listen to 44 seconds of The Ivory-billed Woodpecker

"It is the largest of all woodpeckers found in the United States and has been nicknamed "The Lord God Bird", from the usual expletive uttered whenever one appeared on the wing."

(via the recently-returned robot wisdom weblog)

work of Lateral Argument poet Kevin Davies irks Local Media (though you're told where to get it):--

"The magazine closes on the ridiculous, about 20 pages of deliberate and worthless nonsense by Kevin Davies, who may well be unaware..."
 

Happy Birthday to me. Daph got me the 1913 first edition of the giant Funk & Wagnall's New Standard Dictionary, edited by Frank Vizetelly, printed on 3000 pages of limp, heavy bible paper. 450,000 headwords, numerous engravings, occasional childish scrawls, numerous pressed plants...

"Alfred E. Smith's ''baloney dollar'' could not swerve Dr. Vizetelly from ''bologna.'' But he was quick to favor President Roosvelt's ''chiseler'', which he said actually had attained dictionary rating in England in 1808. He found ''whoopee'' went back to A.D. 450, discovered grammatical imperfections in Noah Webster and dismissed 1935's ''Oakie-doke'' as a moron's ''Yes.'' 

Cascadia Terminal Bucket Elevator, Vancouver


Portland filmmakers Bill Daniel and Vanessa Renwick are back in the van and touring the Pacific Northwest with new work.

Contact: Bill Daniel, www.billdaniel.net, billdaniel@hotmail.com, 503 939 6916 mobile
Vanessa Renwick, www.odoka.org, odoka@hotmail.com

“Daniel and Renwick make some of the liveliest work on the microcinema circuit, wherein film, video art, and music collide with edgy, confrontational, unpredictable and often exuberant intensity”--- Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post

Headlining is Daniel’s just-completed 56min documentary on the secret history of hobo and railworker graffiti, called WHO IS BOZO TEXINO? Shooting over a period of 16 years, Daniel rode freights across the west gathering interviews and clues to the identities of many of the most legendary boxcar artists while discovering a vast underground folkloric practice that has existed for over a century.

Also on the bill is WALDO POINT, by Saul Rouda, 1970, a 20 min. stoned and song-filled documentary shot in Sausalito’s hippie houseboat community. An utterly unique and authentic snapshot of ‘60’s freedom set in a floating utopia of hand-made houseboats.

Vanessa Renwick (the Oregon Dept. of Kick Ass) presents two shorts: BRITTON, SOUTH DAKOTA, a series of haunting images of depression-era children, and CASCADIA TERMINAL, a mesmerizing portrait of Vancouver’s towering industrial facility.

TOUR SCHEDULE

Aug 12 Santa Cruz, Guerilla Drive-In, www.thespoon.com/drivein
Aug 18 Arcata, HSU, Goodwin Forum in Nelson Hall East, 9pm $5 707-822-9531
Aug 19 Eugene, Museum of Unfine Art, 8:23 pm, 541-683-7357
Aug 24 Anacortes, Dept. of Safety, 8pm, $4, www.departmentofsafety.com
Aug 25 Victoria BC, 50/50 Arts Collective, 2516 Douglas, 9pm, $5
Aug 26 Vancouver BC, The Butchershop, 195 E 26th Ave, 9pm,$5, www.butchershop.ca
Aug 27 Bellingham, 3B Tavern, 122 N State st, 8:30pm, $5 www.3btavern.com
Aug 28 Port Townsend, The Boiler Room, 8pm, $5
Aug 30 Olympia, tba
Aug 31 Seattle, Central Cinema, (runs thru Sept 4) 6:30,8:15, 10:00 nightly,
1411 21st Ave, central-cinema.com,
Aug 31 special opening night event, live music by Spectratone International (featuring Lori Goldston and Kyle Hanson of Black Cat Orchestra) at 9pm, screenings at 7 and 10. (filmmaker in-person only on the 31st)
Sept 3 Astoria, Columbia Theatre, 503-325-2233


INFO FOR BRITTON, SOUTH DAKOTA BY VANESSA RENWICK

SYNOPSIS:
Ivan Besse was the Strand movie theater manager in Britton, S. Dakota during the Depression. He had a 16mm camera and went about town shooting people at their various activities during the day. He would show the footage before features and newsreels as a way to lure the people into the theatre.
Most of the 2 1/2 hours of footage that he shot is of people walking down the street, there are also scenes of a barn being moved, a corn husking contest and kids running out of school.
The footage that really stood out to me was these 8 minutes of portraits of children. They had no idea of what a movie camera was.

CREDITS:
Director: Vanessa Renwick
Music: Johnne Eschleman
Cinematographer: Ivan Besse (shot in 1938)
Footage obtained from The Prelinger Archives / Rick Prelinger
for the DeComposer Film and Music series programmed by Bill Daniel and Vanessa Renwick in Portland, Oregon

“Not only found footage, but a found film made 60-some years ago directly addressing contemporary structural concerns. I wish I had made this film today. Oh, it was made today.”
James Benning, judge NWFF 2003, awarded Britton, S.Dakota† Best Experimental Film
“The lack of narrative invites dressing these cinematic dolls with futures, now histories. The melancholic drone of the accompanying organ music tends to lead them into sad tragic finery.” NWFF

Gecko Prize, Cinematexas 2004

Gus Van Sant Award Best Experimental Film, Ann Arbor Film Festival 2005




"Portrait #1: Cascadia Terminal'
by Vanessa Renwick
sound by Tara Jane O'Neil
16mm hand processed and tinted to video
6 minutes 2005


A mesmerizing stare at the most efficient grain terminal at the port of Vancouver, B.C.
The terminal is serviced by the Canadian Pacific Railway and can unload up to 300 cars in 24 hours which is equal to approximately 25,800 tons of prairie.