Re: LOOPERS and VISUAL ARTISTS

[ArsOcarina@aol.com]

Hi all,

This has also been a yen of mine for years. I spent 10 years 
in 3 colleges in 2 countries getting degrees in Fine Art that are
basically now just so much useless closet clutter to me. But a way 
to seriously goose my latent "visual art" jones and incorporate 
it into the musical schtick that I do has long been on my wish list. 
Then again, there are always the usual manifold impediments to this. 
Yeah. I'm a "the glass is half empty" kinda guy all too often.

As long as semi-hi-quality dependable video projection units
costs about as much as a second-hand Eventide I won't be
able to afford one of those either. Not to mention I yearn to 
include motion video as well (not just project stills from a laptop)
and a digital video camera worth its salt is gonna cost many 
times the price of new kid's school shoes at PayLess. I don't 
think Santa Clause will be bringing me one of those either.

I am saddled with so much music gear already that seems 
bug ridden or gremlin prone (or opperator-error prone) that 
I am practically performance paranoid as it is. Do I really want 
to add another layer of technological goo and anxiety on top of 
that paralyzing cocktail? 

Even though I am trained as a visual artist, when it comes to 
adding a background visual component to a performance I 
almost always leave that to someone else to worry about (even
if they are "less qualified"). Case in point. I have an acquaintance
who likes to make surrealist collages out of magazine images
and photograph them to make slides. The images are pretty 
dopey at times but he is better at managing 2 or 3 projectors
and doing all of the transitions than I would be. So . . . he's happy
. . . I'm happy . . . and there's some visual "eye candy" for the 
audience and I don't even have to worry about it. 

As much as the creative side of me wants to do something like this, 
the practical/realisic side always comes in and asks "Okay. How?"
And then there's the rebellious curmudgeon in me that is sick and
tired of feeling like I have to compete with television and/or Brittany 
whoever in an evermore AD/HD world. I always talk myself out of it
using one rationale or another.

My hat's off and more power to ya if you can do it -- pull it off 
successfully (a la Laurie Anderson) as a one person audio/video 
band and still enjoy the basic music-making experience. I guess
the further away from the joy of simple music-making I get the 
more like work it seems. At heart I just wanna be a simple guitar 
player. 

Then again its Monday. I'm always grumpy on Mondays.

Best regards,

tEd ® kiLLiAn

http://www.pfmentum.com/flux.html
http://www.CDbaby.com/cd/tedkillian
http://www.guitar9.com/fluxaeterna.html
http://www.garageband.com/artist/ArsOcarina
http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=2845073
http://www.netmusic.com/web/album.aspx?a_id=CBNM_17314
http://www.indiejazz.com/ProductDetailsView.aspx?ProductID=193

Ted Killian's "Flux Aeterna" is also available at: Apple iTunes,
BuyMusic, Rhapsody, MusicMatch, MusicNet, DiscLogic, Napster,
AudioLunchbox, Lindows, QTRnote, Music4Cents, Etherstream,
RuleRadio, EMEPE3, Sony Connect, CatchMusic, Puretracks,
and Viztas. Yadda, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah. So???

In the mid-18th century, the Maillardet brothers created an
astonishing robot writer-draftsman that could write poetry
and do amazing drawings of ships and buildings. Around the
same time, Jacques de Vaucanson created his infamous
mechanical defecating duck, which could eat, digest and
all the rest. Furthermore, he also created a flute-playing
musician android, which offered 12 tunes it could play
to quite pleasing effect.