. I don’t know ‘Beyond a steel sky’ but I think I’ve heard of ‘Sanitorium’. I’ll see if I can find some evidence. 90s computer games were like art, really, at least compared to what 90+% of games are now. You not being dumb is a huge given, my friend. I don’t think you mentioned that stuffed animal stash before. Nice. Gosh, I hope weed doesn’t stay in the system that long. Doesn’t seem like it would. Oops, good luck. Weed makes me totally paranoid, and I stay far away from it. I’m definitely more easy going than austere. I’m shy and a little reserved sometimes, but I am never ever austere. I can’t imagine you being austere? ** Uday, I like video games. I don’t know, they’re so absorbent. That is really amazing about your mentor having worked with Nina Simone! Whoa! I saw her live once back in the late 60s, and she scared the hell out of me in the best possible way. There was a real Ziggy. He was a young friend of mine. He called himself Ziggy after some comic that used to run in newspapers called ‘Ziggy’, not after Bowie. I sort of based the character on my friend, although I changed a lot of things, because I adored him even though he was a complicated boy, and I based it on him pretty much because I knew if the character was him it would be a sympathetic one because he so was himself. So, I did try/hope, I guess. I’m happy he made you feel stuff. ** Right. I’ve revived an old spotlight post about Lawrence Yitzhak Braithwaite’s second novel/novella because it’s wonderful and so little known these days. Lawrence’s best book was his third, ‘More at 7:30’, which has never been published. It was supposed to be the first book in my old Little House on the Bowery imprint, but Lawrence was so extremely difficult to deal with as a person that the publisher refused to let me put it out. I don’t know what’s happened to that manuscript, but someone should put it out because it’s really brilliant. Anyway, ‘Ratz Are Nice’ is excellent, and here’s hoping it’s of interest to y’all. See you tomorrow.

 

‘In February of 1995, Newsweek magazine published an article entitled “50 For the Future” , introducing a selected group of visionaries from different fields of computer technology. Among a predominant majority of North-American names, composed of businessmen, journalists, physics, engineers, computer systems and software developers, the inclusion of Haruhiko Shono, representing the digital games domain, was by no means startling.

‘Shortly before the turn to the 1990’s decade, the Personal Computer industry was embarking on a decisive process of unification with emerging and alternative forms of art. Consequentially, the use of CD-ROM as the standard media for software publication would cause dramatic changes to the digital games industry, namely with the inclusion of video and pre-recorded high quality audio. This unprecedented cutting-edge resource conveyed new possibilities that succeeded in fascinating movie makers, musicians, and painters among many other accomplished artists.

‘It was in this precise context that Haruhiko Shono was drawn into the trade of videogame design, after refining his techniques in the world of digital video production and computer graphics. Teaming up with fellow artists, he signed a contract with videogame publisher Synergy and Toshiba EMI for the conception of a hybrid PC and Macintosh game: ALICE – AN INTERACTIVE MUSEUM, released in 1991, was one of the earliest subjective point-and-click adventures using pre-rendered images.

‘Inside the unique space of a virtual museum, the player is able to discover the surrealist paintings of Kuniyoshi Kaneko, inspired by theme of Lewis Carrol’s literary masterpiece Alice in Wonderland. Scattered throughout the different rooms of the gallery is a deck of playing cards which the player must retrieve, while interacting with the tantalizing puzzles in the form of pictures. On account of its effective tridimensional promenade and highly artistic values, ALICE won the AVA Multimedia Grand Prix MITI ‘s Minister’s Prize in 1991.

‘Continuing his work with Synergy, Shono unveiled a similar adventure scheme in yet another PC/Mac title under the name L-ZONE, published in 1992. Experimental and mysterious, its cybernetic environment was unlike any other in its day: amidst the large industrial venues and silos overflowing with mainframes and other electronic paraphernalia, the feeling of solitude and lack of concise objectives helped to build up an outlandish form of tension: paradoxically, Shono and his team generate this scenery of technological asphyxia using the computer as medium. Its audiovisual excellence, namely the vanguardist techno sound clips and loops, appealed to different players on an international scale, making L-ZONE one of the best sold products of its time and the winner of the ’92 Multimedia Association Chairman’s Award.

