Jan 22nd, 2010 by alan
The assignment was to compile photos and treat them using techniques discussed in class to make them look as though they belong together.
I used it as an excuse to mess with my idea for combining the techniques of Alex Maleev and Dave McKean, but I wish I’d had time to take the photos myself.
Jan 21st, 2010 by alan
Sorry it’s been a while since the last post…
Been busy. Trying to figure out if my current 5 year plan can possibly work.
Right now it feels like all I do is draw, and write.
Here’s something I did last week.
Upright Bass
Jan 3rd, 2010 by alan
Though I’ve posted about a 5th of the rough draft for this book, I was particularly pleased with this chapter from The Limit of Influence, an episodic prose web-story (and eventually, a book) I’m writing. This chapter is only about 1500 words. I hope you enjoy it.
____________________________________
Alex sat alone at the desk in her father’s office supply store. This was one of the great joys in her life. She loved the sticky notes of various colors and the highlighter pens. She could doodle for hours on end, and most days that’s exactly what she did while her father either tended to customers or tried to devise ways to acquire new customers. She could not imagine her life any other way.
One day, as she sat near the window making a sculpture out of a kneaded eraser, a group of people in brightly colored outfits rushed by the window. She didn’t really know what they were doing, but she liked their outfits and vehicles. They used all the same colors as her highlighters and sticky notes! They paused in front of the building directly across the street from her father’s office supply shop. The men and women in pretty outfits started fighting. Alex had never seen grown ups fight with their fists before. Most of the time they just argued a lot about things she didn’t really understand.
These people were really strong, and they pretty much destroyed the building across the street by slamming each other into it and through it. Alex wondered if that was how all adults fought.
A few months later the lot across the street had a new building on it, as well as a giant store called ‘We R Office Supplies’. Her father scowled when he saw the sign go up. Alex didn’t really understand why. It was a very nice store with lots of office supplies, just like her Dad’s store. Alex thought if anything, her father should be excited to meet the people who loved office supplies like he did.
Alex decided that adults were crazy, and not very nice to each other.
Soon thereafter Alex’s father told her that he had sold the office supply store and that he was going to try a brand new business: ostrich farming.
Alex thought this was a funny idea. She told her little brother Daniel that they were going to be farmers. This made them both giggle a bit. Daniel said that he wanted to milk the cow. This caused their father’s brow to furrow.
“We won’t have any cows. We’re going to be ostrich farmers”, he explained.
“What kind of weird farm doesn’t have cows?” Daniel complained, “Will it at least have chickens?”
“No!” exclaimed Daniel’s father in exasperation. “It will only have ostriches”.
“That’s not very exciting”, said Alex “Shouldn’t we have more than a few strange looking birds if we are calling ourselves farmers?”
His hand in his hands, Alex’s father looked at them both and said “Do you remember when I showed you Star Wars?” What kind of question was that? Of course they remembered the greatest movie ever made. They both nodded vigorously.
“What did Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru do for a living?”
“They were moisture farmers!” Daniel cried, excited that he knew the answer. Why didn’t his teacher at school ask cool questions like that one?
“That’s right. We’re going to be like the Skywalker family, see? Except on the planet Earth we don’t need to farm moisture to get water like on Tatooine, the planet is covered with water. We have to farm food.”
That sounded reasonable to the two children, but suddenly Alex turned up her nose as she considered the full implications of her father’s assertion.
“People eat the ostriches?” she asked, both outraged and saddened by the inevitable conclusion.
“Yes, but they also use the ostrich’s skin for leather, and the ostrich’s eggs for art work, and …”
“ewwww.” Alex proclaimed.
“Now why is that any more disgusting than eating cows or chickens?” asked their amused father.
“Who eats cows?” asked Daniel.
“What do you think is in the hamburgers you eat at McDonald’s?
Daniel thought about this for a moment before he simply replied “Hamburger. Why?”
Alex looked at him; disgusted by his ignorance “Hamburger is made of cow dummy, that’s why.”
Daniel’s eyes got big “Is there ostriches in the hot fudge Sunday?” he asked, believing he truly grasped the enormity of the situation. If food products like hamburgers came from totally unrelated animals like cows, then it was possible that a completely unknown animal existed within his favorite dessert. If so, they were sitting on a gold mine.
“No”, said Daniel’s father, “But ostrich meat is the food of the future. It’s the leanest, healthiest red meat you can get. I think that the hamburgers in McDonald’s will someday be made of ostrich rather than cow.”
“Cool” said Daniel “Then what’s in the hot fudge Sunday?”
