Day before yesterday:

• 10:00 looking at documentation about Jack Trip - ccrma.stanford.edu/groups/soundwire/software/jacktrip/ #
• 10:16 Just watched the intro section of the new film about copyright and mashups and stuff, "RIP": tinyurl.com/76hhpo #
• 11:42 wondering what the pollen count is today. maybe pretty low, or maybe the herbal stuff i've been taking actual works...? #
• 14:19 creating an online fundraising infrastructure for my war tax film. #
• 15:05 polishing up my grassroots DIY fundraising page for my documentary. tinyurl.com/dx7wyl #
• 17:39 doing a tech rehearsal for Sonic Bridge, a telematic performance that will happen next week.. #
• 20:44 looking for a good free ID3 editor for the Mac. ridiculous how hard it is to find one. #

Yesterday:

• 08:21 reading about "internet 2"... reminded of the jokes we used to tell about "Internet Plus"... #
• 08:32 thinking i must remember this for next xmas: www.vimeo.com/2344860 #
• 10:54 switching gears, from fundraising, to editing... #
• 15:30 getting creeped out by the idea of "pokens".... ( doyoupoken.com ) #
• 15:56 wondering why "iTunes DJ" has replaced "party shuffle" #
• 17:12 thinking about how the border patrol wants to defoliate the banks of the entire Rio Grande River... makes me sick.. #

I decided to take a few minutes break from subtitling an interview with a Mexican environmental law professor to read some blogs and I am so blown away by this, this guy who goes by the name Kutiman has made a bunch of wonderful songs and music videos out of unrelated youtube clips, mostly random people practicing their instruments. His work has been re-posted here:
http://thru-you.org/
It's absolutely brilliant. and fun! It makes me smile.
Like my friend José said on his blog "The video sequencing is clever and lighthearted, the music tastefully composed and the overall conceit exudes love for humanity.... Much of music is a conversation across space and time, a retracing of other people

This week I posted a third segment in the video series I started in January about the borderlands and the hopes and dreams of people living in communities affected by border militarization.

This latest installment is an interview with Mono Mono, an artist who makes electronic pop music that frequently addresses issues of the border and cross-culturalism. I first met him at the No Borders Camp in 2007 and then at a show he did here in Tucson. I visited him at his home in San Diego when I was out there in January, 2 days before the inauguration of Barrack Obama.

Today I'm heading down to Arivaca, a little town near the border, about an hour southwest of Tucson, to show "Wild Versus Wall" at the Arivaca Independent Film Exposition. I think this is the third year that I've had something in this yearly 1-day festival, but I've never actually been present for it, so I figured it's about time I show up. It looks like there are quite a few interesting films, both documentary, and narrative, shorts and features, so it should be fun. The only thing is that just like with the Sedona fest last week, it feels like I'm taking time out that I don't have, but at least in this case it's only an afternoon.

author: Charles Bowden

name: Steev

average rating: 3.67

book published: 2006

rating: 5

read at:

date added: 2009/03/06

shelves:

review:

author: Charles Bowden

name: Steev

average rating: 4.08

book published: 2002

rating: 5

read at: 2004/01/01

date added: 2009/03/06

shelves: politics

review:

More photos from my time in Sedona.

Now I'm back and trying to catch up on lots and lots of things I have on my plate. I brought along some work but I never had time to get to it. Sigh.

I'm starting the 2nd to last day of the Sedona Intl Film Festival and I for once got plenty of sleep last night since I made a successful effort to skip the nightly party.

In a few minutes I have to head off to a 9:30 film but I want to quickly mention something I realized yesterday: there is one thing that sort of in a way magically makes up for all the things I've been cynically and grumpily griping about for the last few days regarding the fest and film fests in general. The thing is THE FILMS THEMSELVES, or at least the cream of the crop of them, the few that really stand out and you see and you think, wow, that is one of the best films I've seen in a long time, or maybe ever, and I may have never seen it ever, because so many films in festivals never get distribution, never even get to DVD, or if they do they perhaps don't get the proper promotion and you never hear about them.

So I glad I'm here, namely for 2 films in particular that I have seen and really stand out: The Speed of Life by Ed Radtke and Selfless by the Pander Brothers - both of these film totally blew me away and made me happy to be here. And I should add that the Pander Brothers are from Portland (and are good friends of my Tucson pal Carl Hanni), and have been an absolute pleasure to meet and talk with at the various festival parties, and their film has lots of beautiful art direction and locations from Portland - but it's a sort of dark, soulless version of Portland, a critical vision of the yuppified, gentrified, "creative class" zones of Portland. And there's lots of great music and score by Portland music folks including Auditory Sculpture.

Neither of these film have distribution yet, but I pray that they will because you all need to see them!