Two weeks in the Blender
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Algorithmic shapes + steelpan groove = hypnotic flow. Houdini procedural art. No keyframes.
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Your spline just found more CPU cores.
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Teya Conceptor now expands free edition features closer to Pro level with more objects and procedural controls, but retains session and delay limits.
Teya Conceptor Free and Pro Editions Expand 3D Concept Workflow
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PSYCHOPOMP-FOR-HIRE, S1E8
Rain on glass. The kind of Tokyo rain that doesn’t fall so much as hover - a permanent mist that gets into everything.
A black Lexus idling in a no-parking zone. Engine running. Wipers on intermittent.
Thirty meters away, a payphone. One of the old green ones, the kind that’s been scheduled for removal for fifteen years but somehow never gets taken. A young man in a dark suit stands inside the booth, phone to his ear, feeding coins.
Inside the Lexus, NAKAGAWA HIDEKI watches through the rain-smeared window. Seventy-one. Thin in a way that suggests the body is being consumed from within. He sits in the back seat with the stillness of someone who learned decades ago that stillness is its own kind of power.
The driver, also in a dark suit, watches the payphone in the rearview mirror.
DRIVER
He’s tried three times.
Nakagawa says nothing.
DRIVER
Maybe the number’s wrong.
NAKAGAWA
The number’s not wrong.
In the booth, the young man hangs up. Dials again. Waits. His shoulders are tense. He’s doing something with his free hand– tapping the metal shelf in a rhythm. Four taps, pause, three taps.
DRIVER
What’s he doing?
NAKAGAWA
Something he read online.
The young man hangs up again. Stares at the phone like it insulted him. Dials again, faster this time, the tapping more urgent.
Nothing.
He steps out of the booth, walks back to the car, gets in the passenger seat. Water drips from his hair onto the leather.
YOUNG MAN
It just rings. No answer, no machine, nothing.
NAKAGAWA
How many times?
YOUNG MAN
Six. I did the - I did what the forums said. Four and three, four and three.
NAKAGAWA
Forums.
YOUNG MAN (defensive)
There are people who’ve used it. They say you have to–
NAKAGAWA
I know what they say.
Silence in the car. The wipers sweep. The payphone stands empty in the mist.
NAKAGAWA
Wait here.
DRIVER
Sir–
NAKAGAWA
Wait here.
He opens the door himself. The driver starts to get out, to help, and Nakagawa stops him with a look.
The walk to the payphone takes a long time. His legs don’t work the way they used to. Every step is a negotiation with a body that’s been through too much and is now, finally, presenting the bill. The rain settles on his shoulders, his thinning hair.
He steps into the booth. It smells like cigarettes and old metal. The phone is scratched, dented, the coin slot worn smooth by decades of fingers.
He takes out a piece of paper. A phone number, written in his own hand. He got it from a man who got it from a man who heard it from a woman whose husband died peacefully, impossibly peacefully, when every doctor said the end would be agony.
He puts coins in the slot.
He dials.
No ritual. No tapping. No four-and-three. Just an old man calling a number.
It rings once.
KUROFUJI (V.O.)
(phone audio, slightly distorted) Psychopomp-for-hire. How can I be of service?
Nakagawa exhales. For a moment, just a moment, something in his face loosens. Relief, or recognition. Someone in the same industry. Death.
NAKAGAWA
I have a job. I’m told you’re the one who does this kind of work.
KUROFUJI (V.O.)
That depends on the work.
NAKAGAWA
I need someone killed.
A pause on the line.
KUROFUJI (V.O.)
I don’t do that.
NAKAGAWA
I’m told you do exactly that.
KUROFUJI (V.O.)
You were told wrong. I don’t kill people.
NAKAGAWA
Then what, exactly, is your service?
KUROFUJI (V.O.)
I told you. I’m a psychopomp-for-hire. You need to get to the other side in one piece, peacefully? I’m your man. You need a life removed before it’s time? Go hunting for someone else.
Nakagawa is quiet. The rain continues. In the Lexus, the two men watch him, unable to hear.
NAKAGAWA
And if the person asking is me?
Silence, for five, six seconds. Kurofuji is audibly breathing on the other side of the line. 360 dolly around the booth, painfully slowly. There is a faint scratching sound - a pencil? A beard being scratched?
KUROFUJI (V.O.)
Then we should meet. There’s a ramen shop–
NAKAGAWA
I know a place.
KUROFUJI (V.O.)
