The Furnace

Change Has Come

2009-11-28T11:15:00.002-05:00

Change Has Come music video from Matthew Glasson on Vimeo.

My friend Dave recently commissioned me to make a music video for his band Will Pilot. The song is called "Change has Come" and was shot in the North Brooklyn areas of Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Bushwick using the my fancypants Canon 5D Mark II camera. If you have the bandwidth, be sure to watch it in HD!

Lee walks in Greenpoint

2009-07-30T09:46:00.002-04:00

Lee walks in Greenpoint, originally uploaded by mugsniffer.

Love Stalker and the 48 Hour Film Project

2009-07-13T23:30:00.000-04:00

Hey all - as I'm sure most of you faithful readers have noticed, I recently participated in the 48 Hour Film Project in St. Louis when we made the short called LOVE STALKER. It was a great experience overall, so here is part one of a two parter on the whole ordeal (or lack thereof).

My long-time friend and collaborator B. Bowls MacLean wanted to do a 48 Hour Film Project so he registered a few months back (under the name Filmbender Entertainment Group) and contacted me to ask me if I would be interested in flying out to St. Louis to help him out. I figured since I was "between" gigs it was a good opportunity to visit Bowls and St. Louis and have fun making a little film. Also, I felt like I owed him a favor since he came out to NYC to help me and Ben when we were making our New York Stalker trilogy of music videos. I booked my ticket (with a little stop off in Chicago to visit the fam) and we were off.

When I arrived in St. Louis, Bowls informed me that his kitchen ceiling had partially collapsed from heavy rainfall, all within seconds of my plane landing and me calling him on the phone to get picked up at the airport. As he pulled up in his Chevy Corolla, a sense of dread filled me as I saw the front seat was covered in empty cigarette packs and empty coffee cups. "You couldn't have at least made room for me in the front seat?" I snapped. The theme music for The Odd Couple immediately sprang to mind.

We dropped off my stuff at his apartment, which he was avoiding because he was very distressed about the kitchen ceiling situation. I told him it was going to be fine - we just needed to deal with cleaning the crap up so that we could move about the kitchen if we had to. He seemed embarrassed by the situation and didn't want to get his hands dirty in the process. Cue Odd Couple theme music as Mugwump begins picking the place up...

Now before we go further, I should lay out what the rules are for the 48 hour film project for those unfamiliar... On the launch day, your team is randomly assigned a genre (drama, comedy, horror, etc), then the room of team leaders is given a line of dialogue, a character and a prop to incorporate into the film and you're off. You then have 48 hours to write, shoot, edit and deliver your movie. You can be prepared with a cast and crew, of course, and some basic ideas depending on what genre you get, but any writing and shooting has to take place in the given 48 hour window of time.

So after I arrived, we went out for lunch to discuss some potential ideas about the project and to pick up some cleaning supplies to deal with the kitchen. Bowls had a basic premise based on his own experience of semi-stalking a girl bartender with whom he was infatuated. The idea was basically our hero would be outside her work talking to a friend on the phone, explaining that second shift should have started so he wouldn't see the same people as before when he went in. Then maybe he goes in, orders a round, but a co-worker who was there from earlier spots him and blows his cover. Later on, two detectives are interrogating him regarding the girl at the bar because she's gone missing. While he claims he's innocent and knows nothing about her disappearance, he becomes uncertain when the detectives show him the picture of the girl a second time only to reveal that she is a different person. He begins to doubt his own sanity. I thought it was basically a good idea (aside from having a detective scene in the short which I felt was going to be cliche and unbelievable), but then again I wasn't worried about what we were going to do... I figured it would come together when it was go time and didn't want to think things through to thoroughly depending on what genre we picked at the launch.

Over the next two days, Bowls continued to touch base with his cast and crew to make sure they were on board for the project. One girl actor dropped out the night before the shoot, one bar location was no longer available for us, and some of his friends were suddenly MIA. It turns out the girl that dropped out was a blessing in disguise because he found a new girl, Erin Wiles, who worked at a restaurant/bar that Bowls frequented. She had a boyfriend, Aaron Dodd, who was also available to act in the film, plus the downstairs of her restaurant was rarely used and could serve as a bar location. Sometimes, things happen for a reason, or, at least, they force you to come up with a different solution which may have been better all along. We had a meeting with the cast and crew Thursday night to discuss the basic premise and a couple of "what if" scenarios. Nothing was discussed in too great of detail aside from our basic premise, but we realized we should shoot pictures of the two girls in case we wanted to do something with those props during the shoot (this was actually a loophole in the rules of the 48HFP - they say you can use any photographs you shoot before the start of the project provided that you own the rights to the picts).

