aric with an a

I would love to tell you all about Sarah, how she’s one of my closest galpal’s, the adventures we’ve had stretching from Australia-to-California and her Dad’s advice on ‘bush turkey’s’ - but I fear it would take away from her talent. a talent seen people who know talent. her shows in Shanghai, San Diego and Brisbane led to her achieving a cult-following [guilty as charged] and her trademark touch can be seen on everything from panties to snowboards.

…and she’s one of my favorite painters.

what is it, exactly, that you do, Sar?

Good question! I know for sure I drink an unhealthy amount of red bull and that then leads to various creative… endeavors. I have a degree in Graphic Design – so that’s my ‘grown-up’ job. I seem to have branched out a bit, which is really common for designers after a few years of clients telling them what to do. I paint a lot. I make jewelry – because really, who wouldn’t want an online store full of jewelry. I just bought a sewing machine so I’ve been going crazy with that. I’m curating a Roller Derby art exhibition in Brisbane, Australia this year. Oh and photography – my Dad is a great photographer and so I thought ‘it must be in the genes, so I’ll give it a go’ and wa la… I’m now a fully-fledged wedding and portrait photographer! Who knew!

tell us more about the painting stuff…

Painting is my favorite thing to do in the whole world. I can sit on the floor and listen to music and get messy. It’s more than a creative outlet – it’s therapy. I deal with a lot of personal issues through creativity – death, rejection, jealousy, failure. It’s certainly cheaper than therapy and it seems to make people around me happy. I learn a lot too – about myself, new techniques, new media. I just did a couple of pieces for a show in San Jose, Gutter Glam that opens this week and I pulled out some really old letraset sheets I had salvaged to press them onto the pieces. The artworks turned out great!

but your stuff resonates of…well, loads of stuff - life-speaking…

28 years of coloring-in books (yes, I still color-in now)
10 years or travel
8 years of industry experience
and 28 years of wonderful friends and family who encourage me and inspire me.

whatcha got coming up?

Well, tonight I’ll be going for a swim, and then maybe some Indian?
Oh… art…
Currently I have a few pieces at the Gutter Glam show in San Jose. Then we have a Roller Derby art show coming up in 2010 that I am curating (and showing a few pieces in). It’s amazing how creative roller derby girls are! I am aiming to have a solo show in Brisbane in late 2010. Then onward and upward from there… watch out New York – here I come!

tell us something we don’t already know…

Well, I did my first aid course yesterday and it turns out that snakes can’t see you if you stand still. Or did you mean something you didn’t know about me? Oh… well, I was born in the States… don’t let my Australian accent fool you! I’m a bit stealth like that.

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find out more at www.sculleydesign.com

I first met Tim Hey the second day I landed in Los Angeles - and when you meet someone who’s both humble and successful in the industry, you know you have a rarity. He stayed with Lori and I off-and-on a week or so, and, save for the mass shootings outside and a pension for lychee margaritas, it was fun.

Tim has been in the film industry now for nearly 20 years. First starting a Summer job at his local cinema tearing tickets and moving onto projectionist and engineer. About 9 years ago He decided he should do what he’d always wanted to do and play more of a part in making films. He went to the National Film and Television School in London to study compositing. After graduating, he got his first job on a film called Blade 2 doing prep work such as painting out wires and rigs that were in shots. Within a year he went freelance and started compositing. Between then and now he’s worked on such films as Harry Potter 2 and 3, Aliens vs Predator, Kingdom of Heaven and Superman Returns among many others. He then went to New Zealand initially for 3 months to work on King Kong, but that was 4 years ago, so I’m guessing he liked it.

…oh yeah, one last thing, he just got done working on a small-budget indie flick called ‘Avatar’ or something like that - be a peach and try to see it if you can.

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what exactly do you do?

I am a compositor at Weta Digital in New Zealand and have been for about 4 years.

what is a compositor?

