At the studio in Tokyo the day runs on layers. Someone is pulling proofs, someone is sanding a panel, and I move between tables saying yes or not yet. Visitors expect the finished thing. What is actually here is the middle of it, which I think is the more interesting part.
Went back to a boat noodle stall in Bangkok I had not visited in about six years. Same pot, same dark broth, portions still small enough that three bowls is normal. I filmed a little and mostly ate. Note for the crew: arrive before eleven or the pork sells out.
Early work in the bullpen before the gates open, just me, a catcher and the pitching coach with a camera. Thirty splitters, then video, then thirty more. The front side was drifting open in October and I could feel it before I saw it. Slow to fix. That is fine.
Spent the morning in a dubbing booth in Hongdae, matching breath to a take we shot eleven months ago. Strange work. You watch your own face decide something and try to find the exact amount of air it took. Three lines in four hours. The engineer was patient with me.
Back in the studio off Rue Oberkampf, working the same eight bars for three days. The bassline finally sat right at four in the morning. I keep a small analogue desk here because the mistakes it makes are more interesting than the ones I make on a screen. Two more tracks and the record is closed.
Spent most of today re-lighting the review desk. Same camera, same lens, and the footage still looked wrong until we moved one key light about eight inches. That is most of this job. The scripts get rewritten twice, the b-roll gets shot three times, and the thing viewers notice is whether the product reads clearly on screen.
Studio week in Ghent. Four tracks are close and one has been rebuilt three times because the kick kept sitting wrong against the bassline. The KNTXT release schedule shifts a little because of that. I would rather be late than put out the version I already dislike.
In London this week, then out to a tournament block on the road. Punditry travel is mostly airports and edit suites, not stadiums. I still do the same prep I did as a player: notes on both squads, watch the last three matches properly, then throw most of it away when the game decides what it wants to be.
The next cohort starts in October and I have spent two weeks rewriting the first prompt. It was four hundred words. Now it is nine. Most of the work in teaching is deciding what to leave out, and then sitting with the discomfort of having left it out.
Home for two weeks between dates. The suitcase stays half packed by the door because it always does. Mornings are for listening to promos for Resident, afternoons for the Sunsetstrip queue, and the rest is sleeping on a normal schedule while the city is awake around me.
