Prometheus’ Garden by Bruce Bickford



PROMETHEUS’ GARDEN (28 minutes, 1988) is the only film over which legendary stop-motion animator Bruce Bickford maintained complete creative control. Bright Eye Pictures is making PROMETHEUS’ GARDEN available to the public for the first time since its completion two decades ago. The DVD features a commentary track by Bickford, an alternate score by Shark Quest’s Laird Dixon, and the half hour documentary featurette, LUCK OF A FOGHORN: the Making of Bruce Bickford’s Prometheus’ Garden, directed by Brett Ingram.

Best known for his collaborations with rock iconoclast Frank Zappa in the 1970s (THE DUB ROOM SPECIAL, BABY SNAKES, THE AMAZING MR. BICKFORD), underground animator Bruce Bickford has influenced generations of artists with his startlingly original vision.

[MORE »]

Next Thursday (April 17th, 2008)

A film by Henry Ferrini & Ken Riaf
7:00 p.m., Thursday, April 17
Fine Arts Theatre, 38 Biltmore Ave., Downtown Asheville
Admission: $7 BMCM+AC members + students with ID-$9 non-members
Filmmaker Henry Ferrini will be in town for the screening and will answer questions afterward.

"A beautifully composed homage to one of the few truly monumental American poets of our times." Jack Hirschman, Poet Laureate of San Francisco

"The best film about an American poet ever made." Bill Corbett, The Boston Phoenix

"...an impressionistic, yet informative and moving document about the act of creation that neither shies away nor oversimplifies." Michael Kelleher, ArtVoice

Just in time for National Poetry Month in April, the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, The Captain’s Bookshelf and Western Carolina University present a striking new film about Charles Olson, poet and charismatic leader of Black Mountain College during its final years, at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 17th. Polis is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place wrestles with the six foot eight inch 275lb colossus of poetry through an extraordinary mix of word and image. Filmmaker Henry Ferrini will be present at the April 17th screening at the Fine Arts Theatre to answer questions following the film.

Polis Is This combines interviews, archival footage, commentary and animation into a single voice full of insight and visual beauty. The film allows the audience access to the subject even as it captures the zeitgeist of a formative era in literary history. The 60-minute documentary features John Malkovich, as well as interviews with poets and scholars Robert Creeley, Ed Sanders, Diane di Prima, Gerrit Lansing, John Sinclair, Pete Seeger, Chuck Stein, Anne Waldman, Charles Boer, Susan Thackrey, Amiri Baraka, Robin Blaser, Michael Rumaker, Jonathan Williams, Ammiel Alcalay, John Stilgoe, Vincent Ferrini and the poet’s son, Charles Peter Olson.

Read More »| x-posted to Around Asheville

The God - Konstantin Bronzit Animation (2003)

link | via

Ectype's End

This introductory graphic is somewhat odd but trust me, this little animated short has amazing graphics.

3C70 is no more than a number. Forced into a clockwork world where his only purpose is to duplicate and multiply, he sets about his task without question. Within seconds, however, his small world is turned upside down when a strange plant upends the order of his simple life.

Ectype's End is a fast-paced and visually charged ride that combines hand-drawn characters with photographed locations. Featuring a quirky soundtrack that drives and describes the journey of its protaganist, Ectype's End approaches the age-old issue of conformity with a story that is suitable for all ages.

from Rhubarb Zoo | via: laughing squid

Image released Tuesday August 28, 2007 by the Beijing Public Security Bureau

Chinese Cartoon Cops Patrolling Websites

In the footsteps of Shenzhen Internet Police, the police in China's capital, Beijing, will start patrolling websites registered on Beijing servers using animated police officers that pop up in a user's browser. From September, 1st, Beijing's new virtual cops will be active on 13 of China's portals, including China's biggest blog-hosting services, Sohu.com and Sina.com. By the end of the year, the virtual police's patrols are expected to cover all websites registered with Beijing servers. According to the Associated Press, the cartoon cops can "walk, bike or drive across the screen" every 30 minutes, warning Internet users to stay away from "illegal Internet content" and "bad websites".

"We will continue to promote new images of the virtual police and update our Internet security tips in an effort to make the image of the virtual police more user friendly and more in tune with how web surfers use the Internet," the Beijing Public Security Ministry said in a statement issued yesterday.

