Categories
Music Videos

Two new music videos for Coil

After twisting and turning my way through Coil’s discography, I decided I had to pay homage with a couple music videos. One is for “Going Up” and it’s full of footage from a trip to the Olympics this past summer.

After working on “Going Up,” I decided to make use of the large bodies of footage of water from the past year that have found miscellaneous digital dust collecting on them. Altogether they helped form the music video for the single-track album, “Queens of the Circulating Library,” which resonated with me the first time I heard it.

At 49 minutes long, it’s one of my largest abstract video projects to date, and one that also includes some narrative elements within the abstraction.

These follow up two other music videos I’ve created in the past, one for “Ex-American Blues” by Speaker Music:

And one for KMRU’s “drawing water,” created this past summer:

Categories
My Poetry Past Events

The Fiend of Leschi (Live Recording)

Excited to post my last performance of poetry alongside Jim O’Halloran and friends, at Kezira Cafe in Columbia City, Seattle. While the poem has nothing to do with its predecessor, Return to Rain, it is the spiritual successor. Note the details in the video’s description:

The Fiend of Leschi, a poem performed by Greg Bem with the Jim O’Halloran Trio. Recorded at Kezira Restaurant in Columbia City, Seattle, on 11/19/21. Device used: Galaxy S21+. Edited lightly in Ableton Live 11.

The piece is just over 15 minutes in length.

Categories
GIF Image

The San Juan Island Timelapse GIFs

Six GIFs from my recent stay at the San Juan Island Friday Harbor Labs’s Whiteley Center. Originally shot on a GoPro Hero 9, edited in Resolve, and processed into GIFs via ScreenToGIF. If these don’t load quickly for you, I recommend a brief meditation before returning to the page and the loaded GIFs.

San Juan Island Timelapse 1
San Juan Island Timelapse 1 BW
San Juan Island Timelapse 2
San Juan Island Timelapse 2 BW
San Juan Island Timelapse 3
San Juan Island Timelapse 3 BW

Regarding the export process, I noticed that ScreenToGIF radically mutes the images’ contrast. This is something that I wasn’t expecting, as the original videos for the GIFs are quite substantially brighter, but the quality ends up looking like an Instagram filter, so I guess these cool waters are “cool” images as a result.

Categories
GIF Image

A couple big GIFs from San Juan Island

Who knows how this’ll look. If you have a fast internet connection, it might work out . . . fast.

San Juan Island Timelapse GIF 1

San Juan Island Timelapse GIF 1 BW

More forthcoming!

Categories
Book Reviews

A new review: Her Wilderness Will Be Her Manners by Sarah Mangold

I have reviewed Sarah Mangold’s newest book, Her Wilderness Will Be Her Manners, over at North of Oxford. Take a read, explore this new book!

Categories
Domestic Travel Image

Stalagmite Light

From the Coronado Cave in Southern Arizona
Categories
My Poetry

Resolving a project: Memory Forms: Ruin

Excited to announce a new poetry project is up on this site. Memory Forms: Ruin was rejected from a recent Shanti Arts call for submissions, solidifying it as an even “further ruin” that paired well with a situational recording of rainfall and other ambient sounds at Friday Harbor, in Seattle, Washington. The poems were written after visits to Sequim, Washington, and Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado.

You can find the poems and the soundtrack for reading the poems on this site, here.

Categories
Book Reviews

A review of the deering hour by Karen Elizabeth Bishop

My latest review of Karen Elizabeth Bishop’s new poetry collection is now available at North of Oxford. Read it here.

Categories
Music My Poetry Others Poetry

Return to Rain: A Poetry Reading Set to Jazz

A couple nights ago I had the pleasure of reading a poem with the Jim O’Halloran Trio at Kezira Cafe in Columbia City, Seattle. The poem, “Return to Rain,” is linked below. Here’s the segment of the set with the reading:

And some larger selections of the show.

Sadly, the focus was set to auto and was doing some really weird stuff in the low-light room. The sound isn’t perfect either, but better than null!

And here’s the poem:

Categories
Book Reviews

A review of Amy Beeder’s work

Happy to announce I have reviewed Amy Beeder’s And So Wax Was Made & Also Honey over at North of Oxford.

Categories
Uncategorized

Happy 60th, Paul E. Nelson!

Following a recent 60th birthday, Paul E. Nelson celebrated with a reading and we engaged in an interview shortly thereafter. Both are available on YouTube.

Categories
Book Reviews

New Rain Taxi Reviews

Another month, more reviews of poetry.

The Fall 2021 print edition of Rain Taxi includes my review of Is This Scary? by Jacob Scheier.

The online edition of Rain Taxi just released by review of CURB by Divya Victor.

Don’t miss ’em!

Categories
GIF Image International Travel

New GIFs: Cenotes

I had the supreme joy of exploring a handful of cenotes in Quintana Roo, Mexico, last month. These GIFs are the result of some rough, rough footage pulled from a GoPro that was used both underwater and above, focusing on the textures of the pools’ floors and the stalactite-filled ceilings. Using some crude alteration methods in Davinci, I was able to quickly (and continued-roughly) get a Brakhage-esque result.

As with the waterwheel GIFs, these were created using Davinci and ScreenToGIF. Higher resolution versions available, though probably will keep off the web server for frugality.

Categories
Domestic Travel GIF Image

New GIFs: Fairbanks Waterwheel

From the discovery boat tour in Fairbanks, Alaska, with love. Recorded earlier this month.

These two GIFs captivated me before I even imagined their full form. In my continued odyssey through outsider video art, they were created using a new GIF app I just discovered: ScreenToGIF.

Original video was captured on a Sony A7C and the editing was done in Davinci Resolve, the app that forever will confound and surprise.

Categories
Uncategorized

Reviewing the latest by Chath pierSath

My first review of Chath’s work was in Rain Taxi, many years ago. I have since read Chath’s latest book, On Earth Beneath Sky, and that review is now up at Poetry Northwest. Read the full review of this incredible poetry collection here!