A compositor is an artist who brings all elements together for a final shot. For example in “Avatar” we have shots with multiple layers of jungles, skies & clouds, creatures, explosions, water, tracer fire and of course the na’vi characters themselves. We then have to make it look as if the shot was filmed with the same camera on the same day. Along with all the elements we add real artifacts you would find if you were filming with real cameras. Lens flares, lens distortion, focus pulls and atmosphere are a few of the added things which make a shot look more natural.

For this project I was a lead compositor so in addition to compositing it was making sure everyone on my sequence was kept up to date with status of shots, ensuring continuity between shots by establishing the look of a sequence alongside the 3D lighters and visual effects supervisor. It also involves liaising with the supervisors and producers and check we were meeting deadlines and flagging any problematic issues that may come up.

how long does each of those frames take to process?

Depending on the amount of data used in the shot and how many elements are used, a single frame can take anywhere from an hour to a couple of days. If you remember there are 24 frames in 1 second that’s a lot of data. Added to that on “Avatar” each frame was rendered twice (right eye and left eye). Luckily the way we and a lot of other large visual effects companies process - or render - frames is we use multiple processors over a network. This leaves us free to do other work and proceed with other shots. Once a shot is rendered it is then reviewed by the visual effects supervisor for any changes that need to be made before the shot is sent to the director to be reviewed.

how long you been working on this?

I’ve been on the show for around a year. however the project has been running a lot longer. Some people at Weta Digital have been working on it 3 maybe 4 years. Because this is literally creating a whole new world, everything has to be built and nothing from the real world can be used. That’s every plant, blade of grass, creature, bug, character, environment, object and vehicle that has to be created from nothing. Usually a film from being awarded to being delivered takes between 6 months and a year at most so that kind of gives you an idea of the scale of Avatar and the work that has gone into it from all the artists involved.

be honest. what’s it like to work on a James Cameron film?

I think that’s the most common question I get. This director is pretty good to work for. What makes it easy from an artists point of view is he has a definite vision of how the whole film and every individual shot should look like. Therefore the artists aren’t bouncing between versions and various different looks which can take up valuable time. On “Avatar”, especially as the show went on, shots we delivered for first look usually only needed polishing and tweaking before the shot was near final status. There were a few occasions where we would show him a version of a shot a few months after he first saw it and he would remember exactly how it looked and what changes were made.

what, if any shots appear in the trailers that you composited?

For the teaser trailer that was released in August I had about 8 shots. Mostly of the Thanator chase in the jungle and Neytiri in the forest surrounded by fire and smoke.

how many people worked on “Avatar”?

We started with around 300 people which is the usual crew for Weta. As the show went on and more scenes were being sent to us from production we ramped up to a maximum of between 800 and 900. Put it this way, it was a heck of a wrap party!

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…at the time of writing, ‘Avatar’ netted $232 million on it’s first weekend. that’s a lot of money.

archie hamilton is out-of-his-fucking mind. see, he wants to make a difference in China by bringing in good music, and promoting the stuff they already have. I beg him every time we talk to get out, to give up, to move somewhere nice and cozy but he insists on doing something…something, to make a difference. I usually loath people that are driven by a need to ‘change the world’, but with Archie it’s different. he’s smart, very smart, and not afraid to take on the bamboo bouncers that constantly bottleneck his efforts. he’s also funny, but only if you really get British humor. he’s lucky as well, if you’ve ever met his family. he also came in at #16 of CNN’s ‘hot list’. and he’s one of those guys I haven’t spent much time with, but don’t need to either - and I mean that in the most wonderful of ways.

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your Scottish, but sound like you’re from London. surely that angers both cultures - explain.

I am what would be called a posh colonialist.  My parents moved from London to Edinburgh when I was 6 months old and they are both very English.  They speak like the Queen.  I have spent many years roughing up my accent for this biz.

I used to get into bar brawls in Edinburgh for being a posh English wanker and get called jock at my very smart boarding school, so now I live in China where no-one can understand what I say at all…

in a short few years, you’ll be credited with being ‘the godfather of bringing foreign bands to China’ - how’s that going?

