Evil Rays - The Unofficial Music Video

  Evil Rays - The Unofficial Music Video from Weaverwerx on Vimeo.

My friend Sam McDonald is in a two-piece rock band called UGLYOGRAPHY that makes strange and humorous music. When he asked me if I was interested in creating a music video as background for live shows, I said "Hell Yeah!". Currently the band is sans drummer, so they embed a drum track to play along with. Sam gave me some vague ideas of what they were expecting, but mostly trusted me to to keep it weird and so I did. All the footage is public domain and was found on www.archive.org, the junkyard of culture where you can find everything from feature length movies to books and all your favorite childhood arcade games emulated right on the site, but I would save the games for last otherwise you won't get anything done. You will notice some reoccurring themes; monkeys, masks, retro go-go ladies, all elements that just felt right to me for this song. 

"A dream of life", A Music Video Collaboration

It has been too long since I worked on a film project, so when my pal, Neil Bruce of "Light B4 Sound" put a call out to film makers to create a music video based on a song from his latest album, "Senescence III", I jumped at the chance. I've been enjoying Neil's smooth, cinematic tone poem while on long walks and had some ideas that I thought would mesh well. The music reminded me of visiting the Sumida Aquarium in Tokyo, a magical facility, part of Skytree town. I recall wandering among the displays of jellyfish, penguins and the big tank; compulsively shooting pictures and video, that now would serve as the raw material for this project. Using Adobe After Effects, I created a gently hypnotic tapestry of textures and images that I hope flow harmoniously with the Neil's music.

Enjoy!  OK HW

Blue Ridge Bloodfest - My June Pick

And so, after the usual hand wringing, I have made my June selection for my "Shine Some Light" project to fund culture that I believe in. June's selection is a horror film festival that is the brain child of a child, a young man named Ammon Winder all of 12 years of age. Full disclosure, Ammon is the son of some old friends of mine (his Mom, RoseMarie has a great blog called "Random Acts of Poverty"), so he had a head start, but his story would have won me over regardless of his connections. The Blue Ridge Bloodfest is in it's second year and will be held in Charlottesville, Va. on the weekend of August 24-26. I didn't attend last year, but I hope to be there this year. From what I see of last year's program, it looks like Ammon is programming independent filmmakers both short and feature length films. There is both a web site and a Facebook page that you can visit for updates or if you have a horror film, send it in! Currently, the fundraiser has eight days left and nearly $2,000 left to raise. Contributions start at only $10, so I encourage you to get onboard and throw the lad a tenner.

OK HW

Shining Some Light...

A couple of posts back I talked about a Kickstarter project my friend Barbara Nesbitt has launched to raise funds to record an album. She's about halfway to her goal and has a little over three weeks to go, so if you want to be part of helping bring some great music to the world, check out her project and consider throwing something in.

"Light and Brick" by Casey Gwinn

Even before there was a Kickstarter or the internet, I have supported other artist's projects. The mad ones, the creative ones are my tribe and by my code, we have to help each other out, show up for the opening, the concert, the reading, hold the mic boom or light, make sandwiches, roll around in the dirt after midnight to get THE SHOT, whatever it takes and I've done all that and more. Art is never made in a vacuum, even if that artist is alone, there are always unseen hands moving in the air behind their head, phantom tongues wagging in their ear, some lifting up and others tearing down. I hope to add a pat on the back or some helpful praise and comments to see that work gets done. Artists, and I use that label in an all encompassing way to include writers, film makers, poets, musicians; you know who you are, also need money. Art is made in this world and of this world and money is the air we breath, the electricity that keeps things going. Web sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo have been creating opportunities for artists to fund their projects and connect with a community of likeminded people. We are all patrons now. The tide can rise for us all and there's plenty of room on the boat.

With all of that in mind, I've hit on the idea to commit to investing $25 a month in a new creative project through the end of 2012. So, if you have something going on and would like to get my support, all I ask is you follow me on Twitter (@weaverwerx) and send me a link to your project. I am registered with both Kickstarter and InideGoGo and will only consider projects listed on there. I will make my decision by the end of every month and reserve the right to make my choice at anytime during the month. If I do choose your project, not only will you get my money, but I'll also help to spread the word by blogging and tweeting about it. I am ready to shine my light on your efforts, so send me what you got!

Special thanks' to my good friend Casey Gwinn for use of his photo. He has a wonderful photo blog called COGfoto, please check it out!

OK HW

We are all in this together...

