351. Improvised Sound / Improvised Film
- Jefferson Presents, Garfield Artworks, Pittsburgh, us@
- Saturday, January 27, 2007
- In honor of LaDonna Smith, the veteran improvising violinist/violaist/vocalist, being in Pittsburgh, Manny Theiner & the fellows from Jefferson Presents organized this show. Films projected were from the JP archives (chosen by Adam Abrams & Gordon Nelson) & the Orgone Cinema archives (chosen by Greg Pierce). The evening began w/ a silent film w/ LaDonna improvising a soundtrack for it. A film by Adam was screened w/ an improvised soundtrack from Steve Boyle. Work of Gordon's was shown. His first film was untitled and contained a random selection of subjects he'd filmed in 16mm over the past 10 or so years - basically "improvised" images with no connecting themes. The 2nd film he projected was a found film entitled "BEHAVIOR OF THE FEEBLE MINDED". Michael Johnson & Margaret Cox performed an electronic duet. I screened my 1983 film entitled "Sound Along with t he Bounding Ball(s) - a film intended to be interpreted as graphic notation for producing its soundtrack. LaDonna, Greg, Steve, & I played along. Greg showed films. LaDonna played a solo set. The evening ended w/ a prolonged screening of various films w/ LaDonna & I, at 1st, improvising. Eventually Greg & Steve joined in. Something like that. For me, this was a special evening because I was playing w/ LaDonna for the 1st time & also because I was playing lap guitar for the 1st time publically since 1992 & using my (new to me) Digitech pedal board. The lap guitar was tuned to a conventional A Major open chord wch inspired me to play in a much more orthodox blues/rock manner (albeit w/ extended musique concrete technique) than 'usual'.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
352. Formalist 8mm Film from 1978-1998
- Jefferson Presents, Garfield Artworks, Pittsburgh, us@
- Saturday, March 31, 2007
- Here's a highly abridged excerpt from an email that I sent to Gordon Nelson & Adam Abrams (the Jefferson Presents guys) & to Spat Cannon (the EXPLICATOR for the evening) preparing them for what they were in for:
"The entire program will be 8mm film BUT that includes: regular-8, super-8, & unsplit regular-8 (ie: 16mm w/ twice the ordinary amt of sprockets). In addition to this there are other complications. This will require TWO sound super-8 projectors (hopefully of good quality), ONE LOUSY super-8 projector (Ifor "Ghost" - wch is meant to be projected under shitty conditions), ONE 16mm projector (no sound needed from it), & TWO regular-8 projectors. Obviously, the regular-8s can be covered by there being dual-8 projectors that're also used for the super-8. For sound, I'll need either a VARIABLE SPEED tape player [or CD player] connected to the PA. The reason for this is that while the sound is intended to be synced (in some cases) the sound source is wild sound so I have to adjust the speed of it live to try to keep it synced to the film(s). I have a variable speed tape player but it's erratic & tends to DRASTICALLY change speed 'randomly' so it's pretty worthless for these purposes. If nothing else can be found I'll use that.
There'll be a special live element to this because my friend Spat is going to be the EXPLICATOR for "Satanic Liposuction, Neoism?!, & YOU!!". IE: he'll 'explain' the film in real time. A part of the joke of that is that, while he will've seen the film already by then, he won't really have much more of an idea of what's going on than the audience will. I'm relying on his silver-tongue to keep up fast-paced extemporizing.
Below's the proposed program. The numbers indicate wch order these films are in in my overall chronology.
004. "Ghost*
(of Lamar "Chip" Layfield / Carol / Pat Brown / tentatively, a convenience)
(of films by entities other than myself)
of my Mike Film project
* - a Projectionist's Nightmare"
- super 8 - indefinite duration - fall '78 (etc..)
I've worked under 'bad' conditions most of my life - ususally only using borrowed or broken equipment, usually having only a few dollars for my 'budget'. This film deliberately pushes that to an extreme. It's projected on a special small screen that makes the images mostly incomprehensible, it's deliberately poorly spliced, it's projected on bad projectors so that it's likely to break right away. It's a PROJECTIONIST'S NIGHTMARE. It's also very rarely shown.