Thanks man.  In a few short years, trying to bring foreign bands to China will have killed me.  So will Godfather be posthumous?

Honestly, it’s fucking hard.  We were very lucky in our first couple of years - the economy was flush with cheap cash and lots of people were spending it on China.  We were the beneficiaries on occasion and thought it would be relatively easy.  Since November 2007, the cheap money has gone and China has localized quite radically, so we have had to redefine our model more than once.  We are slowly puliing this ship around, but at great personal cost, both physical and financial.  Having said that, I do subscribe to Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour theory and I firmly believe that hard work wins the day.  How are you doing on those scores Mr. A…??

The key is that I get the chance to do something different, and the opportunities for the few foreigners that survive in China will be intense. Plus, it is an amazing experience to watch something like this grow so rapidly (China and the music scene).  I feel privileged to be here doing this.

didn’t you once almost die, or, think you were dying?

Australia when I was 17.  I was on the barrier reef and stood on something.  My foot started bleeding.  I had been a big fan of the Willard Price “Adventures” when I was a kid - 2 handsome guys get into scrapes in the wild - Safari Adventure, Underwater Adventure, Arctic Adventure.

Check out the description:

One of Willard Price’s adventure stories featuring Hal and Roger Hunt. The boys have a new quarry - the big-game poachers who threaten to wipe out a huge African game reserve. They capture a band of poachers red-handed, but the leader, Blackbeard, continues to elude them.

Anyway, in Diving Adventure, Hal Hunt stepped on the deathly venomous stonefish, and it sticks in my memory whenever I paddle.  I was convinced my leg was going numb from the poison and lay with my leg raised and asked my friends to take a photo of me and give it to my mother, with a message that I loved her.  10 minutes later I could walk around again.  It was a baby ray, completely harmless, if slightly painful.

which Chinese bands do you think have a chance in this cruel western world?

I think there has been a very interesting contrast with two recent tours of the US by the two premiere indie labels in Beijing.  The bands from Modern Sky were completely unprepared for the experience, believing the hype that has built around them in China, and I think the label probably did too.

Maybe Mars, on the other hand, have taken hardworking, original sounding bands under their wing and developed them.  I am actually writing a thought piece for the Radar about it - Modern Sky are Chinese run, successful in China, a long way to go in the West, Maybe Mars, Western run, struggling in China, lots of potential in the West.  An analogy for most businesses???

what would you tell a band that is keen on touring the mighty p.r.c.?

Strip down your traveling party (1 or 2 works best - it pisses me off when a 3 piece feels the need for 20 crew), lower your expectations (comfort, transport, safety) and open your hearts and minds.  You will leave with a lifechanging experience in your hearts….

…now, we usually have you put your iPod on ’shuffle’, but considering you’ve been a d.j. and make millions from the music industry, why not tell us 3 bands not worth listening to, although we’ve probably heard of them.

I blame the press.  They build up bands to such a degree before they are ready and then shoot them down when they fail to live up to expectations.  Anyone remember Black Kids.  Trumpeted to the skies by Pitchfork, who then gave their debut album a one line review - We are sorry.

What not to listen to.  Well, personally I think hip hop has had its heart ripped out, and the perps have replaced it with a giant wad of greenbacks.  So don’t listen to the R&B flava-ed drivel that clogs most commercial airways these days.  I’m also struggling a bit with this new rock ‘n rave style, which is essentially mashup, which was great when 2manyDJs started doing it at the turn of the century, but is just too common these days.

What I am liking at the moment.  I have to say I am loving UK Funky at the moment, which is like house and grime together - Geeneus is big in that scene.  Sounds rough, but it’s very catchy.  Dubstep is pretty mainstream now, but I’m loving some of the more spaced out versions of that genre.  Check out Shackleton (we are working with the Shelter on bringing him to China in April), Also liking a lot of punk music (Kid D and the Kitchen Table anyone?) and there is some amazing crossover dubstep and pop - check Chase and Status who have just produced Rihannas imminent new album.

