Tag Archives: Music

You sound like a Matmos song. . .

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on March 17, 2008. No comments.

Jenna says to me a few days back as we wound our way through a playground. I’d been making little blips, squeaks and non-sensical sounds to refocus Mack’s attention back to my alpha status in the pack as we approached dog Xanadu in Magnuson. As we come ’round a bend, my blip-making is interrupted by the sight of two raptor-sized dogs being readied by their wranglers in the back of a Rav4. My tired eyes caught them rubbing fresh rabbit carcasses into the dinosaurs’ snouts to turn them on to all the fresh dog teeming out there.

I could make the case that I felt like a Matmos song: all seemingly discombobulated but with a kind of order amidst what sounds like chaos.

See, I’d been up since 5am. Perhaps one could chalk it up to the fact that the week before last I was moving into a new studio downtown in the 619 Western Bldg (4th floor North, if you’re ever around), or I’d just successfully used my Jetta Station Wagon as a 1/2 ton grip truck for a shoot with Gregg Segal for Fortune Magazine out at Amazon.

Managed to tie a couple seamless rolls up there as well.

Then last week I was down at Weyerhauser for a three day job with Toronto-based photographer Andric. Guy was supercool and articulate in how he related to the creatives and the client on set. He said things like ‘after shooting this test, what I’ve been able to deduce is that the angle of the road. . .’ His images are whimsical and surreal, and in ten minutes with photoshop, he can turn the ordinary into some pretty far-outness.

With that kind of surrealist whimsy flying around, on the tech scout day, I had some downtime here and there. Earlier that morning, while looking for Weyerhauser, I meandered around the area and found a Devry University. While killing some time awaiting further instruction from my producer, I decided I’d usurp the role of a guy interested in attending their technical college.

Really wanted to take photos inside, but thought I’d get weird looks as if I were a spy for ITT or something. Basically, imagine a slew of JROTC, FFA, and/or Science Club guys/gals finally finding a place on earth to call their own. I do have to say though that Devry University has really nice facilities.

In further support of my scatterbrain-ness, I literally was in or had driven about six to eight different cars last week in some capacity or another: My Jetta Wagon, a Dodge Caravan, a Suburban, a Ford Edge, a Chevy Malibu, a Nissan Quest, another Suburban and finally Jenna’s Prius. This shot was taken from the driver’s seat of my Ford Edge. Andric is the guy in black atop some scaffolding taking a shot of me that will eventually find its way into the Wall Street Journal.

Then, to wrap last week up, I was back out at Amazon again. Only this time it was with Joe Pugliese of LA for Wired Magazine again featuring Mr. Bezos. Being a Wired subscriber, I can’t wait to get my hands on that issue and take a peek at the results, as Joe is a film shooter.

In other news, its a time of “ones.” My one year anniversary since leaving a job at a production company for freelancing full-time and things couldn’t be better! Grasshopper say don’t be afraid to jump out there and get wet. If you’re talented, hard-working and able to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you’ll be fine in personal and professional endeavors. Also, Michael Clinard Photography and Bolog Me with Cheese: Michael Clinard’s Blog are Number One in search engines!

Hooray! And Jenna and Mike are swing dancing like crazy! We were just out at Century Ballroom for prom a couple weeks back and had a blast. If you’re ever looking to take some great dance lessons, I’d recommend hitting up Triple Step Studios in North Seattle. Below you’ll find an image of us taken in the mirror, completely pooped from the night out at Century. . .

More always,

Mike

2006 was more (whatever Harper's said) than 2007.

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on February 26, 2008. No comments.

I’m a big fan of Harper’s. The articles are stimulating, and when you read sections like Index, Excerpts and/or Findings, it immediately raises your IQ in ten point incrementals. Read it two or three months in a row, and it’ll cause heavy brain drip from the nose what with all the knowledge you’re attempting to make room for.

