Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The Earth Crushed Atlas as He Searched for Concrete Proof of Reality

The Earth Crushed Atlas as He Searched for Concrete Proof of Reality from The Pillow Brigade on Vimeo.

I had a dream the other morning that I was eating dinner with some friends. After I awoke and realized that I had to go to the dinner I just had a dream about, I searched for irrefutable data to prove that I was awake and not actually dreaming about a dinner that I had just been too. Later, I made this.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Tokyo Hardcourt


Early this week I was riding my bike to school through the downpour of a typhoon and I noticed a bike messenger a ways in front of me going in the same direction. I usually follow messengers for as long as I can if I spot one because they are familiar with the traffic flow and move quickly through the city. Following this guy was especially hard, however. I kept up with him just barely long enough to catch him at a stop light.

The first thing I noticed was that we both had the same bike frame, so I mentioned it to see if he was willing to speak to people (and by people I mean foreigners). Then I realized why his bike looked familiar to me. He was the bike messenger on the cover of Tokyo-based Metropolis magazine a few weeks earlier. I somehow remember his name from the article and mentioned that I am doing a documentary on bike messengers for a class. He threw his phone number and his name down on a package slip and then he was off.

Today I went to meet up with the group of messengers he hangs out with (after much translation of the Japanese directions he sent me). They play bike polo on Saturdays in remote streets and parks. They also play in Meiji park in Sibuya apparently, but I don't know how; I thought it was pretty crowded there. Well I took a bunch of photos and did an interview during the polo games with my friend Mazen, so I'll post some photos now, and when I get the video up I'll post that as well.

Their group is called "Tokyo Hardcourt Bike Polo":

Oh and credit goes to Mazen for the photos of me. Can't say that I was able to take those haha.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Heay Rain

Woke up to this friendly message this morning:

Heavy Rain from The Pillow Brigade on Vimeo.