photo | saul leiter | woman in rain

david lynch | doing things

"I’m just, you know, kind of happy in the doing of things. Even just having a great cup of coffee is happiness. Getting an idea, or realizing an idea. Working on a painting…working on a piece of sculpture, working on a film. One thing I noticed is that many of us, we do what we call work for a goal. For a result. And in the doing, it’s not that much happiness. And yet that’s our life going by. If you’re transcending every day, building up that happiness, it eventually comes to: it doesn’t matter what your work is. You just get happy in the work. You get happy in the little things and the big things. And if the result isn’t what you dreamed of, it doesn’t kill you, if you enjoyed the doing of it. It’s important that we enjoy the doing of our life."

eyvind earle | path in snow

 

the stahl house

the stahl house, los angeles

case study house no. 22

pierre koenig, architect

photograph by julius shulman, 1960 

my movie montages

I love the movies. And I like making things. So I spend a lot of time making movies out of the movies. Here are links to some of my ongoing montage projects.  (Note: They're always best with headphones, or good speakers. The bigger the screen the better.)

Date Movies

The whole obsession began with the project of finding date references in movies.  It started with watching The Longest Day on June 6, 2004, which led to the search to find one movie for each day in the calendar year. Which led to finding a lot more than one movie clip for each day of the year. Which led to making montages for specific days, usually the birthdays of friends. I've created maybe seventy of the darn things, but most of them were posted on a defunct Vimeo account. Here are links to a handful I've put up on the YouTubes.

Jan 6  

Feb 7 

Feb 21 NEW

Mar 1  NEW

Jun 7  

Jul 12 | with extended credits 

Sep 2  

Oct 30

Dec 22  

 

A Year At The Movies In Half An Hour

or one month at a time...

A Month At The Movies In Two And A Half Minutes 

January | dates only | dates titles events 

February | dates only | dates titles events

March | dates only | dates titles events

April | dates only | dates titles events

May | dates only | dates titles events

June | dates only | dates titles events

July | dates only | dates titles events

August | dates only | dates titles events

September | dates only | dates titles events

October | dates only | dates + titles 

November | dates only | dates + titles   

December | dates only | dates titles events 

I prefer the versions with no titles, just a stream of images and sound. But if you're curious about what movies the clips are from, or about the events depicted, there are versions including those things as well 

Dial V for Video

A tribute to video stores, a trailer for International Independent Video Store Day. 40 movies in 4:32.  Here.  

Good Time Diner

My son-in-law plays in a band, and they thought it would be a blast to project movie clips behind them while they play, and during breaks. So I got to make some really long montages! Welcome to the diner! Here's a minute-and-a-half trailer for one of their gigs, but unfortunately there are some restrictions for viewing the longer montages at the moment.  When I get those sorted out, I'll post links here. In case anybody's got 45 minutes to spare sometime...  ,

NT GUILTY: You need a good lawyer?

Movie clips about lawyers and the law, a graduation present for my daughter Katie's graduation from law school. Probably my favourite. Montage, not daughter.  Here. 

The Movies Go To The Movies: Marquees

A chronology of movie-going, as seen in the movies. A work in progress; here's how far I got by May 30 last year, starting with a 1915 screening of "The Curse Of Drink" at The Gem (from the film "On Moonlight Bay") through to "The Bicycle Thief" at The Rialto in 1991 (as seen in "The Player"). 

Earth Day International Film Festival: End of the World Edition

And here's the trailer for an imaginary film festival. Just for fun.

john singer sargent | stairway in capri

 

index | found poems by ron reed

Here are links to several found poems I've assembled over the years. They are centos, "poetical works wholly composed of verses or passages taken from other authors, disposed in a new form or order." 

assembled poem | found, misread, and misheard | undated

seven found poems assembled from the pages of the new yorker | 2022

six found poems assembled from the pages of the new yorker | 2021

found poem assembled from the pages of the new yorker | 2020

four found poems assembled from the pages of the new yorker | 2019

Two robots are coming.

Hide the WD-40...

assembled from the pages of the new yorker | 2018

I'm probably going to be a mad scientist,

and make the original recipe for creating life on earth... 

assembled from the pages of the new yorker | 2017, #1

Musicians and night-club proprietors lead complicated lives...

assembled from the pages of the new yorker | 2017, #2

I know nothing about her but what I heard from the scuzbut on the streets...

assembled from the pages of the new yorker | 2017, #3

It came to pass in New York...

no use | february, 2017

gift wrap, old prescriptions, old chargers, broken headphones...

assembled from the pages of the new yorker | 2016

Other people's minds are a foreign country...

assembled from the pages of the new yorker | two poems, 2015

Earthlings are fragile, demanding, and germy...

define mysteries | from harper's magazine, december 2013

Movements of the lower lip in dance,
A work consisting of a hundred love lyrics...

assembled from the pages of the new yorker | 2012

The morning was cold and the sky was bright...

three dreams | collage poems assembled for 'dreams of kings + carpenters | 1986

God spoke.

My own true love...

perfect days | @inglee + luke walker

 

the poster is by @inglee

the photos of the miniature are by luke walker (@luke wretina)

all were found on the wim wenders foundation facebook page

loren wilkinson | easter eggs

Warmed under wings of unholy ghosts

On Holy Saturday the candy eggs 

Hatch and holler "buy me" 

From their cellophane sacks.

 

And in the night the children sleep

Tucked in plastic beds

With candy ducks in plastic grass

Quacking in their heads.

 

But in the April dawn

They enter the cool light of living rooms

Where color blooms in the corners.

Green beneath the chairs, scarlet in the cushions,

In its shadows the room hides sweetness like a tree.

 

For an instant the children wait surprised,

As women in an unexpected spring might wait

Before trilliums, and the singing birds,

And the emptiness of tombs.

tse hung seeto | south leed's garage, madison, wisconsin

 

snapshot | tom waits

 

photo | tools

 

assembled poem | found, misread, and misheard

Obviously, Montag now looks like a heel rather than a hero when he burns him up, but I don't like heroes, all is well. In 2014, his mother was accidentally killed by her own car when another motorist attempted to help her turn her vehicle around after fly-tipped rubbish blocked her path. The outrage was caused by heavy rains and landslides. Crows are out attempting to restore power where safe.

Did you hear about the film festival in Sweden where the audience is hypnotized before seeing a movie?

You can be persuaded to slough off the vacant feet.

Before settling on Tiny Tim, Herbert Khaury tested a variety of names: Emmett Swink, Texarkana Tex, Rollie Dell, Darry Dover, Judas K. Foxglove, and Larry Love. 

the kitchen of the main house | aldo balding

 

Aldo Balding

b. 1960, England

photos | evelyn hofer

 

Girl With Bicycle

Dublin, 1966

The Bowery

New York 1963

Anna and Emma

Dublin, 1966

Phoenix Park on Sunday

Dublin, 1966

Two Chairs

London, 1975

Blind Shepherd

Spain, 1963

Calder's Spoon

Roxbury, 1976

Gravediggers

Dublin, 1966

photo | karen mason | frost, bracebridge

 

it is with a heavy heart...