So the day of the kick-off was upon us. We met up with Erin & Katie that afternoon and, without discussing it beforehand, they showed up both wearing the same style of top. This was going to bode well. That night, we went to the kick-off meeting. The 48 Hour Film Project in St. Louis is a huge deal, even moreso than in New York or Los Angeles - there were 74 teams in total so they had to break up teams into different groups for the screening night. After a prolonged intro about what one can or can't do and all the appropriate sponsorship shout-outs, they called the first group up to pull their genre. Not only were we in group one, but we suddenly found ourselves the first in line to pull a bingo ball from the cage. Bowls turned the cage and pulled out the white ball... G-55. We looked up at the chart being projected on the screen.... Musical/Western. Bowls turned to me with a scowl on his face. The crowd erupted into cheers. Apparently, whenever someone pulls the musical/western card, everyone is relieved that it wasn't them. I raised my fist in solidarity with the crowd as though we had planned this all along.

We sat down and waited while the rest of their teams got their respective genres - quite a wait since there were 73 teams to go after us. Finally, with the last of the teams having gotten their assignments, they announced the three "elements" that each film needed to include:

1) Charactor: Ashton/Ashley Brown, Expert
2) Prop: Photo of mom and/or dad
3) Dialogue: "Have you ever seen anything like it?"

We had the option of going for a wildcard where you can trade in your selected genre for a random "sub-genre" of 6 or so choices. Dreading the idea that we might end up pulling "Holiday Film" from the wildcard, we stuck with musical. Both the lead actor, Pete, and myself were musicians and felt we could whip something up, but as co-producer Mike said, "Musical adds a whole other level of work that doesn't exist with any of the other genres," and he was right. The idea of spending a lot of time on the music was going to be time not spent on making the film, so we needed to cut some corners to make this feasible.

Bowls had long since abandoned hope of not going into full-blown panic mode as we left the launch party. He began calling everyone and trying to organize a meeting with the group at his place to quickly get something in place. I started kicking out some random lyrics for our lead character to sing out. When the group organized to discuss "what the fuck are we going to do?" we were already pretty settled on trying to adapt the existing idea to the musical format. When Pete showed up with his buddy Kjle (pronounced Kile), he already had his notebook out and sang a verse of what was going to become the first song in the film...

If I can learn to fly
Kiss my mortal shell goodbye
Beside you I would lie
And in my arms you'll die...

"You're not supposed to kill her, Pete!" Bowls snapped.

It was worth a good laugh, but Pete had gotten off to a great start (and better than the half-assed lyrics I had knocked around earlier). As we discussed the musical further, I began playing with some loops in Garageband to underscore the song Pete had written. Even so, ideas were getting desperate: auto-erotic asphyxiation (RIP David Carradine), roofies, banana peels, but the piece had begun to take a basic sort of shape. Pete's character would sing about his dream girl in the car after talking with his friend about his crush, then he would go in, try hitting on girl unsuccessfully while she flirts with someone else, eventually he leaves and meets up with his friend, realizes that the picture of the girl he had was someone else, and begins to doubt his own sanity. THE END.

It was basically there, but some pieces still needed to come into play. We were concerned that our idea wasn't going to be "musical enough." I suggested that we try doing some experimental musical ideas with the editing during the bar sequence. People weren't exactly enthusiastic about it but in lieu of spending the night on writing and recording a musical score, it would have to do. Pete came up with a little ditty for the ending tune and hammered out some lyrics right there and then. In his first attempt at singing it, he nailed it... I had absolutely nothing to add to it. He and his friend Kjle left to go record a piano part for the ending while Bowls, Mike and myself began to hammer out a script. After an hour or two, we had the basic draft down and turned in for some shuteye before the big day.

STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO OF THE 48 HOUR FILM EXPERIENCE... FILMING, EDITING & SCREENING

the ezsqueeze

2009-07-06T19:07:00.007-04:00

As those who know me well would likely attest, I can be a bit anal-retentive with regards to certain things. Namely keeping a clean house and perhaps even being slightly compulsive with my organizational methods. One thing that always gets my goat is the manner in which people dispense toothpaste from the tube. The ideal, in my anal-retentive drive for perfection, is to squeeze from the bottom of the tube and slowly flatten it out as the toothpaste gets used over time. So you can easily imagine how it drives me momentarily batty when a house guest uses my toothpaste and just leaves a big pinch in the center of the tube or worse, at the top. I mean, what are you people thinking?

