Tuesday, April 29, 2008

gondwanaland u.s.a.

remember my buddy tod? well he's been cooking up some incredible, magical, tree fort style stuff over at the MASS MoCA. if you live in the boston, rhode island, or heck, even the new england area, i highly recommend you check it out.
hi-five tod! you're tops!!!








more here:
http://suckapants.com/2008/04/kids-with-power-tools.html

Monday, April 28, 2008

life ain't a track meet, it's a marathon

finally got around to watching some maya deren this past weekend. why i kept putting it off is beyond me- truly amazing work! maya was an extraordinary filmaker, writer, and all around inspiration to those who were fortunate enough to be in her presence. she grew up in the ukraine till the age of 5 then with her family moved to the u.s. from an early age she was vivacious, loud, and very outspoken. carrying this bravado and spark to her studies at Smith college she received a master's in english lit. after working as a secretary for a dance company she started to develop an interest in filmmaking. her first films dealt with light, mirrors, and water and there relation to the human body and movement. down the road she received a guggenheim grant which she used to travel to haiti for research and to film. thus embarking on several sojourns to shed light on voodoo practices, and rhythmic drumming/dancing prevalent within haitian culture and religion. she shot countless hours of footage only to end up writing a book: divine horsemen: the living gods of haiti.




one of her last films the very eye of night, is simply gorgeous and mesmerizing:




Saturday, April 5, 2008

i forgot more than you will ever know

i went to a great short film screening friday. the screening was comprised of 7 short films (all 16mm) by director ben rivers--- a shy, whispy, and ruddy cheeked brit with a pentachant to ramble and flail, but all in all a seemingly passionate and genuine individual. my research prior to the screening unearthed a pleasant surprise, several years ago he directed a music video for amon tobin-slowly. when i brought his video experience up he was shocked that i knew about it; and swore up and down how much he loathed doing them, but in the end it's essentially what pays the bills and he only does them for good friends.
if only
my career sacrifices were so easy...
looking at several other amon tobin videos i came across one
by floria sigismondi- 4 ton mantis:




the more i watched it, the more it reminded me of the photographer
dari
o villalba:







also i see similarities with this recent video for the kills:




and last but not least this piece by dash snow came to mind as well:



floria has hands down been one of my favorite directors since...
i recall one time i was visiting my brother when he was a producer at arnold in boston. i was about 15 and probably a handful. he was stuck in meetings during my office visit, so the best babysitter he could muster was plopping me down to view a stack of directors reels. at the top of the heap was floria's reel.
the whole concept of watching a directors reel was completely foreign, but also extremely intriguing. most reels are comprised of ads, but a good nugget have music videos on them. at it's best it's like watching the salad days of mtv's 120 minutes-- uninterrupted.
those 'babysitting' sessions essentially solidified my interest and desire to pursue something, anything, that would get me closer to these directors and this world they were showing the rest of us with their lens.

Friday, April 4, 2008

grin-din', when you know what I keep in a lining

today these are a few things that have been shuffling around the ol noggin---->

all these freaking books! this image is from an abandoned russian library. countless adventures via tomes to sift through, plus the stories those chipped paint walls could tell:






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyRAHKTy6hI

"While many documentaries tend to discuss subjects well past the studied time frame, director Aaron Rose, also the co-curator of the original art exhibit, wanted to examine this movement while it was still happening. The approach gives the film a welcome immediacy and avoids much of the back-in-the-day pitfalls that can plague any story being told through the often rose
(ed. note: har har)-colored lens of hindsight. That's not to say there isn't a healthy dose of nostalgia for the days these artists gathered in New York's Alleged Gallery on the Lower East Side as a group of youthful unknowns, but a good portion of the film also looks at their more recent transition from art world nobodies to working with high profile brands and having work displayed in major galleries and museums around the world."




R.I.P. frosty freeze:




"Frosty Freeze who helped inspire a worldwide break-dancing craze in the early 1980s as a member of the influential group Rock Steady Crew, died on Thursday in Manhattan.
He was then featured in early hip-hop music videos, including Malcolm McLaren’s "Buffalo Gals," and performed in films about hip-hop culture, including the groundbreaking 1983 documentary “Style Wars” and the 1983 feature film “Wild Style.” But it was his appearance in the 1983 hit movie “Flashdance,” with Jennifer Beals, that brought him recognition around the world and helped introduce break dancing to mainstream popular culture."