Thanks to everyone who came out to check out our performance at Franklin Street Works last Thursday. We had so much fun performing and sharing our music and visuals with you. Special thanks to Franklin Street Works for hosting us and our friends! Please friend us on The Moon’s facebook page to learn about upcoming events.

For those of you who couldn’t make it out, check out this video taken by Franklin Street Works. This was one of our instrumentals called “Olive”.  The photo above was taken by Jackie Alcayaga.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is a little backstory on how it all came together.  Jeff and I worked every night in the studio, last week, to get our set just right.

He was still finishing lyrics to his new songs, and I was choreographing visual clips that would enhance the mood and fit the pace. We settled on 8 songs including 1 cover song that we did as a duet together to end the performance. The duet we covered was, True Love Will Find You in the End by Daniel Johnston. I’ve always loved his original version and Beck’s cover. (Check out those links to hear the different versions.)

Daniel Johnston is particularly special to us because when Jeff and I went on our first date, we went to the Highline Ballroom to see Daniel perform. We had both seen The Devil & Daniel Johnston documentary and were completely hooked on his music. It seemed like the perfect song for our duet considering that this was the first time I have ever sung in front of a live audience! (Which I loved, and will do again.)

My visual footage for the performance came from a variety of different sources from my VJ library that I’ve been collecting over the last 3 years. Additionally, a good deal of footage came from two special trips I took this year. The first being from California when we spontaneously went hot-air-ballooning at sunrise over wine country and the other at the Shedd aquarium in Chicago. I hope to incorporate more and more travel footage into my shows as we continue to build our performance.

At the studio, I also shot some footage of Jeff playing guitar on green screen with the hopes of masking some animated visuals into his silhouette. While the end result was very cool, it never made it into the final performance. Maybe next time!

I kept coming up with tons of last minute details that I wanted to add to our show, and one of them was for both of us to wear all white clothing. When we were in front of the visuals they would just melt through us and blend into the walls. I think the effect worked well to really enhance the projections in the space. The hardest part was actually finding white clothing this time of year. Thankfully Goodwill and my thrift-shop-hunting skills was a success. Perhaps in the future we can find a way to make all of our equipment white. I think it would create a really exciting environment for visuals in all the subtle details.

The space we were setting up at Franklin Street Works was an intimate room on their lower level. It was a little challenging from a setup perspective because of it’s size, mirrors, door and wall indentations. We had no way of hanging projectors to the ceiling like we usually do. However we were able to jimmy-rig a setup using speaker stands and clamp mounts and were able to hook up 2 projectors skewed towards the two main walls, and one angled towards the ceiling. A white sheet and a couple pillowcases did the trick to hide the window & mirrors. Unfortunately the VJ software that I’m using currently doesn’t allow me to skew the video angles to be perfect when the projectors are set up on an angle, so I ended up changing my  set towards using more abstract imagery in the end result. This ended up working out really well in my opinion and gave the illusion of changing the shape of the walls around us.

Everyone packed into the space at 6pm and we had a great time talking to everyone, and connecting with new and old friends. Thanks again to everyone who made the night special for us and for collecting videos & photos. We hope to make another performance happen again soon!

Please check out our new site: themoonmusic.com for more in the near future.

Hey guys!  This Saturday, October 8, from 8PM-2AM, will be the third Signal to Noise event at the Museum of the Moving Image.

I’m super excited to be invited back and Jeff and I will be once again outfitting the place with 6-7 projectors filling their performance space. I’ve been busy in my studio creating new materials, testing new equipment and getting ready for this epic set-up. Hope to see some of you there. We’ll be working with a number of other visualists that evening and will be VJing for MiniBoone.

Here is some additional info from the museum’s event page:

Signal to Noise once again takes over the entire Museum of the Moving Image with interactive spectacles and visual delights, including electro-jams, post-rave vibes, circuit-bent video, shadow game tournaments, battling guitar video game contests, and much more as the galleries stay open late and the party goes later.