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follow archie’s ’split-works’.

his blog on music in china

his chinese music podcast

or, should you be in his area, treat yourself to:

Owl City [holding the current #1 song in the U.S.], playing 4 nights in China

there are guys you like and there are guys you like. I like Adam Cohn. we met under strange and rushed circumstances during a 4-hour layover in Seoul and, 10-minutes into conversation, ditched all food and went on a soju binge. he got me drunk and funny things happened. he makes me laugh, he makes me think, his is the only blog I check religiously [sorry] and he made me cookies. guys don’t make guys cookies. but he made me some. and I liked that very much.

aric s. queen, nov ‘09

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[quick self-bio]

• suburban philadelphia native
• born 1970
• was going to go to law school, but changed to graphic design in 1990 and
• never looked back.
• started carrying a camera with me every day since november of 1998 and since then have been waiting for the day that my eyes and brain can download directly to my blog.
• wrote a bit in high school, thought my english teacher wanted to sleep with me, realized all my stories were knock-off Steven King efforts, and stopped writing until november of 2008.
• still fascinated with the US civil war and abraham Lincoln since living in the netherlands for three years (2002-2005) have been re-dedicated to study language, how people speak to one another, what words and phrases really mean, and developing ways to be as succinct and to the point in all communication and truly being real with all things.

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you work for Converse. you’re also good at conversing - what is your day job and what is the farthest thing away from a job that you have?

My day job is, officially, “Associate Creative Director” at Converse. Essentially, I oversee 3 areas: digital, asia-pacific region, and brand identity issues. all of these are as it regards to creative, brand consistency etc etc. It is a phenomenal job because it is basically exposing the ways in which Converse fans interact with music, sport, art and fashion and bring those stories to a larger audience.

how often do you travel? where do you travel do? of the top 5 places, give us 3 must see/hear/eat/drink tips.

the farthest thing from a job that I have is they way that I meet people and learn about them. I’m not even sure that this is truly an answer to this question, but one of the things I love most is meeting people, asking them tons of questions, hearing the answers, finding connections and shared experiences, getting exposed to new points of view. this may be the same reason that I often listen to religious radio and watch Faith TV. it is fascinating. I don’t agree with the messages, but I like to know about them.

I travel to china about 3 or 4 times a year, mainly Shanghai. I used to travel around the US a lot, but now it is just shanghai and Columbus, OH. I think about that, my travel experiences now are the paris of china and the fast food testing capital of america.

my top 5 places I have traveled to, in no particular order . . .

1. Beijing, PRC

2. Vilnius, Lithuania

3. Vienna, Austria

4. Johannesburg, South Africa

5. Baku, Azerbaijan

6. (sorry) Barcelona

In Vilnius, find an all night basketball league and watch this bball crazy nation fulfill their addiction. basketball is THE national sport of Lithuania. watch until dawn. awesome.

In Vienna, see every Jungdestil building and every Klimt and Schiele painting and drawing you can. then have the best soft pretzels in the world at a medieval restaurant called ‘Brezel Gwolb’ and then, have excellent falafel at a little place called ‘Maschu Maschu’, run by two transplanted Israelis.

If you are going to Columbus, OH, go to the museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, OH. geek out on technology and think about how many resources our species has spent on being afraid and protecting ourselves from fear.

worst film from a previously good book?

hmmm. many of the books that I read are not made into movies. I’m concerned about the book/movie relationship. I loved the movie “The Thin Red Line” and I’m told that the book used to be required reading in US high schools in the 50s and 60s. I haven’t read it, but I consider the movie to be the closest thing to a visual poem I’ve encountered. I also read a lot of Haruki Murakami, and have heard about a few film adaptations in the works. again, concerned.

tell us what you have on, right now - and where you bought them, your sentimental attachments, etc.

I assume you are talking about what clothes I have on? nothing too epic. I’m wearing a good pair of black Chuck Taylor black hi-tops. they are breaking in nicely. regardless of my employment by Converse, I have always loved Chucks. they are universal. they are global. they don’t know class or station. the wearer adopts them and owns them. they are for anyone and everyone. they flatten things out and equalize. I feel this way about clothes in general. that phrase “the clothes make the man (woman)” doesn’t really work for me. my brain, my thoughts, my actions, that is where it happens.

