SPINE House Date Night

Ah Sundays, the only day we all have off (except for Cory who usually has to take a Pilates client for an hour or two), we get to spend the day catching up, usually including a lengthy SPINE meeting and some cleaning. Then, we like to enjoy a nice evening together, which I like to call SPINE House Date Night. This usually means a mini adventure to a cool neighborhood restaurant . Last night it was Rye Restaurant where we had a fantastically yummy filling meal. The evening also included a guest appearance by Rachel Biello who is currently working on comedy sketches with Allen. After we are stuffed and happily sated we come home for a sharing. Last night it was a review of Cory's 'Lover's Discourse' rehearsal and the final cut of 'Tidal', Brent's newest video project we are premiering at MonkeyTown next Sunday. Yay!

SPINE @ MONKEYTOWN DEC 6th 8PM

CLICK THIS SEXXXY LINK!!!

Better Than Dreaming of Hula Hoops

After we gobbled up our Thanksgiving grub, we at the SPINE House decided to experiment with the wonders of hula hooping and drinking. Not as easy as it sounds. Brent was on camera testing out some possibilities for our shoot next month. Enjoy the music attached to the clip, but imagine the laughter. My cheeks are still hurting.

Dreaming of Hula Hoops

We are mapping out a rough draft of a project I have been working on. We will shoot it in December once our Monkey Town gig is over. And why yes, it involves a hula hoop. I bought an awesome handmade one from Nice Hoops on Etsy.com. This piece is merely a fetus at the moment. It needs some serious incubation time before it will take on a distinguishable form.

SYNERGY!!!

So my personal blog, The Only Living Dead Boy in New York, is over on Wordpress (I hope blogger doesn't take offense, it's nothing personal, I just saw them first) and I've linked The Spineart Home Page to it. I also linked my main Facebook profile and recently added the Facebook app to my XBOX and am trying to link all my emails together and as soon as I get a smartphone, will most likely link all that to the phone somehow. I feel like one of the Borg. I'm not entirely sure if that's a good or a bad thing. One one hand, it's good to be connected and have everything hub to your brain, but where do you draw the line? Should there be a line? No idea. But...SYNERGY! (I just like saying synergy)

Patterns II

As I mentioned in my last post I am working on a new video piece for our show at Monkey Town with Oliphant on Dec 6th (fetch the cleaver!). The last post dealt with my attempts to create patterns that I could then subvert.

The piece has a title now: Tidal. Which is problematic only in that whenever I say it, it sounds like I am saying Title. I am sure this will lead to some hilarious Who's On First routine in the near future. The patterns are coming into focus. A little too much, actually. One of the nice things about the previous iteration (in that last post I think I mentioned) is its organic feel.



Something has definitely been lost. I shot new footage and I became enamored in my head with creating a binary system. Most likely because it was easier to wrap my head around, I filmed the new bits so they would move from white to black and back. While this did make it easier to structure the sections, it made it a little too easy. By setting up a strictly binary system, the box aspect of the overall structure was highlighted. With only 144 pixels (16x9) it is difficult to create organic patterns. Easy to make big boxes, though!



So the next step is to pull back from this. While the first version was too muddy and indistinct, I need to recapture the organic nature of it, but try and maintain the clarity of the newer version. Honing in on it. 2.5 weeks to go!

Body Art worth waiting for...

After 7 months of waiting for Noon to get back from France, Kristen finally got her tat finished. Her eyes wet with mascara from all of the crying, looked at me and said, "I think I'm getting my next one on my thigh." This is what four hours under the needle will get you:

Before, half-way through and the finished product:













More details:

SAVE THE DATE for Allen, Brent, Cory & Kristen

Hi All!

SPINE has a new project in the works that will be making its debut on Sunday evening, DECEMBER 6. Yes, DECEMBER 6 is the date we are asking you to save.

SPINE in collaboration with Oliphant will present Common Fictions, an evening of video and live music at Monkey Town in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. You can expect a couple SPINE signature videos along with the New York premiere of Reframed, and the world premiere of Tidal, both directed by Brent Felker. Peter Wise of Oliphant supplies the score for Reframed and Oliphant is creating a live original soundscape for Tidal as we speak.

Bring your friends and enjoy the unique Monkey Town venue which houses four screens (ideal for our 4-channel video installations), a full bar and an amazing (seriously the food is outstanding) menu by chef Ryan Jaronik. Food and drink will be available before, during and after the show.

More details and info to come, but please save DECEMBER 6^th for us.

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome Allen Norvick to SPINE as our newest co-director and children’s programs coordinator. He’s an actor and writer who hails from southern California. He is a long-time friend of ours and we are so happy to have him with us here in New York.

For more SPINE news please check our NEW & IMPROVED website www.spineart.com we’ve updated the bios, links, and gave it a few other nips ad tucks.

For up-to-the-minute news on SPINE plus exclusive videos and photos, please FAN US on Facebook. Once you've become a fan you'll be the first to know about shows, classes, impromptu showings and SPINE recommendations. So stop by and say hi!

Take care,

SPINE

MY BRAIN ASPLODE!

