thinfilms: pals
Searching for a Heart of Gold
My new pal, David Cevoli, wrote earlier this week about the influence Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and others of that era have had and continue to have on him. He’s a gifted musician and though I’ve not had a chance to listen to him in person, I’ve listened to the demos he’s posted on ReverbNation and I’m looking forward to his first full-length album – it’s currently in progress.
Meanwhile, I began thinking of the first time I ever heard/saw Neil Young, which happened to be on the same night at the Beacon Theatre in 1990.
Two of my housemates scored some last minute tickets street-side as we were walking past the venue after dinner and next thing I knew I was listening to Victoria Williams getting booed off the stage to chants of “Neil, Neil, Neil”
Something about that weird, negative vibe got to me, BIG TIME. That, plus the seemingly extreme incline of the Beacon’s balcony made me just get up and leave for awhile – I rushed out and ended up somewhere else, halfway up a stairwell, where I found some space and which I realized later led up to some sort of room for media VIPs. I sat on the stairs for a good hour at least, well into Young’s set, trying to calm down enough to return to my seat and the rest of the show.
That’s when Neil started to play “Heart of Gold” and immediately I knew I’d heard this music somewhere before. It instantly calmed and reassured me and I returned to my pals and enjoyed the next 2 hours before we were dumped back out into the breezy summer night with that tune stuck in my head like glue for the next few days.
Thanks for jarring the memory, Cev. Cheers.
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Area Man Writes Blog
LITTLE CANADA, MNâ€â€Local resident Steve Bachman, the self-styled “Bachster†of Internet obscurity, has announced plans to publish a blog. Family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and checkout clerks are bracing themselves for the expected onslaught of hintsâ€â€subtle and not-so-subtleâ€â€of the “you ought to check out my blog†variety.
Bachman believes that his catchy graphical hook, a black-and-white bust of J.S. Bach wearing crudely hand-drawn pink-tinted sunglasses, will set his blog apart from the crowd. “It’s been a big hit with my test audience,†he says, “many of whom have expressed the opinion that it’s a very cool and subtle way to brand the Bachster name.†He does admit, however, that a few of his readers have misidentified the image. The names Benjamin Franklin, Horace Rumpole, and “Ben Stein in a wig†have come up.
When asked if readers can expect a lot of self-revelatory writing, reflection, and evidence of personal growth on his blog, he says, “No, but I do expect to skewer everyone I know quite unmercifully.â€Â
Check out BachBlog if you likey : )
Keep up the great work, Steve – and remember, there are far worse ways to spend time.
For example, we could be stone-cold-Hollywood pimps defending our territory against would-be-take-our-hoes-ways-from-us-neighboring-pimps.
yeah.
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Olsons @ Home
Phole and Jenitalia came back for a brief visit – sheesh do we miss em living all the way out in Bahstin.
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Tag : Complete
Tag isn’t just a documentary, it’s a chad-calease-made odyssey on the subject of a game that touches everything we do.
Enjoy the trailer.
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Bergey
I met Bradley Bergey in Seattle where we worked together for two years at the Children’s Institute for Learning Differences on Mercer Island.
Around the same time, we each moved from Seattle to different parts of the world : I moved to Alaska and he moved to Mexico City. Over the next 4-5 years, we visited each other regular and I had the good fortune of watching him evolve from a naturally gifted painter into a focused and even more talented artist.
To boot, he’s an amazing educator, the kind of teacher I’m jealous his students get to have. World-traveled, intuitive, imaginative, playful and wise beyond his years – he’s a bona fide compliment to the practice.
Recently, Bergey was featured in Art and Letter, a monthly webzine focused on Architecture, Art and Design.
You can read the interview in its entirety here, if you likey.
He’s our pal and we’re very proud of him : )
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Baston-bound
Jen and Phole are on their way to live and work near the hahbah in Bahston!
We celebrated with them on Tuesday night before they set off on their long journey, but not without helping workaround a glitch here and there ; )
Above you can enjoy a quick, stop-motion memory of the two of them discovering they’d successfully locked themselves out of their garage.
Fortunately, Phole was able to figure out the fit of the lock was just a lil on the tight side [Meta helped, too], which means it’ll fit juuuust right come winter.
Just like that, problem solved – which has me feeling that’s how smoov things will go for them in MA.
