Snow and Thunder, Life Couldn't Be Funner

A crack of lightning a few feet from my window followed by a huge crack of thunder. And it's snowing. Truly a remarkable Christmas evening. All the kiddies are asleep in their beds surrounded by their Christmas haul (socks and towels, eh?) and the year is coming to a close. What shall next year bring? Here's what I'm hoping it will bring me - and I realize for me to get all these things in the coming year require me to work harder at everything. Oh well, here's my list anyway:

More and better movies 

(YouTube The Bed Oracle )

More and better audio drama 

(Check out Detectives and Drama in audio noir at DinoSoarPix. 

In English and sometimes Chinese (Mandarin); sometimes both Mandarin and English)

More and better books 

(Check out Tedorigawa Bookmakers and Tedorigawa Bookmakers - The Blog)

More fun! 

(Check out life!)

More and better podcasts 

(Check out Hokudai/Cast - Trilingual fun in Japanese, Chinese, and English)

Have yourself a very merry new year and I'll see you real soon. Enjoy yourself!

Down in Flames

As you can tell from the date, I've been busy and it hasn't been with writing a 50,000-word novel in one month. I could blame it on the dog: the dog ate my computer. Crashed. Big time. Spent a few weeks getting up the courage to buy a new one and by then I was busy with some video production and, well, NaNoWriMo fell by the wayside, along with the dog and I didn't complete the Ruggles thing. Although I did get about 8,000 words into it by the time my computer crashed. Died. Gave up the ghost. And the re-write improved it. Much. So I gave it my best shot but the writing gods and goddesses were... Ah, the goddesses. Ah well, there may well be next year. 

As you can tell from the date, I've been busy and it hasn't been with writing a 50,000-word novel in one month. I could blame it on the dog: the dog ate my computer. Crashed. Big time. Spent a few weeks getting up the courage to buy a new one and by then I was busy with some video production and, well, NaNoWriMo fell by the wayside, along with the dog and I didn't complete the Ruggles thing. Although I did get about 8,000 words into it by the time my computer crashed. Died. Gave up the ghost. And the re-write improved it. Much. So I gave it my best shot but the writing gods and goddesses were... Ah, the goddesses.

Ah well, there may well be next year.

The Month of November at 6500

The month of November brings us smack-dab face-to-face with hyphens and National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo or Nanowreemo). And yes, we are heavily involved in it this year again, too. We've done it every year since 2004 and have managed to meet the 50,000 word goal each year, although we failed to finish one novel, we finished the others. (Two are here: The Priests of Hiroshima and Calvado.)

The trick, for me, seems to be having some Real Meaty Characters that either I enjoy writing, reading about, or just plain reading. The characters pull the story they want to tell better than I could force the characters through a story I want to tell. (The one novel I didn't finish, Caraculiambro, had great characters but even they couldn't end the story - a detective yarn.)

This year's NaNoWriMo novel: 

The Murder of Tan Tinh Ai by Ruggles Royce, Ex-Priest

Characters include (so far):

• Ruggles Royce -  ex-priest current mercenary 65 years old built like a linebacker and fast.
• Wings Kenosha - 40, tough, lanky, works for 'the company.'
• Tan Tinh Ai -  flirtatious 24 years old, works in a fruit stand owned by her mother and aunt.
• Da Xu Xi -  rough, male, 27, in love with Tan Tinh Ai. Owns a bar.
• Maxine -  50, American female black market exploiter living in Hanoi.
  

The Plot, so far:

Ruggles is asked to find a kidnapped woman. The woman, Tan Tinh Ai, was last seen leaving a grocery store in Hanoi. In his efforts to find her, Ruggles discovers himself, his heart, and love. All in the wrong places. 

Having read the synopsis so far, I am totally going to change it before I get into the meat of the story (I'm 6500 words into it - about 30 pages).

Simple Tasks・Simple Feats

First, I guess I spent too much time on YouTube last week. I watched a lot of short bookbinding-related videos and finally threw a dart at my monitor to decide which one to share. Here they are:




Next, I'll try to include a couple of my new diaries - the most current diaries acan be seen at Tedorigawa Bookmakers

No, I can't

I challenged myself to make 14 books in 14 days (and if I was successful, I would rent this new space near my house), even if they were simple - they had to be simple, actually, by definition quick books can't be too complicated - but I forgot about a few things. Let me see if I can list them.

1. Family
2. Life
3. Work

There, that wasn't so difficult, was it? I got extremely busy with family and life and that spilled over into work - which isn't book binding - and the end result was a happy time for all. But only the one book - The Animal/Insect Mash-up Supremo Book - bound but three (two diaries, one 'artsy') in various stages of dismemberment. I mean, development. 

