Wednesday, 30 September 2009

• Mike's Video Blog #11: Songs and Poetry

  Mike's Video Blog #11: Songs and Poetry. 10 min. 34 sec.
  Poetry reading and song performance. Video includes 3 poems and 2 songs from the 70s and 80s.

  poems (links to the poems on the ElectricPoetry website.
  Symphony for One (1983) ,State of Mind (1983), Sober Sarcasm (1983)

  songs
  Wings of Dust (1971), Child of Light (1977)

  
  Director's Commentary: In case you haven't noticed, on the sidebar to the left of my blog are my various Mike's Video Blog entries. These programs contain credit sequences, high production values, and a variety of different subjects. I never seem to be able to just aim a camera at my "talking head" and say a few words. Some of the blogs are scripted. Some detail the moments in my life.  I like my video blog entries to be diverse and entertaining. Some of them are travelogues. (Or "travelblogues, as I call them.) The "newsworthy" video blogs, which recount what's happening in my life at the moment, usually last about a half hour, and are separated into three parts, like Mike's Video Blogs #6 "Almost Homeless", and  #9, "Mike's Extreme Makeover". I have to update the sidebar, I see, as it concludes with #8. (A rather interesting entry showing my hikes up "The Silver Lake Steps" made a few months before my orthopeadist put me on crutches!) The last videoblog, which I created right before going into the hospital, is #10, "My Little House", a two part (20 minute) blog recounting of my move in February. It's the lead entry on my website AllthingsMike, and was the last really "creative" thing I'd done online.

  I wanted to make another MikeVideo for inclusion in the blogpage, esp. after recounting my video history in the repost of "Creation, Accomplishment, and Fame" a few entries ago. Mike's Video Blog #11  was to be a "showcase" for the songs I've written, mostly in high school and college. I figured, as usual, that I'd be able to dash one of these off real quickly, and get it online. I think I'm going to be posting this late Sunday morning, so the complete video took about a day and a half to create. It is more of a "poetry reading" than a showcase of my songs, however, and I'll explain why in the next couple of paragraphs.

  (I always wonder why some of my entries don't generate a lot of comments, and this is a good reason. I'm presenting a 10 minute video, and writing a long commentary. However, I want to also state that for me, blog entries are like magazine articles, and they stay online, so readers can always schedule a time to visit, when they can take the time to soak it all in, and they don't have to feel they have to read and experience everything at once. I'm trying to write shorter blogs, but when I'm creative with video, I like to talk about it too, in these "commentaries.") On Saturday morning, I set up the green screen and the camera, and I figured I'd just be able to go back to the songs I wrote, and sing them. Simple, eh? Well, when confronted with the camera, as usual, I either couldn't remember the tunes I wrote (over 35 years ago in some cases mind you, and not really thought about for years) or if I could, I couldn't sing on key or carry the tune when singing a capella.

  I shot over two hours of performance, and degenerated into just sitting in a chair and reading some of my poems. I would start a song, and get the first verse down, then forget the refrain, which for the most part I never wrote down, because the songs were written as poetry in the first place. I've got a nice backlog of songs and poetry readings on my hard drive now, and if for some reason, this Mike's Video Blog is a "hit" with anyone at all, I do have more content from which to create more videos.

  There are some Xangans who have made a cottage industry of reading their poems online, but they usually perform one per video. Not me. I figured I'd do a "spectacular" with examples from a number of my poems and songs. Well, some of my poems are longer than some of the other poetry on Xanga, so I began to notice that I had to keep cutting the video, when I first assembled it. (Frist cut: 27 minutes.) The finished product contains two songs and three poems. I begin with a poem, so as not to turn off any viewers right away, following a little story about my mother and country singer Ernie Tubbs. (which possibly should have been cut, but I've never recounted the story on my blog, and always thought it interesting.)  I didn't pick my best performance for the first song either, but "Wings of Dust", a song I wrote about a hopeless little girl in high school who had a crush on a friend of mine, which wasn't reciprocated, is performed okay, I think, even though I lose it about halfway through. Some of my comments that I can't carry a tune are included in the videoblog footage. (I'm fully aware I'd be gonged on any talent show, dear readers, so bear with me.)

  The second song I included, "Child of Light" has four verses and a refrain. I couldn't remember how to sing the refrain, even after I remembered the words. (The chorus was only in my head, as it turns out.) I did perform the four verses, but had to cut the last three for time, so I possibly shouldn't even have included the song at all. (And the sad thing is that I think it's a good song!)

  This video is a little over 10 minutes long, and includes two more poetry readings. I didn't create many "takes" of the poem performance, only redoing if I flubbed a word. I'm reading from my original poetry volumes, and as stated, the "set" was backed by a green screen. I was surpirsed that I used almost two hour tapes and the fully charged battery ran out. It's late September, but it's still pretty warm here  in SoCal, so I got the performance finished by noon. I had all the windows and doors closed, and lights on, so it got pretty hot in the 'studio'. I didn't want my neighbors to hear my futile attempts at warbling, esp. during the less than satisfactory takes.

  Saturday afternoon I went down to the pool with my neighbor, and after dinner I began editing the video. I was up till after midnight doing the assembling, for which I use Sony Vegas video editing software, my favorite of all the editing software I've sampled. (Except for Avid of course, but I can't afford a 1000 dollar program, natch.) This morning, I imported the backgrounds to replace the green screen. I might have been a bit hasty, in order to get the video online before noon today, and I realized I certainly should not have worn a checkered shirt. This means some of the foreground footage "bleeds through" to the backgrounds. Most of the backgrounds are the "ElectricPoetry" images I began creating for my Yahoo Group ElectricPoetry in 2003, and continue to make for my ElectricPoetry posts here on Xanga. A side note: In the final poem, "Sober Sarcasm" I use the term "electric" in  line "I'm electric with ease", a prefix for my poetry I've been using for a long time, and why the name of my poetry website, is indeed, ElectricPoetry.

  I hope you enjoy the video. This is the very first time I've read my poetry online. Also the first time I've presented any of my songs. At one time in the far past, I would lend out my poetry volumes (the originals mind you) to musician friends. Nobody ever found any inspiration to turn any of my pieces into songs, so the songs I've written are the only instances one has of hearing my words set to music. (Too bad I''m not a better singer, or else this exercise would have worked a bit better.) Oh well. HERE is the link to the higher quality YouTube version. It took three tries before I got the present vid uploaded to Xanga! (and the audio seems to off by about a 1/2 second! 

  Originally posted: September 27, 2009 1:47 PM

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