Saturday, July 2, 2011

Summer Stock video - then you're dust


     While I was looking at the photos I took of some old gravestones in a churchyard in Kingston the other day (I know, my fascination with them is a bit morbid), Robyn Hitchcock's song 'Then You're Dust' kept running through my head.  So I got an idea - why not a Summer Stock video!  It's the first video I've ever attempted, and the process was extremely frustrating, but I think it's cute in the way little children are when they present you with piles of glue with bits stuck in them like they've created La Tour Eiffel out of sheer determination, and beaming with pride.  I actually giggled when it was finally done (yes, this lame attempt at videography took hours to complete)!  The sound is awful, and I'll tell you why - the only copy I have of this song is on cassette (remember those, kids?), and the only tape player I have is in the car...I actually sat in my car at some time past midnight, cranking the volume loud enough to record the song (poorly) on my Blackberry, and then download it to my iTunes so I could join it with the images, and voila!  Crappy video!  *giggle*  I hope you enjoy it - or at least spare a nod for the little artist girl inside holding up the pile of glue and bits...thanks for checking it out!

     What I also find humorous about this week's post is that I took a bunch of pics at the swimming hole of the gorgeous sunlight streaming down through the leaves of the trees and reflecting in the water of the clean, clear river/creek, and a few of the boy's first day of camp, but instead I chose to spend hours working on this little project late into the night to bring you...death!  I'll post those happier Summer images next week, I promise!  In the meantime, enjoy contemplating your mortality - in terms of my own end of life choices, I want my body (after I've passed, of course) to be burned on a wooden pyre on a mountaintop, and the ashes left to sift in the wind, with nothing to mark the spot.  I am here, someday I will be gone, and that will be all there is/was for me.  With no disrespect to anyone or their beliefs, it has always been my opinion that cemetaries are little more than a narcissistic waste of good land that could be used to create organic community gardens for those who are in need.  And don't get me started on the wasted space of city rooftops, where the potential for feeding the hungry and the dispossessed looms large...


*I realized after posting and playing the video that the stones are really hard to see, so I'm gonna put the images up as well, in case anyone wants to see them in more detail, here.

7 comments:

  1. i love it. i think the "crappy" sound adds value, because much like the stones and the song it is in a state of decay. i love the process too.

    isn't it interesting what we choose to work on.

    fun. inspiring. thanks.

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  2. yay! thanks for the comment, love - that you liked it means a great deal to me, being who you are, and doing the things you do! I felt the same about the song (though I did attempt to find a better recording), thinking it might add just the right edge of creepy... : )

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  3. How cool, the very first Summer Stock video :). The song quality reminds me of those old tapes we used to make by holding the cassette recorder up to that piece of junk "stereo" I had in my bedroom LOL.

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  4. Haha! I remember the cool flashy light thing you had, that went in time to the music - bitchin!

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  5. This is exactly the kind of thing I'd do to try to defeat the "can't do this" technology of today!

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  6. Beautiful pictures, I have been an excellent video. I wish you a happy summer.

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  7. You have gotten very creative....I had trouble hearing the music, maybe it's my computer. But I love the idea and also the title of the song certainly goes well with the gravestones. Whoever is under those ancient things is certainly dust by now! Personally, I want to be cremated...takes up much less space and seems much cleaner and tidier to me....

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