From December, 2018

!!! Puppet Movie – Scene 2 !!!

December 20th, 2018

Hello Beautiful People!

I’m feeling really well today, firstly because it’s Halloween, but also because I’ve finally finished the second chapter in my PUPPET OPERA MOVIE!!!

This is HUGE!  It has taken quite some time to reach this point.  This piece of sight and sound somehow feels like it was meant for this time, this climate, our political, social and everchanging lives as humans of earth.  Wow.  Have you been paying attention?  Things are charged and wild.  I’ve been finding messages in the lyrics written 14 years ago during a completely different life I was leading in Ithaca, NY.  Times have changed, but the problems remain the same, now as in the distant past, but the weapons are more dangerous, the population is out of control, and the stakes seem to be getting close to all or nothing…

DOWN TO BUSINESS:  This was quite a process.  As many of you know, I wrote the music for this 14 years ago using a stream of consciousness method wherein I sat with guitar and voice, recording into a cassette the ideas I had that day, stitching each beginning to the previous ending.  Each day, when I returned to my writing, I would listen first to the end of the previous day then build off that.  After I had done this long enough to fill 23 full pages of paper with lyrics (about 6 months), I took the tapes and reviewed them over and over, learning the whole thing as I went.

After learning it, I began scoring it for four parts, meant to be played in choirs, groups of instruments.

After scoring it, I started recording many people in my home studio (Whenland) and making the soundtrack.

After finishing a soundtrack piece, I take the audio and put it into my video software.  I take the synopsis written using lyrics from the music and I make storyboards.  From the storyboards I come up with the directions for my puppets and film them. Then I sift through the film and put it in my computer, edit it, move it, colorize it and smooth it over.  That is what I’m handing you today.

I have a feeling once I get to the end of this I’ll want to go back and spruce up the beginning, but I’m going to make it first in these small clips for you, then I will put them all together and fix, reshape things.  Anyway, I know people like to hear about the process…

This section is about the meeting of the Beast.  He was awakened in the last chapter and now the three brothers are coming to see if they can keep the Beast from turning totally sour and messing up the world.  Enjoy!!!

with love and thanks,

Seth

Grande Sceme one shot video

December 11th, 2018

Well, well, well, here we are again, me talking to you from the lofty position of my attic studio space.  It’s snowing outside, and I’ve got a rare moment alone in the house with no children, no partner, no house guests, no friends.  I’ve always loved solitude, ever since I was a little kid.  If I don’t get it, I get really crabby.  Last week, last weekend was a busy one in which I had my first art show in many years (it is hung and looks great over at Photo City Improv), and at that show my band Multibird performed.  The next day I flew to Boston for a video shoot with my friend Emilie Stark-Menneg who is an incredible artist I’ve been lucky to know for 10 years or so now.  She and her partner John Bisbee, an excellent sculptor put together a crazy plan (involving a bunch of goats and artists) and had me and about 10 other people trek out to a farm in a town I don’t even know the name of…  It features my song, Holy Mother, which is from the #100songs project.  On the night after this video shoot, I played a small house show in Boston then got on a plane back home the next day.

I was quite inspired by this video shoot, realizing magic can really happen in a short span of time if the energy is right.  We shot this video the night after I got back from the trip.  None of my bandmates knew the song previous to this night, and we threw it all together with this loose script I wrote, pressed record and watched it unfold.  I believe I’m going to make more and more videos in this manner because of the personal aspect it maintains.  I love small events, like house shows or hanging out with friends and getting weird.  I want to show this beauty to those in the world who do not have this in their day to day lives.  I have a love for this video similar to that of loving a gift you’ve made for someone you care about.

I hope you’ll enjoy it too!  It’s a Patreon patron exclusive. I want to THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP OF MY HEART!!!  Seriously, I know it might be tough for some of you, so thanks a ton.  I wouldn’t be able to work as hard as I do creating all these odd pieces of art without you.  Here’s the song if you’d like to just listen to it, or click on the link above to watch the video and listen!

Big love to y’all, keep fighting the good fight!

Seth

People With Power protest video

December 11th, 2018

I’d prefer to let this video speak for itself.  I will say this, I’m very very proud of the giant crew of people involved in the making of this and inspired to no end by the progress we are making as a team over here.

This video is meant to be empowering to the people in a difficult time, bring inspiration to others to not only continue on, but to thrive in the face of adversity.

Holy Mother / Lucky Kids video collaboration

December 11th, 2018
Wow, when I was first asked to do this video with old friend Emilie Stark-Menneg I was taken by surprise.  When we first met over ten years ago, she and I had discussed collaborating on a dance / music piece which never took form, I think because our friendship blossomed and we simply enjoyed each other’s company so much we forgot about the collaboration!  She’s a bright spirit in my life, and we will always be friends, I believe.
Anyway, they booked me a flight out to Boston the day after I finished my Loop Painting series and had the art show / album release.  It was a wild couple of days, kind of a blur since things were happening so fast.  I arrived late in the evening by cab to a house in Boston, not sure if I was in the right spot or not, but soon Emilie came out to greet me and we were on our way up many flights of stairs to a room filled with men and dogs.  Emilie’s partner, John Bisbee, has a very commanding and comedic personality, says things that cross the line quite often.  Made me laugh repeatedly and inspired me to be myself!  He and Emilie co-directed the video which took place the following morning.
We awoke early and gathered our things, got in a couple cars with a couple more people and were on our way to a farm somewhere close to RISD (Rhode Island School of Design).  A couple of the art professors from the school had offered their little goat farm for this strange expedition.  Immediately, the assistants started digging holes and John and Emilie started discussing the shoot.  I was left to my own devices and started working on my guitar playing because it wasn’t quite clear if they would be using the recording of Holy Mother or recording me doing it live during the video.  I’m glad they used the recording.  We all did our own makeup and costumes etc.  
Once the shoot started they went through a shot list like a machine gun.  John shouting directions to all the folks involved.  They were capturing a moment, putting it all on just one or two takes of each scene, creating something wonderful because it was live, not well rehearsed or glossed over with effects.  They captured the present moment.  
The hole they dug was for Emilie to lay in.  They had grown clover sprouts in all different shapes.  One large piece was to cover Emilie’s body as she lay in the half frozen ground, nearly naked.  The rest of the clovers were made into masks that sat in water, which we all wore in a later scene then ate off of each other’s faces!  At one point John, who was the “director” of a commercial for this food you grow on your body actually snorted a couple lines of these clovers all chopped up finely.  I think it hurt, but art!