Saturday, January 1, 2011

a couple of youtube videos I like

I'm kneeling on a kitchen chair at our fabulously convenient "bar" type counter which overlooks the ocean, mountains, Port of Vancouver, and the precious television all at once. I do mean for you to be jealous. Things are quiet right now because the Schmidt part of Schmidt and Weston is busy at a spin class, which is remarkable considering it is a Saturday and a holiday and we stayed up late at a party and it is cold by wimpy Vancouver standards (there is frost on the green grass - laugh at us, rest of Canada, cause I sure do.) ... and the Schmidt is not often fond of structure combined with moving rapidly. I'm very proud of her.

I'm irrationally proud of myself for not turning on TeeVee to fill the void.

Not being a fan of numbers and dates, I don't usually spend much time contemplating the new year. But it has been a pair of particularly challenging years for the two of us, and I'm quite happy to see 2010 go away. I'm not a whiner, so I won't go into the why. I figure most of the interesting people have some troubled times, and I'd really like to be an interesting person in the future.

In the most doldrum of days, the internet has provided me with a pair of important little videos that have inspired me to get back to creative work and stop writing endlessly ignored cover letters. The following is not my work at all, but I am touched and inspired by what is created and perhaps you will be too.

The first is from a very photogenic couple in San Francisco called Pomplamouse. They are potentially familiar because of the xmas themed Hyundai ads they've been doing. Not only are they cute, but their videos seem to feature their home full of incredible instruments, and I was jealous until I realized there is nothing stopping the pair of us to doing our own collaboration. Neither C or I can sing, so don't worry... you won't get a Christmas Album from us next year. (But thank you so much Mark Near. Your singing was brilliant in its own way).




Genius, no?

The next youtube video is from a lovely lady from eastern Canada, Tanya Davis. She is singing about art. A Montréal film producer that was once a friend and perhaps the oddest of mentors, once told me something very wise about art...

"MY ART EXCEEDS MY CAPACITY TO UNDERSTAND IT."

He wrote it on my white board so I wouldn't forget.

I must have been whinging about something. I tend to do that when I lack inspiration or am simply procrastinating.

I have forgotten that comment too often, because when someone asks how I made something (almost no one asks that though. I think it's mostly just me talking to myself.) I can't answer, because I have no real idea what happens between starting the computer and what the camera and computer combination spits out. I know I have something to do with the process, cause if I don't show up... nothing happens at all. Still confused about my role in the pretentious "process".

Tanya Davis clearly understands something about all this.





And that is it. Two videos that I had no hand in making, but deserve all the attention they get.

Have a very fine day and year... cause if the crazies are right, it might be the last year for us all. For the record, I'm not buying that whole 2012 end of days argument though. End times never happen when you are sitting around expecting them.



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me

Thank you for visiting. I live in Vancouver now, but I've lived in other places too. I take photos and make short films about things and people. Please comment and be argumentative. It amuses me.

My main website is schmidtandweston.com

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