cindy sherman goes digital

Being an artist:

Cindy Sherman on one way to get yourself working and crossing from film to digital photography.

Clip from PBS' Art:21.

googlie-eye spout

snaps:

(on foot in Missoula)

I recently stumble across this wide-eyed (and wide-mouthed) bit of guerrilla art downtown Missoula at the new First Interstate Bank building. (corner of Higgins and Front Street)

how I've stopped being a catalog cow

I really really don't like all of the catalogs delivered to me in my mail.  Especially when I start receiving mounds of them for baby clothes and toys when I don't have any children. Or worse, the catalogs geared to the elderly full of muumuu dresses and foot callous scrapers.  Great, thanks. I imagine that buying presents for nieces and nephews or friend's kids has put me on the list for children's merch, but what on earth did I ever buy that flagged me for geriatric?  Did a catalog fairy see me scuffling around the house in my velour track suit?  A giant tent dress does sound comfy....  Stop!  Get these marketing mind-reading bastards out of my house. 

It doesn't matter, really, how I got on any mailing list.  I just want it to stop.  

Except for a couple of art museum, gardening or home designer type catalogs, I recycle 99.9% of the catalogs that come to me and find it to be a massive waste of paper, time, and energy - mine, the earth's, the postal service's and so on.  Why should I be a cow shuffling catalogs from my post, sorting it to the trash or recycling, then hauling it off?  Or am I a dog playing fetch?   I don't feel playful about it. Whatever the analogy, I shouldn't have to touch it at all.  Maybe I'm just dreaming like a princess, but it's worth putting up at least a little fight.   I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir.  Almost everyone feels that they get too many catalogs, don't they?

Before I get off my soap box, I feel compelled to report on one thing that I've done that has helped.  A non-profit service called Catalog Choice has significantly helped reduce all the unwanted catalogs in my mail.  After about a year of new online or offline shopping, my address gets circulated again and I have to add some stop requests to my account or renew old ones, but it has helped. It hasn't completely stopped the catalogs coming, like my inner princess would like, but it's the best I've found so far. 

It's free for their main service, though they take donations (tax deductible). You can also find catalogs through them, too if you so desire (which sounds insane to me, but do as one wishes).  It could also make a good gift for the elderly or persons less inclined to get online and fight the catalog current for themselves. If you are interested, check them out HERE.  If you have any other suggestions, let's hear 'em.  This is one problem that I welcome a shotgun of solutions. 

the artist

Friday Flick:

For Friday Flicks, I usually post about older or obscure movies to dust them off and find what's fresh outside of the mainstream, but not this week. This Friday Flick is a black and white silent movie produced in 2011 and very hot at Cannes this year.

Hells yeah!  I can't wait to see it. 

Watch the trailer:

Starring Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, the cast also includes John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, and Missi Pyle. Written and Directed by Michel Hazanavicius. 


(p.s. Thanks Carol for letting me know about it!)

360 panorama

App on tap:

Bruce just introduced me to a very cool iPhone app called 360 Panorama.  You basically move the camera around while it takes frames of images and they get combined into one shot.  Voila! A 360 degree panoramic photo. Tons of potential for creative picture taking with this app.

If you see me around town spinning in circles with my phone in the air, I might be playing with this!

Bruce took this panoramic snap to show me how it works.  

Update 29 November 2011: 


Okay, Bruce took another photo that is pretty funny so I must add it here.

the making of a fairytale part 1

At salty snack studios we make movies and iPhone apps.  Last spring, Cassi James, a local Media Arts student at the University of Montana, came to us as an intern.  It's been outstanding working with her. 

Cassi put together a script for a short movie with one of our apps (Love's Book of Answers™) at the center of the story.  This summer we helped her make that movie. In an earlier post, I showed some video clips when we were scouting locations. 

We had clear sunny days, a Rock Star cast and crew, plus great luck on the timing of trains.  

The movie is in the final stages of post-production and will release this winter. Here are some behind-the-scenes photos.

Zach Smith, Bruce, Cassi, Jessica Mostad

The joys of a jib.

