After 5 or 6 years of running my 17″ powerbook into the ground, I have finally upgraded laptops to a 15″ Macbook Pro! I realized at the last VJ show, that I couldn’t rely on my old machine the way I used to. It had definitely reached it’s last legs and was warning me that it would soon die with all of this new action I had been forcing it to do. Not only was there unexpected pixilation to my video clips as I projected them, but they also played back slow and choppy. Seeing that was enough for me to make the decision that I had wanted to make anyway. Additionally my new video controller arrives today, and my old video controller returns from the repair shop tomorrow. I am geekingly excited to say that I now run with a fully professional setup and could not be more proud that I was able to make all this happen.
This week I’m cutting & collecting clips for my second collaboration with the ladies of Cutlery! We’ll be playing a short opening set at Monkeytown at 7:30PM sharp, finishing at 8PM. I received a few new spacey netflix DVDs that I’m dissecting right now, and hope to come up with some new approaches to the performance with all this lovely new machinery that I’ll be toting along.
Speaking of Monkeytown, if you plan on attending our show, please note that it’s highly recommended to reserve yourself a spot before showing up at the door! You can reserve a spot by clicking here and signing up!
Thanks!!
To those who may have been confused by some back & forth scheduling - The Monkeytown gig for April 3rd is back on! Can’t wait!!! We’ll be on at 7:30pm sharp!
This place is one of my favorite intimate multimedia venues. The front room is a bar with sketches drawn out across the walls, and the back room is lined with low couches amongst 4 huge video screen walls. The bands/djs play in the center of the room and the video images dance around you 360˚. They have an amazing selection of beers & an awesomely unusual list of food fusions. Absolutely awesome little place. Please come check us out on the 3rd!
I recently started digitizing my last batch of footage from my little San Francisco excursion, and while I have some personal criticisms for the way it came out, I am also seeing a lot of good useable stuff as well that I’m excited about. Macro shots of grassy fields, waves under the golden gate, colorful San Fran architecture, street traffic, sunshine through the tall trees and some hot dukati shots, thanks to my good friend Adrian who lives out there and offered to model for me. Thanks Adrian!
Last year I was really inspired by Pipilotti Rist, who created a huge video installation at the MOMA. A lot of her work was seen from a sort of bug’s eye view, and I took that inspiration to do a bit of that style filming on my own at all the beautiful parks in SF. Looking forward to cutting some of that up this week and integrating it into my footage library.
I’d also really like to create a new reel for the hollydanger.com front page, as it is supremely choppy and outdated at this point. The page itself is also unfinished and in limbo, waiting for me to add my entire portfolio to it, and link over here to this blog! Cliche to say, but there really aren’t enough hours in the day. Last night I just finished my 3rd round of package designs for a canadian musician that I’m working for. Things are looking really great, but I’m afraid of how many hours I sit slaved to these machines working on projects! I have a full time 9-5 job during the week editing videos, then I come home to freelance work & VJ stuff on the side. There are barely any hours left to sleep & eat.
Thank god I love to do this stuff, I just wish that I had ways of doing it all faster so I could do more of it.
This week I’ll be receiving my new video controller in the mail!! I splurged last week and bought the OHM. I should be receiving it in the next two days. Perhaps just in time to learn how to use it, and give it a try at the Monkeytown gig on Apr 3rd. I think I’m also going to drop the dime on a new laptop to make sure everything runs smoothly. It’s about time for a full round of upgrades!
3.21.09 Cutlery House of Love show // Photo by Jeff Schram
Thanks to all of you who came out to the first Cutlery/Danger collaboration show this past Saturday! The House of Love did an amazing job of setting up a huge screen that wrapped around the back wall and made for an incredible backdrop behind the band. Huge props to James for making that happen. I was still feverishly cutting my clips down until an hour before the show because every last clip that I had collected had it’s own special meaning for each song. I realize that planning a show, finding the raw footage, cutting it up, and compressing it is becoming a hefty load of work to fit in the spare few hours I have each day, but it’s all worth it in the end when a show feels like it was put together purposefully. At least to me it does! I don’t rely heavily on effects on the fly, but I do spend a good deal of time choosing my clips and messing with them in final cut & after effects before the shows.
For the Cutlery, after seeing their first live show I envisioned a particular color palette for the entire evening. Mostly high contrast sepias, mixed with black and white photographs, railroads, travel, 1940s starlets, starry nights, and muted dreamy footage. I’m looking forward to our next show, where I’ll probably have a better collection going, and hopefully a new laptop that doesn’t freak out when I play large clips. I found my little old powerbook choking a few times, and while you probably can’t really tell in the audience, I could tell, and I didn’t want to see it happen again.
