MrHoatzin

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Posts posted by MrHoatzin

  2. Posted

    Defcon hit a high watermark in shocking subtlety. It would be hard to get there again. Plus, this is the first time that they've actually hired an artist. Let them play around. One way or another, I wish they were more resolute and deliberate with their decisions—or rather that the final impression of whatever they settle on is strong.

  4. Posted

    So on Breaking Bad, are we to assume

    Jesse understood the connection of the whistled Queen song to the poison?

    Well, maybe, maybe not. In the last episode of the half-season he does think that Walt is there to kill him when he shows up with the duffel bags of cash—before he opens the door he goes and gets a gun. As the scene ends he breaks down and tosses the gun away.

    Maybe he suspects. TBD.

    EDIT: I accidentally soiled this post. ¬¬

  5. Posted

    Yes I realized that, and figured I'd clarify what I mean. Sorry to be curt. It'd be easier for me to give you an example, like when I was reading about slave-politics in pre-civil war Boston and about how common people didn't want to end slavery because local industry relied on raw material harvested by slaves down south, shipped north to be manufactured into goods to be sold and the intellectual climate surrounding that (in Boston). I found this very interesting, how politics/social issues intersect with philosophical/moral/sociological ones. Or when reading on a classical poet, how his poesy was limited by material considerations and their affect on one another, which also is very interesting and something that rarely comes up when reading criticism.

    Perhaps I'm asking for the impossible here, but I just feel that there is something that could be attainable but I currently don't have. I'm going to experiment a bit more and try working with some of your suggestions.

    Well, son, you have an idea on your hands. Congratulations! Not only that but you've written it down. My own notebook entry for a similar idea would probably be something like…

    ↳ NORTHERN REALPOLITIK ARGUED FOR SLAVERY: common people didn't want to end slavery because local industry relied on raw material harvested by slaves down south, shipped north to be manufactured into goods to be sold and the intellectual climate surrounding that (in Boston). Intersection of politics/social issues with philosophical/moral/sociological ones.

    BAM! Now the real question is what do you do with this? This is where that conversation between the creator and the creation I described before starts. This might end up being the overall arch or a theme of a narrative or whatever. It boils down to what skills you possess that could help you turn this into a thing.

    The other idea—about poetry being affected by material considerations—is kindof DUH in my case as I am an artist and this shit NEVER LEAVES my consciousness. It helps that I have a job and do art on the side, so that I don't have to feel constantly compromised by the hustle of art. That said, I would be a lot more productive as an artist if I could free myself from having to sell my time to someone.

    P. S. What do you create?

    ⬇⬇⬇

  6. Posted

    Creativity is a word to make tangible a process or mode, and I think it works as well as any other word when it comes to making discussion of this possible.

    People sometimes talk about creativity as a domain of certain professions or talents or whatever—I just wanted to nix this notion as we're talking in abstract vagaries. I don't know where you're coming from, so I kindof plugged in something as a starting point.

    What are we talking about here, anyway? Like, visual ideas, aural ideas, narrative ideas? Is it just a matter of not having a technical jargon specific enough for your purposes? Have you tried quickly rambling your mind into an audio recorder? Trying to explaining your idea to someone, until you boil it down to its essence? Free association writing?

    The only time I have had ideas that leave that quickly and are lost without a trace is on drugs. Those ideas were probably not that great anyway (either way, writing down stuff SHOULD help regardless :shifty:).

    A lot of the time ideas lose their luster when they're banally flattened on the page—I dunno if it is experience or what that I use to figure out which ones are good and which ones are shit in that form. Sometimes the flattened version retains enough information to remind one where it is going, sometimes it doesn't. If it is a vague idea and the vagary is what appeals to me, I will try to describe all of these vague different aspects of something. I find that structure helps, I dunno... this may be getting too low level or something... may need to think about it. Maybe there is something important in there that I take for granted and can't see clearly from where I'm standing...

  7. Posted

    Or they could just make the world flat-out adventure-gamey. Go over there, distract the dude, grab his monkey and open the waterfall—that sort of stuff... only more suitable to be mixed up with action elements and with less dialogue.

  8. Posted

    Creativity is a concept invented by managers to describe solving problems they can't understand. You always hear about the "magic" "the creatives" do or whatever. Like most structures that come out of contemporary business thinking, it is super bureaucratic in as far that it invents a caste of people singularly responsible for a part of the process ("the creatives" are in charge of "making shit up"), and shortchanges everyone else who may have something to add.

