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Friday, December 31, 2010

Scully

From Episode "Piper Maru"

First X-Files Contest Won

It was still early in the second season, when the X-File fan club put out a contest to guess the episode and the characters in the scene, given the image. I didn't even have anything on tape, yet I submitted my answer anyways. - "Ghost in the Machine", Scully and Mulder.
Well. Imagine my surprise when I got home from a three day Star Trek convention, and got this in the mail.

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson autograph

Shooting Script for Season 2 episode "One Breath"

The X-Phile Magazine for the Original X-Files Fan Club

Before there was internet, there was the original X-Files fan club. We send our thoughts through mail and get our forum in the form of a newsletter. This was the last issue of The X-Phile.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

X-Files Music


I got two X-Files music CDs. Music From The X Files are Mark Snow's themes from the show. Song In The Key Of X are songs featured in the show. It includes "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave and "Frenzy" from the episode "Humbug".

Not To Be Opened Until Xmas


This is from the first issue of The X-Files comic book series. It's obviously relevant as Christmas was the setting.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Santa Claus sends his best wishes

Here is another holiday theme animated gif. Still using Adobe Image Ready to make the gif. I started with the layers I wanted to use before creating the frames. This will be my e-mail card this year. Enjoy!
Seasons Greeting

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Painting in Black & White

A few years ago, I had a summer project to cover a really large canvas. How big was this surface? It's stretched the perimeter of an office space. Because it was white, I chose to do a classic cinema theme and painted with black acrylic. I am not an expert painter, but I knew graphics. To execute each image, I experimented in dry and wet applications to achieve the right shades of grey. And as with all oversized conversions, I had a problem with perspective. The Maria robot from Metropolis was entirely out of proportion. It didn't help that I had to use a stepping stool to reach her head and then crouch down to finish her feet.

Given the opportunity, I would like a chance to paint in this scale again.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

"I hope you like coconut."

You know how Olivia Dunham called Frank a really sweet boyfriend? Well he's got a bigger part in First Ten Years, the prequel to The Promise. As you can recall, I kept her in the alternate universe. She's not alone. In fact, she didn't want to let him go. They share a few years together making Olivia very happy.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Guangzhou, China - Sculpture Park

In 2007, when I visited family in Guangzhou, we went to Sculpture Park. I was really impressed by all the different style of artwork. Along the way I came across a bronze statue, bearing a very good likeness of Whoopi Goldberg. I couldn't make out the text in Chinese to confirm if it was her. I could kick myself for not taking a picture at the time. Since this place is not a hot tourist spot among foreign visitors, I was wondering if anyone else has come across this piece in their travels.

Castle - Tribute to Stephen J Cannell

I caught the end credit for the repeat broadcast of Castle last night. (3.04 Punked) That's where they had the tribute to Stephen J Cannell. It had a sheet of paper fly out and even his signature theme. Nice touch.

Monday, December 13, 2010

A Tribute in the Story

I included a tribute to Mark Dailey, in a recent chapter of Heart. Mr. Dailey was a journalist with CityTV, where most Canadians watch Fringe. He was best known as the voice of CityTV. His deep baritone voice often heard in the promos for TV shows and movies. When I found out the sad news of his passing last Monday, I decided to add a nod in my story. This chapter is also dedicated to his memory.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Mentions of Jasper Fforde

Here is Ryan Mcgee's Recap: 'Fringe' - 'Marionette': "In some ways, last week’s episode of “Fringe” could have served as a perfectly satisfactory Fall finale for the show. Getting the two Olivias back to their home universes could have marked the end of one block of programming and allowed things to start from there next January,..."

Olivia and Fauxlivia are both the heroines of their respective tales, or at least until they were stepped into each others’ novels. Now Olivia Dunham is a broken version of Tuesday Next. (Written, of course, by Jasper Ffringe.)

In Ryan's Mcgee's review, he made a reference to Jasper Fforde and the heroine in his Thursday Next series. Thursday Next has the ability to jump from fiction to fiction, quite literally taking part in the story. In a way, he likens the experience of the two Olivias to jumping into each other's book. You know. I've been a big fan of the book series and I never looked at Fringe that way before.