To sample the Cutlery’s tracks online, you can listen to them here.
San Francisco in a four day glance:
Sunny, brisk, energetic, bellowing light, ocean, colored, gritty city hills, homeless, bold coffee, honey-fruit plates & tea lounges, wine & dinner talking to bartenders and travelers, solo wandering, cameras, old friends, dukatis in the street after ethiopian food, scooters in soma, fantastic fashion & tattoos, geekgasms at multimedia mezzanine show, amoeba, celebrity sightings, architecture, trolleys, parks, love, haight and art gallery hostels with barefoot patrons..
My trip recently fueled a new little video piece, and I wanted to share it here:
http://www.vimeo.com/3592323
The Haight was breathing with gritty, hot, fantasies that day. It’s a nostalgic place full of history, fashion, and subtle unmentionables. Along the outskirts of dirty memories and coastlines that linger, someone is always willing to tell you stories over scotch in the evening, and put a flower in your hair as you undress the sunlight.
Mostly found footage collected from very many obscure locations, mixed with my textures & experiments.
The song is called Lust, by the Raveonettes.
There have been two things I’ve had my eyes on since I began VJing. One was a new mac book pro, and one was Livid’s wooden OHM controller. Both wildly expensive, and beautifully crafted.
I told myself this year that if VJing came as naturally to me as I hoped it would, that I would allow myself to invest more deeply into pursuing this path. Not only has it become a natural progression and flow from my video & design work, but it has become the most exciting exhilaration that I’ve had towards art & work that I’ve felt in years.
I’m a little overwhelmed with the amount of requests that I’m receiving to nurture this newfound talent and perform with bands at shows, but I’m loving every sleepless second of it.
I’m currently working feverishly at my studio to prepare new material for electronic musician Kodomo and start playing live with him. It’s a project that I believe is incredibly strong, and I hope to open up doors to playing for venues such as the Natural History Museum for One Step Beyond, Monkeytown, and any venue that knows how to house a quality multimedia show. Personally I love museums and would love, love, love to find myself in gallery shows in the future.
I’m also starting a new venture to work with cute & chic girl band, The Cutlery. Their sound is hauntingly beautiful and echoes from the soul. Harmonies are accompanied by banjos, violins, oboe, electronics, jingly janglys. I see lots of silent era sepia toned opera films, starry nights, and longing sunsets for their visual scene. We have our first gig together this Saturday night at the House of Love, and April 3rd at Monkeytown. It’s a short set, 7:30-8PM, so get there early enough to grab a seat. Monkeytown has great beer and food, plus it is such a cool, cozy, brooklyn spot. Definitely one of my favorite venues.
Looking forward to it all, wide eyed and excited!
Photo found on Flickr.com / Tycho Show / March 6th San Francisco @ the Mezzanine
Traveling is one of my favorite things in life.
To begin March 2009, I decided to take a spontaneous journey off the east coast and absorb some California sunshine. The winter has been a long, bleak period for me and while I’ve been keeping busy as well as hibernating, I’ve been deeply desiring spring. I’m feeling all sorts of new flows of creative energy that are bustling and ready to erupt into a thousand colors, but I’ve felt held back by the mundane daily routines, and the weather that keeps me from exploring outside with my camera. I have not enjoyed the cold this year, even having been a snowboarder for much my life.
To remedy this, I put my cards on the table and booked a flight. I heard that a very special show was happening in San Francisco on March 6th that piqued my interest. My design hero, ISO50, who also makes his own beautiful, ambient music and visuals to go with them, was part of a 10 year Ghostly International anniversary show at the Mezzanine.
I took a photoshop workshop of his at the OFFF festival in NYC in 2007, and have been following his work for many years. I actually see a lot of similar techniques between how he puts things together and how my creative-brain works. His ideas always breathe a freshness of vitality into everything he does, and he inspires me endlessly. His show on Friday night did nothing less but overwhelm & excite my senses.
I was elated to the point of geekgasm when he set stage at 12:45AM on Friday night in San Francisco. Not only did he have an amazing stage presence and the crowd worshipped him, but every single person who performed that night was mind-blowing. Ghostly has given me a new sense of inspiration, in a new direction of musically integrated visual styles. I was amongst the best of the best, and am grateful that I had the opportunity to fly across the country to be there.
More words, pictures, video & inspiration to speak of once I am fully re-adjusted to east coast time zones again.
In the meanwhile, here are a few tracks by Tycho.
Tycho – Sunrise Projector
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Tycho – Day Dream
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