DeZ Vylenz Log

A captain's log of activities and projects, affiliations and developments involving the Shadowsnake ship and various guerilla film expeditions. Updated in between storms by DeZ Vylenz, Writer - Director - Martial Arts Choreographer

Friday, November 28, 2008

The Blood-dimmed Tide

Time moves like a dark freight train in the night. Birthday passed beginning of November. Then two weeks in Amsterdam. Corporate film shoot, Aviation Authority, planes, offices, interviews. Renovating my writing space/library, painting walls, archiving, dumping unnecessary stuff. Kilos of newspaper, mags. Getting lean. Ayahuasca private moment with Mano a colleague and the travelling Hilario Chiriap, the Shuar shaman from Ecuador, a proud warrior with great skills. His steel bow harp drones in a frequency deep in the Amazon.

Quick hit and run to check emails, no time to write on script, novel of weblogs. Training, Kung Fu school, different cities. Feels alien if I step back and look at the strange life I live. Meetings, some planned, some an accidental rendezvous in a bar or cafe, all walks of life, film producers, clothing wholesalers. diamond dealers just returning from Russia. Culture afficionados. Entrepreneurs with stories stranger and scarier than some fiction, some straight from the jungle of Suriname. Coincidence? Just as I'm writing my own material located there. Everything seems to fall in place. To be continued...

Last Monday, jamming after a long time with our Blut Meridian line up. Garvan's drumming getting better, more powerful, more swinging and confident. Malcolm coming up with some badass original guitar riffs. We're moving more into writing own songs rather than covering obscure Black Sabbath and other heavy songs. I pound on the heavy bass strings, forgetting everything else. Inspiring three hours.

Tuesday, pack, last few missions, fly off to LHR.

Wednesday, the missions continue. Lunch time, a rare moment that I switch on the TV. What the hell do I see? Hostage situations and attacks in Mumbai. Straight out of Die Hard, Taj Palace Hotel siege. Carnage at a rail station. Mumbai transformed from busy financial centre to warzone. Panic, Fear. Commandos carving their way in. Casualties. Lots of civilians. Some militants. A businessman barricades himself in the Oberoi Trident and talks live with the press. A voice from the inside in the middle of the madness. The man is admirably calm and composed, describing shots outside in his corridor, running, noise, and commotion.

As Marvin Gaye sang: What's Going On? Worrying stuff. These things used to be incidents, now it's all becoming a regular thing.

Then the UK government making silly decisions, lowering VAT. This will surely create a gap in the state budget and cause them to scrabble some time later to raise taxes in other areas. Many independent businesses I talk to say they should have lowered business rates and income tax instead to help survival.

As W.B. Yeats wrote in his much quoted poem, The Second Coming:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

So it seems. While the majority drowns in mediocrity, disturbed and fragmented minds plot destruction and exploitation. Let's hope all these clouded minds either clean up or destroy themselves before most of us who just want to live their lives get stuck in the middle.

And in this urban global village we've become that seems more difficult than ever before. Syphilization, rotting brains. Peace seems so far. But surely it will come...

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Monday, November 03, 2008

USA Election, 2 minutes to Midnight

I read about this young potential candidate for the first time back in January 2007 on my way to the Rotterdam Film Festival. There was a newspaper lying around on the train and one page was dedicated to the race lying a year ahead and the possible runners. Besides the usual suspects with the same old policies and vantage points, there was critical praise of a young man of mixed origin, who grew up in Jakarta, Hawaii and seemed to be on the level of what was going on. So the first thing that went to my mind was the potential that finally somebody who was in touch with different age generations and cultures could end up in the White House. Not that this could be the first black president and all that, because what is really black and what is white? Why are Charlie Mingus, Colin Powell or Alicia Keys considered black, even though they had one white parent?

Racial prejudice I guess is all about context, because in another culture they might be considered white, or mixed or mulatto, or any of the terms coined in the history of intercontinental migrations. Maybe it's because I'm from a very mixed background and country myself, but after a while the whole discussion in the media got very annoying to me. Of course ethnic background should not to be trivialised, but ability, leadership and understanding are what voters should be concentrating on. And I find it disappointing that so many still can't look and really see behind the physical appearance of things.

Over the last year I've heard many people being sceptical, citing the same old "he's inexperienced", but the only thing I could retort: A president of the United States is not going to run the country on his own behind a web console. He's the one to create teams, think tanks, hire the best people for the job. A captain, a leader who choose and motivate the right people for the right positions. Barack Obama has proven this in the extremely efficient way he battled in a number of campaigns already and managed to inspire people.

And so what, even if the job of president would be only a PR job, even then this man would qualify headfirst. He has convinced even hard core Republicans (e.g. Reagan's former adviser) that he has the charisma, eloquence, aptitude and drive to do the job and internationally have a less belligerent image.

I only wished I had put £ 300 on Barack Obama with the London bookies in January 2007 when I read that paper and seriously felt a wind of hope and promise. The odds were all against him back then. For me that's not a whim or easy hindsight opinion, as I'm extremely critical of contemporary politicians and people in leading positions who are simply not doing their job.

Let's hope that voters do take the time to bring out their vote and make a progressive choice.

On 5 November when fireworks go off in England to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day, many will bring out a toast on Barack Obama. I definitely will.

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

LIfechanging Advice

We've been absent from the weblogs for a while. As mentioned before, I'm writing mostly longhand and working on new fiction material, so staying away from the computer as much as I can, except for the essential business.

Some turbulent times, monetary systems imploding, recession, depression, if you have to believe the newspaper headlines we're in for doom by Christmas. Who gives a damn anyway? Well, those with lots of money (or better said numbers, abstractions) in bank accounts, stock markets and what not.