    It is all about learning how to probe ideas that you do have, find out what it is that is awesome about them, and implement them. These are individual and separate laborious processes that require developing their own individual sets of skills. The longer I spend creating shit, the less I believe there is such a thing as talent. I mentioned this to a neurophysiologist of sorts and she was positively outraged that I would so flippantly throw nature (as opposed to nurture) out of the picture, so maybe I am full of shit. Maybe some people are predisposed to the kinds of observation and rumination that result in creative output. In any case, talent alone is nothing.

    You don't have to completely open up what it is that is awesome about an idea, just discover an interesting conundrum, riddle, or just a strong sensation that SOMETHING interesting is going on there. The more you re-digest a specific idea by implementing it multiple times (as sketches or versions or whatever), the more you come to discover what it is that it is hinting at. The process of developing ideas into tangible things is just as important as the initial spark—if not moreso. The conversation between the creator and the creation is ongoing. You never sit down with a fully-formed idea in mind and plop it out exactly as imagined. If your process is like this, you will be very frustrated and—more often than not—not make anything.

    My ideas come in form of sentences or little blurbs. I write them all down in a series of notebooks that I have been dragging around since high school, and then I let them be. When I want to make something or need a wrench to throw into whatever project I am currently working on, I look through my old ideas and see if anything bites.

    This is somehow tangentially relevant maybe. Every now and again, I go back and reread the whole WHAT IS ART semi-spinoff discussion.

  9. Posted

    It is terrifying to see how Lee Petty and the art team are all freaking out, while Schafer is sabotaging them with grand ideas like an unreasonable client, as if unaware of how much money they have to work with. :tup: Scary how fast they seem to have to work to make effective use of the money—and that it is everyone except for Tim who seems to be minding the budget.

    I'm also excited that Peter McConnell is on board for the music. I dunno if his name was previously mentioned in the context of the project.

  10. Posted

    Variable graphical fidelity targets can give us some potentially interesting new gameplay styles. Less fidelity per character, but now with 400 characters on screen because you didn't spend all your processing power on reflections on wet hair or whatever. The upcoming generation of designers have been refreshingly eager to explore this space so that is something.

    Also, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to think of this alleged open world HL3 as a sort of STALKER game? It would kinda work.

  11. Posted

    That sure is an elaborate opinion on light bulbs. And I read it. The whole thing. Studiously, even. I feel like I need to reward myself for that.

    goMe-ribbon.png

    Aaaaand—ah, what the hell—you deserve it! Wear it proudly.

    goYou-ribbon.png

    All of these Kickstarter rules are probably for the best. At the same time, I hope that they enforce the spirit of the rules rather than the literal word. It is interesting how everything in capitalism seems to gravitate toward peddling tchotchkes. Even Kickstarter when it functions correctly (as in, in the spirit of its founding vision) is all about producing a whole gamut of increasingly more precious tokens of support for whatever the main goal of a campaign is—this aspect of it is what everyone has had the most trouble getting right. It is interesting to reflect on. Seems like a good rule of thumb is that lower tiers shouldn't get tangible things.

  13. Posted

    Unfortunately, it's;

    Don't like how it fits, personally.

    Nah, it fits perfectly! Thanks for cluing me in.

    The show was starting to drag halfway through season four, they seemed to forget to turn on the cinematography and editing tricks that set the tone to most of the show—but then shortly before

    Gus bites it

    they remembered what they were all about and shit got way better.

    Ugh, wassup with the spoilers, why they gotta be so stupid?

  14. Posted

    Sal and I finally caught up with Breaking Bad (which we started watching only a couple of weeks ago). Dang. Good show. Insufferable sometimes.

    Any idea what the tune is that Walt whistles while they're wrapping up the cook—

    after they kill the dirt bike kid, and Jessie is done with all this shit, Walt lets Jesse go home. As he's leaving he flashes a completely bewildered expression at Walt's happy-go-lucky whistling. Any idea what that tune was?

  16. Posted

    For one thing, boy, I was a bit nervous you'd be angry or something. (Yeah, I don't do forums a lot, I still get nervous.) Good stuff!

    Oh, and comment negatively, being critical and all is good, and I'm sure you can manage to do that without it sounding like you're whining.

