The New Vitruvian Man

I guess I can officially call this blog defunct.

I've started a new project called The New Vitruvian Man. Its an online magazine portal all about the three things I'm most passionate about, design, food preparation and music.

Join the Facebook page for constant updates at:

https://www.facebook.com/TheNewVitruvianMan

Check the website out, do feel free to drop in a comment:

http://thenewvitruvianman.com/

The Great Deluge

I finally uploaded my animation project short onto youtube. Here it is for you to see.

Questionable signboards 001

I pass this shop on the way to gym every day. It got me thinking. I could open a grossery shop. Those who know me well would agree that I'd probably be good at it. I'd stock tampon popscicles, decapitated cockroaches (oddly, something seems to be leaving headless cockroaches all over my house; like there's some sort of cockroach psychopath in my house-no it's NOT me), centipedes (I have a lot of those) and dangling metaphors, amongst other things.

This shop however, seems to stock dry fruits and nuts.

Gym

This is the gym I've just joined. I didn't take any pictures of the interiors because I made it a little after the first few people turned up. I usually get there by 5 30 am, but I reached five minutes late today. I didn't want to shoot the middle aged, odd shaped folks who form the majority of gym's members. It's quite a swanky gym with very fancy equipment and personal trainers. Every member is allotted a personal trainer (whose heart I think I broke on day two by coolly ignoring him; I've been doing this for more than a year now and don't really fancy someone hovering me while I'm working out) and the gym has a steam room and showers. The showers have (frosted) glass doors. I haven't seen anyone else use them. I'm sure it would have been way cheaper for them to install normal opaque doors, but perhaps this tactic makes sure people don't take too long in there.

I got a pretty good deal with these folks, considering the fact that this is a pretty posh gym. I'm paying just a little over a thousand rupees a month for this. I had the option of joining another gym, closer to home and quite possibly cheaper, but their own advertising helped me decide against it.
I thought if they can't get their grammar right they couldn't possibly be too hot with their fitness training basics, as if the non sequitur wasn't enough.
The fact that the gym is right behind a blood bank didn't help either. I can see it now, headlines in the Mumbai Mirror, "Man faints in gym, leaves slightly pale".

House

Finally, a new post. I moved into my house in August. Its taken ages to set things up, and there still is a bit left. Its a nice house with more space than I need, but it has its own little drawbacks. Since it's on the ground floor, I'm often visited by cockroaches and centipedes (mostly around 4 30 in the morning, when they crawl over me).

The next step is to get a bed and get my kitchen fixed up. I'll post images of the kitchen once its ready.
That's the outside. I know its a little run down, but its home. I heard some rumours that its scheduled for demolition (in a year or two).

Transition periods: ça me vexe

This is a double post of sorts. As the title suggests, and the image above supports, its about this new French artist Mademoiselle K and her (very nice) song titled "ça me vexe". Of course, it translates to "I am upset" (or something like that that).

This post is titled "Transition period", because thats exactly what this is for me. I'm on a sort of short holiday before diving into hectic house hunting and interviews with prospective clients. The plan as of now is to freelance in the city as a Graphic Designer and Animator. I'm in a way both wary and excited about this new phase.

Ça me vexe is a catchy number and it sounds interesting even though I can't understand a word of the language. I think I'm missing out on the lyrical quality of the song, but the fluidity of the language compensates in a way. I also think the video played a part in getting me hooked onto this song. There's just something intriguing about a cool guitar toting front lady with a close cropped hairdo I guess.

Seek and you shall find more than you bargained for (sometimes)

I thought I'd post a post about my guitar today, so I looked online for a decent picture of it. I ended up finding this image. Of course, I don't have any of the stuff in the picture, save for the beautiful Les Paul Special II guitar (and some assorted plectrums from a lot og non-gobson brands) in the middle (which is not bad at all I think). I presently play the thing off my computer speakers in my room. I have this Korg AX100g processor that allows me to do so. Of course, I'd love an amp like the one in the picture above; the kind that will give the neighbours hell.

My new Poinsettia

The new Poinsettia with the other plants on my windowsill. The Hyacinth on the left also flowers with beautiful bluish-purple flowers once in a while.

My friend Poonam gifted me this plant a few days ago. Its called a Poinsettia and belongs to the Euphorbia family. It has bright red leaves which look even brighter when lit from behind. It reminds me of the beautiful bright red tree from The Ring (2002, Dreamworks SKG).
The tree in the film is the Japanese Maple, whose fruit is called Samara. Incidentally Samarra is also my niece's name. The tree they used in the movie though was apparently fake, made with metal and plaster. The leaves were made of painted silk.
Credits for identifying the plant (and the Carpenter bee below) go to my Mom.

Desperately seeking someone

The girl I'd asked to act for me in my film backed out last minute. I can't really blame her, since she's bogged down with a ton of work of her own. The thing is that the sequence for which I needed her was actually based on a conversation I had with her. It would have been a the most natural thing. Now I have to look for someone else. The easiest thing would be to ask one of my friends on campus to act for me.

It would be nice to have someone with some real acting experience to work with. Anyone?

Carpenter Bee rescue

I swim every day at the swimming pool on campus. As the summers approach the pool seems to be only getting more crowded. Somewhere around my 12th lap I swam into a big Carpenter Bee (quite like the one above). I assumed he'd already drowned by the time I caught sight of him. On my return lap though I saw his (or her) legs flailing around helplessly in the water. So I swam up to him (or her) and picked him up with my swimming goggles (which in case you were wondering, were in my hands and not on my face) and dropped him off on the side of the pool. A big heavy hairy bee that was.

Incidentally, the last sequence of my animated short for this sem takes place in the pool. I've spent a good portion of the day figuring out how I'm going to go about creating and animating the pool. I'll upload images from it as soon as I put them together. I'm not sure if this is going to get seen at all by many people, but I'm sure its for the best.

Music recommendation of the day: Through, by Edith Pijpers. I caught a few songs by her off the Zerophilia (2005, Microangelo Entertainment LLC & Scrambled Eggs Productions) Soundtrack. If you're into retro and have an inclination towards 80's music, you might just like this. She's got a touch of early Sinéad O'Connor, Heather Nova and Sarah MacLachlan in her voice and music. Worth a listen. She hasn't got a Wikipedia entry yet though.

I think this point size of text is much better. Its more readable. Readability wins.

The Great Deluge: Day one Post one

After a lot of people suggested/coaxed/insisted I start off a blog of my own, I finally decided to go ahead and actually do it. The image is from an animated short I made last sem here at IDC, IITb. Its called The Great Deluge. Its loosely based on the few months I stayed at this insane house at Lokhandwala in Andheri. The house (which was a little shoebox of a house; probably an illegal construction on someone's terrace) used to soak water like a sponge during the Monsoons and the false ceiling used to bend and buckle with the weight of the water that would seep through the porously tiled roof.