Waste-Book

WTC Panorama

2009-01-11T20:30:00.000-08:00

WTC Panorama (2009) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

I bought this scrolling panorama for $2 on the day after Xmas at the mall outside of Troy, New York. Monster sale & I'd been coveting it for awhile. A grimly lovely slice of anachronism.

Cooper's Hawk

2008-10-15T21:37:00.000-07:00

Cooper's Hawk (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of a Cooper's Hawk on a falconer's perch in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Reciprocal Motion

2008-10-15T21:30:00.000-07:00

Reciprocal Motion (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of hot dogs on the rollers at the gas station.

Seamless Web

2008-10-13T23:28:00.000-07:00

Seamless Web (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video from a window in my mother's house. I went home to Santa Rosa for her last few days. This spider stood guard & held on, just like she did.

Mermaid

2008-10-13T23:25:00.000-07:00

Mermaid (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of the mermaid fountain in the rinky-dink shopping center near my mother's house in Santa Rosa. The statue has gotten just a bit mangier every year.

Omu's Nuts

2008-10-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

Omu's Nuts (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of my brother Michael making candied almonds the way my grandmother did. It's a secret, so don't ask.

Camera Obscura

2008-10-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

Camera Obscura (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent 1 minute.

Lumiere video of the Camera Obscura behind the Cliff House, arguably the most perfect attraction to ever exist. Simple, sublime, ageless.

Summer Storm

2008-07-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

Summer Storm (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of a summer thunderstorm in Troy, New York.

Kaaterskill

2008-07-26T22:55:00.000-07:00

Kaaterskill (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of Kaaterskill falls, halfway up.

10 Center

2008-07-26T22:05:00.000-07:00

10 Center (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of the bar in a Newburyport, Massachusetts restaurant.

Pianoman

2008-07-18T23:38:00.000-07:00

Pianoman (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of piano busker on Father Demo Square in Greenwich Village.

Arboretum

2008-07-08T00:32:00.000-07:00

Arboretum (2008) by Brian L. Frye & Andrea Scott; video, color, silent, 2 minutes.
During the Flaherty Film Seminar at Colgate University, I lent Andie Scott my Vidster. She returned it well-used. These are selections from what she recorded.

Mixologist

2008-07-04T23:27:00.000-07:00

Mixologist (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of Pablo de Ocampo mixing cocktails at the Flaherty Film Seminar at Colgate University.

Board Meeting

2008-07-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

Board Meeting (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of Flaherty Film Seminar board meeting at Colgate University.

Freakshow

2008-06-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

Freakshow (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 20 seconds.

Lumiere video of the Mechanical Museum's Monster Machine in action.

Sutro

2008-06-21T05:23:00.000-07:00

Sutro (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of the San Francisco shore at the ruins of the Sutro Baths.

Lemon Drop

2008-06-21T05:03:00.000-07:00

Lemon Drop (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of life & its discontents. A drink & a kiss makes it all worthwhile.

Cliff House

2008-06-20T23:38:00.000-07:00

Cliff House (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of Sharon on her cell, contemplating the ineffable.

Electric Boogie

2008-06-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

Electric Boogie (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 30 seconds.

Lumiere video of flapper dancing on Governor's Island.

Operators

2008-06-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

Operators (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of visitors "playing the building" with David Byrne.

Cupcake

2008-06-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

Cupcake (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of children spying on their favorite treats.

Storm King

2008-06-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

Storm King (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of kinetic sculpture at Storm King, spinning in the wind before the rain, camera choking on dead batteries.

Ferris

2008-06-08T08:23:00.000-07:00

Ferris (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of a rinky dink ferris wheel at a Chelsea street fair, camera choking on dead batteries.

Miss Olson

2008-05-06T00:32:00.000-07:00

Miss Olson (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of Lizzie Olson playing the newsreader at Odessa Diner.

Ciccone Youth

2008-05-05T23:44:00.000-07:00

Ciccone Youth (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of Patrick Ciccone on his 27th birthday at the Odessa Diner.