Fortunately, my mother recently gave me a wonderful gift to help reduce the anxiety over maximizing toothpaste-squeezing-efficiency by including this blue toothpaste clamp in my Xmas stocking last year called EZ Squeeze (yes, every year mums always takes great pride in coming up with new and inventive chotchkies to put in our stockings. One of my favorites is a wind-up robotic heart alien monster, but that's a story for another time). Anyway, the deal with the clamp is you fit piece onto the end of the toothpaste tube and turn the knob to roll up at the flap and slowly squeeze it out towards the front. I don't even have to turn the clamp time I want toothpaste, I just turn it when I want to expand the volume of toothpaste in its tube. It's really quite a simple tool that will leave you feeling like you really got the full benefit from your toothpaste purchases!

Below is the first tube that I used the clamp on. As you can see this toothpaste tube was left as dead as a doornail. Here's the link to the website... www.ezsqueezetube.com - apparently they make collapsible tubes convenient!

Great gift! Yay mums!

Tapioca Tundra

2009-06-12T13:37:00.002-04:00

Since not everyone out there is on facebook, I thought I'd post some of the songs I've been recording on my profile. This one is Tapioca Tundra by Michael Nesmith which was released as a Monkees song off of "The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees" album in 1968.

LOVE STALKER

2009-06-08T19:41:00.001-04:00

Matty & Ben Show

2009-04-23T14:16:00.001-04:00

I guess it's a little late to be getting word out on this, but Benny C and myself are performing tomorrow night in the East Village. Here's the mass email that I sent out yesterday...

Please join myself & big Benny C this Friday for our triumphant return to the stage from retirement at the Teneleven bar on Avenue C. We will both will be performing solo songs from our respective repertoires (including a God The Band music revue from Mugwump). The irrepressible Frankie Wood presents!

Friday, April 24, 2009 at 10:00pm
@ teneleven
171 Avenue C between 10th & 11th St.
New York, NY
212-353-1011
* NO COVER CHARGE *

Should be a good time! Then again, it could be a complete disaster...

What in the hell-hath-no-fury happened?

2009-04-23T00:19:00.002-04:00

I have nothing to publicly say on the matter of my most recent relationship and the fallout therein. However, my former seems to feel differently and so while I am tempted to dissect or analyze the matter in this forum, it feels inappropriate and distasteful for me to do so. I wish her the best in getting on with her life and finding her way and can only hope that she does not choose a destructive path in her self-discovery.

"Bob? Looks like we're gonna need a bigger crane..."

2009-03-16T21:13:00.003-04:00

The FDNY poises itself against the horizon of the Edge building and Northside Piers in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Two prime examples of the leftover (and hollow) excesses from the real-estate boom of North Brooklyn.

My Sebaceous Cyst reaches landmark 50,000 views online

2009-03-09T18:00:00.001-04:00

In 2005, I had a benign clump of tissue that was situated square in the middle of my back removed by a dermatologist. The process was fairly straightforward, but I wanted to document the cyst with my camera so I asked the nurse if I could take it home and they obliged. Using my Canon Powershot mounted with a macro lens attachment, I took several pictures of it as well as they stitched in my back and posted them on Flickr. Views came in slowly but steadily and at this point, I average 100 views a day. There's a reason for this: if you go into Google or Yahoo images and type in the word "sebaceous cyst," guess who shows up right at the top of the page?

Well, I guess a lot of people are trying to self-diagnose cysts out there because it is undoubtedly my highest viewed picture in my photo stream on the site. In October of last year, someone wrote to me from Vice magazine for an online feature about "gross stuff." The interview is included below...

How did you first notice it?
I noticed it in 2002 when I felt a bump on my back between my shoulder blades. I thought it was a pimple at first or an ingrown hair and so spent a lot of time putting pressure on it and trying to squeeze it out. I also had my girlfriend give it a go, with no success.

Were you worried about removing it?
I was only worried about removing it myself, which is why, once I had health insurance, I went to the dermatologist and had them check it out. They explained it was a cyst and could be surgically removed without too much fuss.

Did it hurt when you had it removed?
No, they shot in a local anesthetic and then went about carving a hole in my back while i lay on my stomach. I remember the doctor saying at one point, "Wow, this is more blood than I expected," which is exactly what you don't want to hear as they're cutting into you, but they got it under control and it was over soon enough. After stitching me up and putting my shirt back on, I asked the nurse if I could see it. She looked at me blankly and opened the trash can and pulled out a little bloody tissue holding the small nub of flesh that was my cyst. "Would it be possible to take it home with me?" I asked her, and after laughing about it, she fetched a small vial and placed the extirpated cyst in it with some formaldehyde, advising me not to drink this as it would make me sick.

Where do you keep it?
I kept the vial in a small jewel box located on my coffee table. It sat there for a month or two when I finally got around to taking pictures of it with my macro lens. I then popped it back in the vial and returned it to its sacred box.

