Thoughtful Preparations: Media Spin Blog

Above: Surrealists’ Circus painting by H. Grebe, 1976.  Below: AT&T Wireless ad by BBDO Agency, 2008.

Evidence that visual ideas are out there to be perpetually revisited and revised by artists.  I like the way the AT&T hand painting artist realized this visual illusion in the way I had previoously envisioned it. 

 

Thus spake Yogi Berra. Surely, the meaning behind this yogism pearl of wisdom, can be seen in the visions of the future as seen through commercial artists of 1950’s USA. Beyond the fallout shelter, technology promised to help us find a better tomorrow.

Many more of these entertaining images, a kind of retro Jetsons art gallery can be found at Plan59.com.

Oddly enough my gallery of R.E.M. photos has low visibility under Google’s image search, so here is where you can find them. These shots are from an early tour by the band, R.E.M. was just gaining traction in 1981. Have fun on the new tour guys… I don’t think I could get any better seats than these.

So here is my implementation (click image above to run) of the Weber Design Labs open source Flash coverflow app loading JPEG files and links from an XML file. The app was posted last September 2007 and there are now over 250 comments providing code enhancements and variations on the original Actionscript code.

Of course along the way there are fun things to be found. One is flame, a CoverFlow built using the PaperVision3D engine. Another fine diversion is the wise ass, You Suck at Photoshop series of online video tutorials, a slice of life of a Photoshop using human. Must be seen to be liked or disgusted by.

Recently worked on a Flash splash page for the Kapow Technologies web site that involved a lot of hand animation that could probably be done in Actionscript2 or 3… if I knew the code! So, working on expanding my Flash horizons and found these cool examples, some with source code. Most of these are in my pursuit to deconstruct the iTunes coverflow image browsing interface, and a few are purely inspirational. Here are the links:

• Papervision3D FAQ
• Papervision3D Examples @ dusanwriter
• Papervision3D tumbling cube @ The Flash Blog
• Papervision3D Carousel Example FLA
• 3D Wall using Papervision3D by Flashloaded
• Weber Design Labs Flash iTunes Cover Flow
• Flash Based Coverflow with controllers
• Coverflow using Fluid
• The World of Mekanism (don’t miss the cool LP record shop under About)

Ghost on the Highway: A Portrait of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and the Gun Club is out on DVD.

For me, viewing the DVD was a highly entertaining experience on many levels. Before his show at Merlyns Club in Madison, WI, Jeffrey was sitting quietly at a table. I asked if I could take a few photos. At the time I was at the top of my Tri-X shooting and lab processing game, and the resulting shots are still stunning to this day (see photo below with links to more from that date). Only after watching this excellent documentary by Andrew R. Powell and Kurt Voss did I make the connection, that Jeffrey was a huge Marlon Brando fan. Hence the intense brooding captured in this photo (part of collage left), complete with the leather jacket.

The DVD features many interviews with ex Gun Club band members Kid Congo Powers, Ward Dotson, Terry Graham, Jim Duckworth and Dee Pop, as well as close friends John Doe, Dave Alvin, Henry Rollins, Mike Martt and Peter Case that render a fascinating portrait of the complex personality of Jeffrey Lee Pierce.

On another level it was fun to watch the DVD and see where Powell and Voss chose to weave my photos of Pierce into the narrative. The filmmakers effectively resurrected one of the murkier, yet dramatic, photos of the batch (right) to describe Jeffrey’s collapse into alcohol abuse.

In the end, it is the intense recollections by those who knew Pierce that makes this a fascinating character study and interesting addition to the legends of modern pop, rock and punk music history. I was not a big fan and did not know much about Pierce, and I am grateful to the filmmakers to learn much more about the intense brooding character whose image I captured back then.

You can read more about the DVD and see video clips of the trailer at GhostontheHighway.com.

The Annual KPFA Grateful Dead Marathon is scheduled for Saturday, February 9, 10am to 1am Pacific Time. Support KPFA by calling toll free: 1-800-439-5732 or 510 848-5732.

They will webcasting Grateful Dead music all day via kpfa.org, DeadNet, nugs.net, gdradio.net.

Many musical treats, of course, and a fine array of thank-you gifts including CDs, DVDs, books, and DeadNet Store gift cards. Mark your calendars and spread the word! Deadheads (and others) can call any time to volunteer to work in the phone room: 848-6767, x618. It’s a lot of fun, and the food is usually pretty good, too.

MediaSpin.com is a proud supporter of KPFA radio.

Check out our Grateful Dead concert photos!

‘Tis the Season for gift giving, and perhaps a little bit of global, spiritual consciousness in the positive direction. The following is a list of books and DVDs designed to enlighten your friends and family, an update of the list posted well over a year ago on this blog, Education In Terrorism.