“Processed, frozen cow milk and fudge, which is made from chemicals, eggs, and plants”
“I’m drinking my milk and eating my veggies when I have a hot fudge Sunday?” exclaimed Daniel excitedly.
“Er, not quite”, replied his father, though at this point he wasn’t really certain how to explain the problem with Daniel’s reasoning. He settled for the following statement:
“Sometimes when you mix stuff it doesn’t retain what makes the original stuff good for you, even though it may taste better. It’s like a story. If you mixed up Star Wars and the Wizard of Oz you’d probably get something really interesting, but what made the original stories great might get lost. If you only ever experienced The Star Wizard of Oz Wars, you may never have known or understood why the flying Darth Monkey was angry with Princess Dorothy and wanted to strike her down with his house. The new story may be fun, but it misses the simplicity and fun of the original idea. This happens a lot in the real world. Someone hears a story, then tells it with a couple of modifications, then the people they tell it to misremember or mix it up with another story until the original idea is all screwed up. You may like the final outcome better, because it’s probably a more dramatic story than how it started, but is it true? Is it good for you? Milk and veggies are good for a little boy, but too many hot fudge Sundays make a little boy fat.”
“You take too long to make your point Daddy” admonished Alex, “Mrs. Thomas says that you should always try to make your main point within one sentence.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not in Mrs. Thomas’ class then isn’t it” he asked as he tickled Alex in the belly. “Maybe Mrs. Thomas should speak to the preacher at our church about stream lining his sermons.”
With this last point the subject seemed closed and the family of three began what became known as The Great Ostrich Tickle War.
Soon thereafter Mr. Verity closed his office supply store, and moved his two children to the country. He felt proud as he hammered the sign above the entryway to his farm that read “Verity Farm”. It’s kind of like the Kent Farm sign from the comics he thought as he looked up to inspect his handy work. If only Jenny were still alive to see this.
A few years past and eventually the Verity family got used to life on the Ostrich farm. It was fun and simple. Alex’s father let her have three cats and this made her very happy.
One day Alex came home from school with exciting news. She was going to be in the school’s science fair. Her project had done better than all the older children. She couldn’t wait to tell her father. She ran to the backfield where she knew her father would be working. She saw him standing in the hot sun, working with the tallest birds. Alex had never really gotten used to the height of the enormous things. They were like skyscrapers to her.
“Daddy, Daddy” she cried, wanting his attention. She knew he’d be excited to hear her news.
Donald Verity turned when he heard his daughter call for him. She was so loud, he was certain something was wrong. As he turned he startled the ostrich standing behind him.
Now, some people don’t know this, but ostrich have very strong legs. In some countries people ride their backs and race them. An ostrich can run up to 45 miles per hour, and can sustain 30 mile per hour speeds for an extended period of time. They are actually faster than horses. This is an important fact because, as you may have guessed, ostrich have extremely powerful legs, and Donald Verity just spooked one weighing more than 300 pounds. When ostriches get scared they kick. Their legs are their only weapons.
As Alex Verity ran toward her father full of excitement, she watched as one of his birds kicked him in the back.
Donald immediately fell to the ground, unmoving.
“Daddy!” Alex shrieked.
It was hours later before Alex and her brother were told that the ostrich’s kick had shattered several vertebrae in their father’s back and neck. Donald Verity was dead.
Dec 9th, 2009 by alan
I’m trying to get geared up to finish this set of video projects for the season.
On the agenda:
1) Tales of the Necropolis Episode I, which has been shot! The editing has begun. I don’t want to promise a publish date, but I’m hopeful that it’ll be up within a month.
2) Street Performers, a short comedy sketch by B.C. Thompson, which has been shot and edited! We’ve just got to finish audio post and color correction.
3) The State of Basilica Motion Comic, episode 1.
On that note: here’s my rough draft of the Basilica Motion Comic show ID. The episode picks up after issue 1 of the comic, currently online.
Dec 2nd, 2009 by alan
I just finished this 14 second show ID for the Webisode Ghost Stories series I’m working on with Mike Zuspan
11/25/09: We just wrapped shooting Tales of the Necropolis Episode 1: The Print.
It was a grueling 2 day shoot, but now the editing phase has begun.
Credits
Jim Williams – Jon Waterhouse
Mr. Binks – Michael Zuspan
Harriot – Stephanie McCoy
Mary Beth Gorman – Amy Zuspan
Audio and FBI Agent – Tim Price
Police Officer – Steve Whitworth
Police Photographer – Alan O.W. Barnes
Screenplay – Alan O.W. Barnes and Michael Zuspan
Based on a Story by M.R. James
Director of Photography – Alan O.W. Barnes
Directed by Michael Zuspan
I’m thinking about attitudes right now because of the Limit of Influence, the first Talon novella I’m working on.