‘The year of 1993 was of particular importance to the pursuit of Haruhiko Shono. Taking exceptional advantage of the maturation of the game design techniques employed in his debuting titles, he generated an original project which would later become the indisputable reference of his professional career: GADGET: INVENTION, TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE, distributed that year in markets around the world, would soon convert itself into one of the most influential digital works ever made. Combining 256-color images with black and white Quicktime video technology, Shono molded a virtual sphere interweaving art deco with industrial design as background for the depiction of an obscure future where reality and induced illusion are indistinct.

‘In GADGET, Shono expressed his exceptional taste for machinery, not only with recurrent use of trains, the suggestive one-track means of transportation recurrently used during the game, but also with the introduction of a vital element to the brilliant narrative named the Sensorama – a menacing device capable of altering the perception of reality. While the narrative was intricate and exceedingly ambiguous, unlike any other in its day, the sheer visual spectacle and intriguing ambience caused quite a shock among the unwary community of players, generating enough sales to have GADGET rank as one of the best-selling multimedia CD-ROMs of all time – and, once more, winner of the famed Multimedia Grand Prix.

‘From 1993 to 1997, Shono sought to explore the potential of this dark futuristic setting further. Not long after the release of the game, a book under the name Inside Out With Gadget was published, comprising an impressive number superior computer generated images together with a series of written texts in the form of memos, reports and diary entries scientists, politicians and other characters portrayed in the game. Soon thereafter, the Gadget Mindscapes film followed, using video rendering quality that was impossible to include in the game, accompanied by an extended version the ethereal soundtrack composed by Koji Ueno.

‘The final installment of this universe was perhaps the most significant of all: recreating the original game, Cryo published GADGET – PAST AS FUTURE, a remake of the 1993 game using new and improved full-color video sequences, as well as extended features that were not available before. This release reignited the interest for the game, in an impressive 4 CD release that was translated and dubbed into several languages. In spite of the awards and recognition from a die-hard CD-ROM public, the last half of the decade was invariably defined by the growth in real time 3D technology. The technologies in which Haruhiko Shono specialized throughout his career, based mostly on CGI and Director-based programs, were demoted from dominant to auxiliary. Because of such radical changes in the industry, GADGET: PAST AS FUTURE became his last project as a game designer.

‘With the increasing demand for pre-rendered computer graphics technology in the fields of film and television, Haruhiko Shono opted to face new challenges. The most notable of which was the 2004 motion picture Casshern, a Japanese science fiction and fantasy motion picture that thrilled audiences from all over the world. Based on an early TV Anime series, this film was often described by critics as Japan’s answer to Hollywood’s special effect blockbusters, since Casshern presented special digital treatment for almost every shot. Shono participated actively in the production of the film merging live action footage with digital backgrounds and additional special effects.’ — coregamers

 

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Stills

 

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Further

Haruhiko Shono @ Wikipedia
WILL,LTD.
Haruhiko Shono: A Prophet of the Digital Age
HS @ Letterboxd
HS @ Facebook
Book: ‘Inside Out with Gadget’
CD: ‘Preview And Reprise Haruhiko Shono’
Alice: An Interactive Museum reviewed
Unreleased Haruhiko Shono Film Projects
Without further ado: Haruhiko Shono

 

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Extras

Koji Ueno – Tranquillity

Urban Japan Documentary | Tokyo Noise

光 / ヒカキン & セイキン

 

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Interview

COREGAMERS : Even before completing your studies, you started to develop several works that were closely related to high definition video, computer graphics and new media in general. What has captivated you in these new forms of expression?

Haruhiko SHONO : Although I studied Graphic Design at university, I was more interested in images and music than in paper-based design, so, taking influence from video artists like Bill Viola and Nam June Paik, I began work on video projects. Original music was necessary too, so I also began composing using a PC at this time. From then on I made use of various technologies and came to create ‘new media’ video works, so to speak. In 1985 I formed a performance group called ‘Radical TV’, and at concerts we would set the stage with a giant screen and tens of other monitors and create a video in real time, similar to current VJ video performances, as they are called, although, because they were improvised in a short time, the style was radically different from modern creations.

CG : I assume there must have been some serious limitations imposed by the technology available at the time: what sort of techniques and software did you use back then?

