Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next to Contend for Student Academy in Nationals

I just got word that my film "Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next" is going to be going to the Student Academy Nationals. It ended up being the only film of the four contending in my category to move on to the nationals. So, D.D.A.T.W.C.U.N. will be coming to Los Angeles again with the potential for a Student Academy, which also includes a little bit of cash. I'm pretty shocked, I didn't think I would end up being the only qualifier from my category, I figure they'd move two forward but nope. So, I guess on June 9th we'll find out what happens. I will post the details about the June 9th screening when I receive the information. Wooohooo! Now back to work to finish a final before tomorrow morning, agh.

"Death, Destruction, & The Weather Coming Up Next" Going To Student Academy Awards Regionals!

I just got an email today from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, informing me that my film that I finished last year, "Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next," has made it to the regional finals for the Student Academy Awards. 175 films were submitted and 16 were choosen to move on to the regionals in the 4 categories. The whole list is at the bottom. So, from here a maximum of three finalists are choosen to proceed to the nationals in Los Angeles.

The Regional Finalists will be screened on Monday, April 23, 6p.m. at the Northwest Film Center/Portland Art Museum's Whitsell Auditorium. I was pretty shocked to hear this news as well as excited. So, I guess we'll see what happens.


34th ANNUAL STUDENT ACADEMY AWARDS REGION 1 FINALISTS

A L T E R N A T I V E
DEATH, DESTRUCTION, & THE WEATHER COMING UP NEXT Emery C. Martin/California Institute of the Arts
THE GRANDE FINALE John Suits/California Institute of the Arts
LOUD SOLITUDE AND ALSO I SAID I WOULD NEVER LEAVE YOU Orly Shuber/University of Southern California
POSTMARKS Lisa Franek/San Diego State University

A N I M A T I O N
AFRICA PARTING Robyn Alice Yannoukos/University of California at Los Angeles
AQUALIBRAE Chanya Hetayothin/University of California at Los Angeles
CAMP BEAN, ALL THINGS WOODSEY Michelle Banta Tessier/University of California at Los Angeles
DOPPELGANGER Ki-Peum Lee/California Institute of the Arts
ICARUS AND THE TREE HERDER Ian Worrel/California Institute of the Arts
SUNDAY PARTY Sirirat Thawilvejakul/University of Southern California

D O C U M E N T A R Y
CROSS YOUR EYES KEEP THEM WIDE Ben Wu/Stanford University
LEFT IN BAGHDAD Peter Jordan, John Kane/Stanford University
LONG HAUL Erin Hudson/Stanford University

N A R R A T I V E
DEACON'S MONDAYS Destin Cretton, Lowell Frank/San Diego State University
HOUSE OF THE OLIVE TREES Thouly Dosios/University of California at Los Angeles
SVEN STROMSON BLUE Joseph Campanale/Chapman University

About Bloody Time...

Hello peoples out there! I'm back, finally. It's been forever. I've been so insanely busy. I got back after vacation, got sick, which lingered up until this past weekend. I began training for a position at TekServe, which I got. Final project proposals had to get written up, along with one midterm had to get finished. So, I now have a moment to breathe and update a lil. I have pictures I still need to post and such, that will come later, possibly not this week mind you though.

So, what am I bloody doing for final projects? Well, I'm doing work regarding the hoods from the March 17th anti-war march, mostly anaylsis of the event. I am writing a program that will be used to manufacture a quasi factual "terror index" and "terror related data" percentage by capturing network traffic and then annaylzing the packets contents against my own list of keywords, in order to generate profiles of wireless networks. It's going to be under the guise of an extension of Homeland Security, known as the Neighborhood Network Watch, a play off of Neighborhood watch groups. I will also hopefully be creating a machinama short within WoW for another class that tosses in John Baldessari, as a character as well as references to his work. It will mainly explore the conceptual/post modernistic aspects of game play especially MMORPGs.

I guess, that is all for now since I need to get to sleep. But I will return soon!

Protest, Interviews, & Censorship by the Los Angeles Times

On Saturday, March 17th, 2007, I participated in an Anti-War Protest in Los Angeles on the anniversary of the begining of the current Iraq War. I went with Audrey, (check her blog entry for more details on the protest) other students from Cal Arts and UCLA, and the L.A. Chapter of Artists Against the War. Audrey, had sewn black hood liken to the hoods worn by detainees. These were worn by 10 of us, including Audrey and myself.

