A new Hope

The end of the dark empire, a new hope. The end of DOPE the rise of HOPE. 40 yrs after Martin Luther King 1-20-09 we make history. I am thrilled to have small way of participating as I VJ a "When we were Kings" night in tribute to Obama and King this weekend. Not the same as being in Washington DC but I'll take it.

Geek shirt

This is one of my fave gifts from Christmas. I'll debut it at the club this weekend.

Bush Shoe Sniper Game

Just after the Iraqi shoe throwing incident, I had the idea for this game. I sent it and some art files I had previously done of Bush for a Flash cartoon to a Flash developer friend who is actually able to program things like parabolic curves and z-depth based collision detection. A few days later Niilo had built this game enlisting the voice of an LA comedian he has worked with who is known as a great Bush impersonator.

Shoe Sniper Game

Sonic Arts Collective

On Dec 19th I VJed at Proctor's for a "musical" style that was a definite departure for me. Experimental art noise more than melodic music. Members of the the Albany Sonic Arts Collective including the band Bad Costume performed while I VJed as did Jason Cosco (his screen projected above mine and is only partially visible in these two videos.






This stuff had a very different rhythm and pace but once I got accustomed to it I found it was liberating. I was able to be more experimental. I have some ideas I'll explore if and when I work with them again. I'll try using more original text on screen. Some longer works almost mini-short stories.

VJing for Electric Touch, Maple Mars and the Crayons

11/7/08

A 12 hour VJ session started off with another live show on WEQX featuring Austin's Electric Touch. Several people remarked that live they sounded exactly like the CD. It was true. Maybe it's because these guys recorded the disc before they ever played out live. Or maybe it's because they brought their own sound man and sound board. They sounded great.

I grabbed images off their website and of course made some of my own sticking with their black, white, and red color scheme. The band seemed impressed and appreciative.

DJs Willobee, Amber, Donna Frank and Darwin all took part in MCing and interviewing the band.




A few hours later LA's Maple Mars was ready to go on. I knew they liked the visuals because they were posing for photos in front of my screens. I had done a Vegas sign style image for them based on their first CD cover.


Rick took a pic of it and showed it to me saying "Thanks this will be my next CD cover." As I chatted with the band imagine my surprise when the drummer, Ron, recognized me from the streets of LA. We didn't know each other but he worked at a studio on Sunset just 1 block from my apartment. He had seen me around. Once he said it I could visualize him hanging outside the studio. Too weird.


The Crayons were fun too but I felt a bit bad during "Allison Fell of her Bike". It's such a beautiful song and I had to go use clips like this and this. Seemed inappropriate.
At the end of the night KC was full of compliments for my work on Maples Mars and his band. Guitarist Joe Freeman did ask "Was there Jesus on the screen at one point?" I said yes but it was during the song "God hates me". He laughed.

VJing for Black Kids and the Virgins

Both Black Kids and the Virgins have songs out now that grab me everytime I hear them. So I was psyched when I heard both bands would play a club I've worked at. I asked if they wanted a VJ. They did. WEQX 102.7 put the show on and put it on air too. Too bad visuals don't play on the radio.


I was particulary proud that I recreated visual themes I found in both bands' videos. A pink eye and keyhole symbol from the Virgins' "Private Affair" (but then they didn't perform that song) and spirals, stars, a castle and stripes from Black Kids "I'm not gonna teach your borfriend how to dance with you", plus a 1,2,3,4 countdown. I also had ready to go custom 3D pyramid imagery but they didn't play that song. Anyway great show.

Members of the Virgins were standing next to my booth, unaware I was the one doing the visuals. I heard them ooo and ah. They were impressed that I had dug up almost every video that exists online of them, including their recent Letterman performance. (Thanks Willobee for that one.) One comment "It looks just like our stuff, but they made their own stuff to match it." "They did a lot of work for this." was another. Eventually I came clean and told them it was me. I could only eavesdrop for so long.

Bits of video go up soon on my mySpace.

Triple Bill, DownTown Junkies, Slick Fitty and the Erotics

The Erotics CD release party for their new disc Rubbish was a blast. I went their CD cover and flyer design themes of city scapes, flies, trash, rubbish and blood spatters and made some cool custom loops to match the style. Pale brown, balck and red dominated. Of course splashing the band's name up there a lot helps too.


For Slick Fitty I dabbled in rockabilly imagery for the first time. Mostly vargas girl images or other rockabilly babes.


Downtown Junkies came up from NYC and I was sure what their sound was. I did their name up in graffitti style and had some images of IV drug use basing that solely on their name. It seemed to work.
When the Erotics wrapped up around midnight I went another 3 hours with DJ Kel/C throwing up dance visuals to match her mix. Another fun night at Savannah's.

VJing the DJ Tek Nic B-day

Tek Nic took over Tiz Now in Saratoga from 10p-4a and rocked it hard. The tin roof was buzzing with the vibrations. DJs Matt Stone and Rekone opened and closed the night (respectively). Gogo dancers Sara, Jessica and Kiara's moves made my loops a distant second in the category of stimulating visuals.