Uncategorized

B-Sides – “ELIENATION and ZED ARCHIE” – (The Absurdist’s Side Projects)

still from “RE: Reply To zenarcher’s “Challenge Met” Video” by Zed Archie

This is how the Absurdist B Sides end up being created. They are works that have spilled over the sides and onto new surfaces, where a new audience resides. An audience which wouldn’t have been reached otherwise.  This new “audience” is forced, and sometimes fooled, into experiencing Absurdism in a different way or a different medium, usually more “accessible”. This exposure would have never been accomplished if the work remained inside the familiar glass. And in some cases the real satire is revealed as such, not in the work itself but in the reaction and comments about the work.  (original post about “B-SIDES” here)

ELIENATION and ZED ARCHIE

A few years back Eli Elliott ventured into the satirical video response world of YouTube where his compulsion to respond creatively spilled him over onto a new surface: the audiences of two very popular YouTube personalities. He mocked a video vlogging war which was occurring during the time, involving a self inferring ZEN master of sorts who was hawking for money to write a book, and a rational thinking YouTube personality who called out the Zen masters fraudulent antics, eventually declaring “CHECKMATE” to his opponent as thousands of viewers eagerly watched the back and forth YouTubian drama unfold. Elliott then stepped in, satirically mocking  the situation, and the comments that resulted from his new audience ranged from “best YouTube spoof EVER” to further riled up reaction regarding the heated vlogger war taking place.

You of course needed an insider understanding in order to comprehend Eli’s mocking, which proved that a new surface had, in fact, been breached; for the first time it was an actual mainstream crowd which was forced to view Elliott’s work, but in a setting or theme which was familiar and easy for them to digest.

When emailed about this Eli responded that it sort of scared him, as suddenly people were messaging him saying how he should definitely do more of these: “basically they were urging me to become a popular “thing” on YouTube…where you create the funny-ha-ha effect type videos..thinking of that pressure to please masses in that way made me stop  after a few of these..”

Your videos are brilliant. What a pity that you’ve not made a video in over a year.

 

­

Truly one of the greatest videos to ever hit YT..lfmao…lol…lol….great

 

lol even zen liked it.. mad work man.. u seemed to express urself like nicholas cage a bit in that.. was cool.

 

 

Follow up spoof video: “ZED ARCHIE TRAILER”

B-SIDES (The Absurdist’s Side Projects) – “DICK WHITE SPIRIT CHANNELER”

still from “Epti Spirit Channeling 2” by Dick White

Creative impulsion is a common thread that The Absurdists featured on AVA all have in common.  It’s what drives them to continually pump out massive amounts of work usually unseen in the practice of “regular” artists. But it is also what leads many to go overboard;  creating in ways which stray them from the Absurdist Video Art side of things, in which they’re good at, and more at home with.

When they’ve immersed themselves fully in their usual outlets for creation, a holding capacity seems to be breached, and when that compulsion hits, then an overflow occurs.   They often find themselves blindly branching out to places they normally would never have bothered with, out of sheer compulsion to do so, rather than some sort of engineered “creative exploration”.

Just as water is poured into a glass reaching the rim to full capacity, it’s at this point the pouring needs to cease. But if there is a compulsion, if one cant’ help oneself, then the pouring will continue, and water will spill over the sides, down the exterior and onto a new surface, unfamiliar to the bubbled interior world of the original glass container.

This is how the Absurdist B Sides end up being created. They are works that have spilled over the sides and onto new surfaces, where a new audience resides. An audience which wouldn’t have been reached otherwise.  This new “audience” is forced, and sometimes fooled, into experiencing Absurdism in a different way or a different medium, usually more “accessible”. This exposure would have never been accomplished if the work remained inside the familiar glass. And in some cases the real satire is revealed as such, not in the work itself but in the reaction and comments about the work.

The irony is that The Absurdists didn’t intend to “reach a new or different audience.” They basically were just restless.  In some cases, instead of setting up lights and gathering the usual co-conspirators to create, they simply pull the trigger on a cheap webcam, and warp into some other world.  In other cases they choose to create in an entirely different medium altogether. And in others the medium and the set ups are the same, but the theme and content are completely different, usually in response to something.

Here is the first round of B-sides from AV artists who’ve overflowed into different territories or immersed themselves onto different mediums.

DICK WHITE EPTI

With constant filming, writing, and editing, you’d think this American Films/Collapse co-founder would have his plate full. But somehow his compulsion for Absurd expression, spilled over and gave birth to Dick White, a mystical “medium” average joe who’s been chosen by “the other side” to communicate important cryptic messages like, everyone should start wearing yellow. 

This webcam based creation spurred thousand of views, all emanating from a new surface. And in turn it spawned dozens of comments, both siding with Dick, empathizing with his new found gift as a medium, and those who became furious with Dick, calling him out as a fraud with bad editing skills.