Harmony

2008-05-05T23:32:00.000-07:00

Harmony (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 5 minutes.

Harmony Korine discusses his new film, Mister Lonely (2007) after the screening at IFC. He's actually quite amusing. And thoughtful, in a slightly pugnacious way.

Ashes & Dust

2008-04-27T14:59:00.000-07:00

Ashes & Dust (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.
Lumiere video of Kron Vollmer eating a cupcake at the Cupcake Cafe.

Jersey Sunset

2008-04-26T01:10:00.000-07:00

Jersey Sunset (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of the sun setting over New Jersey, taken from Battery Park.

Conrad

2008-04-18T00:14:00.000-07:00

Conrad (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 2 minutes.

Tony Conrad & MV Carbon perform Nautical Almanac at Chashama as part of La Superette.

Battery Tulips

2008-04-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

Battery Tulips (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of a tulip bed at the cross of Broad & Water Streets.

33 rpm

2008-04-13T22:54:00.000-07:00

33 rpm (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of my apartment, made by placing the Vidster on my record player, spinning at 33 rpm.

Reflexology

2008-04-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

Reflexology (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video in which Asger demonstrates the proper method for obtaining an involuntary nervous response.

Odalisque

2008-04-13T02:21:00.000-07:00

Odalisque (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.
Lumiere video of The T.J. Hooper lounging on a sunny windowsill, late Saturday morning.

Masonic Man Man

2008-04-12T02:08:00.000-07:00

Masonic Man Man (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 30 seconds.

Lumiere video of Man Man performing at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. Surly sez they ooze testosterone.

B&H Dairy

2008-04-09T00:25:00.000-07:00

B&H Dairy (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of B&H Dairy on 2nd Street.

Toilette

2008-04-06T00:08:00.000-07:00

Toilette (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of Kron Vollmer, becoming The Philistine.

Tex-Mex

2008-04-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

Tex-Mex (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of Kron Vollmer as The Philistine, refreshing herself with a glass of sangria after a guerilla film shoot at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Cleopatra's Needle

2008-04-05T23:41:00.000-07:00

Cleopatra's Needle (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of Kron Vollmer as The Philistine at Cleopatra's Needle in Central Park.

Fools!

2008-04-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

Fools! (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video. Bradley Eros, Joel Schlemowitz & Brian L. Frye performing in a Dylanesque mode.

American Pastime

2008-03-30T17:11:00.000-07:00

American Pastime (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video. Softball in McCarren Park & a camera choking on dying batteries.

Incidents of Sovereignty

2008-03-30T16:08:00.000-07:00

Incidents of Sovereignty (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video of Kron Vollmer performing part of "Sovereignty," near the South Street Seaport.

Big Nick's

2008-03-28T22:52:00.000-07:00

Big Nick's (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video.

Brownian Motion

2008-03-24T23:03:00.000-07:00

Brownian Motion (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 30 seconds.

Lumiere video.

Imperial View

2008-03-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

Imperial View (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video.

Coffee Crystals

2008-03-18T01:00:00.000-07:00

Coffee Crystals (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 20 seconds.

Lumiere video.

Foucault Pendulum

2008-03-18T00:45:00.000-07:00

Foucault Pendulum (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 45 seconds.

Lumiere Video.

Aleutian Veil

2008-03-18T00:38:00.000-07:00

Aleutian Veil (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1 minute.

Lumiere video.

The Soft & The Hard

2008-02-20T22:47:00.000-08:00

The Soft & The Hard (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 3 minutes.

Several years ago, Keith Sanborn & Peggy Ahwesh asked a slew of people to write a short essay about a mystery frame from Dziga Vertov's Man With a Movie Camera. Here, I read my contribution. It isn't what I'd write today. But the sentiments stand.

Williwaw

2008-02-20T00:16:00.000-08:00

Williwaw (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 4 minutes.