I read in the local paper here in London that Haringey Council has lost £ 37 million in Iceland bank, although their investment limit in any institution is £ 20 million. The other local paper had on the cover: 63% of children in Haringey live in poverty. Now what the fuck is £ 37 million of my (and scores of tax payers') money doing in a savings account when schools, special programs and subsidies should have been boosting living standards for kids.

It's sickening. Maybe the whole system should collapse, so governments finally have to admit that they haven't been doing their job, but merely skimming off money or allowing it to happen.

Anyway, 30 September The Mindscape of Alan Moore was released in the USA and Canada by The Disinformation Company. Much of what's going on in the world right now is also part of the film, which fortunately is available in brick and mortar stores and not just on the Internet.

So my bold advice for October is: Buy The Mindscape of Alan Moore and VOTE OBAMA!

Those two decisions will definitely change your life ; )

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Humbled by Mountains

No time again to write my weblog entries for the last 3 weeks. Have been filling up parts of the small Moleskin pockets I carry with me while on the move. I try to avoid the computer unless it's necessary for business.

Lots going on now, with the North American release of The Mindscape of Alan Moore at the end of September, I will need to do at least 15 interviews in the next 2 weeks, besides the different film projects and collaborations going on.

A combination of work and a visit to friends in Madrid last weekend turned out to be extremely inspiring, with a lot of location scouting going on and joyful and interesting characters along the way.

Sunday I suddenly found myself in the middle of a mountain tracking expedtion on the Montes Carpetanos mountain range, near Navacerrada. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_de_Guadarrama

The main destiny was to reach Siete Picos, which I had no idea what to expect from. With only a few hours of sleep the night before in the Madrid mayhem of El Noche en Blanco, the walk was increasingly difficult, rocky paths becoming steeper and steeper as my legs started burning up with milky acid. After a short break we climbed up a last stretch to suddenly reach the top and the capriciously shaped peaks could be seen. They looked like something out of a film set, piles of rocks that formed mini-mountains by themselves and with a breathtaking view on the Sierra de Guadarrama. As far as the eye could see the horizons, there was only the empty space of the Sierra, with the trees growiing on the mounntain range below.

An alien landscape of rocks with green moss spots, the occassional dead tree on the edge and gigantic black eagles or hawks above. We climbed the highest peak and reached the 2038 m level. In the distance --not visible with the naked eye-- the longest lens on my portable videocam could discern the four towers in the North of Madrid.

To cut it short, it was a great experienced to be humbled by a mountain, bludgeoned into the hard realization that we human beings are as significant as insects on this planet. The descent was easier, as we were filled with incredibly positive energy and pure joy. Which is something we often forget. With a few rucksacks of water, wallnuts, apples and ginger, a jacket to cover against the cold summer winds and a dedicated group of five we achieved one of those perfect movie moments in real time.

Incredible golden sunsets, full moon rising up over the mountains while recovering back at my friends mountain dwelling and food prepared from the plants around the house. But to see it on film or read about it is not enough, I think the human body and mind sometimes need to be pushed to their limits, in whatever form that may be.

I would highly recommend expeditions into the open landscapes of nature, especially with the urban life style slowly squeezing the juice out of you. Inspiration, vision quests, marvels are not thing one should wait for, but the moment you move into new territories, they often just unfold before the eyes.

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The Race for Gold

Olympic Games have finished. Didn't have time to watch any of it, although some of the opening ceremony visuals directed by Zhang Yimou were impressive. $ 150 million US balls for that though, while a large majority still lives in poverty.

Michael Phelps with 8 gold medals after ploughing through lots of water and equally explosive on the 100 m, 200m and 4X100m relay: Usain Bolt. What was most striking is the naive spontaneity he broke world records, even when he started celebrating early on the 100 m. This I liked, because it was refreshing from the usual split second races and there was now clearly an athlete who raised the game a few levels up.

With a background in traditional martial arts, I'm not tuned into the competitive side of things, as there will always be somebody or thing better at a certain area. It still is best to compete with the best in one self, so in that sense the nature of sports lies in exactly that element of play and triumph. It's rare to still see that in any area of sport, as it's all too much of a business now, so often the rhythm of it all AND the play feel rather programmed. Which is why seeing excellence can be an aspiring thing, it means people CAN still break the moulds.

Which brings me to the issue of intellectual property, rights, ownership and all that. When I searched for videos of Usain Bolt's winning races, there was not one snippet of footage to be found. It was all removed if it had been posted and it turned out that NBC in the USA had bought the rights to most of these races. It does seem logical that a network paid millions for the rights and needs to recoup that through national viewers.

Yet, there seemed to be angry reactions from a certain site when our legal consultant had merely done his duty and asked a stream to be removed in the USA. They were difficult to contact, so he filed an official take down, which was rather unfortunate for the site in question, but at the same time it is common knowledge that every film, book or record is copyrighted. This is not because of psycho urges to control or own things, but simply because it's a creation and a production that took a lot of investments to make.

There is now a whole generation of people who are taking for granted that films are also very expensive media to produce. Especially in our case as an independent, The Mindscape of Alan Moore absorbed a lot of our resources to get it to the cinematic standards of the industry and not just shoot a cowboy thing on video. So it was good to get supportive emails from numerous fans of the film who'd either purchased it or at least understood the mission impossible guerrilla filmmakers take on.

I also value the free spirit of the Internet, but am also worried that if the current trend continues with more and more people just looking at simply shot videos for entertainment and don't take the time to see a film in the cinema or on a proper DVD, in a decade or less the real art and craft of film making will be lost to the mainstream.

And of course there are new revenue models coming up for media, but a lot of it is advertisement based, which casts doubts on the development of original ideas and stories. We'll see, nobody can really predict what direction this culture will take, but at the moment the whole vibe on this planet is a gigantic rat race.

Posted by DeZ Vylenz