Friday, December 10, 2010

Urban Vermin Show Intro



Garbage pits brother against brother in a turf war that often ends in hilarious hijinx.
This was the first toons production I got to experience from design to completion of animation. We made 26 x 22 minute episodes in under a year.
I loved all the characters in this show. I have a few favourites. There is Zitzy, the not quite evil, manic, mad scientist possum who works for Ken. He was voiced by Canadian actor Adam Reid. Then there is No Neck, the commander of the rat army who is as sensitive as they come. I was surprised to find out he was voiced by Yannick Bisson. The character's charm comes from a signature falsetto laugh.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Writing for the Chinese Newspaper

Back in 1987, I got a taste of being published. At Chinese school, we had studied about China's invention in printing. The class took a tour of Singtao Newspaper printing office, then on Dundas at Spadina. We were late, so we didn't get to se the paper printed. I still saw the old and new technology used in the printing process. The old ways requires a thorough understanding of the Chinese language, as the typesetter have to select the correct radical that makes up the different characters. The root character when paired with a different radical gives the newly formed character a new meaning. Today, they rely on translation software, which sometimes loses the meaning along the way.
This was the article I wrote about that tour. It appeared in an edition of the paper. There must have been some edits, because I notice that there are characters in there that I don't know how to read much less write. For those who can't read Chinese, I never advanced beyond grade 5. Even so I can still manage to comprehend 90% of the articles I do read.

Sunset Over First Snow

We haven't had a nice sunset in a long time. Here is one looking out from a window facing northwest. The houses and tree line is blocking my view of the belt of venus. It's promising to be a clear night tonight; maybe I can get a better shot.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Hippo Tub Co.

Hippo Tub Co. is a lost and found company in Drain World. It's a place where stuff that falls down the bathtub drain ends up. Harley, Andy's hippo, travels there to find Andy's pirate hat and decides to stay to help return lost stuff to their rightful owners. He is helped by Norton the bird, Pete and Repete the pack rats, and Ted Tubman the handyman with a great set of pipes. This was my first toons production. We made 26 x 11 minute episodes for the CBC.

Hippo Tub Co. - Distributor - There is a trailer and images in this link. Once again product is not available in Canada. By the way, they got the director's name wrong. It's supposed to be Troy Sullivan.

Repete and Pete

Pete and Repete are a couple of brother and sister pack rats. I've watched the actors who does their voices in action. I got to attend the record sessions. They are an awesome dual.

The Real Defenders

The Defenders are based on real life Las Vegas defense attorneys, Michael Cristalli and Mark Saggese. (Video from CBS)

Monday, December 6, 2010

Star Trek Fan Fiction

Welcome to the Delta Quadrant - Written by a writing team known only as whoa nellie. They have infuse a lot of the characters from all the later Star Trek series in their own timeline masterfully. It is the only romance fiction I can read, at the moment. It's organic and doesn't read too much like Imzadi.

Every time I read, I can't help but include in the review, a recall to the episodes that a particular reference is from. I look forward to reading more from them. "Let's see what's out there."

Sunday, December 5, 2010

"Afraid of ghost?"

Yide Road in Guangzhou, China
My grandfather said that he lived in a haunted house once. Although some of those spirits were probably from our family, there was a real life tragedy associated with that house. It's written here for the first time. 

Original post from writing blog

She poured from a bottle of whiskey.

I would never have thought to write The Promise if I had not watched a few minutes of Prime Suspect. By focusing on her screwed up, lonely existence, it provided a glimpse into Olivia's life 10 years down the road. With the setting in the alternate universe, a new tomorrow can begin.

Original post from writing blog

"Now boys and girls, listen up..."

Small Comfort is little Olive's first encounter with Willem and Walter at the Jacksonville daycare center. I got this image of Walter relating to kids from this scene in What Lies Below. In my story this is how it went,
He clapped his hands once. "Now boys and girls, listen up. We are going to play a game..."

Original post from writing blog

"His presence will not be forgotten."

No one had written one, so I wrote a tribute to Stephen J Cannell. In To Stephen, Rick raises his glass to salute his friend and mentor at the poker game. Little did I know, very few poker scenes were filmed early in the series. They may not be doing this on the show.

Original post from writing blog

A Happy Days Tribute

In Memory of My Father I included a eulogy for Howard Cunningham in tribute to Tom Bosley's passing. He was the nicest father on television.
My favourite Howard and Richie moment had to be the time when Richie came home drunk. Their boy was growing up.

