Friday, February 29, 2008

George Kuchar Hold Me While I'm Naked - 1966

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"A very direct and subtle, very sad and funny look at nothing more or less than sexual frustration and aloneness. In its economy and cogency of imaging, HOLD ME surpasses any of Kuchar's previous work. The odd blend of Hollywood glamour and drama with all-too-real life creates and inspires counterpoint of unattainable desire against unbearable actuality." - Ken Kelman

"This film could cheer an arthritic gorilla, and audiences, apparently sensitized by its blithely accurate representation of feelings few among them can have escaped, rise from their general stupor to cheer it back." - James Stoller, The Village Voice


I remember my first film class. It was a Super 8 class with Luther Price. I was a snotty nose teenager wanting to make comedy films. Luther taught us how to process our own film and put emphasis on the straining the batch of chemicals to it's last potential.

Well we saw a lot of experimental films in that class. At the time a lot of them past through my memory. Except Hold Me While I'm Naked from George Kuchar. There was a lot of talk about the way George used light and color and exploited the 16mm saturation of color. Although that was very important to the film, I was more interested in the delivery of the film. George Kuchar was filming a melodramatic sequence which pulled you into the drama effectively. He also showed you his directing techniques in the form of a performance within the film. George combined music and his fantastic exploitation of his directing to execute a hilarious pathos on both himself and his talent. Key scene: George holding the bird on his finger. Cinema's greatest capture of the pathetic nature of sniveling poetics.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Patrick Rock









Patrick Rock
Rock's Box Gallery

Judging by what Patrick Rock's artist statement: "I am not prepared to make a statement at this time." leads me to believe the work is open for interpretation. Which is the way great art should be, and Rock's work leaves enough for us to contemplate in the short amount of time he gives us in his videos? performances? videotaped performances? The lines are not defined, nor should they be. Rock's work breaks form in a lot of traditions of humor, performance art, and video art which is why the work stands out. It's an honor to have his video pieces on this site, as I've been admiring his work, nearly, once my foot landed in Portland. He's an Oregon native who studied in San Francisco only to come back to Portland to start his gallery Rock's Box. If you're an artist coming back to Portland, starting your own gallery is in my opinion "doing it right".

Monday, February 18, 2008

On Being Funny by Adam Giangregorio

Adam Giangregorio animates some of the process of allowing oneself to be funny. In this process Giangregorio creates art and humor out of nothing. While analyzing the psychology, the nuts and bolts of a cognitive process many people go through in considering humor, he creates the laughter within the frame of the analysis.

Or doesn't at all.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Danzig's Book Collection (J.O'B ReMake)

Glenn Danzig gives us a tour of his high profile book collection.

James A. O'Brien gives us a tour of his high profile book collection.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Karl Stevens' Whatever - analyzed





This weeks strip of Stevens' Whatever has an excellent example of frame shifting in humor. Where the frame of what is happening takes a turn while in another frame. (literally in the panel and as a cognitive metaphor) This happens a lot in joke telling and metaphor.

Since Stevens starts the punchline at the beginning of the strip, the frame has to shift to the expected congruency, when it is not presented, the viewer rethinks the panel, then re-observes the strip. All of this is the cognition of the reader making congruent out of the incongruity setup within the narrative. This in itself can deliver a laugh.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Nine Month Old Laughter

I think of humor development, humor education, and learning through humor when I watch this video.