12/04/2010

The day was spent being low key. The weather was nice enough but without concise plans for Saturday and concrete plans for Sunday we just took it easy. I spent more time turning small projects into large projects...and rendering them. Over and over. Oh yes- Youtube instructional videos, and research into “why the Internet and Comcast Cable sucks” were also on the agenda. Research comes in all forms and just maybe researching net neutrality and writing a letter to the FCC counts as "research" today.

12/03/2010

It’s my Birthday and I'll sleep if I want to! I have been working on more of these little blog support materials while doing my Internet research and staving off sickness. Jennida is getting better and tonight after lounge-working we went out to one of the more well known grilled meat restaurants in town that we had been eying. The interior of the place was very dimly lit and decorated with medieval themed tools and paintings. The fire (grill) is positioned out near the patrons so you can see and smell the meats cook. We underestimated the portion sizes once again as we doubled up and ordered a bread and cheese platter as well as a mixed grill “for two.” This dish consisted of two beef fillets, to pork medallions, two turkey fillets and two different types of potatoes, fried and baked. As far as I can see, traditional Czech cuisine is excellent! Later we stopped by the Gypsy Bar, that as it turns out did not have live music after all. But home is just a hop skip and a jump away so we did with great haste, as the smoke was getting beginning to pester Jennida’s lungs once again.

12/02/2010

It was my turn to go be hunter-gatherer as I went out into the streets looking for meat, cheese, bread, honey, mustard, raisins, water...and butter. My journey also took me to the outskirts of the town center in search of more medicinal tea and an expectorant. I am really fascinated by the pharmacy icon that is the medical cross fashioned in lime green neon. At night you can see this cool green glow emanating from what might as well be a non descript stone building. It's fun to have eyes.

12/01/2010

I spent the first part of today doing some last minute tweaks to some videos.... I mean contextualizing them in a manner that makes them more understandable so that the viewer can put things into a better context and that the meaning and process behind which the piece operates on and is derived from can more easily be accessed.
This is what writing artist statements make you become- a babbling brook, a stream of consciousness brimming with ideas and concepts that you might find appealing, that is if you could ever take the time to figure out why you did the piece in the first place, but until then this statement has got to get done now! Does this even make ANY sense?! No? I must be sleep deprived.
The second part of my day was spent in the snowy landscape that Cesky Krumlov has become. As Jennida is not allowed outside, I made a trek first to the Info Centrum to make some print outs of our applications. As we do not have a printer we must go back to the internet enabled beautifully polished keyboards of the Info Centrum where "Lo and Behold" I got on a different machine than the last time and had a different PDF and .doc program come up- but all still in Cesky. ;) After a couple failed data access attempts and a few almost-blank pages printed I was post office bound. The snow had kicked up a bit and was managing to infiltrate my head dressed defenses quite well. I think I was the only person in town wearing sunglasses in the snow- but hey it helps. I was able to ask for envelopes, fill them all out, stuff them and then get them all sent to their appointed destinations without too much time and effort.
The walk back to Milkwood was much more pleasant as I knew it would be. I took my time and walked leisurely back through town snapping the occasional photo with my phone. It’s nice to be around snow again. The rest of the evening was dedicated to a long nap to make up for the marathon lack of sleep endured up until now.

11/30/2010

Now Jennida is sick, whomp whommp! I forgot to mention that the other night we stopped by a bar on the way home and it was a smoke fest. I think that normally it might not be such a problem but combined with the weather and weakened defenses, sinuses start running and all of a sudden you've got a cough that's gonna last you for a while. But that didn't stop Jennida. No! She can't sit still and rest. We have several hours before the new month is upon us- Dec. 1st. Yes you guessed it, more deadlines for festivals. Jennida has been very thorough in finding and documenting different festivals in Europe that we can submit work to. For the last two days it has been a mission that did not end with November 26. So we have been re-polishing, republishing, exporting, and formatting our work for festivals that want work in PAL, work in SD not HD, 16:9 not 4:3, titles and no titles, credits, and filing out forms that ask who the producer is and where it is that we "live." THAT IS A GOOD QUESTION! Where do we live? What is our permanent address? Is this project a European production if part of it is completed in Europe? That is a good question. I'm sorry, I don't mean to pause. I'm just feeling a bit "post geographic" right now. ;)

11/29/2010

Last night was the first day of the Advent festivities here in Cesky Krumlov complete with the lighting of the Christmas tree. The event took place in the town square and was really quite nice... and cold. I took some photos and shot a little video of one of the carols and the tree lighting. I love my camera, but it sucks in the moonlight. I got some really interesting shots that night and I will post a lot of it here, but almost five eighths of my photos were spent eliminating camera shake by... staying even more still that the last shot (which is hard to do when it's -4degrees Celsius).

After the event we spent some time sipping hot red wine and conversing with Zdenka's older Sister Hanka and her two sons in one of the local cafes off of the square. Afterwards we went home cooked dinner and commenced more work. I have also decided that since we have a balcony (that we are not supposed to use at night because its outside someone's bedroom) I can do some long exposure photography of the hillside and river below. I took some preliminary shots mostly inspired by the fog around the tree line that obscures the streetlights every so softly. It's nice not to be sick.

11/28/2010

     I’ve started an experimental stream of conscious associative photo narrative. I have been going though the iphone photos from yesterday one by one and considering them. Not moving on until the first one is done. I bring it into instagram and begin to consider the processing based on feeling and composition, color, etc. I react to the image in one way or another and use that as the basis for the accompanying text. This image gets uploaded to Tumblr and then I move on. Some photos seem to link together informing the linear narrative while others depart into something less tangible. Jan Sudak is the beginning I think and the end of the journey. We shall see.