SHONO : At that time, the main piece of equipment we used was a Fairlight CVI (Computer Video Instrument) for real time image processing, and even now, it is very impressive. After that, with the introduction of Commodore’s Amiga, the popular process of video production at that time began to move away from video photography and in-studio editing, toward personal desktop works. It was also around this time that I began making full-blown CG-based animation in both 2D and 3D. However, because at that time I was using media recorded to floppy disks, I had to come up with ways to work within the restrictions of a limited data capacity and colour palette.

For example, the data for a TV programme’s title sequence would take up 5 whole floppy disks. Before CD-ROM technology came about, high storage capacity media, like we have today, was inconceivable. I was only able to make low resolution videos, but I came to have confidence in the potential of desktop video creations. I think the appeal of the expressive power of this medium is being able to witness the unfolding potential of expressiveness, thanks to technological innovation.

It’s very stimulating to see expressive power advancing, regardless of personal skill level. However, because the expression itself is also swift to grow stale, it’s often the case that hard work made during that time span amounts to nothing. Nevertheless, the moment you touch on a new expressive possibility, it’s always stimulating and deeply interesting.

CG : It was only sometime after that you decided to explore the potential of CD-ROM, having created a group of videogames or interactive experiences that received some of the most important Multimedia awards of their day. By then, what was your opinion of the video game medium – were you a video game player?

SHONO : Around 1989, I was doing work in TV and video which took very little time to complete, so I desired a project that would require more time and careful deliberation. This was the period when the creative environment, based on Mac technology, also allowed for high resolution video works, and the likes of Photoshop and MacroMind Director (now Adobe Director) had come out, so I wanted to produce a work that, even with a single picture, could have persuasive power. Also, I was busy with several CD-ROM works, so it was very confusing. Actually, I wasn’t so interested in video games originally and had only played a handful of Amiga games.

Nevertheless, I felt that video games had a certain allure, and many possibilities that were lacking in other types of video media. The allure was the interactivity of games, and they were a digital media that allowed video works in full CG. Movies and videos in linear media are limited to the axis of time, and production cannot escape those limitations. Furthermore, this was the period that movies and video began their process of digitization but, fundamentally, they were an analogue medium. Perfect videos in full CG were impossible. At that point in time, CD-ROM was the only medium that made full CG videos possible.

CG : ALICE INTERACTIVE MUSEUM is by far one of your most recognized works, bringing the exquisite art of Kuniyoshi Kaneko into the realm of digital products. Tell me how this joint project started and what did you try to achieve with this surrealist game design?

SHONO : In 1990, I started a project after discussing the transfer of images to CD-ROM with Kuniyoshi Kaneko, who was introduced to me by Masanori Awata, president of the publisher Synergy (who I got to know through magazine research). As originally suggested by the musician Kazuhiko Kato, I was already producing video works using a PC. After that, continuous meetings with Kuniyoshi Kaneko in his home studio resulted in not only his own work, but the transformation of that work into a game. In his studio there was a fascinating collection of work and countless strange items. I considered that compiling them into a simple book of paintings would not reveal their potential; but that as a video game, they could become something else entirely.

His studio was a bewitching place and I went around touching and investigating everything. Seeing the other side of his work, I felt that its contents held a great necessity. At this point we established the game concept of the Interactive Museum, which included Kuniyoshi Kaneko’s work. We then photographed an enormous amount of items as raw material, digitized all of them, but I remember what a great trouble it was, because at that time there were no digital cameras. In order to reproduce his room, we used Fractal Design’s Mac-based CG creation software – Ray Dream Designer.

Although there was no way we could make lifelike videos, the characteristic quirkiness we achieved is a very impressive addition to Kuniyoshi Kaneko’s style. Because ALICE was one of the earliest CD-ROM works, in the initial stages there were a great many challenges relating to the image compression and data transfer rate. A large amount of time was spend on data optimization, and it became necessary to compromise heavily on the part of artistic expression. While the expressive potential was greatly increased compared to analogue media of the time, at the same time we had to confront the many challenges presented by digital media.

CG : L-ZONE and GADGET , on the other hand, are much more linear titles; the first is essentially an audiovisual experience, a demonstration of high-resolution technological landscapes, while GADGET is a story-driven game with characters and dialogue. Was there a particular reason for this change in your design philosophy?