Why do you keep it?
I keep it as a reminder of that which is foreign that emerges from within. I'm actually a fairly squeamish person, but I can be obsessed with infectious diseases, skin conditions and/or malformations of the body. I have surgically removed skin tags from my scrotum using a Swiss army knife pair of scissors, but they are not nearly as photogenic as a sebaceous cyst. I also keep a pin cushion filled with cat whiskers that my kitties shed that I find laying around the apartment.

OK, truthfully, I did embellish my answer about "keeping it" etc as I tossed it in the garbage a short time after I got my picts of it. I mean, after all, what sort of things can I expect from the cyst in the future?

Well, in honor of my cyst's enormous success online, I am posting a picture of a raw tooth nerve that I had removed earlier today during a root canal. Funny timing, huh?

Capsule reviews... 3.2.09

2009-03-02T14:25:00.000-05:00

DEATH PROOF - Quentin Tarantino continues to work within his familiar love of violent exploitational cinema, but no one does it quite as well and as effortlessly as Tarantino.

CARS - Exceeded expectations both as a story and a technical accomplishment, and I'm not too much of a fan of those CGI animated features so that says something.

THE HAPPENING - My hope for some sort of M. Night Shyamalan redemption was quickly dashed within the first 15 minutes of this environmental hoo-ha starring an uncomfortably miscast Mark Wahlberg. I still maintain that Mr. Shyamalan is a talented filmmaker, but a talented storyteller? Not so much.

ROB ZOMBIE'S HALLOWEEN - In a sign of truly desperate times, they've attempted to reboot the Halloween franchise by having Rob Zombie pick up the reigns. As a serious fan of the original two Halloween films, I found this very difficult to sit through. I don't want or need to know the Michael Meyer's backstory, and Zombie's over-reliance on graphic violence for shock and horror is repellent.

SOUTHLAND TALES - OK I liked this, but then again I sort of expect to do so after everyone said they hated it. It's undeniably a bit of an incoherent all-star mess, but I always appreciate it when a film is willing to take some risks and go off the deep end a bit.

THE BANK JOB - I'm Jason Statham, and today is the day... I rob a bank... with sideburns. I actually quite enjoyed this loosely-based account of a real bank heist in swinging seventies London with all the twists and turns we've come to expect from films of this genre.

REDS - There are times in REDS that feel so Academy Award approval-seeking, it hurts, but that might just be because it's a masterfully directed and acted epic film, the likes of which we don't see anymore.

ALICE SWEET ALICE - I feel shame that I hadn't seen this before. It's really quite awesomely creepy and twisted! It's also most definitely an American lifted giallo, but when the results are this effective, I'm not one to complain.

KUNG FU PANDA - Again with the CG animation films that exceed expectations! This was (of course) beautifully animated and well voiced, but the filmmakers also exhibit a great understanding of the action genre which makes this an exciting, not to mention hilarious, movie to watch.

KILL BILL - Both volumes, taken in tandem, have their merits. I was aware of this the first time around, but the second time, on bluray, I could enjoy everything without wondering how it was all going to play out. I think there's some weak spots and to call Tarantino "indulgent" is a bit obvious, but on the whole, the two are extremely entertaining and a lot of fun.

WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE - Spike Lee doesn't pull any punches against the Bush government for their dismal and incompetent response after Katrina hit, but are we surprised? This certainly hits home just what a travesty the response was and puts a very real face on the tragedy through the locals who survived the hurricane. Having said that, it goes without saying that this one is a bit of a downer.

WANTED - If you enjoy seeing slow motion bullets defying the laws of physics and logic through the magic of modern CGI, then you'll LOVE Wanted. But for those of us that feel exhausted of the CGI action fantasy bullshit that Hollywood churns out these days, who cares...

HELLBOY II - Definitely better than Hellboy 1. Guillermo Del Toro is clearly a film maker who has grown more confident in his voice as a visionary director, and we are all the better off for it.

TROPIC THUNDER - It's disappointing that a movie so desperate to deconstruct Hollwood cliches and racist stereotypes manages to undermine its efforts through some lazy screenwriting. Watching some of the supplemental material, you would think that the actors and people involved were making the most hilarious film ever made. This is not it.

furnace linkage 2.7.09

2009-02-07T14:30:00.002-05:00

OK time for another batch of links that I found in my surfing adventures... this week's edition will be entirely YouTube-oriented...

This is a good example of "when good movies go wrong" as Casper van Dien resurrects his Johnny Rico character from Starship Troopers to deliver a PSA about... child molesters? Most ominous is the ending line "You know what to do..."

