Big Time TV

A Grave (Reality), a chronposite

2007-12-24T16:25:00.000-08:00

A sequence of composites created with the cooperation of Ravage and the Muse-O-Matic midi music algorithm. Seed phrase for the music was "ravage my reality".

I've been on a streak with these chronposites. They're the closest I get to sketching these days. Now that I'm on winter break, maybe I'll find myself spending some afternoons with my long-neglected sketchbooks.

Stastny novy rok, everyone.

Video...
Raw file (Vimeo)
Web player (Vimeo)
Web player (YouTube)

YouTube embedded player...

Make MIDI music of your own words and phrases at Muse-O-Matic.

Wears Mi Mind

2007-12-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

Composite process video collaboration with Minna. Face put together, piece by piece, over time, through space, on top of sound. Music is a heavily filtered cover of Pixies' "Where is My Mind?" sung by Minna and friend.

Vimeo version.
YouTube version.

In the limited time I have to work on art these days, I find that these timelapse video "accretions" are more interesting than laying down some definitive finished single image.

Part of the Composites Playlist.

California Extreme Arcade Expo 2007

2007-08-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

I threw together a little video of the California Extreme Arcade Expo, which I attended this last Saturday, August 11, 2007 in San Jose. It was retrogaming heaven! It was worth the price of admission just to be able to play some of my old favorites like I, Robot and Xenon. Discovered some new favorites in Orbitor 1 and Uo Poko.

Orbitor 1 is a crazy pinball machine with a playfield made of molded clear plastic that causes the ball to "orbit" two bumpers in the center. Uo Poko is a simple, well-executed clone of Bubble Bobble/Bust-a-Move.

Attached to the Expo was a mini film-festival of gaming documentaries. I saw two of them and recommend both. I was blown away by the quality of Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball and overcome with homesickness watching the Portland-centric High Score, a movie about a guy going for the high-score in Missile Command.

Also posted on YouTube and on Vimeo.

Music by Pong.

For more coverage of this event, I recommend the ever-delightful 1Up Show. Also check out Reboot's show about the Expo.

Tabor Mountain Sequences

2006-09-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

This video effect was created using Flash Actionscript to manipulate and replicate a series of frames from a video I shot of my friend Carrie's face. I was pleased with and mesmerized by the results.

Music by: Opsvik and Jennings.

Also on: YouTube, Vimeo and Grouper.

Chronposite Suukii

2006-08-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

Another timelapse composite video, this time of YouTube user Suukii.

Music by Technetium.

Also available on: YouTube and Grouper.

Chronposite E

2006-08-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

I'm on a chronposite kick these days. I'm inspired by all the faces I'm seeing on YouTube. The last chronposite was all over the place with colors and quality, so this time I went back to a single subject. In this case, YT user Alyssium. She posts a fairly regular talking-head BDSM vlog. She graciously granted me permission to scramble her visage.

Music by the amazing Two Star Symphony.

Video hosting by the nicely designed Vimeo.

YouTube Composites

2006-08-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with YouTube lately. There is an abundance of interesting faces there, and I was compelled to do some impromptu compositing. Here is a timelapse video of the process.

Music by Angi Bee.

Featured YouTubers, in order: geriatric1927, ASiiANMAMii92, ebonyangel7, jweis3029, janeeee and sxcladee16.

Lenara Meets Electroplankton

2006-08-03T22:03:00.000-07:00

My friend Lenara came down to SF to visit me recently. Mostly we tried to escape the heat. While in the shade, I introduced Lenara to Electroplankton, a music-making toy for the Nintendo DS. I've used Electroplankton to score several of my videos, but it is the co-star of this video.

Independence Day 2006

2006-07-16T11:57:00.000-07:00

Still down in Redwood City. I had Independence Day off, so I spent the day in the sunshine looking at things. Here are some of the things at which I looked.

Music used without permission, by Sigur Ros.

Getting Around

2006-06-26T00:44:00.000-07:00

Been in the Bay Area for three weeks now. Only been into SF a couple of times. Here's a montage of some of the day-to-day.

To the Metreon

2006-06-12T07:53:00.001-07:00

Went into San Francisco from Redwood City for the first time on Saturday. Had a little false start trying to find the CalTrain station, but eventually found the KX bus stop I needed. It was a grey day, so I went to this kind of technomall called Metreon. Used to be a big Sony project, but I read that they sold it off to other investors over the years. Here's a short video of the trip.

San Francisco 666

2006-06-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

On 6/6/6, I took a train to Redwood City, California from Portland, Oregon. I'll be living in RC for two months while working as a UI programmer at a videogame company. I'm pretty excited about the job, it's my first time working on a major game and at a game company. Kind of a dream come true.