These are fine, weird and interesting times that we live in. Anyone reading this is well aware of the unstoppable earthquake of change that is rolling through seemingly everything all courtesy of this here intertubes that is carrying these words. Not long ago if you were an artist or writer or musician or filmmaker, you had to grind away for many years honing your craft hoping for the day when you might be able to get your efforts in front of the right eyes. Eyes in the head of someone "connected", a gatekeeper that would bring the manna down from heaven in the form of a recording, publishing, exhibition, production contract that would whisk you away from the hard-living reality of Ramen and Natty-lite. Well, those days are gone with record, publishing and movie companies all reeling from the tsunami of all this interconnectedness. What is happening now is that the middle man is getting cut out for better and worse. The worse is with the gatekeepers of cultural taste falling to shadow, we are no longer protected from the massive mountains of steaming shite that lie in wait to steal our time and attention away. The better is artists can now sell directly to their fans and cut out all those many layers of corporate dependents siphoning off all the real profits until the artist is left with only crumbs. Part of this new paradigm is fans getting the ability to "invest" in an artist's project before hand often for the price of a CD or DVD, in small payments often as low as one dollar, art funded by the crowd or "crowdsourcing", as it is called. I've been throwing my money behind some projects via the fine web site Kickstarter that is designed to help artists raise money for their projects. Any kind of art you can think of, any kind of project you can conceive can be found on their. So far, I have supported seven projects, everything from a horror film (Hardcore Indie) to a couple of video games (Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns) and my latest, my old friend Barbara Nesbitt's Album project. If you like alt country, then you you love her stuff. I love her voice and heartfelt, authenticate lyrics. She has a good way to go to be fully funded, so give some of her songs a listen and consider helping her bring this album to life. Because you know, we are all in this together. We got to help each other out and we can do it.

Zahdah!

OK HW

Hillbilly Pimpgrass

My friend Chad of Hill Billy Highway fame, has put together a music/comedy act for the tour of that book. Recently he contacted me about creating a poster based on the old Western "WANTED" notices and here's the result. Note: the blank space at the bottom is intentional left for show info.

Oh yeah, Happy Valentine's Day!

OK HW

Hill Billy Highway Book Cover Design

My buddy Chad Nance of Weird Load Nation fame has a book coming out soon called "Hill Billy Highway". It's a Thompsonesque (as in Hunter S.) take on the South and politics and wild living. Chad approached me a couple of months ago to come up with some cover designs for him. I was glad to give it a try, been a while since I have had a fun design project. This was not my first book cover having done one for my Uncle Gunnard a few years back for his mystery book "The North Shore". Lucky for Chad (and me), I had a wealth of great photos to work from provided by our mutual friend,  Casey Gwinn. Not only is Casey a great photographer, but he was Chad's sidekick and documented many of the adventures described in the tome. Casey also does a blog of his photos called COGfoto check it out. I believe there may also be photos from one or two other folks used in the final design you see pictured, so Casey or Chad, weigh-in with a comment and give credit where it is due. Now, I need to get back to work on my own book...

OK HW

UPDATE - Just confirmed, "Hill Billy Highway" will be released October 1, 2011!

Image for July 30, 2011 - The Kill Circuit

This is my friend EJ and he's in a great rock band called "The Kill Circuit". They played at the new Jewish Mother in Virginia Beach tonight and they blew the joint right on up. This is the fourth or fifth time that I've seen them and this was their best show by far. The sound was great, the lads were tight and swinging it hard. They get better with every show. Check'em out sometime.

OK HW

Image for 7-16-11 - Now & Zen

Lorraine & Janet

My wife is exhibiting some of her large scale multimedia drawings at The ODU Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Gallery in joint show with her  friend, Lorraine Fink called "Now & Zen". The opening was last night and the crowd was large and enthusiastic. It was wonderful to see so many old friends and also meet a some new ones. The Baron and Ellin Art Gallery is a splendid setting for viewing art and showcased this show's over-sized paintings and drawings perfectly. If you missed the opening last night, but still would like to see the art, no worries as it's on through September fourth.  Do yourself a favor and get some culture.

OK HW

Image for 4-25-11 - The Wedding...

I did not find, or make a photo today, guess I got a case of the lazy eye. I did realize that I have failed to put up on here any photos from my friends Casey and Laura's recent nuptial event. This is a shot I took with my phonecam of the newly joined groom and bride and the nice lady (whom's name I can not recall) who did the joining.

