redcat, monday, BE THERE

Ken Jacobs (one the biggies when it comes to post-war experimental and avant-garde cinema) is going to be screening some work this Monday night. From what I can tell it's not film or video based but a manipulation of projectors and other material creating pure light based abstraction. It's one of those space specific one time only events, the art object itself cannot be saved or duplicated. I get out of class around 630 and pretty much bouncing to the blue line, so if you're on campus and what to join be my guest. It starts at 830 and is seven bucks for students.

Website information here

more music based inspiration

Between Amanda's post and my own interest I remembered this video from awhile back. This is early Bad Dudes when Daniel Brummel (guy on right with afro and guitar) was still with them. Their music is very video game based, think 8-bit and snes RPG's, but (and i got into an arguement about this) it's not from any individual games per se. It's inspired from a style of music that is most often synthly made and highly repetitive. They perform around the Los Angeles area sometimes but that's a big sometimes, usually at the smell. They also have a fair amount of music out and if you searched hard enough I'm sure you can find the zip files.

Maps Ahoy!!!

Brought to you by scotch tape and American ingenuity

So I finially got my map constructed. Next I will be making these cresent moon shapes much like this shape, ( , all over the map radiating out from Lakewood. I'm going to be making these marks somewhat intuitively/quickly not being to concerned about placement, most likely I'll try to make some kind of aestheticly pleasing pattern over the top. I don't know this map well at all so I don't think I'll be too inclined to give myself favorable placements, aka easy locations to visit. Along this ( shape I will place dots indicating exactly where to take the photo at, the number of dots will be determinded by the first lottery number in the newspaper that day, locations will not have dots ahead of time but be placed on day they will be visited. Each photo will be taken with the same focal length lens, around the same time of day (I'm thinking like between 11-3), pointing back towards Lakewood. This way my own interperation of the landscape is taken out of it. I like this compromise between elements I'm in control of and ones I'm not.

2 or 3 things i learned by having a gallery

-You need two, not three, inch screws or nails
-If you saw my frames and thought they looked good then go to:
The Framing House Design
942 N Broadway #101B
Los Angeles, 90012
213-621-0295
-Don't worry about the unevenness of the walls or the scuffed up floor, if people are focusing more on that than your work you have bigger problems
-When it comes time to spackle and repaint the walls best to bring your own paint brush, I can almost guarantee the ones in the equipment room will be dried out and useless

zzzzzzz

Totally slept through my alarm and woke up like a half hour ago, aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Films Seen, October 2009

I’m going to be adding to this post as I see ‘em, so check back if you’re interested

first viewing unless otherwise stated, - seen on video, / internet or computer viewing, + projected DVD or VHS, v video piece, s short, m medium

The Argentine (Steven Soderbergh, 2008): 60
Surrogates (Jonathan Mostow): 44
Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer): 48
+La noire de... (Ousmane Sembene, 1966): m
+Can You Seen Me (Brian Bress, 2005): v
+Rock Your Body (Brian Bress, 2005): v
+Rock Cowboy (Brian Bress, 2006): v
+Brian Quest (Brian Bress, 2006): v
+Portait Room (Brian Bress, 2006): v
+It's Been A Long Day (Brian Bress, 2009): v
+Status Report (Brian Bress, 2009): v
Guerrilla (Steven Soderbergh, 2008): 65
Che (entirety): 58; the sums are greater than the whole here
-Last Days (Ben Russell, 2004): s
-Extra Terrestrial (Ben Russell, 2004): s
-The Tawny (Ben Russell, 2003): s
-Michoacan: La Muerta/El Traidor (Ben Russell, 2006): s
-Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977): grading/viweing- who cares
-Julia (Erick Zonca, 2008): 82
Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze): 63
+Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1964): vm
+Better Luck Tomorrow (Justin Lin, 2002): 74; second viewing, amateur acting and short run time keeps this out of the 80s
+Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929): masterpiece
Antichrist (Lars von Trier): 60
-Encounters At the End of the World (Werner Herzog, 2007): 66
-The Girlfriend Experience (Steven Soderbergh): second viewing, still 77

Put on the Hat, and the Overalls...

Jonathan Mann, aka GameJew, is a personal hero of mine and a major source of inspiration. I found out about him in late 2007. He was doing these videos on ScrewAttack about his excitement of the release of Nintendo’s new system the Wii. (The Angry Video Game Nerd started there too if that means anything to anyone.) The videos were awesome in the kind of way when passion and energy far exceed talent. I always had the feeling that he became frustrated on not becoming one of those viral sensations after that. Well, he burned through a few personal sites and now can be found on Rock Cookie Bottom where he embarked on this ridiculous song a day project. I probably should devote some more time talking about his style of songwriting and the implementation of the jingle but for now here’s a quick introduction; I’ll save that for another post.
X-Play musical can be viewed here