The Aleutian Islands are notorious for the williwaw, a violent wind whipping down sheer cliffs to the sea at over a hundred miles an hour. In the meantime, the islands abide.

M/V Tustumena

2008-02-14T00:15:00.000-08:00

M/V Tustumena (2008) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 10 minutes.
Every summer, the M/V Tustumena runs from Kodiak to Dutch Harbor every two weeks. The trip takes about three days. This is my diary of the voyage. The coda is Dutch Harbor and Unalaska.

Costa Rica

2007-07-13T05:32:00.000-07:00

Costa Rica (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 3.5 minutes.
Quite some time ago, Carrie and I visited Costa Rica on a lark, over the weekend. Of course, I brought the Vidster and captured bits and pieces of the visit.

Alaskaland

2007-07-13T05:10:00.000-07:00

Alaskaland (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 6 minutes.
Fairbanks boasts its own Alaska-themed amusement park, once dubbed Alaskaland, but rechristened Pioneer Park to fend off the mouse. It's a lovely, slightly ticky-tacky little park, which makes it all the more charming. The centerpiece is the Tanana Queen, a decommissioned paddlewheeler. And the main deck of the boat boasts an aquarium-like display of dioramas, depicting pioneer and native Alaska in minute detail. The dioramas are charming and fascinating, especially as one gets to visit the town still standing on the site, and realize not so much has changed.

Mukluk Land

2007-07-13T03:39:00.000-07:00

Mukluk Land (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 3.5 minutes.
Last weekend, Carrie and I visited Tok, roundabout on the way to McCarthy. Tok is the Alcan Highway's gateway to Alaska, and rather a tourist haven, if not exactly a destination. But Mukluk Land is one good reason to visit Tok, and it's plenty. An Alaska junkyard cum workshop done up as an amusement park, Mukluk Land features a series of sculptural spoofs on iconic Alaska motifs, a comprehensive collection of historical (busted) snowmachines, a wicked doll congress filling three rooms, a field of cast-iron stoves, a rusting linotype, skeeball, whack-a-mole, and Santa's listing rocketship, which didn't quite make it to North Pole. As a start. In any case, we were the only visitors on a rainy Saturday, and got a guided tour.

White Mountains

2007-07-11T03:24:00.000-07:00

White Mountains (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1.5 minutes.
A few weeks ago, I hiked out and back on the Summit Trail in the White Mountains. It had rained all week, and the trail was a creek in places. Spent two nights in a little BLM log cabin shelter in a saddle, and saw two porcupines. They like to chew on plywood.

Alaska Midnight

2007-07-10T03:47:00.000-07:00

Alaska Midnight (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1.5 minutes.
I shot this video at midnight from a ridge in the White Mountains just before the solstice. The peculiar qualities of the Vidster emphasize the contrast between the almost-setting sun and the alpenglow bathing the hillside.

Breakup

2007-07-10T03:23:00.000-07:00

Breakup (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, silent, 1.5 minutes.
Breakup is the shortest season in interior Alaska. All of the sudden, winter ends, the snow soaks into the tundra, and the ice on the river begins to crack. Everything is a muddy bog for a bit, perhaps a week or two. And then it's done, just as quick, the last bits of ice floating in the glacial silt.

Granite Tors

2007-07-10T03:10:00.000-07:00

Granite Tors (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 2 minutes.
In late April, I decided summer was sufficiently close to permit hiking. And the Granite Tors Trail off Chena Hot Springs road looked perfect. The tors are masses of rock jutting from the muskeg in various formations. It was a lovely walk, as the sun dissolved the waning snowpack. Unfortunately, amidst the trees, the snow was still waist deep, requiring a good deal of postholing. And on the way down it covered the rock cairns marking the trail, obliging me to follow a still-frozen creek back to the road.

Yukon 800 Marathon

2007-06-30T04:46:00.000-07:00

Yukon 800 Marathon by Brian L. Frye & Carrie A. Deming (2007); color, sound, video, 3.5 minutes.