SHONO : ALICE had many small contrivances, but this was because the concept of the Interactive Museum required as much interactivity as possible, and inevitably this resulted in a high degree of freedom. However, it didn’t have a strong story, so the flow of the game was too free, and consequently there is a feeling of ambiguity to it. Personally, I think this is due to the fact that I was fussing over the details of interactivity, because it was my first video game.

L-ZONE was published the next year. As a science fiction fan, I had long held the modest desire to infiltrate a forbidden research facility and freely use the experimental technology found there, and we used this as a concept for this small scale project. When compared to my other two works, the preparation phase was short, and I really made it according to my own feelings. Because interactivity was a phenomenon that was narrowed down to the operation of equipment and its effects, when you compare L-ZONE to ALICE, the level of freedom is quite low. Since my aim with this work was to illustrate the dangerous allure that technology holds, it can also be seen as a rehearsal for GADGET.

It can even be seen as proof of my love for different types of machine switches and levers. 1993’s GADGET was originally planned to be a mixture of ALICE and L-ZONE, yet during the development process, we introduced full CG characters for the first time: situations involving conversations with those characters also evolved and it became necessary to attribute meaning and motives to their behaviour. To that end, we clarified the story and the importance attached to freely interactive events was reduced and the structure became more linear. I also think that this linear structure was necessary to maintain tension and to increase the persuasive power of the fictional world.

CG : I recently read an interview in which the Hollywood movie director Guillermo del Toro mentions GADGET as one of the most influential video games ever designed, adding that movies like The Matrix and Dark City were highly inspired by the game. GADGET is an uncommon game even by today’s standards. What inspired you to create this unique experience?

SHONO : In 1992 I started to work on GADGET and, as the title suggests, I quickly decided to give it a science fiction setting, expanding on the world I attempted in L-ZONE which was filled with strange devices. However, because I also had many ideas which, as with ALICE, were not science fiction related, I wanted to make a world which also reflected such things. I had long since held an interest in exterior and interior architectural designs which existed in the past but are now lost, as well as industrial goods and designs which were planned but never implemented – I had many ideas of this sort that I wanted to include.

Eventually I wanted reconstruct all of these things in my own way, designing an entire world in which they could exist. Although the genre of the game is science fiction, I was aiming to make a world with a serious, static impression, refraining as much as possible from adding convenient and high powered technology. I had a firm belief that we could manage the creation of such a world using full CG, but I felt that its realisation would also require full CG characters. In practice, the technology we had at that time could not have been used to create realistic characters like those which are possible nowadays. But I remember how hard it was in that atmosphere to produce something, having to make choices of hardware and software, establish a creative technique. The characters that appear in Gadget are like lifeless dolls. This is because in the game world, characters that ask too much and don’t fit in are judged.

Although they have the appearance of humans, realistic humans weren’t necessary, because what I needed were characters that added tension and persuasive power to this static world. The exposure time for the earliest portrait photos was very long, so the subjects’ poses and facial expressions seem stiff and unmoving: I think the persuasive power of those images is very strong. For example, the portraits of photographer August Sander have a powerful influence on me. One of the things that differentiate GADGET from other games is perhaps that while it used the latest technology of the time, the imagery is strongly reminiscent of the fascinating expressions of the past. Incidentally, I now base my concept designs for movies and games on what I experienced during this creative process.

 

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Works

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Radical TV: TV War (1985)
‘Shono’s creative career began in 1985 with the formation of Radical TV. Shono was hired as a member of the visual performance unit, and here he gained an interest in the visual aspects of the film industry. With evidence of visual artistry talent already apparent, Shono was entrusted with the responsibility to act as lead visual display artist in Radical TV’s audio-visual display showcase at Expo ’85 entitled TV War, with music composed, arranged, & performed by Ryuichi Sakamoto. The display would be recognized as one of the most significant affirmations of the Japanese IDM subculture.’ — Bruno de Figueiredo

the entirety

 

