The other day I got to see some old high school friends who were in town touring with their choir. They had come all the way from Indiana and had been touring for 4 days in different states. It was a surprise to see them and they were very good (it especially helped that none of them really knew I was going to be there, so they were surprised too). The strange thing is that just last night I got a call from another old friend saying that he was in town, so it's been a strange but enjoyable couple of days for me.
My 16mm experimental film thing worked out pretty well I think, though I'll admit I was pretty much making it up as I went along. I used a knife to scratch off most of the film covering stuff, but halfway through one of my room mates let me know that he had sandpaper which worked a lot better. The first half of the film is shapes changing into each other, whereas the other half has more to do with paint splotches and dynamic color transitions.
Here's the video of my other project, it's supposed to represent how a sudden storm works. I wrote and performed the music (not, not wrote, but made up) ad it was recorded on a cheap keyboard, so I'm sorry if it sounds strange.
For up-do-date-Isaac-news:
I'm going out on thursday night to see Keren Ann over at Johnny Brenda's. If you haven't heard of her, check out her song "Not Going Anywhere."
ALSO! I just found out that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irgova of the movie "Once" (they won an oscar for the best original song for a movie) are going to be performing at the Tower Theater later in March. Yes.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Beautiful Day
that pretty much sums it up; it is about 50 degrees outside or so with a little breeze, which is a nice break from the 30 degree rain we've been having. My friend Ray and I are making preparations to start production on our zombie movie for the Terror Sci Fi Festival this coming october, so that's pretty exciting.
Edit: hardly 30 minutes after I posted the previous paragraph, it began storming outside and dropped 20 degrees. Stupid weather.
Though I haven't been getting much sleep, these past few days have been pretty relaxing. Being home was nice and I got to eat real food for 2 days, and my classes haven't been as hectic. Also, while at home I found all of my old paints from my summer session here 2 years ago, so that just saved me about a hundred dollars. Hooray! Everyone seems to be getting deathly ill, so I'm hoping I can just avoid that all together, though one of my roommates (who sleeps in the bed under mine) is one of those very sick people, so I'm doing all I can to boost my immune system (eating oranges like candy, drinking green tea, and taking vitamin C tablets). I've been quite healthy all year, so i kind of would like to keep that up.
For up-to-date-Isaac-news:
I'm starting to realize that I don't know enough about art history as I should, and considering I'm sitting here in art history class while writing this blog probably explains why.
Also, I've decided that "Set List" by The Frames is one of the best live albums I've ever heard. So much goes on during it, including a fire and a sudden break from an ordinary song into "A World of Pure Imagination" from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (Gene Wilder version).
Edit: hardly 30 minutes after I posted the previous paragraph, it began storming outside and dropped 20 degrees. Stupid weather.
Though I haven't been getting much sleep, these past few days have been pretty relaxing. Being home was nice and I got to eat real food for 2 days, and my classes haven't been as hectic. Also, while at home I found all of my old paints from my summer session here 2 years ago, so that just saved me about a hundred dollars. Hooray! Everyone seems to be getting deathly ill, so I'm hoping I can just avoid that all together, though one of my roommates (who sleeps in the bed under mine) is one of those very sick people, so I'm doing all I can to boost my immune system (eating oranges like candy, drinking green tea, and taking vitamin C tablets). I've been quite healthy all year, so i kind of would like to keep that up.
For up-to-date-Isaac-news:
I'm starting to realize that I don't know enough about art history as I should, and considering I'm sitting here in art history class while writing this blog probably explains why.
Also, I've decided that "Set List" by The Frames is one of the best live albums I've ever heard. So much goes on during it, including a fire and a sudden break from an ordinary song into "A World of Pure Imagination" from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (Gene Wilder version).
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
In an attempt to avoid working in 2D...
...I'm doing this.
First of all, it's snowing. That is the shit. Period. Sentence fragment. Unfortunately, though the snow looks nice now and excites me about the potential of any classes being canceled, I know it will only begin to heavily snow/ice rain later tonight, which is supposed to clear up by 1 am, meaning that it's starting too late for us to miss anything, and ending too early to be a problem tomorrow.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY&feature=bz301
I usually don't openly endorse politicians, but I really like this guy and I love the fact that he doesn't read from a script while he speaks to an audience.
