This korean martial art has a band playing a rhytm, with drums and cymbals. You have 2 fighters in traditional costumes taunting each other, kicking, faking, trying to trip and unbalance the other fighter or just a plain kick to the upper body.
Reminds me a lot of capoiera and mestre cobra mansa
The GF1 makes a great “B” camera for the 5Dmkii. However, you can’t setup custom picture style, which gives higher dynamic range on the 5D. Also, while the GF1 has less moiré and also handles better rolling shutter issues, its cpu compresses too aggressively video, with noticeable artifacts and lower image quality than its sensor can deliver.
If you are interested in video with the Panasonic GH1 or GF1, it’s possible now to hack the firmware and setup a higher bitrate, up to 50mbps. It’s high enough to prevent artifacts, such as the dreaded mud in low-contrast or moving shots. Since the GF1 can only get 720p video, I upgraded to “only” 34mbps though. 50mbps is overkill and is better suited for the GH1′s 1080p video.
The hacking process is very easy. I got Wine for the mac, which has its shares of bugs but does the job.
What I want now is being able to setup a custom picture style (i.e. get more control over the GF1′s color processing engine), apart from basic settings in the menu, and we’re all set. I pushed contrast, sharpness, color and noise reduction all the way down. But still not enough to color match a 5d and a GF1
I’ve been doing video work for the past 2 months, on the camera side; and it’s a tough ride. I can’t go through the fact that it requires so much time, and there doesn’t seem to be shortcuts to speed it up.
See this video
The video took around 3 days of work, in a space of 2 weeks. We arranged a first meetup in front of the city hall. Took roughly 30mn of footage. But audio was awful, with the loud fountains behind, even though I was able to format it into 30mn. We arrannged a second meetup. Audio is still not great, even though I had a new recorder. But now it’s a whole hefty 6mn.
In the meantime, had to order a much faster hard drive (a Seagate Momentus XD) and 4GB of RAM for the editing mac. And got PluralEyes. And had to go through heaps and heaps of web documentation, forum posts, and diverse web tutorials to “get” Final Cut, Motion and Soundtrack Pro.
Of course, there is a learning process, much alike the first time I wanted to try out graphic web design. But Photoshop and graphic design is different. It’s just one frame, and there are countless ways to speed up work. You can setup a workflow to quickly produce something in Photoshop in 30mn or so. But with video, I don’t think there is any time compression possible. You have to go in the field. You have to do subject research. When editing and with post-prod work, you have to listen and re-listen over and over again to the footage, trim it here and there, find creative ways to arrange clips, which takes an enormous amount of time. The only possible ways I can think of to speed up work are taking the laptop in the field and doing editing work in a café somewhere, right after shooting. Having formatted titles, intros and finishes could also help. Getting a 17inch macbook pro with a i7 CPU, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD Drive (plus a 4GB RAID5 array on the ExpressCard), and a beefy video card could also help speed up decompression and conversion work. But again, there are no productivity heaps. I guess that’s just how video art works. The engineer in me sighs. And my creative side dies a little bit each time.
We’ll see for the next videos. That’s just my 2nd real video. I’ll try to do more, especially story-telling videos.
I wanted to get a pair of Vibram Fivefingers (VFF for short) 2 years ago; but back then, I was not sure of the measurements. Their tables showed I need to get a size 40, while I usually get 42/43. I didn’t want to order a pair online and then having to send it back because of size issues.
The hype, litterature, and scientific studies continued to pour out. Summer 2010 was coming so I decided to make the jump and get a pair of black Vibram FiveFingers KSOs, plus also 2 pairs of injinji socks.
I am happy to report that they are the best “shoes” I’ve bought. It’s super-comfortable since it wraps around your feet. No need to break them, it’s just like a pair gloves. I didn’t get any bruises, joint pains, calluses. What I did get though are stares, disbelief, amused smiles, and even sometimes laughs from groups of kids and teenagers. I was used to stares back in France where I did a few creative/popular projects but the level of attention is … huh … different and amusing considering it’s just shoes.