On Friday afternoon, AJ called to ask if I wanted to be in boat race the next morning. Of course, I said yes. The Yukon 800 is a big event in Fairbanks. A dozen shallow speedboats race 400 miles down the Tanana and Yukon rivers to Galena, then back the next day. They often hit 70 miles per hour, jumping sandbars and whizzing around logs. Kim and I were ballast, leaning off the boat to keep up speed around the corners. Carrie got photos from the plane and the shore. I managed a couple from the boat.

Spring Snow

2007-04-11T23:26:00.000-07:00

Spring Snow (2007) by Brian L. Frye & Carrie Deming; video, color, sound, 3 minutes.

Fairbanks has two seasons: cold & hot. And the transition is brief, no more than a couple of weeks. When it comes, you can't delay. So Bob started shoveling as soon as the weather changed. A couple of days later, the snow had melted into icy clumps. The sound is from Act II of John Adams's Nixon in China: "At last the weather is warming up."

Smuggling Genet Into America

2007-04-05T04:14:00.000-07:00

Smuggling Genet Into America (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 4 minutes.

Jonas Mekas describes how Harold Pinter helped him smuggle a 35mm print of Jean Genet's film Un Chant d'Amour into America.

A Tree Fell in Olympia

2007-04-05T04:08:00.000-07:00

A Tree Fell in Olympia (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 1 minute.

Last fall, during a rainstorm, an old tree fell in Sylvester Park, downtown Olympia, nearly crushing the gazebo. It was front-page news in the Olympian. On second thought, it wasn't that big a deal.

Katie's Kitchen

2007-04-02T00:43:00.000-07:00

Katie's Kitchen (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 1 minute.

Washington in winter is perfect for a "cool breakfast."

Ice Alaska

2007-04-02T00:35:00.000-07:00

Ice Alaska (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 2 minutes.

Every winter, the Ice Alaska sculpture park hosts ice sculptors from all around the world. The park is especially lovely at night, when they illuminate the statutes with colored lights. On the night we visited, it was well below zero.

Ice Classic

2007-03-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

Ice Classic (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 2 minutes.

The town of Nenana, south of Fairbanks, marks the approach of spring with the Ice Classic Festival. During the festival the town erects a four-legged "tripod" on the frozen Tanana River. The tripod marks the official moment the ice goes out, and break-up begins. All across Alaska, bars and stores sell tickets, on which people guess the fateful moment. In 2000, the jackpot was $335,000. We came to watch the tripod go up, and got shanghaied into helping out. It was about 20 below zero and plenty windy out on the ice. So we warmed up in Moocher's Bar with beers and hot toddies.

North American

2007-03-29T23:18:00.000-07:00

North American (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 1 minute.

Dog mushing is Alaska's iconic sport. And in mid-March, most of Fairbanks gathers downtown on Second Street for the starts of the Open North American. I heard the dogs yelping from my office. They make a din like gulls at sunset, straining at their traces, eager to run toward supper.

BENT Festival 2006

2007-02-27T02:46:00.000-08:00

BENT Festival 2006 (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 3 minutes.

Last year, we visited the BENT festival of circuit bending and related enterprises in lower Manhattan. The accumulated puttering, tinkering, and fiddling produced a wonderful series of performances and explanations. Unlike a joke, a good circuit bend is even better in the telling.

Wooden Whistle

2007-02-23T04:56:00.001-08:00

Wooden Whistle (2007) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 3 minutes.
Just before winter fell, Jason took us up in his ultralight.

Elan Vital

2007-02-23T03:34:00.000-08:00

Elan Vital by Brian L. Frye (2007); video, color, sound, 2 minutes.
Alaska is wet and dry at once. The water sleeps all winter, a blanket muffling the sod. But it is very cheerful when it awakens.

The Lions of Florence

2006-11-25T05:37:00.000-08:00

The Lions of Florence (2006) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 1.5 minutes.

Just outside of Florence, Oregon is a cavern at the bottom of a cliff on the shore where sea lions congregate in breeding season, or whenever they care to visit. It's a domestic setting, so listen, without getting too close.