DIY rock superstars Anamanaguchi command the stage with high-energy low-res anthems, kicked-off by Extreme Animals‘ preposterous video/music explosions, MiniBoone’s raucous tunes with eyecandy from Holly Danger, and Landlady’s catchy experimental rock. LoVid blasts video noise from handmade hardware, and Modal Kombat duels on acoustic guitars-turned-game controllers.

Chill out to Smooth Breeze‘s easy-listening jazz and creamy screensavers, and beat out the competition during an all-night tournament of Shadowplay, the live-action puzzle game you play with your shadow. Luck You Collective, easylife, and Strongbros hold down the lobby with ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE, featuring Burger Sundae, Girlbro, Beatsaface, and Latitude Zero on the decks.

Co-curated by Jason Eppink, Assistant Curator of Digital Media, and Anamanaguchi.

Open bar from 8:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., sponsored by Reyka and Samuel Adams. Cash bar follows.Coolhaus and Big D’s Grub Truck parked out front. 

Tickets: $15 (advance) public / $20 (at the door) public / $10 Museum members / Free for Silver Screen members. Members may reserve tickets in advance by calling 718 777 6800. Advance sales will be available until noon on the day of the event. Following this, tickets will be available at the door. Ages 16 and under must be accompanied at all times by an adult (18 years or older). Must be 21 and over, with proper ID, to consume or purchase alcoholic beverages.

Advance tickets can be purchased by clicking here

RSVP over at the Facebook Event Page

Hi guys!

I am gearing up for my annual romp in the dust. That’s right, it’s my yearly visit to the Black Rock desert.  By all means if you are attending, please let me know so there is a chance of meeting up outside of the digital realms. I’ll be staying with my friends, Camp Monkey Business at 4:30 & G this year – and once again I’m bringing my VJ gear and would love to meet up with other VJs out there. Right now I’m deciding which equipment can stand to be in those desert conditions.  I’m also lining up my VJ performance schedule right now and hope to nail it all down before arriving. Once I arrive, anything goes!

So here is my current schedule & VJ lineup for the upcoming week:

Saturday – (Aug 28) I arrive in Reno to collect my supplies/bike/tent etc. out of storage & take care of biz..
Sunday – Buy whatever supplies I need, food, water, etc.
Monday – I arrive on the playa – early morning!  Set up - Possibly VJing at Nexus in the evening hours.
Tuesday –  VJing the False Profit party (4:30 & Esplanade) – Timing TBD
Wednesday – VJing the Apres Ski Party – (3:30 & B) – Sundown til late night.
Thursday –  VJing at Nexus (10 & Esplanade) – Sundown til 11pm
Thursday Late - Possibly VJing at the Phage party after Nexus party (4:30 & Esplanade)
Friday/Sat/Sun/Mon –  Anything goes ~ Possibly VJing on the Robot Heart Bus on those nights.
Tues/Wed – (Sept 7/8) Wash off the dust & travel home

That is the good word on all my latest news. This week is for collecting gear & packing..

See you the other side my friends!…..

I finally have a quiet moment to myself to digest, decompress and formulate information. I have an overwhelming amount of data swarming through my head and need to transcribe it all along with the words scribbled throughout my trusty notebook.

Day 1 began when I left the windy rainstorm that took over NY, as I departed Laguardia at 6AM. I was on 2 hours of sleep and on the cusp of delirium. Somehow in that state of mind I thought it’d be a good idea to upgrade my flight to first class since the self-check in machine asked me if I wanted to. The big shiny button was too enticing not to push. Plus it was 5AM and I was feeling claustrophobic and sleep deprived. Though for the most part I just really wanted some decent space to set up my laptop and do some editing. Yes – Editing at 6AM! I was in the mood for some god awful reason. Most likely motivated by the fact that later that day I was aiming to hit a Final Cut “Supermeetup” that would allow me to share my work with a group of editors. I had to cut down a reel into 10 minutes, so I spent that morning cutting deliriously before the sun rose.

This is my 4th trip to Austin, and yet only my first experience at SXSW. I organized my schedule to reflect over 95 panels during the course of my 5 day stay. Saturday I arrived, just narrowly escaping the hurricane behind me, and got in just in time to catch a conversation late in the day with Ze Frank.