According to the statement, these cartoons officers will offer police help to Internet users. Clicking on the cartoon images will redirect users to the authority's web site. But is this the main purpose of China's new Big Brother and Big Sister?

Last year, on January 17, 2006, Global-voices co-founder, Rebecca MacKinnon, reported a similar story (more…)

(via: Global Voices Advocacy)

The Asheville-based Applied Visualization Lab is premiering its climate and visualization expertise on the global stage at the 5th International Symposium on Digital Earth in Berkeley, CA, June 5 - 9, 2007.

Digital Earth is a visionary concept for "spaceship Earth" sparked by R. Buckminster Fuller, grokked by the Apollo astronauts returning from their moon missions, and popularized by Vice President Al Gore.

Inside the portable GeoDome™ (developed by The Elumenati from Asheville), Digital Earth attendees will experience a unique animation of the effects of weather, development and land use through the story of how a storm moves through Western North Carolina.

Imagine sitting in dark domed room where a sky overhead suddenly reveals ominous thunderstorms forming. There's a steady sound of rain, and then thunder reverberates as lightning flashes all around you. This dramatic, engaging display sets the tone for the animated visualization, "Water in Western North Carolina." The story unfolds as audience members fly high over the Earth, learning about the qualities and importance of the water that covers two-thirds of the planet.

The Elumenati's dome theaters, exhibits and installations are delightfully innovative with some of their clients including Hewlett-Packard, NASA, Disney, Burning Man, Circe de Solei.

More tripped out goodies from artist, Larry Carlson.

NORTH VALE - Interactive pictures - Take a trip to the strange and spooky land of North Vale. (2007). Enjoy your visit and be sure to click around the pictures to uncover hidden worlds.

This collection of six new interactive pictures was created by taking photos of the Vermont landscape and other subjects which were processed and animated digitally. The pictures also feature an original soundtrack by Larry Carlson.

And Z.Q. - is an art book that features a collection of surreal back and white images. (2007)



Visit his MySpace site for more interactive fun.

Lucky for us this versatile visionary stays busy making his art and showing his art.

Blood Tea and Red String

"a David Lynchean fever dream on Beatrix Potter terrain as lovingly crafted as it is unsettlingly sour-sweet" - Dennis Harvey, VARIETY

Equally obsessive if far more oblique, Christine Cegavske's Blood Tea and Red String is the fruit of a 13-year process, a stop-motion fable as beguiling as it is baffling.

Crammed with overdetermined images of birth and death, Blood Tea concerns the struggle between a trio of grasping albino mice (done up like the coachmen in Alice in Wonderland) and a group of half-bird, half-wolf critters known as The Creatures Who Dwell Under the Oak. Cegavske's debt to Jan Svankmajer is obvious, but the film more closely resembles one of Alejandro Jodorowsky's psychedelic vision quests as re-realized by Ladislaw Starewicz.

Cegavske's ultra handmade style (she did the menacing crows in The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things) is the opposite of every trend in contemporary animation, and worth lauding for that reason alone.

The DVD was released this month and I am very curious to see it.

Chicago 10 - Bringing a Political Trial to Animated Life

The trial of the Chicago Eight was the quintessential political trial and an animated account just doesn't do it for me. What's to stop an upcoming Scopes trial in 3D or an Iran-Contra/Watergate mashup?

(The Chicago 7 + Bobby Seale + 2 attys = Chicago 10)

link

My Personal DNA


[via]

Conscious Greetings

Beautiful, meditative flash animation, soothing music and a heart-felt thought for you to share.

Found at Intutive Innovations a 'must see' stop on the blogtrail.

The Vomitus Maximus Museum

View R S Connett's original artwork. Paintings, drawings, animation and more. The closer you look at his larger, detailed pieces, the better it gets. Also listed on eBay


YES! Magazine's - The 'How Amy Goodman created Democracy Now' story is worthwhile.

saturday morning me//
what a glorious day!/coffee #2/oj/toast/
vitamins/nexium/(mondo spliff,rum & sopers)/
skyler had a sleepover..yawn/
time to make pancakes for 4 hungry teens/
Listening: jeff buckley/
so how about you?/

Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.

{From the, um, Re-Load Dept}
Stupid Penis Tricks - Be sure and check out the Hall of Fame and the animated penises. (Penii?) Just check out her whole damn site. It's always been a favorite of mine.