Stray - 03Aug06 -(2/3)- The next best thing to being informed.

First week here I was crashing at the... place..? (I
don't quite know if it's a flat, or a squat, or a
community center, or an anarchist paramilitary
stronghold...) (and why are anarchists always so well
organised?) which was cool but not somewhere to work
from, so I got a flat. Again, only one I looked at.
Man, so glad I'm not having to deal with the
looking-at-30-flats-and-still-not-ending-up-with-one
thing I went through last year in Melbourne.

New flat is, get this, 4k walk from the center of
town, completely surrounded by native bush, halfway up
a gully by a lake. Our next door neighbour is a native
wildlife reserve. Coming back home from the city is
really nice, heading back in tends to mess with my
head while I readjust.
Pictures to follow.

But, being Wellington in the winter (or at any time,
really), it is just freakishly cold. Seeing your
breath indoors is not really desirable, watching it
touch the opposite wall is just obscene. The worst
thing about it is blowing dust off a cd and having to
wait two full minutes for it to defog. I'm wearing a
skirt around the house, as double glazing for my
pants. We've only got a small fridge for four people,
but, you know, it's not really that big an issue
unless you want to keep something warm overnight.
Yeah, but it happens.

I've been pushed by this into manning a sewing machine
for the first time since those furry pants for
Beltane, and second form manual before that. (NZ
primary school thing)
I've made myself a Neck Sock ($4 worth of polar
fleece, sew into a tube, join ends of tube, wear
around face and neck) and a Rain Apron ($4 worth of
waterproof material and a draw string, enough to cover
the thighs, which are the only parts that get wet,
turn it around if you want to sit on something) and
with that, my new Gortex (tm) jacket and my favourite
woolly hat, have started referring to the whole rig as
'my armour'.

And I'm back on the dole. Oh man. It is so good.
Money, every week, and all I have to do for it is
convincingly mislead the government.

Oh.
Yeah.
I'm here to find work. Absolutely. Going to be
dropping demo reels off at all the major animation
houses. And the other ones too, of course. Yep, keen
to work I am. Take anything offered I will. Oh yes.
Lies.

But, look, it's fair enough. I am here to work, it's
just unpaid. If I can't cover rent I can't help make
this documentary. And it's a good thing for me to be
doing. They knew the risks when they let me back in
the country.
It's got a bit more difficult since last I was here,
now you have to wait two weeks to get your first
interview and they make you answer a questionnaire.
How strongly do you agree with the following: 'If
someone is able to work, they should take whatever
work is available.' I look blankly at my case manager
and ask her to elaborate on the meaning, relevance,
and gravity of the question.

Then I go off on some diatribe about People
Contributing to Society in Non-Financial Ways, realise
that I'm arguing the relative morality of the Welfare
State with the public servant responsible for me
getting potentially un-doled, and tell her to just put
me down for 'agree'.
My rating came out as 100% and I'm now happily
unemployed(able).

See, I'm not eligible for assistance in Australia and
other than the two animation jobs, this is my first
regular income in five years. (The last, also, the
dole). Actually, other than the animation jobs this is
my first income _of_any_kind_ in twenty months. (I
have to confess, when dude rang me offering the job in
Brisbane and asked how much I'd want to be paid
_I just pulled a figure out of my arse_. I later found
out I was getting paid as much as the lead animator,
who was full time permanent. It was about 50% more
than the juniors were getting. But, have to say, they
did seem stoked with me work.)

Not that I wanted to be on the dole in Oz. It's a
fulltime job in itself and actually quite a dangerous
one. Like how going up to the Woodford festival last
December my flatmate Dave couldn't use an ATM to get
money out, because when Centerlink (the welfare
department) went through his personal bank records and
saw that he'd left the state (even for two weeks over
Christmas) they could judge that to be 'adversely
affecting his ability to find work' and not only cut
him off but blacklist him from getting any support
again. We know people this has happened to.
Under new laws anyone with a disability or child over
eight who can't prove they're physically incapable of
work is forced to do at least fifteen hours a week to
earn their benefit. Centerlink will find you jobs, if
you turn down any three, regardless of what they are,
your benefit will be cut off for two months.
And military service is now included in the Work for
the Dole.