Here's a simple montage of video clips from the trip.

Technorati tags: train, geese, scenery, Redwood City, water

Robin Ator

2006-02-27T00:12:00.000-08:00

Here's an interview with Robin Ator, a Portland comic artist, cartoonist, animator, character designer, illustrator and all around swell guy.

Robin also appears briefly in the Big Time TV Free Geek Fair video.

Related links:
Glow in the Dark Pictures
Robin's SITO homepage
Robin's Flickr stream

Technorati tags: Robin Ator, sketchbook, art, interview, drawing, cartoon, comics, animator, Portland, strawberrymobile

Idle Hands Play Things

2006-02-24T14:45:00.000-08:00

A quick little montage homage to my dork little secret, gaming. See if you can name all the games being played in this video!

The music is a song called "Dad is a Dork" by a father and sons team called The Egerton Boyz.

On a related note, these viewables...
Board Games with Scott
Tripod singing a gamer's love song
Stefan Stignei's game reviews

(some vague) Technorati tags: tabletop games, video games, video, RPG, hexes, cards

Ici Deus

2006-02-11T08:13:00.000-08:00

For several years now I've been making these Cubist collage portraits, I call them composites. These are constructed by digitally layering and combining dozens of close-up photos of a single person. Here's a timelapse video of a recent effort.

The process itself is meditative, which is one reason I enjoy making them. As I layer on the new angles and various crops of shots, I see unexpected mixtures of emotion and form in the subject's face. Soon the person in the image becomes a kind of product of the equation generated by the range of thoughts expressed during the time the images were captured. The most extreme emotions are tempered by calm, but I think, I hope, the kinetic and emotional energy of the person is highlighted in the finished image. For timelapse videos like this, I can kind of worry less about the finished image and just take a trip though the possibilities. Viewers are encouraged to freeze frame anywhere along the process to find their favorite frames.

My laziness is your gain.

Music by The Pen Name.

Similar videos I've made:
Interactive Composite in Flash.
Demon-stration is another timelapse.
Snowcha is a timelapse with model commentary.

Del.icio.us tags: composite, surrealism, cubism, timelapse, video, juxtaposition

Technorati tags: composite, surrealism, cubism, timelapse, video, juxtaposition

Roadtrip in Intervals

2006-02-08T21:30:00.000-08:00

Cor and I went to the coast to visit her brother. On the way, I shot a short clip of video every five minutes. Did the same for the trip back. The result is an abridged version of our roadtrip.

Tags via Del.icio.us: roadtrip, Oregon, DairyQueen, driving, Moolatte, Camp18, breakfast, video, Portland, Wheeler

Tags via Technorati: roadtrip, Oregon, DairyQueen, driving, Moolatte, Camp18, breakfast, video, Portland, Wheeler

Sushiland

2006-02-05T23:39:00.000-08:00

There's something fun about novel food-delivery systems. Sushi joints tend to have the best, in the form of boats, trains and, in this case, a conveyor belt. R-type, Lonveig and I had lunch at Sushiland. Little did I know, my camera was on the whole time. Enjoy the video.

Other videos about sushi:
Boat Sushi via Whats On Tonight
Tokyo Sushi Bar via Google video
Sushi: A Japanese Tradition

Tags: sushi, Portland, restaurant, lunch, loops

Antiquarium

2006-01-30T11:17:00.000-08:00

Here's a brief video tour of the Antiquarium bookstore in Omaha, Nebraska. I've spent days of my life in this place, buying music, books and comics. The bulk of my collection of "Heavy Metal" comic magazine was purchased at this place. For Omaha, this place is very progressive politically, hosting meetings of activist groups like Youth for Peace. The very top floor has always served as an art gallery, but as you'll see in this video, now also seems to be a meeting room.

So glad to see this place still exists after all these years. Not only does it merely exist, but it is apparently expanding. When I visited this time, in December 2005, there was a new expansion at the back of the first and second floors, a balconied room with high ceilings.

Tags: Omaha, books, bookstore, Old Market, Nebraska

Obscurio

2006-01-29T11:59:00.000-08:00

A video of short patterned sequences. Discrete whimsical folding of a typical experience.

Tags: window, loops, music, repetitive, rain

West Burnside After Dark

2006-01-18T16:22:00.000-08:00

Powell's Books is a huge store in downtown Portland, Oregon. Powell's is on Burnside, a major street that divides Portland into North and South. The shots that make up this short montage were captured one night while I waited for the #20 bus to take me home.