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Alice: An Interactive Museum (1991)
‘Alice: An Interactive Museum is a multimedia experience created by Haruhiko Shono and published by Toshiba EMI. At first appearance it seems to be simply a virtual art gallery featuring the artwork of Kuniyoshi Kaneko, but it turns out to be a whole adventure with secrets and surprises. Originally intended as a CD-ROM that merely contained digital transfers of Kaneko’s paintings. But after spending a lot of time with Shono, it transformed into an interactive work. Shono wanted to capture Kaneko’s “bewitching” studio in digital form through interactivity. He wanted you to poke around Kaneko’s space just as he did. There were no digital cameras used so all the photos are scans of analog photos. Considered one of the first multimedia “toys,” rather than a “game.” It was a breakthrough for the medium.’ — scummmvm

ALICE : AN INTERACTIVE MUSEUM – Gameplay

KaL Plays – Alice Interactive Museum

 

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Virtual Drug: Trance (1991)
‘Long before its release in DVD format, in 2001, Virtual Drug was possibly one of the first works made by Shono in the field of computer graphics and video – originally edited in 1990 in VHS. Together with a pair of special goggles (known commonly as Rave Spex), Virtual Drug is an essential item for all those interested in exploring the origins of the world of Gadget, namely the concept of the mind trip.’ — coregamers

the entirety

 

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Virtual Drug: Flash/Zone (1992)
‘The LD jacket invites you to “TAKE A TRIP IN THE ENCHANTED WORLD, STIMULATING YOUR VISION AND HEARING… Virtual Drug works into your brain. It gives you an extraordinary intoxication effect which clears away your stress. It is not addictive, and it is safe, but please avoid long term uses with the 3D spectacles.”… It instructs you to, and I quote; 1. Set the LD, wear the 3D spectacles, take a comfortable distance from the TV screen ready to trip. 2. You will hear the VIRTUAL AUDIO SYSTEM on stereo, better effect can be heard with headphones. 3. Turn out the lights and ENJOY!’ — Alexis B

the entirety

 

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L-ZONE (1992)
‘There’s no dialogue in L-ZONE, or any words for that matter. To the extent that this game has a narrative, it’s incredibly vague, like an impression of a story without any specific people or places. A city on another planet. An underground lab. Colossal machines and living robots. A nefarious plan. A chance to escape.

‘The short journey of L-ZONE starts out on the surface of a mountainous red planet. You enter a train station, barely illuminated by a pale light. The tram whisks you away into an impossibly large industrial facility, where an unknown party has been amassing computers, engines, and robots. Did they abandon this complex years ago, or are they quietly waiting and watching from a distance? With each room, you encounter a new mystifying piece of equipment with dozens of buttons and dials that don’t have a clear function. What is all this meant for?

‘The game never pretends like half these weird machines have a real purpose. They must do something, surely, but only the people who built this facility would know. As far as the player is concerned, everything in this shadowy underground complex is just a big toy. Hit one of the colorful candy-shaped switches, and a monitor will flick on. Pull a lever, and a huge motor screeches to life. Plug a cable into a device, and it emits a distorted synthesizer noise.

‘Whatever this place is, it’s entrancing, and it invites you to fiddle with every control console you come across. But the excitement of playing with these machines goes hand-in-hand with their potential for danger. The deeper you go, the things you discover suggest that something sinister is happening here. You find models of a human brain and skeleton, and later, you encounter a robot restrained to an operating table. There’s more robots, half-functioning and buried in sand, in a room that feels like it’s supposed to be a mass grave. You see a firing range, where an endless assembly line of robots are being shot. They seem to be bleeding. Are they alive? Do they feel pain? What are those weapons being tested for?’ — Phil Salvador

L-ZONE – Intro & Gameplay

L-Zone PC Partial Walkthrough

 

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Gadget (1993)
‘Gadget is a point and click video game (though honestly more of a Visual Novel) directed by Haruhiko Shono and first released by Synergy Interactive in 1993. The game is set within a Diesel Punk nation called “The Empire,” ruled by the dictator Paulo Orlovsky, that feels and looks similar to that of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

‘The plot is quite esoteric and ambiguous. A lot of it is left to interpretation or told only by inference. As far as anyone can tell; the nation commissioned this group of seven scientists (headed by Horselover Frost) to build a Mind-Control Device called “Sensorama” to brainwash dissidents. However, the scientists spotted at the observatory a comet approaching the earth, along with a mysterious giant spaceship, and realized the world was going to end and that the spaceship was there to rescue those who would come. So they hacked into the Sensorama so that those subjected to it would obey Horselover instead. The nation became suspicious of the scientists and has a secret agent investigate them. You take the role of that agent. Prior to the game, however, you get subjected to the Sensorama yourself, and the rest of the game is played under its influence.

