The Brothers Bloom!

Click here to get a sneak peek!

I am NEVER one for spoilers, but I’ve waited to see this film for two years ever since I started reading reviews of the script, and now it is finally coming to theaters May 29th. So this time I couldn’t resist, after reading that this won’t spoil or ruin my viewing experience at the theater. This is probably one of the most charming preambles of any film. I’ve always admired Rian Johnson for bringing back forgotten nuances of film from the 30’s and 40’s, and his unashamed presence on the web. It turns out he’s just a fanboy like the rest of us. (Click the poster to get a sneak peek!)

The Brothers Bloom trailer from rcjohnso on Vimeo.

Sixswa Oh Nine done and done

I had a great time at SXSW. Easy volunteering jobs, and great shows. I will just give you the highlights of the past week: as in the best band I saw, and the one movie I saw.

Noelene and I saw around 15 bands, which considering the limited time we had, is good. Everyone (except a couple) were great. But the best show I saw was probably at the smallest venue I went to, and the band was The Temper Trap. You will hear about these guys soon enough. Blew both of us away. I had only heard of one of their singles which I had put on a mixtape, so I wanted to check out what else they offered. I feared that they only had one good song. Unfounded to say the least. A solid set, it didn’t dip or slow down for a second.

\”The Science of Fear\” by The Temper Trap

Next, Noelene and I were able to get into the Saturday screening for 500 Days of Summer without a badge or a pass. I was for sure that it would be packed, with no room for measly ticket holders. But it turned out to be plenty of room for everyone. It was Noelene’s first time in the Paramount Theater, and it was such a good film. Pitch perfect. EVERYONE has experienced this movie sometime in their lives, through its low points and high points with Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, you’ve been there. Afterwards I got to shake the director’s, Marc Webb, hand. I didn’t want to bug him for an autograph, but just thanked him for such a new and fresh film.

Joseph Gordon-Leavitt and Zooey Deschenel

Director, Writers, and Cast

Sixswa Oh Nine with NiPSH

These kids convinced me it was cool to wear pink pants.
Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head was the perfect exclamation point at the end of a grunt work day at SXSW. This dance band had the whole venue hopping. They’re like sunshine in a neon fanny pack. Do yourself a favor and check these guys out, you owe it to your dance moves

Sophisticated Sideways Ponytail –NPSH @ The Dirty Dog SXSW’09 from Geoff Yano on Vimeo.

On The Fringe

I get on kicks with shows, but I’m very selective, I don’t have too much downtime, so I make sure my brain cells don’t die in vain, but are sacrificed to only the shows of highest (coolest) taste. Fringe is one of those shows for me. It is smart, original, and has an addictive quality, and has your weekly dose of sci-fi, philosphy, and procedural in one sitting. Its an update on X-files, and does a good job of making psuedoscience believable, without taking it too seriously. Highly recommended. I’d pick Walter Bishop for my kickball team.

(this message sponsored by FOX network)

Listening to Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head

Reading Howl’s Moving Castle

Back To It

I have a bad habit of starting stopping starting stopping. I was planning on starting a whole new blog, just starting fresh, but, well, I don’t want to have hundreds of partial blogs floating around, which is happening if you see my blogger account. Anyway, here goes.

Listening to Madeline Peyroux

A Mark for Change

I had a wonderful Christmas break with my family up in Kansas.  It was freezing outside and snow fell heavy creating a thick white frosting that covered everything rather beautifully.  This kept me and my thin blood inside enjoying free food and LOST on DVD. (A mesmerizing show, as I found out).  I felt no guilt or sense of uselessness during this week of nearly comatose behavior, because I felt that my body and brain needed it, needed a power off period.  Eating, sleeping, watching LOST, and spending some solid time with my family; it was an incredibly refreshing burst of comfort.  Now that I have returned to Austin, I’m ready to get back into action: winter break is still providing precious time for me to get alot of things done that have been hanging over my head for long enough . . . wedding videos for one, Joe Stryker for another, and a script for my personal Spring Break project for yet another.  These might seem like frivolous things, but they are things that need to get done.