At the begining of the march, I was approached by a LA Times staff writer who asked if he could ask me some questions. He requested I remove my hood so I could speak to him, I obliged him. He first asked of course why the hoods. He asked where I was from and if I was a student and was surprised that I was here all the way from New York. The question of why I was out here protesting came up, during the course of answering the question I mentioned the military history of my family. This seemed to interest him a great deal and spent much time going over it with me.

During the rest of the march there was a group of us wearing the hoods that walked together for the most part and were of much interest to the press who were continually photographing us throughout the march.

Upon reaching the end, Audrey and Myself went and stood among the mock coffins placed in the street by Veterens Against the War. A strong symbolic image and also iconic that resulted in a continuous flow of attention from the press. Some of these images can be seen here about midway down the page on LA Indie Media.

That evening Audrey and myself checked the Los Angeles Times website for any article about the protest. We did find one about the protest which included a full 3 paragraphs about me with two quotes. The article was for the most part pro anti-war. The screenshots of the original article are below.







The next day, I returned to New York and upon landing Audrey notified me that the article had been completely edited and the article that went to print was the revised version. The new article looked to marginalize the protest by saying it lacked large turnout, that it included celebrities and musicians, and all in all was a "kind of a freak show." You can see the revised article here Thousands protest in Hollywood.

So, it seems that the article was completely revamped likely by the parental corporate structure that now exercises oversite over its operation. In recent this has caused resignations by editors. Apparently I am worthy of being censored by the "parental units" of the Los Angeles Times.

"Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next" Coming to Philly Fest

I finally have the date and it is confirmed. My film "Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next" will be screened on April 14th, at 4:30 PM, in the "Visions of Persistence" program at the Philedelphia Film Festival. So, if you will be in town or want to go see it, you can buy tickets starting on March 19th.

The 4th Domain, LA, & Post-Symposium Life...

My paper due on Friday found me up til 9am and then getting up 3 hours later to pack, get ready for class, eat, and get to school. I had to present on an essay from the Critical Art Ensemble about basically what they call the "fourth domain" that is essentially transgenic hybrids and the fear of them that has been instilled by culture. It talked about the need for the mitigation of this fear by those who are looking to exploit it for profit, imperialism, due to the fact that they have run out of actual land to exploit in the world, sans-maoist countries and islamic countries. They spoke on the methods that are currently being used to break down enough of this fear in order to move into the domain, even though it uses fairly contradictory/bipolar lines of reasoning and therefore offers an exploitable whole for which the activist maybe able to prevent this by pointing this contradictory nature out. I, noticed in their examples of fear of hybrids and the 4th over the course of history, they left out one seminal example, Genesis 6:4, in the Bible, which speaks of the fallen angels that impregnated the "daughters of men" and in turn brought forth a race of giants and also was a contributing factor to the human race being wiped out in the great flood. The thing is they bring up the fact that current companies and ways to mitigate fear have used Christianity as examples for the fourth domain bringing about miracles and blah, yes they don't directly cite the Bible, which I think would have strengthened their examples of fear (I included this in my paper). We also discussed Baudrillard's "The Spirit of Terrorism." I actually was much more engage in this book than the C.A.E. article. Baudrillard talks about terrorism being a natural resitant force to globalism, that is potentially part of the system, however has evolved in regards to the disequilibrium of the Good/Evil balance that it has attacked globalism in such a way with 9/11 that there is no possible response, and with the attack it has shifted its war into the symbolic realm and hence cannot be combatted with conventional war. There's a slew of other things, however, these are some of the main things.

