A Tale of Two Bands

Full Frame documentary festival is a much anticipated annual event in the Documentary Community and those that love film. I went to this years festival and thought I would write about the two films that dealt intimately on the nature of relationships within rock bands. "Do It Again" by Geoff Edgers being one, (about The Kinks) and the other "Strange Powers" (about the Magnetic Fields frontman Stephin Merritt) which directors Kerthy Fix and Gail O'Hara spent 10 years making.

In "Do It Again" we get a mission-within-a-midlife-crisis movie. Geoff Edgers, feeling uniquely unaccomplished at nearly 40 decides to do something momentous, reuinte the feuding Davies brothers and thereby the legendary pop band The Kinks. Geoff's story is intertwined with asking other musicians (Sting, Zoey Deschanel, Robyn Hitchcock, Paul Weller) and music-biz people (Shel Talmy, Clive Davis) about their feeling toward a Kinks reuinion. Those in the know say no way but everyone agrees it would be a lovely thing. The film slowly unwraps the ugly truth around Ray and Dave Davies sibling rivalry. While inevitably connected in so many ways and so necessary to each other to have The Kinks, Ray just does not want anything to do with Dave. We see Dave belittled and beleaguard in archival footage. We see clearly Dave will endure it for a piece of the spotlight which he feels he richly deserves. Geoff can't seem to get to the Davies themselves and takes matters into his own hands and travels to England during a Kinks festival. He's allowed to see Ray perform but he's not allowed to film, greet or otherwise have contact with him. So we, the audience, settle for Geoffs penultimate choice of interviewing Dave. Its a sad interview. But its peppered with the light stuff of the movie (namely Geoff's attempts singing a Kinks song with each interviewee thats a musician). Dave says he'll tell Geoff what it takes to get he and his brother reuinited off camera. And that's when Geoff knows he's gone from an impersonal, improbable quest to a very personal, painful reality for Dave Davies.

"Strange Powers" is another film where the core relationship within a band is more functional than dysfunctional is the relationship between Claudia Gonson and Stephin Merritt. This is more than love as they are certainly not lovers. Claudia and Stephin do all things musical together since middle school. They hang out endless hours and become two sides of the same brain. Stephin the dreamer, writer and Claudia the gifted musician and manager of practical things. They become a force to be reckoned with together. As in "Do it Again" celebs are asked to weigh on the 'Fields (Peter Gabriel, Sarah Silverman, and Neil Gaiman among others), but there is no quest here other than to understand Merritt and what makes him tick. The shortlist: cigarettes, alcohol, writing lyrics, droll irony, love, controlled wrecklessness and somewhere in there would have to be Claudia refining and defining his life. As the movie progresses we see Stephin feeling the need to leave New York, which is a major change for the band and especially for Claudia. We are left to wonder what impact Merrit's move to California might have on the band, his creativity and his creative bond with Claudia. What ever happens we're sure it will be a killer quip in a Magnetic Fields song someday.

Hospital Ships - Wye Oak - Shearwater Local 506 3/25/10

Shearwater was formed in Austin, Texas in 1999 by Okkervil River members Jonathan Meiburg and Will Sheff. This year they released their terrific new album, The Golden Archipelago. They brought the tour for this album to the Local 506 along with Merge Records' own Wye Oak and a spinoff band from Shearwater called Hospital Ships. Hospital ships got things rolling with a low key, drummerless set of folk-inspired songs. Front man Jordan Geiger provided adroit song-craft and singing to this low key mix. Kim Burke (bassist for Shearwater) joined Hospital ships to play xylophone on a few songs.

Next up were Wye Oak. Wye Oak is a duo consiting of Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner. Wasner sings lead vocals and plays electric guitar, while Stack plays both drums and keyboards, playing the drums with his feet and right hand, and the bass line with his left hand. They flow from song to song with noise-pop sensibility with songs often evolving out of interludes of seemingly random keyboard notes and looped guitar feedback or riffs. Jenn and Andy play with real passion and don't scrifice their expertise in the process. Ther new album The Knot is superb.

