Interlude | San Francisco in 1906

A film taken from a streetcar moving down San Francisco's Market Street in 1906, only four days before the Great Earthquake. According to flixxy the film was originally thought to be from 1905 until David Kiehn with the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum figured out when it was shot... get this... from proof including: (1) New York trade papers announcing the film-showing, (2) the wet streets from recent heavy rainfall plus shadows (indicating the time of year) compared to actual weather and conditions on the historical record, and (3) when the cars that being driven were registered (he even knows who owns them and when the plates were issued).

The soundtrack to this is La Femme D'Argent, from the Moon Safari album by Air. You may remember them from an earlier post of mine.

Crazy Band | Deftones

The boys in the band love the Deftones. Here's a new tune, sent by Red.

Crazy Filmster | Chris Cuffaro's Pearl Jam Video for "Jeremy"

Red sent this to me, thought it was interesting and would pass it along:

Little interesting piece of Pearl Jam history:

In July 1991, Vedder became acquainted with photographer Chris Cuffaro. Vedder suggested Cuffaro film a music video for the band. On Vedder's insistence, Epic gave Cuffaro permission to use any song off Ten. He decided on "Jeremy", which was not intended to be released as a single at the time. Epic refused to fund the clip, forcing Cuffaro to finance it himself.

Cuffaro raised the money by taking out a loan and selling all of his furniture and half his guitar collection. He first filmed several scenes of a young actor, Eric Schubert, playing the part of Jeremy. Cuffaro and his crew spent a day filming Schubert playing the part of Jeremy. The scenes with Pearl Jam were filmed in a warehouse on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, California on October 4, 1991. A revolving platform was rigged at the center of the set, and the members of the band climbed on it individually to give the illusion of the song being performed as a crew member spun the giant turntable by hand. Vedder appeared with black gaffer's tape around his biceps as a mourning band for the real Jeremy.

To save money, Cuffaro did all of the post-production himself. He finished the video after six months, but it was ultimately rejected by Epic. Cuffaro's version was never broadcast, and lived on only in bootlegs.

By the time Cuffaro finished his music video, Epic had warmed up to the idea of releasing "Jeremy" as a single. Music video director Mark Pellington was brought in to handle the project. Pellington said that he "wasn't a huge fan of the band, but the lyrics intrigued me—I spoke to Eddie, and I really got connected to his passion." Pellington and Pearl Jam convened in Kings Cross, London, England in June 1992 to film a new version of the "Jeremy" music video.

Click on the "Directing" link to see the original Jeremy video: Chris Cuffaro site.

Conspiracy Analyst | Vigilant Citizen

Just dropping a heads-up to one of my new favourites on the abomb&thecorpse WatchList.

It's the Vigilant Citizen site, which caught my eye with an exceptional essay entitled The Hidden Meaning of Lady Gaga's "Telephone".

I suggest also checking out the "sinister sites" series. Fantastic.

headspace | Marwencol

If you happen to be at SXSW there's a screening of Marwencol tonight. It's a documentary about the fantasy world Mark Hogancamp created (and photographed) as home-made therapy after being beaten into a brain-damaging coma by five men outside a bar.

Built in his backyard, Marwencol is a 1/6th scale World War II-era town, populated with dolls representing his friends and family. With this he creates life-like photographs detailing the town's many relationships and dramas. Playing in the town and photographing the action helped Mark recover his hand-eye coordination, deal with the psychic wounds from the attack, and begin the long journey back into the "real world" (both physically and emotionally) -- something he continues to struggle with today.

It's way cool. Visit MARWENCOL to see the photos.

Here's the listing at SXSW.

And some video snippets. (thx kottke)

TEDDY BEAR THERAPY from marwencol on Vimeo.

In this video Mark explains one of the ways he deals with the anger stemming from his attack...

For more information on Mark Hogancamp and Marwencol please visit http://www.marwencol.com

PHOTO THEORY from marwencol on Vimeo.

In this video Mark explains a little bit about his process as a photographer.

For more information on Marwencol and Mark Hogancamp
please visit http://www.marwencol.com

Crazy Animator | Ferguson Winston's "Super Smash"

Cool animation by Ferguson Winston.




thanks to haha.nu

crazy musician | Julia Dales (reprise slick marketer version)

SammJ sent me a link to an interesting Julia Dales thing. You might remember Julia from a way-back post, she's a beat-box girl, and damn good at it. This is an odd thing, a sort of personalized beat-box vid for a media consultant firm headquartered in Washington DC. It's a marketing thing: sign up for the agency's YouTube Channel and get entered "to win a personalized Julia Dales video." How odd. But what can I say... sure, I'll sign up.

Crazy Band | OK GO

I can't remember if this is the first video I've put up, or if I (like many) put up the "running on the treadmill" video that shot these guys to internet stardom (and then into actual record labels and such). But it's a good one, and these guys seem to put together some good stuff with regularity. (I should mention that had Red not forwarded it to me, I likely wouldn't have bothered to watch it... so thanks Red!)