This just popped into my head today that I should probably mention this movie: "Once." In case you've never heard of it, it's a modern-day musical set in Dublin, Ireland. It follows the story of a busker who plays his guitar on Grafton Street in the heart of Dublin. During the day, he plays songs that everyone knows in order to make money, but at night he plays songs that he's written, which are full of emotion. The story begins with a young Czech woman who overhears one of his songs at night. Throughout the rest of the movie, which takes place in a week, they find a common interest in making music and recording songs, the guy being haunted by memories of his ex-love, and the girl haunted by the memories of her old home. The guy is played by Glen Hansard from the Irish band The Frames and the girl is played by Marketa Irglova, who helped Glen record one of his newest solo albums. Neither are trained actors which is one of the things that makes this movie so genuine. The entire movie is filmed with what appears to be a home video camera and it all has a very real feel to it, like a documentary. I consider it to be one of the most important musical movies of my/our generation and it really made me re-think music and movies. If you see it at blockbuster or west coast video or whatever, I strongly recommend that you check it out. Here's a preview: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7mIpwx5lA5I
For up-to-date-Isaac news:
I get to go home for the first time in a while on Friday, which I'm excited for. Not only will it give me a chance to see my dogs again, but I can also get some laundry done and buy some groceries as well. I'll only be there for a day or so, but it'll be worth it.
First of all, it's snowing. That is the shit. Period. Sentence fragment. Unfortunately, though the snow looks nice now and excites me about the potential of any classes being canceled, I know it will only begin to heavily snow/ice rain later tonight, which is supposed to clear up by 1 am, meaning that it's starting too late for us to miss anything, and ending too early to be a problem tomorrow.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY&feature=bz301
I usually don't openly endorse politicians, but I really like this guy and I love the fact that he doesn't read from a script while he speaks to an audience.
This just popped into my head today that I should probably mention this movie: "Once." In case you've never heard of it, it's a modern-day musical set in Dublin, Ireland. It follows the story of a busker who plays his guitar on Grafton Street in the heart of Dublin. During the day, he plays songs that everyone knows in order to make money, but at night he plays songs that he's written, which are full of emotion. The story begins with a young Czech woman who overhears one of his songs at night. Throughout the rest of the movie, which takes place in a week, they find a common interest in making music and recording songs, the guy being haunted by memories of his ex-love, and the girl haunted by the memories of her old home. The guy is played by Glen Hansard from the Irish band The Frames and the girl is played by Marketa Irglova, who helped Glen record one of his newest solo albums. Neither are trained actors which is one of the things that makes this movie so genuine. The entire movie is filmed with what appears to be a home video camera and it all has a very real feel to it, like a documentary. I consider it to be one of the most important musical movies of my/our generation and it really made me re-think music and movies. If you see it at blockbuster or west coast video or whatever, I strongly recommend that you check it out. Here's a preview: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7mIpwx5lA5I
For up-to-date-Isaac news:
I get to go home for the first time in a while on Friday, which I'm excited for. Not only will it give me a chance to see my dogs again, but I can also get some laundry done and buy some groceries as well. I'll only be there for a day or so, but it'll be worth it.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Flipbook/other projects
As far as my flipbook goes, I think I'm doing alright. It's so far been a mix of spontaneous creation and nonsensical, late-night dawdling. For the record, I don't think "dawdle" is used very often, so I take pride in dusting it off once in a while, just like the word "smarmy." The story of my flipbook is simple like (I assume) everyone's is: it's a pong game being watched by my head. One of the "pongs" gets frustrated and shoots the other, making him the winner. My head reacts accordingly with a horrified look. I can only hope that I won't be judged as being "sick" when it's inevitably showed to everyone I know.
Anyway, about this new project. Drawing on 8mm film is a brand new concept for me, as I'm sure it is for many others in this class. Watching the films in class, I can't really imagine doing anything too much different than what was shown (swirling colors, molding shapes) but I'll do my best to come up with something original.
For up-to-date-Isaac-news:
I'm trying to find a way to legitimize my dislike of others downloading music from sites like "frostwire" and such, while at the same time my love of creating mix CDs for others in order to get them to enjoy my types of music. The argument is that what I do is the same as what others do when they download music for free, which is essentially stealing. My argument is that what I do gives a small taste (one song per artist) of the music I enjoy and entices others to go out and buy their music once they've reviewed what I've given them. I'm not mass producing these CDs with all of the music I own and giving them out for free, I'm only doing it for one person at a time. Again, the argument against that is that I'm still taking away from the artist and that it's just like more people are doing the same thing, only on the internet instead. I don't want to simply stop sharing the music that I love because I'm pretty passionate about it, but I feel so strongly that the artist deserves all the income he or she or they can get. Guys like Elton John and such I don't care too much about, because it's clear that they won't suffer at all even if they stop making money all together at this moment, but bands like The Robot Explosion, Damien Rice, and Dan Le Sac need and deserve that money now and for years to come.