I’ve pretty much been wearing black and gray, in various shades and tones for the past 3 years. I just don’t want to dwell on what I wear. I once read that the bauhaus teacher, artist and designer Lazlo Maholy-Nagy wore gray coveralls, gray shirt and gray tie all the time because it was “not abou him” but about they work and his mind etc. I like that philosophy. Another designer from that time period changed his name to “zero” for the same reason, Hans Schleger.

you’re always doing exciting things. your shirts. your posters. what’s next? and when will you aggregate all of this onto one site for us to Christmas shop on?

my t-shirts and posters. I need to re-focus on them. I have a long list of phrases that I want to elevate because of their ridiculous nature. I’m planning more posters (a bit smaller in size this time), about 10 new tees and a postcard line. I’m also thinking about a notebook series as well. I don’t think I’m making it for the holidays though. I think it may be more of a “happy spring, I want to sleep with you.” sort of thing.

…now, iTunes/iPod/iPhone: hit ’shuffle’ and ffwd past the first track. let it run for 3 songs. what are they, why do you like them and what are we missing by not having them on ours?

A. Don’t You Ever Learn_Todd Rundgren

B. Sonata Mexicana I: Allegro Moderato_Andres Segovia

C. Same Lies as Yesterday_The Meeting Places

A. I’ve been listening to Todd since I was 14 or so. I didn’t have any older siblings, and my older next door neighbor and his friend we’re all into Todd and Utopia. I started off listening to fit in, and then got wrapped up in his sad ballads, power arena rock songs, odd studio experiments and the overall underdog nature of this super talented rock-geek that everyone respected, but that couldn’t get radio play.

Check out these 3 albums: Something/Anything, A Wizard_A True Star, and Hermit of Mink Hollow.

B. I first discovered Andres Segovia via my friend Chris Gallu when I crashed at his apartment for a month in Washington DC. this was 1997 I think. I can’t say too much about it, except that stressful late night moments, or moments of depression and reflection can be tolerable and eased with his classical spanish guitar. I’ve solved or come to terms with a lot of problems via Andres Segovia.

C. This is nothing more than a blatant attempt to fill the void that Slowdive left in the shoegazer rock scene over 15 years ago. Thanks Pandora.

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in a few weeks, I’ll be spending a weekend with Adam Cohn. I suspect it will be fun.

e.fite.

surely you’ve seen her work…
I LOVE YOU MAN..THE HANGOVER…brothers and sisters…maybe even modern family
numerous commercials
she makes these places believable places these characters reside, love, fight, work, play, BE.

she’s the girl who BUYS [also rents...barters....borrows] stuff to make environments REAL
modern…mid century….classic…name a style she’s on it.
decorating powerhouse and did i mention she gets to SHOP…all day. what girl wouldn’t want to do that?

inspired by Wes Anderson and Quentin Tarantino-designs [thanks to the married team of  Sandy and David Wasco] to get into the movies…
she can cook a mean turkey even in a 200 degree not-really-working oven.
pull a party together in no time flat
is one of the coolest people you could meet and kindest and empathetic but is from texas so don’t mess with her…she will kick your ass.

she will go home [to texas] for thanksgiving and then it’s off to washington DC…to DECORATE…1600 pennsylvania….for the holidays.
there was a brief moment of eeek…what if the background check comes up with “allegedly smuggled something in from cuba” but no…she’s fine.
again….alleged.

