Half Our Lives

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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...

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

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

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

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.