Posts by Yunyu

Bye bye Drone World…(hopefully forever)

All being equal (if not before), 4th August 2006 is the official last day of my drone life for awhile…hopefully permanently. With an upcoming album and video clip crowning, I’m going to give music a shot full time. I think I owe this to myself and all who have believed in me thus far.

Thank you for that.

Meanwhile let’s drink to

A new life
Courage
Taking chances
Faith
and fellow dreamers

Wish me luck. My climb begins now.

Dear muse

Dear muse/s

I have no delusions about who is in control here. I know it’s not me. If someone’s going to drag me by the hair with a tune in her head, it’s going to be you.

Not me.

You set the goals, not me. You decide when you are going to write 15 songs in 2 days or 5 songs in 365 days. I now know it’s your call. I also know that 3 days ain’t going to cut it for a writing break, because you are probably going to want to spend the first 7 days cleaning up and catching up on reading and doing whatever you damn well please. Yes I know that…I finally find 3 days of slack time and you made me vacuum the vortexes aka blackholes forming in my room just so u can write.

So we have ended up…not quite writing again. You are a Nazi at times but I’ll only love you more.

Books and films to be read and seen remain mountainous and I realise you probably want to catch up on all before you ever speak to me again. I realise that I haven’t really been listening to you and it is only right that you grant me the same courtesy of silence after all this time.

After all I’ve been ignoring you. By painful choice. Because I want to get to the point of being able to speak to you all the time everytime for the rest of my life and not be tainted by drone world.

To pull that off, sometimes you’re going to have to take a back seat only somestimes.Still, I apologise deeply. I do miss you lots. I miss waking up at 3am with you because you had something to tell me. I miss learning from you even when sleep eludes me in the studio. I guess I just miss my friend.

I promise you that sometime in August, rain or shine I will lock myself away from humanity for a minimum of 8 weeks and be with you again…but first there is much to do before we fuck off to the hills to be an artist.

It would be fun…just u and I. See u then but do drop by.

eh…finally an all ages gig

It’s been awhile but starting up the gig machine yet again. These days it’s been a loop of activities like that. Gig for abit, go online for a bit…write for abit…so forth…I’ve lately found a way to survive on 3 hours sleep.

check out this crazy labrat. Of course, I’m tempted enough to try it on meself. I cannot tell you how useful an extra 20 hours will be for me.

Here are details of my next gig. 18+ ONLY. (Younger readers scroll downwards)

Location: Kelly’s Irish Pub
Time: 8pm
Date: March 14th

Then there’s an ALL AGES gig coming up on April 1st. So if you have been discriminated because of your age…Here’s your chance to roam free in my realm

Details on here
Time and other itty bitty little bits TBC. But see you all soon

murderous thoughts

Just lost a post…so I’m a little evil.
—Warning – if you see yourself as a pretty moralistic individual, you might prefer to look away …now.—-They are after all theories I pull out of a pretty psychotic head, I trust you will do well to dismiss them. So there.

Delusions aside, Earth time is really one down from Hell. I mean, in hell you know you’ve fucked it all up and the pressure’s over . On earth, you can be stuck in a bowl of pretty acidic crap and still have to decide over the issues of god damned moralities.

It’s a bummer. That’s why I don’t do religious discussions well. Nor do I understand the concept of good and evil. I tell you what I DO understand though, tis the concept of convenience—namely, principles of attaining a balance between long term vs short term benefits and convenience

That I understand. Allow me to illustrate with a few practical examples from my daily life.

Attaining Radio Airplay 101
Short term convenience – Hire a bazooka, hold a heist at triple J or any other major radio station, put a gun to their heads or better yet de-animate everyone, take over the station for 5 – 20 minutes, depending of pig intelligence.(See footnote) Stick my album in, hit PLAY. Then interview myself — the psycho singer chick
Benefits: I get my airtime. The broadcasted gun shots will be something to remember.
Even when I get caught, I will be a big time anti celebrity…freaking YAY-ness!
Cons: It will be decidedly inconvenient once the cops bust in on my act.
It will also be decidedly inconvenient when I have to enjoy fame from prison, or the authorities could go one up, send me back to Singapore, where they will dangle me from a rope.

