AMP

Hard at work here at Camp MacDowell. When I haven’t been making huge blueprints I’ve been creating some experimental projection pieces in which videos are projected onto photographs. The photographs they are projected onto are created by projecting the video onto light-sensitive paper (read: long exposure). There is a certain kind of beauty in both the redundancy of the image/video and the temporal confusion by layering ongoing moments on top of still images. Watch examples below:

In the fall of 2006, I was given a residency to write and record a rock-opera/concept album about photography and the Midwest. I recorded around 30 songs to 4-track and felt drained as soon as I finished them. I’m finally feeling able to put lyrics to them, so I dug out the old master tapes and got to work on finishing what I started. Here’s the first one–I intend to make a video for each song. Right now I’m calling the album ‘Lake’, but that’s completely subject to change…

The 80’s was not a kind decade for anything besides Cocaine. Rock-stars felt the burn especially bad, the Beatles included. For instance, George Harrison turned in what could be laziest video performance ever:

Ringo’s contributions were far better than the disastrous 70’s, but that’s only because the other Beatles helped write him songs…

Lennon–well, he missed out on a good portion of the 80’s for good reason. But, he still managed to squeak out this stinker (more in terms of the video vs. the song):

And somehow, amid all this mess, Paul McCartney managed to make a pretty rad contribution to the canon of Christmas songs (I would love to hear a group of caroler’s take on this):

I’ve been on a quest to discover new comedians, ways to make me laugh, and funny people in general. So far, this guy has been a veritable goldmine of comedy:

Oh yeah, and he has about 30 videos of this up on his youtube channel. Pop some popcorn and make an evening out of it…MIND BLOWING.

I’ve been plugging away at my studio every chance I can get–I guess I’m fully a weekend warrior. For those of you curious to see how I’ve been making work like the image below, I made a short little film illustrating the exposure process. Enjoy!

Tree 07

The making of Tree 07

I miss the animal companions I had in Minneapolis. Don’t get me wrong–I love watching rats and mice while waiting for the train, and the random birds and squirrels that visit my ‘back yard’–but they just don’t compete against Esther Eve and Max/Meowx (the best cat ever). If you’re in MPLS and you come across either of these fine animal specimens, give them a scratch under the chin for me.

Wednesday nights were unofficially ‘dude nights’ for the longest time. We’d celebrate by going to the Town Talk Diner, hands-down the best drinking establishment in the Twin Cities. Proof is below.

This all happened behind the bar. I think I’ve proved my point.

Minneapolis = lots of time wasted. Not wasted in the bad ‘I didn’t get anything done’ sense, but rather in the good ‘I can’t get anything done because my blood alcohol level is waaaaay too high, so I’m just going to laugh and dance with my friends’ sense.

Remember when we’d go dancing at First Avenue pretty much every Saturday? That was fun.

Or better yet, remember when we’d have our own dance parties at home? That was fun, too.

The best was a party at someone else’s house–no clean up! My favorite part of this video is yelling ‘YOU SUCK’ at a failed limbo. I believe this was at Jen’s house. I also believe Tucker passed out along the side of the house, on a patch of ice.

Sunday dinners, oh how I miss thee. I tried them out for a bit in NY, but I realized it works a lot better when you have a master chef and a 3,000 square foot warehouse to entertain in…

On the 8th day, Tucker and EC begot an awesome warehouse space, for pennies.

We knew at once it was going to be the future home of Tucker’s ramp.

And thus the winter began, dominated by construction.

The majority of work was finished by New Year’s, in which Tucker and EC opened their home to the public with a New Year’s party. It was mildly attended.