Atomic Elroy

I’m busy working on HOMETOWN my Solo show at the FAC MOD in Jan 2009. It deals with my 40 year dysfunctional relationship with the place I live, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Which also means I’m somewhat dealing with archival material and toying with the idea of adding a performance element and have the performance open after the exhibit does and use my venue STUDIO 802 for the performance. Click on the 802 link for some cool video screen grabs from the HAMLETMACHINE performance.

While we plan to forge ahead in the bright future that is the Arts and Cultural scene in Colorado Springs, here are some video grabs from our production of THE HAMLETMACHINE from AUG. 2007 to distract you while we plan our next productions.

Beth Clements as Ophelia ( heart is a clock).
The SCHERZO… Joe Forbeck
Lisa McElroy, Beth Clements, Ashley Crockett, ACT V.
Ashley Crockett as Gurtrude
Joe Forbeck as Hamlet, The Ghost Scene.

I’ve blogged here about tech geek subjects such as Standard Definition vs. High Definition video, saying that I was going to wait until the price came down and industry standard codecs were decided. How SD was good enough for me, THEN… I found out about this camera, the SONY HVR-Z1U. I also found out that most video cameras were going to go to what they call a CMOS chip, which some say does not track motion as well as CCD chips do. A lot of really fine still cameras use a CMOS chip and the technology is improving. So before you couldn’t get an HD 3 CCD camera, I went ahead and helped the crumbling economy out and abused my own credit crunch and bought the camera pictured. I’ve been hesitant to switch from SD to HD mostly out of laziness on my part… I didn’t want to learn a new edit work flow, but also economic ones… I didn’t want to have to get new computer hardware etc. So my decision to get this particular camera was well thought out, it shoots both HD and SD video, it has lot of great features, is used a good deal in Broadcast Television, and has a better low light rating than any of my SD cams. Most people don’t have HD quality DVD players or projectors ( Blue Ray). So I was a little perplexed on how to deliver the end product. Then I was reading how you can deliver HD on SD DVD’s and while the end result a purists will tell you is “NOT HD” ( and they’d be correct) it still looks damn good, and a hell of a lot better than just plain old SD. I also am dealing with art galleries and museums so I thought that I should be able to provide the highest quality available in the medium. So i’ve made the leap and will be experimenting ( cause that’s all I do is experiment) in High Definition Video.
Film at 11… or should I say, Footage at 11!

OK. I’m working on it… I’m trying both to revamp a public venue, and rearrange electrons calling it art. It’s gonna take a while. IMAGE: from “Total Eclipse Of The Moon” c.2007 AE.

ZeldaB and I saw David Byrne’s new stage show last night in Denver and all I can say is WOW!

OK I can say more so here goes…
It was a really good show. I hadden’t been to a “rock show” in too many years to mention. I’ve been to concerts of acts like Laurie Anderson, but those are more like classic music concerts, everyone sits politely and listens. This was a in a nice theatre Temple Buell in CapitalD, with reserved seating, we had excellent seats center stage about 75 ft away. The first note was played and everyone stood up and remain standing (mostly) for the rest of the 90 min show ( which stretched to 2hrs with an incredible encore). It made it quite difficult to see the dancers at times.
The show was unique in that it had 3 dancers that danced in most numbers. I’m not talking about Brittany/Madonna cheesy aerobic choreography, but very thoughtful artistic Dance Theatre type stuff. It was truly entertaining. You would look forward to what the dancers would do when they entered the stage and were never disappointed.
The music was mostly from Bryne and Brian Eno’s excellent new collaborative album “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today” Which is only available by download. Interspersed were a few old Talking Heads hits that we masterfully done. My only bitch was that the keyboard EQ or mix was funky and you could not hear it well enough at times. Other than that the sound was superior.
I find it wonderfully inspiring to see the premier ART ROCK artist insert an arty element to his stage show with these dancers which gave the entire show an exciting element that I can’t think of how that excitement would of been achieved without said addition.

(photo of show in Atlanta fromDavid Bryne.com c.2008 Tony Orlando

I’m back to work now, working on my solo show Jan. 2009, at the FAC MOD. it’s titled HOMETOWN, and it’s about my dysfunctional relationship with COS, CO. I like working on art, it make me feel good!

This is me getting my 2nd place prize money, and posing with the other winners and Amy Sedaris at the LAB@Belmar last June.

We all find our inner Lincoln?

“You better free your mind instead”
happyBday JL

I’ve missed blogging… never thought I’d say that! I have missed the daily writing exercise, and posting my euphemistic musings on life, art and politics. I’ve not missed the distraction and procrastination that it brings, so I’m going to try to get back at it. I’ll open up the comments section as I feel it’s not blogging if it only one sided.

Northern Exposure
I made a trip to NoCo ( Northern Colorado), Ft. Collins to be exact, to attend the opening of the Rocky Mountain Biennial.
Ft. Collins is a cool small college /agricultural town an hour north of CapitalD. I stayed the night, as it’s a 2.5 hour drive, at a nice little hotel right downtown. It was nice to see a bunch of artists I didn’t know personally and the show itself was really spectacular. A great mix of concepts and mediums. There was a bit of a problem with the installation of my video ( there always is) but we rectified it as much as possible. I’ve learned that one must micro manage the installation process.
I had a nice time at the opening and got spent some time in a different place which is always great. I love any kind of travel adventure, even the most simple.