New Year. More Photos.

I'm currently working on a book cover design for Jane Cassady. Her book, For the Comfort of Automated Phrases, is being published by Sibling Rivalry Press later this year. To help with that project, I've been collecting images, taking photos, looking at color palettes, for inspiration. Jane found this clock at the Philadelphia AIDS Thrift Shop. It's genius, though it doesn't work.

Inside the little area to the left of the clock face is a scene with two birds in front of some foliage.

No, this is not supposed to be a snow scene. That's years of accumulated dust! Both disgusting and oddly compelling. Anyway, I've taken about a hundred pictures of this clock trying to get a good picture of the clock face (reflective bubble glass/plastic=grrrr) and the clock as a whole itself. Here's a few of them.

Yes, I even put the clock in our tub to take some pictures. I'm not sure why, though I do love the weirdness of the photos. Anyway, the clock is the primary object I'm obsessing over right now as I try to put together this cover. But, it's not the only image/aesthetic cue. Here are a few others, some offered by Jane and others happened upon by myself.

The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths by Bruce Nauman

Close-up of part of the book cover for The Night Circus

Legend to Marcel Duchamp's The Large Glass

Umbrella cover from a Marimekko umbrella.

Still from opening sequence of The United States of Tara.

That's about it, for now. As I put together images and color schemes, I'll post some of the results--the good, the bad and the ugly.
Wish me luck.

 

Project 7

Hello,
Here's some Philadelphia photos, befores and afters. Someday soon, I'm hoping to get a new camera. In the meantime, my old camera and my phone camera do a decent enough job... Then, there I go, throwing in a little bit of drama.

Before

After

Before

After

Project 6

So, I took an extended vacation from this project. I've been working on this piece for a few days now. It's some absurdist digital collage using a photo I took.

I will probably add some more elements later, hopefully in the direction of making it more absurd. But, for now... yay, I'm finished.

Seriously Project 5 Terminated

Seriously. I say again, seriously. Project 5, I began with such high hopes. Such dreams. Such expectations. Crash and seriously burn, did I. Not that I thought mixing, mashing music was going to be easy, mind you. But, I discovered that I just don't have the extended ear for such an endeavor. I get two clips in and basically I'm done. It happened over and over and over again.
So, here's the shortened version of the train wrecks. I combined the music clips with some pics. Maybe that will help.
(To all of you mashers and mixers out there, cheers to you!!!)

So Far Behind Project 5 continued

As you may have noticed, Project 5 never reached a a conclusion. Basically, work kicked my behind this last week. And traffic stomped on my head.

So, the music project continues through this week... but I expect the payoff to be well worth the extra time and work. Knock on wood and fingers crossed.

(Also, I will double up on projects in a week in the near future to get back on track.)

In the meantime, check out these awesome cupcakes Jane made.

Then go check out her writing here.

Project 5 Continuing the Musicality

Hello there February!!! I liked last week's musical interlude. So naturally (naturally?), this week I thought I would venture into music-mashing. So far, I've played a bit with combining Cee Lo Green's "Fuck You" with the Flight of the Conchord's "Hurt Feelings." Here's what I have so far... I'm pretty proud of the transition.
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Well, I thought I would preview a preview clip, but right now it doesn't seem like it's meant to be. I'll work on getting that clip up tomorrow. Perhaps, I'll have an ice day at home.

Mix List-omania Project 4 Completion

Well, putting together a selection of songs is both the easiest thing to do AND the most difficult. A lot of factors must be taken into account: where will this list be played, what mood should be invoked, is every song as important as every other song, should a song I don't so much like be included because other folks enjoy it, should I include songs I just discovered without leaving them to settle in my subconscious first. The list of questions is endless.
Not to mention the overarching nature of the evening this was to be put together for--i.e., the Women of the World Poetry Slam qualifier. As such, I had a conversation or two with myself about whether the mix should include only songs by women. But, what would that even mean? Songs written and performed by women? Songs written or performed by women? Would it be ok to include songs about women but not written or performed by one?
Geez, I only have a week, I concluded. Just put a mix together and let the music be the music. So, to the music I went. As you will soon see, I chose and I chose and I chose and I chose. The one thing I didn't ever get to was order--which is a whole other project to be had--because I ran out of time. So, Friday night, arriving at the poetry reading a bit late (why does Friday evening traffic have to be so heinous), I put the music on. Bless the inventor of Shuffle. I believe it was a successful selection of music. What do you think?

