We here at AbstractVideoClips continue to explore and evolve. Lately we have become fascinated by what is often hidden behind something else. So …. we are working on a game, somewhat like the New York Times game Connections, but here the challenge is to figure out what is partially hidden behind another image. Hopefully soon we will show you, or even more hopefully someone with a fat wallet will take these visual challenges on and make them much better.
Our sister site, Murmuring Records today released its second EP, “OPEN.”
Murmuring Records founder, Beth Burnett, writes “”Open,” the second EP by musical collective, Serendipity Club, is also the second release from emerging label, Murmuring Records. Rooted in ambient downtempo/chill-out, the EP draws inspiration from found objects and field recordings. Hints of Bonobo merge with memories of Thievery Corporation.
Whereas Serendipity Club’s first EP, “Wide,” is more beat-forward and expansive, “Open” has a more dreamy, ephemeral feel.”
I am so proud.
A wad of years ago Beth and I walked up alongside a creek outside of Stowe, Vermont. Miles in we passed a rock. Unlike any others we saw anywhere around there. Black, smooth, near egg-shaped. Nine inches long. Very dense, heavy. We had no backpack, but were captivated by this find, so we lugged it back to our car, drove it home. Where it was promptly adopted by our sadly ailing cat Velella. Who seemed comforted by it, who licked it, who often slept by it until the day she died. I am not a woo woo kinda guy as those who know me will attest, more of a dorky scientist who can easily cry. But our “Velella Rock” is very special to us, lives just inside our bedroom door, is looked at every day. Sometimes it makes me cry. In a good way.
A couple years ago I took its picture, dark background. Then, when helping to design Beth’s MurmuringRecords.com website pages, I played with that picture, realized that the inverse (negative) of it was really beautiful. It is now the backdrop for Beth’s Music Page.
A few years ago we made a “trailer” for a writer who wanted to illustrate the potential of his screen play, The Liberator. We wanted the typeface of many of the on-screen words to have an interesting, old feel to them. So I crafted each letter from close-up photographs of words on gravestones of the 1800’s, conveniently in fields within a couple miles of our studios. I tweaked the colors and made png’s. I decided to show this one for the L of it.
Tomorrow [well now it is the tomorrow of back on March 3rd] this site will be relaunched, what once was shattered in this site will hopefully be fixed. And and and and ….. our sister site Murmuring Records will also set wing, that site for its maiden flight. Fly well sweet thing.
AND AND AND that side will release its first EP, Wide.
Exciting times despite the cold wind outside. yep.
Launching two websites with a staff of two (counting us) in charge of web design, web technical, creating and editing content, writing, promotion, making coffee, placating cats, and crisis management has kept us from that dreadful thing, boredom. As you can see from this grab, we tend to avoid templates in our web design. So, too, do we figure our own way in music and video. Means a bit of limb walking, but the view from atop a limb can be grand.
A lot of what I end up with as video clips or stills starts out by my flailing, failing, experimenting, pondering, pouring, mixing, staring, watching, hoping, trying.
After hours, sometimes days, of getting, frankly, crap, really really ugly, horrible, useless stuff ……. eventually, if I keep slogging, keep waiting for some hint of something to fend off my anxiety and sense of failure …. eventually I see something that is kinda cool. It usually is one tiny part of an otherwise sloppy morass of junk.
But it is something, the faintest of nibbles on my fishing line baited with hope. This is the moment of serendipity, enhanced by semi-educated guesses and more and more seat-of-pants experience. It falls on me at this moment to figure out what, fundamentally, I did that worked a bit, and to then clean up my act, remove all the extraneous, and make a simple clean version.
And you know what? Getting there is actually almost all of the fun.
Here is a picture I took over a year ago.
I love it that I have no idea how I took this, what it is. (though I generally keep pretty good notes and I know that almost all my shots are closeups of concoctions I make and then either video as they interact or shoot a still if it is just plain pretty or weird or something).
I just plain like this. It kept on giving for several minutes, I sat and stared, happy that I had clicked the record button on my camera.
Click HERE to see what this looks like as a background for a web page.