With this turn of the new year, there is the opportune, if not cliched, moment for reflection and goal setting, resolutions if you will.  A friend of mine didn’t like new year’s resolutions, saying that if she felt she needed to change something about herself she would set goals and apply them right away.  I couldn’t agree with her more.  But the new year seems to fall in line with a mark of change for me, so I’m running with it, these aren’t measurable goals, but just elements I would like to see in my life in the upcoming semester.

Spiritual

Finding time to read the Book of Mormon everyday, I determine this to be when I get home in the evenings and before I study.  If I wait till before I go to sleep I usually choose sleep over a few minutes of reading and if I do get to it, those few minutes aren’t those most valuable.  Also, writing in my journal everyday, short entries, after I read the Book of Mormon, this goal is following Pres. Eyring’s conference talk of “Remember, Remember”. Spiritual goals are ones that I constantly make and constantly fall short at, I can relate with the prosperous Nephites; when things are going great, its hard to remember who made it that way.

Mental

I need to read more.  I hadn’t read anything for myself for months.  Today I went to Wal-Mart to get my tires changed out at their service station, and I grabbed a Stephen King book off the shelf to help pass the time.  It felt energizing to crack open a new novel after such a long hiatus, and I figure reading outside of school will help out those synapses up there, and provide new life behind my writing.  I tried starting my script last week and I felt that I was dragging and forcing a story out of me, its much easier when the story is swelling up and bursting out of you, and just plain reading more will help that.

Physical

I’m not working this upcoming semester, and while my 16 credit hours (including a monstrous Japanese class) will consume most of my time, I feel that I will have a few free afternoons in the week to get to that free gym that my tuition pays for.  Hey, as long as I’m paying for it, I might as well use it.

The secret to all goals is persistence, and being consistent, which I have trouble with.  I am constantly setting goals, only to fall short on most of them. And there really isn’t a secret formula to get past that, just to do it, do it now, and if you miss a day, or a week, then you just pick it back up and do it again.

The Irish is Coming Out . . .

I have always loved Ireland. I’ve never been there. However, I have been fascinated by its long history, rich culture, deep folklore, and its beautiful landscapes, which I have a life goal of setting foot on. I also love its music (especially the Celtic artist, Loreena McKennit). I’m not sure what it is, but there is just something epic and at the same time mysterious about that small country. Its been through alot, but its still there. In the end, I have always wanted to be Irish. Not that I don’t have pride in my own roots, Japan itself is an amazing place to be connected to, but I have always admired Ireland.

Cut to present day. I haven’t gotten a haircut in months. This is not a fashion statement, just a matter of not prioritizing a trip to the barber, and the reluctance to spend money on such a service. As a result, my hair has gotten ginormous, poofy, and extremely thick. I saw one of my friends over iChat and he thought I was wearing a hat, but no, it was my hair. My sideburns have grown over the sides of my face like wild shrubbery. It rivals the chops of Wolverine. I kid you not.

It was this past Sunday that Tina observed something that sent a shock through my system. She was sitting by me at church and said, “You have red hair in your sideburns!” What? I’m Japanese, I’ve had dark brown hair (that looks like black) for my entire life, and it has been no different. To have anything else would be going against nature. She gave me a mirror so I could see for myself, because I certainly didn’t believe her. Sure enough, tangled among the scraggles in my sideburns, were a few strands of auburn reddish hair. How could this be? In all my 23 years my hair has been consistent in color. This really did fascinate me. It fascinated me so much that I had to show another friend, Dan Jones, for confirmation. I then showed two of my home-teachies, just for a third and fourth witness. It is decided that I, in fact, have red hair. I have always wanted to be Irish, and I think this is a sign to me that the Irish is coming out . . .

