October 2009
October 28, 2009Casper & the Cookies - Little King
- By Fredrick
- No TrackBacks
That was way back in February, and the goal was a finished product for the mid-May record release. That seemed like a reasonable deadline, so I began drawing with a panoramic of downtown Athens, GA. Before I knew it, two episode of Lost had elapsed and I hadn't even colored the damn scene. Of course that trial was followed by the concept of 'moving pictures'. I found that when it came to making things move, I had no idea what I was doing. The next few days were dedicated to walk cycles, which seemed to challenge me in every aspect, from the arms to the legs. It just never added up. I was practicing with a lanky drawing of Frank Zappa, and when the gait was proper, the arms were out of sync, and somehow there were always extra frames in there. What the hell?
The months went by, and, still jobless, I kept trucking on the music video. I remember a moment of reflection when I finally broke the 1 minute milemark. I was thinking back to the beginning and it occurred to me that this project was entirely too big for me; I simply wasn't experienced enough and honestly I'm not much of an artist. I'd spend entire days trying to make these cartoon Cookies move around the way I thought they ought to, and often enough ended up scrapping the entire days work only to start anew the next day. It was tough work, no joke, and that deadline was fast approaching.
Of course the release of Modern Silence wasn't the only thing happening mid May, I was also moving out of Brooklyn around the same time. Of course I didn't have that pesky employment to worry about, but I was then splitting my time between the moving process and the animating process. The weekend before I moved the Cookies actually came through town to play a few shows. I felt entirely guilty for not sending them home with a finished product, but I was resolved to get it to them soon.
Upstate was inspiring in a lot of ways, and stifling in many more. I worked hard on the project and the stuff I was doing looked a lot cooler than the stuff I had been doing. I started getting input from friends and started feeling a certain sense of pride. Once I finally got to the home stretch it all fell into place so quickly. The last hurdle I had to jump was the run cycles for, in my opinion, the most pivotal scene - the hallway chase. Once I finished the last frame of the last run cycle I resolved to never animate another (and I'm fairly certain this is something I can stick with). With the video finally completed, this is early October mind you, I excitedly let Jason know I was done and only had to convert the files to the proper format and send them along.
Except nothing every goes that easily; my aging laptop couldn't deal with the stress of converting a massive avi file into a more manageable format and size, and none of the many, many high end programs I tried could provide me with closure. I was downloading everything that had any glimmer of hope and was let down every time. When I was about to unload the raw files on my friends and say "you deal with this", I tried one last solution - that crummy Windows Movie Maker program that comes pre-installed with Vista. It's bare-bones interface was easy on my resources and was able to, finally, put all the pieces of the puzzle together in a neat little package with very little quality lost in the translation. And with that, it was over.
I can't stress enough how important it is to me to share this wonderful band with the world, I would do just about anything to bring them the success they deserve and have worked so hard for. Of course I believe in them 100%, which is why I set to do something so daft in the first place. In honor of the music video release, The Cookies are having a massive sale on their gorgeous double 180 gram vinyl release of Modern Silence. For only $15 you can pick up this extremely limited record featuring an epic 18 tracks from Jason Nesmith, Kay Stanton, and Jim Hix, as well as a slew of Athens musicians on the closing track. For your own sake, I urge everyone to pick up one of these, or maybe even a couple.
October 17, 2009
Celebration for the Rebirth of the Derelict Bridge
- By Fredrick
- No TrackBacks
I was there for the grand opening, and much to my surprise, as soon as I showed up a parade was beginning. Featuring a king's ransom of strange characters, from a unicycle brigade to a troupe of colorful aliens, the parade made its way across the 1.25 mile bridge. At the forefront was a wonderful discovery as well, an Eastern European gypsy folk band from Brooklyn, The Raya Brass Band. More on them later.
October 1, 2009
All Tomorrow's Parties NY 2009: The Flaming Lips
- By Fredrick
- No TrackBacks
Sometime there in the late 90's music got good for me, and as I proceeded to mature throughout high school it was these and other similar artists who became the backing bands to my daily routine. One of the most influential albums in my possession was Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips. It was so whimsical and creative... It was flat out weird, in a completely unapologetic way. Even to this day the album continues to evolve and songs that once just sounded nice seem to be whispering new truths. With what was left of my childish naivety, I decided that Wayne Coyne would have to adopt me. I was raised without a father, and he doesn't have any kids - it just seemed to make sense. I wrote up a few drafts of carefully worded letters begging him to take me under his wing, but was unable to find the mailing address, so I put the dream on hold.
Despite my fanatic devotion to the Lips, I never had the opportunity to see them live. The year I left to go to college they decided to play the New York State Fair for free, and even though I wasn't able to go, that was as close as I got. That is, until they decided to take on the task of curating the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Monticello, NY. I scraped together some money and bought a ticket, and thought that perhaps I could meet with him after the show and join the family. As soon as the crowd started to clear, I waited until the security was distracted and snuck back stage. In a cold folding chair I waited patiently for Wayne to come by, which he surely would have to at some point. Finally I saw him coming down the hall, but as he approached I felt myself freeze, and when I walked on by I couldn't even muster the courage to say hi. I've met many of my musical heroes, but never have I felt so intimidated by someone before. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.
Playlist:
- Silver Trembling Hands
- Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
- Fight Test
- Enthusiasm for Life Defeats Existential Fear
- Convinced of the Hex
- Vein of Stars
- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
- The W.A.N.D.
- Do You Realize??
A few notes about the set: Due to complications with my camera I was unable to record the set in it's entirety. For this I apologize. From what you can see here, which is a vast majority of the show, it was all very amazing. I would also like to take a moment to thank ehaw2000 who so graciously lent me a very nice audio recording of the show; without which these videos would be useless. I also want to take the time to thank his late friend Cary who passed away due to cancer. I guess it's important to live life while you can, right? Thank you both, and I hope everyone enjoys the show!