You’ll want somewhere you feel comfortable. I know this place that’ll–
NAKAGAWA
My wife’s family used to run a ramen shop. Oden-ya, in Kita ward. It closed years ago but I still have the keys.
KUROFUJI (V.O.)
I know the place.
NAKAGAWA
You know it?
KUROFUJI (V.O.)
I know the area. When?
NAKAGAWA
Tonight. Midnight.
KUROFUJI (V.O.)
That’s awfully short notice. Is this a rush order, sir?
The dolly grinds to a halt with an audible squeak of wheels (non-sequitur in animated medium), facing Nakagawa’s front. Nakagawa’s face in frame replaced by the back side of the phone’s housing. We see him crumple up the edge of his jacket with his free hand.
Visible star-shaped glints from his many, many rings. Nakagawa’s pinky is missing. The camera tilts upwards as he speaks, just an inch or two.
NAKAGAWA
I’m just an impatient man. No rush.
KUROFUJI (V.O.)
Oh-oh thirty alright?
NAKAGAWA
That’d be lovely. Thank you.
KUROFUJI (V.O.)
I’ll see you then. Thank you for your call.
The line goes dead. No goodbye, no confirmation, just a click and then the dial tone.
Nakagawa stands in the booth for a moment longer. The rain. The dial tone. The smell of old cigarettes.
He hangs up the phone. Walks back to the car, slow, deliberate. Gets in.
YOUNG MAN
Did it–
NAKAGAWA (Irritated)
It worked.
YOUNG MAN (Defensive)
I did exactly what they said. Four and three, four and–
NAKAGAWA
He’s not a ghost. He’s not a demon. He’s a professional. Professionals answer when clients call.
He settles back into his seat. The driver puts the car in gear.
NAKAGAWA (quieter, almost to himself)
Amateurs need rituals.
The Lexus pulls away from the curb. The payphone stands alone in the mist.
TITLE CARD (White text on blue background):
THE INHERITANCE
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Episode 1: Pilot
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Booth: Bones identifies bodies for us.
Brennan: Don’t call me Bones!
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Booth: Let’s get your skull and vamoose!
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Booth: What’s it gonna take?
Brennan: Full participation in the case.
Booth: Fine.
Brennan: Not just lab work. Everything.
Booth: What? You want me to spit in my hand? We’re Scully and Mulder.
Brennan: I don’t know what that means.
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Booth: What are you trying to do?
Brennan: Blackmail you.
Booth: Blackmail a federal agent?
Brennan: Yes.
Booth: I don’t like it.
Brennan: I’m fairly certain you’re not supposed to.
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The live premiere of [REDACTED] starts NOW. [REDACTED] follows Jacob, a struggling actor who assumes the identity of his deceased twin and finds himself accidentally in THE REDACTED UNIT. Join us at twitch.tv/athansmusic . Out on all platforms.
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Week 6 (Lecture Reflection) – Orchestration Continued, Contouring and Minimalism
Unfortunately, I seem to have gotten ahead of myself in last week’s entry, as the panning technique I previously described was further explored during today’s lecture. Although the previous entry would have better suited this week’s material, I’m thankful that my thought process is preemptively aligning with fundamental film scoring practices that emphasise the importance of stereo image and audio positioning. Nevertheless, the discussion on minimalism has (yet again) taken me back to previous semesters, with Steve Reich remaining relevant for the 4th consecutive subject in a row. Not that this is a bad thing; Reich’s procedural approach to composition is particularly applicable as a concept to integrate into the upcoming major assignment. Reich stressed the idea of music as a process – not to be confused with the act of writing music – in which the idea evolves within the composition itself.
References
Reich, Steve. 2002. Writings on Music In 1965-2000, ed Paul Hillier. England: Oxford University Press. http://www.bussigel.com/systemsforplay/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Reich_Gradual-Process.pdf (accessed 07/03/2025).
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Watching Wild Cards
I’m guilty. Listen, I waited for it to be available on one of the streaming platforms that I pay for each month. So, it came on Netflix. Unfortunately, it only has its first season, so you can guess that I watched the rest on something else. I didn’t want to wait two or three weeks for them to add the second season. Honestly, I am somewhat mad at myself for waiting this long to watch it.
You…
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Cellular Worlds
Generative animation on custom LED panel, 2024.
A related app is available on the Play Store.
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Cellular Worlds
Generative animation on custom LED panel, 2024.
A related app is available on the Play Store.