Shearwater is a small tribe onstage. A group consisting of 5 consumately talented individuals who create a palate of sound for lead singer Jonathan Meiburg's unique vocal sound. The song-craft is first rate. The music itself has a timeless, almost ancient feel. It's as if the songs were rescued from a dark past and brought to life on electric instruments. Epic is an over used word, but Shearwater brings epic to mind. The songs on "The Golden Archipelago" feel like an interconnected suite of music that is guaranteed to take you on a journey. The photos that follow are of Jonathan Meiburg on Thursday night.

I am a Getty Images Contributor!

Getty Images is a supplier of images for advertisers, manufacturers,
and publishing with the largest archive of quality photographs and illustrations. Recently Flickr (a photo sharing site I use every day to get advice and comments on my images) and Getty joined together to establish a commercial licensing opportunity for photographers in the Flickr community. The Getty Flickr collection features photography selected by Getty Images editors based on their potential
to be useful to creative professionals (advertising and graphic design), the media (print and online publishing), and corporate (in-house design, marketing and communication departments). Getty Images has been inviting selected Flickr members to participate in the collection.

This is where I come in. After months of submitting and trying to get in I finally got noticed by some Getty editors and now am a Getty Contributor. I am very pleased to have the opportunity to make money from taking photographs!

DIY Film!

This is from first roll of home developed film ever. I shot it yesterday in some very flat light and developed it in Rodinal 1+100 in stand development (basically letting it sit in chemical undisturbed). These first negatives are dense with pronouced grain indicating some over-developement. Regardless, I got 3 shots where the grain was not too large, so I got some usuable negatives on my first try. I am so glad I know the exposures are right based on years of shooting and lab processing. Now I can taylor the development process while knowing I have the potential variable of the shooting correct. The best part will be being able to shoot film and see the results the same day. I've learned the entire process of film now, from shooting to printing and appreciate the amount of control one has over the whole thing. Film does become more artistically integral with the choices you can make about developing and printing film.

Re-focus an old Agfa folding camera

Re-Focus: This is one way to refocus an Agfa folding camera. If you're sure its out (in this case I am sure because the helical was stuck and I had to remove the cover to unstick the focus) you can respool the camera with wax paper between two empty spools. Then measure the distance to a focal object and focus the camera until that test object is in focus and reinstall the marked distance ring with the correct distance under the indicator arrow. Its pretty close I think. Suggestions welcome for other ways I can check this. This is the only one I have ever heard of.

2009 Favourite Shows

1. Merge XX
2. X at the Cats Cradle June 9th 2009
3. Midori - Brahms Violin Concerto, Memorial Hall UNC
4. Richard Thompson at the Art Center
5. Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet at the Arts Center
6. U2 at Carter Finley Stadium
7. Lost in the Trees and The Love Language, Chapel Hill Outdoors
8. Elvis Costello at Regency Park
9. The Old Ceremony at the Cat's Cradle "Walk on Thin Air" Release
10. Kathleen Edwards at the Art Center

Very Honorable Mentions: Troika; Tim Easton show at the Berkley Cafe; Pains of Being Pure at Heart at Local 506; Drug Horse Cartel Show at Local 506; Wye Oak at Local 506;

2009 top 10 Albums

1. Gather, Form and fly - Megafaun
2. Upper Air - Bowerbirds
3. Telekinesis!- Telekinesis
4. Walk on Thin Air - The Old Ceremony
5. The Love Language - The Love Language
6. Now or Heaven - The Broken West
7. Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear
8. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
9. St. Vincent - Actor
10. Wye Oak - The Knot

Turns out that alot of my favourite albums this year are borne out of the shows I've attended in 2009. I only wish I had albums to add to this list from Lost in the Trees and The Rosebuds. Maybe next year. An amazing music year all around from XX Merge to this years expanded and excellent Troika Music Festival its been pretty non-stop around here for great things to see. So excited to finally see St. Vincent and be re-introduced to Andrew Bird in such a strong way this year as well. Comments welcome as I am sure I left things off. The new Muse record being quite good and the new U2 slowly, slowly growing on me until I saw the concert this fall and gave in to this new one from them.