So the Robots told me . . .

Which Office Character Are You?
	You are Ryan. You are extremely smart and perceptive, and it irritates you to no end when inferior people try to tell you what to do. Sometimes, though, your critical eye makes you come off as aloof and bitter to others, and it may take awhile for people to get to know you.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Filling in the Hiatus

I have not updated the blog for awhile, so I will summarize the last month and a half with 3 major events:

APPLE EXTRAVAGANZA

In Mid-October, my amazing oogaFilms crew and I entered the Apple Insomnia Film Festival and wrote, shot, edited, and scored a three-minute film within 24 hours.  The film is titled “Crosswalk” and is inspired by an experience I had earlier in the summer.  The festival was an online voting-based contest, with the voting period having just ended a couple days ago.  What really surprised me, pleasantly, was the amazing support I had from my crew and friends in promoting this little video.  Many people were more than willing to go out of their way to tell people about it and invite their friends and family to vote.  Unsolicited by me, people would randomly come up and ask about the contest or would proudly let me know that they had voted.  Dan Jones even risked his school computer account in attempting to promote the film the entire populous of University of Texas! This was a big contest, with about 2000 entries from across the nation, so it is hard to say what the outcome would be, but the real prize in all of this was to see the overwhelming support from friends, something I don’t deserve, but I am extremely grateful for nonetheless, and that’s something a contest can’t give you . . . unless its a popularity contest.

VICTORY AT OURSTAGE

So a film that I am very proud of is “Countdown” starring William Jackson and Lindsey Rendon, which I filmed last spring.  It was just kind of sitting on my computer, so I decided to submit it to a on-line contest site called OurStage.com, which holds monthly contests where users vote by comparing two of the entries back-to-back.  So I sent it in and left it there, checking it every once in awhile, and it would do decently but never quite good enough until the month of October when it got FIRST place in the short films category!  Once a film is placed first in its category, it then moves onto the Finals which was held Halloween day on-line, so I called a bunch of my friends and we participated on-line that day and we got third overall.  Now, third won’t get you anything, but the fact that it made it it the Finals was exciting, and because it got First in its section e-mails came rushing in about prizes to be awarded, acceptance speeches to be made (which you can currently watch at OurStage.com), other sites wanting “Countdown”, and–what was most exciting to me–The Miami Short Film Festival premiering “Countdown”! So, I would say this was a step in the right direction in my filming adventure . . .

BATTLING THE DRAGON

Amongst the bliss which is movie-making, I am struggling terribly with my Japanese class, which I have identified as the bane of my current existence.  My grades were just getting worse and worse, and it got to the point where I was going to drop the class.  However, through circumstances out of my control, I was forced to be a man with this and push through.  So I isolated myself from society, and studied incredibly hard for the next test.  It seemed to have paid off so far, with a 67.1/70 on my oral exam, the written exam could be a different story though.  I can’t afford another bad major grade in the course for the rest of the semester, and its a struggle considering I have grown a distaste for the language and the teacher.  I wish I would have taken Latin . . .

Office Euphoria

I shouldn’t be writing this right now, I should be studying for Japanese, but I can’t contain this joy that is about to burst forth making me a widespread mess of gizzards and body parts.  Tonight I watched The Office Season 4 Premiere.  It was glorious.  I didn’t know what to expect, I didn’t know how they would handle this premiere with so much riding on it, but they delivered, they delivered and soared.  Hail to Greg Daniels, B.J. Novak, and all those genius writers that make that show work the way it does.  It is about an hour and a half since the premiere ended, and I am still riding on the euphoria that is The Office.  So many great moments, so much awkward timing, so many subtleties, so much brilliance.  It was wonderful to see all the characters back and not know what antics were going to come up next.  Few words can encapsulate this moment, so I won’t attempt with my limited vocabulary, but I’ll just leave with a word from Michael Scott “I’m not superstitious, I’m just a little stitious”.