Ding Dong Bell.
Yunyu goes to hell.

–oops.

So really, it isn’t the concept of Good and bad that stops me from being a murderous, psycho brat. It really is about the concept of convenience. A lot (definitely not all) of “bad” actions come from the need to fulfil some sort of short term benefits, then of course, you screw up the minute you act on it.

So I guess life is really about trying to find that balance between long term and short term benefits and convenience, otherwise known in the normal realm as GOOD vs EVIL.

Take the concept of societal morals.

What really prevents you from murdering your fellow human bean? The reasons really vary, depending on how you have been schooled:

The religious will tell you that it’s the concept of heaven and hell. Being in hell and burning for all eternity I guess…is decidedly inconvenient. That’s probably why we don’t kill the asshole behaving like a total dick in your office.

The scared will tell you that you get thrown in jail. Which is again…decidedly inconvenient.

So what really really holds it all together? My theory is only that if we are truly allowed to kill each other at will, without societal payback, the world on the whole becomes unsafe, i.e decidedly inconvenient.

So we have laws, we have rules..that basically say, I won’t be an asshole if you won’t. Together we can TRY and live happily ever after. Of course when all fails, we have what is known as war.

That’s really all that’s keeping me from spraying everyone at an Australian Idol concert and the like.

Back to the spidey lair for me…this post is decidedly…
Pointless.

Right Now…

Right now I’ve got a voodoo doll of a certain sound guy taped under my sustain pedal. May his chest implode.

Right now on the eve of 6/6/6 Lenore is awaiting grading in Superman Return’s studios. Coolios. My film crew rocks. (Work your charm Callan) Looks like another couple of days of delay. Dang (I was actually stoked about the 666 bit)

Right now I’ve decided that 31/7/06 is when I fuck off to the hills to be an artist.

Right now, Tom is scaring the shit out of me.

Right now…I’m a little snowed under with the album related preps. more soon….I promise

Lenore's Video clip is DONE!!

As of last Friday,

Lenore’s Song was declared complete. Trish Cahill (Senior colourist, Superman Returns) handed the tape gingerly over. Hushed silence befalls the crewe, as the crew no longer wants to incur the cold wrath of Lenore.

In Lenore’s wake, we mourn the loss of 7 machines and a spooked editor. The crew hopes that Lenore’s machine killing spree ends here.

Please, Ladies and Gentlemen, spare us a minute of silence for our fallen machine comrades who have died for the sake of great art. They are:

2 apple powerbook G4
1 Apple G5
1 2GB ram
1 External drive
2 digibeta tape transfer machines.

Now that we’re done with the dramatics. I’ll be spending the next few days burning DVDs or CDs of the clip for my loyal minions who buy the album.

Have locked in online release at 1st week August (if Australia post doesn’t fail me)

More in a bit, I must head back to Spidey’s lair! Busy Busy times.

We have a shelf life

Time now is 1,2,3,4,5,6

This of course assumes that humanity will have been successfully exterminated by year 3006. wise words

Lenore Diaries (Test Shots 1 & 2)

Today was a day I wished I learnt Taichi.
Today I also learnt that Lenore’s song played 10x slower is
1) a 40minute track
2) a creepy banshee yell
3) a creepy banshee yell is what the cast and crew seemed to like better

Today was a day I had to move V-e-r-y, v—e—r—y. s—l—o—w—l—y.

I had no idea what digital, stop start motion with live action figures involved till this very day. So I now have a new found respect for Corpse Bride…at this point think claymation with live action figures.

First half hour involved director Tahnee teaching me how to move in digital still world. One WRONG move and you will have to start again, and incur the wrath of the DOP (director of photography) Callan Green, who’s credits include LOTR. A little awe-struck…must ask about Golem.

So here it was…at take 101st when I decide to fend off a mosquito that kamikaze-ed into my mouth.

“:WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!!”
“ermm…sorry, bug, mouth…had to bat it off. Sorry…I remember where I was at though.. (hastily adjusting to pre- mosquito batting position)

please don’t kill me”

“ok…moving closer closer….toward the camera…eyeball it…ARGH!! That’s a Bug move Muh-ate!! Ok look here look at my finger…F-O-L-L-O-W ut…” ( Callan is upset that I moved my eyeball 1cm too quickly..)

I’m thinking we’ll get along just fine. Me and Mr Cranky Pants Kiwi. 😛

Today’s test shoots happen because we all needed to get used to the alternate world of digital stills. The actors need to learn the meaning of slow, and the crew learns the painful truth that a 10-minute shoot amounts to 5 seconds of real time footage.

We also learn that USB 1.0 is a big no NO if you want to do lots of data transfer. It is retarded and painful. 20 mins to dload 2GB of data is just medieval by today’s standards.

Days that followed before the shoots are becoming a blur. More tech shoots more tech meetings, more rehearsals with Tahnee. Some highlights include:

Taking a walk into Sydney with the production team and taking various pan away shots. (Callan was, rest of us watched and added our 2 cents worth)

Watching the Test shots being put together, know that they rock and that the real go is going to be even BETTER.

Meeting the costume design department , Tahnia and Karmen, and shopping. Shopping was interesting. I’ve never walked into a shoe shop with more than 1 person involved in the purchase, yesterday…there were 5….a little bewildered at all the attention – I’m sure the store owner was too.

More later folks. Mid season allergies setting in. come 9pm, my body’s awake but the temp change in the season is resulting in pus filled eyes and a gradually swelling face. Think I’ll go sleep the change off..my body is attempting self destruction at my inconvenience.

Welcome to the land of too much information….

I'm your lost Lenore

Mild disaster. Recovering. Still it’s resulting in a delay of the Vid clip. Lenore has turned out to be quite a destructive force. Currently dead or missing

1 editor (missing)
1 new 200Gb LaCie Hard Drive (dead)
1 PowerBook G4 17-inch (near death experience-back and well from apple shop)

and counting…

I’m remembering scenes from Lost in La Mancha and feeling a mild sense of empathy. Mild..I said. Situation is not quite that bad.

The last 2 weekends were spent converting files to the correct specs for the Vid clip. You see, the one external drive that had all the converted files died before we could even get a back up happening. The previous conversion took a week and the half. With time running out, some very desperate people (us) took a day this time.

Then of course we thought the ordeal was over, until we had to do another 2 conversions just to get the specs right. For all 17000 pictures.

It’s looking now that the Vid clip won’t be added to the CD. A bit of a bummer but I will make the clip freely available on my site and various others for download once it is done. And it will, we’re looking at end of May at the moment, amongst all things. The crew is working hard.

Here are the 3 days of the shoot I finally got around to doing and illustrating.

For the next 3 days I am scheduled to

.bitch fight
.go underwater in my best pants
.Brave evil kids
.Attend Evil kid party
.Follow evil kid

Footnote :This clip has many evil kids.

Day 1 (Finally)

Barely slept. I had a weird dream about dancing with ballerina piglets, one of them was barking orders at me to get off stage and her name was Delta Goodrem. Dreams are beautiful things.

Met at Matt’s place. Dog tired. Hope my energy levels hold up. I see Lissette (wardrobe dept) walking in with costumes. Here we go….let’s follow the white rabbit.

Matt’s sister, Marie who has kindly provided catering for the crew has already got breakfast going. Goody goody gumdrops…I forgot to feed.

Actresses for the Asian Triad showdown scene have arrived. I’m trying to get friendly when I get hauled off to make up dept. Shooting begins in an hour so…eek…

Janine (make up) is a tad nervous. Debbie can’t make it for the first day of shoots so Janine’s pretty much got to hold the fort. I don’t know but from the looks of things she pulled through in fine style.

I also like working with her because she doesn’t threaten to shave me…☺

Here’s some of her work for the day. Then of course, now I am well ahead of myself.

Back in beginnings of Day 1…

Tech dept was promptly set up on a nearby store front after we selected an alleyway in Redfern.