I find shooting a video camera can be a very sculptural process, even more so when the camera is moving - not sitting static on a tripod.  Bringing together a wide range of possible angles with movement is putting the camera on a jib arm on wheels.  Basically, sticking the camera on the end of a long arm, moving levers to tilt the camera, swinging the arm from the tripod support and then rolling the whole bit on a set of wheels collectively, gives a bigger range of motion than on a tripod or handheld.  It's elaborate but worth it.
   

camera at the end of a jib arm

After we release the movie, I'll explain (or you'll see) why for this shot we pulled the tripod and wheels off of the tracks that normally help smooth out a shot.  (The nut of it: we needed bumpy instead of smooth when rolling.)     

It's a combined effort, like an awkward dance, shooting this way.  I love it.

Bruce and I playing back clips in the camera and watching them through the tiny viewfinder.

The same week as the shoot, Clementine came from Jersey to be the first and only member of our unofficial salty snack studios' Boot Camp.  Clementine pitched in as a key member of the crew.  She's funny, smart and has a keen eye which was a big asset.  She also took many of the photos documenting the production.      

Clementine tightening bolts on the jib arm

Cassi's script required a few tricky scenes that were fun to problem solve.  Like, how do we show the Prince sword-fighting with a Dragon?

Without explaining the shot, since you don't know the script yet and haven't seen the movie yet either, simply observe how odd it can look when you are making a movie.  Notice Bruce has the camera on the bottom rung of the ladder.  I'm bracing the ladder-to-nowhere and Zach, as the Prince, is about to jump onto it.  Cassi is directing the scene.
 

Ready?  Action!

Zach Smith, Bruce, Toni, Cassi James

This was just day one of the shoot.  I'll post more photos from other days soon!

Photos © Clementine "Devo" and Toni Matlock

steve albini on artist's mistake

Being an artist:

Steve Albini in an interview by D.I.Y. or Die.

guerilla art on parisian road signs

Paris is splattered with Guerilla Art.  These altered road signs were my favorites because of their subtlety and subversiveness.

Sauf means 'except' or 'save' in English - but means save as in 'save for that one.'   It made sense that I often saw the 'no entry' with 'except for bicyclists' in pedestrian friendly areas and medieval parts of the city. 

References:

Driving phrases from Day-tripper.net

French Road signs from AmericansInParis.net
Excerpt from the book The Loire

Babylon translation website

the naked city

Friday Flick:

For me the first time I watched it earlier this year, The Naked City (Netflix link here) fell short of the critical acclaim it enjoyed in 1949 or since.  I was still compelled to watch the Jules Dassin's Noir thriller again.  

I've decided that it is Barry Fitzgerald's casually natural performance as a detective that appeals to me. He definitely paved the way for characters like Columbo, just as an Irishman. He was in a lot of movies, so if you've watched a lot of old ones, you'll probably recognize him.  He's easy to like is all.  The cinematography is solid, too. I appreciated watching the black and white murder mystery plot unfold in 1948 New York City (shot entirely on location rather than in studios).  Even the litter blowing in the streets held my interest. The documentary style compliments the story, too.  

Oddly, and I guess happily, there are a few zinger moments that stood out enough to make me wonder how to develop a drinking game for the movie.  I couldn't think of a game, but I recommend watching the movie with someone else so you can share these zingers.  Maybe it just makes a good social movie.   

Watch for 

• 1) a bold outfit of plaid shorts with a matching plaid cropped top worn by a housewife character in a hideously dated scene on parenting 
• 2) an awesome melodramatic face-slapping scene with a woman (Dorothy Hart) yelling at her fiance (Howard Duff), "You're lying!" 
• 3) a super creepy scene with a pair of hairy sweaty wrestlers. The regular glimpses of NYC subways, store fronts and kids skipping rope.      

I couldn't find a proper trailer but here's a clip:

P.S. It's also freaky to think that Barry Fitzgerald was born in 1888, too.  He died in 1961.  It sounds so old.

patti's proud moments

Being an artist:

A quick interview with Patti Smith on recent honors, what she's listening to and what camera she's shooting these days.

- video from PS Photo Video Channel.

oui, Paris

arrived, Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris, FR (taken with iPhone)

After the "100-year-old/good bones house remodel project" (even though there's still a bit left to do), my beau swept me off to Paris, France for a week.  