"Imagine, if you will, sitting down for your morning coffee, turning on your home computer and reading the day's newspaper..."

Anyone remember the classic video game-inspired masterpiece Joy Sticks? Bowls MacLean definitely does! I wonder if Joe Don Baker is available to record a DVD commentary...

I don't really get into Star Wars mash-ups on YouTube, but this video is hilarious, if anything, for its insight into James Earl Jones varied and colored career...

Tim & Eric have outdone themselves with Dance Floor Dale. It's quite... wow. But FYI - it is way Not Suitable For Work environs or by people with low tolerance of pornographic material. Having said that, I loved it, of course...

Brooklyn By The Sea

2009-01-30T15:57:00.004-05:00

I was going to include this in the weekly linkage but decided it was so awesome that it deserved its own space. Brooklyn by the Sea is a short film from 1979 by Arnold Baskin based on the song of the same title from Mort Shuman. It's essentially a documentary music video featuring footage shot by Baskin along Brighton Beach and Coney Island in the late seventies. I particularly love the photography and editing in this piece and the variety of people that he manages to capture at that time and place. What a beautiful little time capsule! Definitely worth the five minutes of your time it takes to watch it. Thank you, Mr. Baskin!

furnace linkage 1.29.09

2009-01-29T12:30:00.001-05:00

While I have a little free time on my hands these days, I'll be sharing some of the better stuff I find while surfing upon the interwebs.

For starters, here's Errol Morris's piece for the New York Times on the significant photos of Bush's presidency. It's an interesting read and a good side by side with photos.

SPASMO is celluloid goodness. The trailer, is especially SPASMO-tastic. I'm thinking... REMAKE!

This article from Gawker, about the faux-earnestness of award-recipient speeches, gives some insight into the academy's voting tendencies and is hilariously spot on.

Here is a beautiful short doc made in 1973 about Coney Island and shot on 16mm. This features some great footage of a bygone era - plus shots taken from the front seat on the Thunderbolt rollercoaster. Speaking of which, ever wonder what the parachute tower looked like when it was operating? Well, now you know!

And I need to include a special shout-out to Jeremiah Moss at Vanishing New York and Ray Pride at moviecitynews.com for sharing my article on the tragic closing of Mondo Kim's.

More to come!

Preparing for the great media holocast AKA Why am I stockpiling all of this media?

2009-01-28T14:30:00.000-05:00

In preparing for a recent "capsule review" entry regarding my recent round of media consumption, I realized that the list of films I had been viewing was so great and vast that to begin writing capsule reviews for each of them was going to require a major commitment of time. In so reflecting, I began to think of all the "catching up" I had to do in terms of the various DVD's I have ripped and sitting on my media server in addition to the 2-at-a-time unlimited plan I have with Netflix for watching the latest blu-rays releases. For my birthday, my girlfriend's mom, Fran, purchased two-months worth of Netflix membership (a gift no doubt suggested by my current, Sherry) and in redeeming it, I decided to up the membership to 3-at-a-time unlimited, at least for the two months that I'm getting a decent discount, courtesy Fran Wasserman. In addition there has been a steady stream of DVD's coming home from the library both from myself and from Sherry - she has her own "queue" going at the library that is keeping the flow at a maximum capacity. We often have to rip the DVD's that we didn't have time to watch before returning them which is creating a backlog of movies for us to watch. To top it off, I'm currently getting Skinemax in HD for free (thank you Time Warner for fucking up in the best way possible). This means having a movie on even if a movie isn't on the menu for the evening... it's too hard to say no to free movies!

It doesn't take a blind man to see that I'm living in a self-created world of media over-saturation! I noticed this pattern before, sometime around 2005, when I was at a crossroads in my life and was trying to "refill the pitcher" as it were. This may or may not be one of those crossroads, but I think it's more to do with the ease in which we watch media these days has infiltrated our lives. And even more to the point, how I've embraced this mass media consumption and tried to make it even easier to watch (or even passively observe) film and TV media.

In an effort to hold myself accountable for all of this consumption, I'll be periodically posting up short reviews of some of the material that's passing through my head... below is the beginning.

EQUINOX - Family Tie star Phil Anzelmo has a good track record with recommending fun B-movie entertainment from yesteryear, but this one was a little tough for me to sit through. Cheezy enough to be bad but not bad enough to be funny and not fun enough to really be good. Definitely better as a background movie rather than as a dedicated experience. One has to wonder "what was Criterion thinking?" when they released EQUINOX as a two-disc special edition, but then again they are fans of Michael Bay, so I rest my case.

