Category video and the Theater for the Insane!

By some miracle, there is a stray internet signal that I have been able to catch so I am gobbling it up as much as I can while I can
Forcing myself to get out of the house and take care of my “jobs”
Posted an ad for the Van
http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/cto/1953712799.html

After that, I took the bike over to Minnehaha Falls park to ride the trail
The usual plan is to ride over there, go at least to the other end of the trail and head back
However, I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it over there so I took the wagon
Once again, I get to deal with the anger I have over the hit and run because I cannot even put my bike in the gate
I have to tie it to the top
This makes me dwell on negative shit and I don’t like how I get constantly reminded of how this guy showed absolute disreagrd for...

Now that Marko has helped me tweak my loops and samples, I can start constructing the set from start to finish
Marko gave me advice early on that all samples should be sent as flat as possible to the board which makes sense
Sound as with any kind of art like painting or cooking, it is easier to add to than take away from
This means send a fairly bland signal to the board and the sound person can mix it the way it sounds best for the club and the PA
Sending too much bass is especially bad because it can sound distorted even before it gets to the board
Highs are easier to tame and get affected less by too much gain
I wish I could actually apply these techniques because I still mix like shit
Just because you watch Hell’s Kitchen don’t make you a chef

There are only a few things left to accomp...

I have been trying to work a guitar player into the band for this performance for the last month or so and the guy looked promising at first but he showed pretty much no enthusiasm
If you have been reading my blogs lately, then you know I have been re-cutting all of the loops and sample for the live show
This is because I had made my decision to let him go but I could not tell him in person until yesterday
Luckily, he was of the same opinion and we parted ways amicably

I just finished all of the backing loops for the live show
All I need now is for Marko to put the adjustment on the levels and the EQ so that the PA will need the least abount of adjustment
My deaf ass is terrible at mixing, plus, what I like in a mix doesn’t always produce the best result out front

One of the biggest advan...

Rasputina has the distinction of “being there for me” during a time in my life where I was trying to search for a way to stay relevant
Kat burned copies of “Frustration Plantation” and “Cabin Fever” when I was on tour with the fucking Von Ehrichs and it was a welcome distraction from the hell I was having to endure on that tour

I had listened to Rasputina before but those albums were pretty standard (although better than most) goth
These two albums had very interesting electronic tracks
It wasn’t the garden variety, bludgeon you over the head, NIN/Ministry type of electronics
This was subtle texture
It immediately started my wheels turning when thinking of a way to part from the tradition of 20th century electronic music
Those two albums are what I put in the category of “headphone albums”

All I wanna do is rip some movies to my hard drive so that I can put them into my show
Is that so wrong????
It seems that every other idea I have during the production of show #8 ends up a dead end because the DVD won’t allow me to rip it (or the disc has gone bad)
I need a better ripping program

I finished the barrage edit and finally decided on a film for the feature segment
At leat 45 minutes is already mapped out on the timeline
All that is left to do is host segments and titles/credits

I have been working with Windows Movie maker for about a year now and have pretty much used it as a cut and paste tool
When I see video edits that use lots of filters and effects, I generally don’t see good ideas to go along with it
I feel that the source material should be interesting in the first place
You should “assist” the idea with editing to manipulate pacing and to alter or re-enforce the context of the idea
I see the function of editing as punctuation and/or rythmic timing than trying to dazzle the viewer with cool swirly effects
Apart from that, I use the simple fade in/out and that’s it

I had noticed something happening when I was moving fragments of video around on the time line
A graduating blue indicator appeared and I didn’t really know what that meant so I just ignored it a...

Just found a really cool feature on Windows movie Maker.
Evidently, you can overlap two clips
Already using it for the next barrage edit

Off to Markos BBQ

The new guitar player is taking a week to learn the material
He lives fairly far away and can’t afford the gas
I understand that
I’m not too worried about it right now because he picked up the material quickly

Meanwhile, I decided to start assembling the footage for Countrockula’s Theater for the Insane!
I have amassed a ton of clips over the weekend and have mapped out 3/4 of the show
Unfortunately, I am having trouble with the “feature” segment because everything I want to use seems to resist me getting the clip onto my computer

First it was “Moon Over Tao” and I never could get past the copy protection (pissed that I gave away my VHS before copying it) so I tried shooting the screen with my video camera
That technique works for some things but this time there were lines on the screen so...

This whole weekend has been spent watching videos that contain copious amounts of source material and cutting out the fragments that I wanted
In the past, I thought of the video clip that I wanted, searched for it and then chopped it out for whatever purpose
This got me thinking and wondering how many times I lost an idea because the labor took too long and I lost inspiration/interest so I tried using videos that held a very large amount of source material

First was the documentary “KRAFTWERK and the electronic evolution”
I originally started on this video because there is a great quote from Conrad Schnitzler coupled with a great photo of him under power lines with a mixer and headphones (which will be the intro clip to show #8)
This 3 hour monolithic slab of a documentary has so much info...