Plus! Plus, I backed my own cloth with paper so now I can use my own book cloth. I watched the video on Cailun.info and read the discussion on the LiveJournal Handmade Book Community,then set about using very thin Chinese paper on the back of a Japanese cloth remnant. It worked nicely. 

I'm pleased with the results.

I also found an art gallery online thing from Italy. tuttolibri from the designboom website. With such books as the one pictured here (from the designboom website, which you really should check out when you have the time, say, at work.)

Now, I'm off to make a book - a diary, I hope - which I will make with no pressure about time or competition.

Besides, the nifty space I would have used as a workshop/sales outlet has been rented to someone quicker than I at making decisions that cost me money. Thanks for reading.

Book One - The Animal/Insect Mash-up Supremo

This is The Animal/Insect Mash-up Supremo Book of 9/9/08 the first, maybe, in a series of 14 books for September. 

Why Animal/Insect? Because the contents, some of which can be seen in the photo below, are names of animals and insects in Japanese and English; With! Sample sentences. The first Japanese word is the first part of the Japanese word for animal (動物) whereas the second, in red, word is insect in Japanese.

Why Mash-Up Supremo? Because Mash has four letters, just like the word I really wanted to use but won't because this is a family-oriented artsy foober blog. Why is this book all mashed-up? I screwed up the sewing THREE TIMES! And that's a lot of repair work. Plus, there's a hidden secret! Yes! Here's the secret: Look at the thread for the binding. Looks like a Chinese-style stab binding, right? It is! But the line running parallel to the edge is not as it seems. One section of this thread is actually.... Drawn on with a pen! Why? Art! (And this book was supremely mashed-up.) 

But here you can see the interior of said Supremo book: First, the Japanese kanji for the animal or insect, then the pronunciation, then a sample sentence, and finally, the English equivalent. There are 18 animals or insects altogether but on this page is Fox (狐 - kitsune) and Cat (猫 - neko) with the sample sentence of Fox being, "Crazy like a 狐." And that for Cat being "A 猫 has nine lives."

Thanks for reading. 

New Space?

I have an opportunity to rent a new space for my workshop. It costs very little, is centrally located, has trees lining the street, and a fairly busy street it is, too. Plus, it's so close to home I can walk. In fact, it is so close to home that if I forget anything, I can walk back home and get it.

The main question is, should I? Right now I spend zero for my space which, admittedly, is a desk in a room but anything over zero is still more expensive than zero, right? On the other hand, if I have a space I must pay for then maybe I will be more serious (ha!) - make that, more determined - to become an at least locally known bookmaker.

Therefore, I will challenge myself to make a book a day for two weeks. If I make 14 books in 14 days, then I will rent the space and set about doing even more for my bookmaking career (not that it's exactly putting a dent in the universe now.). An interesting challenge and I'd better hop to it because to day is:

Day One!

Rough Book

Having strolled through too many stores that sell great paper, I found myself with a large variety of paper - soft, rough, colored, white - and finally decided that instead of buying more and not doing anything with it, I would use the paper I've got before I buy more. Ha! That's a good one. Anyway, I made The Rough Book. (You can see the rough cover here.)

The pages are rough, the endpapers are rougher, but the cover is the roughest: it isn't really paper so much as woven threads. I backed this cover paper with rough yellow paper (like endpapers.)

Here is an open page 

and you can see the stems and leaves embedded in the paper. This is also a very light book. Because the cover is so porous, and the pages aren't exactly the tightest weave in the world, the entire book is very, very light. 

And finally, here is a shot wherein you can see how roughly cut the pages are. More like torn than cut but they are very beautiful to look at. 

Chinese Stab Binding

I looked at some Japanese stab bindings over at cailun.info and they inspired me not to make a great Japanese stab binding but to return to the genre. With two caveats. 

First, I was told by some Chinese humans that what most of the world calls 'Japanese' stab binding is actually 'Chinese' stab binding. I did a little research (I googled Chinese stab binding) and found that the main difference between Japanese and Chinese stab bindings is that the distance between the sewn threads in a Japanese-style binding is even. From one thread to the next is the same distance on traditional Japanese binding. In Chinese binding, that distance can vary. 

Second, I went to a Buddhist store that sells Buddhist scripture. The books Buddhist priests read from when they chant. These are all bound using Japanese stab bindings. I checked them out. Now, one reason I didn't like the stab binding genre (Chinese or Japanese) is that the book doesn't open very widely. Well, I examined in minute detail the scripture book. It has very thin paper, very few pages (maybe 50 at most), and the binding is close to the edge. With the thin paper and few pages plus the binding close to the edge, the book opens wider.