TWO MINUTE WARNING - At its most reductive, it's a '70s disaster movie about a sniper at a football game, but as it quietly recedes into commercial film obscurity, it stands as a creepy how-to guide for psychotic killers in a society that is unaware of the threat and unable to protect itself against it. Timely indeed, but prescient? Probably not... The all-star cast includes Charlton Heston, John Cassavettes, Gena Rowlands, Jack Klugman, Beau Bridges and a ton of others.

BENJAMIN BUTTON - Exceeding expectations which were admittedly skewed after hearing critical response both for and against the curious case of Benajamin Buñ, but they were quickly waylayed in the darkened theater as I found myself fighting back tears that weren't even earned in the first 15 minutes. It's a film that is steeped in emotion and heart. It's also a film written by Eric Roth, the guy who wrote the screenplay for Forest Gump, and there are undeniably similarities between the two in their narrative devices. But as I was consistently impressed with the outstanding yet subtle CGI FX, I was taken into the story, sometimes kicking and screaming, but going along the whole way.

28 WEEKS LATER - OK, not bad considering it had some big shoes to fill from the first 28 days of infected zombie mayhem. The cast definitely carries the material and Robert Carlyle clearly earned his paycheck on this one, but in the end no one can escape that this is a familiarly hokey horror yarn.

CANDY - Lovable like a child you wish you didn't have, CANDY has a lot of camp appeal and '60s zaniness overindulgence but is worth the trip for the insanely over the top performers of the all-star cast of Richard Burton, Walter Mathau, Ringo Starr, Marlon Brando, James Coburn, Charles Aznovaur, John Huston and John Astin (and no I didn't need to imdb that shit - it's all stored upstairs).

SHARKWATER - Without getting preachy about conservation efforts, I recommend this film unequivocally. While I felt the film was a tad manipulative and cheesy in its voice-over narration, the message and story of the journey these guys take in skark-conservation-efforts is powerful and truly moving. Statistics alone are horrifying - see the movie and witness firsthand how bad things are getting for marine life out there.

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS - Some movies are hailed classics for a reason, and this is definitely one of them. Featuring the outstanding black and white photography from James Wong Howe of NYC and Times Square in the '50s, SSOS is a smartly written and well acted character study on the underbelly of tabloid journalism. It really says something when a film still resonate fifty years later - check it out!

PARASITE - OK I knew this was going to be bad going in, but I was hoping it wasn't going to be THAT bad. The creature FX are fun, but there were too few to go around. This movie definitely gets some additional laughs from a few gratuitous 3-D shots, and the lead actor was so weird looking and wooden in his acting I kept waiting for him to die. I guess since a very young Demi Moore found him attractive and helps him kill the parasite, he was the hero. For '80s horror completists only...

EVENT HORIZON - Newly released on bluray, I decided to take in this sci-fi horror film from the late '90s to see if it was any good. There are definitely some creepy moments in the film and when things start going really wrong, it's fun watching shit go haywire. The CGI work is pretty crude for today's standards, but the good cast helps elevate the b-movie material, which makes this movie feel an awful lot like Danny Boyle's SUNSHINE from last year.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Summertime Edition: East River State Park

2009-01-26T00:02:00.003-05:00

As we're in the throes of wintertime blues and subzero weather, I thought I'd post some of these picts I snapped off from early September during an afternoon jaunt with Sherry over to East River State Park in Williambsurg (or North Side if you want to get specific). These were mostly shot with my zoom lens but I used my wide angle for a few street shots as well. It won't be long before we are able to return to wearing short shorts and sitting in the midday sun, but in the meantime, some summertime picts will have to suffice. Enjoy!

Goodbye Kims: a store, along with an era, closes its doors...

2009-01-22T01:05:00.008-05:00

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day of this week, I headed over to the East Village to run some basic errands: Auggies Blend coffee, rain scented glycerin soap, and I wanted to get one last look at Mondo Kim's on St. Marks Place before they shuttered their doors. To the uninitiated, Mondo Kim's represented a vast selection of esoteric movies and music, and at its peak, operated four floors of the building on St. Marks Place for its retail and rental operations. The top floor was a film fanatic's wet dream of hard-to-find films on VHS and DVD for rent. If there was a film that you couldn't get on Netflix or at your local video shop, Kims was likely to have it in their collection... if not on DVD then surely on VHS. As an example, my most recent rental there was a hitman noir film called "The Outside Man" from 1972 starring Roy Scheider and Ann Margaret. Apparently the film is not available on DVD and is out of print on VHS, but sure enough, Kims came through for me and thus was able to watch a movie I would otherwise have been unable to find. I remember about a year ago having a sudden "burning" curiosity to see the cheesy kids-getting-hacked-in-the-woods movie "The Burning" (starring Jason Alexander!) and it was only available, at that time, on a bootleg VHS at Kims. Of course, now you can see "The Burning" in all its tacky badness on DVD, but in that moment, speaking as someone who was hungry for some early '80s horror schlock, it was a godsend having Kims as a last resort for digging up some obscure or out-of-print films.