Art Needs No Explanation

2006-11-25T04:35:00.000-08:00

Art Needs No Explanation (2006) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 1 minute.

Justice Sanders opines on the practice of art criticism. No embellishments necessary.

Half Our Lives

2006-05-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

Half Our Lives by Carrie Deming & Brian L. Frye (2006); video, color, sound, 2.5 minutes.
On a lovely Sunday morning, we drove up the along the Sound to Hoodsport. Someone had planted wildflowers in the medium all along the Evergreen Parkway, and the blooms almost glowed in the sun. Carrie suggested we make a movie. The Vidster turned the petals into daubs of paint. An inadvertant homage to Bruce Baillie.

The Clean Hands Doctrine

2006-05-13T19:28:00.000-07:00

The Clean Hands Doctrine by Brian L. Frye (2006); video, color, sound, 1 minute.
"Those who seek equity, must do equity." Balatrava, Carrie on urban hygiene, a touch of Grand Guignol, and silence.

Ipse Dixit

2006-05-12T01:18:00.000-07:00

For those interested, I've finally compiled a (relatively complete) list of my published articles on film and art, which you can view here. It's rather longer than I'd expected, actually. For perversity's sake, I've done the entire thing in Bluebook format as well. Those inclined are encouraged to critique my citation skills. Which are sadly deficient.

Cellphone Cigarbox Bend

2006-04-05T00:43:00.000-07:00

A variation on the bent toy cellphone, in which I took out the resistor entirely. The design looks better than the first, too. A sample is here.

Camembert Bend

2006-04-04T22:22:00.000-07:00

Camembert Bend by Brian L. Frye (2006); video, color, sound, 1 minute.
A girl's toy magic mirror recased in a camembert box. I used a 2M pot and a 1M resistor, and added body contacts. The led flashes brighter when the speaker is turned off.

Magic Mirror

2006-04-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

Magic Mirror by Brian L. Frye (2006); video, color, sound, 1 minute.
A toy mirror I bent as a present for my girlfriend Carrie. Unfortunately, the vidster couldn't catch the best part, a ghostly cartoon of girl's face that appears in the center of the mirror as it tinkles and moans.

Burfoot Swing

2006-04-03T23:29:00.000-07:00

Burfoot Swing by Brian L. Frye (2006); video, color, sound, 1 minute.
On a Sunday afternoon we visited Burfoot Park on the east side of the sound. A walk through Olympic rainforest leads to the water. Up the beach from the trail is a lovely ropeswing.

Sailboat (for David Rimmer)

2006-03-31T22:28:00.000-08:00

Sailboat (for David Rimmer) by Brian L. Frye (2006); video, color, sound, 2 minutes.
An homage to a reputedly great work of minor cinema, which I've never had the opportunity to see. Sound by Wayne & Liz, borrowed from WFMU.

Safeway Siren

2006-03-31T21:34:00.000-08:00

Safeway Siren by Brian L. Frye (2006); video, color, sound, 1 minute.
I was sorting through the pork chops when this young lady asked if she could read me a poem. I consented, and captured the drama. I think the milieu enhances the effect.

San Clemente's Not the Same: The Nixon Rag

2006-03-30T22:45:00.000-08:00

San Clemente's Not the Same by Brian L. Frye (2006); video, color, sound, 2.5 minutes.
A music video for Barbara Foster's fabulous "San Clemente's Not the Same," illustrated by H.R. Haldeman's home movies of Tricky Dick and his entourage.

Playskool Bend

2006-03-30T21:33:00.000-08:00

Playskool Bend by Brian L. Frye (2006); video, color, sound, 1 minute.
My first (successfully) bent toy, purchased at the Goodwill by the mall. Only two changes: a 1K pot and a 1K resistor. And I'm hooked.

Skate Jam Olympia!

2006-03-17T00:45:00.000-08:00

Skate Jam Olympia! by Brian L. Frye (2006); video, sound, 1 minute.

