Clean Water, Land, and Legacy from troy zimmerman on Vimeo.

UPDATE: this amendment passed! awesome possum!

halloween is totally almost here, and i don’t think i’ve watched the Nightmare Before Christmas once. i shall change that tonight maybe?

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even more housekeeping. if you’ll notice on the bottom of this post (even for the feeders) there are several links; digg, stumbleupon, facebook, google, etc. so go ahead and click if you feel so inclined. make me famous, that’s all i ask. (well, as famous as a blog can make you).

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as some have noticed from following my tweets, i won second place in the Vote Yes MN Film Contest this past month. it was a hasty venture, but i’m very proud of the overall product. also, Andrew Bird granted me gratis use of a song of his (‘The Water Jet Cilice’ off Fingerlings 3). on that note, big thanks to everyone that helped get those rights and licensing to all of that.

expect a video of it soon.

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i’m not trying to say this as an all encompassing statement, but this might be one of the better sites on the internet: http://www.43folders.com/

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what is music? seriously.

in the recent advent of musical games we’ve seen created then copied then cursed on xbox360, wii, and ps3, it’ve really started to wonder what is drawing so many people towards the simple rhythmic flicking of a plastic tab. why not create actual music on an instrument? wouldn’t it be more fulfilling? well, there’s two sides to that story.

when broken down into simple mechanics, “music” is simply a cause and effect: do an action, hear a tone. pluck a string, hear a tone. purse your lips, hear a tone. press a key, hear a tone. do almost anything, and hear that beautiful tone. put those tones into a sequence that our minds (for some reason) finds pleasing, and suddenly music is made.

over the course of years starting i don’t know when, we’ve made music more complicated (in a sense, but that’s another thought entirely). meaning it’s become somewhat of a daunting thing to learn music to recreate the tones and rhythms we find pleasing AT THAT MOMENT (i wouldn’t pickup a guitar and expect to be covering david bowie in a matter of minutes). music is also enormously complex in a mathematical sense, meaning knowing what notes go well together, and imo WHY those notes go together, is also a deterrent for people seeking to expand musically.

rock band and guitar hero cut these hurdles out altogether; with the simple tap of a pad or flick of a tab, you can create music that you know and find pleasing. it’s a simpler input for a more complicated output.

music is an expression; an expression such as acting is very much fueled by the audience, whereas music doesn’t have tangible expressions to relate to, such as language. music has a physical and emotional attachment. so, illuminate the difficulty of producing such complex and pleasing tones, and you have rock band. it’s essentially doing the same thing as playing a real instrument.

this is in no way saying “screw real music, just play video game music.” it’s exactly the opposite: pursue music. don’t cut out these games as entertainment for apes. all they’re doing is showing people what playing is like, but giving them so much more in return.

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it’s videos like this that make me think cats could beat up an old lady, take her purse, and still be as adorable as ever

holy shit. what a mid-september i’m having.

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fuck those “more…” tags. i’m going to put the whole posts up.

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last weekend, my friend shaylie informed me that they were extending the deadline to a short film contest, the grand prize being $1000, along with play time at the Walker, and maybe some public television air-time (most likely on TPT or something). so, i set to work.

the problem i most encounter when filming/taping things is the hurdle of me not owning a camera. seeing as it’s like a musician not owning his or her instrument, things can sometimes be a bit tough. but, john recently received a gift from adrian and co., which (you guessed it) was a camera.

i filmed most of the afternoon and early evening on monday and tuesday; monday was cut off by a flat bike tire (see previous post) and tuesday cut off by some hot, uncensored zombie action. i ended up grabbing only 5 interviews when i had hoped to get upwards of 15. but, people have lives and i understand that. wednesday afternoon was spent capturing the footage, again cut-off by a rehearsal, but i got to fit a little editing in before bed (midnight thirty).

then fate brought thursday. i had a show that night, and decided to take a well deserved nap during the afternoon, then resume editing when i got home around 10:00. which i did. for the proceeding 6.5 hours. placing my bedtime squarely at 4:30am or 5:00am, with a rising time of 7:00am. yuck city.

the following day i had a very unexpected spring in my step. but, it sadly left me after i had to bike to st paul to deliver the dvd before the deadline of 6:00pm. returning home, i rested my eyes for around half an hour only to wake up for yet another show. after the laughs had been delivered… i collapsed for 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

i’d better win $1000.

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for above video, i needed some music toot sweet. original music is a tall order when a schedule was this pressed. so, i sought out some licensed tunes.

now, completely as a “work your way down from the top” frame of mind, i gave the folks at Fat Possum Records a call and asked about possible gratis use of an Andrew Bird song (The Water Jet Cilice off of Fingerlings 3). long story short, i got it.

i’m pretty sure it was thanks to the theme of the video being of a positive and environmental stance. but still, that’s fucking amazing.

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was last night worth it? didn’t get to bed till three, spent $25.00 i don’t have, might make things awkward in the future, maybe missed out on the better opportunity … yes. yes it was.

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i’ve been without a digital camera (the snapshot type) for about three weeks now. i normally haul it around as a outlet for sharing images and frames i see. in the moment, just as they are, and nothing more. but, my buddy steve has been busy with school, and i with life in general, so it’s been hard for both of us to meet up and right the mistake of me leaving it in the back of his truck when coming back from a camping trip. i’m looking forward to that.

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i really want a sony viao. like, bad.