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Brandon Chin - Books & Art from Japan

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old Japanese man gets mad at me

"You got me f*cked up! Replicas?! These are 100% original! WTF are you talking about??" This is basically what the 80-year old owner of a popular ukiyoe shop in Kyoto told me just yesterday. Been awhile since a Japanese person genuinely got mad at me like that (besides my gf, of course). What happened to the soft and kind Japanese people you see everywhere in media? Well, now that I'm writing this from a Starbucks in Kobe a day later, I can reflect on what really happened. You see, this guy...

When I started generating image stills for my short film based on my book, Yokai Shadows, I thought it was going to be easy. "Oh, it's just 5 minutes. How hard could it be?" HARD. Literally took days. Hundreds of generations between Midjourney, Runway, Luma Labs, Kling, Hedra, and Hailuo. And STILL, I feel the character consistency isn't quite there yet. That's partly because the tools are still in their infancy... But all I got to say is my respect for short film directors who don't use AI...

Boom. First contribution to the Dome House project has been made. Who’s next? This is how community projects get built. Little by little. Brick by brick. Dome on Dome. Some of you reading this might still be confused about what this Japan Dome House project is all about… If you want to travel to Japan soon (2023 - 2024) or just like supporting new ideas, then skip on over to the link below for more details. The Dome awaits… >>>Click here to support Talk soon, Brandon “are you next?“ Chin P.S....

Today, I’m going to see one of my favorite performance art shows with a friend… It’s called “Sankai Juku”. It’s a bunch of bald white men dancing slowly to weird lighting and trippy music. But highly regarded abroad, especially in Europe. Obviously my description doesn’t do it justice, but it got your attention ;) This is one of those shows you have to see in person to understand. Traditional Buddhist principles combined with modern performance technologies. Check out the trailers on YouTube....

Just mere hours ago...I did something. And you may be shocked...but it had to be done. I mixed two separate living beings together. Or rather... I mixed my two newsletters together. One was my book list. The other was my Japanese art list. And to celebrate this glorious combination, I’m extending the White Day sale for 50% off anything in my shop. That’s for my novels. My Noh Masks… The Dome House project reservations… And any other traditional Japanese art you want for yourself or your loved...