Let's get down to business shall we? Life has once again booted me in another direction. At a glance it is rough and difficult. At another glance it's really quite awesome and perhaps more than any other time in my life the end result will be entirely my responsibilty. I wanted to be free, here is the chance of a a lifetime to do so. But that's not all. I have recently been encountering a number of AI art generators and the implications for the coming creative future are far reaching and paradigm shifting to say the very least. I focus on a technology called Midjourney and how I can see it impacting enough of different creative viens. I'm back. I'm back for good. Let creation flow!

Let's get to it EP.59. We are a little leaner this epsiode. For whatever reason I had a few less things to discuss. Perhaps a sign I need to crank up the adventure in my life. No biggy. I'll do it. That doesn't mean though what is here was not worth the talk. I have been reading and I have been watching a lot of great media recently which informed a lot of what comes up in this episode. Particularly a book called 'the name of the wind' known for being foundational as some of the best fantasy ever written and endorsed by Ursula K Leguin herself. More contempoarily I have watched 'The Shrink Next Door' starring Will Ferrel and Paul Rudd, an absolute master class in great story, suspense and art. To go back in time a little we finish the podcast on the topic of Don Bluth the director I've discovered who directed all of the major dark animations I enjoyed as a child. We turn over some rocks and we find some fascinating things.

Joseph Keating is a fascinating man. Managing to develop a skill-set that expresses both his understanding of technical fields alongside the artistic is no simple task. We dicuss the kind of thinking that goes into creating the inside of retail stores as well as a his philosophy with it is for himself as opposed to a client. This was a good one. It may be the longest I've recorded to date.

I'd never been to anywhere in Japan more south than Kobe until very recently. I finally got a chance to go to Hiroshima for the purpose of filming a wakeboarding tournament taking place there. Come August our studio is filming a major tournament in Kyushu so this was a great opportunity to see what the realities on the ground were for filming this kind of content. Being there gave us a chance to go to the war memorial museum which remembers the tragedy of the nuclear bomb being dropped on Hiroshima. It was a challenging and useful experience, totally unique. I thought I knew how I felt regarding the bombing. This gave a much clearer reflection for me to consider my thoughts regarding it. 

Alan is a friend who I've met since moving to Kyoto. This man has skill. When you look at his body of work it is self evident. Crisply composed and tuned to some of the best colouring you've ever seen, Alan is a pure pro. I particulary enjoyed in the course of our conversation getting into how Alan described his style having a melancholic quality to it. A quality which we both agreed does fit the Japanese aesthetic very well.

Adam and I grew up together on Vancouver Island. It has been incredible to reconnect with him and discuss the absolutely mad path that he has taken through life. Like myself he was bit with the desire to seek out new horizons but where my path took my to Japan, his took him all over the world. There is so much to Adam's story that we cannot nearly cover it in this one episode but that does not limit its scale. Adam started his career assisting the UN in Zimbabwe which offered him a totally new sense of life and culture. He would then go on to assist in the Syrian crisis in a role which would see him allocating resources and working the execute the particulars of plans laid out for aid.

Today's guest is James Palmer an old friend and mechanical engineer. He'll joined me to talk about mostly anything but then we ended up staying on the topic of education for quite some time. It will be fascinating to see how these systems develop going into the future as the freedom to information and education continues to grow.

Teacher, student, creator, are these the elements which make up a fully actualized human being? In this episode I do my best to argue for that fact. Recently I saw a quite touching clip on instagram taken from a Louis CK's show and it was talking about love. I offer a few thoughts on that. Then we move into a discussion of deep fake technology and Kendrick Lamar's new album, specifically for the reason that he so originally blends these two elements together. And if that wasn't enough for you we hit up talking about the new cinematic masterpiece which is the Northman. A wickedly directed film from the guy who directed The Witch as well as The Lighthouse.

Went all out on this episode and actually for once made a list of topics to work through. I like to dabble in books as a topic but it's often fun to make sure I try and get outside of that box. For that reason we go all over the place. Perhaps hitting the most meta discussion of all, what other podcasts have taught me. One Dr in particular is of great interest to me. His name is Dr Huberman and he works out of Stanford university. He has some really fascinating things to say on focus. Expect the podcast to move at a rapid pace in this episode. I was shocked to see how quickly the time past as I recorded it. Oh, and we talk about the unreal 5 engine and Elden Ring.

We return. We get back up. We are on the horse. In the return of the podcast now heading towards the coveted 100 episodes we've got a few interesting topics. I had somehow avoided reading and any of Haruki Murakami's books, that was, until now. I have completed "Hard Boiled Wonderland And the End Of the World" it was great and ever a testament to not judging something until you've completed it. Further beyond the topic of reading, I've done some amazing travel recently around the Kansai region of Japan which took me to the Onsen town of Kinosaki and Koyasan, the most beautiful place I've ever been in Japan.