Video Weekend

So, this weekend, I somehow got the urge to get back into video work.  In my college days, I was able to use rather nice equipment for some student films, but have recently slowed due to lack of ideas and cameras with insufficient resolution.  But thanks to modern technology and some recent checks for Nintendo music, I picked up a nice Kodak Zi8.  Amazing quality for a very low price.  But here are the first results.

I recorded a solo guitar record last month and mixed it this month.  It is called "Secure Tomorrow" which is named after the Bush-led 2004 operation that sent marines and multinational forces to Haiti to protect US interests.  The track used below is called "Morning Light" which was a "Joint Canadian-US effort to recover Cosmos 954, a nuclear powered Soviet RORSAT".  10 out of 12 satellite fragments that were recovered were radioactive.  Supposedly, Canada billed the Soviet Union for $6M and eventually was paid $3M. 

But anyway, there are ten pieces on the album that deal with concepts of secrecy, hidden satellite paths, and so on.  A lot of the playing attempts to dismiss the idea of a fixed point or a tonal root, to let the explorations stem out, to not be tracked.  But ultimately, we see certain patterns emerging, sometimes transposed up the fretboard and sometimes inverted.  Some of these concepts came from reading Trevor Paglen's Blank Spots on the Map and Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine.  The video is just some hand drawings, done on the spot, but trying to reverse my usual drawing habits, but drawing from different angles, from the side, in different hand positions.  I actually think it came out better than when I am properly positioned.

The second video is an audio and video version of a text piece that I wrote called "I Have Two Coins".  The text will be included in a book that I am working on called Restraint Writings.  The book deals with different types of restraint on a writer, on text, and on performance.  Some of the "poems" included in the book are influenced by actions (or non-actions) of the audience, assuming it is being performed live.  A lot of the text pieces are subject to the whims of the performer. 

So, these are two glimmers of projects that I hope to fully realize in 2010.  I hope you enjoy them!

Morning Light (David Bernabo) from David Bernabo on Vimeo.

I Have Two Coins (David Bernabo) from David Bernabo on Vimeo.