Ze is someone I learned about in college for his witty, weird, spontaneous humor through videos and design concepts. Probably most well known for his “How to Dance Properly” videos. Due to the nature of his off-the-wall ideas, he says he’s always had anxiety over whether or not they’re going to be successful, but that he’d make them regardless of whether or not anyone ever watched them. This only fuels his desire to want to push the envelope, and get his concepts out in public rapidly and faithfully to his viewers. Not only that but he says he strives to do things that have not been done before. He’ll do massive amounts of research and data collecting before starting a project to see if he can be the first one to do it. He deems it a success if you can google an idea and it doesn’t exist yet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I realize from his talk that I need to pick up my game & brainstorm more.  His ideas are so zany, and so unexpected, that it is a breath of fresh air to hear about, and it leaves me curious to see what else he’ll come up with next. It also reminds me how I can harness that kind of energy to put my own ideas into action, despite any anxiety I might have towards them potentially being too weird, or not good enough. It takes you out of your routine ways of thinking and allow you to start opening up to the unexpected.  For example, when someone asked a boring question about jumping into the freelance world, Ze’s answer was, “I’m a Unicorn!” There is so much to be said for just putting out your craziness into an audience and see what happens.

Later that evening I headed over, DVD in hand, to the Final Cut meet up over at Maggie Mae’s on 6th Street. I immediately met up with one of organizers who was able to show my work on the projection screen and TVs filtered throughout the venue. While it was fun to show work at SXSW to a room full of editors and videographers, it would have been more exciting for me, if it was more of a forum and less of a party. The work on the screens became background videos and we didn’t get enough interaction following up with each artist who showed. For example – there was a guy who showed work before me that almost entirely resembled a brazilian collage animation that I love, yet when I went to ask who’s work it was, the guy presenting the work had no idea. So that was kind of a bust. What made up for it was the $10 raffle ticket I bought, that won me a copy of Adobe’s CS4 Creative Production Premium Suite, worth $1700. I couldn’t have asked for a better first night!

In just a few days I’ll be boarding a plane to Austin, TX to join the SXSW festivities. You will most likely find me sipping a Lonestar and attending something nerdy between the days of March 13th through the 18th. I’ll also be VJing at an event on Congress called House by Southwest on the 17th, (St. Patricks day!)

Keep checking back here to the Dangerblog, because I have decided to create a daily write-up for each day that I’m out there.  I will be experimenting with a pocket Mino HD flipcam lent by my good friend Jack from Steelblender. Thanks Jack!!  It shoots 60 minutes of HD footage, is as tiny as an ipod, and has a built in USB for quick import. I’m sure by the end of this trip I will want one for myself.

I’m looking forward to all of SXSW, documenting the trip and meeting a lot of new folks. Drop me a line if you’re going, or stop by the show on Wednesday night at Silhouette!

Photo by Mary Woods

Photo by me

Thanks to all who came out to the “Chocolate & I” gallery show last Monday in NY!!  I had so much fun meeting everyone, tasting truffles, and sipping their chocolate margaritas. Mmm. Music, visuals & chocolate are some of my favorite indulgences.

This was the first show of mine where I was able to incorporate both of my projectors at once, split the VGA signals and mirror the images across the beautiful gallery wall. I usually don’t have the luxury of having so much space and freedom, but this felt absolutely wonderful to break free of the singular image and experiment with some new ideas.

To think, just over a year ago I didn’t even own any of the equipment to be able to perform like I can now. I had always wanted to, but it seemed overwhelming. It’s quite an investment:  laptops, mixers, projectors, cables, stands & adapters. Now after a year of experimentation, and slowly accumulating a studios worth of equipment, I can’t imagine my life without performing. I’m inspired in new directions from each and every show.

If anyone reading this photographed the night I would love to see your collection!!  Feel free to send me an email, or post them here.

Video soon to come!

