January 11th, 2008
Heidi Yost wrote this exclusive article. Heidi (photo) is a talented actress. In this article, she explains Film Industry situation in the southeast, talks about her experience as artist and gives also important hints for the new actors.
Growing Independent Film Industry in the Southeast
When I returned home to Louisville, Kentucky from my three year-long stint in Los Angeles as a professional actress I expected more. I anticipated that my recent win as a Marilyn Monroe Look-Alike by Premiere Magazine and my appearances on Beverly Hills 90210 and Matlock would have every talent and casting agent in Louisville falling over themselves to represent and utilize my homegrown talents and experience. It didn’t happen. I felt like Yukon Cornelius after I swung my mining pick into the ground and brought it to my mouth to taste for traces of the delicious silver and gold acting opportunities at home and “Nuthin’. Hello, I won the Marilyn Monroe look-alike contest!
Fifteen years later, to my delight everything is coming up roses in the Southeast independent film industry. Is it because I am no longer a platinum blonde ingénue and now a sultry redhead? Is it due to widely available and affordable video and film equipment? Has the increase of Los Angeles film location shooting in Kentucky infused the film community here: ELIZABETHTOWN, SEABISCUIT, THE INSIDER, STRIPES, etc, etc? The 48 Hour Film Festival, among others may have tempted some independent film makers who otherwise would not have stepped behind a camera with simple, short formats and alluring prizes. How wonderful to have developed an extensive filmography in my own hometown due to the indy boom.
Louisville has had a thriving arts community for the entirety of my life. The city has claimed a local ballet, orchestra and professional theater company: Actors Theater of Louisville (that had everyone I auditioned for in Los Angeles inquiring). The River City also boasts a cultural center, the Kentucky Center for the Arts that is used for a myriad of artistic and mind expanding events—from K.D. Lang concerts to poetry readings by Maya Angelou.
The semi-professional theaters in Louisville are also noteworthy and prolific. I cut my teeth at the KY Contemporary Theater before I got my B.A. and moved west. Pandora Productions produced a compelling version of SOUTHERN BAPTIST SISSIES. Since, then Susan Linville, Founder and actress at the Necessary Theater has offered amazing productions with compelling new scripts as does Looking for Lillith. The recent one-woman show WOMEN SPEAK IRAQ developed and performed by Shannon Woolsey was performed with such virtuosity and passion for the widest range of opinions and postures I could imagine.
My training, my stage and life experiences experience have given me the depth that I claim and utilize now as a film actress. Oftentimes, people will ask me which medium is my favorite. They both have their draws. In the live theater experience, the actress has the opportunity to get immediate feedback from the audience, has a substantial amount of time to build emotional crescendos and has the obligation and luxury to live in the moment and keep going whatever the immediate reality (not fun when scenery or a co-actor is falling on your head).
Film offers the luxury of another take, if the first one or fifteen takes aren’t the cat’s meow, you can do another. Film tends to pay better. (However, anyone who acts for the pay is a little misguided). You can capture the moment forever on film (This can be most upsetting for some who aren’t involved in savory productions). Most films have a larger audience than the theater does.
Advice for the film actress: study. If you wish to be an actress, learn from the best in your community who teach. Do not study under an opera diva and expect that you will be taught the subtleties of a fine camera performance. Do not study at modeling agencies who are primarily interested in increasing their bank accounts. Study under those who have the experience you are seeking. Universities are an excellent place to learn and perform as an actress.
If you are younger than college-age and wish to act, go see as many plays and films as you can. If you enjoy someone in a stage performance, find out his/her name and if you may have a few minutes of their time to see how they gained their polish. Community theater is a great place to start. Hopefully you will get a sane director and be able to squeeze into the cast despite the member of the board of director’s narcissistic casting. If you think that Hollywood is political—spend a summer in a community theater!
Surround yourself with positive people. If you consider someone incredibly talented as an actor or director, but he/she is constantly negative, overbearing or abusive—go elsewhere. Life is too short and no matter how badly you want to act—it’s not worth it.
The directors that have had the distinct pleasure of working with are great collaborators. Chris Courson from Lightspeed Productions first cast me as a lead in his film called EMMA’S CODE for Louisville’s 48 Hour Film Festival. Immediately after that in July 2007 he wrote the most amazing short called CIRCUS NUTS and cast me again as a lead. We were so pleased with the results we will be shooting a feature-length on this premise this summer.