Powell's Books
POWELLS tag on Flickr
Powell's Books on Wikipedia
Related videos: Broken Time and
Break Time
Music by 2-RD

Tags: Portland, Powells, night, composite, Burnside

Omaha Aquarium

2005-12-29T15:31:00.000-08:00

The Henry Doorly Zoo(Omaha, Nebraska) has added some impressive new exhibits and structures since I last visited. The desert dome and the jungle are amazing and immersive, but nothing is as awe-inspiring as the alien world in the aquarium. Check out this video I put together.

UPDATE: Uploaded a new version of the file that should "fast start" (play while downloading).

Tags: aquarium, Omaha, zoo, fish, octopus

November Vlogger Meetup

2005-12-11T13:08:00.000-08:00

This was my first test of the rickety bike-mounted camera, a ride from home to a vlogger meet up with Will and Kazia at Urban Grind Coffee. This ride takes place on November 13, 2005. Check out the video.

Links:

Tags: Portland, meetup, vloggers, bike, cycling

Twiddle Beta

2005-11-21T18:11:00.000-08:00

Ariel and I have been toying with the idea of making a podcast about videogames and, last week, we recorded an ad-hoc trial run to test the technicalities of recording Skype conversations. From that audio, I distilled a few minutes to mix into a video... here is the end product.

In the video, you'll see "reviews" of We Love Katamari(PS2), MotherLoad(Web) and Psychonauts(Xbox).

We're going to try an actual structured show soon. Maybe you'll hear a podcast from us someday. The "Twiddle" beta version is about 20 minutes long and is mostly us just joking around. You can download that audio here.

Oh! And go watch all of Ariel's OOGLOO + ANJU cartoons.

Tags: videogames, Psychonauts, Ariel, Motherlode, giggling

Crass Pollenation

2005-11-20T16:50:00.000-08:00

Here is another timelapse drawing video.

Soundtrack constructed from bits of audio from thefreesoundproject using GarageBand. Included are samples of footsteps in snow, the interior of a refridgerator, a mosquito flying inside a jar and a coin spinning on a table.

A week ago, I attended my second Portland "vlogger meetup". There were three attending, including me. The others were Will and Kazia. I shot some video but haven't had the energy to edit it together. You should check out Will's kaleidoscopic montage of the event. As with last time, the talking was fast and furious about all the ideas we have for community-centric world-exploring videoblogs (as opposed to exclusively posting personal diaries). Will said it best with the phrase "pointing the camera away from, instead of toward, ourselves".

I have a half-dozen videos started... but nothing quite complete. Coming (soon?) will be an interview with artist Robin Ator, some more on-the-scenes with Petr Sorfa's Project Nine, a video trailer for a gaming podcast I'm developing with Ariel Martian and more Gridcosm video.

Tags: drawing, timelapse, art, process, heads

Interactive Composite

2005-11-10T13:22:00.000-08:00

WARNING - This entry contains NUDITY. If this offends you, immediately rinse your eyes, strut like a chicken and engage in primal scream therapy.

I'm posting this mainly as a test-of-concept. I want to see if this Interactive Composite video (made in Flash) will show up in aggregator software like FireAnt. In theory, it should.

Occasionally, I build interactive doodles with a program called Macromedia Flash (MX 2004, etc). I'd like to post some of these as part of Big Time TV. Programming in Flash Actionscript is primarily how I've made my living for the last few years, though not so much lately. For the past few months it has been Perl CGI with SQL database interfacing. Know of anyone who needs a Flash-kateer? Let me know.

This particular interactive video is responsive to the mouse. Roll-over parts to "feed" them movement energy. Click parts to bring them closer to the top layer. Drag parts to rearrange them. I'll include links to static composites I've made with Sitka, the model for this interactive.

Dusk Litany of Optimisms - Sitka composite
The Wake of a Dream - Sitka composite
ActionScript via Wikipedia
Seedling is another of my Flash doodles (press SPACEBAR to re-grow the tree)

Tags: Flash, interactive, art, nude, composite

The Five

2005-11-08T00:06:00.000-08:00

Drawing + photography / cryptic vocals = video.

Flashy Gridcosm

2005-11-03T17:56:00.000-08:00

I recently reprogrammed the Flash viewer for Gridcosm, a collaborative art project I first developed in 1997 for the art site SITO.org. The project has been ongoing since then and is still the most popular collaborative project, among many, on the site. Here's a video of the new Gridcosm viewer in action.

Music in the video is a song called "Cosmos" by Option42 via Music.podshow.com.

Links:

SITO.org
Gridcosm collaborative art project
Gridcosm Flash viewer - Starting at the same level I started at in the video
HTML version of that same Gridcosm level
Other collaborative art projects on SITO

Broken Time

2005-10-30T22:12:00.000-08:00

To create this video, I composited several distinct framings of each location into a single screen of information. Each facet depicts a separate moment in time. The sounds of each facet layer together to create a folded-time cacophany.