Original post from writing blog

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Room Box - The Messy Room

So this is one of my daytime projects. It's a miniature room. Most of the furniture and the box itself has been donated by my sister. I made everything else from paper models I downloaded from the web. It even has a replica of a York University degree on the wall.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Six Degrees of Star Trek

OOH! I just made Star Trek connections to my reviews.
Raising Hope guest star Lou Wagner played a Ferengi
The Defenders - Jerry O'Connell co-starred with Wil Wheaton in Stand by Me.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Reviewing Television's The Defenders

Most recently, I decided to review CBS new courtroom drama The Defenders for Spoiler TV. Besides giving me another aspect to writing, it was the first non science fiction television show I really enjoy watching in quite sometime. Among other reasons for liking this show, it's the law I am interested in. I'm impressed by the quality writing and superb acting that goes into each episode.
It's a procedural show, so each review will reflect on the case of the week. The challenge is to make it as refreshing as the episode. It's certainly fun to discover what that is along the way.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Texas - 80's Daytime TV

I've been enjoying some Youtube clips of  the 80s soap opera Texas. It was one of the few I could follow as a kid. A bunch of us would hang out together after school to watch it.
I didn't think it was like Dallas. Sure the similar setting was a draw at first, but I like it because I had followed the characters from watching Another World.
The link for the Youtube channel is at the bottom of the wiki page for clips.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_%28TV_series%29

I Remember Stanley

I didn't know Stanley.
He was just another kid at summer school.
Other kids knew him, so he must have had friends.
He was just a kid like me.
You never expect to hear bad things happen to kids.
You see Stanley died that summer.
He wasn't careful at the railroad crossing and got hit by a train.
That image had stayed with me until adulthood.
Every time I past the bridge that now stands over the spot where he died, I would remember hearing the tragic news in class. It was the first time I ever saw a boy cry so sadly.
What happened that summer I will never forget.
I didn't know Stanley then. Now I will never forget him.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Didn't Miss The Bus

Almost a week at home now. Leisure is good. Sleeping in late in the morning kind of throws off any schedule. Most importantly I can still write. It may not be original work yet, but I keep writing whatever comes to mind. I don't need a busride to be inspired. In fact, I can daydream looking outside any window. So when I worked out of a basement studio for 6 months, I practically turned to a window of a different sort to complete the daydream cycle, the computer screen.
What I missed most was sleep. Ever since I started to write, I have been logging in 4-5 hours daily to fit in time for new creativity.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Winning Commercial Design

What is it? It was the logo design that won me free lunch for a week at the cafeteria.

Friday, October 8, 2010

One Breath, One Heartbeat

My one and only drawing in print. Published in The X-Phile a fan club newsletter in 1995.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Favourite Past Time

Checkout the date in the signature. These drawings were done nearly 10 years apart. I haven't drawn anything in a long time. I don't have Bev anymore as she was given to actress Gates McFadden, within the same year.

As you can see, I had trouble with drawing hair back in 1993.

My Life as a Piece of Fiction

OK. I have received a good suggestion to use a biographical piece of writing in developing a story. In short, I will have to make up what happens next. It will be a miracle if it works. I just don't think being a central character in a story is very appealing, so I have removed myself quite literally and look at it from a different perspective. :p

The prologue for this prospective story is in A Dutch Summer in Toronto. See link for guppylove fanfiction at the bottom of the page.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Paper Modeling and Star Trek

Combining two different interests. I search the internet for easy-to-build models. I've waited a long time for someone to design props from the Star Trek universe. It inspires me to create paper models of my own.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

A Blast From the Past

For as long as I can remember the old Lily Cup factory was always there, even if the original business has since vacated the premises. It would still remain there for a longer time if zoning had not rear its ugly head. The plant may be gone, but the cup stays. So say the residents of this proud neighborhood. Perhaps because it is the only landmark of its kind in Canada. The rest of the building has been completely razed and I've learned that the cup itself have been removed. It remains to be seen what will be going up in its place.

See the original Lily Cup http://www.boldts.net/album/LilyCup.shtml

Lily Cup history http://www.agilitynut.com/vessels/cups.html

Introduction

I am known for my avid interest in watching TV, but only a few shows have consumed 100% of my attention. My bookshelf is an indication of my earlier addictions. After so many years, what I find lacking about TV today is the lack of tangible mementos. Everything is online. So I am starting a blog now to share what influences my creative process. I have a multitude of interests. I hope you will enjoy my work.

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This is me...

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My aspiration is to be better at telling stories. I only need a pencil and paper.