I recently shot a video interview with the F.C gang’s Ralphy Boy for the track “How You Like Me Now?” Hailing from my childhood neighborhood of East Flatbush Brooklyn, Ralphy has some of that mid 80’s showman’s ethos that permeated hip hop during that time. Evoking the spirit of old school legends like Slick Rick, Doug E Fresh, Dana Dane & Kool Moe D, Ralphy is on a mission to make sure his audience has as much of a good time as he does. In this world of Hipster rap where looking cool often seems to trump moving the crowd, Ralphy’s audience first approach is refreshing to say the least. There are times when Ralphy’s preference to let his music do the talking can give the wrong impression. In this video Ralphy discusses the enigmatic side of his character and gives us a little insight into who Ralphy Boy really is.
In all mediums of art arguably the most important skill is the art of storytelling. Everything else is just window dressing. A couple of days ago I blogged about the film The Legend Of 1900 calling it one of the greatest films you never heard of. It is about a Piano virtuoso named 1900 (Played by Tim Roth) who is born on a ship and never steps foot on land. 1900 has a single minded approach to his art. An idiot savant kind of perspective in which little else mattered beyond his music. In one scene I found particularly fascinating, 1900 gives the his best friend Max Tooney (Played by Pruitt Taylor Vince) a glimpse of what is going on in his head. What is revealed is a world where everyone moves to his soundtrack. A world where a woman sitting at a table becomes the main character in a scandalous murder mystery. Or a man walking across the room is the centerpiece in a thriller about the immigrant experience. It is a world where everything becomes foder for drama, intrigue, comedy and all the rich elements that color our lives.
For my first 21 years due to my Seventh Day Adventist upbringing I wasn’t allowed to take part in any secular activities from Friday sundown until Saturday sundown. No TV, no radio, no magazines, just church in the morning and religious music until sunset. For my first 21 years I would routinely spend my Saturday afternoons looking out the window at people walking by. I would entertain myself with imagined stories of what went on in the lives of these total strangers in a way very similar to the scene posted below. It was fun and a great exercise in the art of storytelling. Below the 1900 post I embedded a live performance of the song Razor Face performed by Elton John and written by Bernie Taupin. One of the greatest storytelling teams in recent memory. It is the type of song that is full of storywriting potential. Give it a listen and observe the world around you. Observe yourself. Create stories the way 1900 did.
My first stab at fiction was a tough haul. I was going to bury this episode and pretend the idea for this series never happened because I wasn’t happy with the piece. Documentary filmmaking is a very organic process that is challenging and incredibly rewarding. Fiction on the other hand is a methodical process where each decision can affect the entire crew. I erroneously thought that shooting a few music videos prepped me for this, I was dead wrong. Dozens of script rewrites and numerous rehearsals later I found myself spinning on set just trying to keep the entire production from spiraling out of control. Add the fact that it was the first time I was shooting with the Canon 5D MK2 which in itself was a huge challenge and the ending result was an edit that didn’t match up to the vision I had in my head. However instead of burying it I thought it was important to finish what I started, learn from my mistakes, and do it again. So for better or for worse I cut the piece in half and decided to go forward and publish it.
This episode stars Nate “Igor” Smith of Driven By Boredom fame and the lovely model/actress Carolina Ramirez. The title of the series is The Scene (I love creative titles). It is about the downtown scene which I documented weekly for about 4 years. As jaded as it made me I am also fascinated by the colorful and talented people who inhabit this world. I hope that this series gives you a more entertaining look into that world. Technically this episode may not live up to my original vision but it is still an important part of what will hopefully be a very interesting series.
The Legend of 1900 is one of the best films you’ve never heard of. Directed by the Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore of Cinema Paridiso fame, it tells the story of a piano virtuoso named 1900 who is born on a ship and never steps foot on land. Told in flashback form this film deals with the fear of change through the immigrant experience. To 1900 played by Tim Roth this ship is his life and the thought of stepping into a seemingly infinite world mortifies him. This quote by 1900 courtesy of Photo-Art-Life blogspot sums it up the best.
“Take piano: keys begin, keys end. You know there are 88 of them. Nobody can tell you any different. They are not infinite. You’re infinite… And on those keys, the music that you can make… is infinite. I like that. That I can live by…”
You rolled out in front of me a keyboard of millions of keys, millions and billions of keys that never end. And that’s the truth Max, that they never end. That keyboard is infinite… and if that keyboard is infinite, then on that keyboard there is no music you can play. You’re sitting on the wrong bench… That is God’s piano.
Christ, did you… did you see the streets, just the streets? There were thousands of them! Then how you do it down there, how do you choose just one… one woman, one house, one landscape to look at, one way to die…?