I'm not really sure why I like creating composited images so much. There's something about it that's interesting and fun. Maybe the allure is that I'm able to play with time and space simultaneously. Each of these composited scenes is made up of 7-second video elements shot one after the other, but compiled in a unified space on the screen. So in a four-element composite, you're actually seeing 28 seconds of time simultaneously.

This is a follow-up to Break Time, a post I made in September.

Some places featured in "Broken Time":

Outside Muddy's Coffeehouse
Genie's Cafe
Backspace Cybercafe
Tiny's Coffee SE
American Dream Pizza
Bipartisan Cafe (latter part of article)
Caffe Scozia

Jack-o-Lantern

2005-10-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

Corinne carved a pumpkin this afternoon. Here's a video of the cosmetic surgery.

From what I read, the original Jack-o-Lanterns were carved from turnips and lit with embers. The pumpkinized form is a mostly American tradition. The tradition started with Irish and Scottish immigrants and their stories of Jack of the Lantern, a fella who'd tricked the devil and peeved God and wasn't allowed into either Heaven or Hell. Jack was left to wander the Earth with his turnip-ember lantern. Or so they say.

I love the Halloween holiday, but it depresses me to see stores full of prefab cutesie crap merchandise. It ruins the mood for me.

Some Halloween links:

Wikipedia 'Halloween'
Wikipedia 'Jack-o-Lantern'
Zadi's 'halloweenvlogfest2005' collection
Blip.tv 'halloween'-tagged videos
halloweenvlogfest2005 via Technocrati
A Samhain/Halloween e-card by yours truly
Halloween drawing on SITO by the late James Widmark.
James, I miss you most around Halloween.

Unfeigned Cells

2005-10-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a wee bit of video doodling that kept my interest long enough that I thought I'd share it. One part coffee, one part cream, two parts Isadora and a dash of Dr. Who.

Messengers

2005-10-08T23:39:00.000-07:00

~~Crows~~Ravens flock to a transmission tower. What secrets have they gleaned? See the video.

Tags:
halloweenvlogfest2005

Demonstration

2005-10-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

Here is a time-lapse video showing the creation of a composite portrait. Demon, the pseudonym of the subject, sent me several photos of herself depicting a variety of expressions. Using those photos as my palette, I cut-and-pasted this emergent series of temporary portraits.

Pit Bulls

2005-09-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I encountered some kind of rally or protest outside the KATU television station here in Portland. The crowd held signs like "Punish the DEED, not the BREED" and "Honk if you love Pit Bulls". At first, I just observed from afar, noting one overzealous little kid in the crowd. Then I decided to find out what it was all about. Here's my video interview with one of the demonstrators, Stephanie Collingsworth.

The main issue seems to be breed specific legislation (BSL), the banning of specific breeds of animal based on their perceived threat to public safety. The province of Ontario, Canada has banned Pit Bulls outright. The city of Denver, Colorado also has Pit Bull specific laws on the books. Recent Pit Bull attacks in the area have inspired a move toward BSL in and around Portland.

My personal opinion is that the breed, considering its history as a fighting/attacking animal, definitely requires special care and an attentive owner. Pits were bred to fight, to attack... but they were equally bred to not attack humans. They're bred to serve and adore humans. They're definitely a danger to other animals, though. Does this mean we should ban the breed? No. Maybe we should impose limitations on who can own these potentially dangerous animals? Special licensing? I'm not convinced we need any more laws, maybe just stricter enforcement of the ones we have.

Some related links:

PS: Thanks to Steve Garfield for featuring my "Break Time" video in "Vlog Soup #4".

Jotto

2005-09-24T02:30:00.000-07:00

Jotto is a game that combines logic and vocabulary. Each person comes up with a secret five-letter word with no repeat letters. In turn, each player guesses a word and the other player has to tell them how many "jots" there are, how many of the letters in the guessed word match the actual secret word. Here is a video of Corinne and Liz playing Jotto.

Links:

A Walk to Breakfast

2005-09-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

Met some friends for breakfast yesterday. I recorded the fifteen-minute walk and condensed it to this four-minute video. In it, you'll see Bug, the cat, some pedestrians, a lot of cars, the Oregonian, Genie's Cafe, Hawthorne St., Division St... and tracking it all is an inset satellite map.

Links:

Break Time

2005-09-09T18:50:00.000-07:00

We can't be everywhere at once. We can't even be anywhere at once. We perceive our visual world as unified simultaneous event, but really our brains are filling in the blanks all the time. This video is an exaggeration of the asynchronous and fragmented world we might see if we disengaged the predictive agents in our brains.