Safe journey – we’ll be out to visit soon : )
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Linear Beanfield Carousel
I’ve really been grooving on my pal AJ’s blog – that boy is on a ROLL this week!
Check out the latest coolness on YouTube compliments of Pop Levi [keep in mind these two videos are supposed to be side-by-side but the effect works just as well top-to-bottom -- hit play on each and follow on screen instructs] :
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Hips Don’t Lie
In addition to Black Blondie, co-composing an all original repertoire, Tasha Baron and Liz Draper draw elements from their combined eclectic musical backgrounds and power Hips Don’t Lie.
This music draws elements from the electronically produced precision of a drum machine, to the sounds of quirky lopsided carnival rides and is composed for the timeless arrangement of a piano trio yet is written and performed with personalized programmed sounds and effects. The acoustic bass and drum-set are utilized in ways quite characteristic to that of their role in a traditional jazz trio, but extreme attention is given to exploring the sounds, timbres, range, and personality of the instruments. The songwriting also pays homage to its roots of traditional “American jazz“ heritage; structurally: having themes and improvised variations, (heads and solos) as well as a harmonically: ranging between definite chord changes, modal, and atonal. Also as in the standard practice of “traditional jazzâ€Â, Hips Don’t Lie improvise in the style of popular music of the day. They often don’t “swing†their eighth-notes and instead play in rhythmic feels more closely related to rap, dub, and afro-beat music. Davu Seru and Pete Henning bring in the drums.
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Back on!
Power is flowing from the Snettisham hydro dam once again!
Returning to the renewable energy source means Juneau folks no longer face the temporary increased cost of living [53 cents per kilowatt hour versus 11].
Since the avalanche in mid-April, Alaska Electric Light & Power has been supplying the entire city with electricity from diesel generators, thus, the dramatically increased rates.
Fortunately, this didn’t last as long as anticipated. What a good thing for both locals’ pocketbooks and lifestyles, which have been hamstrung in order to avoid electric bills that no one could afford. I can’t imagine paying upwards of $500 for what is usually around $100.
Now you can all plug everything back in and take energy for granted again like all the rest of us!
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Zach Falcon writes amazing stories. For kids, too.
Zach Falcon is a great storyteller because his whimsical muscles are completely intact and functioning optimally.
Most of us stop using these muscles somewhere between the ages of 8 and 10. We start conforming to our risk-averse culture, playing it safe as we say, leaving the inspirations of youth behind and stop listening to voices of mischief that often enough lead us down mysterious paths to discovery.
Falcon has managed to protect his sense of curiosity with an amazing non-stick coating, which keeps it safe from such ridiculous notions. This, combined with a rigorous training regimen for said curiosity and other, related muscles, keeps him fit and dextrous as he delivers these tales with clarity he owns.
This is the stuff that powers great storytellers who’s lives haven’t been spent only in the telling.
Perhaps, that explains how the Alaska native was able to leave his post as Assistant Attorney General in that fine state to pursue his natural gift for writing at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop in Iowa City, Iowa.
His work, like “Cloud Fishing” published in Spider Magazine, is moving in a way that will help keep us all continuing to exercise this most-important-of-all muscles : our imagination.
Without it, we’re all just player pianos that might be able to reproduce a tune – but haven’t even a thimble full of the spirit of the real thing.
Don’t count him as just another sweet and jovial kid’s fiction writer, though. When he’s not writing or starring in subversive films, he’s a stone-cold Hollywood pimp.
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Powderhorn Empty Bowls
Our pal, Jennie the Potter, works with a group of other folks on Powderhorn Empty Bowls, a community-based, volunteer-driven organization who’s goal is to eliminate hunger from the neighborhood in and around Powderhorn Park in MPLS.
They throw each and every bowl by hand. Then, for an in-kind donation they fill your bowl with homemade soup. Eat the deliciousness and then keep the bowl. The funds generated go to neighborhood resources to help put an end to hunger in MPLS. They have already made a significant impact in their short history so far.
This is the stuff this country SHOULD be more about.
You can check out their great work [and donate!] at powderhornemptybowls.org
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Word to the Bird
This one comes to us via Fwwank – thanks for this one, man [and, yes, these fellas [der Fall Böse] ARE playing that song live in a van] :
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OpEd : Dally
The latest issue of OpEd is out, featuring this month’s word : dally.