In the end my paper ended up being more on Baudrillard and using the C.A.E.'s fourth domain to account for the climate of fear that terrorism has brought, both it's usages for terrorists and the state's control apparatuses. I also, found that countries like China that now have hybridized economies and Venezuela with a hybridized government now maybe considered of the 4th Domain of the non-biological order. There was also the equating of God declaring war on himself analogy that Baudrillard brings up to a sort of formation of "Globalanity" (Globalism as Religion in relation to Christianity) by means of having its equivalent of the rebellion of Lucifer with the attack of 9/11 and hence needed 9/11 in order to elevate itself as a tested god, since it is already a quasi-omnipotent force in todays current world. Terrorism has become Globalism's Devil. When I presented it was funny I just started just going and went for like 15 minutes straight and no one like interrupted or had anything to say at all they were all just listening, it was all very eery, like I had total control of the room. The teacher finally jumped in to back up to look directly at the text (oh ya mind you I was in class eating this big roast beef sandwhich and a quart of OJ to drink). When we discussed Baudrillard I was all over that. It was a real good class and got me real fired up. Then it was off to JFK to head to LA to run sound for the CalArts Feminist Symposium.

So, the CalArts Symposium, seems to have been a smashing sucess. Back, in the LA Times, today, or rather yesterday, with a fairly long article, however, there is one mis-quote, argh. Anyhow, from the mixer's perspective things didn't start off terribly auspicious. No sound check for the first panel = reflections + speakers now speaking into the mic + speaking too softly = phasing + feedback + hum = havoc for me. We limped through it, not without my own pain. Catherine Lord who was one the first panel was awesome, I so want to read some of her writings now. The second panel was a vast improvement, with a 4 minute sound check which resulted it in nearly flawless presentation, save for one ghost feedback that came from nowheres (ghost in the system). Emily Roydson had some awesome glasses and good stuff to say, Faith Wilding had a lot of good stuff to say as well. Third panel no problems at all sound wise. It seemed to bring a lot of recurrent themes and issues to a head. It was on the personal as political, which of course you know I'd be interested in since I love politics. Martha Rosler was good even though she tried to sell tees at one point and so was Dorit. Especially liked her mention of a class that she had taught about conducting a class in courtrooms and then having the students actually carry out art projects within the space of a court room setting as audience members. I've spent my amount of time in the court room and never had thought about that.

Post-symposium involved lots of relaxing, such as sitting in a chair stationary for hours with Audrey out in Santa Monica, that was so nice. The weather has been great, gosh, sun, warmth, I haven't seen it in ages, I got to get a lot of it while out with Audrey wandering around the city. Oh, one funny thing, we went into a New Balance store and this guy was like do you need any help and I was like ahh, naw just looking but he saw my shoes, my sunburst tiger's and was like are those, such and such's? I was like ya. he was like I've never seen them in that color ever. It was funny cause it was like he was beholding something sacred, so funny. Had some Lenninade, Audrey had a hand roll, all from Famima, we officially love that place.

Today, went down to L.A. to see the WACK! show at the Geffen. It was good, but it felt like I was walking in a maze, the layout was like agh. There also wasn't much context for a lot of the work, or enough. Audrey was off doing a radio interview for a public radio show with a few other grad students so I wandered the show on my own. Felt like I was in an Escher painting. Mary Kelly, so mathmatical and scientific, not to mention abstract. Saw "Art Education" a short animation about Art History, that was good. Saw some of Martha Rosler's early photo-collage/montages. The layout for them was horrible in regards to their placement in the show, they were all stuffed together and some I couldn't even see cause they were too high. Me and Audrey got some Sushi after, so good. Kicked it at my place for a bit and then headed to el gato rojo for the Martha Rosler lecture. It was good, I got to see a lot of her work, I haven't seen a whole lot of her stuff. Rather interesting that a lot of the subject matters and ideas about things overlap with my work a lot even though I didn't know this at all really. She, even had a minefield in relation to the current Iraq War which was totally like what the heck? However, one thing I don't care for is the kind of rough asthetic, I'm very much a person of very high production, however it takes much longer to create. I asked a question that kind of had her searching for answer and pushed her a little bit off balance, but I'm glad she talked about about what I had asked, if only to reaffirm what I thought she might think. All in all, rather good lecture and good day. Gosh, I can't get over the weather though it's sooo bloody nice! Well I'm off now. Have pictures soon.

Death of Baudrillard and a Place We Can Go...

Baudrillard died today (for those of you who don't know, french post-modernist theorists, very interesting political work, highly recommend) at the age of 77. But, all is not gloomy, because we can always go to Cheers, I mean Jihad?

