matt's pictures

tokyo at night

So, after the robots, we came out and it was nighttime, and I don’t really remember what happened. I think we probably walked somewhere and got some food and went back to the hotel. The pictures seem to indicate we walked through Shinjuku some more, getting closer and closer to the hotel.

I feel like right now there are a bunch of things I’m supposed to be working on, and if I can pull off half of them, I’ll be doing pretty good. The short list in no particular order:

building a headlamp (mostly done; board bringup and programming left)
building a bike frame (maybe 1/3rd of the way done)
live art installation at Priceless festival (woot! this should be simple and fun)
Parents’ visit (Hi Mom!)
making bags (this should be higher in the list)
brewing beer (which is really hosting dinner for people while someone else brews beer)
zine shelf (for a friend)
all the other photography I’ll probably do.

Oh, also hold down my day job because only one of the things on this list pays in money. I’m not mad about it, per se, just that I’ve set myself some lofty goals for shit to get done this summer. At least now I’ve put the short form of the list somewhere more concrete than twitter.

Posted on 2019-05-20T08:44:49Z GMT

too many robots (robot restaurant)

Maybe this isn’t too many robots. I was thinking I needed to cut this down some, but decided to throw out a twitter poll and see if I needed to. The people have spoken, so here are 34 pictures of the act inside the Robot Restaurant.

The place is not really a restaurant. There is technically food, and while I’m sure, in that Japanese way, just like food from 7-11, it’s perfectly fine, it’s not a place you go for food. There are good drinks, strong. How can I describe it? It’s sort of like what happened to opera when they mixed in rock to make rock opera, but done to Kabuki theater and then with a shit ton of LEDs and shiny costumes and sort of real robots? Wild stories of nature versus technology, silly dancing, and a fire breathing dragon, briefly. Everything is dialed to 11, and then multiplied. I could hardly keep up, and I was sitting the whole time.

And then there was a brief calm period, with rave dancers and lasers. Then, to giant silver robots came out and danced. Then, just because obviously that wasn’t enough, there was a fish show. No, not Phish. Fish. Well, an aquatic themed dance number, complete with more giant platforms with drums and dancers. Really, a hell of a show.

Posted on 2019-05-17T05:02:24Z GMT

getting around Tokyo

This was that same day, just making our way from one place to another. The byways of Tokyo were something else. The city seemed to have a good handle on ways for people to get around, as if it weren’t designed just for cars, but rather, for people on bikes or on foot as well. That said, there was always traffic, of all types. Always people moving around.

Our fellow tourists stuck out like sore thumbs, all luggage and maps and confused looks. The locals were more varied, if I can make generalizations about 10 million people. It’s like any big city; there are people there from all walks of life; if there aren’t, then it will rapidly become not-a-city anymore. Think of a city of 10 million people without plumbers or janitors or street-sweepers. This is the problem that San Francisco faces; no more variation of people, no more heart. I’m not saying SF should copy Tokyo’s density and sprawl, but they could certainly take some notes on the efficiency of transit. (OK, a little density couldn’t hurt us either).

Playing around with some Lightroom presets designed to mimic film stocks again; just a bit of fun. Looks nice on the screen.

Posted on 2019-05-15T07:50:34Z GMT

citizens square and Metropolitan Building

The first photo is actually of the view from our hotel window; really harsh light after sleeping in. This was definitely the day the doldrums set in for me; we just kind of wandered a bit, didn’t do a lot– wait, no. That was the first couple hours. Then we went to the robot restaurant, which is another post entirely, and for which I may have to once again pull out the slideshow functionality I was using earlier. This part of the day was very harsh light that I somehow forced to cooperate in a few places.

I said it on twitter, and I’ll say it again here: Sometimes winning is just deciding to keep going. Not to have an income doing something you love, or to be recognized and justly famous (or even known by the people in your sub-sub-sub specialty). “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” Just keep going. Do the things you need to do. Do what you have to to live, but hold on to that other stuff too. If you have to start and stop a project 10 times, if it takes you 5 years instead of 5 days, hold fast, keep at it.

In other (related) news, I’m thinking about starting up PROJECT SAN PABLO again. Photography is my thing, but the project really animates it. I don’t know. Nothing else is really suggesting itself. I need to make a routine out of going and shooting. Find people, and then find people that might be able to help me find other people. Maybe I’ll try the library.

Posted on 2019-05-13T08:22:09Z GMT

halloween night in Tokyo

So this is a little bit later that night, going to the big square in Shibuya. We didn’t really get to see it that night; the whole place was cordoned and under police control after riots earlier in the evening. The funny thing was: there could have been a riot across the street and I don’t thing we’d have been able to tell the difference. Just a bazillion bodies jammed in next to each other.