A war on Saturn’s return?

Sunday, November 20, 2011

About two weeks ago, my girlfriend was playing with a Saturn return calculator and contemplating the impact of celestial bodies, specifically Saturn, on her life. A Saturnian year takes roughly 30 Earth years. In astrology, the Saturn return is an alleged phenomenon that influences a person’s life development at around 29-year intervals.

A magic realism tangent

Because of my current state of mind, the idea of Saturn’s return makes me think about the (unrelated) war on Saturn that takes places in the amazing, surreal The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia, which I am currently reading. People hide under the lead shells of mechanical tortoises to evade Saturn’s voyeuristic gaze!

A war on Saturn's return: Borges, García Márquez, Murakami, Plascencia and Bender

For more fantastic works of magic realism, see the likes of Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Haruki Murakami and Aimee Bender (specifically the books above). I had the privilege of meeting Aimee Bender on November 11 (yes, on 11/11/11) on the Oregon State University campus as part of the 2011-12 OSU Visiting Writers Series. She read a chapter from her new book The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (which I love) and a fantastic short story about prosopagnosia (i.e., face illiteracy or face blindness) called Faces. Magic realism is currently my favorite genre of fiction. Note to self: remember to read more absurdity from Richard Brautigan.

Back to Saturn’s return

The Saturn return calculator revealed that my girlfriend’s Saturn return started on Halloween 2011 and it doesn’t end until July 2012. She deemed this a disturbingly long duration and shook her fist at Saturn for cursing her to suffer its trajectory-altering, life-changing transformations for longer than most. I’ve since learned that Saturn returns usually last about a month.

Being curious, I entered my birthday into the calculator and found that my first Saturn return was of normal length (one month), during which I bought my house and took a two-week trip to Hawai’i. Both of these events had great significance to me. Intrigued, I looked at other notable positions of Saturn throughout my life and immediately noticed a clear theme emerging: transformational travel.

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Posted on November 20, 2011 | Length: 343 words
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Magical books I read in October 2011

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

If I look back and think about the most memorable, inspiring pieces of literature I consumed last month, four books clearly come to mind. Each one explores parallel realities (or supernatural realms) and the magical creatures and animals that inhabit these universes. Naturally, three of the books were written for children.

Magical books I read in October 2011

The first two are out-of-print children’s books written in the 1970s by American author Tomie de Paola. I tracked down copies of these short stories after my dad visited Oregon in September and helped me remember a few books he used to read to my sister and me. When Everyone Was Fast Asleep (1976) and the more obscure Songs of the Fog Maiden (1979) both feature the magical, singing Fog Maiden and her blue cat Token. These two characters visit the children of Earth at night and bring them enchanting, fantastical experiences:

When everyone was fast asleep, the Fog Maiden sent Token to wake us up. And we slid through the curtains into the night. We floated across the grass, dancing on the dew, and met the elf horse. We all sang, “Tra la, tra la, too lay, too lay, hop-a-doodle, hip-a-doodle, flip-a-doodle day.” Down the road we went, counting moons until we came to the troll house, but we were not afraid. We ate hot buttered bread and drank warm milk with honey, and dressed for the ball at the palace. The crocodiles danced a quadrille and the peacocks waltzed with doves and we all sang, “Tra la, tra la, too lay, too lay, hop-a-doodle, hip-a-doodle, flip-a-doodle day.” When the king and queen arrived, the play began. The lion roared while the gypsy slept, and the princess was saved by the sand serpent. The night was over and the Fog Maiden came to cover everything with her dress. She picked us up and floated over the trees to our very own window, where she tucked us into our beds and kissed us asleep.

Now if that isn’t an alien abduction story, I don’t know what is. You miss some context without the illustrations, but the premise of When Everyone Was Fast Asleep is that a large-eyed animal (or therianthrope) peers into your bedroom window at night and whisks you away to an alternate, overwhelming realm of anthropomorphic entities.

(Note: I have illustrated the Fog Maiden and Token the Cat as 8-bit characters for Mascot Mashup, my daily pixel art project; they are scheduled to appear on November 10 and 11.)

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Posted on November 1, 2011 | Length: 409 words
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Blackboard 9.1 y u no run faster?