Oh well, I'll figure out some kind of counter-argument someday. For now, I'll enjoy my recently purchased "The Shepherd's Dog" album by Iron and Wine. Sam Bean is one of the most deserving artists I know and respect him way too much to not give him something for his artistry.
Anyway, about this new project. Drawing on 8mm film is a brand new concept for me, as I'm sure it is for many others in this class. Watching the films in class, I can't really imagine doing anything too much different than what was shown (swirling colors, molding shapes) but I'll do my best to come up with something original.
For up-to-date-Isaac-news:
I'm trying to find a way to legitimize my dislike of others downloading music from sites like "frostwire" and such, while at the same time my love of creating mix CDs for others in order to get them to enjoy my types of music. The argument is that what I do is the same as what others do when they download music for free, which is essentially stealing. My argument is that what I do gives a small taste (one song per artist) of the music I enjoy and entices others to go out and buy their music once they've reviewed what I've given them. I'm not mass producing these CDs with all of the music I own and giving them out for free, I'm only doing it for one person at a time. Again, the argument against that is that I'm still taking away from the artist and that it's just like more people are doing the same thing, only on the internet instead. I don't want to simply stop sharing the music that I love because I'm pretty passionate about it, but I feel so strongly that the artist deserves all the income he or she or they can get. Guys like Elton John and such I don't care too much about, because it's clear that they won't suffer at all even if they stop making money all together at this moment, but bands like The Robot Explosion, Damien Rice, and Dan Le Sac need and deserve that money now and for years to come.
Oh well, I'll figure out some kind of counter-argument someday. For now, I'll enjoy my recently purchased "The Shepherd's Dog" album by Iron and Wine. Sam Bean is one of the most deserving artists I know and respect him way too much to not give him something for his artistry.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Vampire Weekend
Before you begin to worry about 2 consecutive days of nightwalkers sucking people's blood, I can tell you that Vampire Weekend is a band. Worry free!
I was lucky enough to have a friend who has a brother who had two extra tickets to a concert of theirs at the First Unitarian Church this past Thursday. I'm pretty new at listening to these guys, so it was pretty much a stab in the dark, but I was happily surprised at the outcome.
Vampire Weekend is a band that came from New York and has only recently becoming known to people outside of that area. They came out with their first CD only within this past month and are already on tour to promote it. Their style is a wonderful mix of energy and frankness, singing about things such has karma, New Jersey, and laundry. Their lead singer (not sure of his name) has a great high voice that's not overpowering. The combination of his voice and the drumbeats used sounds almost African (the members of the band are all white males, 4 in total) and most of what they do is relatively simple, but that's not to say easy. If the bass line is playing, it's almost definitely playing alone with the drums, and the same with the lead guitar or the keyboard. Every instrument is treated with the same care. I say it's simple because there's not much going on at one time, but it takes a lot of care to do that, just as it is the same for a seemingly "simple" painting.
I was sick for about 3 days this week, and I think that's all I'm going to get, which I'm greatful for. I try to drink a lot of green tea and Vitamin C supplements and such, and since I don't have much money for food and therefore eat seldomly, that green tea and Vitamin C doesn't have too much work to do. I guess I can consider that a good thing, right?
After listening to "Teardrop" by Massive Attack for years, I've just learned that it's the theme song for the series "House" about that doctor with a cane. I'll do my best to not pull the "Damn, now that everyone knows about it I can't enjoy it as much" like I did with every song from the "Garden State" soundtrack (and most recently "Juno").
For up-to-date-Isaac-news:
I recently found out that my best friend is leaving for Ireland this summer, making me very jealous, though I was only there a few months ago for the second time. I really do love the place.
Also, just found a pair big fuzzy comfortable socks that I had received for Christmas. Awesome.
Monday, February 4, 2008
The Persistence of Vision
The first movie I remember seeing was "Jurassic Park," which I saw when I was three-years-old. My mom took my older brother and me to see Snow White, but it was sold out. My brother, Sam, who is two years older than me, demanded that we see Jurassic Park since it had dinosaurs and special effects. My mom never really considered this to be a good idea, but knew that we would enjoy it and it was either this or go home with two very disappointed boys.
My mom will never forget the looks she got from the other adults in the movie theater as she helped her 3 and 5 year old boys down the aisle into seats that were too big for us. Nor could she forget the immediate regret she felt when the lawyer in the middle of the movie was bit by the T-Rex and shaken like a rag doll. I will never forget hiding behind the seats as the T-Rex chased the jeep down a long road in the jungle in the famous "objects in mirror are closer than they appear" scene.