Chase Dudley is a young director who was open to my suggestions when he needed other quality actors for the independent feature film LAST SEEN ALIVE (knowing people always helps good actors who are easy to work with get cast). Tracy Dudley his wife wrote an amazing screenplay with a strong female lead, Detective Malone. Tracy was very open to working together to make the script and character as believable and formidable as possible. The process and final product was such that we are planning on working together on a sequel in 2008. LAST SEEN ALIVE will be available at www.amazon.com in late January 2008.
Posted in Arts, Business, People | No Comments »
January 9th, 2008
“Perfessor” Bill Edwards wrote this exclusive writing about his passion, Ragtime! It’s a personal and entertaining article as well as enlightening.
Ragtime!
So Manuel finds me and he asks me to contribute something here in my field of expertise. “Write something about ragtime,” which is passion and profession. Really? Kewl. Although it’s a double-edged situation, since I’m trying to convey that passion and some history, the good part, in a few words to a rather wide audience, the tricky part.
I have to start with what ragtime is and is not, and why it’s important. That will be today’s topic, and will hopefully lead to more.
What ragtime is NOT is hokey music played on out-of-tune pianos in smoky bars full of drunks singing off key. It is also not silent movie background music. Sure, it has been used in these contexts, but it is much different and much more. It is the beginning of popular music in the world as we know it today. Picture a musical funnel, if you will. On the upper end are Western classical music forms of the 18th and 19th centuries, including sonatas, gavottes, waltzes, even some symphony and opera. Coming from Eastern Europe you have marches and mazurkas. From Spain and South America come the Latin-tinged influences, many of which actually correspond directly to African rhythms, including the famous habañera. To spice things up throw in the Negro call and response spirituals of the American south, and the European-based folk songs of the Eastern US.
All of these forms mix into the mouth of this funnel to create a hybrid – the march form with the classical development and Afro/Latin-rhythms with folk melodies that are syncopated. That was the basic origin of ragtime in the 1890s. It was the first music truly indigenous to the United States. By 1905, at least in the US, almost all music written here had something to do with ragtime. Even the intermezzos and waltzes were syncopated to a degree.
Now picture a string next to the funnel. That is a form that co-developed with ragtime and mixed in with it, yet remained on its own. The name of this form is the blues, a unique 12-bar development (sometimes 8 or 16) that permeated ragtime, and even the verses of many ragtime songs. Frankie and Johnnie, although it is ragtime, is also a blues number.
Spewing out of this funnel you have forms that comprise most popular music in the Western world today. Ragtime is the direct ancestor of … [deep breath]
Country music and bluegrass (ragtime guitar picking), jazz (improvised ragtime and blues), popular song (syncopated pieces that started in the early 1900s), swing (blues again), rock and roll (again blues with syncopation), and rap.
“RAP” you cry? Yes. A black colleague of mine has come to the same conclusion. Rap is an asymmetric form of lyrical poetry that is highly syncopated and urban. Many of the lyrics of the so-called “coon” songs of the ragtime era, as unfortunate as some of them are, can readily be recited as rap and pass in today’s pop world with little modification. Even lyrics written to Scott Joplin’s famous Maple Leaf Rag talk about razor blades and fights and attitude: “Oh go way man, I can hypnotize dis nation, I can shake de earth’s foundation wid de Maple Leaf Rag! Oh go ‘way man just hold you breath a minit, For there’s not a stunt thats in it wid de Maple Leaf Rag.” I also have a rap soundtrack I use for this song during school presentations, so it remains current and relevant.
What is ragtime? Any music that is syncopated over a steady beat. In the North America and most of Europe and Australia, that’s almost ANYTHING.
Being a historian is a bit like what the CSI people do. You have a result or a conclusion, but you want to find out how that result or conclusion was reached. Some people ask “where did I come from?” I do the same for music as an advocate. Before ragtime the pieces that were popular were mostly actually kind of tragic. Think of how many songs you can write about orphaned children, shamed women, sinking ships, death, despair, etc. Those were the big hits of the 1890s. The music was somewhat tepid too, with reiterations of waltzes, marches, galops, etc. that did not resonate with many in the public. Then ragtime appears, and it’s the original Rock and Roll. Really.
Let me prove this, and keep in mind trends in our lifetime, be they Stray Cats, Nirvana, The Who, Elvis or Chuck Berry:
It was largely a music developed in the black community.
Kids loved it and parents hated it – “Turn that damn piano down”
It was more urban and less genteel, causing people to move their bodies in shocking manners.
It was banned by the musician’s union in 1902, and vilified by religious establishments.