[Lori Fradella, Nov, '09]

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you have a job. what is it?

right now i am currently working on TRUEBLOOD as a set decorating buyer. i work in the set decorating crew of feature films, tv and or commercials.  decorate, buy, shop, schlep, it’s all the same…basically read a script, develop a character in my head, ask the a bunch of questions about the history and the look of that character to either the production designer [my boss] and or have a meeting with the director and then shop….for everything from the look/type of keys on the key chain sitting on the dresser in a farmer’s bedroom to the look of the folding bed and sheets in a homeless shelter to the tables and chairs put in the ambassador hotel’s version of the 1921 palm room.  i basically try to help create the best possible environment for an actor “feel” and act his part in a role and try and make the background portray the story as best as i can.

what’s this about being invited to decorate the White House?

a dear friend is doing all the floral design for the white house.  she somehow got us on a list to help decorate the white house for the holidays…it was a shot in the dark…after many hours of filling out forms and what i thought to be a shot in the dark, i got an envelope in the mail that was crisp and off-white (no smell, unfort)…..the return address at the top left hand corner said “THE WHITE HOUSE”….THAT IS IT!  ”THE WHITE HOUSE”….um, ya, they don’t have an address CAUSE IT’S THEEEE WHIIIITTTEE HOUSE!  pretty rad.  i’ve kept it stuck between my four wheel drive shaft and my stick shift….i pull it out every so often to look at it.  i noticed it has aged…what we freaks pay money to have done to any letter needing to look old…but i shouldn’t have done that, i should’ve tucked it away and kept for later years of coffee mornings and “i can’t believe it” conversations.  sad.

are you allowed to tell your William H. Macy story? and if not, can you tell us if he’s really, really nice?

he’s amazing.  he’s amazing. he’s amazing.  after much inhalation of some chronz, i won’t say WHO’S chronz….AND the jameson’s i brought as product placement served “neat” all taking place in his reno hotel suite with other crew members from THE COOLER….he lost his tendency for the mad mag look and pretty much turned into the reliable actor we’ve all come to know and love.  that’s that.  i can’t tattle on the bill macy, man - he’s one of the good ones.

your bf is a designer. you are one as well. who chooses what the house looks like? and in one word, how would you describe it?

i don’t know that you’d call either of us designers…..but i have to say, the house doesn’t come together without feeling like you’ve had a hard day at the dentist…………………………i usually play the dentist and he the patient….i get a little heavy on the laughing gas………..either that or a sleeping dart is a good back up…….when he wakes, things are hung and he’s well rested with a cold beer in his hand….”that didn’t hurt, now did it, baby?”……hhahahaa…happy campers….one word to describe this place:  calm.

and last, why do you call your dog Jagger?

it was gonna be tweedy (jeff tweedy, my hero and lead singer of wilco) but i thought it too painful for a boy dog…though he’d pull that shit off, i still couldn’t do it….so, my next hero would be mick jagger.  me loves me somes olllllddddd school jagger….he’s so not a rock n’ roll dog but he’s the best damn dog and he makes the name better.  probably the singer too.  all of us really.  period.

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[check out Erin's work on the new upcoming season of True Blood. or on IMDB. or, you know, at The White House.]

If you grew up in the 90’s, then you’ve lived through the grunge/alternative era, and I’m sure you can name me the big bands (Nirvana, Pearl Jam blah blah blah). However, few people know about the bands credited with starting it all - the true pioneers or so to speak: one of them is the Pixies, the other one is Sonic Youth, and the last one is the Chainsaw Kittens.

Mixing basic punk structure with elements in theatrics and glam-rock, the Kittens made energetic, highly dramatic and original music. As the front man for the Kittens, Tyson Meade earned a reputation as one of the true individuals in the alternative music scene. Before the Chainsaw Kittens, Tyson was in the intense, darkly psychedelic Defenestration, whom is credited in various books as one of the bands that had an effect on Nirvana. Tyson then went on to join the Chainsaw Kittens and developed his skill further as a song writer. His songs are deeply personal, often quirky but always intelligent. He also developed a flamboyant onstage persona and a unique high octave vocal style. Often seen wearing feathers, stockings, and torn up wedding gowns (because, and I quote “I was feeling too ‘virginal’ and ‘un-slutty’ for prom dresses”), Tyson oozes charisma, grace and style rocking the stage, entertaining indeed.