‘You get assigned by your commanding officer, Theodore Slowslop, to investigate the scientists again. You travel around a bunch of train stations (the operative word of the game is “locomotive,” imagery of them abounds in the game to a borderline fetishistic degree), talking to the scientists at their secret laboratories, and under the Sensorama’s influence you begin helping them, gathering gizmos to complete a small-scale spaceship called the “Ark,” which, supposedly, the scientists will use to fly up to the big one. You are riddled throughout with hallucinations of what appears to be a post-apocalyptic swampland; and a creepy little boy who keeps appearing and disappearing, never saying a word, of whom the identity and intentions are completely unknown. By the end, very little is explained and it is left unclear exactly how much of the journey has even been real.

‘In appearance, the game is very similar to Myst. However, the game is entirely linear; you cannot do anything or travel anywhere that isn’t scripted. You click to move ahead and activate things; that’s it. There’s only one puzzle in the game; a relatively simple maze at the end when you navigate the Ark through some underground tunnels. It is therefore really more a Kinetic Novel that you play for the beautiful scenery and eerie atmosphere more than it is a Video Game.’ — tvtropes

English Longplay – No Commentary

 

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Gadget – Past as Future (1997)
‘Touted as an interactive movie, Gadget – Past as Future is a compilation of QuickTime movies and 3-D graphically rendered backgrounds which immerses you in a mystery quest from the beginning. It seems there is a comet headed for earth and through enigmatic meetings and vague clues that only hint at this potentially cataclysmic event, you find yourself compelled to search for answers to this dilemma. You’ll encounter scientists, strange people, cryptic items and engage in odd conversations to gain information in your search for a mysterious person, Horselover, who seems to be at the heart of the matter. New and old technology blends in a fantastic visual mix as the story unfolds from a first-person interactive perspective.

‘Innovative, fantastic inventions (gadgets) and a journey of surrealistic travel awaits you in this unique world. Whether in interactive or cinematic mode, Gadget provides a moody, atmospheric trip while you are pursuing Horselover and his six research associates. Partly filmed in black and white for effect (most of the cinematics), the game is dark and fairly drips with its own unusual ambiance.

‘Gadget puts you in a strange surreal world were a comet appears to be heading for the earth. Most people dismiss this situation since apparently it won’t collide with us, however a group of scientists scramble to develop a way to stop this comet. Whether they want to destroy it, divert it, or whatever is unknown however, and you are charged with the task to find out what really is going on. This version was released in 1997 in Japan only.’ — The Video Game Library

Playthrough: “Gadget: Past as Future”

 

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Gadget Trips: Mindscapes (1998)
‘Visionary artist Haruhiko Shono directs this trippy computer-animated film about the Sensorama, a futuristic electromagnetic radiation device that causes its victims to experience an assortment of mind-bending hallucinations.’ — MUBI

the entire film

 

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w/ Kazuaki Kyriya Casshern (2004)
‘In 2004, Casshern was hailed as one of the most visually impressive film features. This high budget movie production is a remake of a cult anime movie from 1973 (Neo Human Casshern), this time made using the latest CGI technology: Shono was invited to supervise this department and help give shape to this chaotic alternate history scenario.’ — coregamers

the entire film

 

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w/ Koichi Nakamura Imabikisou (2007)
‘Released exclusively in Japan for the PS3 and later for the Nintendo Wii, Imabikisou is horror adventure game that comes with top quality visuals and atmosphere. The production of this exquisite environment, reminiscent of recent Japanese terror film and television, was attained by intertwining live footage with real actors with pre-rendered locations – animated and filled with details. The game was released by Chunsoft, the reference for top quality adventures in Japan, also responsible for other prominent titles such as Machi or 428.’ — coregamers