Not convinced? OK. Most music written to that time in the US could be played on piano, organ, guitar, etc., and was generic in performance. Ragtime was the first US-based music specifically composed for piano. A typical upright piano is around 350 pounds. Of that, perhaps 190 is the cast iron plate. Add in another 50 for metal strings, 10 for tuning pins, and 20 for assorted screws, connectors, weights, etc. and you have only 80 pounds of wood and over 270 of metal. Therefore, ragtime was America’s first Heavy Metal Music.
That’s fact, and you can’t have opinions about fact, right?
Posted in Arts, Music | 2 Comments »
January 8th, 2008
Artist Robert Tucker talks about himself and his artist experience in this exclusive article.
Inspired by nature
The glorious portal of a new year is again upon me. My mind has wondered since the start of 2008 as to which direction my creative self will take.
For me a torrent of feelings were released in 2007 through the making of art. Every human being is subjected to art from the moment of birth until death regardless if they want to or not, the mean-spirited and soulful alike.
Working in both two and three dimensional art since childhood has given me a wide vista to express myself.
2007 started with exhibiting sculpture in a two person show in southern California. New Zealand, Texas, Michigan, France and Massachusetts all housed my collages in one venue or another. The year ended creating very personal mosaics of marble, tile and broken antique cups, something I had never tried before.
A year has not gone by that I can remember that collage was not part of my creative being. I have no doubt that collage started shortly after paper was invented in China around 200 B.C.
If memory serves me well the first paper collage examples known are the work of twelfth-century Japanese calligraphers, who prepared surfaces by gluing bits of fabric and paper to create a unique background for brushstrokes.
In the seventies I did some bookbinding and papermaking in my studio. Collage was often used in the fifteenth and sixteenth century in bookbinding.
George Braque and Pablo Picasso utilized collage at the turn of the 20th century making it popular and understood by the masses. Thinking back at the history of collage I cannot help but think of my personal history of collage which started at early childhood. My father was in the paper business so rolls, reams and stacks of paper were always around me, fuel for the imagination.
The fact that collage is different from other art forms because it does not dictate a particular style is an excellent medium for both the beginner and the experienced artist.
The multiple layers collage can offer an artist gives countless realms and realities.
Realms have always played a big part in my life, in my art, in my mind and my soul that is why the realm of multi-player online games took me by storm seven years ago. It was yet another avenue to express myself. I became so enthralled with these worlds/realms I became a writer/reporter for one of the largest gaming site in the world, Stratics.com.
This realm or shard afforded me a creative outlet were I could me anonymous. I was afforded that same luxury, pleasure by writing under a pseudonym for the website.
Many years back I remember a lady came through my studio during a tour hosted by the Junior League of a major art museum making the claim, “To be a great artist you must travel and travel often”. I thought the comment absurd then and I do today. I traveled to Egypt this past year and experienced the Nile River from Cairo to Abu Simbel. The textures, smells and sounds left an impression that is for sure from this exotic place. I live in my own little world like so many artists and travel has never been needed to take a journey and the journey is the seed for me. I can germinate in my own backyard just fine.
What will grow this year I still ask myself.
Posted in Arts, People | 2 Comments »
January 4th, 2008
This is another article from author Robert Benson. He writes about rock/pop music, vinyl record collecting and operates CollectingVinylRecords.com, where you can pick up a copy of his ebook called “The Fascinating Hobby of Vinyl Record Collecting.”
Stephen M.H. Braitman
Putting a value on your vinyl collection
The value of vinyl records is very subjective and certainly up for debate. There are many elements that go into ascertaining just how much a specific record or a whole collection may be worth. Do you use fair market value, replacement value or record price guide value? As I found out, it all depends on the circumstances, and the best way to achieve these objectives is to have your collection professionally appraised. I had the opportunity to speak with professional appraiser and music historian Stephen M. H. Braitman about the elements that go into putting a value on a record collection.
But, first, let me introduce Stephen. He has been involved with records and music since the late 60’s, writing and editing several entertainment and music publications. He also has been a dealer, buying and selling records, posters and related memorabilia throughout the years. His widely acknowledged expertise in the marketplace for music and memorabilia makes his appraisal services very important for estate planning, charitable contributions, expert testimony and for insurance and coverage claims. His many credentials include: passing the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) Principles of Practice and Code of Ethics exam in 2004, completing courses on such subjects as the Uniform Standards for Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) Personal Property Valuation, Methodology-Research and Analysis as well as the legal and commercial environment of appraisal. He is also a music analyst with Gracenote, the digital music management company.
So what does all this mean? Stephen M.H. Braitman is a qualified, certified appraiser. Why is this unique service so important? As I discussed the details of his occupation with Mr. Braitman, let’s explore some of the details that go into a record collection appraisal and how a record collection should be appraised.