I finally got to sit down with Rachel Biello and work on sketches this weekend. Oh, how I needed that. I know what Cory was talking about how when she said just getting started makes you want to keep moving. I worked a full day on the yoke of Lexus and then went to Greenpoint for a writing party. If I wasn’t dead tired, I could’ve stayed up yelling out scripts and bouncing ideas off her head until morning. It also helps that she’s good to work stuff through with and she KNOWS HER SHIT. We extrapolated on each idea and came up with at least four or five more new ideas for scripts just bullshitting. I LOVE IT. We have another meeting next Sunday to vomit on some more pages and work out a format. I really don’t want to lose momentum on this. I’m feeling like I’m doing what I came here to do.

inspiration/procrastination II

I laughed out loud alone in my room at 3am after watching this:

I feel in love with these boys. Obsessed again. Why can't all performances capture such unbridled passion and conviction. These boys are partnered so strongly in their silliness. Oh, their channeling of the Backstreet boys is fascinating with the detail and articulation of their lip syncing and the brilliantly simple choices of their choreography to this absolutely cheesy song (ah, guilty pleasures). But what makes it all the more perfect is a uninterested boy in the background on his computer, and it totally heightens the whole performance.

In my travels through the archives of You Tube I found several recordings of them. Many others just as good at the Backstreet Boys song, always a cheesy song, always with the boy in the background. Sadly, the one live performance I found was no match for boxed videos that I love so much.

And again, SHOULDN'T I BE WORKING ON MY OWN STUFF. STOP WATCHING YOU TUBE (though, I know I won't, but I will work, tomorrow, really).

Revisiting

It is odd going back to a piece you think of as "finished". I am currently reworking "Reframed" for our show at Monkey Town (Dec 6th, catch the fever!). Now, when we presented it at the Berkshire Fringe Festival back in July, we knew that there would be further changes. As they say, films don't get released, they escape. We needed to show it, so it was done.

Now we need to show it again, and in a different format. At the fringe there were 4 screens which could all be seen simultaneously, at Monkey Town there will be four screens, but at opposite ends of the room, so you can only see 3 (really just 1 and parts of 2 others) at a time. To convey the story of the piece, we need to mix it up a bit.

This entails creating what is essentially a different screen. Which means going back through all the old footage. Editing is like sculpting. You begin with a large chunk and whittle away until the piece is revealed. We ended up shooting at a 15:1 ratio, so for every minute of screen time there were 15 minutes of footage shot. The end result is a 13 minute film on four screens which gives us 52 minutes. Cut down from around 9 hours of footage. Every cut, every shot that was included at the expense of another, was done for a reason. At this point I don't always remember why I did things. 3 AM decisions, cuts made after trying 10 different things, requests and suggestions from other SPINE members, all these things are more or less opaque now.

So when I dig into the piece, I have to trust that those decisions were correct as I muck about and try not to mess it up. Almost like I'm working on someone else's film. Once it is finished ("finished"), the choices I am making now which are based on half-remembered choices made months ago will become codified, canon. Then I get to make the trailer.

Art is life. Life is art.

I'm definitely going to use my experiences in the auto industry to create something worth telling/showing/exploding all over the world. So far, I've come up with a basic outline and some characters and a feel for it. And a possible title, Hard Sell. There's a possibility if it's as good as I feel it is, that I'll never work in the auto industry again. Take that as you will.

I have to fill in for Rachel at Speakeasy?!?! What?!?!? And I have less than 24 hours to prepare?!?!? LET'S DO IT! I'M READY! Oh, wait, nevermind

Our friend Rachel was unable to speak tonight at Speakeasy Stories, so asked me to fill in for her. AAAHHH!!! I'm unprepared! They're all veteran storytellers!!! LET'S DO IT!!! Okay, let me clean up this story. And get some sleep. And get my schedule set up. And...find out today they had to cut the scheduled speakers down anyway. Oh, well. At least I'll be prepared for next time. :)

Patterns

I am working on a new video piece for our Monkey Town date (December 6th, catch the fever!). Here is a very early rough draft:

The idea (from a formal perspective) is to set up these repeating patterns, so the video can loop indefinitely. I have seen many time-based visual art pieces with this conceit, but they tend to stop there. Once the pattern is identified, we watch until its logical conclusion, then it starts again. This approach has always left me cold and feeling that the work is a bit unfinished. When a pattern becomes apparent, I don't get a lot out of just observing its completion. Perhaps I am just a plot whore, but I like my art to fall into the category of "Surprising but inevitable" The instant a pattern is recognizable is the place to begin its subversion, don't necessarily break the established rules, but turn them around, throw them up in the air and see how they rearrange themselves.

The clip above is the 1st attempt at establishing the beginning pattern. Once I am happy with that, the subversion comes in. In addition to the individual patterns of the looping images, an overall pattern should also emerge, taking the viewer on a emotional journey. Otherwise it's just wallpaper.

Support Storytelling!!! Or I'll start posting in caps.

Our good friends, Rachel Biello and Mike Daisey, are performing at The Cornelia Cafe with Speakeasy Stories. Hopefully, soon, I'll be telling there again, but until then, don't miss out! I've never had a dull night at Speakeasy.

Social Network Hell

Spent the better part the evening trying to figure out the Facebook fan page thingie, and the blog watchamagigger, and the website hooptie in my weird post-Halloween drunken haze. Not confusing, just draining, time consuming...The Children (as I like to call my house mates), all had different plans. When I left the house Allen was a harrowing Two Face and Brent was an adorable Bob Ross. Kristen was working. I had a lovely costume-less...but clothed evening, drank too much or ate too little and woke up in Cobble Hill. Happy, tired. Can't wait for rehearsal tomorrow, working with bodies and no more looking at little glowing rectangles.