In no particular order:
Baby I Owe You Something Good--Funkadelic
Let's Get It Started--The Black Eyed Peas
Gone Daddy Gone/I just Want to Make Love to You--Gnarls Barkley
Illumination--Gogol Bordello
Only Existing Footage--The Extra Lens
Henrietta--The Fratellis
Come Together--Michael Jackson
Doo Wop (That Thing)--Lauryn Hill
Money--will.i.am
Stronger--Kanye West
She Just Wants to Dance--Keb' Mo'
Fidelity--Reginal Spektor
Float On--Modest Mouse
Don't Stop--Fleetwood Mac
Catch My Disease--Ben Lee
Lean on Me--Bill Withers
I'm a Woman--Koko Taylor
Good Vibrations--The Beach Boys
Zak and Sara--Ben Folds
Under Pressure--David Bowie; Queen
Kodachrome/Maybellene--Simon & Garfunkel
The Muppet Show Theme--The Muppets
Poker Face (dance remix)--Lady Gaga
Three More Days--Ray LaMontagne
Home--Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Lovegame--Lady Gaga
Another Saturday Night--Sam Cooke
Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours--Stevie Wonder
Adventures in Solitude--The New Pornographers
Willow--Joan Armatrading
Wanna Be Startin' Something--Michael Jackson
Sunshine (Woke Me Up This Morning)--Labelle
This Little Light of Mine--Mavis Staples
Peace in the Valley--A3, Errol Thompson
Relator--Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
Ain't No Sunshine--Bill Withers
Ain't That Peculiar--Marvin Gaye
Fembot--Robyn
Baby I'm a Star--Prince & the Revolution
Everything Is Everything--Lauryn Hill
Killing Me Softly with his Song--The Fugees
How Many Mics--The Fugees
Get Back--The Beatles
Don't Feel Right--The Roots
Paul Valery--Blue Scholars
Hurt Feelings--Flight of the Conchords
To Love Somebody--Nina Simone
The Underdog--Spoon
Wake Up--Arcade Fire
Bowtie--OutKast
For Once in my Life--Stevie Wonder
God Only Knows--The Beach Boys
In the Sun--She & Him
In the Mississippi River--Mavis Staples
I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)--The Four Tops
Lovely Day--Bill Withers
Bizarre Love Triangle--New Order
F**k You--Cee Lo Green
My Favorite Mutiny--The Coup
Crazy--Gnarls Barkley
Rise Up with Fists--Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins
Single Ladies--Beyonce
Crash--The Primitives
This Year--The Mountain Goats
Hey Mama--The Black Eyed Peas
Champagne Supernova--Oasis
No Matter What--Badfinger
Touch the Sky--Kanye West
The Ghost Inside--Broken Bells
Bike--Pink Floyd
Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing--Marvin Gaye
Pictures of Houses--Tilly and the Wall
With Arms Outstretched--Rilo Kiley
Happy Valentine's Day--OutKast
Bustin Out--Rick James
Boyz--M.I.A.
Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)--Monsters of Folk
Lisztomania--Phoenix
Crash Years--The New Pornographers
Empire State of Mind--Jay-Z and Alicia Keys
Sweet Thing--Van Morrison
Come Together--The Beatles
Mickey--Tony Basil
Where Is the Love?--Justin Timberlake & The Black Eyed Peas
The Way You Make Me Feel--Michael Jackson
Cold War (Wondamix)--Janelle Monae
A Girl Like You--Edwyn Collins
Wonderwall--Oasis
Paper Planes--M.I.A.
Zealots--The Fugees