You are so gifted. I pray for the power to do this..

I do mediumship, this makes me want to vomit. I have had spirits come to me, and never was I not myself. never had I channeled to have to speak to them. this is ridicioulous.

Do you realise what a complete and utter fool you have made yourself look. You tried one of the most amateurish attempts at ‘attention seeking’ that i have ever seen. You dont even know how to operate editing software. BUSTED.

Watch as “Dick” responds to the negative comments received in the first video, while attempting to further convince the new audience of his channeling skills, as a strange image emerges after the 3 minute mark and he instructs followers to partake in a 3 day fast.

Bro, i dont know if you reviewed this video before uploading it and shit, but around 3:30 or so theres some sorta something hovering to your right side..its like your image and shit and its like your tryin to get the fuck away from the epti dude who’s taken over your body and all that..crazy shit man!

 

Hi Dick, thankyou for living your truth. It takes much to trust as you have done. Please do not look at people’s comments as to how consciousness is shifting from these channelings. don’t make assumptions. The toning was great, integral part of the energetic activations occurring. All I can feel from the Epti energy is love, wisdom eagerness. Consciousness is very layered, multidimensional and profound, and not linear. Having said that it’s also very simple as Epti’s instructions are.

 

ur touched in the head mate :| see a docter mayb??

LOVE FLOATS MY BOAT – A 2012 Re-Edit From Collapse

What scares the shit out of me is that I know a Jerry Jeffers who fits our protagonist’s profile. He’s on SSI, takes psychotropic meds and always has a “business” dealio to offer. Gadzooks you fucks, get out of my head! – clvngodess

COLLAPSE Theater (American Films) continues to churn out new work, while performing re-edits on often missed older works. The latest re-issue is from 2005, entitled LOVE FLOATS MY BOAT.  This piece was a gem in its original form, and now tighter and somehow even more bizarre, it made a fresh debut this New Years Eve at an art gallery in Boise, Idaho.

Featuring Kelly Broich and Brett Netson, with cinematography by Casey Broich, LFMB is about “Jerry Jeffers”, a groupie who wants to set up a concert for his favorite one hit wonder band, JACKPOT, so he enlists the help of an angel investor, “Burtrom Casey”.  Burtrom meets Mr. Jeffers  at his home on Ray Way (an actual mobile home in a trailer park where American Films shot most of their early work, now occupied by Collapse actor Sam Stimpert).  While listening to Jeffers stammer on about the concert proposal, while Jeffers dances around, plays with scissors and tries to learn Spanish from tape, Burtrom eventually calls him out as an unstable, crazed lunatic of sorts, and denies him the deal. A melee ensues where Jeffers goes from getting more and more pissed, to settling back down and trying to start over. Jeffers attempts to sit up straight, put the music aside, and talk some business, “okay, let me tighten up, we’re doing business now!” 

In typical American Films “what the fuck” fashion, the message of art versus commerce takes an absurd twist. The would be investor Burtrom suddenly switching gears, pulls out…The Book of Mormon. Passages are recited and Jeffers is carefully monitored by Burtrom for any signs that the message of Mormonism is sinking in.

“Loved the Mormon bit. Backmasking & apophenia! I knew there were references I didn’t even notice as such.”  – from demiurge, Kenneth Freeman.

One of those references is Burtrom’s vomiting cut in between his readings from the Book of Mormon. Current event relevancy is worth mentioning since an individual running for the U.S. Presidency, the barely hanging on to lead front runner Mitt Romney, has all the generic image qualities for the “President brand”; the only problem is that little purple elephant that no one can seem to get past: he’s a Mormon. The reason no one can get pass it is the same reason Burtrom’s vomiting is placed on a level playing field to that of his reciting of Mormon passage. Both acts come out as incoherent gibberish. The Book of Mormon is filled with complete and utter nonsense.

LOVE FLOATS MY BOAT does a 360 on the viewer; it initially settles us in on believing the lunatic here is the nervous poverty stricken penny saving Jeffers.  But then the true lunacy is revealed: money and religion.  There is a shot of Jeffers sitting in disbelief, glasses resting on nose, mouth open staring silent at the preaching nonsense before him; suddenly we relate to his situation, as we see the convoluted driving force behind Burtrom Casey. And eventually Jeffers does, in fact, figure out the game: Mormons don’t do business unless you’re a Mormon.

LOVE FLOATS MY BOAT (2005/2012)

“TCN – The Commercial Network” – a short film by Collapse Theater

AVA’s own American Films have taken their act to the stage in the form of theater, operating under the moniker “COLLAPSE THEATER”. Imagine their short films in stage play form, but much more tightly written and with a slew of additional actors, many seemingly itching to dive into the Absurdist material that Amercian Films have been experimenting with for over a decade through film.