And so it is a sign of the times that Kims has had to close its flagship store on St. Marks. I think it's due both to increasing rental costs and decreasing demand for traditional video rentals - everyone uses Netflix these days, including me! The whole business model for media delivery is in a state of flux, something of which I've had my own hand in professionally, and hopefully media will get easier and easier to access in the months and years going forward. For Kims, however, this meant giving up that huge rental collection, so they ended up donating it to some film institution in Sicily. Now instead of rentals, they opened up a small retail outfit on First Avenue to continue selling obscure cult classic DVD's and foreign films. But losing that amazing movie rental collection is a hard blow to the dedicated cinéaste in NYC.

Anyway, back to my Monday adventure, in which I dropped by Kims only to find that the place was in the process of being emptied out. I tentatively entered, to which a distinguished Asian gentlemen said, "Sorry, we are closed." I asked him if I could take some pictures of the store and he gave me permission to do so. It then occurred to me as I was going about my photo-snapping that maybe this Asian gent was none other than Kim himself, who, back in the day, founded the minor rental store that ended up growing into a film-buff's treasure trove. I approached him and asked, "Excuse me, are you, um, THE Kim?" And he lets out a shy laugh and says yes he is Kim. I gushingly profess my fanship to his store, saying how sorry I am to see it closing and what a pleasure it was to meet the man behind this important and significant collection of films to which he replies, "You like drama, eh?" I quickly explain, "Yeah that's why I was such a good customer for all those years. I love drama and movies!" He didn't mind me taking pictures of the store as it was getting cleared out, but he didn't want me to take any pictures of him. On the whole, he was extremely nonchalant and un-sentimental about the whole thing which, I suppose, isn't too surprising... for him it was just a business venture. Still, to have been given a chance to document some of the last moments of Mondo Kim's was a privilege for sure - it's no time soon that I will be forgetting the myriad of film delights I've unearthed in that building during my tenure as a denizen of this city.

Thank you Kim! Your Mondo shop will sorely be missed!

Because I Can! aka... Network Streaming Feats on Guernsey Streets

2009-01-17T15:55:00.001-05:00

Here is a short one-shot video of me streaming movies and media to 5 of the computers in my Greenpoint, Brooklyn apartment... all using Apple's Airport Extreme! The first film we see streaming is the 1969 film CANDY running from my media server wirelessly to my Macbook, then on the main display is THE GRADUATE, which is running over the wired gigabit network (tho to be technical, the network port on the mini is only 10/100 and doesn't support gigabit datarates). After that we take a walk through my studio where the British TV series SPACED is running on my Mac Pro tower and Fox Soccer Sports channel is streaming over the internet on an Acer PC laptop for work. Lastly, we end up in the bedroom, where the classic horror film ALICE SWEET ALICE is playing off my old Powerbook (now converted into a media playback hub) on the LCD facing my bed. You can see just a hair of buffering at the end, but considering the amount of traffic that the network is supporting, it's pretty damned impressive!

New Years Eve in Times Square

2009-01-03T13:39:00.002-05:00

Another year and I've now twice had the pleasure of being able to spend new years in the Vivi-office overlooking Times Square. This years celebration was a little quieter than last year's ball dropping and the temperatures outside were undoubtedly a bit more freezing. Still, when the ball did finally drop and the confetti got dumped from the rooftops above the street, there's no denying the excitement was palpable. I ran another camera to capture some time lapse footage as I did last year, so I will be posting that video once I've had a chance to put something together with it.

2008, my year in pictures

2008-12-31T17:01:00.003-05:00

This is a selection of pictures that I've uploaded to Flickr this last year that represent some of my experiences and observations through the lens of my photography. They are a mix of personal favorites and significant milestones in my life's experience. I would provide a running commentary but time is short and I think it's best just to let the images speak for themselves. It's only about 30 pictures altogether... some you may have seen before and others maybe not. To watch the slideshow, I believe you need to click on the image to move to the next in the series. Enjoy!

My Best and Worst of 2008

2008-12-31T15:42:00.002-05:00

This is a submission to an online contest "Best and Worst Photo of 2008" on Flickr. The idea is to take your best picture of the year and juxtapose it with your worst. Picking a "best" image can be tricky when you are doing the judging. I had a lot of favorites and off-the-cuff portraits that mean something to me, but do they translate to other people as well? I love my cats dearly and felt like I had some breakthrough photography with them as subjects, but does anyone really care about tabby cat photography? Ultimately, I went with my gut instincts in picking something simple but effective.