Links:

Perceiving Motion, Form and Depth
How does peripheral vision work?
David Hockney's "Pearblossom Highway" photographic composite
Video Cubism (unrelated, but interesting)
Composite portraits (some of my other composite art)

In One Door and Out the Other

2005-09-01T18:56:00.000-07:00

I've just posted my first video Segment for the new IODOTO collaborative video project. This video is what I'm calling a "Segment". Once the project's collected several Segments, collaborators will be able to mix and match those individual chunks of videos, compiling them into longer movies. Each Segment starts and ends with someone going through a doorway, so the videos should be easy to cut together.

We'll see what happens.

In this particular Segment you see me, yes me, walking out of my office, down the hall, adjusting a wall-hanging and exiting the house.

Lions of Batucada

2005-08-29T10:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a video I put together of some great music performed at the Division/Clinton Street Fair last month. The drumming group performing is called Lions of Batucada.

As you can hear and see, it's hard to stand still while the Lions are playing. From their website, "The Lions of Batucada are Portland's own Samba Bateria - a marching percussion ensemble playing the syncopated, African-influenced dance music of Brazil."

Links:

Lions of Batucada

Paraiso Bateria (in London)

Steev Hise's Flickr Photos of Firedancers

Cameo - Rocketboom

2005-08-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

It was surreal to see some of my video footage used on today's episode of Rocketboom. The footage was used with permission by Clark ov Saturn for a segment about a modded variation of the dancepad game "Dance Dance Revolution" called "Bush Bush Revolution". The video I shot was actually of a came called "In the Groove" and it was from my interview with Pete Ellison posted a few weeks ago.

Cool to play at least a small part in two of my favorite videoblogs.

Portland Zine Symposium

2005-08-20T23:32:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month I spent some time at the Fifth Annual Portland Zine Symposium, and here is a video of some interviews I conducted while there.

You'll see:

Vladimir and the toys-meet-art of her ViewMaster reels
Matt Delight of "Zombies and Broken Hearts", "Seven Days a Weak" and "Age of Sinnocence"
Marilyn Zornado, Rebecca Gilbert and Jon Van Oast of the IPRC
Brief glimpses of Carrie McNinch ("Assassin and the Whiner"), Clutch McBastard and Jesse Reklaw ("Slow Wave" dream comix and more).

It took me way too long to get this edited and posted. There were a few other interviews that didn't get into the finished video, mainly because they would have made the sucker over 10 minutes long. Rest assured, though, the Robin Ator interview and sketchbook tour will appear as its own entry "real soon".

The tabling room was hot. Hot heat hot. Outside, on the Park Blocks of PSU's campus, there were swarms of people enjoying the Farmer's Market and the Iranian Festival. Talk about overstimulation.

Okay, let's talk about overstimulation. Or how about overt stimulation? I got my "Dear Clark" letter read on a recent episode of the wonderful almost-daily videoblog "Zip Zap Zop". Host Clark ov Saturn responded to the following requests:

Please sing your favorite tv show theme song.
Do you keep a dream journal?
Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?

Cameo - Life's a Journey

2005-08-12T15:03:00.000-07:00

I recently met up with Michael Tyas when he was in Portland. We got together and chatted about videoblogging, insects and Oregon's secession from the USA. We met at Stumptown Coffee on Belmont, then adjourned to Laughing Planet for lunch. Here is the videoblog entry Michael made of that encounter. In it, you'll see me babbling about who knows what.

I don't like seeing myself on video, it makes me feel (realize I am) mumbly and incoherent. I need to work on my "public speaking voice".

Storybook for Little Monsters

2005-08-11T03:25:00.000-07:00

My friend Petr Sorfa recently put up an art show at Muddy's, a coffeeshop and cafe in North Portland. Here's my video of Petr giving a narrated tour of the art.

Petr's been working intensely on a film called "Project 9" for a year, maybe longer. Check out my earlier post, titled "Behind the Scenes", which features a video montage of moments caught while I was "acting" in "the comic shop scene". I'm not quite sure how Petr manages to do all the things he does. Sometimes I think he has a twin or a time-machine. He's also published a few anthology comics with local artists ("Milk Robotics") and organized the Portland Indy Animation Festival. He draws, he programs, he animates... and he makes it all look like it's no big deal.

For more information about Petr and his current film project, visit Milk Robotics Films.

Thank you to Blip.tv for hosting my videos.

In the Groove with Kid Whatever

2005-08-04T21:02:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, I got together with Pete Ellison (aka Kid Whatever, aka DJ Zombie) and shot video for an interview. I've finally finished the video and here it is.

I first met Pete on Portland's MAX train. We were both playing with our Nintendo DS's and spent some of our commute geeking out with Pictochat. We share a love of games and playful creative fun. I've been impressed with his design skills which compliment his obvious musical talent. Hope you enjoy meeting him too.

