Monday, December 27, 2010

Top Experimental Comps of 2000-2010

Over the past ten years, I've been lucky enough to come in contact with various states of experimental media.

Here are my picks for top domestically and individually available compilations of the past decade:


By Brakhage: An Anthology (2-disc DVD)
Stan Brakhage produced over 350 groundbreaking and moving visual therapy art films over his nearly 50 year career. This disc is a must for anyone at all interested in art and culture, or has any pulse at all. www.criterion.com

ETC: Experimental Television Center 1969-2009 (5 disc set)
Words cannot express how cool this is. A collection of video art produced at the obscure upstate New York video center over the past 40 years, using one-of-a-kind equipment designed by Nam June Paik and others. $60 w/shipping, but the best money I’ve ever spent. http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/etcdvd.html

Starlight Dynamic Video Mix Tape (2001) out-of-print
This tape (only released on VHS!) contains three of my all-time favorite movies, “Confederation Park” by Bill Brown, “The Moschops” by Jim Trainor, and “Mark Roth” by Animal charm. And the other movies are great too! www.peripheralproduce.com

Illegal Art DVD-R
“Illegal” media comp with rare, unfindable work by Todd Haynes, Brian Boyce, Negativeland and others. Mega cool and very odd.
http://www.illegal-art.org/video/dvd.html

Cartune Xprez 2006, 2008, 2010
An outstanding collection of wacky DIY underground animation. Christopher Doulgeris and Peter Burr compiled three DVD comps over the past few years. Featuring work by Amy Lockhart, Jim Trainor and others. http://www.cartunexprez.com

New MATTHEW SILVER video!

In a world of blind chaos and encouraged mediocraty, it can often seem a though few people around us really “get” it. The world at heart is not as simple as it seems, but not as complicated or important as we think our trivial routines and preoccupations may be.

Performance artist and filmmaker, Matthew Silver, knows what’s up, even if nobody knows it but him. Here’s his latest:



Back in 2008, we brought Matthew out to the Bearded Child Film Festival in Minnesota. In real life, he has a very distinct calmness about him. He is channeling his creative outlets, and is a real inspiration for all. Thanks, Matthew!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Just Released! GAY BEAST - Smithereens

Yowie kazoweeee!! CINEPLOSION has just released a brand new video for Minneapolis-based, GAY BEAST!

Yes sir, in anticipation for the new album, “To Smithereens,” to be released March 2011 on Skin Graft Records, our team of technicians compiled videotape of frontman, Daniel Luedtke, during a visit to the Great White North this past November. The footage was taken at the artist/musician’s loft and apartment in Southeast Minneapolis, consisting of an attic printshop-turned-movieset and various domestic nooks around the living space. In advance payment for the video, we graciously and eagerly accepted a collection of Luedtke’s topnotch DANIMAL GRAFFFIX prints, distinctive imagery mostly chronicling highlights of the Minneapolis DIY music scene from the past half decade.

Once back in Hot Springs, local heartthrob and blue collar Arkansan, Justin Castleberry (drummer for Man Against Fire, Mother Hug, The Holly Shakes and others), was summoned for a studio shoot. Hardened by a lifetime of lumber cutting and window installation, Mr. Castleberry proved the perfect subject for our roboerotic fantasy.

Within the video, a somber yet lustfully determined Luedtke is portrayed as the voyeur of thoughts, meticulously devouring each carnal mindwave like a rich kid’s rib dinner. The large, imposing male figure is lifelessly crushing in posture, a Pure Body pulsating with strength and cool primal vigor. It is not the person or soul that beguile the viewer, but the raw form, the seductive structure, itself.

Luedtke’s wade through malcontent, tenacious domesticity is finally idealized at the climax of the video, as budding tension spills from the hands of the masculine Beast.


(Technical Note: Upgrade your view setting to 480p, tab in lower right corner... compression is delicate on this one...)

Risque, eh? Naw, just another day in the CINE LAB...

A tip of the cap, and kiss for your mother:

CINEPLOSION Productions 2010