Empire of Light

Sometimes there is nothing better than seeing New York on the horizon and coming closer through rain and fog. I got so giddy at the sight of the Empire State Building that I threw Dexter Gordon in the C.D. player and just kept shooting it and thinking about Andy Warhol, because, you know, we were leaving Pittsburgh (I hadn’t actually didn’t have time to see his museum, or anything but The Mattress Factory as far as art goes). I’m trying to cull all my holiday video and also using this piece as a way of perhaps making a very different Music Video for the Royal Wylds. The Dexter Gordon was the ambient music when I shot it, so I wanted to revisit it in the mood and pace it was shot in, with the snares playing time to the windshield wipers. I may try to turn it on it’s ear and make it a very frenetic fast rock and roll creature… unless the Wylds have come up with a ballad? This was a way of finding my favorite shots.

On a purely hype note, Two of my videos have been chosen by two editors at The Daily Reel for their top ten of the year lists: here’s Matthew Ross’s List and here’s Alexandra Delyle’s LIst. Yay for me!

Angel Fire

butterflytext.jpg
angelfire.jpg
armageddon.jpg
She gets up to use the restroom and says, “I’ll be right back. Order the wine.”
He is silent and closes his eyes and has a strange vision of the end of the world. It involves Asian angels, the Chosin Reservoir in Korea, fire, water, and Charles and Ray Eames’ Powers of Ten. He sees the wold dissolve at a subatomic level and opens his eyes to find himself in eye contact with the mysterious old stranger: M. Tristan.
“Is she your first Oriental?” the old man asks.
“Excuse Me?” Pat says.
“Is she your first Oriental?”
everlastnano.jpg
The top is digollage I made from something by Bellah at the Library. The rest are my starts for same.

New Year


newyear.jpg
Here is a greeting from Brian Raszka and Bellah at the Library.

The video I made after midnight on New Years using various bits of stuff I’m working on… I was pretty loopy, but there’s something nice about its precise randomness. The last part is from the return from the PITTS when we wound up in Bethlehem on Christmas day looking for an angry gasoline fix. Alas, the pumbs, like the inn, were closed so we headed under mountains through tunnels, tilting at windmills looking for a washing basin crown . Happy New Year.