!!! 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!

New Song! Purple Peaceful People

July 17th, 2018

Hello lovely people! I’m hoping you are all quite well.  I’ve been hard at work on a few things, the main thing is the synopsis for my film, which you all know about.  I should be sending you Act 1 sometime next week and Act 2 by the end of the month.  Then my plan is to get the actual second scene of the movie to you before I leave for a European Tour August 14th (See accompanying photo or go here to see where I’lll be).

In addition to that, I’ve started a handful of songs.  All this writing of the movie synopsis has opened the floodgate and a bunch of tunes seem to be popping out!  haha. It’s great.  I’ve decided since I’ve developed this whole long set of soft songs that I’ll start writing some up tempo tunes.  That is what I’m sending you today!  I wrote this song a week ago and have had it stuck in my head and have been developing parts for my band.

So what I’m sending you today is a scratch track.  If you don’t know what that is, basically it’s a sketch for musicians to work from.  I have scored out the music for flute, trumpet, trombone, tuba, electric guitar and bass.  Then I took the weird synthesized audio from that and added a couple guitars and a few voices so that my band can have an idea of where I want this tune to go. I have a really good feeling about this upcoming cluster of songs.  This one feels great to me playing solo, so with a band it’ll really rock hard.

Here’s the score if you’d like to take a look or play along…

MUSIC SCORE

Here’s the audio of just the score:

SCORE AUDIO

… and here’s the audio of the scratch recording including my parts:

SCRATCH RECORDING

That’s it for now!!  Much love from overly hot Rochester!!  Let’s live our lives to the fullest!!

hugs,

Seth

MY MOVIE! FIRST WEBISODE IS LIVE!!

June 28th, 2018
Hello fine feathers!  Today is a day of celebration.  A huge day in our work together here on patreon… When I say “our” I mean you and I because the movie I’ve been talking about making for years has finally begun.  I’d like to say it has taken me about 3 months of work just to get this first minute and a half thing completed, but really it’s taken much longer… I started writing this piece of music and poetry in 2005 while living in Ithaca, NY, healing from a terrible illness.  At the time I was meditating very often and digging way deep spiritually, I think because I was facing up to death.

 

More and more bits about that time in my life will certainly come out as I progress with this, but for now I’d like to talk about the actual creation of the work.  After I wrote the original structure on guitar with voice in 2005, I formed a small band of singers and wrote the secondary vocal parts.

 

Following that time, in 2007, my daughter was born.  During her first couple years I spent time digging into the music and scoring out parts for percussion, melodic instrument and bass… and over the past 6 years I’ve been recording the audio for the first act of this three act opera / tone poem.

 

This year I finally decided that I needed to finish it.  It’s been on the back burner for way too many years, getting picked away at while I have had time between band engagements and tours.  Now I’m focusing primarily on the making of this.  I have a few folks helping me here and there but am primarily doing everything, which involves set up of video shoots, puppeteering, camera work, editing, animating, color correction, etc, etc, etc.  It’s extremely intimidating, and I’ve considered giving up on it numerous times.

 

This one and a half minute clip took so many hours I can’t even count!  I’m proud of it.  I’m sure when I get to the end of the movie I’ll want to remake this beginning, but part of how I work is to have regard for the moment of creation as a sort of holy thing, something dear, so I may just keep it as it is.

 

I don’t know what to expect in the coming two years.  I know it will most likely take me that long at the very least.  I hope more people will subscribe as it progresses, so if you have the time to invite a couple friends to subscribe to this it’d be a great help.  Some people have thousands of subscribers and can easily pay a staff.  That’s a dream to me. DIY seems to be my path, but I would love some help, so please spread the word.  In the end, I’ll be including all your names in the movie credits and will certainly release the full length film, try to get into film festivals, etc.

 

Let’s see what comes of this leap of faith!!!  Weeeeeeeee!!!!!

People With Power video…

April 1st, 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.

After this month, leading into April, I am planning on releasing the first 2 minutes of my puppet opera movie.  I know 2 minutes doesn’t sound like a lot, but in order to get this stuff up there, I need to record and mix a 10 piece band on music which I’ve previously scored out (see earlier post), then take that music and film my giant puppets, my small hand puppets still need to be made, and the two dimensional painting puppets need to be animated.

To make two minutes will probably take the full month of April, but I’ve been scaling way back on the public performances so have a bit more time.

This is now my priority, so be expecting much from me in this realm.  I’m calling this one of my great masterpieces.  When it is complete (probably two years down the road if I hit no roadblocks), I will put the full thing together into one singular movie and release it independently, start sending it around to film fests and theaters in order to gain some notoriety for it and potentially take it on the road.  The name of this immense project is noneother than 23 Psaegz.  I know, a bit confusing, but such is life!

all my love dear ones,

sethy