Heather Dunn, et al spun LPs at the Sunday night Skate Party. It'd been ages since I'd laced on a pair of roller skates. But it was just like I remembered from 20 years ago in Santa Rosa. We got an Icee (blue flavor) and used the photobooth. I managed not to run into anyone. And Carrie stole the centipede when they got it going.

Whirligig

2006-01-27T22:06:00.000-08:00

Whirligig (2006) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 2.5 minutes.

The T.J. Hooper engages in her favorite pastime: chasing a laser pointer in circles until exhausted.

K-K-Kisses from K Records

2006-01-18T00:49:00.000-08:00

K-K-Kisses from K Records (2006) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 9.5 minutes.

So, again with the December 2005 K Records record release party for Melanie Valera of Tender Forever at Art House in Olympia, Washington. Melanie and Calvin Johnson both performed. Included here is one song by each, and a touch of lively banter. As before, Melanie was difficult to capture on - um, microchip, I guess - because she spent most of her show dancing with the crowd. Only the lonely videographers complained. And a bobbling green balloon had to act as her stand-in.

Gum Arabic Explosion!

2006-01-13T23:23:00.000-08:00

Gum Arabic Explosion! (2006) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 1 minute.

Soda pop + mentos = quite a spectacle. As explained by Mr. Spangler, the gum arabic in the Mentos turns the fizz into a whoosh. Now that's what I call seltzer!

Light Mill

2006-01-13T23:07:00.000-08:00

Light Mill (2006) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 1 minute.

A brief demonstration of a "light mill" or Crookes's radiometer in operation, from a standstill to full-speed, then back off again. Mine's a bit chintzy, with a plastic base and crimped vanes. Still, I find it lovely. Few things are more charming than an elegant instrument with no practial use whatsoever.

It's So Hot...

2006-01-13T22:50:00.000-08:00

It's So Hot (2005) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 3 minutes.

In December 2005, Carrie and I saw Melanie Valera of Tender Forever perform at Art House in Olympia, Washington. This is a video of her performing her song "Hot." Unfortunately, the room was a little dark. And the Vidster struggles with those low-light settings. Not to mention that Melanie likes to dance about the room, rather than stand in one spot. Which makes for a wonderful performance that's a little difficult to capture properly in video. A roundabout way of apologizing for an oft-murky image. But the sound is rather better than I'd expected. And I think the silhouetted dancers are actually rather nice at times!

Gurgling Cod

2006-01-11T22:59:00.000-08:00

Gurgling Cod (2005) by Brian L. Frye; video, color, sound, 1 minute.

Carrie's mother is a great admirer of these old New England (and older yet!) pitchers made in the shape of a leaping cod. When you tilt them to pour, they talk back. Here you see the one Carrie got for Christmas. I found it immensely fascinating, and felt compelled to make a little movie demonstrating its peculiar qualities, as everyone else prepared for dessert.

The Letter

2006-01-11T22:21:00.000-08:00

The Letter (2001) by Brian L. Frye; 16mm, b&w, sound, 11 minutes.

“My letter which had awakened me I found before me on my way; and as it had awakened me with its voice, so it guided me with its light that shone before me, and with its voice it encouraged my fear, and with its love it drew me on. I went forth…” Hymn of the Pearl (Hans Jonas, trans.)

An essay toward documenting the ineffable. I’m told that all philosophy springs from one question: why is there something, rather than nothing? These, perhaps, are fragments of one man’s answer to that question. He spoke to someone; I encountered his ghost and replied with this film. One might consider it a dialogue between a man of Faith and one who has merely tasted of the absurd, yet struggles to ingest it.