You can say something like: anthropologists determined there was an early ancestor of primordial man that laughed. AND you’d be right.

So in my best Harper’s Magazine-type, deadpan delivery style of Index and Findings, here goes. Bare in mind that the images don’t truly exist in a Harper’s but think of the allusions and what one might see if the story could be in pictures:

I typed something out that had another day in the sun in a different context, in a different arena of readership, altogether. In the dark of Magnuson Park, folk in Seattle took photos. Moving pods were packed by Michael Clinard, Jacob Gerber and Gina Cholick–who is currently on her way to LA to tear it up down there (photos of moving pods are everywhere, I like this photo more). When Day/Nyquil bottles are left about the kitchen, smooshed paper towels work wonders to combat pet hair and dander from entering into the inherent technique of delivery. Gretag Macbeth color cards and ASUS eee PC’s are delicious. Jenna and Michael are swing dancing.

Spittin' Fierceness

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on February 5, 2008. 1 Comment.

There’s speculation that Tom Petty was lip-syncing during the Super Bowl. That, I can forgive, seeing as how Tom Petty went to bat for scores of artists in the 80′s against Big Music’s contractual agreements dictating that they (big record companies) own the music. And, in effect, it was kosher to slide the musical performers some scratch here and there while Big Music took in the lion’s share of album sales.

Things have changed for the most part, and there are a number of different models out there now. You might say, ‘so, Mike, you like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers?’ And I’d be like, ‘heck, yeah. I love ‘em.’ I like them so much I dedicated an entire morning a couple weeks back to Peter Bogdanovich’s 4hr. documentary on the group.

The idea of a four hour documentary might incite some sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. At its mention, you might begin to recall some childhood trip when the family drove from Point A (home) to Point B (aunt’s house). You weren’t a big boy or girl and didn’t have front seat privileges or the opportunity to soak in all of the air-conditioning during the middle of summer with a humidity level hovering around 98%: an ‘are-we-there-yet’ kind of feeling cycling through your head.

As long as my pops was bumping the Heartbreakers, that’s a trip I could’ve endured (and in fact have from Nolensville, TN to Athens, GA).

While watching the film, I had a very personal reaction because out of the blue, I began singing aloud nearly every song they featured in the documentary. I knew them all by heart, but never really thought about it until then. My dad had in fact played a many great number of the records all of the time throughout my childhood: in the car, in the house, in the boat if fishing. . .

In reference to my title, thought I’d post these pics of me as I spit some rhymes during my parent’s anniversary party. I’m kidding, I wasn’t freestylin’, just doing a rendition of Johnny Cash’s ‘Boy Named Sue’ on some kind of karaoke thing you hook up to a television. Someone snapped a couple shots during the performance which subsequently brought the house down.

With Soonability. . . updates to come

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on January 17, 2008. No comments.

Its been a month exactly since I last wrote. There’s much to note: 1) this is the best mixtape, ever! 2) my buddy Josh is writing again and this is an excerpt from a short story he wrote about ‘the hands’ 3) I’ll finally get ’round to posting more.

That said, sometime back I’d promised to post an image of a splattered turkey on a plate right? Well, this is it:

Perhaps the amount of tryptophan coarsing through my blood on Thanksgiving sedated my senses enough to see ‘splattered 2d turkey’ in this photo, but don’t you see it? In the top plate, the rolls for the eyes, the breasts of turkey for the beak, then that second plate below of yams, mashed potatoes, peas, and stuffing with giblet gravy as the exploded innards? The thing is you have to be looking for it and its one of those ‘vase or face’ type things or seeing the virgin mary in the sky or on a piece of toast.

Seriously, people-have-seen-stranger-things-in-food pie.

Mike

Seattle Snow

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on December 2, 2007. No comments.

Yesterday, Jenna, Maggie (Jenna’s 15 year old sister) and I hit the Urban Craft Fair down at the Seattle Center. Before walking in the doors and being besieged by flame-drenched knitting needles, figured we’d beef up on some Thai food.

