Nee Hao Ma

6.5 bits here - writing again from Hong Kong. I have returned from the wilds of Niseko - and I'm still burning from the sulfuric waters of the onsens. And my limbs are burning from tumbling down the mountain on a board. Ok that makes no sense. It is because I am in 13Bit withdrawl - and I am having problems functioning. I am looking forward to finishing the script for Venezuela and for the other new 13bit projects - and for forming a compound and for the recession that will make NY gritty. In asia it is the year of the OX, but globally it is the year of the Bit!

13BIT HOLIDAY

We haven't worked much in a while, even though I like to think that the *possibilty* of work is always there. Today, though, is an official 13BIT holiday.

We are in Hong Kong and today Meredith and Lian get married, so there's no way we're going to get anything done, even though I'd like to think that all life events are potential grist for the mill, and this one may be no different. Who knows, perhaps the next great idea will come to one of us up on the Peak at some point after the ceremony. Maybe that bird circling overhead is the 13BIT muse.

Either way, it's an exciting day and has been an exciting time so far here. Since this blog is devoted to the 13BIT process, there's not much more to say, except "stay tuned."

We officially hope to start up again by February 1st at the latest.

BLOG ALWAYS

Meredith is currently airborne, on the way to Hong Kong, probably somewhere over the polar cap as I type. I have been airborne for a long time. Well, not really. In fact, I was stranded in the muck for a long time. Another story, though.

I am heading out on Sunday. The shop is shuttered for the time-being, although there is a slight chance we will get some writing done in HK. Since she is about to get married, though, I don't think she'll really have time.

And I may be too busy photographing random stuff in HK to write, as well, so there.

Still, it seems awfully quiet around here. Thank god Elko is doing the caretaker shift while we're both gone. Meredith won't get back till February 1st, as well, so Project Venezuela will not be completed for a while.

All that aside, the script is going very well. A few plot points to hammer out, but we're getting there. Then we cast, then we shoot, then we edit, then we finish, etc. It's nice not having to answer to anybody but ourselves.

2008 has been quite a year. I will be glad to see it gone. And 2009, of course, promises to be an economic bloodbath, with the associated welter of crap that goes along with that. Well, one day at a time, right? That's the only way it can happen.

I will be glad to get on the plane. I will also be glad when cheap, solid state memory replaces hard drivess. One day at a time, right?

Okay, I clearly have nothing else to say.

Later.

Fried Rice

I had some interesting thoughts as I wondered about the streets of Hong Kong. But I forgot most of them, because all I can think about right now is fried rice. Its the other 6.5 here. The vodcasting is not going as well as we thought, because I am having problems getting up early and iChatting with paul. But I am hoping tomorrow things will be different. I am trying to let my mind wander and to absorb the fullness of experience before my senses refract it and my consciousness (mis)interprets it. Tonight I am also trying to watch a preston sturges movie and perhaps Rear Window. I hope I can get to sleep. I have become addicted to buying crap off itunes because it is all .99 or 2.99.

I went hiking this weekend on Lantau Island with a bunch of Swedes and a Dutchman. It was like out of a Bergman movie - Wild Strawberries perhaps - a great road trip movie.

It is lonely out here at the furthest reaches of bit land -but as long as I can hear the gears of the Great Bit crank- my soul is satisfied.

13 Bit Runs on Sugar

Maybe we already posted that once, but it's worth repeating. 13 Bit runs on sugar.

We have not posted in almost a month. No excuse, but we have been busy. "Game Theory" is out, out of the nomenclature closet, as well - we can officially say that Quesadilla, aka "Not Blavatsky," aka "The System," aka "The Rules of Make-Believe" is now done and has started to enter festival land, where the rules of make-believe really apply. We have high hopes and crossed fingers.

I can hear Meredith over at the other steam-turbine operated workstation, putting her back into the control levers as she paws into the "Lesser Evil" chocolate kettle corn, which leads me to the title of today's post. We have tried for a few days to cut back on cupcakes and other essential fuels of creativity. It is all in vain, though. We need sugar to sustain the flow, Columbia River-like in its majesty, of creativity coming from the mighty industrial-strength dynamos of the Bit Generators. Nothing else gets those massive engines running like a high dose of refined or unrefined sucrose.

We have begun working on - and are both thrilled by - Project Venezuela, aka "Notadoca," aka Empanada, aka Baguette. Finished outlining it, found a cool little web app and are writing the script now.

We are going to have to shut down shop for 4 to 5 weeks soon. I am going out west and Meredith is going east in order to save the western world from financial ruin. We may try video conferencing, but we probably won't be able to write that way. Arguing over dialogue just doesn't have the same impact and resonance via video conference. Either way, we'll brainstorm over phone, Big Mer from Hong Kong and I from Hanksville, Utah, and we will plot out a series of 15 movies that we'll each watch over the month.

I'd like to say we'll blog, and I may blog, but I'll bet that she doesn't. She'll get mad when she reads this, but I don't care - I'm at the keyboard now.

In the short long term? We need to replace one of these old steam turbines, which is getting long in the tooth, and are waiting for them to announce a new model.

Elko says "woof."