Defining "worst" is much harder than establishing some basic criteria for "best." This got me to thinking about what my "worst" photo is... Worst technically? Worst composition? Least flattering portrait? Most of what I would consider really short on technical or other contributing factors get deleted right away. Nevertheless, this was the year that I went DSLR and, as a result, took on a volume of shooting that was unprecedented heretofore. Part of this was the learning process of getting to know my camera and firming up my own aesthetic as a photographer. Another part was just embracing the ease and joy of snapping off picts at a rate that was never available to me before. As a result, there were a LOT of unnecessary, uninteresting or "ugly" images in my catalog.

Going off of both criteria, I selected the "Red, White & Bug" picture on the right, taken at our campsite in Iowa during a camping excursion in late August. I think it is a simple and uncomplicated image, but the silhouettes of the two insects bring a deeper context which is entirely subjective to the viewer. In other words, I wasn't trying to "say" anything with it as it just happened, but someone looking at it might see some deeper meaning in it.

The picture on the right was one of those moments that, in retrospect, did not call out for photographic documentation for any future or current generation's betterment but merely happened as a result of me being a bit trigger-happy and lazy with my camera. It was taken on the same camping trip when Jody playfully tried to bite her husband's butt while in the river. I can't exactly say it makes me proud as a photographer and I found myself wondering why I hadn't deleted it earlier, but then I wouldn't have a "worst" picture as good as this one.

Photo restoration

2008-12-19T13:47:00.003-05:00

Here was a fix-up I did for my ex, Samone, as part of a Christmas gift she's sending out to her family. It's a picture of her mom and sister from 1951 and was clearly showing signs of its age and was even torn in half and taped together. I was happy with the end result... click on the image for a larger version.

Camping in Iowa 2008 Edition

2008-12-14T23:09:00.002-05:00

So another year has passed and another trip has been made to the secret camping spot along the Maquoketa River in Iowa. I took pictures last year as well, but this year I had my new Canon 40D SLR camera and the assortment of lenses to accompany me. Needless to say, I went a little overboard in documenting the proceedings, but I think some good pictures came out of it. I shot nearly 400 pictures camping and another 100 or so on the road which have yet to be posted. It was an extremely difficult task weeding out the pictures that weren't worth posting, but I think this better gives a sense of the overall trip through the highlights. There are stories attached to the images of course, and I did my best to include some anecdotes on the website.

The Dark Knight's kind of town

2008-12-13T10:56:00.002-05:00

My friend and co-collaborator Scott Greene has recently purchased a Flip camera so he could start making and posting short videos to YouTube. Above is one of his first videos: a short tour of the Chicago locations used in the latest Batman film The Dark Knight. If you've seen the film (and let's face it, who hasn't?), then you might enjoy getting the inside scoop from a real Chicagoan. The Dark Knight is more Chicago than Gotham City and Scott Greene is here to present the proof. Nice one, Scott!

urban arrogance in motion: a day in the life of the EDGE

2008-12-07T18:02:00.005-05:00

HD Version

NOTE: You may want to playback and then allow the film to buffer (load) before playing through so it doesn't stutter during playback.

High Quality YouTube version

Flickr Version

Here are the results from my first time-lapse experiment with my Canon 40D Digital SLR camera. I pointed the camera out of my living room window towards the large and unwieldy EDGE building in Williamsburg. It has been topped off, but there's still a lot of construction of the building underway. Using the software that came with the camera, I ran a USB cable from the camera into my Macbook and set the camera to shoot one full resolution JPEG every 30 seconds. My tripod is cheap and shoddy and it took a few bumps during the day, mostly I'm sure from the cats playing around it and batting at imaginary insects. I then exported these JPEG's into a new project in Aperture, applied a basic contrast and color enhancement, cropped to a satisfying 1920x1080 size frame (it was definitely more than I would have liked), and uniformly applied these adjustments to the whole album. This was then exported as an image sequence of JPEG files, imported into Final Cut Pro and dropped into a time-line so each image was set to a value of 1/30 of a second. I added a soundtrack using different sound bank elements, trying to find a dark counterbalance to the daytime cityscape.

But most excitedly, this was my first foray into the world of HD video; it's a real treat to see all the detail that the camera picks up at full resolution. Of the three embedded versions I've posted, I like Flickr's the best at full-screen as the compression artifacts are a lot less noticeable. As I have a bit more time on my hands these days, hopefully I can make some more of these in the days to come...