You can learn more about Pete and all his "Pete"-projects at PeteEllison.com. Check out his music and his art. For more information about "In the Groove", visit the official website.

I've also posted a few ITG photos under the tag "inthegroove" at Flickr.

Number 14 Bus

2005-08-02T17:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a video featuring time dilation on a Tri-Met chariot. In other words, a quicky-slow bus ride through downtown and over the Hawthorne Bridge.

Esplanade

2005-07-27T16:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a video of a bike ride along the waterfront. It was a warm afternoon. Biked the entire way using just my left hand to steer and brake, which got easier as I went along.

If you like the music, that makes two of us. It's from a 3-song set by Bliss.

Insta-Button

2005-07-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a little video of me buying a pin-on button from a vending machine. These "Insta-Button" coin-op art-button dispensers are at both Tiny's Coffee locations, and probably at other places around Portland. The people at Button Arcade are the creators of these delightful dainty dots.

Free Geek Street Fair

2005-07-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

I had a busy little Saturday last week. Here's a video of just part of it, Free Geek's Fifth Annual Street Fair. For those unfamiliar with the organization, Free Geek is a Portland non-profit that provides all number of ecological and community-minded services for the geek community. Not carnival geeks, computer geeks. Individuals and organizations may donate their old hardware and software to the organization for reuse or recycling. People with little extra money to throw at computers or classes can volunteer at Free Geek to earn such things. Free Geek educates. Free Geek recycles. Free Geek fosters community. And their facility is less that a mile from my house. I am truly fortunate.

The fair itself was fun. I saw some of my favorite people and even participated in the "Geek Arena" where I challenged the alpha-geek in a glorified trivia contest. Due to some judges that were generous in my favor, I came close (not really) to unseating the champion. The only round I truly won, hands down, was the "name actors who've played Doctor Who" round.

Hopefully this video captures some of the spirit of the event. There was far more going on than I could hope to capture in a short video. Go visit the Geek Fair page for an overview of the excitement. If you're in Portland and haven't visited Free Geek... I urge you to make an appointment immediately.

What else did I do saturday? Well, I got myself a new video/still camera (Casio 505), on which some of the Geek Fair was recorded. Also, I attended a meetup of podcasters over near PSU. The occasion? Eric Rice's Podcast Roadshow was in town. It was interesting to meet all these people with a fetish for gadgets... but I confess I am not familiar with any of their podcasts yet. I think I was the only "vodcaster" (videoblogger) there. I've since joined the PortlandPodcasting.org blog and will likely be seeing that crowd at upcoming gatherings.

Trained Eye

2005-07-16T22:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a video called "Trained Eye" which is made from some footage I shot of graffiti near Oakland, California in May. The clandestine murals covering that wall were amazing.

The video is only a minute long... originally I had it set for an epic 5.5 minutes, but I kept getting sidetracked. Ultimately, I just had to trim it and call it done.

Innerstate Zero

2005-07-09T18:21:00.000-07:00

This is an abstract video (click to view) I made using footage I shot on July 4th while Corinne and I were at the coast for Independence Day. The music was created on Electroplankton, a musical toy on the Nintendo DS.

On a side note, I just experienced a wonderful afternoon online videoconferencing with people all over the world about vlogs, podcasting, media, Yoda, underpants and meat. Long live Vloggercue (Vlog-R-Q).

Meme-O-Matic

2005-07-05T20:47:00.001-07:00

There's this haunted-house-lookin' box sitting over by the Laurelhurst Theater at SE 28th & Burnside in Portland. It's called Meme-O-Matic and I guess the idea is that you put your own home-brew media in the box to share with others. Today, when I took a video-cd collection of my video-blogs to put in the box, I found a paperback book and some fliers.

Here's the video itself and here's the Vimeo page that hosts the video. I'll say it again, I like Vimeo. The primary coolness of Vimeo is that you can browse video clips by tags, adding tags where you deem appropriate. There are videos from all over the world. Mundanity is ubiquitous!

Oh, and when I searched the web for Meme-O-Matic references, the best thing I found is a set of photos on IndyMedia.

MB or BM?

2005-06-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

"MB or BM?" is a little video clip that I posted on my my Vimeo.com page. The video's from Aaron's going-away party last week. In it, you'll see Jon, Craig and Aaron (and hear me) discussing the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team logo.

I've been spending maybe too much time on Vimeo tagging other peoples' clips. Strangely fun.

Plip Plop

2005-06-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

View video.

My regular server, SITO.org is mysteriously down today, so I am using OurMedia to host this video montage of rain and trees during a recent thunderstorm. All footage shot from my back porch. I created the musical sounds using Electroplankton, a piece of software for the Nintendo DS.