But the films haven’t stopped. Recently they had a 2 week run for their play OUTSIDE. And premiering at the last few shows was the new short film “TCN – THE COMMERCIAL NETWORK”, featuring familiar faces from classic Amercian Films pieces.

“THE COMMERCIAL NETWORK”

Commercial making and commercial watching have grown to unreal levels. Some commercials now resemble that of short films with budgets in the millions. Others hawk unbelievable products in fast cut music video style. From Corporations to snake oil salesmen, everyone’s in on the game. And people are watching. The Superbowl nowadays is watched by millions of new viewers, but not for the actual Superbowl. For the premiere of all the new commercials in between.

It only makes sense then that the latest trend would be to eliminate the programming altogether, and instead just create a network devoted entirely to commercials. While cable producers, network execs and the like are slow to jump on this, Collapse Theater is ahead of the pack with the introduction of “TCN”, The Commercial Network.

The short begins with mind numbing 80’s nostalgia viewing by a trio of couch potato TV addicts. Yet quickly things devolve into a smorgasbord of commercials brought to you by TCN, at the insistence of the younger and dumber couch potato who seeks a stronger numbing fix of something more frantic; something that will really fuck him up. TCN delivers.

Eventually the viewers dissolve into commercials themselves; reciting one line jingles, made up commercial catch phrases. The viewer and commercial eventually become one as they allow themselves to be consumed by the visual and audio propaganda assault.

The modern Little Red Riding Hood, reared on singing commercials, has no objection to being eaten by the wolf. – Marshall Mcluhan

If smokers could have instant downloadable easy access to x-rays of their lungs, they could see all the gunk buildup and may re-think their nicotine intake, while taking steps to detox.

Similarly if commercial TV watchers could see an x-ray of their subconscious they would be presented with a similar image of nasty gunk buildup in the brain. And likely they would reach for the bottle of bleach to pour in through the ears hoping it will reach the brain and disinfect the media mildew, unclog the mind altering buildup.

Basically, the short film “The Commercial Network”, is that x-ray.

The film shows the real effects of what commercials do to the brain. How all the highlights create that buildup of gunk. After watching “TCN” you instantly feel infected. Nothing gets neatly processed inside our heads when we subject ourselves to a barrage of visual adverts, all designed to forcefully tell us how inadequate we are, how we are lacking, how convenience should be king, and how popping a pill will make it all better.

As with smoking – we know it’s not good, it’s easy to fall into, the bad effects invisible – commercials are the same but easier to inhale and the effects don’t get a surgeon general warning.

As TCN reveals, the commercials are a drug, which eventually need to be countered by another drug in order to cope and feel better.  And if you don’t leave the room or medicate yourself to a far off island, today’s quick cut frantic back to back commercials of corporate snuff, pill popping propaganda and padded butt panties, will easily leave you suffering from similar effects to that of a horrible acid trip.

See what you are really ingesting. Watch the The Commercial Network.

Eli Elliott’s “SUMMER POLITIKO”

Celebrating his 100th YouTubian video art upload, with a new masterpiece (which could possibly turn the celebration into a suspension of his entire YouTube channel), absurdist Eli Elliott presents SUMMER POLITIKO, “a political thriller which hoiks back up the most important politiko events of the previous summer, with brief homage to a summer years prior, where a Culture Jammer billionaire almost took the wheel and set sail to what knows what.”

Multiple character performances, suspense and romance, wrapped up in heavily laced political insight, SUMMER POLITIKO dazzles as one of the years most important political shorts.

George Kuchar RIP

One of the earliest cinema underground absurdists were the Kuchar brothers. Low budget and truly underground, they pumped out film after film using friends, non actors and plots, or non plots, that played off of and seemed to mock both mainstream Hollywood and the B-movie industry.

Unlike some of their more educated fellows, their careers began in 1954 when they tore the wrapping paper off an 8-mm camera on their 12th birthday. They quickly taught themselves to use it and set about shooting brilliant, exotic, absurd features starring their friends, inspired by the Hollywood blockbusters and B movies they obsessed over at their local theaters in the Bronx.

Read the rest at Vice Magazine: GEORGE & MIKE KUCHAR – Vice Magazine

 

George Kuchar is one of the few filmmakers who get’s tagged with all the alternative cinema labels available: “experimental filmmaker” “underground” “avant garde” “absurdist”, etc.  His work covered it all and was a huge inspiration for opening up the floodgates of realization that cinema could be homegrown, backyard, uniquely creative and still respected. Many now well known filmmakers took this inspiration and used it to go forth and create their own work.

George Kuchar has directed over 200 films and videos (including over 15 with his twin brother Mike), many of them short films by students in his courses at San Francisco Art Institute. His work is archived at the Video Data Bank. In the Critics’ Poll of the 100 best films of the 20th century, appearing originally in the January 4, 2000 edition of The Village Voice, Hold Me While I’m Nakedwas ranked 52nd.