“This is a new service, a new genre so to speak,” he said. “The service is being offered for those people who may have large or small collections and have really no idea their worth. Unfortunately, there are no legal requirements to qualify as an appraiser except in the real estate market, but the IRS and the Appraisal Foundation have led the way with the adoption of nationally recognized standards that reputable appraisers in all fields use. The IRS, for example, uses the concept of fair market value, meaning the agreed-upon price paid by a willing, knowledgeable buyer to a willing, knowledgeable seller. One of the reasons I entered this profession is, not only because of my love for music and music memorabilia, but because I felt that the industry needs certified appraisers to provide critical assistance in defining the values of collections for insurance purposes, estate planning, tax donation claims, personal disputes and investments. Part of the job is also being called upon as an expert witness to attest and back up the values set upon a collection. That’s where I enter the picture.”
When asked what exactly goes into an appraisal, Stephen explained:
“There are many variables that have to be recognized when placing a value on a collection. It also depends on the purpose of the appraisal. For instance, the IRS uses fair market value in determining the value of donated material. But, replacement value in insurance cases different; it’s higher because you’ll be paying a higher cost to recover certain collectibles, let’s say, that may have been lost in a fire. So, the intent of the appraisal must be taken into consideration as well.”
“We research what are comparable items in the current marketplace. There are several aspects to research that include recent and relevant sales, trend analysis, professional consensus, retail stores, auction prices as well as record guide prices. The record price guides are a nice starting point, but they may not reflect true value because of the variables just mentioned.”
“Our first order of business in an appraisal is generally to examine the physical items, if possible, and note the condition, edition or other key points of recognition. Then we conduct extensive research to ascertain the current marketability of the items. Our service concludes with a certified document that details the estimated retail value and the current wholesale value, depending on the type of appraisal. We also include a statement of the overall quality level of the item or collection, including condition, pressing edition or the cultural or historical desirability. This document exceeds the appraisal requirements of the IRS and the insurance companies.”
We discussed one of the most confusing and subjective elements regarding vinyl records: grading the vinyl. I asked Stephen what method he uses.
“It is actually a combination of many methods, including the Goldmine Standards that have been set up in their many publications, the ‘Good Rockin’ Tonight’-formula, and my own formula. I like to take it a step further and use a 100-point scale, and deduct points for every flaw, not only on the record, but the picture sleeve (if it is a 45rpm), LP jacket and cover. I would like to see a uniform standard set up sometime in the near future, something that everybody in the industry could agree on,” said Stephen.
There are also a couple of ways to have your memorabilia or record collection documented and appraised, as Stephen details:
“We actually offer two distinct services, the professional appraisal and a quick evaluation of your memorabilia or record collection. This entails you sending us a list of your items from which we provide a detailed document with a range of market values based on comparables. You’ll be able to tell whether you have something worth $1.00, $10, $100, or more. This process is quicker and less expensive that the formal appraisal and is most useful in estimating what a sale to a dealer might bring,” explained Stephen.
“Our service includes, not only the appraisal of records and record collections, but posters, flyers, handbills, programs, CDs, promotional items, tour books and other music collectibles. (I don’t handle musical instruments, which is a very different kind of specialty). It is important to have your items or collections appraised to gauge the potential replacement value, assist in estate planning goals, tax elements and other factors. I have much more information on my Website.
As we wrapped up our interview, we talked about our love for not only music, but the historical audio format of, vinyl records. I asked Stephen about one of his most memorable record collection appraisals.
“I did an appraisal for a gentleman in Texas and he had a wonderful and superb record collection. But, when he put on an old 78rpm of Robert Johnson and played it on his professional sound equipment, and as the music filled the room, you could have swore that Mr. Robert Johnson himself was playing for you right then and there. It was a wonderful and enlightening experience, and one I will never forget,” recalled Stephen.
So, not only does Stephen M.H. Braitman offer valuable and unique record appraisal services, he also gets to archive, appraise and handle important parts of audio history, and gets to hear them as well. And that is a reward that you can not put a value on.
Stephen’s contact information:
Website: http://www.MusicAppraisals.com
Blog: http://www.NeedleScreech.com
Email: braitman@mindspring.com
Monthly Column: “The Picture Sleeve Archive” in Goldmine Magazine
Phone: 925-679-3044
Posted in Arts, Music, People | 1 Comment »
January 2nd, 2008
This is a nice article from Isaac Marion. Isaac has been running the online textual variety show, BurningBuilding.com, since 2003. He lives in Seattle, Washington, where he works various mundane jobs while trying to make his writing/music/art career take off.
