i'm blaaaahging

Our parked car was hit by a truck from one of the industrial joints on our block.

Honestly I'm sorta run down and in no mood for anything, but a good friend is in town and I've not seen her in a long time, so I'm excited to see her tomorrow.

From my office I just saw an aquaintance that also works here walking down the street... new haircut... sort of a mullet-mohawk thing going on.

I have a vague idea for an instalation... anybody wanna host it? I need a large fairly empty room....... oh and time to actually make it. anybody have time? I must, i'm blogging. crap... I just realized I owe a friend an email... Sorry Nat! I'll write it tomorrow... after I teach class, have lunch with another out-of-town friend, consult on an animation project, and clean the house for the first out-of-town friend that's staying the night. Oooohhh look at me, I'm so busy and cool.

OH, I threw some Smashing Pumpkins onto my ipod... sweeeeet.

I'm working on two huge projects at work... well... I'm avoiding two huge projects at work...

Culture Jamming

Read this article. http://www.goodmagazine.com/section/Guide/A_Brief_History_of_Culture_Jamming
I think you'll enjoy it. I did.
Is there anything you would add to it?

related:
http://www.woostercollective.com/

sprawled out

Is it suburban scrawling or suburban sprawling? I read scrawling somewhere today but thought it was sprawling.

Will the wife ever blog again?

Will I decide on a research topic for my research class?

Do any of you have answers for these questions? Why is there a w in the word answer?

Brent Green

I've been trying to take the time to write this since Sunday night. Of course time is rare for me, but when I found a moment, I was too concerned that I wouldn't be able to write something honest and smart. Mr. McMüller introduced me to the world of Brent Green, and it could be the best thing he's done for me. Brent is a self-taught animator... outsider, DIY, independent, experimental... he's all those words people put emphasis on, and he deserves the recognition those words automatically grant. He's based in Pennsylvania, and my guess is that it's a part of the Appalachains. His animations (the newest being Paulina Hollers, his most talked about {online} being Hadacol Christmas, and my favorite being Carlin) have an organic feel because of the tools and mediums he works with. In Carlin, he appears to use life-sized figures for his stop-motion animation. The house of his childhood (I want to believe that it really is the home he grew up in) becomes a character, and he even seems to animate the light and shadows. Or maybe he just doesn't know how to light a scene. I have a soft spot for personal narrative films, and while perhaps the aunt he speaks of in Carlin didn't really exist, he talks with the passion and emotion as if he is recalling someone he really knew. He achieves the same feeling in Hadacol Christmas, which he made while reflecting on the death of his grandfather. It's been said by many people that his narration is similiar to a preacher, and I wouldn't be surprised if he based his excited monologues on the Southern Baptist preachers I grew up with. I was always afraid of the "suck-n-blow" preachers when I was young, but his speaking-without-breathing style brings so much to the films.
His solo show at the Bellwether gallary is gone, and there's nothing currently scheduled I can send you to. The only films I can find online are his older pieces that do not have the same energy and urgency of his newest work, though they are still worth taking a look at.

Months ago, after the wife and I left a Sufjan concert, I talked to her about how I wish I could make short films with that much emotion, but also something that had the staying power that music has. I can listen to a CD over and over and over. I want to know how to make something that people will want to watch on repeat the first week they own it. Something people throw on their iPod and watch often. I think Brent Green is headed in that direction.

http://nervousfilms.com/
http://www.bellwethergallery.com/artistsindex_01.cfm?fid=142
http://www.directorsnotes.com/2006/12/02/dn-ep-012-hadacol-christmas-brent-green/

Celebrate Good Times.... come on!

The Wife has a birthday today. woot woot

Also, in 3 days, the wife and man blog will celebrate a 1 year anniversary.

girls and guns

I had this weird dream where a little girl (in the dream she jumped between ages 3 and 8 and was sometimes related to me and not) killed 2 people by shooting them in the chest. I spent a long time deciding if I should turn her in or not (she did it completely on purpose) or take the blame myself. I thought I could rehabilitate her. I finally decided to tell her father and he turned her in to the police. It turned out to be for the best.

I rarely remember my dreams...