It was, how can I say? Tres magnifique!  

We returned last Friday. I'm still adjusting to the time (went to sleep before 9 last night and woke at 4am today) and adapting to the snowy weather, but mostly I'm gliding on the memory of the taste of fresh buttery pastries. 

Bruce, Rue Monge, Paris (taken with iPhone, adjusted with Tilt Shift Gen App)

I'll post photos and app reviews from the trip soon. Well after I rummage through about 800 photos. Plus I'll post about our previous trips to Boston, MA, Maine and Portland, OR.  And of course, more updates on the remodeling project in it's more finished state and the reflections that came with the project.

First evening's walk along the Seine river, Notre Dame across the river on the left

  

woolgathering

Goodreads update:


Woolgathering by Patti Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


They just released a fresh printing of this book that I read years ago. Very much worth reading. (Full disclosure: I'm a Patti Smith fan.)



View all my reviews

rauschenberg poetry

Being an artist:

Rauschenberg erased De Kooning.  The artwork became a classic almost instantly. 

I've always been struck with the simplicity and elegance of this artwork.  Period.  

When I listen to Rauschenberg tell how the work came about, I appreciate even more the strange competitive dynamic between many artists, even among the 'Masters'.  I love that Rauschenberg talked plainly of it and dealt with it for himself head on.

Hear him tell the story in the video below.

wild target

Friday Flick:

Another Bill Nighy film for Friday Flicks this week, but this time with Emily Blunt, Rupert Everett and Rupert Grint and in a very different tone.  A ridiculous and energetic one.  The IMDB one line description: "A hitman tries to retire but a beautiful thief may change his plans." It's lightweight with several interesting and amusing turns.

words with friends free

One of my twenty-something nephews hooked me on the app, Words With Friends.  At first, I made fun of him for the name of the game (not that he named it but how lame!) and he agreed, but regardless of the name, it wouldn't be long before I would be laying in bed playing a few rounds before finally tucking in. Then I roped Bruce into the game and we would be side-by-side, playing the game just before lights out.  Eventually another nephew started playing and I would have several games going.  One (or sometimes two) with Bruce at my side, another with a nephew in Alaska and yet another with a different nephew in Indiana.

Since we covered three time zones, someone would send a word while I would be in a meeting or having breakfast and I would reply with my word at lunch or after work and so on. It's like getting a little hello with play time attached.  You reply by playing your turn when you have a few minutes. It's great when maybe no on has anything big to report but you still interact.

The fanaticism wore off after a few weeks and now Bruce and I are back to British Murder Mysteries just before drifting off to sleep, but I still play a round here and there with one of my nephews. Don't get me wrong, the game isn't replacing talking to my nephews, it's just added long distance contact. There's a chat option in the app that we haven't taken much advantage of. The play is enough good scrabble-like fun, musing over the words each player chooses plus it feels like I'm still encouraging educational games and being a good Auntie.

Words with Friends Free is modeled after the game of Scrabble and like its name says, is free.  It's available for Android and iPhone. You can get an upgraded version, also named Words with Friends but without the 'free', for $2.99 which doesn't have an advertisements that pop up after your every move, literally when you finish a word and submit it to play, and is probably worth the few bucks.  The free version features the main aspects of the upgraded version. 

Features:
• The game plays as you would expect, like the board game of Scrabble
• You can simultaneously play multiple games with different friends who also have the app whether they use an iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone or even if they use a Droid instead of a Mac device.  You can play a round by taking turns passing the device back and forth. 

• Turn-based design lets you play up to 20 games simultaneously
• Play with your friends or match-make instantly with a random opponent
• It also supports in-game chat messaging if you like to trash talk
• Push notifications tell you when it’s your turn

Electronic Arts made the 'authentic' Scrabble iPhone app for Mattel Inc. which I haven't tried yet, and (at the time of this posting) it also costs $2.99.

So far, I only play with three different people and haven't sought out players through my contacts, Facebook friends and so on.  It's been a family game for me.  Saccharine as it sounds, I like the virtual check in, especially with those who are far away. Like the closing scene of the Walton's, at night I play a turn or two and they play a turn or so back.  "Goodnight John-Boy."  "Goodnight Elizabeth."