long time no

hi. ok, so i'm not the best blogger meaning i leave and don't come back for awhile. but i'm still here and this is what i have been doing (see photo), in the wilds of california, illinois, iowa and western new york. lots of shooting with my favorite instrument, the bolex. i am now editing all that footage. i'll upload a little bit soon.
this photo was taken by jessica miller on the beach in santa cruz. she is a superrad photographer and an allaround awesome lady who drove up from l.a. to help me shoot.

obscurity

here is a film that i shot at this building on campus that was designed by gehry. it was expired film and i hand processed it (badly), ensuring the maximum in obscurity. sometimes covering something too shiny is really comforting.

feb. 3. 4 p.m.

today i am again cooped up in the home, grading student projects and trying not to lose hope. i took a break at 4 to make a little movie of what i do at break time: dance around like a dummy/look out the window. soundtrack supplied by the feathers who i have been listening to all day on repeat (dork). this was made with the canon elph, my new little friend...

cabin fever

this is a photo that i took at leighton pierce's new installation "convection" at cornell college in mt. vernon, ia. its lots of channels of video projected on these white coloumn things hanging from the ceiling. i liked the white light blur in this picture. i need this light channeled straight to my brain to push out the doldrums.

ok i meant to post to this thing daily, but darn it i can't do anything EVERYDAY. except maybe pee. the rest is a crapshoot ya'll. today is one of the coldest days i can remember. i have spent most of it inside cleaning my tiny apartment and listening to the radio.

here is a poem about winter:

what is the use of machines
that act like humans and humans
who have machines attached to themselves
all day
wood to metal, metal in space
now you are here
you are transforming a picture
all attachments are functioning
you are commanding, you are reaping
you are alive, but just barely

a horn in the distance
and walking over a bridge last night
the river floating beneath you
its cold breath fuming
a great tarnished statue
traversing icy patches
your feet move forth back forth back
down below a deer carcass skims the water
and you hold in the bile
as it rises up

it's all about the view. dec. 18, 2006

this is the view out of room 701 in the Intensive Care Unit of northwestern hospital in the city of my birth, chicago. I really wanted to take my dads photo. you see, he was the other person in the room, and he was the one in the hospital bed. he had just come out of open heart surgery and he had numerous tubes and stuff sticking out every which way. i am not one of those people who can photograph stuff like that. you know what i mean. and if you don't, well...
anyhow, i turned around on that monday afternoon and took, instead a picture of the commanding and intimidating buildings of downtown chicago. they have always been there, sturdy and steely and impenetrable. kind of like my dad, until i saw him lying in that bed. and i sat in the chair watching him, as he drifted in and out of a drugged sleep. he looked peaceful, almost dead. we were alone, except for the nurses coming in every five minutes. i had been up since 4 am, and i sank lower into the chair. i watched the moniters tracking his heart and blood pressure. i watched the breath come in and out, and his chest rising and falling. and i thought, someday my dad will die. but not today.

rodeo beach 2001 or look ma no lens

i made this film at rodeo beach when i was living in california. since this is going to be partially a video blog i thought i would attempt the proceedure of uploading actual video. the funny part about this post, other than the fact that this is all i have on my computers hard drive, is that this is one of the most primitive films i have ever made. so not videoee. i inserted a pinhole in the filter key of a bolex and then i single framed that baby for a couple of hours. its really just a silly little movie about a very specific time and place, namely that beach with friends and a red union suit that people kept taking off and putting on. the sound is silly, but hey- it was a silly time. and i was young and dumb. ok, maybe not young. but dumb.
anyway, this is my postcard to you. in winter.

uh i have a blog. hellooo world.

well. its winter here in iowa and its been made official by the first real snow so far. i have become a little melancholy and figured maybe instead of obsessing about my thesis, i should make something every day, no matter how small. today i make this blog. tommorow, i make MAGIC