Trailer

Imabikisou Gameplay Review

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** he show/_Black_Acrylic, ‘he show’ is a nice moniker, however it happened. No chocolate eggs for me either. Alas? Awesome! Wow, you’re being so wonderfully prolific with the sounds! Everyone, Ben ‘_Black_Acrylic’ Robinson’s divine avalanche for the ears aka his podcast Play Therapy v2.0 has a new episode up and out here, and, as always, hugely recommended. This one ‘how pillages sounds from across a future Earth and is going straight to a detention centre. Sounds great!’ Go here to luxuriate. Great, thanks, Ben! ** Steve, Ha, ‘master of the three-act structure’ indeed. Nice. It is quite odd that Clark makes the work he does while being totally paranoid about being thought gay, but I suppose that’s kind of in the work itself if you look closely. Interesting about ‘The Beast’. I am curious, but cautious. He’s very interesting, but definitely very uneven. Weekend was good. Saw two Bennings: ’13 Lakes’ again, and ‘John Krieg Exiting the Falk Corporation in 1971’ for the first time, both great. ** Barkley, Me too, thank you. Can’t wait for you to have the opportunity to see it. I’ve only read three, I think, Delanys: ‘Hogg’, ‘Madman’, and … another one I’m blanking on. I’ve dipped into his more sci-fi stuff, but it didn’t really grab me. Recommendations for other writing using that, off the top of my head: Peter Sotos, ‘Babyfucker’ by Urs Alleman, Sade obviously, … hm, I’ll have to think more. I love ‘Day Is Done’. I just saw it again recently as part of the Mike Kelley retrospective here. I think it’s one of Mike’s best later works. What did you think? Easter is history. I do miss getting Easter baskets full of chocolates and toys and fake grass and painted eggs and things. When I was a kid, my parents would leave a basket outside my siblings’ and my bedroom doors to find on Easter morning, supposedly plunked down by the Big Bunny. I hope you got one. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Okay, I’m gonna get that Broder for sure. I think the great After8 bookstore here will have it. Thanks! Have a great, great time with your mom, and tell me everything when you’re on the other side. And do ride as many dark rides at Prater as you can stomach so I can read the reviews. Love holding his nose and jumping off a cliff into a swirling ocean, G. ** Gramski 🐰, I did, and your bunny isn’t bad either. Thanks about Cannes, but, since we haven’t heard anything back yet, that’s probably a bad sign, so now we’re mostly steeling ourselves for bad news. Didn’t manage to eat chocolate, but no big. Fingers heavily crossed about the application! You could be here for the very mixed blessing of Paris during the Olympics. It could get crazy. Or not. Hugs galore. ** Harper, Hi. Job searching requires considerable pragmatism for sure. Gosh, me, I think I’d go see his band. Especially under the ‘writing re: him’ circumstances. Seems both colorful, scene-wise, and telling. The fronting and vulnerability of band members playing on stage is always really interesting if you’re into character studying. And, as you said, if it’s a bad experience, closure is good. Yeah, I mean, if it’s sort of the same, I’ve wanted for forever to meet up with George Miles’s brother, who was a teenaged friend of mine, and learn more about George’s end times, and fill him in about lots of things about George I think he doesn’t know, and I would in a heartbeat if I could reach him or if he reached out to me. I guess I’m saying getting the full or big picture about the guy you’re writing about seems invaluable if you can, and not doing that could be a big regret. Or something. I don’t know. Feel it out. Follow your instincts. Let me know what happens. And have a transfigurative week irregardless. ** Bill, Hi. The second night wasn’t as roundly excellent as the first, but 7038634357 was incredible. Zac and I really want to use a track by him over the end credits of ‘Room Temperature’, and we’re having coffee with him today to talk about it. Luckily he loved ‘Permanent Green Light’, so hopefully he’ll be into it. Clark is very, very concerned with being thought gay. It’s pretty odd considering. Excellent about the accomplished chunks! That’s great news! ** Justin, I think Clark is a very complicated dude, as I guess his work indicates. One of the stars of Zac’s and my film’ Permanent Green Light’ had been in Clark’s most recent film and had all these horror stories of what it was like to work with him which unfortunately I shouldn’t recount in public. Nice: the egg hiding. That does seem like it would have made whatever else worth it. I didn’t eat any chocolate, no. Thought to, but just spaced until it was Easter itself and every chocolate selling placed was closed. But it was okay. There’s alway today. Happy week start. ** Okay. Im a big fan of the pioneering computer game auteur Haruhiko Shono, especially his game ‘Gadget’, so I thought I’d do a day about him, simply and logically enough. See you tomorrow.