As we left the theater, my mom had all these awful visions of the nightmares my brother and I would have, while in reality he and I would argue about points of the film for days until we saw it again with no nightmares to bother us. It was seeing this film and enjoying it so much (traumatization) that began my interest in film and flip-books. I remember being very young and figuring out how stop-motion and flip-books worked by watching endless "behind-the-scenes" clips from dinosaur movies, Disney movies, or pretty much anything with special effects. I remember how awful most of them turned out because I didn't understand that, in order for there to be fluid motion I would need a certain amount of frames. My first claymation was made out of playdough. It was a green dinosaur and I would move it with my hands to make it look like it was walking. I didn't have a camera or anything, but I used my imagination to see how it would have looked on screen. Since then my knowledge of "how it's done" is more mature and I would probably be able to make something pretty coherent if given the right tools.
I've always enjoyed making flip-books and things, so I'm really looking forward to how my project turns out here. I'm glad I had such an early exposer to the persistence of vision because it engraved a deep interest for how things like claymation and flip-books work.
For up-to-date-Isaac news:
I've had the same phone since I was 16, which was my dad's old phone, which he bought in 2000-ish. I have no real need for a new one considering that this one sends and receives calls and text messages, but it's battery life lasts about half a day and turns off sometimes when it's closed. I sometimes don't realize it until it's 3 days later and I think "Gee, I haven't gotten a phone call in a while" and then I find that my phone's just been off and I have 13 new messages from my friends wondering where I am.
Anyway, I've lost it for the 12th time last night because I put it in one of my coats, which was left in someone's room and is now gone. Normally, I like when I misplace my phone for a while, or the battery dies and I can't charge it for a few days because I get this comforting disconnection from the digital world, but in this case it's not quite that great cause it's my alarm clock and without it I'll get a lot more sleep but worse grades.
Also! I'm really glad that our mail service here at UArts is very very very slow because I really don't want to receive my tax information so I can fill out my FAFSA on time and receive a good scholarship. I mean, why would I want that?
My mom will never forget the looks she got from the other adults in the movie theater as she helped her 3 and 5 year old boys down the aisle into seats that were too big for us. Nor could she forget the immediate regret she felt when the lawyer in the middle of the movie was bit by the T-Rex and shaken like a rag doll. I will never forget hiding behind the seats as the T-Rex chased the jeep down a long road in the jungle in the famous "objects in mirror are closer than they appear" scene.
As we left the theater, my mom had all these awful visions of the nightmares my brother and I would have, while in reality he and I would argue about points of the film for days until we saw it again with no nightmares to bother us. It was seeing this film and enjoying it so much (traumatization) that began my interest in film and flip-books. I remember being very young and figuring out how stop-motion and flip-books worked by watching endless "behind-the-scenes" clips from dinosaur movies, Disney movies, or pretty much anything with special effects. I remember how awful most of them turned out because I didn't understand that, in order for there to be fluid motion I would need a certain amount of frames. My first claymation was made out of playdough. It was a green dinosaur and I would move it with my hands to make it look like it was walking. I didn't have a camera or anything, but I used my imagination to see how it would have looked on screen. Since then my knowledge of "how it's done" is more mature and I would probably be able to make something pretty coherent if given the right tools.
I've always enjoyed making flip-books and things, so I'm really looking forward to how my project turns out here. I'm glad I had such an early exposer to the persistence of vision because it engraved a deep interest for how things like claymation and flip-books work.
For up-to-date-Isaac news:
I've had the same phone since I was 16, which was my dad's old phone, which he bought in 2000-ish. I have no real need for a new one considering that this one sends and receives calls and text messages, but it's battery life lasts about half a day and turns off sometimes when it's closed. I sometimes don't realize it until it's 3 days later and I think "Gee, I haven't gotten a phone call in a while" and then I find that my phone's just been off and I have 13 new messages from my friends wondering where I am.
Anyway, I've lost it for the 12th time last night because I put it in one of my coats, which was left in someone's room and is now gone. Normally, I like when I misplace my phone for a while, or the battery dies and I can't charge it for a few days because I get this comforting disconnection from the digital world, but in this case it's not quite that great cause it's my alarm clock and without it I'll get a lot more sleep but worse grades.
Also! I'm really glad that our mail service here at UArts is very very very slow because I really don't want to receive my tax information so I can fill out my FAFSA on time and receive a good scholarship. I mean, why would I want that?
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