"Sometimes you want to go, where everybody knows your name. And they're always glad you came. You wanna be where you can, troubles are the same. You want to be where everyone knows your name."

Planet of the Arabs

I came across this piece by Jackie Salloum. It's pretty amazing. I think it speaks for itself so I'll just say that it's a great critique of Hollywood and the West in general. Check out her site, the toys are amazing, "Caterrorpillar."

Snowman Sent to the Camps & Other Stories...

IMG_0419.jpg, originally uploaded by lt_zanders.

This snowman is being held at an unknown location. He has not been formerly charged with any crimes against the United States or it's allies. Free Mr. Snow before the C.I.A. melt him. So, does this feel like an elevated construction of imminent danger and martyrdom? Sounds like it to me. We recently had a guest speaker here at I.T.P. names Hasan Elahi. He's an artist who was detained by the F.B.I. while reentering the country via Detroit's Airport. Elahi now ongoing project is basically tracking every aspect of his location and what he does and makes this information freely available to the public. He also informs "his F.B.I. agent" of all his travel plans and reasons for travel directly via email or phone. He says he does this to one, flood the system with amounts of information that may seem useful in tracking him but in turn just create a bottleneck within the system and therefore using surveillance to attack them who surveill him. Essentially a D.o.S. attack or Denial of Service. However his reasons for doing this are merely pertinent to himself to "keep himself out of Guantanamo." However, this work is essentially filled with many holes. First off, if the government had any intent on sending him to a place such as Guantanamo he would have ended up there with no questions asked and evidence and documentation at that point serves no purpose since it is utterly disregarded. Therefore his documentation is ineffectual, null, and void. His reasons therefore are also null and void and instead are large constructs to manufacture a heightened sense of danger and in turn transform himself into a martyr or sorts. He does not attempt to reach a broader audience or help any of the disenfranchised or future disenfranchised with his project and knowledge and instead it is a merely an endeavor of a narcissistic self serving nature. He also has imprisoned himself with in the ideal model created for the state to control its citizens, the Panopticon. Elahi seems to be a mere prime rate example and convert of the Panopticon where he himself has begun to police his own activities and the state itself no longer has to pay him no mind since he has become an extension thereof.

Sorry, all to start off with something so heavy. Much of what I have been learning and thinking about has been extremely weighty. Been reading a lot of Baudrillard, specifically “Simulacra and Simulations” and his book “The Spirit of Terrorism.” I have become very engrossed in both regardless of the fact they can be at times be very abstract and obtuse in nature at times. I have to do a presentation this coming week along with a paper on this book and another writing by the Critical Art Ensemble, all which pertain to the ideas of fear and terrorism.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about post-colonialism, neo-colonialism, simulations of power, power itself, economics, and subversion. This has very much applied to some of the films I watched this week but specifically “In the Year of the Pig” which all of you should go out and watch. It’s great and it’s about the Vietnam War.

I also have been applying this to creating my own sort of fiction for a midterm project for my class talking about massively multiplayer games. I’m doing a project roughly called “Crate & Barrel.” No I’m not selling overly priced kitchenware in games. I am basically going to be making a talking crate and barrel with a FPS aesthetic that will talk to each other and possibly players. They will discuss their role with in the FPS as they have been commodified by the game designers to be architecture to obstruct and complicate the game space as well as sacrifices to the players, hence become a sort of game designer initiated genocide with the player as the one who pulls the trigger. They will also talk about how they have been essentially relocated from their homelands and placed within the FPS game space. Since they’re going to be now located with Second Life, they will be a sort of refugee. It all makes me laugh.

I just sort of finished a short for my experimental documentary class. It’s very strobey and after-imagey. However, it’s something I started on last summer with very complicated editing that had to be deconstructed in order to finish the piece, which were a pain and a half. Why do I have to construct such complicated things?

This past week we had a visiting artist come to one of my classes. Very cool person. She graduated from the M.I.T. media lab. Basically she brought in what she’s currently working on and has worked on in the past, cell phone and WiFi jammers. It was awesome. They’re basically small enough to fit in a pack of cigs and have an effective radius of about 20-30 feet or so. Only one application can I think of the Apple Store on a weekend. Take that MySpace children, email surfers, and the most evil of all the EasyPay! May the attack be readied, haha.

