So

I don't think I truly feel at home somewhere until I've had a shower there. Parker was hard to get used to at first but every time I took a shower, I felt more at home. I think about that and feel that same way every time I take a shower and I always mean to write it down somewhere. Finally remembered.

In times of despair, I usually find how cyclical time can be. Right now end of junior year college is feeling like end of junior year high school. I'm having a play produced that I'm overly nervous about, I'm too busy with my art to focus on academics, and in the midst of panic attacks, Kate Bush's part on "Don't Give Up" always lights a small bit of hope that I break down. I only JUST started Side two of this LP and I don't want to know what's gonna happen when "Mercy Street" comes on.

I don't know. I make too many connections. I search for too much meaning.

Something Nice

I'm revising my script The Artist! listing to a warbling cassette of the Nutcracker suite while Sooki sreeps at my feet.

I like this.

Digital Venting

Tonight I watched the wicked intense Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Quarters- Montreal at Boston. 2-1 in the second overtime. Sweet shit. I don't think I've sworn that much in front of my mother. She got wicked into it too and she never watches hockey. Stayed up for the whole thing with me and my mom is like everyone else's mom- she'll fall asleep 10 minutes into a friggin' movie. The game wrapped up nicely enough right when Moses parted the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments over on Channel 5.

Speaking of, as far as that new HD print goes, brilliant. I think I'm starting to fall for Blu-ray. It makes those Technicolor pictures LOOK how Technicolor actually looks. Also in school I'm learning how to author one and I'm blown away how much they can store. Oh PS3, drop in price soon. Or let me have a surprisingly prosperous summer.

That being said, I still miss 2 VHS sets. Long movies should have appropriate home movie breaks. Pausing is so awkward and I've always felt that way. Plus it feels more like an event- taking out one tape and putting in another. I'm also looking at you, Laserdiscs and CEDs. You know how I'm a sucker for flipping discs.

I started writing a treatment to the second installment of Slip Conway after watching a great triple feature of detective movies- Chinatown (1977), The Thin Man (1934) and Soylent Green (1973). These characters are getting more developed and the stories are getting more ambitious. It's wicked exciting like when I started doing Clifford Gritts videos but times ten.

Hopefully most if not all of the post-production for Slip will be done by the end of the week. I can't believe I'm leaving the friggin' country next week. Still so much to do.

706

Takin' a break from ADR work on Slip Conway. NOBODY should have to do it the way we're doing it. Avid is being retarded (as always) and not letting us make a reference file to jump to ProTools. So we're doing this completely independent from the video. I just want this done before I leave and I'm trying to do all I can to lessen the editing burden from Joe.

24 hour access can't come soon enough.

Thank you internet for listening to me bitch. You're like a pillow to cry into...a sticky, sticky pillow.

"kids fighting for space" is probably the best sentence I ever wrote.

RSD11

This has been the most chaotic Record Store Day to date. Newbury Comics in Harvard Square was a MADHOUSE since it was also Harvard University's accepted students day I think. The exclusive releases weren't even remotely organized and anything I toyed with the idea of getting was gone. HOWEVER, did get a copy of Smiley Smile AND Incesticide! Thanks to the discount, it was like buying one higher end record.

Then we cramped ourselves into Planet Records and In Your Ear- neither of which I have ever been too. Both were just as cramped. Planet was cramped with people, In Your Ear was just cramped with records. Got a '90s Boston grunge compilation called Where's Stanton Park? I giggled. ALSO got a RUSSIAN copy of Paul McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt- a very important album from my childhood. The jacket and cover are so oddly soft, it's like the record is wrapped in cloth. Oh Russians.

Good haul. Now I'm broke. No more records until Okkervil's new disc and even then, I can just wait until my birthday.

Monday Night Special

found this bit in my notebook from my "Brownsville Girl" phase where everything I wrote could have been a new verse for that song. soooo here's a new verse:

I once made a movie where none of the footage survived
I was dressed up like a cowboy
And gave my deputy badge to the beautiful girl
Riding shotgun.
She would aimlessly look out the window
As I looked at the side of her face.
We came to a field near the bay and her face lit up.
The image was too blue,
The wind was too fast.
I couldn't even light my cigarette.
I embarrassed myself on the floor of her room
and we never talked about it again.
It's too bad that I think about it every day.

***

I wish it was later. Not later but deeper. Dead muse. Sing no more.

New Week, New Videos

First, the old. An Experiment in Romantic Reductionism. Did it last semester. The idea of this experiment is to focus on the little moments in everyday life that carry (hopefully) bigger meaning. These are just my examples. You can make your own.

Second, Ballet for Tape Music will be exported tomorrow. Expect that online in the next few days.