So, I cut up some paper to B6 size and made two Chinese stab binding pamphlets - blank journals of about 60 pages (30 sheets). I liked the fact that I could make one while watching a DVD (The Queen staring Helen Mirren) and only stab myself once or twice.

They open nicely but still you can't use the inner most edge as it is closed off by the binding but they make nice notebooks and doodle pads if one were stuck in a meeting for a couple of hours.

Frustration and Appeasement

Get a nice piece of wood. Decide to make a book cover out of it. Saw it. Find a flaw. Saw it again. Check it out with paper. Wrong size. Saw it again. Decide to carve a groove in it and put in wood a different color for contrast and 'art's sake.' Cool idea. Carve it wrong. Not once but twice. The groove is too big for the wood I was going to insert. Try to find another piece to insert. Can't. Shrug shoulders ... and not for the last time on this particular project. Drill holes for the binding (to be coptic). Crack the wood. Glue it back together. Varnish it. It looks crappy. Sand it. It looks worse. Varnish it a different 

color. Bang head against a brick wall. It looks extremely bad. Sand it to smithereens. Cool. Very thin wood now, by golly.

Lather on the varnish, it doesn't look That bad. cough cough. Decide to make the back cover the front cover as the front cover doesn't look That good, either. cough. Add a few baubles and whatnot to the front and leave the back alone with its ugly groove and uglier insert.

Fold the paper for it, align the holes in the paper and cover. Decide to call it a night before termites appear and resurface the whole shebang. Still, termite trails might be an improvement....

Suffice it to say this has been one bad karmic cover which has needed salvation time and time again. But if you work on it long enough and remember two things: wood is flexible, cut-able, and adjustable, after a fashion, and sand paper is a gift from the gods, then perhaps you can salvage and even end up with a book that looks good. Or better than its karma would have made you think. 

This is a 168-page blank journal of an odd size paper (not as wide as A4 but just as tall) because the wood was not equal to any known paper size. And, as I am further from its birth pains, I have grown to like it more. Even the sewing, which went not so well, has its fine points. We live, we learn. (Does that mean, if we keep learning we'll live forever?)

The Star Festival - Tanabata - Cereal Series

From my "Cereal Series" I have completed a Premium Corn Flake with Beet Sugar Book with a coptic binding, seven signatures of six pages each for a total of 168 pages on the Star Festival (Tanabata) of Japan wherein two star-crossed (literally) lovers cross the Milky Way to kiss face once a year. For more of my Cereal Series, see the post of May 8, 2008 - japanesestabbinding - a Kellogg's Brown Rice Flake book is described. Also see this page from Tedorigawa Bookmakers.

Tanabata is celebrated by lovers staring into the night sky (which really sucks if it rains) and hoping for the best, whatever that might be. And of Tanabata branches: bamboo branches stuck in various places and people write their wishes on a piece of paper and attach it to the branches. Some come true! What do you wish for this year?

More Photos of my

Premium Corn Flake with Beet Sugar Book 

will be placed on both Tedorigawa Bookmakers and at 

Tedorigawa Bookmakers  

(probably with sound as well!) 

Stay Tuned. Stay Posted. Be Well.

Time - Wings - Gone - Flash

I can't believe time as slipped through my fingers like guacamole through a sieve. Well, perhaps a lot faster than that, that's for sure. Here it is July 4, 2008 (232 and counting) and my last post - in which I probably promised to write more often - was May 27. I missed one complete month; and as everyone knows missing a month could be vibracious.

On the other hand, Tedorigawa Bookmakers was updated with sight and sound on July 1 while Tedorigawa Bookmakers (another one? What's he doing with Two Blogs with the same damn name? Being moronic? - Sorry, no question mark needed.) was updated a mere month ago on June 4. But, alas, Calvado hasn't been updated since last I wrote I was thrilled to pieces to discover a new idea about updating Calvado. Talk about shallow. Will I keep being this shallow or will I actually get down to work and update on a semi-regular schedule? Keeping in mind, of course, that biannually is a regular schedule. As is bi-centennially.

On the third hand, my weekly podcast about things Japanese and Chinese and lessons in speaking three different languages (Japanese, English, and Chinese) coupled with interviews in those three languages and music (usually in English), continues its weekly production schedule unabated. Probably because I enjoy the sound of my own voice? No, no. Other people speak on this podcast. Especially when it comes to Japanese and Chinese. (I can handle English fairly well, I think. Maybe. I'm not sure. I'll ask around.)