I’ve been playing a lot of og Advanced Wars on my DS. Gosh that game is addicting and I love it. Strategy games are so fulfilling. Also, in gaming news my warlock in WoW now has some festive Chinese New Year’s clothing. It’s pretty tight; I’ll post pictures of me in it.

But yes, this post has become probably one of the longest I’ve ever written and alas it is time to go and do more homework. Sorry for the lack of posts lately but like I said I make no claims to keep this thing up regularly even though I sort of have. See you all laters.

Decryption My Own Encrypted Editing

IMG_0440.jpg, originally uploaded by lt_zanders.

So, this is my means to attempt to deconstruct this ridiculous editing idea I started working on over the summer. However, like an idiot I forgot how I was constructing it. Therefore, to try and complete it I had to retrace and try and decrypt my technique and method. I shoulda just finished it in the summer when I started it. Oi!

The Snowey Trenchs

IMG_0413.jpg, originally uploaded by lt_zanders.

It finally occurred to me what all the snow piled up on the sides of the roads looks like to me. It looks like trenches and battlements as if it were a war zone. Kind of scary.

Fiercest Animals

IMG_0404.jpg, originally uploaded by lt_zanders.

The squirrel. Ounce for ounce the fiercest animal in all the animal kingdom. It has no known natural predators.

Stuck in the Snow

IMG_0399.jpg, originally uploaded by lt_zanders.

This sucks for this guy if he wanted to back out. They just decided to pile up a mess of snow behind his car.



Another poor soul trying to remove their car.

Brawny Man

IMG_0386.jpg, originally uploaded by lt_zanders.

"Hey baby, do you need a paper towel to wipe that." Oh wait that would be the old Brawny man, the new one is sensitive and kind, not like the old guy who was a porn star (it's all in the mustache). So, anyways I thought this was the most novel way that once could carry a big ole thing of paper towels home from the market since it doesn't fit in a grocery bag. Genius!

Cheese Steaks Calling

So, this week has been quite nice, a lot more laid back than last week which is nice. Audrey is visiting, she's attending the C.A.A. conference here in New York. We've had some great food this week, BBQ, delivery sushi, sit down sushi, good burgers at a clandestine burger joint hidden behind a curtain in a big swanky hotel in midtown even. Been to two gallery openings this week was fun. Met a group of her friends, that were all pretty awesome, especially Wayne and Emily. Also, Jessica, a former NYU alumni who let me in on some of the things in the know, like the library has plastic bags to carry your books home in if you ask. I was like why the f would anyone not bring their backpack. Logic defies me sometimes.

It defies in other ways. Today, I got an email from this curator at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Apparently he saw Cal Arts' Experimental Animation Showcase from this past year, which I was in. So, he saw it and saw my piece and emailed me to ask me to be part of the Philadelphia Film Festival and that I would be screened along with Bill Plympton and Don Hertzfeldt which is like GAGh??? I still have to email him back since I got the email really late tonight. He also was like basically I'd like to see your other work and facilitate you as much as possible in the city of Philadelphia. So, bloody bizarre. I didn't even know our school sent out our reel to prospective people organizing film festivals. Anyhow, whatever the case, I will be emailing him back and finding out the details and if everything goes through "Death, Destruction, & The Weather Coming Up Next" will be heading to the land of cheese steaks and brotherly love.

Black & Green: Revisited

So, I finally got around to signing my java applet for my final project for one of my classes this semester, it's the one with the names of IED victims. Here's the link to Black & Green. Just a refresh of what it is and how it works. Basically it's using the iCasualties.org database on information all Coalition forces who have been killed during the Iraq War by I.E.D.'s. It then parses through the file that I have created from their database (this one currently isn't a live updating one, due to their change in formatting I hope to make it to be able to be live again). It then displays information about those who have died in text form and changes through the names on a semi-random timing each with their own accompanying explosion. This piece I'm going to end up sending to a show at Bethel University that is looking at how to memorialize the Iraq War. So, yeah I just figure I'd put it up so you all can see it and hear it, you do have to turn your volume up a bit though to really hear it, it's a tad quiet at low volume levels, but don't crank it.

