‘sticks’ at the 10 Second Film Festival

The crowd and judges went cuckoo for “sticks” at the Soap Factory’s 10 Second Film Festival last night – the announcer and the crowd of thousands continued to chant “sticks” long after it screened, especially after I neglected to claim the win (until later) because I couldn’t hear anything! Gee whiz, what can a fella…

Honey, it really works

When I first moved away from Alaska nearly 5 years ago, there was one thing I wasn’t anticipating having to deal with: allergies. For years I was allergy-free living in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. That all changed quickly upon making my new home in the Middle West. I tried over-the-counter remedies, which left me…

dialectic

This one Bergey and I made together:

the steelpan gets a new coat of paint

Steelpans may be the friendliest instrument of all – unless you can think of one that’s any friendlier…? This particular steelpan is not full-sized but still has an incredible sound. It’s tuned diatonically and is a magnet to even the slightly curious. Something about it makes it less intimidating than it is friendly. It’s not…

pixelier: antes y dispues

Bergey made some things that inspired me to start tinkering with stills digitally and call it pixeliering, which is a meager attempt at adding an element of painting to digital images: Click on that first image right there to see before and after examples larger and more in charger: This is cool and I like…

fate and the wall

A wall is accidentally knocked over leading to a discussion about the roles of choice and fate across cultures.click here to watch on mobile device

conforming 24p

Even though the 5Dmkii has the capability to capture at 24p natively, it’s still a cool effect to capture @ 30p and conform to 24p: click here for html5 version

Maria Montessori

In 1896, Maria Montessori gave a lecture at the Educational Congress in Torino about the training of the disabled. The Italian Minister of Education was in attendance, and was impressed by her arguments sufficiently to appoint her the same year as director of the Scuola Ortofrenica, an institution devoted to the care and education of…

Today’s Solar Wind Forecast

While living in Alaska, I had a heavy habit of checking this every day: a groovily-nerdy resource provided by the University of Alaska’s Geophysical Institute:

Arcade Fire: The Suburbs

That’s correct kids, the new album is finished and nearly in our warm, fuzzy little hands – click, drag and listen! it’s just like a real record player! weeeeeeeeee!!! A. The Suburbs AA. Month of May

The Music of Conrad Praetzel and Clothesline Revival

The best music you may not have heard of comes from the imagination and inspiration of Conrad Praetzel, an archaeologist-turned-musician living in Northern California, who makes soulful music under the moniker Clothesline Revival. Collaborating with great musical forces in the world, including Charlie Musselwhite, Sukhawat Ali Khan, Robert Powell, Rounder Records, the field recordings of…

Plastic Bag

Ramin Bahrani-written-directed-and-edited, Werner Herzog-narrated and original soundtrack by Kjartan Sveinsson of Sigur Rós?

Goodbye Solo

Every now and then a film moves me, lifts and tosses about my sense of the world, of knowing myself and my own culture, let alone the cultures of others and where mine fits in. Then, it sets me down gently, back in the place I was to begin with. Only then, the place looks…

Cinematography: We’ve come a long way?

We don’t have to ask why we love videos and movies, visual literacy is becoming more important as time goes on. Thinking about today’s conventions I see in contrast to the silent films of the early years of cinema, the first thing is obvious: there are a lot of talking heads. The cinematic elements that…

Ken Burns on filmmaking

If you wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer or a feature film I could tell you the steps to take to do that, but every working documentary filmmaker I know has gotten there through their own unique path. There is no career path.