I finished a special book in the last month. The June 6th Book - which should have been finished June 6th but was completed on July 3rd - is a coptic-bound, wood cover, 144-page lined notebook with yellow paper and waxed green hemp thread. I think it is quite nice and the binding is one of my best. Not the best in the world, just my best. It can be seen at Tedorigawa Bookmakers. Well, not right now. But soon! I hope, think, maybe; I'll ask. 

Unless time sprouts wings and jets by in a flash.

New Posts on Calvado

I hit upon something that brightens my day. I have a novel over at Calvado.blogspot.com which was, until today, just sitting there waiting for me to add to it, to edit it, and let it live. It is a NaNoWriMo novel from a few years ago, that's how long it has been sitting over there sad, forlorn, and not-quite-but-almost forgotten.

Then a hit struck me like a thought: I shall put it up one chapter at a time, read the chapter, and then write a commentary on that chapter, sort of like a hypertext novel except without the hundred blue and underlined nouns. Sort of like the Talmud but without the scholarship. Authorial marginalia, I think would be a good name for it; but I'm calling it Behind the Curtain. 

You the reader should be able to read straight through the novel just by clicking on the 'Next' link at the end of each chapter. And, if you so desire, you can click on the 'Behind the Curtain' link at the end of each chapter to see what I think of the chapter, how the chapter came to be, and other insights I probably don't have but would like to have.

Calvado is a love story where love kills. (That's the subtitle/tagline: Love Kills.) Mack and Calvado have a problem - he loves her and she could love him back. Except for one minor problem. Click on the title of this post or the Calvado link to your right to read my Free! Online! novel of love and death.

The Plan and the Man

What have I been doing in these last 36 plus hours since I said I'd upload some snaps of my Japanese stab binding/cereal box? I have uploaded some snaps of my cereal box cover/Japanese stab binding But mysteriously posted them on  Tedorigawa Bookmakers. Why would anyone do that? A mystery, of course, but at least there is a link to another Tedorigawa blog with pictures. And sound.

Second accomplishment: I'm making - slowly but surely and with spurts and gurgles and the occasional push uphill by a semi and the occasional jumpstart - a radio drama. A detective drama for the ears called

Dead Men Don't Travel

A fairly original title, don't you think? It is not a stand alone drama but embedded, so to speak, on a podcast I do about Japanese, Chinese, English, and things in Japan. If you'd like to check it out go to Hokudai/Cast. The following episodes of Hokudai/Cast contain Dead Men Don't Travel shows. There are more sections on Hokudai/Cast episodes than just DMDT shows: A language lesson - Japanese, Chinese, English - vocabulary lesson, and music. Usually there is a timetable and you can find the DMDT shows easily by checking the timetable. I hope.

Let me look up some episodes for you.
Episode 51 is the first, I think, followed by
Episode 55,
Episode 57,
Episode 59,
Episode 60. 

Dead Men Don't Travel is an experiment in text-to-speech. It is first typed in TypeitReadit, then it goes through a tortuous editing process complete with sound effects and voice over. It's a film noir detective story for the ears. A radio noir, so to speak? Perhaps? I think it sounds good but I want you all to tell me what you think.

What's the plot?

A businessman is missing. Or is he? The detective, Vicki Bradstreet, has been asked to find the missing man. Everywhere she goes, she's one step behind a murderer. Is the missing man the murderer? Or is it his wife? His girlfriend? His business partner? Can Vicki find the killer before the Dead Man winds up ... dead?

japanesestabbinding

Here I am sipping some fine Japanese sake (Tedorigawa sake, by the way, brewed right over there in Hakusan City, Japan), thinking about my accomplishments over the past few days.

As you may recall, I wrote a movie for Script Frenzy in about 12 hours called Chimera Woman. It's about DNA cloning, genetic engineering, and murder. To better let the world know about yet another useless blog, I created one called ZipScripts: Scripts Written Quick. Yes, I know it should be Quickly, but that's the problem with creative writing: sometimes you feel like an adverb, sometimes you don't. Please take a look at it and remember: speed was of the essence.

Second accomplishment, kind of. Rather. Maybe. I bound a book using Japanese stab binding, folded over used paper, green, waxed hemp thread, and the cover is made of a Kellogg's Genmai (brown rice) Flake cereal box. I butchered the binding and sewed one too many loops around the book. It's a soulful mess but a pretty one. If things go according to plan over the next 36 hours, I should have One - count it - One photo of the bastard child of satan by tomorrow.