The State of the Lt.

It's been awhile since I've actually had something substantial to write about or so it seems I think. This week had been rather busy with kind of culminating in the middle with two of my classes with big projects due. The first was for my experimental documentary class, where I had two short documentaries due on the same topic but done in two different fashions, direct/observational and reflexive/participatory. I decided to do this assignment around my friend Matt's character, Healbotmachl in World of Warcraft. Work flow was a bit of a pain but I succeeded in making them I may post them up later this weekend or sometime in the near future they're not that great as they were done in a weekend, but It's like segway to another project I want to pursue within World of Warcraft which can only be described really as, John Baldessari meets World of Warcraft meets LEEEEEEEEROOOOY JENKKKKKKINNNS!

The other class assignment was a presentation I had to give for another class that's all about massively multi-user games. I of course did my presentation on WoW however I had trouble coming up with a topic and didn't come up with one until the night before the presentation. I decided to do it on naming policies, trends and conventions in WoW. It was a very funny presentation and most of the class was dying laughing including the teachers (one of whom looks like Ron Jeremy). I included real life names int the presentation, such highlights as Stabbymcstabs, Petmypussa (one of matt's characters), Trouserchilli, and Nuck Chorris (I did have a whole section devoted to Chuck Norris). It went over very well, so I was glad. I also was very burnt out having had only about 4hrs of sleep for like two or three days I forget. However, what is good, the bulk of presentation and junk for the whole semester are out of the way since I ended up doing them earlier rather later.

Classes have been very good thus far and engaging for the most part. However going back to my assignment for my documentary class I was about to go off on some of the classmates. The first one was these two students who I really can't stand actually. They used f'n iMovie lightning in their piece and a push wipe and a clock count down wipe. I'm sorry those sins are too grave to be forgiven for. They tried to pass off their bullsh!ttery as their intent to show that they indeed had a perspective and it was their point of view and they wanted it to be "over the top." To that I had to say something and could hold my contempt no longer. I was like I don't believe it worked then because it seems like it was rather haphazardly placed at the end and does not actually convey what you're saying. Had you had been consistent with it maybe, but this was definitely not the case. One person also had a question about one of their shots and was it on purpose that they composed that shot that way, with which it was obvious they hadn't. However, the teacher had a very knee jerk reaction to that and was like every shot has meaning. I feel this is ultimately flawed in it's reasoning and a lil too idealistic and utopian if not naive. Onto the second group of people who I have no bone to pick with however, they decided to do their piece about homeless people. What did they do? They made everything black and white. I had issues with this. I asked them why did they choose to use black and white when it seems that it may over-sentimentalize, marginalize, and aestheticize the subject matter, rather than use color to show the harsh reality. The teacher was like yeah, why did you use black and white? They had no good response to that.

In another class we have begun learning how to snoop on networks and crack them and map them. Very very fun homework I must say.

I'm preparing to send out my IED name piece out to a show about memorializing the Iraq War at Bethel University. I still have to write my proposal, I hope it gets in, I think it's got a good chance I think it's a strong piece.

The NYC recruiter for Apple called me up today to offer me a job actually as a full time Mac Genius, at my pick of stores, however I had to turn down this offer, since it was full time and I have no time to commit 40 hours to a job right now being in school. On another note, I potentially might have an internship with Laurie Anderson however, it's very tentative and I won't know until monday whether or not I got it.

It's cold, it's been bloody cold out here. Early this week I walked to school and it was 9. 9 bloody degrees. It was a lil warmer today which was nice. I'm just glad I'm not in upstate where it's snowing like mad. Unrelated I saw Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Awesome movie and probably one of the best performances I've ever seen by Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. Great movie, I felt like I was tripping. But ya, I'm tired and it's late. G'nite all.

Issues of Authenticity

So, funny that issues of "Authenticity" come up even with the Transformers, haha. To think one class I'm in right now doesn't want to even deal with the term authenticity. Also, concern with Aesthetic, haha, yes bloody great.

Get Money

Destro, pulls out the 44.

Busta a Serpent? "Whoo-Hah"

Ya, pretty awesome. Something I wanna do sometime have fun editing like this. I love the "Han Solo" part with Shipwreck and the weed part. So, funny.