What do I use the VFF KSO for?:
I also did a day-hike in the Laurentians with the VFFs. Fellow hikers were curious (not shocked though). I did well and I am sure I can do multi-day hikes or higher hills and mountains. The hardest part maybe is when there are water crossing or swamps. The people in front of me just went in there with their boots, which is something I couldn’t do since the KSO are not water-resistant. Rocks were also sometimes a problem, since you don’t want to land on your heel. So it takes more of your attention to look what’s in the ground, and always try to land with the toes.
I also had an extra-edge compared to other hikers when we tried to climb at lunch, since the VFF’s rubber soles are perfect for climbers. I was also less tired than others. It is said than a pound on the feet is equal to 5 pounds on the back. The VFFs weigh nothing compared to hiker’s heavy boots.
If you are not afraid of being seen as a goofy person, if you’d like to have a more natural foot strike, I recommend the five fingers. I got the versatile KSO, with the black version, since they were less conspicuous than the orange Classics or the camouflaged Flows.
Après le quartier chinois, l’Inspecteur Épingle, une soirée d’été en fin de semaine. Il fait chaud, et les fenêtres et les portes ont été fermées, pour soi-disant ne pas déranger les voisins. Une trentaine de musiciens de la fanfare Texas Couscous s’apprêtent à jouer, et ils ne prévoyaient pas certainement de refroidir l’ambiance. On voit bientôt des déhanchements, une musique joueuse et une bonne humeur contagieuse qui ont encore plus réchauffé la salle.
Mais on ne se plaint pas, loin de là. Ça fait plaisir de voir de la bonne énergie positive, le genre d’énergie nous fait oublier les petites et les grandes choses de la vie quotidienne, et nous fait sourire et aimer la vie, tout simplement.
C’est par hasard que j’ai entendu la musique. J’ai vu devant, un immense tuba, des tambours, des clarinettistes, des flûtes. Sur une marche plus haute, des trompettistes, des saxos, en tout une vingtaine de jeunes musiciens et musiciennes.
La musique était joyeuse, spontanée, toute une fanfare qui s’amusait à égayer une place centrale à Chinatown, comme si on était dans un petit village à faire la fête. De temps en temps l’un deux s’aventurait et déclamait un air différent; mais ce que j’ai trouvé le plus beau, c’est que l’ensemble du groupe arrivait à s’accorder dans cette joyeuse cacophonie.
Texas Couscous est une fanfare française avec plus de 25 musiciens. En guise de vacances, ils se sont mis d’accord pour voir Montréal et New York l’été 2010. Non, il n’y a pas d’agent ou de producteur dans le groupe, ils se sont fait éjecter du Vieux Montréal ou d’autres places comme le festival de Jazz, et ont fini par improviser un spectacle dans le quartier chinois de Montréal. L’espace était libre, il faisait beau, et c’était un vendredi en fin d’après-midi, un temps propice au flânage.
J’ai parlé à quelques-uns après leur performance. 3 viennent de la même école d’ingénieurs que moi, aux mêmes dates et parfois mêmes aux mêmes cours. Beaucoup viennent de Paris ou de Lyon, des villes qui m’ont marquée. Une autre a vécue 3 ans à Nairobi, et était allée au même lycée français que moi, dans la même période. Elle fait maintenant un doctorat à l’université du Québec à Montréal. Une est allée travailler à Madagascar, à un hôpital militaire.
La vie est pleine de surprises! On se laisse entraîner dans les rues de Montréal et par hasard, des pans entiers de votre vie vous assaillent, comme une cymbale qui sonne magiquement d’un coup. Ça laisse songeur l’espace d’un instant mais la réalité est bien là.
D’autres photos. Texas Couscous joue à l’Inspecteur Épingle le 4 Juillet en fin de soirée, et au Divan Orange le 6 Juillet. Je vous invite tous à venir!
