Jeff S

song

As of late, I have been racking my brain to try and find those children's shows I actually watched as a child. I resent the trend of forced reminiscence, via VH1, and it is interesting to think of those children's media that I actually watched. I distinctly remember watching this show, Reading Rainbow, Wishbone (a bit later, aged 10 or 11), and the Magic School Bus. There has to have been more, but my memory fails me.
It is interesting how my specific generation (born in the 1984/5-1988 range) wants to feel included in "I Love the 80's" references, but as far as I am aware, we were just too young for a lot of them.

There is something numinous about this video. My favorite part is near the end, when Shari Lewis asks Charlie Horse to not slam the door after he pops out to sing the song once more. Luckily, he (she?) slams the door anyways.

related: Long Songs (WFMU Blog)

digital pogs

from michael bell-smith:

What are digital pogs?

Digital pogs are like real pogs but digital.

I contributed a couple of the ones on the page. check it out at the the website

Colonel Abrams

I am knee-deep in a new project. Shown here filming "Pump Up Da Crowd", with Jason C at my side, helming the monitor. I am nervous to tell too much, as I really would like for it to be presented as a whole, but it is an installation / art object / quasi-entrepreneurial DVD, loosely related to those people who try to pump up the crowd before an event. We'll see.

other things passing through:

I recently put on a robots/humans event called "AUTO + MATOS". I organized it with my friend Sarah as part of PRGRM BRD PRFRMiNG RTS.
It was a blast. The bulk of the event involved outside artists (robotic technicians, musicians, dancers, performers), but we were also able to create and show something of our own. We worked on a piece that had audience members submitting "commands," in the form of two and four digit codes. The commands/codes were along the lines of Forward=>0001 or Dance=>0004. These codes were then transmitted through a not-so-secretive pulley/string mechanism to humanoid robots hidden throughout the audience. The numeric nature of the commands limited the breadth of transmitted signals in a very interesting way; there was a perverse incentive for audience members to create devious command schemes ("forward-backward-forward-backward-forward-backward-circle"), providing an interesting counterpoint to the typical, self-aware representation of robots (i.e. robots are usually presented as turning against humans, but no one ever thinks about humans turning against robots...which in a way is humans simulating themselves turning against other humans).
However, towards the end, we had our "robots" doing much more than moving forward and dancing, performing wild routines like raising audience-members from the dead, and fighting each other like cats. Which was fantastic.
More here, with pictures and video

I am also in the process of redesigning, in a awfully general sense. But specific to tha 'net, up top I have a new section with the links that I visit (via del.icio.us) and I am always trying to update my things with new projects.

photo by julie