The documentary
( http://www.kotahiao.org ) is something some people I
know have been working on for a few years now. Kate,
Emily and Marama stayed at my flat in Vancouver and I
travelled with them for a couple of weeks as they
filmed various stuff in the area. All detailed in the
Strays of the time.
During which we tossed up the possibility of me doing
some animation for the film. Two years later and a
little bit more experience in me, I figured it might
be a good opportunity for me to take advantage of.

And it is a good opportunity. There aren't too many
international release films offering me free reign and
a unit director's credit. In fact it's essential. If I
ever manage to sell one of my screenplays I'd want to
write myself into the deal; ie you don't have to pay
me much for the script but I get to be artistic
director. And for this to be even half considerable I
need experience and appropriate credits.

So here I go.

The concept is this:

Kotahi te Ao is a social/environmental/political
feature-length documentary. The 4-6 minute short I'll
be working on will serve as an intermission, breaking
the first and second acts. It will also double as a
music video for a local artist (Jody Lloyd of Dark
Tower fame). He gets a free music video, we get a free
song. When the doco is distributed the track gets
distributed with it. When the clip gets played on MTV
or whatever, we get our doco out as well.

It'll be mostly live action with 3D elements. And no,
we're not getting any filming permission, and there's
no budget, no one and nothing will be insured, and no
one gets paid.
This is New Zealand after all.

So far I've been sorting the music, sourcing cast,
crew and equipment (mostly Parkour runners, film
school grads, and loaners, respectively), and
scouting locations. (Read: Criminal Trespass.)

I got into this one carparking building on Thursday,
which turned out to be surprisingly packed with
tunnels, stairs and walkways into the surrounding
buildings. At one point I stumbled onto an office
that's halfway through being built. It was after dark
but I thought I heard voices so made a quick retreat,
bringing me face to face with a janitor. I was about
to either just smile and walk on past, or break out
the 'I can't seem to find my car...' when he asked me
if it was ok to go through and do the toilets now. He
thought I was a builder. I was straight away with the
'yeah, yeah, that's no problem at all.'
So I figured if anyone was in there he'd probably
flush them out, gave him a thirty second head start,
then just went on through. Found a stairwell that went
up to the locked top level. So cool. Ended up in the
hotel next door, in the middle of a conference for the
Inland Revenue Department. If I'd only been wearing a
suit I could've scored free drinks and canapés! Sigh.

There's a Mitsubishi Pajero s.u.v. (Pajero means
wanker in Spanish) that I keep seeing parked around
town. Its spare tyre cover on the back reads “I wish
my wife was this dirty.”
(The suv is, of course, immaculate. Did you know you
can now get fake spray on dirt? True.)
I have this almost irresistible desire to take a can
of black spraypaint to it, so that it ends up reading
“I wish my wife was this.”

Against all odds (considering my tendency to get all
caught up in things politically awful): a Catalogue of
Things That Rock. AKA:
Good News.

Biomimicry.

http://www.biomimicry.net
My friend Rosie and I went to a free talk on this last
month, given by the woman who wrote the book. I wasn't
sure if it was something I'd really get into, not
being a scientist or designer, but several times
during it I had to fight back the urge to stand up and
yell 'Fuck yeah!! You ROCK! Wooo!!' and start waving
my arms all over the place. Really good talk. It was a
big auditorium, and it was packed.
Basically Biomimicry is the process of learning from
nature, in an industrial/design sense. Ie, if you have
a certain problem you look at where that problem
occurs in the biosphere, and what different organisms
do to solve it. It's the latest thing. All the cool
kids are doing it.
A couple of examples given were: fabrics that have the
same micostructure as lotus leaves, so that water
beads off them without any chemical or electrostatic
treatment. Makes for very good water proofing, or
water collection sails so efficient they can pull the
moisture out of a humid room.
Or air turbines that have the same logarithmic spiral
shape as seashells and galaxies, which are 50% quieter
than standard fan blades and 75% more efficient.
Using chemical precesses to grow materials rather than
heavy industry to batter them into shape.
Companies that develop technologies from this are
expected to give about 4% of the profits to protecting
the species they learned from. This is as a sign of
respect, but moreso a practical measure. Nature
becomes the teacher. It's hard to learn from a species
that's dead.
It's also right into the whole 'waste is food' thing.
There's a group of 48 individual industries in Western
Australia, all clustered together, each providing
their waste products as materials for the others.
Waste is food. This makes me so happy I get teary.