During the mid 90’s, Tyson released his first highly personal solo album dealt into his sexuality, his childhood, and the rock lifestyle. His follow-up, Kitchens and Bathrooms - recorded while traveling around the United States, is available on iTunes.

He currently resides in Shanghai, China, where he teaches English.

[Louis Yu - Oct '09]

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some credit you, and your band, The Chainsaw Kittens with being one of two or three that launched alternative music - how true is this?

I hate to try to credit myself for something that I may or may not have created. At the time, I was fed up with everything going on in music, Thompson Twins, Howard Jones, Hooters, Mr. Mister, Scandal, then later the excruciating sounds of Winger and Warrant. So I started my first band, Defenestration, who are mentioned in the Road to Nirvana book. We had a record out when Janes Addiction were still cutting demos. Billy Corgan wrote me a really nice fan letter when he was working on the first Pumpkins album after he had heard the first Chainsaw Kittens. So, I guess I am one of the alterna-Forefathers.

a rumor is going around that Spike Jonze shot a video for y’all and only charged $5000?

Spike did in fact do our High in High School vid for $5k. He stayed with Trent our guitarist. He is a super nice guy. You will have to find the link on youtube since there is currently no youtube in the PR.

another rumor has been around for years of your famous ‘naked parties’. if this is true, who were your most favorite guests?

Oh NO! I did have naked parties. The most famous was the one that happened during OU’s Greek system’s Moms’ Weekend. At that point, I was well known in OKLA and somewhat famous in general. The Kittens had been on MTV and in lots of mags at that point. Some friends and I crashed a sorority house party and were well received. I was actually fawned over which was endearing. I invited some of the guys and girls back to my place for a party. They of course were fraternity/sorority. Some showed up. Everyone was naked when they showed. To gain entrance, they had to get naked too. They did. Everyone danced to the Ramones and Led Zeppelin. Dancing Days are here again!

so, we have you with the Kittens, and now in China - how the hell did that all come about?

A few years ago, I asked myself ‘What would Heathcliff do?” Of course, Heathcliff the character from ‘Wuthering Heights’ not the comic strip cat. So, here I am - Dazed in Confucius.

one more rumor - your fellow Okies, The Flaming Lips have been called ‘The Greatest Present American Band - agree?

[Ben Houge is an American composer and sound artist, based in Shanghai since 2004.  A 13-year veteran of the videogame industry, he most recently served as audio director for Tom Clancy’s EndWar (Xbox 360/PS3, Ubisoft, 2008), and has previous contributed audio to Half-Life: Opposing Force, Leisure Suit Larry 7, King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity, and Arcanum.  More recently, he has been applying techniques for structuring non-linear sound honed in the videogame trenches to sound installations in such venues as Beijing’s Today Art Museum and Shanghai’s Art+Shanghai Gallery.  In the last year Ben presented a solo exhibition of algorithmically-generated visual art at [the studio] and released two CD’s.  An active participant in Shanghai’s new music scene, Ben has performed at the Shanghai eArts Festival, Shanghai Conservatory, Zendai Museum, and multiple NOIShanghai, RESO, Brainwave Communication, and Antidote events.]

Complete Ben Houge information is available at www.benhouge.com.

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I’ve often called you my ‘most coolest friend’. now be honest, why is that?

I thought it was because I could put my cell phone in my mouth.  Or sing Happy Birthday backwards?

rumors fly around to you being from Africa? the son of a preacher man? seattle-bred? please explain.

Yes, pretty much.  If someone asks where I’m from, I say Seattle.  But if they then ask where I’m from *originally*, that usually kicks off a 5 minute monologue.  It goes something like this…

