Making Magic

Stephen Black working on Margaret Explosion "Disappear" video.
Stephen Black working on Margaret Explosion “Disappear” video.

Yes. The monitor is blown out. Steve would have gathered more info if he had taken this shot himself. He is shown here working on one of the two videos he created while in town. Check out the hat! It was cold here but perfect weather for shooting Margaret Explosion videos.

Steve’s iPhone footage used in “Disappear”, the video shown below, was all shot within a mile or so of our house. All locations we have walked by countless times. But we hardly recognized them. We kept asking “where was that.?” Steve couldn’t answer because he is not from here. We didn’t even recognize our own headlight.

Steve thinks cinematically. I square things off and go head on. Steve operates in another dimension and goes way beyond the point blank. He moves the camera and animates a scene like a musical passage. Steve explains his approach: “The video is one with the music. I am playing with you, just later, and with the luxury of time to make and remake decisions.”

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Cobbs Hill 2000

Not really sure what year this is so we’ll call it 2000. Steve Black was in town from Singapore with his pre-digital movie equipment and Margaret Explosion was a skeleton crew. In case you are not from around here Cobbs Hill is the gravitational center of Rochester, New York.

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Dislodging

Gareth Fitzgerald Barry at Axom Gallery in Rochester, New York
Gareth Fitzgerald Barry at Axom Gallery in Rochester, New York

Marion Winik described our friends, Pete and Shelley, as the perfect house guests. Amazing company and an exceptionally light footprint. Over coffee this morning Steve Black outdid Pete and Shelley by suggesting that we do a project. We picked one from our ever shrinking summer job list and spent the afternoon between showers setting patio stones in concrete. Our favorite First Friday stop was Axom Gallery’s show of Gareth Fitzgerald Barry’s sculpture. We finished the night with a small screen showing of “The Source Family.” Everything you imagined a commune to be, sort of interesting but not worth linking to.

I’ve got to thank Rick Simpson for dislodging you know what from my brain ears when he played Lee Michaels’ “You Know What I Mean” on his Gumbo Variations radio show.

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Blacksteps

Korean wedding in Central Park
Korean wedding in Central Park

I know wedding photographers don’t like it when they set up a shot and you glom on but if you’re gonna get married in Central Park on a Saturday afternoon there really are no rules.

We met Steve Black at the bus station this morning at 7AM. His bus got in at 4:30 or so but he insisted we let him roam around downtown Rochester for a few hours before picking him up. Still felt like we were getting up in the middle of the night. Steve splits his time between Bali and Singapore and hadn’t been in Rochester since he shot the video for “Trophy Bowler.” Back at the house we ate a lumberjack’s breakfast and hopped in the back of Jared’s pickup to finish picking up the locust tree that fell in our neighbor’s yard. That has to be the heaviest wood we have ever come across. I don’t think it would even float.

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