pop rally at moma.

good friend photographer matthew brandt needed help on a video proejct. So i came through and knocked out some shots in realflow. The hour long film was shown at both Getty and MOMA in concert with a live performance joined in by Julianna Barick. Too bad Moma didn't come through with a recording of the event.

So i started this new project a while ago. An ambitious 6 minute short based on the current condition thats evolving in the city of detroit. In short the story draws its energy from the collapse of an modern city and exams the friction between men and nature. I want to explore a new apocalyptic narrative that perhaps would create a new light on the story of evolution.

here is a work in progress of the prologue of my movie.

spring is here in LA, Nomrally i would look out my window in new york city and see the changing greenery around the neighborhood, in LA not much really changes, things more or less look permanently green. Coming from NYC, it feels almost artificial. Almost like a time capsule. A sense of guilt comes with the perfect weather that CA offers. One feels like time is being cheated. and that somehow the pleasure of the weather will translate as that of punishment in another form. I guess one can't say it better than being guilty pleasure.

good quote from "writer's journey"

christopher nolans homage to akira kurosawa

Probably not too many have thought of this, but I noticed a pretty strong similarity between inception and Akira kurosawa's last master piece.  "Akira kurosawa's dream" although Christopher nolan himself doesn't say it, the strong similarities with both movie's story telling device suggests to me that Nolan was a big fan of Kurosawa. Beyond the obivious links in the title, Akira kurosawa's dreams  was also a movie that sowed together stories based on fractured dream states. The evidence gets stronger when we see the arctic mountain death scene in kurosawa's dream, which is not only mimicked by Nolan but was also served to use as the last dream event in inception. Both are great directors, but its interesting to know that the idea behind inception isn't without its forebears.

Prometheus a science fiction film by director Ridley Scott that serves as a prequel to the his 1979 film “Alien”. While the premise is similar to the original Alien film, as we follow a crew of space explorers and their journeys on a remote planet, Prometheus reveals a different purpose. unlike the original Alien, which was a movie made in the midst of the cold war and capitalizes on the fear of the unknown, Prometheus is a new story that distances itself from the original conceptually with a much more articulated vision of the Alien planet. The film devotes much of its beginning treating the audience with intimate details of the alien race, unveiling the shroud of the unknown through sweeping flybys on the surfaces of the alien planet. As the character in prometheus struggles to advance with their goals on this alien planet. We are presented with what might be Ridley Scott’s nuanced political commentary. If the original Alien movie was a warning on the dangers of the unknown, then Prometheus is then demonstrating the need for restraint in the pursuit of knowledge.



To understand the political underpinning of Prometheus. One can begin by first examining the title of the Movie. In Greek myth, Prometheus was a character who was punished by the gods for the act of providing men with the secrets to fire. He is by definition in modern literature figure who represented human striving, particularly the quest for scientific knowledge, and the risk of overreaching or unintended consequences. In particular, he was regarded in the Romantic era as embodying the lone genius whose efforts to improve human existence could also result in tragedy. There are two questions in Prometheus that serves as the indicators of similar fate suffered by the characters in the movie. They were “what is the origin of mankind” and “why does our creator want to kill us”. In the Movie, Prometheus was the name of the ship in which the characters uses to search for answers. It can be said that their discovery of the secret of the origins to mankind and their subsequent death is parallel to the same fate suffered by Prometheus from greek myth. If one breaks the title “Prometheus” down further, the same the same condition can be drawn to the current U.S political atmosphere. Prome-The-US is perhaps the most obvious dissection to the title, As Prome suggestion passive exercise in range of movement, while The US merely suggest the entity that has such characteristics. Prome-The-US. is perhaps a hidden message that highlights the U.S tendencies to insert itself into strategic positions to ensure future energy stability (fire), and the consequences that comes as a result.


While it’s easy to dismiss Prome-The-US as mere coincidental in its suggestion, there are other more visually evocative elements in the movie that suggests a more acute connection between the fate of prometheus’ crew and U.S international politics. To begin, one only needs to look at the characters themselves. David the humanoid, when not suited up to explore the alien planet with the rest of the human crew, actually wears an typical communist mao suit. He calls the human members of the mission his Mom and Dad and is described as “without a soul”. He is the facilitator of the mission and actually speaks the language of the alien race. David’s role in the movie is complex as he is both part of the crew on a mission and an the cause of their demise. He is both supportive of the crew’s in their goals and unsympathetic to the safety in the process. When put in context of current world politics, David’s character can be easily described as that of China. He represents the rigid communist regime that is devoid of religion and clearly wants to grow its powers by following the path of the U.S. Like David, China’s role in respective to the U.S is equally as complex. As China both tries to find common ground via commercial trade, while countering the U.S and its involvement in other countries.


If the crew of Prometheus was destined to perish because their curiosity and lack of restraint in the pursuit of knowledge, we also observe that the opposite is also true. By following the only human survivor (Elizabeth) of the movie in prometheus, one can make a distinction between her and the rest of the crew. She is the only one who valued human lives above the goal of the mission. By doing so, she separates herself from the crew of Prometheus by exercising restraint on the mission in the belief that it would save the rest of Mankind.


This however leads to the question to why David survives, as he was actually the first one that learns of the secrets to the origin of mankind. It could be said that David too exercised restraint only because it is in his nature to do so, as he is a robot. However, if one pays attention to his conversation with Charlie, learned that he is already knows his creator are Mankind. This is interesting interpretation in context of U.S and China. As it both suggests that United States must exercises restraint in its political assertion in the world while at the same time suggesting it is perhaps that China political climate is culturally programmed not to become too involved in the first place.

woke to the sound of plastic crunching near me, Its him again, i stumbled across my bed to my desk, the box full of wrapped candy seemed like the most logica source of sounds, i grabbed the box and it immediately felt heavier than what should be left over candy. mili seconds later, a gray mice jumped out and drifted to the nearest desktop clutter...

after picking up milk and towel at pathmart at 2am, i returned home began unload my purchase. as I reached to turn off the kitchen lights. i hear a squeak, unsure of the sounds origins, i pause and listened, 30 seconds later, i hear another faint squeak, it must be his brother. I focused my attention near the countertops. Another minute passes, i hear it again, this time louder, it must be coming from under stove, that's a perfect spot to hide. just tall enough to for an mice to squeeze through, but not really open enough to insert any brooms or sticks to cause any trouble. It must feel like a refuge camp down there, full of rustic stockpile of kitchen gunk. I duck at the source of my fustration. and try to find the little guy thats begging for my attention. 'AH so dark.. can't see anything"

I got up, and noticed there was a sticky mouse trap sticking out near the feet of the stove, It must have been left there for ages by mom, i figure its time to toss this useless solution. I proceed to yank it from the bottom of the stove corner only to find that it is stuck, ahhh must have gotten it self glued to the stove when mom put it in there. I tried again, and slide it out from the otherside of the stove. There i see the little gray mice laying helplessly on the gooy surface of the tray. It's squeaks again and seem to let out the last breath air through its lungs. After staring at it for a minute, I poked him with a piece of paper. Hmmm i guess i must have pulled him against the stove too hard. I turned off the lights and went upstairs to my bedroom..