Tim Roth’s performance as one of the least rounded individuals in cinematic history is endearing and will pull at your heart strings. This script is so well written that it is hard to believe this is Giuseppe Tornatore first English language film. The musical score by Ennio Morricone is simply genius and garnered a Golden Globe for best score. The clips embedded below illustrate the virtuosity of the musical score, cinematography and the writing. Clip one which takes place halfway through the film is a duel between 1900 and the real life inventor of Jazz Jelly Roll Morton brilliantly played by Clarence Williams III. The ships passengers who are rooting for and in some cases betting on 1900 are disappointed by his lack of effort. Unaware that he is just toying with Morton they proceed to boo him. Morton fully aware that 1900 is mocking him pulls out all the stops. What proceeds is one of the best duel scenes in cinematic history. In clip two 1900 serendipitously finds inspiration for his first and only recorded piece. Strictly from a musical standpoint, the story telling in that composition is powerful. Play both clips if you have time, but if you don’t I recommend viewing clip two “Playing Love.” It is a moving piece of filmmaking. The Legend of 1900 is on my top 5 list of the best films you’ve never heard of. If you get a chance pick it up on Netflix.
The trailer for the documentary Radiant Child about the 80’s post-punk artist Jean-Michel Basquait was just released on youtube. It is directed by Tamra Davis who was a friend of Basquiat. She shot this when the artist was at the height of his stardom and two years before his death. After his death of a drug overdose in 1988 she put her footage away in a draw. As she explains it on this youtube interview, she knew Basquiat was upset that his friends were selling his art when he only intended them to be gifts. She didn’t want to be another person who just exploited him. It wasn’t until his 2005 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum when she realized how little footage exists of Basquiat that she decided to make the footage public. As Davis states ‘representations of Basquiat in video and literature did not capture the Jean-Michel Basquiat she knew.’ The trailer looks great and I can’t wait to see the film. It is sure to be an art-house classic.
Recently while browsing the Tuner magazine blog TunerLifeStyleTV, I ran across a video by the folks at Honda titled Failure: The Secret to Success. It features Danica Patrick and many others discussing the concept of failure. I find this a fascinating topic considering the struggle I face everyday to survive as an artist. In the downtown scene I work in the mantra is “Fake It Until You Make It.” It’s hard to find anyone to identify with during the inevitable struggles that we ALL face. If one were to believe half of what folks in the scene tell us about their “triumphs,” one could easily think that you are the only one who hasn’t figured out the formula for success. Well surprise, surprise, the formula for success is a long and winding path on a road called failure.
This video is a refreshing look at folks who HAVE achieved success discussing their failures. It is beautifully shot and edited. After watching this video you won’t feel like you are the only one struggling to reach your goals despite what your colleagues lead you to believe. Below that video I embedded a video interview with Lady Gaga from my friends at GakCity. This was shot in a relatively small downtown bar a few years ago before Lady Gaga was the mega star she is today. It’s inspiring because she talks about being persistent in her pursuit for fame. I will end this blog entry with this famous quote also included in this piece from Thomas Edison; When asked about the numerous failures he encountered when inventing the light bulb Edison said ‘I never failed, it just didn’t work 10,000 times.’
Enjoy
TrevzNewPop
Lady Gaga interviewed by our freinds at GAKcity before she blew up.
A couple of years ago I documented a story about the 151 Wooster Wildstyle Wall. As Paper Magazine put it “a wall covered with the tags of old school superstars Fab Five Freddy, Futura 2000, Jean-Michel Basquiat and others. Believed to have once belonged to art critic Edit Deak, the apartment became a hang-out, a let’s get high spot where the walls became a canvas for the aerosol artists.” This story got a ton of press and I found it hard to present it with a unique perspective, consequently the project got put on hold.
Recently I found myself watching a video on HypeBeast on artist Kenny Scharf who was a part of the 1980’s Post Punk Art scene in NY. A scene that I was totally fascinated with ten years ago before I was “plugged in” and jaded. Kenny Scharf was a roommate of Keith Haring, who was a friend of Fab 5 Freddy, who collaborated with Futura 2000. These guys were at the center of what was the coolest 10 year run of art and music in NY. You had the uptown hip-hop scene, coming downtown to the Post Punk/New Wave scene, and at the center of it all were the street artist. Among them, Futura 2000. In books like Keith Haring The Authorized Biography, The Keith Haring Journals, & Basquiat A Quick Killing In Art, Futura 2000 was referenced numerous times as one of the best artist of this period. Veiwing the Scharf piece combined with a broader perspective as a result of time inspired me to dig up the old tapes and reconsider the footage. I thought that it might be cool to tell the story of the 151 Wooster Wall through Futura’s eyes. A risky approach considering I am excluding the interviews of folks like Fab 5 Freddie, Lee Quinones, and several others involved with this amazing discovery. In the end I was pleased with this approach. Futura seemed to be instantly transported back to the days when this movement was at it’s zenith and that enthusiasm translated well in this piece.