"[Frye] aims to blur the line between completed film and unfinished experiment -- many of his best pieces look like fragments or rushes. His work is relentlessly self-questioning, offering a subtle, ever shifting mix of open-endedness and structure. The Letter is composed of "visually interesting" shots, he says, from the outtakes he found for an unidentified documentary. And his film looks like outtakes, with pans around a cemetery and an unexplained bald man. Later a shot of worms moving against a mesh screen introduces a different kind of imagery and motion -- and as in most of Frye's best work, there's something creepy about the image and how little it explains. Watching Frye's films, the viewer often feels trapped in a box with only a few peepholes, each of which distorts the world in a different way." Fred Camper, "Cinema of Possibilities," Chicago Reader, June 28, 2002.

Transcript of narration:

I sort of snickered at a lot of people when they said they were called to . . . particularly the preachers, when they were called to another pasture. It seemed to me that it was always a bigger church and more money probably. I’d been sort of skeptical of that. After my call, I had a different view of it.

By the waters of Babylon there we sat us down and wept, when we remembered thee, O Zion. As for our harps we hanged them upon the willow trees. For they that had brought us to misery. . .

This reminds me of a statement that an old drunk that had been converted had to say. He said, yes, since I’m saved, I can do what I well please, do what I want to do. I can go out and get drunk as much as I want to do. Thank God, I don’t want to go out and get drunk anymore. It’s changed me. So, we are freed from the law by Jesus Christ. It doesn’t mean this gives you license to go out and commit mayhem, rape, murder, or whatever your carnal side would urge you to do. It doesn’t mean that at all. It means you’re free from the burden of the law.

Sunday Morning

2006-01-11T22:08:00.000-08:00

Sunday Morning (2001) by Brian L. Frye; 16mm, b&w, silent, 2 minutes.

Greg Pierce of Orgone Cinema invited me and Bradley Eros to present a Robert Beck Memorial Cinema program at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I stayed at Greg and Alisa's house, and on the morning after the program, I shot this film of their daughters Merce and Orla in the backyard.

Oona's Veil

2006-01-11T21:48:00.000-08:00

Oona's Veil (2000) by Brian L. Frye; 16mm, b&w, sound, 8 minutes.

Whispering Hope, or Grace and How to Get It.

I know of only one film-record of Oona Chaplin (nee O'Neill), this screen-test made for a film in which she was cast and never appeared, having met and married Charlie Chaplin before shooting commenced. Some say that Chaplin himself directed her; history says otherwise. To hell with history. Hers was quite possibly the briefest film career ever. But then again, brevity is no obstacle to greatness.

I rephotographed the original screentest, doing 20 frame (as I recall...) lap dissolves from one from to the next. The idea was lifted wholesale from David Rimmer, though I've never seen the film(s?) in which he used the technique. Sailboat, I think, for one. I liked the brief transition from still to motion in Chris Marker's La Jetee, and wanted to extend it somehow. Anyway, I didn't like the result at first, as the image shifted a lot. So I made a duplicate negative and did some damage to it to obscure the hiccups. Ultimately, it was exposed to chemicals, buried, and left on the fire escape for a year. What remained I untangled, spliced together into something approaching a continuous strip of film, and had printed. The result became the master positive. The sound consists of a beat-up 78 of a song called "Whispering Hope," played at 33 rpm.

Unfortunately, this film seems particularly unsuitable to transmission over the internet. My apologies for the poor image quality.

"As I now beheld the robe, it seemed to me suddenly to become a mirror-image of myself: myself entire I saw in it, and it entire I saw in myself, that we were two in seperateness, and yet one again in the sameness of our forms..." The Hymn of the Pearl (Hans Jonas, trans.).

Robert Beck is Alive & Well and Living in NYC

2006-01-05T00:41:00.000-08:00

Robert Beck is Alive and Well and Living in NYC (2002) by Brian Frye and Lee Ellickson; 16mm, b&w, sound, 3 minutes.

"Vitam cum morte mutavit!"