Friday, October 14, 2011

It’s Friday. (Yesterday was Thursday. And tomorrow is Saturday. And Sunday comes afterwards.) (You’re welcome.)

Maybe, just maybe, I’ll start using this blog more regularly again since I have become thoroughly disenchanted with the social networking landscape. I used to really enjoy Twitter and Flickr (and tolerate Facebook, etc.), but joining Google+ in June overwhelmed me with social fragmentation. People I care about have splintered into too many social networks. And so now I generally ignore them all, to maintain sanity/memory. Just about the only online activity I don’t neglect is Mascot Mashup, my daily 8-bit art project. Well, I guess I maintain my film ratings and reviews at Filmometer.com pretty well too.

Here is the prevailing sentiment on campus about the latest version of Blackboard course management software:

Blackboard 9.1 y u no run faster?

To make your own nonsense images like this (or, even better, like The RAGE FACES of MARIO BROS. Collection by Eric Foster), visit Meme Generator.

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Posted on October 14, 2011 | Length: 156 words
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Glitch in the Grid by the Leiser Brothers

Monday, September 26, 2011

Glitch in the Grid In 2007, I received a DVD screener of the film Imagination by the Leiser Brothers and posted this review.

A few weeks ago, I received a DVD screener of their latest film, Glitch in the Grid. I recently posted my 15-word review to Filmometer.com, but I want to expand on my thoughts here.

Glitch in the Grid

Glitch in the Grid by Eric Leiser is a film about three artists—starring the filmmakers—trying to find themselves and understand the next phases of their lives. Acting quality was the main weakness of Imagination, but it is fairly solid in this film. It is apparent that these guys are basically playing themselves, which certainly lends believability to the endeavor and gives the film a documentary flavor.

However, as with any creation inherently about yourself, avoiding self-indulgence remains a challenge. By the end, this film is mired in heavy-handed religious imagery and a general lack of structure. I had wished for the film to illustrate a beautiful, spiritual transformation that would complement the charming animation—and I think it wanted to be such a work of art, but it is weighed down and muddied by a specific, contrived form of spiritual understanding.

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Posted on September 26, 2011 | Length: 201 words
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Mascot Mashup 8-bit art project

Monday, September 12, 2011

Today marks the release of the 200th image I’ve created for my 8-bit art project Mascot Mashup. Every day I post a new famous character that I’ve translated into pixel art.

No. 200 happens to be Johnny Cash (because he died on this day in 2003). Even though I attempt to tie my daily characters into birthdays, death days, holidays and historical events, arbitrariness often prevails.

See 12 example characters below. Their body proportions, pigeon-toed feet and poses are due to their direct stylistic relationship to the primitive QBasic Gorilla, which inspired this whole project.

Mascot Mashup 8-bit characters

Mascot Mashup 8-bit characters

Mascot Mashup 8-bit characters

Mascot Mashup was born in 2009, but was often on hiatus for the first year of its existence. In April 2011, the site became a daily blog of 8-bit characters designed by me to be used in an ongoing Flash remake of the classic QBasic Gorillas artillery game (and possibly other 1980s-era games). Each sprite has four animation states. The first sprites drawn were all NCAA Division I college mascots, but the characters have since branched into randomness.

I plan to continue this daily art project through at least the beginning of 2012, possibly indefinitely? To be determined. See all characters at mascotmashup.com.

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Posted on September 12, 2011 | Length: 193 words
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Oregon tennis tournaments: Summer 2011

Friday, July 1, 2011

Community tennis tournaments

Oregon Tennis Summer tennis tournament season is here again and I’ve been trying to figure out which weekends I will be on the courts. Most of my information comes from OregonTennis.com. I always try to play four or five tennis tournaments in the Mid-Willamette Valley over the summer. Here are the tournaments I plan to enter, in the USTA 4.0+ division (starting this weekend):

Usually registration closes about a week before the start of each tournament. Each PDF entry form should show up at OregonTennis.com a few weeks in advance of each tournament. For Woodburn and Albany, you can also contact (or stop by) the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.

USTA tennis tournaments

I’ve yet to play in any of these, but summer USTA tournaments in Corvallis, Eugene, Ashland and elsewhere can be found at USTA TennisLink.

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Posted on July 1, 2011 | Length: 170 words
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