The first film is ‘Mermaid’, Русалка (Rusalka) after Alexander Pushkin’s poem. It is in Russian.

The following clips are the artist’s take on Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Unfortunately, the film is in two parts here, and not of the quality deserving the artist’s effort, but it’s still quite stunning. This version is in English, however there are other higher quality clips on youtube that are not, should one wish to switch languages.

Since I seem to be on a roll posting random youtube clips, I thought I’d go ahead and post a recent one I stumbled across. However, I’m ahead of myself — let me put a few things into context. As usual, I’ve started right at the end, instead of the beginning.

I am nearly ashamed of my most recent purchase, yet at the same time, I’m hopelessly enamored — ensnared, even. I say ‘nearly’ because I detest the self-absorbed idiots I normally see with their heads wiggling in thrall to the siren song of this object.

Yes, I speak of the holy-of-holies in today’s culture: an iPod.

I bought one. I am an hypocritical heathen. Perhaps just a small one, since it’s a nano. Little. Less heathenish. Riiiiiight.

Now the hard part; confessing my adoration of this device. I’ve had it for all of about 12 hours now, and I’m already slipping into the gloriously tepid waters of consumerism — what things can I buy to stick on my nano? Lectures from great universities? Waterproof cases for snorkelling in tropical waters to my own soundtrack? Sleek skins to declare my DIFFERENCE [oh, the irony] from all other iPod owners? Skins — now we’re getting somewhere.

The youtube above was actually on a site where I surfed around for a while amongst designs whipped up by an interesting crew of visual artists and graphic designers. I recall the graphic designers in college being a sordid lot; always vulture-eyeing something for marketing potential, and fairly gliding along on their own dreamtrails of snake-oil-yet-to-be-sold. However, I am surprisingly unsurprised to see painters submitting designs in homage to this little technological wonder — I almost feel compelled to set up an altar to it myself! But enough.

As seems to be typical, bliss follows bliss in an odd concatenation of coincidences: my own artistic preference for specific mood-oriented soundtracks leads to the purchase of the nano, which in turn leads to pointless accessory-surfing, which leads to the discovery of a fellow artist [one Audrey Kawasaki], which leads to a contemplation of line and form [and, rare for me, sensuality]. Ms. Kawasaki’s images also remind me, in a cursory fashion, of a friend of mine. Said friend recently mailed me a box of goodies, wherein was contained a tasty read: When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin D. Yalom.

All of these things are so inter-swirled as to defy actual comprehensible explanation, so I’ll stop for the moment. Suffice to say, I am creatively well-pleased, and have not been so [on a variety of levels] for some time.

www.bitterfilms.com for more madness.

An audiovisual homage to the most patient person I know.

Thanks for everything.

Deadlines always seem to bring out my stranger side [which is sometimes also my better side, but not always]. After spending a good portion of the day yesterday getting absolutely filthy and exhausted from prepping masonite panels for painting, I decided I needed to see people die. It was that, or a shooting spree in suburbia. This is not unusual for me. Of course, having a deadline to meet, I couldn’t spare the time that incarceration would involve, so I opted for the next best thing — AHHHNOLD!

Yes, I watched that classic, Commando. The body count was sufficiently high enough to slake my inner bloodlust, and I later trundled off to bed exhausted from my painting labors.

Now here’s where things get weird.

It’s not uncommon that I dream violent dreams; the unconscious works in mysterious ways. Last night’s dream involved a strange hybrid of times — that endless stint spent doing time in high school, my days as a graduate assistant in college, and a dash of the brief period I was working in a high rise office building. Toss in various bits of violence I’ve witnessed up close and personally, a few gang wars, nightly news footage, and you’ll get an inkling of the overall atmosphere of this dream.

I was teaching in a high rise building — several floors up. There was a large courtyard/schoolyard in the front of the building surrounded by a high chainlink fence where I could see a bizarre mixture of individuals: gang members, nondescript businessmen, students, and rent-a-cops milling about aimlessly. One fellow decides to go on a shooting spree — a la The Governator [what a silly portmanteau!] and is eventually ripped to shreds by the authorities. Not particularly interesting in and of itself, no?

What I found odd was this: for once, I wasn’t doing the shooting.

Last night’s dream brought to you by the letters F and U. Enjoy the Youtube of Arnold killing off an entire army, set appropriately enough to AC/DC’s “Big Guns”.

I’ve been studying Muybridge sequential images as possible painting fodder for the last few days. I’d completely forgotten about him until just the other day when his name popped into my mind; undoubtedly a bit of knowledge that resurfaced from college photography courses.

Much was made of his technological processes, and many texts name him as the “father of motion pictures.” However, I don’t recall hearing anything [or very little at any rate] about his personal history, which involves weird events such as nearly getting killed on a stagecoach, several name changes, settling a bet for then governor of California Leland Stanford, and a murder acquittal.

Check out what Wiki has to say about him here.

Here’s strange little Youtube I found that incorporates some Muybridge still images as animations:

For those of you looking for frame after frame of reference material, I’d recommend checking out Selected Items from the Eadweard Muybridge Collection from the University Archives and Records Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

According to the site:

The Eadweard Muybridge Collection at the University of Pennsylvania Archives contains 702 of the 784 plates in his Animal Locomotion study as well as related correspondence and printed materials. Also included in the collection are Muybridge’s zoetrope, plate film holder, gelatine plates for making photogravures, camera #20, and wooden shutter and miscellaneous photographs. Selected items are available for study on-line, including printed materials, correspondence, and photographic plates.

Of course I favor the sequences of animals over other subjects of Muybridge’s studies, like Naked Women Setting Down Things, Naked Women Hopping Over Things, Deformed Children Attempting Locomotion, Mostly Naked Boxers, and suchlike.

Bacon liked the wrestlers and the deformed children [well okay, and maybe a few of the animals, too].

But to each his own.

Cello, art, and girls, girls, girls! This clip has it all!

[And yes, I'm test driving a brand new plugin].

Enjoy.