Robert Beck was an American soldier from Chicago who served in the First World War. Struck deaf and dumb by shellshock, Beck was sent to an English sanitarium to convalesce. At some point, the patients attended a movie. Beck began to laugh, and was suddenly cured of his affliction. He became the patron saint of New York’s Robert Beck Memorial Cinema, dedicated to films which recall the marvelous. On September 26, 2000, Stuart Sherman, the great performance artist and filmmaker, presented several of his films, interspersed with “perfilmances,” in which he re-enacted the passion of Robert Beck. This film is a record of that “spectacle,” shot by Lee Ellickson, and accompanied by Maria Callas. Stuart Sherman died on September 14, 2001 in San Francisco. This may have been his last New York performance.

Nadja

2006-01-05T00:33:00.000-08:00

Nadja (2001) by Brian L. Frye; 16mm, color, silent, 3 minutes.

Brakhage called her the muse, perhaps because she appears only to those who hold a filmstrip in their own hands. But here she visits - if only momentarily - all those who care to see her.

"Let us speak plainly: The marvelous is always beautiful, anything marvelous is beautiful; indeed, nothing but the marvelous is beautiful." -- Andre Breton.

The Eels of Chicago

2006-01-05T00:26:00.000-08:00

The Eels of Chicago (2000) by Brian L. Frye; 16mm, b&w, silent, 2 minutes.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, Moira Tierney asked for films about snakes. This is as close as I came.

The Anatomy of Melancholy

2006-01-05T00:02:00.000-08:00

The Anatomy of Melancholy (1999) by Brian L. Frye; 16mm, b&w, sound, 11 minutes.

"Huddled figures mouth fragments of dialogue, apparently rehearsing for a play, until images that seemed stilted and static become powerfully iconic, almost frightening." -- Fred Camper, Chicago Reader.

Sometime in the 1960s, a chiropractor from Kansas City made a short film called A Portrait of Fear. The film consisted of several tableau shots of amateur actors standing in a field at night reciting painfully overwrought dialogue, apparently lit by the headlights of a car. I assume the cinematographer used an Auricon, as the sound was recorded directly on the B&W reversal original. In 1998, he sold me the outtakes, strung together just like you see them.

Across the Rappahannock

2006-01-04T22:15:00.000-08:00

Across the Rappahannock (2002) by Brian L. Frye; 16mm, color, silent, 11 min.

On December 12, 1863, General Ambrose Burnside’s Army of the Potomac engaged General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia. Before Burnside’s army could enter the town, Union engineers were forced to lay pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock River under withering fire. Close combat through the streets of Fredericksburg and multiple assaults on the Confederate army entrenched in the heights behind the town resulted in heavy Federal casualties, which forced an eventual withdrawal.

In November, 2001, I attended a small and relatively informal reenactment of the battle of Fredericksburg. About a hundred men and women did their best to illustrate the actions of the thousands of young men who offered their lives a century earlier. An air of absurd theater suffused the entire event, which provided the ground for its peculiar truth. Everyone played their part exceedingly honestly and well, and left something on the film I was myself surprised to find there.

Lachrymae

2006-01-04T21:47:00.000-08:00

Lachrymae (2000) by Brian L. Frye; 16mm, color, silent, 3 minutes.

"... and yet of that living breathing throng, not one will be encased in a material frame. A company of ghosts, playing to spectral music. So may the luminous larvae of the Elysian fields have rehearsed earth's well beloved scenes to the exiled senses of Pluto's Queen." -- W.K.L. Dickson.

Fireflies dancing at dusk in the Marble Cemetary across the street from Anthology Film Archives in the East Village, New York City.

"Brian Frye's Lachrymae is a film poem in which the light of fireflies functions as a tiny miracle." -- Fred Camper.

Introduction to the Waste-Book

2006-01-04T20:55:00.000-08:00

Waste-Book (also blotter), n. ~ A bookkeeping record, typically a bound volume, detailing in rough form each day's receipts and expenditures in order of their occurrence.

So, this weblog collects films and videos documenting what I see, or how I saw it. Some are already "completed," others might be someday. And the rest are just a record of what was.

"Waste-book method highly recommended. A note made of every phrase, every expression. Wealth can also be acquired through saving up truths in pennyworths." -- Georg Lichtenberg.