Script Frenzy Success!

I learned that Script Frenzy had moved from June to April on April 23rd, leaving me 7 full days to write a screenplay. The only trouble being: LIFE! I couldn't write everyday so I had to write when I could. I managed to write for three days total. THREE! And.... I finished! Hence the winner's logo to the left. What is the point? No point (except if you donate some cash so that the organizers can do some good in the world) except to prove to oneself that one can, given the deadline, finish a complete 100 page screenplay in a month. I managed it in less than a week. Cool. Next year, no sweat. Also, by the way, I finished a script last year, too. Both were film noir style movies. Why? Because I like Lauren Bacall/Kathleen Turner tough talking babes in movies.

What was this script about? Genetic engineering, chimeras, and DNA manipulation - where is the real human and what's the difference between designer people and androids? All encased in a mystery, a thriller, and a shoot 'em action screenplay Without a car chase (but with cars.)

Thank you very much. I'll be here all week. Be sure to tip your waitresses and hey! Have a good time.

A Capella

A different media play with... Just a little a capella classical singing in a language I don't understand. German? Latin? Italian? About two minutes.

Alice by Evan

Just a little independent music from the Jamendo website.

This is Alice by Evan who, I believe, is from a French-speaking nation.

Sound Thinking.... Two Plus Choices.

This is another test of the emergency broadcasting system except with one minor change: no siren. Except a little one at the end that could be mistaken for a dead phone line. And an experiment with an embedded player. 

Please listen and remember, this is only a test. If this had been an actual emergency... well, you'd be SOL. Next week: more about books and less about experiments. Unless they have to do with bookbinding.

Click on the little triangle thingy to hear.

After the Prefix Lesson, a song by Seattle Standard Cafe


or here: a little drama about bookbinding.

Or this late addition:

Which player do you like? Let me know. 

Another blog. What's he thinking?

I have created a bookmaking-related blog or two at the following places in case you really, really need to read more about what I write in such a sporadic way. And who amongst us hasn't had that need? 

Site one is Tedorigawa Bookmakers and site two is Tedorigawa Bookmakers - clever titles designed to not confuse anyone except myself. The first is a blogspot blog and the other is a Podbean blog. Both now have sound (courtesy of Podbean) and I'm thinking of including one for this blog, too, so you can not only read what I write but hear what I say as you read. A plethora of media, wouldn't you say?

I've also updated and rearranged the links on the sidebar to your right. Exciting stuff, this, eh?

Once a Week?

Try as I might - not much - I failed at my 'weekly' entry. However, I made a box for a book - the book is called The Leap Day Book because I finished it, purposefully, on February 29, 2008; I made a short film (about a minute) called Waiting to practice filming, and I organized my office - which is still a work in progress. And I, uh, worked on another blog plus a website so I wasn't completely innocent of blogdom in my spare time. The box is here but it's sideways so you either have to turn your computer on its side or tilt your head or imagine it upright.

In other art news, I'm listening, slowly, to Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle) which I have never listened to before. This is the opera from which we have our image of opera singers as being big, fat, (It ain't over til the fat lady sings) and wearing breast armor and helmets with horns. One opera - of course it takes four days to watch it - and it created a stereotype. There is a lot of yelling... I mean loud singing, but there is also some incredible music. (And not just the Ride of the Valkyrie of Robert Duvall Lt. Colonel Kilgore Apocalypse Now fame.)

Greetings from Afar.

Yes, months ago I posted a post and then fell silent whilst working on something called "life." But I have returned with a Bushite smirk and a song in my heart. What have I been working on, you may ask? Besides the day job, you mean? A variety of home improvement projects which, as you well know, consume entire bank accounts and reek havoc on the most innocent of lives with merely a whisper of thanks or warning.

Also included in this silence was the inclination of a total, again, revamp of 手取川 - Tedorigawa. Yes, again. The first Tedorigawa was a rampage of raamen. The second incarnation was a rambling of a lot of meandering rivers in the streams of consciousness. This, the third revival of a blog, will focus like a laser beam in on art. Art, I tell you. Not related to the Garfunkel of Simonand kind of art but of art in real life. Mostly, however, movies, screenplays, and books that I have seen, written, or plan to write. (See below: Dancing on the Arc of a Dream for further details on the written and plan to write phases of writing.)

I will, one hopes, promise (which, with $4 will get you a cup of java at your local caffeine outlet) to update this New Improved Revamped Revived Blog more often. Dare I say "Once a week"? We shall see. We shall see.

_____________

Next week: Text to Speech Suspense Drama -  Part One: The Invisible Client.