Third, Stallion was shot earlier this evening. The loop will be edited tomorrow. The soundtrack will have a final mix-down. A self-contained QT edit will be online in the next few days but the full instillation (including a "suburbs" bounce) won't be ready till next week (realistically).

I need to bang out essentially two more pieces. Gotta crack the whip on Slip Conway. Also need to plan filming the performance of KFFS. I'm going to visit the rehearsals tomorrow for the first time in a month.

The Civil War has been on WGBH all weekend long. I have been somewhat transfixed. It's probably the stock Burns uses...or the narration and soft violin music. Either way, perfect nap soundtrack next to ball games.

I smell pizza and beer. Hurry up, next weekend.

An Experiment in Romantic Reductionism from T. Kane Stanton on Vimeo.

Right in the Beans

On one level, Ballet for Tape Music (new title) is done. I videotaped it. I edited it. Exporting is another story. I want to bounce it BACK to videotape then re-upload it to the computer for a QT file. The finished product will be both a physical tape and a QT file.

Sadly, that's not as easy as Joe made it sound last night. Especially when you're working with patch bays that date back to the 1980s and a computer that's obnoxiously up-to-date. Today, I went back to the school to work on it but the studio was all tied up trying to show off for Accepted Students Day. I think the last thing parents want to see is a hung over video artist, wearing a "Disco Sucks" t-shirt, cursing at a VHS deck. Hey, kids gotta learn the reality about art school some day.

Speaking of, I love Accepted Students Day. It's the day that art kid stereotypes shine. The goth girls who have probably screamed "No Mom! I'm going to ART SCHOOL" a lot in the past few days. The dorks who wear blazers over ironic t-shirts...oh wait...that one hits too close to home. Suddenly this bit isn't funny anymore.

Today is also opening day at Fenway- one of my favorite sporting events of the year. In fact, let's look at my top five sporting events-

1. Souper Bowl
2. Opening Day at Fenway
3. Wrestlemania
4. Kentucky Derby
5. Ultimate Fighter Finale

The city is humming. The Blue Angels set off car alarms all across the hill. The cheers from Pedroya's home run could be heard allllll the way back at 774. That being said, I hate baseball. So many games, so few well-payed players giving a shit.

Let's talk hawkey. Boston/Montreal. Washington/NYR. Vancouver/Chicago. These first round games aren't even fair. So yeah, I'll enjoy this Sox game today, but tomorrow, my stick is back on the ice.

Record Store Day POA

This year's Record Store Day seems to have the least amount of exciting official releases compared to the past two years I've been aware of Hipster's Christmas. These are the only titles I can at least pretend to long for:

The Beach Boys- "Heroes and Villians/Good Vibrations"(double 10"...at 78 rpm? the hell?)
Bob Dylan- Live at Brandeis 1963 (may be worth checking out...at least as a bootleg)
Daft Punk- Tron Legacy (picture disc...alright, I'm listening)
Jenny and Johnny/Gram Parsons split
Kate Bush- Hounds of Love (pink 10")
Nivana- Hormoaning (since it's hard to find a copy of Incesticide at a reasonable price, I really want this)

The split and Hormoaning are givens. Tron will totally depend on how much it is. Two picture discs on a Disney label...things may get stupid.

I really hope some Newbury has the new Okkervil River 7". I'm also seeking a copy of Smiley Smile or Please Please Me. Oh! Or even a copy of Eccentric Soul: The Capsol Label. And maybe this will finally be the year I buy a physical copy of I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning.

I'm nerding the fuck out and RSD is still eight days away.

While You Were Art I

What a wonderfully unproductive semester.

Well, that's a bit hyperbolic. Unproductive as in no actual finished products. Last night's filming of Slip Conway completely fell through. Thankfully the cast is still on board with doing it so it'll be rescheduled soon.

Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have my first video of 2011 done. It's called Ballet for Audio Tape. It's another exploration of romantic reductionism. I'm going to condense several albums into three brief movements (the emotional essentials of the records) on a cassette tape. My dancer will then try to move to this new sound and I'll take the footage and try editing that to the cassette. It's a very bizarre process and it's hard to describe.

In anticipation of this project (and do act as a prequel), I'm going to upload my Introduction to Romantic Reductionism on my Vimeo site. It's so much fun to have an -ism. He filled his head with notions, seemingly.

Oh man, I'm sitting in the library, looking over the Fenway, and I see the tests of the new HD jumbo-screens at Fenway Park. Unnecessary? Yes. Crystal clear in the rain and half a mile away? Yes. I'm actually in awe of the quality.

Man, the city looks cooler in the rain whilst listening to Miles Davis.