Jul 7, 2015

Light ThunderStorms



Last night brought a light thunderstorm to Kingston. According to many I talked with, this had been the first rain in months. The weather had called for light thunderstorms. At around ten o clock at night, I heard the steady sound of patter. Off in the distance, a quiet rumble. A light thunderstorm.
All of a sudden the rain intensified as if a hand had turned a tap to full blast, thunder boomed overhead and fork lightning began raining down from the skies. The wind picked up intensity and within minutes hard driving rain was being thrown parallel to the ground. Don, my Cap colleague who shares the apartment with me had gone to bed an hour earlier, and sleeps with his windows open. I toyed with the idea of waking him up to close his windows. All of a sudden the door opened and Don emerged from his room. He had a towel on his floor and had managed to get the window closed. Walking into the kitchen, I saw water streaming under the door flooding the kitchen. I wanted to capture some video footage of this event, and tried to force the back door open. No doing. The wind threw the door back at me with a bucket of rain to boot, and slammed it in my face. I gave up on that idea pretty quickly. The storm raged for 2 hours before finally blowing out. In the morning, trees were knocked down, and even better, the smog / sand from the sahara that has shrouded Kingston since I arrived had disappeared. For the first time, I can see the Ocean from our apartment up in the hills.

Light Thunderstorms indeed.

Today after class, I was supposed to meet up with some runners from VTDI to jog up Jacks Hill to the Marley residence and back. I measured it to be 1.8 KM straight up. At 5:30 I still couldn't find anyone, so decided to strike out on my own. I had to pass Mud Town on the way, a very poor area of Kingston, and home to the remnants of the Joel Andem gang. I realized that in Mudtown, the mechanic is at the foot of the turn off to Jacks Hill Road, the resting spot of many cars that died trying to make the ascent. It's a little shack tucked into the side of the mountain with a dozen or so cars haphazardly parked outside It is a twisty, steep, ascent with a lot of switchbacks. The fast gain in elevation is astonishing. It was a good challenge, and one I will definitely try again. I would like to link up with the running group the next time to pace them.

Training s going very well. The trainers are all fantastic individuals, and its wonderful to see how quickly they are progressing. It's nice for them to see that there are many potential career paths in animation. Even though this is primarily an animation workshop, I always try to throw a little something else into the mix.

Lunch is served hot every day. I am in heaven. Rice and Peas, Curry Goat, Jerk Pork, Jerk Chicken, Festival, Bammy. Yum.

We are fed breakfast in the mornings, usually some coffee and light sandwiches. I go for the tuna, which has pickapeppa sauce.

This weekend, we are going to the Jamaican Film Festival's closing day.

Really enjoying myself down here.


Jul 6, 2015

Dub Club Skyline Drive


Photo by Matthew Henry

https://www.facebook.com/officialkingstondubclub

http://www.rockerssoundstation.co/


I had never heard of dub club until just last week. Dub Club was founded by Gabre Selassie nearly a dozen years ago and runs out of his home atop Skyline Drive. It being just a few hundred metres from our apartment, I decided to head out around midnight and check it out. I never expected to see 100 + cars parked along the precipitous edges of skyline drive. The entrance to the club is a simple walkway carved into the side of the mountain, twisting and winding its way down to Selaasie's house, where the party then splits off into an area for the selectors, DJ's and dub specialists. There is an area where books on black history are sold, and beside it an area serving up food, and various concoctions such as Ganja wine, Tonic root, and a variety of other specialties. There is no charge for attendance. The audience was surprisingly varied, with individuals from all walks of life present on the property.

6 Giant speakers produce what might be the loudest sounds I have ever heard emanating from a sound system. The bass shakes you, while simultaneously infecting you, and in very little time most of those who arrive are swaying and moving on the floor, or along the winding staircase and various ledges to the beats.

It was sublime listening to roots dub overlooking Kingston. The acoustics in the hills are phenomenal, and the vibe is very relaxed. It runs every Sunday night, and attracts some of Jamaica's biggest musical stars who come to try out their new hits. Chronixx, Usain Bolt, The Marley Brothers among others often show up to take in the sounds.









http://caribbean-beat.com/issue-133/dubbing-is-a-must#axzz3f7H66f8W

Jul 3, 2015

Train the Trainers Jamaica 2015





I returned to Jamaica on June 29th, 2015. This first week has been crazy, but has been as expected, as my teaching colleague Don Perro and I begin a month long training program at TVET in Gordon Town. The World Bank and the Jamaican Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining are involved in pushing an animation initiative over the next 5 years with an infusion of US $20 Million.

The first plan of the initiative is begin a process of training the trainers themselves. The animation industry in Jamaica is in its infancy, making it difficult to find qualified instructors with relevant experience.

In June of 2013, Don and I participated in Kingstoons and Next Genderation. It was and still is a project through the World Bank which sought to help train Jamaicans in animation, while simultaneously addressing the issues of inequality, gender violence with the goal of participating in the worldwide Animation economy as service providers to Studio work that needed outsourcing. It's a model that has been successful in countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, India, Mexico. As these initial service providers mature, they begin creating jobs locally by building their own content. That is essentially the plan.

Don and I possess a combined 50 + years of 3d animation teaching experience and believe we can offer a lot to help this initial team of 3d educators.  The plight of Jamaica with regards to youth unemployment is heartbreaking, with some figures estimating that nearly 40 % of Jamaican youth aged 14 - 24 are unemployed.

We are honored to be mentoring and training highly educated faculty with a great deal of artistic and scientific talent. I would say that in many cases, it is we who are being educated.

Our schedule is tight. One month to train instructors approximately one years worth of material. Don has been teaching mornings, and I have been teaching after lunch. He teaches 2d in the morning, and I teach 3d in the afternoon. We tied our schedule together so that I follow up with a 3d rendition of what focused on 2d walks, which I followed up with this afternoon. The continuity has been fantastic for us, and I have been able to reinforce a lot of points I make in 3d by referring to the earlier class.

One of the interesting aspects of this job in my opinion, is our duty to try and change the culture of animation in Jamaica, which in the education system at the moment is quite dogmatic based on a top down system. One example I can give arose yesterday when we were discussing the shooting of reference footage for animation. The value in this visual data gathering is immeasurable, yet is discouraged in the classroom, deemed unnecessary and declared an inappropriate use of class time.

I completely understand where this thought process comes from. Jamaica is heavily bureaucratic, and resplendent with protocols and forms. The very nature of animation is antithesis to the system in Jamaica.

We are spending the month up Jacks Hill just outside of Papine in the foothills of the Blue Mountains. The school is at the bottom of the hill our apartment is situated on. We have an amazing view overlooking Kingston from our front balcony, and a breathtaking view into the Blue mountains from our back patio.




I love Jamaica. I love it's people, I love the food, I love it's geography, it's warmth. I love how things take just a little longer to get done, and how you may meet 8 extra people to see that thing get done. I respect and admire that no matter the hardship on the island, its people carry their heads high, are quick to welcome you into their homes or offer a hand and do so in about the most positive manner I have experienced in my 40 years. I am proud to be contributing to the country of my birth, and blessed to be spending a month in the city of my birth doing so.