We’re sitting there talking and an excited couple come in raging about the falling snow.

“Oh, goody!” Jenna says. Maggie looks stoked. I, on the other hand, am like one of those adults from an old Robin Williams film that is no longer in touch with his inner child. I’m remembering last years transportation hell in which I remained stuck in traffic for about 3 hours. In 3 hours, I moved 5 miles. It took Jenna’s dad 7 hours to get from downtown Seattle to Bellevue.

I get through my Pad See Iew with ease. Jenna’s Tom Yum soup is spicier than lava which is great because we’re going to need it to de-ice the street to get Maggie back home. That said, I see Maggie taking an inventory of the contents of her purse: ‘one lead pencil, a piece of string. . .’ I see her unblemished, organic vegetable-fueled mind at work. Her critical thinking skills are helping her to visualize a lever and pulley system that’s going to lift the Prius out of the three feet of snow that could hypothetically fall. The female MacGuyver is sitting across from me.

Anyhow, it really wasn’t all that bad. The snow didn’t stick, and it was quite pretty as the flakes were as big quarters. The craft fair rocked and I bought this pretty cool piece from a guy named Ryan Berkley. Check out his Etsy shop and myspace. This is the piece I picked up, a guy named Wendell:

Here are a couple pics from the day along with a short video I shot on the way back from the eastside featuring the Seattle skyline and the song stylings of Bill Callahan.

*Note: there used to be an embedded movie file here, but since the the website’s move to the Livebooks’ servers, this movie file is no longer available. Sorry folks.

Bring that beat back, and back, and back again

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on November 11, 2007. No comments.

The whole reason for the previous post was because I’d come across Yamaha’s Tenori On.

Not only is it beautiful to look at and watch in motion, but it does some pretty awesome sequencing/musical stuff. There are videos out there of musicians fooling around with it, but the demo video still does it for me.

Bring that (wicked chainsaw) beat back!

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on November 11, 2007. No comments.

I’d seen sometime back that Drumcorps was coming to town. As usual, I was late again in catching this concert thinking it was another week off, when in actuality, it was this past Friday: the same day Plan B was in town.

Aaron Spectre, aka Drumcorps, is just one guy, but his music sounds like a couple guys from the foundry teamed up with Otto the Mechanic–an aspiring death metal vocalist–at lunch to rub chainsaws and welding equipment together.

The videos on YouTube don’t do ‘the music’ justice as you’re getting a fair amount of distortion when ‘this music’ is ‘played live’ at high decibel levels then recorded with your old run-of-the-mill video camera mic. But trust me, if you’re stuck in traffic, rather than honking your horn or giving yourself over to road rage, nothing works better to calm your nerves than a little Grist. Seems like he’s got a new one coming out, apparently with more guitar, for all you purists out there.

So now that that’s off the radar, I can start planning well in advance for edIT‘s December 15th date with Seattle. . .

Blogumentary my Dear Watson

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on November 4, 2007. No comments.

Its been a couple weeks since I last wrote, and since then I’ve:

1) seen seven (7) documentaries:
Sister Helen
Crazy Love
Does Your Soul Have a Cold
Songbirds
The Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
The Story of the Weeping Camel
Moog

2) been in the market for a new cellphone and came across this thing:

the Pantech A1407PT, which uses bone conduction technology. (*should be noted I haven’t decided on which one to get, and when I do decide, it probably won’t be this thing)

3) been wanting to introduce the world to this guy, the blobfish:

who might as well be an ancient grandfather of mine given the sad look on that mug of his. That and the typical bit of phlegm that can sometimes inadvertently dangle from some Clinardian orifice.

4) been completely digging the new XLR8R DJ mix from Starkey, a guy from Philly I met at the Laptop Battle at Chop Suey a couple years ago. That, along with some of the tracks I’ve been hearing off of Food for Animals’ new release entitled “Belly.”