Pedalpalooza Wash and Fix

2005-06-20T12:55:00.000-07:00

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Last Wednesday, June 15th, I checked my Pedalpalooza schedule, hopped on my velocipede and pedalled my way over to the D.I.Y. BIKE REPAIR AND WASH. The event was operated out of a private home in a quiet Southeast Portland neighborhood, not too far from the Fireside Coffee Lodge I mentioned earlier.

After tightening up our handlebars and shining our frames, we headed out on a short dusklit ride to a riverside park. Along the way there was one flat tire and one angry motorist revving his engine and threatening the cyclists. You'll see that person's truck in the video.

Overall a mellow ride with friendly bicycling enthusiasts.

Music by Bliss.

Colors of Sky

2005-06-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

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I waited for a break in the rain before cycling home from Fireside Coffee Lodge yesterday. When I got to SE 12th & Division, I had to stop and marvel at the sky.

MUSIC: Vincent Gallo's "A Cold & Grey Summer Day" from the "Buffalo 66" soundtrack.

Anne Plays the Doug Fir

2005-06-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

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Thursday was a busy night. After the Pedalpalooza Parade, I went to the Doug Fir to see my friend Anne Adams (aka Per Se) play a show. Devoured dinner with Cor and the Gross Siblings (Tom and Liz) beforehand. I had the Fir Burger with bacon. Anne's set was unusual because she usually doesn't perform with a drummer. The video shown here is of Thursday night's rendition of the song "Flapjack Devilfish". Enjoy.

Pedalpalooza Kickoff

2005-06-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

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Thursday evening was the kickoff parade for this summer's bike celebration, Pedalpalooza. The event is organized by S.H.I.F.T., a Portland bicycle activism group. The ride started at Jamison Square, downtown, with a free-for-all bike decoration ceremony. After flags, garland, sparklies and streamers were applied, we moved out on our police-escorted route through the tall building corridors of the city. After much pedalling and hooting and hollering, we crossed the Burnside Bridge (look closely, you'll see a military war-ship docked in the river) and buzzed KBOO Community Radio before biking up Belmont St. to our final destination, Col. Summers Park.

This is my longest vlog entry yet, this might be the upper limit of length and file size for most people.

MUSIC: "Lo Boob Oscillator" by Stereolab.

PEOPLE: You'll get a lot of Shawn Granton speaking about the event, you'll also see Corey on his tall bike and giving us a good post-ride report. Spectating, you'll see a ride-by of Josh from The Know microtheater/bar.

Portland Vlogger Meetup

2005-06-06T15:22:00.000-07:00

Click image to view video.

On Sunday, June 5th, 2005, I got together with three other videobloggers at Urban Grind Coffee in NE Portland. The meeting was arranged by Will Luers and attended by me, Will, Erik and Alex.

We talked about collaborative video projects, methods for spreading vlogthusiasm, cameras, editing tools, the idea of creating a "Vlogger's Guide to Portland" and the upcoming podcast/vlog event that Alex is organizing for later this year.

Also see see Will's vlog entry about the meeting.

ADDENDUM (June 15, 2005): You'll briefly see the book "Darknet" in my video. For a short interview with the author, check out Steve Garfield's vlog entry "J.D. Lasica: Virtual Book Tour".

Denver

2005-05-19T19:13:00.000-07:00

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Denver was alright, I guess. Hope the montage isn't too cynical. I regret not getting footage of the R2-D2 graffiti or the interior of Oh My Goddess. Purposefully used no transition effects and no music on this one.

LOCATIONS: Ramada Inn, Capitol Hill district, 16th St. Mall, Cafe Netherworld, Famous Pizza, Oh My Goddess, Thruway Bus.

Behind the Scenes

2005-05-13T15:16:00.000-07:00

Click to view the video.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to play a little part in my friend Petr's movie, "Project 9". While the film is notable for its miniature cities being destroyed by naked zombie people, my role is far less provocative. My only line is "No, 'Apollo Crypt' is better." Petr assures me this will be THE line quoted in IMDb. The action of my scenes involved being throttled by Marguerite and, separately, laying on the floor with goo dribbling from my mouth. Sarah was tasked with creating freeform strings of obscenities to yell at Marguerite. Such inventive invective!

What you'll see in this video is a montage of faces and environments that, I hope, convey the general tone of the afternoon spent shooting the "comic shop scene". All those little bricks and plaster-molds are evidence of the ongoing meticulous construction of a minature city which, someday, Petr will have destroyed by deconstructionists. The music used is Coil's "Lorca Not Orca" from their "Love's Secret Domain" album.