We’ll be taking a leave of absence as the gatekeeper, Dave, [of DaveNSarah] embarks on the second half of a journey around the world [pretty sucky life, huh?] and will resume publishing upon return to the States, uh, whenever they get around to it. Viva la Gen X!!!
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Dally
verb ( -lies, -lied)
1 act or move slowly : workers were loafing, dallying, or goofing off.
2 have a casual romantic or sexual liaison with someone : he should stop dallying with movie stars.
3 show a casual interest in something, without committing oneself seriously
This issue’s writings:
DaveTheGrinch ponders Dante’s Inferno and a day in the office / waxieus ruminates about how dragons can interfere with homework / Chad Calease contemplates wardrobes working either against or in favor of the dally-er / David Browne muses on artwork, earlobes and a biopsy or two / Steve Bachman investigates lepidopterology and SuperCheap Brand Plump Raisins / Ed Eibel reflects upon two Chinas separated by a thousand missiles / Alan Baxter deliberates when SMS and pregnancy collide /
If you’ve enjoyed OpEd, please offer a toast to Dave, won’t you?
[his Grinch-ness thanks you]
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click on charles over there >>>>> Chuck Keen
A favorite from the crew at Alaska Robotics:
Can’t believe i haven’t posted this before now!
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Tag : trailer
[thinfilms] is in post-production for a feature documentary about the game of Tag.
a trailer for the film is now on youtube. if you’ve contributed to the film in any way, please know what it means to us – this is a labor of love that represents over 120 hours of footage featuring interviews with people of all ages and cultures describing the game, its countless variations and the ways in which they shape who we are and everything we do. the making of this film has indeed been a remarkable journey and it couldn’t have come this far without all of you. Thank you.
meanwhile, keep an eye peeled for an update about the full release coming in 2008.
we trust this finds you well and enjoying some play time every day, nurturing the whimsical spirit that Tag brings out in each of us.
sincerely,
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Kacey and Z in the Heartland!
Above is my dear friend Zachary [i call him Z] Peregrine Falcon’s father, Spencer Falcon, as seen in Michael Moore’s latest film, Sicko, testifying during the Congressional hearing scene.
That is interesting in and of itself [especially the cross-eyed fella to his left - wtf?], however, there’s more to this most interesting story about Z, one of my closest and dearest friends who i met while living in Juneau, Alaska between 2000 and 2005:
Born in Kodiak, Alaska and raised between there and Juneau, with a stint in Japan, Z did his undergrad at Columbia University before attending law school at the University of Michigan and then taking up practice back in AK, along with Shakespearian acting, like any smart young pup pursuing the many quests and challenges of communication.
Welp, Z just up and quit his job as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alaska last year to move to Iowa City, Iowa with the lovely Kacey Cole, in order to pursue his writing at the Iowa Writers Workshop.
The Workshop is fully underway now and Z is studying under the tutelage of James Alan McPherson [for workshop] who won a Pulitzer Prize in fiction for his short story collection, Elbow Room, along with Anthony Swofford [for seminar] who was a marine sniper in the first gulf war, leading to his breakthrough memoir, Jarhead.
Quite a story, and that’s just the tip of it.
All that mumbo-jumbo aside, he might say [he's also very self-deprecating in a Minnesotan way], Z is a hell of a ally to have beside you at parties, only due in part to his devilishly good looks — more-so for his exquisite and tireless intellect and wit.
one of my favorite Z-ism’s :
you can build a man a fire and keep him warm for the night.
you can teach a man to build a fire and keep him warm for life.
or
you can light a man on fire and keep him warm for eternity.
As for Kacey, she’s currently searching for the right fit in Iowa City somewhere between her experience working for the Forestry Service in Alaska and with At-Risk children in Winston-Salem, NC [Kacey was born and raised in Nag's Head, NC, along with multiple generations of her family] and is as beautiful and sweet and compassionate a Southern belle as you could ever hope to meet. We know it’s only a matter of time before she finds just the right thing!
Meanwhile, she’s enjoying some time to refine her skills on the tennis court. Forty-love, love!
If you haven’t met these two, yet, you can see their illustrious selves here.
Welcome to the Heartland, Kacey and Z. Can we describe how great it feels to have some old pals nearby?
We’ve missed you somethin’ awful.
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