One of the villains of the story is a character named “Father Ichor”. He’s a preacher who believes himself to be the reincarnation of a 3rd century BCE priest of Dionysus. His arrogance, his charisma, and his mission are definitely borrowed from my perception of crazy charismatic Christian leaders.
The trouble is, I really only know these personalities from the television and a random experience from my late teens.
I do have some experiences with southern religious figures as it relates to my career as a musician, and I know I some bad attitudes toward the Christian music industry.
I began to reminisce about my bad experiences in order to compile the character traits and attitudes of Father Ichor. I also needed to figure out why anyone would be attracted to his clearly fake religion.
Here is a brief overview of some of those experiences that contributed to these ‘bad attitudes’:
1) When I was in high school I was a devoted christian musician, but I couldn’t get anyone to listen to me play. The leaders would pump up the popular, less talented kids, putting them on pedestals, and hoping to get other kids to think good stuff about the church. I was voted ‘most talented’ by my peers in high school, but I couldn’t get any Christian adult to give me the time of day because I didn’t play football.
2) When I was in my early 20s I got a job arranging material for a small CCM label. The label was basically practicing fraud. They would sign an ‘artist’ (anyone who thought they could sing) to a ‘developmental’ contract. This contract would basically put the ‘artist’ on the hook for $50,000 which had to be paid back from their share of CD sales. At about $1 per disk, that means they would have to sell 50,000 disks before they would start making money. Here’s the trick: they didn’t actually spend very much money on the artist, most of it was ‘virtual’ money. In other words, the label would do a certain amount of work, or rather ‘claim’ to do a certain amount of work on behalf of the artist, promotion, unprovable. The only actual work would be to create a CD for the artist. That was my job, but I was 20, and these were my first pop music experiments. Worse, I was not the one mixing the disks, the guy who was mixing was incompetent. Anyway, the bottom line is that the label would use the project as a tax right off, then the artist would have to pay back the imaginary $50,000 over a 10 year period.
3) When I started gigging with Christian artists I found that churches and Christian venues would often simply not pay their promised rates. If one asked for a contract the church officials would cry fowl (”what, you don’t trust us?”), and when they didn’t have the money at the end of the night they’d get mad when you asked for it (”Are you doing this for Jesus or for money?”).
4) When I finally did pick up a really good church job I found that on a weekly basis I would have to re-prove myself. The parts of the job that would pay better, and allow me some experience doing what I really want to do (arranging) were past on to less competent musicians with less experience than myself. Why? I have no idea. I can only imagine it was politics, a subject for which I have no talent.
Interestingly, none of my complaints have anything to do with the artistry or the perceived lack of artistry in Christian Music. I don’t think there is a form of contemporary music that does not suffer from lack of artistry, so it’s simply unfair to put any of that onto CCM, though that is the argument I hear most frequently.
Now, I have a job playing music at a good church where I feel reasonably appreciated (although I have gone through moments where this was not true). I feel like there are lots of good people trying to do good work and I’m proud to be a part of it. Is this the norm in Christian music today and my complaints are a thing of the past? I don’t know. What I do know is that I can only be accountable for myself and my own attitudes. I struggle to be positive about the things I’m doing, but I am my own worst critic, and sometimes it just isn’t possible.
Maybe Father Ichor is a musician…nah, that’s been done to death. I’ll figure it out.
Nov 2nd, 2009 by alan
Yea, I know I’ll never be a sculptor, but this class is almost over.
This week’s assignment: create a surrealist ‘poem object’.
What is a poem object?
I’m not really sure there is a clear answer to that, but the exercise was to attempt to place unrelated, emotionally charged objects in a box allowing an observer to make up their own story about what the arrangement of objects means.
My wife was outraged “That better not be my teddy!” she swore at me in horror when she saw the piece.
Oct 25th, 2009 by alan
I have no idea when (if?) it’ll hit iTunes, but you can buy it here as a digital download, and here as a physical CD.
Here’s the last teaser track I’m allowed to release.
Enjoy Lon Chaney
Oct 23rd, 2009 by alan
Today I was teaching advanced studio recording at the Art Institute.
My class was mixing the Def Leopard tune “Rock of Ages”.
As the students were working I mentioned that the tune was popular when I was in the 4th grade.
One of the students responded “It’s that old?”
…Thanks dude.
