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This blog begins just as I finish an approximately minute-long stop motion video about a golem, one made from real clay.
If you've observed the Yiddish in my posting name "Eagle Macher Squid Shmegegge," then you've probably hooked me up with some sort of motif. I'm a pretty secular, cheeseburger-eating guy, though. Jewish stuff is not a must in my films. It is a big part of my background, though. If I marry a shiksa my parents will disown me. They're just as secular as me. My mom likes pork; even I don't like pork.

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One of some key things about me is that the importance of moderation in all things feels hugely powerful right now. Thus, my current Big Zen Question (one of at least some Littler ones) revolves around the idea that holding moderation as chief in importance is an extreme itself. For now, I settle with the idea that moderation in all things is one tenet among at least some others, like those having to do with the importance of honesty, for instance. I mention this here, in the film blog, because, well, moderation in all things, right? So that affects how I make films. It's another piece of where I'm coming from here.

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"Be Good" by Tokyo Police Club. It's a song. Soon it's a video. The real reason I started this blog was to give me someplace to get my ideas off my chest. The old livejournal just isn't focused on such technical things! (If what follows seems too long and stupid, I give you permission to skip to the bold text)

Another key thing in my life is the fact that my music taste is very eclectic, or at the very least, quite in tune with the indie stuff. One of my favorite musicians is Jens Lekman. I recently read quite a bit of his amazing blog (the strange second-language diction helps keep it so, I admit), and learned a lot about where his music is coming from. And apparently he's serious, sort of! To the point though, I confess I was pretty inspired. Which is to say, I'm ripping him off and making a blog where people can come to get a better understanding of my work.

I'm not much of a musician. I was listening to another favorite, Sufjan Stevens, that night in bed. I wasn't tired and with that comes a certain impulsiveness to do stupid things like listen to music in bed instead of forcing yourself to sleep. I listened deeply to a song I had never spent much time on before, "Pittsfield," because I'm desperate for more material from this pro. I've yet to really resort to his christmas stuff, though. But, moving on, I was very deeply moved by this song. It's not Sufjan's strongest, but if you give it a chance and listen to the words, it's a prime example of his strengths. "There was a flood in the bathroom, last May. / And you kicked at the pipes when it rattled, oh the river it made," he coos about his mother or step-relative of some kind. The chorus that follows is phenomenal (I'm no music critic, you'll have to hear the song to get an idea of how it sounds. but it's beautiful). Actually, it's a song beyond beauty, it's painted on a canvas where beauty is just one color from a palate of infinite hues, shades, and saturations. How does one get to be as good as Sufjan Stevens? I wondered. I went back and listened to favorite songs of his. But, happy as I was with the beauty and the skill and, most of all, with the art of it all, I was pretty tortured. Sufjan is amazing: now what?!

I need to make art. It's something I know. My feeling on art is that art must be original and it must reveal some larger truth about anything/the universe/nothing/whatever (even if this revelation is viewer-interpreted -- once anybody gets anything out of something original, that's art). People can have personal taste in art; some things are bound to appeal more to some people than to others, but that doesn't affect whether or not something is art to begin with. Now, back to music for a bit.

I'm not much of a musician; I've taken a couple stabs at songwriting, and I know have the pen for it, but if there's such a thing as talent, I lack it for music (we've yet to truly see if I have it for anything, which is another topic). I think last night I really accepted that, musically, I shouldn't even try. I can never make anything nearly as brilliant as "Pittsfield" or Joanna Newsom's "Only Skin" or Broken Social Scene's "You Forgot It In People" or even The Unicorns' "Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?" I can hope for a few catchy songs that really speak to a strong select few. When it comes to art, bad art just won't do. Yeah, there's personal taste involved. But a lot of art sets out to say things, and makes it very clear that it sincerely wants to say them, but somehow, it just doesn't work within the medium used. As in, it's incapable of using the tools with which other people are more capable. That's what it would be like if I was to try to really make music: mediocre art at best.

I like to play with musical instruments, and yeah, talent is, I think, a thing that can be cultivated (as I say, it remains to be seen personally, though). I'm not giving up on music, so much as I'm giving up the hope of making music that truly lives up to my own standards.

I can understand what I like about music, though. Listening to music is hugely important to me, and an inspiration -- art at its best, for me, doesn't just tell you something you didn't know or notice before, but in doing so (or somehow, anyways) gets you thinking, so that you yourself drill up your own new ideas with which to lubricate your own pursuits. Music videos, though, are a disappointment, time and time again. I've never seen a music video for a song that's done for me what a good song does, let alone is better than the song. I've seen music video after music video where the director takes some fanciful film technique, uses it a whole lot, and calls that a music video. I've seen ones where the narrative described in the song is portrayed silently and disjointedly as the song plays through. I've seen ones where a narrative that has absolutely nothing to do with the song is portrayed the same way. I've seen ones where the band plays (these tend to be the most likable, but they never take advantage of all the things you can do with the camera -- some parts of music are better emphasized than just shown. similarly, some parts are better downplayed). There's an intense variety -- and yet none of them give me what I really want from a music video.

To me, a music video should be a work of film that not only matches the music, and not only shows what's sung, and not only has distinctive film technique, but is brilliant in film technique as to match and counter the musical technique. It should be a true combination of song and motion picture -- just as song at a high-art level is a combination of instrumentation and poetry, yet capable of having an effect on the listener which neither parent can independently. Music videos can be such, can't they? An art of their own. And if you think it's impossible to have an art form which crosses senses, just look at cooking. You have taste on one hand and texture (touch) on the other. Right, right? Do you dare call the culinary arts something else? Hmmmm?? Do I got this, or what!?

I think this about covers what's led me to make a music video. Why I chose "Be Good" by Tokyo Police Club can wait until tomorrow. I can say I've already outlined more or less the first 30 seconds of this two minute and six second song. More or less is key (the line that leads into the 30 sec mark is crucial, and fittingly difficult). But, tomorrow, I'll talk about it! Also, more theory on music video!

YAY I'M EIGHTEEN AND I HAVE THEORIES -- AM I TOO LATE TO BE A PRODIGY?! PLEASE, I NEED VALIDATIONNNNNNN, I GOT MOTHER ISSUESSSSSSSS... or more likely I'm just deranged. who's crazy enough to essay away like this?