016. "____________________________________ " - regular 8 - app 3:00 - '81
021. "Subtitles (unsplit regular 8 version)" - unsplit regular 8 - 9:50 - '81-'82
024. "A Double Negative As Not A Positive"
- w/ Hannah Aviva (tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE DidActing under the name of E.G.Head)
- unsplit regular 8 - 2:00 - '82
043. "Les Promenades Hysteriques"
[double film/double projection version destroyed by Reinhardt U. Sevöl]
- made as part of TON TOCOCK SCHISME (Reinhardt U. Sevöl, Via Vidorae, & tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE)
- super 8 - 10:00 - '84
046. a. "See-Saw" {version 1} - See-Saw made by O.J.Dart - regular 8 - 15:20 - '85
053. "War & Peace" - super 8 - app 1:10-1:45 - '86
093. "You Haven't Heard the Record, You Haven't Read the Book, Now! Don't See the Movie!"
- super 8 - 27:00 - '88
132. "Vex 1990E.V." - w/ sound from Dick Turner - super 8 - 6:20 - march 19 & 20, '90 (etc..)
141. "Double Height" {pronounced like "Hate"}
- 2 regular 8 films for 2 side-by-side projections (also transferred to 1/2" VHS cassette)
- 2:00 - '91
175. "Satanic Liposuction, Neoasm?!, & YOU!!"
- super 8 - 1:17:00 - (footage from '78 - '98) edited from fall '95 - summer '98"
The 2 most performative parts of the evening were the projection of "Ghost" (wch was duly vaudeoed & wch is now the definitive vaudeo version) & "Satanic Liposuction..". Spat's role as EXPLICATOR (an early motion picture term meaning someone who explains the film to audiences live) was augmented by the spontaneous contribution of John Allen Gibel (this, too, was duly vaudeoed & incorporated into the definitive vaudeo version).
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
353. [Circuits of Steel II Live Showcase
- Space Gallery, Pittsburgh, us@
- Friday, June 8, 2007
- Originally scheduled to be an outdoor gig at Market Square as part of the Three Rivers Arts Festival (Pittsburgh's large annual event), this got rained out & moved indoors. All but one of the participants have been on the Pittsburgh electronic music compilations published by Manny Theiner called "Circuits of Steel". These included "syne_lapse_variate", myself, Margaret Cox, Michael Johnsen, Rick Gribenas, Mathias Kristersson (from Sweden & not, therefore, on the comps), Hotness, Discuss, Rein[forced], & Grand Buffet. My fairly short set consisted of playing my MetaSamples in a somewhat rehearsed way. I'd recorded 8 practice sets in preparation for this. I also experimented w/ a few minor technical developments such as using 2 sustain pedals - one for the ASR-X Pro & one for the Oxygen-8 controller.]
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
354. Last Man on Earth (Triple Projection Version)
- Garfield Artworks, Pittsburgh, us@
- Saturday, July 7, 2007
- I presented the single screen version of this on April 2, 2006 (see entry 349) under somewhat rushed circumstances so that I cd fill out the bill for a visiting Australian friend's band. This version of it was much improved. This was the 1st time I ever split a single image across 3 projections & experimented w/ it in various ways. I had previously done multiple projections w/ calculated inter-related imagery but never to this level of sync precision. There was so much equipment on stage that my physical presence as the person making the live electronic soundtrack was almost completely hidden. As before, I wore my extremely deteriorated full body black leather motorcycle suit - the same suit that I wore in the movie when it was still in good shape.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
355. Six Gallery Press Reading
- Modern Formations, Pittsburgh, us@
- Friday, October 12, 2007
- I projected slides of my "Play Out Regress" piece based on my high school yearbook encryption from 1969 & explained it (somewhat). Then I projected the beginning of my "Collector's Item" slideshow about the history of my rubber-stamp use & read bits & pieces of the accompanying essay in addition to extemporizing re the slides. Since I'd promised Che Elias, the organizer of the reading & publisher of 6GP, that I'd restrict my presentation to 20:00, I used a timer & counted down the last few seconds as my ending.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
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