Solar Tower.

http://www.enviromission.com.au
Kilometer tall tower in the Australian desert. Hot at
the base, cold at the top, pressure differential
causes a strong updraft you can run a bunch o turbines
off've. Will generate about 200 megawatts, no inputs,
no outputs, clean green and free once built. Not
currently getting any help from the Australian federal
government, but that's to be expected. (Federal
environment minister just got busted for outright
lying about the reason he scuttled two proposed wind
farms). Looks to go ahead over the next few years
nonetheless.

Hot Rocks power.

http://hotrock.anu.edu.au
Hot rocks beneath the earth's surface. Pump down
water, get back steam. Run turbine. Kind of the same
as the solar tower only pointing in the opposite
direction. No inputs, no outputs, clean green and free
to run. Already built and going into operation now.

Sugar ethanol as fuel in Brazil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazi
Cars run good on ethanol. Less fossil fuel. It ain't
rocket surgery. As long as your car can handle it
(most modern vehicles can) and they grow the sugarcane
in sustainable ways (Brazil soooorrt of does, they're
getting better) then you're looking at reducing your
vehicle's eco footprint significantly.

Salt water swimming pools for Aboriginal communities.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/btn/stories/s1596961.htm
This was on TV recently, and I also heard about it
from a woman who'd worked in Aboriginal health. She
picked me up hitching into Melbourne.
A couple of outback communities have had these pools
built as pilot schemes. Salt water. Kids get to swim
there if they go to school. Salt clears up any ear,
eye, sinus and skin conditions, of which there are
usually many. Kids can compete at swimming, learn life
saving and first aid, the pool trains up locals in
business management and other skills necessary to keep
the pool going.
The flow on effects on health, education, and even
crime and substance abuse are huge. Many other
communities are looking at getting pools of their own,
though the federal government is so far refusing to
invest in the project, having said that what the
communities need are more police officers and harsher
prison sentences for offenders.

More good news as it comes to hand, but here's some
more links to things worth seeing:

I wasn't kidding; spray on mud:
http://www.sprayonmud.com/

This may be from Microsoft, but credit where credit is
due; this is easily the coolest thing I've seen all
month:
http://labs.live.com/photosynth/video.html

Music video I worked on end of last year (I only did
the 3D at the start and end):
http://www.earache.com/bands/alarum/velocity/player.html

http://www.loosechange911.com
There was a free screening of this at a pub here a few
weeks ago. If you're at all interested in the sheer
wall of dodginess that was September 11th, this is a
really good doco to watch.

And more recently; reasonable evidence explosives were
used in the world trade center:
http://videobomb.com/posts/show/3229

Nice demonstration of quantum superposition:
http://videobomb.com/posts/show/900
And 11th dimensional space:
http://www.tenthdimension.com
And a BBC miniseries called The Elegant Universe is
also excellent if you can track it down. Much better
than that silly (but I'm glad they made it) What the
Bleep thing.

Pretty funny pisstakes on Bush:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etIXH2HE1wQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1wogkDmLlQ

And if you're wondering what the hell Parkour is:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3416821515155549761
(Give it a minute to get past the straight
gymnastics.)

Ahh, sweet sweet broadband.

Daniel.