A drawing sample from students in class

Friday night I trekked out to Washington, DC to join the Motion Graphics Festival. The workshops all sounded wonderful, but it especially piqued my interest when I read that VJ Shantell Martin was teaching a workshop in live-painting. On the practical side of what I do, my instinct was to take the After Effects class, but the VJ side of me couldn’t let go of the opportunity to hang with other visualists from around the world, so I signed up.

The class introduced the idea of using a wacom tablet mixed with painting software to drawing live and intuitively to music, while recording your session and being able to cut it up and re-use it as animation in performance or later for editing. I found this particularly useful because I never record what I’m doing directly from the screen. There is a program called I Show You which does this perfectly, creating a high res quicktime file.

While much of my personal VJ style has been to mix motion graphics & after effects work, with video files, I’m interested in seeing what direction the concepts I learned in class could take on for me. Definitely a lot of fun, and definitely a new tool to play with and explore.

Thanks to all of you who I met this weekend. I hope our paths cross again soon!

Burning Man 2007

My little studio is quickly becoming overwhelmed with equipment. I’ve decided this year for my annual trip to Burning Man, that I would take a small amount of my VJ gear out with me, and meet up with the video artists from all over the world, to collaborate for a variety of amazing events and parties.

In order to do this, I’ve had to purchase some used equipment that can live and breathe in the dusty environment and last for many hours. Last night I picked up an Epson Powerlite 76c (only 26 hours on it) with screen for $350! Never underestimate the power of people wanting to get rid of things in their homes.  Also brought home a used 13′ Macbook that is perfect for traveling. I need to come up with a plan to keep all of this stuff as dust proof as possible and with only 6 days to go, I’m not quite sure how I’m going to do it all. I am however really stoked to experiment out there. Not looking forward to lugging all this equipment on the plane with me, but there are an amazing amount of VJs that go to this event and I’m excited that this will be the first year that I am joining my peoples!

If you’ll be out there this year, I’ll be camping at 7 & C. Come find me & say hi. I will unplug from my computer universe here from Aug 28th and will be back in the default world September 8th.

J&R Kodomo Danger Show / 6/20/09

Yesterday morning, I packed up my car with my new portable screen, my laptop, mixer, cables, gaffer tape, wires & hard drive, and headed south to hit J&R’s Summer Expo.

At noon Kodomo and I set stage amongst thousands of CDs in the back of J&R for an afternoon set promoting his album, Still Life. While projecting under fluorescent lighting makes for a difficult performance on my behalf, it was a lot of fun and ultimately a successful rainy afternoon for both of us. I didn’t realize how much I missed being amongst all those records & CDs, and I always love performing. Especially for a good old fashion record store audience.

I really miss the experience of going to my favorite local record store on any given afternoon and spending hours wandering in the aisles. Record stores have always felt like design museums to me. Album covers spanning years of musical history and varieties of style, art and culture.  Since downloading has been so easy and accessible in the last few years, I’ve watched all of my favorite music stores close down one by one, and many more musicians releasing digital downloads instead of putting money into tangible albums.

These days if I want the experience of picking up an album I have to either drive an hour north to Culters in New Haven or an hour south to my NYC spots. My preference these days is Kim’s Video, or my latest favorite, Ear Wax in Brooklyn. J&R was a first for me, but they had quite a collection, and it was cool to be a part of it.  Happy Summer Solstice! 

Don’t forget, this week I’ll be at Monkeytown, Thursday (Jun 25th) projecting for the Cutlery. 8PM Showtime.  Just make sure that if you plan on attending that you shoot your info over to Monkeytown’s reservations. You can do that by clicking here. See you Thursday!

 

Driving home from yoga, Saturday morning sun. Canon SD780.

I finally received my new digital camera in the mail last week, the new Canon SD780. My last camera was my absolute favorite, the Olympus Camedia 5050z, and I’m looking to resurrect it from it’s death one day. However, for now it’s all about life through a new lens. I’ve been without a point and shoot for nearly a year now, and I think it’s finally time for me to open up my eyes again. I’ll be doing a series of test shoots over the next few weeks and collecting them here. We’ll see how she fairs next to my old trusty Olympus.

 

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!!

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!

 

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!