Some closing thoughts and a short montage of Japan adventures! Thank you for making this project a great success!
Source: vimeo.com
The signed Blip Tokyo t-shirt. I'll be sending this to Jason Roop as soon as I can get to a post office!
Adventures in Akihabara!!
Source: vimeo.com
Homeward bound
Jessen and I are checked out of our hostel and we're spending the last two hours hanging out and charging various devices. Our time in Tokyo has been more than amazing and leaving is bittersweet. Part of me wishes we could have a few more days with friends in this magical place but another part of me is very ready to go home and be with my NYC friends and my dog, Marzipan who I've been missing very much. This last and semi-final Blip has reminded me how much I appreciate that all good things must come to an end. Enjoy them while you can because although I don't have another Blip to look forward to, I have fantastic memories and a trove of images that will be mine forever.
In the next few days, look out for a few more videos that I've been working on from the past week and the official blip photographs!
Blip is over and one by one we say goodbye. Bud Melvin was the first to go yesterday. After pleas to have him stay moved to threats to lock him in his capsule we finally said goodnight and hugged goodbye. Today Nullsleep left for Kyoto and cTrix and Abrasive headed back to Australia. More will follow in their footsteps to airports in the following days.
Tearful goodbyes leave me with a tender feeling of both gratitude and yearning. The old friends I was reunited with and the new ones made during my stay here in Japan are genuinely amazing people. I cherish the time we spend together and very much look forward to the time when we can all be reunited again. For the past 7 years Blip Festival has given us the chance to connect with each other on a level that touches us all very deeply. I am so grateful to be a part of this community and I am so lucky to have been sent to Japan. I owe my backers for every moment of this amazing journey. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Watch exclusive footage from the Blip Festival after party featuring Utabi, BOKKADENcI, DJ Master Kohta, KAZ a.k.a HIGE, USK, hizmi, and hally. Visuals by NO CARRIER, Batsly Adams, m7kenji.
Source: vimeo.com
Blip is over!! Here are some brief thoughts the morning after and Jessen tells the story of how Hip Tanaka bought my book!
Source: vimeo.com
A segment of Aliceffekt's performance from Blip Tokyo 2012. Truly beautiful.
Source: vimeo.com
NNNNNNNNNN signing my blip shirt for the kickstarter raffel!
Source: vimeo.com
Tumblr has a limit on videos so I'm switching to private vimeo videos for all you backers! The password is the same as this blog. Enjoy! :)
Source: vimeo.com
Jessen and I ran some errands in Akihabara before leaving for the venue ont he first day of Blip. We managed to collaborate with a lovely woman at Kinkos to print out I/O posters using mostly body language.
Working hard on those photos!
It's 6am and I'm just finishing up my uploads from last night's show and this informercial is blowing my mind!
cTrix exclusive live set from the Blip Pre-party of his unreleased album material for Chiptography backers only! :D
NOTE! at the Blip Pre-Party!
Blip Pre-Party!!!
Luckily I haven't had bad jet lag… until today. My third day in Japan and I wake up at 3am unable to fall asleep. I work on stitching the video from our search from that day's breakfast together and I'm wired. So what now? I eat some snacks in my capsule and post to Facebook that I'll be skyping. I have a sugar crash and next thing I know it's noon and I'm scrambling to get my things together to leave for the Pre-party! I had wanted to pick up some coffee, rice balls and color film so I split off from the group thinking that we would meet at the next train station.
That's when things got hairy. Somehow I went to the wrong station and my group was trying to get to me but they had got on the wrong train. So it was up to me to meet them in Shinjuku. I though- ok, Marjorie- this train system is perhaps the most logical and efficient I ever got to experience so be a big girl and figure it out.
Although we ended up being late to meet everyone, I did navigate the system and got myself to where I needed to go! We were to the venue before I knew it and it was time to set up lights and grab a beer.
The venue was cozy and warm and clean unlike some of the venues I'm used to shooting in NYC. No sweat dripping off the ceilings and my black jeans stayed clean.
The show itself was such great fun. The cast of blip characters started to pop up one by one and it was a happy reunion. After the show a group of us went out for a beer with Hally at a japanese restaurant where we had our own private room and sat on mats with a low table. We rushed back to the station so we wouldn't be in the position of missing the last train home.
I'm now in the lounge uploading pics to edit with a plethora of japanese snacks I collected throughout the day. I'm pretty ecstatic to be here! My eyes feel dry and heavy but I'm mentally prepared to stay up the night and get these images processed. Good company helps too!
I love Blip….