I was born in York, NE, then moved to Milwaukee, then lived a few places in Ohio (where my kid brother was born), then on to Riverside, southern California, where I did most of my grade school, except for the year I spent in the outskirts of Dallas (attending 3^rd grade in Duncanville, which I hated), a summer in Norman, Oklahoma, then back to Riverside for a bit before moving to Liberia, West Africa, during which time my family lived among the Vai people in 2 small villages (Gbese, 2 miles from the Sierra Leone border, then Madina, closer to Monrovia, the capital), while I attended boarding school at the International Christian Academy in Bouake, Ivory Coast.  We left due to political unrest in 1990, and headed to Seward, NE, and where I finished high school, and then I moved to Northfield, MN, to attend St. Olaf College, while my folks moved to St. Louis, then Lincoln, NE.  After graduation I moved to Seattle, WA, to take a job working on the videogame Leisure Suit Larry 7 for Sierra Entertainment.  At this point I calculated I had had 21 addresses in 21 years.  I pretty much stayed put for a while, until I moved to Shanghai in 2004.  If I stay overseas for one more year, my ratio will be back up to 1/3 of my life spent abroad, which is where it was when I was 15.

The reason for all this travel addresses the second part of your question.  In the 80’s my parents served as linguists with Lutheran Bible Translators in Liberia (doing things like training teachers, collecting folk tales, and developing new orthographies for indigenous languages).  After we left Africa in 1990 my dad became an official pastor, and my folks now work with the Lutheran Church in Kenya, where I am planning to visit them this winter when the weather gets miserable again in Shanghai.

having known you for a while now, you seem to live by a different code than most do. can you pinpoint a certain time in your life where you took on the antonin artaud-esque mindset of ‘that’s not right, I’d like to try things differently’?

It’s hard to point to a specific epiphany.  I used to be a picky eater as a kid, and at one point I realized that all of these decisions I had made about the kinds of foods I wouldn’t eat had been made by a five year old, and I started reevaluating everything, and I found that mustard and olives and mushrooms and all kinds of other foods are really quite nice.  So I try to live with that kind of mindset, that you’ve got to question what you think you know, or what other people tell you.

Travel helps, too.  You notice new things about where you’ve been when you view it from somewhere else.

most-underrated movie of all time?

Well, I can recite Three Amigos in its entirety, since it’s the only VHS tape we had in the village in Africa, but that doesn’t really count as underrated, I guess.  I’m tempted to say Prince’s Graffiti Bridge, but I can’t honestly tell you it’s a great film.

A long time ago at the Seattle International Film Festival I saw an Italian film called Denti that I thought was amazing, and I’ve never heard of it again.  Funny, creepy, full of Freudian surrealism.  Let’s go with that.

what will you be for halloween?

I don’t plan to celebrate, if I can get out of it.  I’ve always had a grudge against Halloween, since it’s the day after my birthday, and it always stole my thunder.

..and now, a bonus - I think they do this on av club, but I want you to set your iTunes to shuffle. no cheating, let it play and let us know who and why you have it. even the embarrassing ones.

Vanessa Paradis, L’Incendie, from her 2007 Divinidylle album.

I’ve got a soft spot for French pop.  I’ve been curious about French culture since experiencing its colonial manifestation in Ivory Coast.  The first time I heard Vanessa Paradis was in high school in Nebraska.  A classmate had picked up a compilation of French pop at the clothing store Express, and she didn’t dig it, so she gave it to me.  It had two songs by Vanessa Paradis on there, her huge hit from her first album “Joe le taxi,” and another song called “Soldat.”  Later on, after I got into Serge Gainsbourg, I found out he had written all the lyrics for her second album, Variations sur le même t’aime (a typical kind of Gainsbourg pun, substituting “theme” for its homonym “love you”).  I didn’t pick up her 3^rd album, since it was in English, produced by former paramour Lenny Kravitz (she has since settled down with Johnny Depp).  So I’ve kind of stayed aware of her over the years, seeing a film or two of hers (Girl on the Bridge), and when I was in Paris for work a year or two ago, I picked up this new album, which is pretty pleasant.

This song, like most of Divinidylle, was produced by French pop polyglot –M– (for more on him, check out the French version of Rough Sundays!).

In fact, I don’t listen to much music on iTunes, still prefer CD’s, so it’s a weird selection on my iPhone.  I probably listen to my own stuff on there more than anything (the way David Byrne describes Prince in the Sand in the Vaseline liner notes).

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