Reading: it’s not for fun anymore
Recent studies have shown that across the board, in all mediums, Americans are reading for pleasure less than ever before. This isn’t just literature, novels, etc, this is all forms of the written word, including magazines, even the mighty Internet. Yes, that includes blogs. Less than one third of adults reported having read any literature in the past year not required for school or some other assignment.
Sounds shocking at first, but really, who didn’t see this coming?
In fact, those stats seem rather high to me. I think out of everyone I know, only 3 or 4 people would consider themselves regular readers. Sitting down with a book has become a quaint, old-fashioned novelty notion, almost an affectation, like smoking a pipe, collecting cigars, home brewing, bonsai trees, single malt scotch, and Civil War enthusiasm.
This is distressing to me, obviously, since 70%-80% of what I do with my life is based around writing, and therefore, by extension, reading. Am I training in an obsolete trade? Is my dream of becoming a successful writer kind of like my dream of becoming a successful blacksmith?
And, what exactly is causing this decline in literacy? The obvious answer is, not enough “Reading is FUN” posters in our libraries. How are people supposed to know, if they’re not told? I think if the statistics were examined you would find a very clear link between the decline of Elijah Wood “Reading is Hobbit-Forming!” posters and the decline of American reading. But although this is certainly a major contributing factor, there must be others, because I’ve viewed my fair share of pro-reading advertisements, and even I find myself reading far less than I used to. What is going on? Let’s take a look at a few of the elements of modern society that are edging out the written word…
Television
Low cost and ease of production for reality shows featuring attractive, vapid automatons in crude parodies of life situations allows for vast explosion in quantity of TV shows, with each channel boasting dozens of similar shows, each with its own spinoffs, knockoffs, and webisodes, until total psychological saturation is achieved. All available brain space is filled with the televised thoughts of attractive, vapid automatons.
Straight to Video Knockoff Films
Having already watched every other film in Blockbuster, people turn to low-budget, nearly-homemade films released to coincide with similarly named, similarly themed theatrical films, ie, Transformers / Transmorphers, Beowulf / Beowolf
Video Blogs (See Youtube)
Weary of ingesting the inane thoughts of strangers by reading them in written text form, Americans turn to video blogs, or “Vlogs”, where they can listen to the inane thoughts of strangers while watching their faces from an uncomfortably close camera angle, and randomly assigning them celebrity status by public whim.
Sports/Video Games
Competitive entertainments allow bored Americans to work their reflexes and mental dexterity without actually doing anything, feel part of something without actually being part of something. People flock to Sports/Video Games as an outlet for their personal energies and as a general mental anesthesia. Helps relieve pressure of disposable income and time.
Beowulf: the IMAX 3D Experience
CGI animated film hurls arrows, spears, axes, blood, guts, and naked Angelina Jolie directly at the viewers, completely blowing our minds and making us never want to read, write, talk, or walk around ever again.
Youtube
Endless supply of videos where lightsabers have been digitally placed in the hands of people or animals who were not previously holding lightsabers.
There seems to be a trend here. As part of the general movement away from difficulty and towards ease and instant gratification, humanity seems to be trying to avoid even the difficult senses. The popularity of video blogs shows that people would much rather have information poured into their brain through their ears than have to focus their eyes on letters and attempt to comprehend writing. Is the day too far off when even listening to information is considered too much effort? Too dull, too slow?
Probably just in time for the invention of direct-to-brain connections. Entertainment won’t require us to use our senses at all. It will just be dumped directly into our minds in a big, sticky, informationy gob. An entirely new form of blog will appear, not the web log, or the video log–the “brain log”, or….”blog”.
Hmm.
Brlog…?
Brailg…?
Hmm.
Posted in Arts, Culture | 4 Comments »
December 19th, 2007
Robin Mookerjee is a songwriter obsessed with music. Is this a good thing? Or a bad thing? read his story and check his website.
Confessions of a no-frills indie songwriter
I’m really a fan as much as a songwriter, but a lot of songwriters say that. Elvis Costello, Elton John. They were fans first. But I was a serious fan, probably like most people who listen to “dark” music. Great songs got me through my adolescence. They got me through breakups. They kept me company.
So, you can tell I’m a music geek. I wanted to write songs before I wanted a tricycle. I came from a classical music family. Popular music was practically banned – it was trash. They made me take violin lessons. So, naturally, I got an electric guitar. And – no kidding – it was from SEARS. I learned chords. I wanted to be a new waver. I got older and got an asymmetric haircut. No matter what else I did, music was always first for me.