    The alternative version, you did that, no? You can move around with the arrow keys, very cool. BUT: zooming is cheating I'd say, and goes against the spirit and intention of the comic.

    Nah, not angry, just backpedally. :shifty:

    And no, I didn't make that thing, I just shared it.

  18. Posted

    Notwithstanding any (alleged :chaste:) qualities of XKCD and the stench of petty jealousy emanating out of my knee-jerky response, I was really only angry at the interface. I would've spent an hour with that thing if it didn't require me to crank the screen around forever to no conceivable end. I'm all about bending the format in fun ways, just wish they did it in a more user-friendly way.

    I guess there is no way for me to comment negatively about anything comics related ever—because obviously I must be whining about my unrecognized genius.

    I should also never gripe about stupid things people complain about because people will complain about anything.

    Present company excepted, of course, because we're all righteous and wise and shit.

  20. Posted

    Shit like that infuriates me. I dunno why! Maybe because the interface is gloriously unfriendly. Must I get carpal tunnel for your self-indulgent widget which may or may not be rewarding but I didn't care enough to find out? Why can't I middle click scroll or something? Ugh. And people occasionally bitch about Hobo Lobo's interface being obtuse or too weird for mainstream or whatever...

    :( :( :(:getmecoat

  21. Posted

    It will require quite a bit of will and organization to evolve yo self artistically when you also must job full-timely on the side. I don't think it is impossible. Austin has a fair bit of handy events and clubs that can help you hone your skills, stuff like Dr Sketchy or Austin Drink 'n' Draw. Those two are figure drawing oriented thingers. Maybe people at these events can direct you further.

    Personally, art school has been an invaluable tool in helping me work out my arrogance issues and come up with more coherent conceptual underpinnings to my work—but as far as technique and skills go it was kinda secondary. Then again, I went to a more arty-oriented university as opposed to a technique-'n'-hustle-oriented school—and when I was done with that I dropped the whole art thing and cashed in on my mad programming and design skillz instead. Ultimately higher education is a racket. You'd be better off in the long run if you can do without all that debt.

  22. Posted

    This kind of shit never works out. For either side. The more reactionary Islamic traditions have this curious feature where they don't culturally comprehend fiction and satire—they consider those simply LIES. Hence all the fatwas against writers. I am starting to suspect that the western idiots who keep prodding them are either woefully ignorant or are purposefully rooting for strengthening authoritarian elements on both sides of the divide. Whatever problems Islam has, it needs to solve them from within.

  25. Posted

    I posted this on tumblr a while back, it is a side dish popular in the Balkans and the kind of thing I made in college for the whole week when I didn’t feel like cooking. It can be used as a side or as an ingredient. It is awesome as a pizza topping or as a spread on sangwiches. The quantities are vague, aim for about equal parts onions peppers and maters by volume.

    BEĆAR PAPRIKAŠ

    (pronounced bechar paprikash, with a soft ch like in ciao, rather than hard ch as in punch)

    INGREDIENTS

    • Onions (two or three)
    • Peppers (about five or six medium sized ones. I like to get as many different kinds of peppers as possible)
    • Maters (a vine or two, five or six)
    • Oregano, Basil, Paprika, whatever else seems like it would work
    • Olive oil (about 3/4 cups super extra virginal first cold press)
    • A little bit of vinegar (enough to marinade the maters lightly, I like raspberry blush vinegar)

    PREPARASHON

    Cut the maters into cubes, combine with oregano and basil, let them sit in vinegar.

    Wash the peppers and throw them on a cookie sheet under the broiler on low until they’re splotched in black and peeling on all sides (rotate them as needed), but before the meat of the peppers turns into charcoal. When done throw them into an airtight container and forget about them.

    Cut up the mountain of onions into ribs and sauté with some salt until golden in a large enough sauce pan for all the ingredients. Start at high heat so that they start to stick to the bottom and burn a just a little, give them a bit of a rustic edge, then lower the heat and let all the onions catch up, stirring occasionally.

    While they’re catching up, remember the peppers and go to them. Peel and throw away the sharpest, papery burnt black bits from the peppers and cut the meat up into stripes.

    By this point, the onions should be done. Throw a tablespoon of paprika on them, stir for a minute, then stir in the peppers and the maters. Let it simmer until the maters start to get all nice, saucy and desaturated. And you’re done!

    Serve hot or cold.