Thanks to the folks at HypeBeast, for the third time in a month I have seen some prototype of the future of the Digital Magazine format. So I am making it official, I am calling it… The age of the Digital Magazine has officially arrived! You heard it here first. This week Adobe throws it’s hat in the ring with their version of the Digital Mag. How it matches up against the contenders remains to be seen? Will the front runner iPad take the title? Will underdog Bonnier steal the throne? Or will Adobe make another splash? (You flash geeks probably caught that reference.) Personally my favorite is the Bonnier device. It’s more elegant, smaller, has better graphics, and had the best video presentation. Yes that counts in my book. Check out the Adobe video below and do your own comparison. I included links to the other devices beneath the last embed. I also included a scene from Minority Report 2002. It’s the first time I remember thinking how cool would it be if they could invent a Digital Magazine/Newspaper like the one in that scene. Who Knew?
Until this past weekend The Graduate was a film that I only knew about through it’s famous quotes and scenes. Somehow I felt like I had already seen this entire film, heard all quotes and laughed at all the jokes, when I actually never watched it. My unfounded perception of this film as an irrelevant relic of another time discouraged me from actively pursuing this as a rental or purchase. Thank god for TCM where I am a passive participant of timeless gems from Hollywood past. This weekend I sat down and watched the entire film and to my surprise I was able to appreciate it for its cultural significance.
It is ironic when a work of art has such a strong cultural impact that its iconic status becomes a detriment to its viewership. Case and point, the scenes posted below have been played ad nauseum and as a result they have become greater than the sum of it’s parts. Most of us are aware of this film through bits and pieces. The relationship between the younger man and the cougar Anne Bancroft, the plot twist where he falls for her daughter, the chart topping soundtrack by folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. This familiarity takes away from the novelty that might otherwise draw in an unsuspecting viewer, robbing them of the experience that won over audiences when it first opened.
Upon my own viewing of The Graduate, what I found most compelling were the layers of pop-culture references that when viewed from the cultural landscape of the time were quite revolutionary. The seedy strip club scene, the references to “Agytators,” and “Plastics,” the stunning shots of the “Alfa Romeo Spider” on the freeways of California. This film directed by Mike Nichols ushered in the new wave of Hollywood directors and captured the spirit of the times. It reflected the changing of the guard in Hollywood and in society. According to Filmsite.org “two California settings (Los Angeles and Berkeley) and S. and N. California cultures (materialistic vs. intellectual), There was already a growing dissatisfaction with the status quo and middle-class values, and the breakthrough film mirrored that anarchic mood perfectly for America’s youth of the 60s during the escalation of the Vietnam War.” This quote explains why it resonated then, and why it resonated with me.
I included two popular clips from The Graduate below that I look at now with a fresh perspective. They are no longer meaningless clips from an irrelevant film, I look at them now as cinematic landmarks of a shift in American pop culture. I highly recommend renting this on Netflix or watching it whenever it plays on TCM again.
Enjoy
TrevzNewPop
I also sandwiched the 1992 George Michael video “Too Funky” where they use a sound-byte from The Graduate in the very beginning. Try to catch the soundbyte without getting too distracted by the very young Tyra Banks and Linda Evangelista.
I recently came across a short film shot as a look-book for the Downtown label Sophomore. Beautifully shot by LA-based photographer Cass Bird. It’s a fascinating look at local NY kids hanging out in Coney Island. This short bypasses the nauseating trend of spotlighting hipster transplants that many contemporary artist (present company included) seem to be fascinated with. Instead Sophomore focuses on the genuinely cool locals that make this city the hipster draw that it is. There is a unpretentious unapologetic confidence that jumps off the screen and draws you in by giving us a refreshing look at a city many of us only know from movies like KIDS. These kids remind me of the mid 70’s multicultural East Flatbush I grew up in. A place where Blacks, Puerto Ricans and a diminishing Jewish population lived side by side always looking for mischief always looking for love. There is a restlessness that Cass captures in ten plus minutes with ease.
Sophomore will inevitably draw comparisons to KIDS. I find it even more compelling because the story-line does not get in its own way. In Sophomore we see the characters talking to the camera with all their quirks in plain sight and without inhibition. Unlike KIDS we don’t get the feeling that there is an agenda that needs to be pushed on you to justify the otherwise superficial story-line. Sophomore allows itself to be itself. Between the quirky sound-bytes and delightful b-roll it is compelling and engaging. The best scene captures a couple of girl-friends (who can easily be mistaken as twins) talking about sharing everything including boyfriends. The sound-byte and visual in this scene are priceless.
Now I mentioned that this is a Look Book video for the Downtown label Sophomore. The Viral Look-Book as video short is a trend that has been gaining momentum over the past couple of years. In this case I had no idea what items were from the fashion line Sophomore and what was not. I think this was intentional evidenced by the title where there is also no distinction. Some may say that this is bad marketing I say it is genius. The fact is I never heard of Sophomore until I saw this piece. Now that brand is imprinted in my memory. A brave product placement strategy that I find very difficult to sell to my clients. Next time I will show them this video as a shinning example.