This was the alleyway of the shoot…

Complete with public control messages.

Matt (producer’s) production company is called Enchanter. Found a little sign for him too…

Since it is a public arena, we pretty much have to stop what we are doing every time the public uses the alleyway. It also means that sometimes I have to freeze mid motion, balancing on 1 leg, funny face frozen and eyes fixed. To make things even more interesting, sometimes the public stops to investigate the set and make small talk to the crew, despite an obviously frozen one-legged actress. One little old lady even stopped mid set, and in her infinite kindness…offered us pot.

This is when I want to nuke the entire human population.

The rest was pretty much a blurry occurrence. Interesting to end back up as a school girl again. I fought so hard to get out of institutions…now it’s back to pleasant memories.

Midday, alleyway scenes are done with Jamie keeping tight reins on time. Next location: Mandarin Club.

The walk to the Mandarin Club is a memorable one. I’m in full Geisha make-up and walking down the street. I try to act like everyone else is crazy…a lot easier than I thought it would be.

The crew meanwhile had already been there for an hour and the half setting up the lights.

High speed lenses were used for this scene, which meant that to actually see my face I had to keep absolutely still. Most memorable shot sequences included having a fan follow you right through the restaurant to keep wind levels and hair flying effects while Callan attempts his photography magic.

By mid-day and in the 3rd location change, I am ready to chew my high heeled boots off or my legs. It didn’t make a difference by then.

Then of course I end the day by lying face-up in a kiddy pool, pretending to be utterly relaxed about not breathing, while Callan (photo) and Tahnee (director) work their magic. Feeling tortured and pampered at the same time as Tarnia struggles to keep the ice-cold water warm with multiple hot water refills …valiant effort for a 13-14 degree autumn night.

Many face angles later, day 1 is finally over. I can now drown in peace

Day 2

Days have a knack of blending into each other after a while. When you are filming it’s mostly waiting….

Waiting for make up, waiting for make up to be whacked on by Debbie’s make up army, waiting for your turn to be on the set, waiting waiting waiting…that’s why you bring a book.

Then it helps that the location (Strickland house) is really a pretty place. We learn that we are shooting at the nursing quarters… These are the views.

Then it’s always interesting to hear stories on the set. i.e, apparently on the set of Superman 2, some kids stole a whole bunch of walkie talkies from the crew . Crew gets replacements but forgets to change frequency on the walkie talkies – proceeds to try an co-ordinate one of the most expensive shoots of the film. Kids tune into existing frequencies yelling random orders of “Cut!!’ “Cancel!” “Action” through the frequencies.

After a night of being arsed around, painful enlightenment re: frequency issues.

Back at Lenore’s Today is the day of the evil kids scene. This is where Jamie, the 1st assistant director, becomes a little bit of a child psychiatrist to get the best acting out of the little kiddies.

Basically, he gets me to stand behind the camera and yells. “Kids! This is a really bad person. She’s evil, hate her hate her HATE her!! YAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Under Jamie’s hate regime…the kids go

Most of the non shooting time was spent in the make-shift Tech department made of an overturned table and watching the pictures run together. They were looking good.

Day 2 pretty much ended with kids scenes. Daylight was creeping out of our reach by then.

God’s weather control dept was being a bastard.

Day 3

Last of the days…time running short and we have to be finished, packed and leave Strickland house by 7.30pm. But by this time the crew’s getting pretty chummy with each other.

Then of course, this means it’s harder and harder to keep a straight face when everyone around you is heaping on their share of wise cracks.
The whole crew had by then promised each other to get absolutely sloshed at the end of the shoots.

We all had something to look forward to…I’m going to skip the shoots for today because they would pretty much reveal too much of the plot and spoil it for everyone…so there.

This was our last scene. Shot amidst rising panic, air tight time schedules, a cranky camera and a gradually panicking crew. We got it in, every last planned shot.

Now it’s to spend month in the edit suite. Where Lenore will proceed to kill off human resources and hard drives as a warning shot and adds yet another month to the post production schedule.

Wish us luck.