But I NEVER had hip taste, and I was kind of ashamed of that. I liked some alternative and punk bands, but I liked top forty groups, commercial stuff – whatever struck me as real. My friends hated anything with synthesizers, so I hid my New Order cds. I’m kind of disagreeable that way. That’s why it was weird when I became involved with a VERY HIP band. They were everything: goth, emo, industrial, electro, Madchester, trance, ambient, straight rock… Everything except metal, hip hop, or country. This band, Bleak House, in Pennsylvania, was driven by big egos and weird hair. The local bars where we played had country music on the jukebox. They took one look at us with our weird clothes and hair and yelling at us. It was the egos that sunk the band. I couldn’t get along with the drummer who smoked pot all day and watched the Cartoon Channel, or the bassist, my ex-girlfriend, who thought she could sing like Aretha Franklin. We broke up.
That’s when it hit me. I wasn’t hip and never would be. I liked songs that rocked, sure, with attitude, but also sentimental heartfelt stuff. Most of all, I loved an amazing melody. I wanted to crack the secret of how songwriters came up with a melody that everyone wanted to hum. That is my obsession. Unfortunately, I had a day job and not much time to pursue this obsession, except in my mind.
End of story? No, because one Christmas my sister sent me a digital recording program - Cakewalk. One weekend I learned it. I’m still not that good at using these programs – I’m a songwriter, not a producer – but, anyway, I got TOTALLY OBSESSED with music again. I started recording and writing songs, and I couldn’t stop. And a funny thing happened. I decided to be myself. I wasn’t an acid-rave-nu-techno-retro-psychedelic punk. I was a guy who LOVED great songs. Everything from the Stones to Paul Simon to Dire Straits to The Cure to Smashing Pumpkins to Coldplay… Even Hall & Oates. Anything with a great melody and some heart and soul. The songs started pouring out of me, and I got some musicians in to help with bass and percussion parts. They sounded okay. They had hooks. I thought some as hits, at least the kind of song that used to be a hit, and I could imagine some tracks as somebody’s favorite song.
And another funny thing happened. The songs came out like Elliot Smith or Nick Drake or something. Not the tunes, which were pure pop, but the lyrics. They were about loss, death, uncertainty, basically saying “What’s it all about?” I never knew I was that morbid. Writing is funny that way. Like looking into a mirror and seeing someone else. Some songs were your basic, “I got dumped and I can’t deal with it” type thin. But none were particularly cheerful. So I called the album MISERABLISM.
Now I perform them in little bars in Brooklyn. Places where everyone is a garage punk / grindcore / progressive house / nu-metal / swamp-punk. And they actually like it, even though I’m basically just a guy who writes songs. My songs are for other people who needed pop music to survive growing up in America. That’s why their a bit sad. Because sad songs make you feel a little better.
It feels great just knowing my little creations are on people’s iPod playlists as they jog around and around a New York City park. Now I’m hooked, talking to record labels and renting time at a high class studio, very different from the pure indie setup on which I recorded “Miserablism.”
Posted in Arts, Music, People | 2 Comments »
December 12th, 2007
Today we post this exclusive work of Robert Karl Stonjek. It’s an unpublished ‘meditation’ he wrote in the mid 90s.
Portrait
I had been instructed to ‘just sit’ under this particular tree. I don’t think he had decided on this particular tree beforehand, we just wandered about in the bush for a while, then into a clearing whereupon he said “this is definitely the right one, I can feel it. Can you?” I could, I was sure I could. I nodded.
I was instructed to just wander around, or sit if I wished, or sleep, or just do as I please. I was told not to wander to far, and if I had to urinate to do it over toward a particular bush that was pointed out to me. I was to just be there, that was the important thing - to be there all night. He would be back in the morning with his assistant. Some of my friends had insisted on coming along to watch.
I was told that there was a man in the bush, me, and by morning there should be just plants and animals. It all seemed to make sense. There was a kind of logic to it, but one can’t really explain what it is.
I stayed awake all night. The tiredness I experienced from the ordeal of a freezing night under a tree wondering what I really should be doing had caused some minor hallucinations - I seemed to see things out of the corners of my eyes but couldn’t make out just what they were. I thought “maybe I’m just tired”.
The assistant arrived first and quietly began placing plastic sheets on the ground. On one of them he set up the artist’s equipment, then he left.
About half an hour later, just as the sun began to appear, the assistant led in my two friends who were instructed, in a whisper, to sit on the plastic sheet and remain absolutely silent. I’d say the assistant is in his mid forties, the old artist could be any age between 50 and 75. He is so agile yet has a face that shows age. When he speaks he seems to be just as aware of the immediate future as the past, as if he does not travel along a thread of time as we do but swims in a pool of it.