I received this email a week ago:
Dear CEO,
We are the department of registration service in China. we have something which needs to confirm with you. We formally received an application on Jun 18th, 2010, One company called “Hobue Partner Limited” is applying to register “madmedia” as brand name and domain names as below …
It’s serious, formal and well-written, signed by Max Wei (max.wei@cntlds.org), apparently a lawyer. The email implies that someone will get the rights to use the madmedia brand name and that they were so kind and respectful to the law that they will search the Internet for hours, locating my email address and write this formal letter.
I believed it and sent a reply affirming I had the domain name for years but had no business in China, so I wouldn’t see any problems that a local chineese company would get the madmedia.cn domain. Ma x Wei from “China tlds” replied back and offered his services to dispute the application. He requested prompt reply from me, as well as support in understanding complicated chineese Internet law. This raised my radar level and got this blog post with a google search. The pattern is too similar so it’s very probable it’s an Internet fraud. I have no idea if Max Wei is really chineese and resides in Shangai, but my gut feeling is that it’s a nigerian 419 scam.
Hopefully, Max Wei was inconsistent (going from great english to chinglish, stupid gif signature, no personalization in email) but I still have to bow my hat to the individuals in charge of this operation. It’s smart, well-engineered, and has a very high probability of succeeding. The lessons would be:
I was looking forward to develop a video system on a mobile portable device. The feature already exists on dedicated specialized monitors but I was thinking it would be more logic to develop it for existing platforms.
I already have an iPhone, and also played with an iPad: the screen is gorgeous, touchscreen movements make it feel as a perfect 21st device, all within a lickable UI and Apple’s iTMS platform to distribute applications. In my opinion though, these devices are plagued by the fact that nobody can add hardware functionnality to these devices. You can’t plugin a better camera, you can’t plugin an Arduino board or sensors. That’s a bigger problem than all the tech media crying for scandal on Apple’s Terms of Service.
I’ve been lurking then on the Android platform. There is already a boatload of devices out there, from mobile phones to internet tablets, with long-lasting batteries, good screens, and engineered to be fast, snappy, dropped on the ground & tortured in pockets. And there are a few groups who hacked these phones to be a USB Host, with also Archos having its Internet tablet which can be a USB Host.
All I’m saying then is that I won’t buy the iPad, the iPhone 4 but will go on the Android path. I have no idea at all if Google will release an official update allowing the USB host feature, but Apple will never do it and that’s enough for me.
3 groupes que j’ai trouvés bons aux francofolies de Montréal
sur Flickr
Chinese martial arts make a difference between internal styles, whose best illustration would be tai chi, and hard external styles, which can be found for example in the northern Shaolin.
External styles emphasize strength, physical power and large movements. As such, spectators are *impressed* by this kind of kung-fu. It’s also a style which was imported easily and adapted by the Japanese. Hard styles don’t get you far though. You can’t be as fast as you could be, as muscle stiffness impede on your speed. It’s also bad for your overall qi circulation and balance. Also, the impact of your kicks and hits are minimal compared to another person who can manage the balance between relaxation, speed and instant hit, and delivering the final hit.
Here are videos of masters showing internal styles.
The first one is an imagined duel between Taijiquan Master Yang Lu Chan and Baquazhang Master Dong Hai Chuan. Taijiquan and Baquazhang are both internal styles.
In this second video, a 94 year old bagua grandmaster bounces visitors around effortlessly in a demonstration of refined power, much to the amusement of bystanders
Finale of the movie Taiji master
As you can see, there’s more to it than just controlling your balance, there are many advanced qigong techniques demonstrated, especially in the last video.
© 2007 2008 Heri Rakotomalala
Photographs and Screenshots are under Creative Commons. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0
Screenshots, logos, videos, and trademarks showcased on this blog are the property of their respective owners.
