Jay-Z - 99 Problems

Got to say that I absolutely love this track. I love Rick Rubin's production, the beat is hard, the lyrics are provocative and the video is directed by THE No.1 music video maestro Mark Romanek. Look out for all sorts of weirdness, the type of stuff that maybe you don't see in hip-hop videos.


Jay-Z - 99 Problems

Rain, MJ Ultra and beyond.

Well, it's Tuesday morning and I'm at home drinking koumibaisen coffee before going to work, I'm feeling pretty exhausted because it's been a busy last 4 days. Things kicked off on Friday evening when I did a rehearsal with MJ Ultra. We worked on a new song and polished off some tunes.

On Saturday I was busy at home with the family and attended my kids school culture today. Sunday was very fruitful...I met up with a lovely couple Michi Kudoh and her husband Tommy Cueller. She did some conceptual art for my feature film project Rain : A Tokyo Story (see below) and Tommy is going to, hopefully, take some pictures of MJ Ultra, live, in the studio and around town. Kind of Anton Corbijn style stuff. Anyway, they're a very talented couple and I'm looking forward to working with them again in the future.

Tommy's Flickr Photography site.

This took me into Monday and a meeting with producer Chris Payne and director John Williams at 100 Meter Films at Yotsuya station in Tokyo. I think the meeting went well. I presented my script (did my pitch) and left them with it to read over. Who knows what will happen? but I'm encouraged by the fact that I actually got this far with the script and I'm sure it's just the start of beautiful adventure with this film.

So, on to Monday evening and another, 3 hours this time, rehearsal with my band MJ Ultra. We are getting very tight as a band and with a little luck we should have some live shows planned pretty soon.

Below is some original conceptual art for my film project Rain : A Tokyo Story. Drawn by Michi Kudoh. Please meet Peter Gallo (who looks remarkably like an older Mark Hamill, wink,wink).




Images subject to Copyright. 2007 Tribal Pictures Japan.

Bloodshot Reanimated

def. Tinker
noun--A non-professional person skilled at mechanical or electrical inventions and/or repairs.
verb--To engage in minor repairs or inventing.

I decided on a little flurry of activity and editing last night. As I have mentioned before ever since I saw the animated Lord Of The Rings (1978) and A Scanner Darkly (2006) I have become somewhat obsessed by the idea of making an animated/live action crossover hybrid movie. So last night I had a look at Bloodshot, my first short film in Japan, and selected a scene to 're imagine' in some way.

I took out the music/beach scene, which I had always imagined as a separate music video sequence any way and re-edited it using a new animation effect that I have just 'discovered'. Now, on the negative side, the original video had a lot of the color saturated out of it so it now looks a little gray but I think that the blocks of colors look good and the scene has a completeness about it, even though it's a sequence from a film. I pulled the sequence off the DVD version of Bloodshot that I have at home. This version was only made available for cast & crew of Bloodshot but if you would like a DVD copy then drop me a line and I'll see what I can do. (see DVD menu shot)


As I waited for it to render I sipped on a bottle of Kirin Premium lager and noticed one of my daughter's books on the floor. Daruma-chan. Mmmm, that got me thinking about another project. How about a real animation movie using cute, yet strange, Japanese characters? Well, well have to see.
Anyway, to enjoy the new bloodshot reanimated click the link below.

bloodshot reanimated

Curve. The reason I love Goth gals

Curve were one of the pioneers of the electronic goth pop sound. In fact they were later ripped off completely by Garbage.

Electronic backing tracks, jangly guitars, wispy sexy female vocals, all with a sheen of dark pop operatics, this is so cool. Anyway, Toni Halliday is so sexy. Love Goth gals.

Curve : Horror Head

There's a horror in my head
When the blanket is gone
From the floor in my castle
Where I see the sun from

Rain : A Tokyo Story #3

I've had a few enquiries from potential artists and story-boarders this week. Nothing has been decided upon as yet but I'm hoping that by this time next week I will have everything ready for my meeting with 100 Meter Films. It all depends on whether or not the people I'm in contact with can work quickly or not. I want to go into the meeting with a fake trailer, storyboards for at least one, maybe 2 scenes, conceptual character art and of course my screenplay.

Fingers crossed that it will all work out for me this week.

The Mission : Wasteland

Continuing my guide/tribute to my musical influences is this track from The Mission (UK). It's a fantastic combination of mystical lyrics, 12 string chorus driven guitars, e-bow and pumping bass.


The Mission : Wasteland

Hell's my name, hell's my voice"

Getting the MJ Ultra sound just right

It's a seems that some people just take it for granted that when you hit the strings of your guitar a simple beautiful sound comes out but there's a lot more to it than that I'm afraid. For the sound that I love and the sound that I desire I need a a few effects. But, the sound I achieve is a thing of beauty. The perfect Gothic sound.

MJ Ultra will be live in Akihabara very soon...watch this space for details.

Rain : A Tokyo Story #2

Things are still moving along slowly but surely with my feature film project Rain. This week I started work on a mini trailer for Rain using graphics and still images of conceptual art. To accompany this is a a funky 1 minute dance track courtesy of my good friend Richard Slater. We've gone for a kind of 007 theme, and I have to say that the track 'One Minute Wonder' sounds very cool.

I'm still on the lookout for a comic artist or graphic designer to help me with the conceptual art. I have placed an ad in Metropolis magazine so I'm really hoping that someone steps forward to help me soon. Actually it's a matter of urgency as I have a meeting with 100 Meter Films on February 26th so I want my preview video ready by that time.

Rain : A Tokyo Story #1

I've started making a bit of progress with Rain this week. I have have a little bit of e-mail correspondence with two potentially interested parties (100 Meter Films and Winery Productions) here in Japan. At the very least we will meet and discuss whether or not it's possible to make Rain here in Japan.

So I have been making a few minor adjustments to the script (see picture below) that I wrote way back in 2005. Just fine tuning of dialogue and action and of course checking for grammar errors and spelling mistakes. Finally, last night I registered the script with The Writers Guild of America so that it's protected under copyright for the next 5 years.