This was my... er... third film role. This "comic shop owner" is the first relatively normal human I've played. Previously, I was an alien high-council member in "Radio Free Steve" and a zombie in "Flesh of My Flesh".

You can keep up with "Project 9" at MilkRoboticsFilms.com.

Cats in my Neighborhood

2005-05-04T02:30:00.000-07:00

Click image to view video.

Cor and I went for an afternoon stroll this past weekend. We were on a mission to document as many cats in our neighborhood as possible. This rough and tumble montage shows some highlights from our surveillance. The background music is generated through Electroplankton, a new music toy for Nintendo's handheld DS game gadget.

Darth Dreams

2005-05-01T00:50:00.000-07:00

Click image to launch video.

This one's a quicky. Met with Phil at Free Geek on Friday to loan him my camera. Among other things, he told me about a Darth Vader dream he'd had the night previous and how badly it made him want to pee. It must be said that Phil's favorite videogame to play at our weekly game nights is "Star Wars Battlefront" and often the bathroom is difficult to access in my apartment. Coincidence?

VLOG CHALLENGE: Vloggers, how about more unorthodox Star Wars tributes in the weeks we have before the newest film?

TECHNIQUE: I'm getting the hang of FCP now. Quite enjoying the whole idea of simultaneous action through split-screen. Today, Cor and I went out around the neighborhood and conducted a video survey of its feline denizens. I framed a lot of the shots with split-screen in mind. Vidoodle soon to come.

UPDATE: It appears that the Quicktime update changed some of my default export settings and my original video post was viewable only with the Quicktime 7 upgrade. I've opted for a highly compressed MPEG-4, which should be more universally viewable.

A Snowy Night (from 2003)

2005-04-19T02:10:00.000-07:00

Click for video.

This video is a montage of footage shot on Dec 30, 2003, a night during which Portland experienced a rare snowfall. And rarer still, definite snow-stick. I cut together the video just recently, finishing on April 19, 2005.

The snow that night started while I was inside Ground Kontrol (at its old location) experiencing bleepy bleepy music by the likes of 8-Bit Weapon and Waxin' Wary. The event was called Micropalooza.

You'll briefly see Jon, Megan and Brady outside Ground Kontrol surveying the snow accumulation on the bikes.

TECHNICAL NOTE: This is my first video in Final Cut Pro(!) ... so excuse any excessive crossfading.

MUSIC: Micropalooza artists and ambient videogame sounds (inside) and Coil "The Snow" (outside).

M is for Misako

2005-04-17T02:50:00.000-07:00

Click image for video.

Meet Misako, a cartoonist from Japan living in the USA and visiting Portland for the first time. She can't finish a whole plate of food but boy can she rap!

Thanks to Petr Sorfa for notifying me of the event and engaging in squishy butter handshakes. As always, a pleasure to see the truly big time Craig Thompson. He's finally returned after his many months away from Portland promoting his comic goodness. In an astounding rarity of circumstance, Jon and I sat at opposite corners of the table, a position which caused us to be social rather than huddling into one of our endless "SITO" pow-wows.

The tin-foil crab you see Misako holding during her rap is an example of Montage's trademark "take-away sculptures". The servings at Montage are enormous and patrons invariably take some food home with them. Leftovers are lovingly wrapped in foil which is then sculpted into some kind of cutesy object du art.

CURMUDGE: I still don't care for iMovie. I now have use of some better software, so hopefully titling and intercutting won't be such a pain for future installments.

Ditch Cougars

2005-04-11T17:31:00.000-07:00

Click image for video.

Here is my first proper video entry.

SYNOPSIS: Too infrequently do I run into my friend Aaron Renier. This time I had my camera and I was able to hear Aaron's thoughts on hunting feral cats and his new comic book, "Spiral Bound". All of this was shot and edited on April 11, 2005. Footage is from Tiny's Coffee in Portland, Oregon. Find more Aaron at his SITO homepage.

NOTES: Still getting used to using iMovie, so this is a rough one. Subtitling is way too small. Need to get my hands on some more sophisticated editing sofware to do what I want to do with crossfades, titles and sound. Final Cut Pro comes highly recommended.

Impetus

2005-04-09T00:22:00.000-07:00

Created this blog to host my foray into video-blogging. Vlogging? Videodling? I've been inspired and impressed with the video blogs I've been watching over the past week. First I was just playing with batching them to my PSP, but the more I watched the more I was reminded of how much I enjoy making video. For years, back in Omaha, I would create and broadcast a tv show through the local public-access cable channel. That show, "DDT-TV", consisted of lots of punk music, animation, experimental film and interviews.

We'll see where this new venue leads me, 12 years wiser.

First, a quicky animation to test the mechanics...
Click here to see the Big Time 'title'.