5) learned that this website now boasts the world/galaxy/universe’s largest photo/file/scan in existence. You know the image well, but at 16 gigapixels large, don’t you want to see the lips of Jesus in stunning, high resolution?

More always,
M

Mein Selector

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on October 5, 2007. No comments.

As you know, I’m a big fan of the music. For awhile there it was John Prine and Mac Wiseman’s release then the Marcus Schmickler/Hayden Chisholm release from a previous post. This week it’s been this guy, Plan B.

Don’t know how I came across it, but I got his mixtape a little over a week ago and have been listening to it non-stop. It’s infectious from the start as a fair amount of the tracks, save the funny skits, sample popular songs from Nirvana, Leonard Cohen and the Rolling Stones.

If you like the hip-hop verse give it a listen. This weekend we’re off to a friend’s wedding at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. . . ah, l’amour.

Blog of Ages. . .

Written by Michael Clinard. Posted on August 6, 2007. No comments.

“What’s up w’me? . . .” Anyone know the hymn the title is inspired by?

Anyway, that’s the title I’ll use to reflect the awe and majesty I experience in the world day in and day out. Just today, while driving around I saw what looked to be the equivalent of a Back to the Future/Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome car. It had stickers covering it, a silver-painted finish and some jet engine thing mounted on the tailfin of what looked like its Ford Falcon outer shell.

My jaw dropped and I was kicking myself for not getting next day delivery on my new point and shoot, the Canon Powershot SD 850 IS. Soon, I’ll keep it strapped to my body, frantically snapping away at all things I find interesting/important and/or capturing video on the 4gb card I snagged along with it.

The superstitious tendencies mentioned in my previous post worked to a degree in a couple more baseball games. All told–in the last three games–I’ve gone 6 for 13 at bat. It didn’t cure my continually aching bicep muscle on my throwing arm which I now have after every game in the field or hurling on the mound. It’s becoming more and more apparent why they call it the Puget Sound SENIOR Baseball League.

I also got hit-by-a-pitch on the top of my foot last game. Tried my hardest to make it look quite spectacular by pulling off some aerobatic flip and rolling on my head, all in one motion to keep the weight off of the sting I felt. At first, no sign of a bruise, but today, I’ve got Fred Flintstone club foot:

I also got stung by a wasp for the first time in my life a couple weeks back. I was on a shoot, walking around with the photographer scouting our shots. We approach this little greenhouse, and as I’m rounding the corner of tall-standing plants, I feel a very sharp concentrated pain in my wrist. Thought I had brushed up against some prickly vegetation, but within seconds, my wrist was white and there was the most perfect little hole with something pulsing in the middle of it.

In the past, when I’ve dislocated my fingers or toes, I grew light-headed. With the same weary feeling, I pulled the little, pulsing thingamajig out without thinking–very much like the times I’ve reset my fingers or toes when dislocated. The photographer, David Atkinson, of Colorblind Images was like “Oh, cheers. . . we should watch that and make sure you’re not allergic.”

“Drats,” I thought. “Allergic: Never thought of that, never been stung. . . ” I pictured myself dying on the most beautiful plot of land I’ve seen in quite awhile. Owned by Colin-Schroeder-of-Colorblind-Images’ parents, Swans Trails Gardens is located in Snohomish, Washington. As I drove up before the shoot, there was this perfect little church at the top of a hill. With the smell of livestock manure all around me, it reminded me of the South and my buddy’s farm in Kentucky.

Thanks to Alice, I live.

Other news: Sold a load of old cd’s today. In that recycling effort, picked up Marcus Schmickler and Hayden Chisholm’s release entitled “Amazing Daze,” which is quite good in a very niche, electro-acoustic way. Have to thank my old Professor Lawrence Fritts for developing my taste in contemporary electro-acoustic music. ‘Bout it for now.