When he arrived he did not come over to me but wandered over to a tree and asked it how my night had been. Upon reflection I remember that he was chatting to various bushes and flowers as well, asking them about me and whether or not we got along. My friends watched as if they shared a single eye between them.
The assistant quietly gave me instructions as the artist wandered about, gently moving me out of the way on one occasion, then instructing me to stay still at which point the artist walked straight into me, as if I were invisible to him. The artist announced that there was enough of my nature in the surrounding bush for him to work with. He squatted in front of one of the sheets of paper (there may have been a canvas there as well, I’m not sure). He proceeded to work with pastels, drawing the bush as it had been effected by me (the bush captures the spirit - the artist captures the bush).
After a couple of hours the deed was done and the assistant called us all over. He asked me what the significance of various items in the painting were. He seemed to have captured one of the odd wispy things I thought I saw during the night, almost as I had seen it - vague, just out of sight.
“You can’t draw someone’s spirit” he told me, “but I can draw the effect your spirit has on living things. During the night, they absorb as you radiate. During the daytime the flow of energy is reversed. At the right moment there is no difference between the two: there is a fulcrum, a crossing over point. All I have to do is capture the bush on paper, as it captured your spirit through the night, and we have a portrait of your spirit.”
I can never tire of looking at that drawing. As I stand before it I am gradually able to distinguish between a person looking at some depiction of bushland, and my spirit peering into its’ own reflection!!
Posted in Arts, Culture | 3 Comments »
November 29th, 2007
This is another writing gem, from Jeff Doak, Application Developer for Sprint Nextel. He currently resides in Rome, NY, and has interests in music, nature, lifetime learning, programming. Lives with wife, three kids, cat, hermit crab, and fish. Check his “neglected” website.
The true rewards for being human
Fall – my favorite time of year. Here in the Northeast U.S. it is a beautiful time of year. The snow is falling today, but not sticking. The wind has a chill to it, but not harsh. It is a great time for daydreaming and self reflection.
I find myself drifting in time to the days of my youth, even then this was my favorite time of year. I was in Germany then, but the climate was much like it is here. The scenery is excellent. I recall my walks and jogs through the woods there and the brief conversations with the locals. The man I never saw before who gave me a walking stick he had meticulously and painstakingly carved himself. The woman who remarked how beautiful the scenery was at the beginning of one of my strolls. The girl who had a crush on me, but I was to young and shy to notice. The magnificence of Neu Schwannstein castle.
I also am swept to the more solemn times. The visit to Dacau where I was overwhelmed by the smell of death in the air brought out by the rain. The memories of the Berlin wall before it later was brought down. The Russian solders at the train station that stood a pace apart the entire length of the stopped train. The visit to the large hill outside of Stuttgart that had been erected from the rubble of the post-war crushed city. And of course the cross at the top, large enough to see from a mile away that stated something to the affect of “Never again”.
Much has changed. I have a family and between them and my job I find little time for reflection, but it sure is nice when I can. Please take the time yourself to reflect on life, current and past, because reflection is one of the true rewards for being human.
Posted in Arts, Culture, People | 1 Comment »
November 29th, 2007
Rob Mitchell is a singer/songwriter from Nashville, TN. He has played songs around Nashville and appeared at the Bluebird Cafe. Musical influences are James Taylor, Jim Croce, Jimmy Buffett and John Denver. Rob is not a writer but what he wrote for us is a real writing gem:
Every journey an adventure
Today the weather in Nashville is brisk. I woke to a chilly wind from the North whisking it’s way accross the dairy farm behind my home. Our dog is still curled deep in the cedar chips inside of her dog house as I fill her bowl with water. She stirs and looks at me with a bareful look. I think she wanted to sleep late too!
I notice my steps are short and stiff. The ache is evident in my thighs. Last night was the second of my new nightly routine of running. One mans quest to regain lost youth and health. As I walk back inside I make a mental note to learn to welcome the pain as that is my benchmark of progress. I’ll now cook breakfast for the kids and let my wife sleep late. She deserves the break.
After dropping the kids off at school I begin my 50 mile drive into work. I turn off the radio so I can reaquaint myself with my inner voice. That is the voice of my youth. I try to hear him encouraging me as he did in the old days. The clutter of my daily worries has driven him back into dark places as of late. When he went back there to the fringe of my forgotten subconscious is was when melancholy wandered in. I listen for him and his words of encouragement and hope as the asphalt ribbon runs beneath the car. He speaks softly at first. Unsure and not having the confidence that comes with youth. However the more I listen to him his voice becomes more assured.