I took a bunch of pictures that weekend and uploaded some of the better shots to a Facebook album.

I'm looking forward to seeing the other pictures from that weekend and the video too. It was a touching event, with lots of love and and happy tears. They even picked me to read a poem!

Laura and Casey are wonderful friends and I feel humble to have shared in such a loving celebration.

I wish them many years of happiness, fun and love!

OK HW

Image for 2/27/11 - Janet's in the studio and I feel fine...

My lovely wife is back in her studio with a smile on her face, making marks and making art! She's working on a new series of drawings that are over photographs of assembled sculptures that she made. Here's a shot of her working on the latest one. I feel privileged to watch her work progress. I get to see more of her work then anyone else, so envy me. Her work has a depth and power that never fails to open my head up. Her work is that "crack that lets the light in" that Leonard Cohen sang about. Janet has a slightly neglected blog called "Daily Drawings" that's worth a look if you want to explore her stuff. I'm lobbying her to start posting on there again, so leave her an encouraging comment. We want more art!

OK HW

Image for 1-26-2011

My buddy Ralf Schulze has decided to join me on the post-a-day challenge! (Ralf's Blog - Aardvark Farms) I've known Ralf for twenty three years, maybe more. We met through our underground comix and have stayed in touch on and off through the years. The photo is of a bronze sculpture that Ralf did a long time ago. It now lives in my home office, keeping company with some my tiki mugs. Ralf is still doing some cool comix art and recently has also been expanding into the world of animation and video (Ralf's Youtube Channel). Check out his stuff.

OK HW

Let's do this 2011 thing...

I'm was ready for 2010 to be done. Another year of struggle. Some good things happened too. I still got a job. Still married and happy with my gal. Had a few adventures and good times with friends. But 2010 had the stink of doom and desperation to it. Too many big shoes out there ready to drop anytime. The general mood lifted a bit as December came on and things brightened as the ball dropped and 2011 began. It didn't take too long for one very large evil shoe to drop in Arizona all thanks' to one misguided moron with a glock, lots of sadness and fear now dominates everything. Despite that tragedy, I still feel optimistic about what I can do this year to inject something positive in this world. And I think that overall the clouds will start to clear and we'll all breath a little easier about the future. But then again, that might just be me trying to sell the dream to myself so I can breath a little easier. Whatever works.

One place where I can find a little joy now everyday, is my friend Gary Garbett's new blog, "a passing glimpse". Gary's posting a new photo, taken on that day, everyday as a grand art experiment/experience. I've had a similar notion to try such a thing, but always seem to conveniently forgot the idea, only to remember around January 12th. Gary is really doing it and I believe he will stay true to the cause. I'm looking forward to seeing the next 353 photos he posts.

OK HW

Ralf Schulze Blog

I discovered recently that a good, old friend of mine, Ralf Schulze, has a blog about his art called Aardvark Farms. Ralf and I met through the underground world of self-published comix. He was a New York guy hammering out his weird, purposefully offensive punk art (check "Wah Tem Eye" left) back then and our mutual desire to shock the rubes made us instant friends. Twenty years on, we are both reasonably responsible adults now with families and jobs and such, but both still hold on to that sharp, rusty blade, carving out our strange visions, but man, it is much harder to shock people now or even get them to notice. Lots of competition for eyeballs and the underground is no longer so under, nor dangerous, or exotic. Just another page to surf through...

OK HW

I am the Zombie Master

I have been helping my friend Jeff Maisey with his monthly broadside VEER magazine, mostly on the net side of things (built and help him maintain the site), but recently contributed an article. Jeff has been gently nudging me to write something since Veer reappeared on the scene in April, but a full schedule and my own negative inertia has kept me at bay. Finally, the perfect project appeared in the shape of Norfolk's Generic Theater and the Foppish Dandies putting on a production of "Evil Dead: The Musical". Jeff knows of my love for horror films, particularly the zombie genre and threw the task to me and I got it done. Check it out: Evil Dead: Zombies Come Alive at Generic Theatre. I've also produced one video for Veer as well, but that's a story for another post...

OK HW

note- Photo by Jeff Maisey, courtesy of Veer

Mystery Music from the Mind of Neil Spencer Bruce

My good friend Neil Spencer Bruce, composing maestro behind the ZANK soundtrack, has posted a curious Promo video for his next music CD called "11:53". Check it out:

Very intriguing stuff. Can't wait to hear it Neil.

OK HW