Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Reflections (memories, dreams...)

:: a "polygraph" of rhombs ::
(by D. Koski)

I grew up around cartoons, preferred them to live action (as lots of kids do).

Moving to Italy disconnected me from TV in some ways, as it didn't come on until afternoon, was only three channels, and everything was in Italian.

They also had this thing of showing Looney Tunes cartoons in the park, maybe on a Saturday, and in English. One of the best shows on RAI was Carosello (1957 -1977) all commercials.

My idea of a fun time with my friends back then was to make commercials, using a tape recorder so more like radio spots. We didn't have affordable TV-making in those days, plus no distribution mechanism (i.e. no Internet).

We had like three English language cinemas in Rome, not counting the embassies (like the Brits showed some Dickens flicks, old black and whites, recalling Great Expectations).

I saw Yellow Submarine with my parents at that cinema in Trastevere near the fountain (I should ask Mahlon to remind me of the name, or Hayden, both Facebook friends, former cub scouts (mom our den mother)).

The Archimedes was nearer my house and Piazza Euclide, and is where we took in some Bond films, Steve McQueen etc. Kijoon (an ambassador's son) lived pretty near there as well. I remember long flights of steps in that neighborhood (Romans do steps a lot).

At another place, off Via Flaminia, where I didn't go too often, I saw 2001 Space Odyssey with my dad, and Let It Be by The Beatles.

When we moved to Florida (from Rome, interlude in the Middle East over the summer) I discovered Star Trek, which helped me get through the day. Southeast High (Bradenton) was kinda lonely.

Then we moved to the Philippines, where I eventually developed some great friendships. The TV was a lot of it in English, the RP seeing itself as the 3rd largest English speaking country in some write-ups. This is where I came to admire Sesame Street so much (yes, while in high school).

When I visited London that time most recently, thanks to Shuttleworth Foundation, Guido and Friends, I was privileged to visit the London Knowledge Lab, which gave me ideas for a Portland version:
Let's make cartoons by, for and about our FOSS subcultures, among other topics. Use cartoons to teach Perl (which I'm not claiming to know), math topics why not. They'd feel like recruiting commercials some of 'em, what with those product placements and XRL stuff. We're talking about lifestyles, not just artifacts. By cartoons I mean animations, visualizations (to go with sonifications, i.e. audio).
I started my PKL in a small office on 8th & SE Main, under Dawn Wicca and Associates, as Dawn had been using it for her work as well.

Dave Koski was my first official MVP, and if I'd had my studio ready, we could have taped, gotten to work on storyboards for the cartoons.

As it happened, I did some digital camera work around his paper models, have continued to feature his vZome-developed Zonohedra more recently.

My thanks to Associated Oregon Industries for letting me be their xBase programmer for awhile (wave to staff). Schmoozing with industrialists would be a part of my job description these days. Like thank you Sam Lanahan, for taking Tara and I out to dinner last night at Portland Fish House. You rock.

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