I am still the person I was at 20, 25 and 30! So what if the road was more rugged than it appeared on the map. But isn’t every journey an adventure? Don’t all of us end up in detours sometimes or make a wrong turn or two on the road of life? We don’t stop the trip because we get lost. We look at the map again or we ask directions. What if where we finally end up isn’t where we thought we wanted to go? If we choose to linger here a while it can only mean that this isn’t such a bad place to be afterall. Hopefully we can learn from the experiences in our journey and if nothing else come of it; we can look back and say it was one heck of a road trip we took!
Posted in Arts, Culture, People | No Comments »
November 21st, 2007
This is the beginning of the latest writing by Peter George Mackie. Please contact him if you want to know more about his works. The first chapter of his piece of travel writing “Flowers of Zagreb”
can also be downloaded at www.authorsonline.co.uk.
The Lost Sleeping Tablet
Dave was pondering over a map of the former Yugoslavia when he landed on Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, which he had visited in the summer of 1977 at the age of 20 and had made friends with so many 17-year-olds who were still listening to ’60s music.
Most of them had travelled to the West at some point and were very interested in what he had to say about places he had been to, such as Amsterdam and Copenhagen.
Having known people who had been to this country before, he was only mildly surprised to learn that the locals were able to travel in and out of and all around Yugoslavia at will and felt it to be a country which seemed to be moving forward and whose young inhabitants exhibited what he perceived as a unique friendliness and a liveliness which was quite unlike anything he had ever known before.
He also found that many of them were interested in literature and the arts and it was there that he met his first real love, Elidija, a music student, who was one year younger than himself. Although it was only a one-night stand, that evening when they had made love in her friend’s flat in one of the back streets of Zagreb would always stand out throughout his life as one of his most treasured memories - and he was also very glad that he had been able to satisfy her as she was a virgin at the time.
Dave then found himself transported to the summer of 1986 when he had visited Belgrade for the first time and had met a young art student somewhere in town. They had taken a look in the window of an art workshop where some local artists or students had seemingly hurriedly put an exhibition together and they both agreed that none of the exhibits were very good.
It was a roasting hot day and, when the young student reached the flat where he lived with his parents and sister, after a long walk in the scorching heat, he removed his shirt and shoes.
It was at this point that he introduced Dave to his sister, a good-looking young girl with long black hair, who knelt down in front of him, also in bare feet, and exclaimed, “Serbian girls are the best!!”
The young art student, whose name Dave had probably never learned, then explained that the room in which they were sitting was his and his sister’s bedroom.
It did not seem to Dave all that surprising that, in a poor area of a country like Yugoslavia, a teenage brother and sister would be sharing the same room, which must have also been the case in other countries, probably including Britain, in the past.
At that time, people were keen to emphasise that they were one country and, when Dave visited Sarajevo that same summer, he thought that it was the most beautiful and unusual city he had ever seen - and the last thing that would have occurred to him was that there would be a war there six years later. He was also disappointed that the spool for his camera had run out by this time so that he was unable to take any photographs.
His spirit at this point moved back to the map again where someone or something was trying to tell him that, in the future, the young people in Zagreb and Belgrade would be reconciled again but did not explain how this would be done… but it was found necessary to heal the town of Split, where the Dioclitain palace was falling down……
Dave was presently transported to the back garden in Scotland where he had played as a child in the 1960s.
In later life, he would realise how lucky he was to have heard all the music at that time, when it had first come out, as he considered that something special had happened then, which could only have occurred once in the whole of human history.
His mind moved on to when he was 12 years old, when he had had some very vivid and profound spiritual experiences which people around him at that time had confused with mental illness.
His father had had him incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital, where he was to spend two and a half years, and Dave would never to be able to forgive him for having destroyed him spiritually as well as having taken away two and a half years of his youth, which he would never get back, and, due to which, he would never be able to form steady relationships, his courtship with a young girl having been put a stop to by the hospital authorities.
Dave’s mother, on the other hand, was convinced that Dave, who was always the first in the class at Maths at school, was going to be a genius, but his education was neglected in the hospital and he would never be able to make much of his life…..
In fact, throughout his whole life, Dave’s father had never been able to accept the fact that he had ever grown up and would continue to play psychological games with him. For instance, only a few years before, when Dave was in his forties, his father, having lured him back to his house to see whether or not a certain magazine had arrived for him in the post, threatened to call the police because Dave had accidentally dropped a cup and saucer into the sink. This, in turn, brought back all the old traumas of what his father had done to him when he was younger, the memories of which he had been desparately trying to shake off…
Posted in Arts, Culture | 5 Comments »
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