Sunday, October 28, 2007

Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday! Happy...err...Hallowe'en!

Gotcha, '80s Zombie Girl!
I'm typing like a gimp because I actually managed to bruise a finger on somebody's can of gray hairspray. I might look like a fearless zombie killer in this picture but I'm actually a pussycat with sensitive skin.

First off, a few pictures from Hallowe'en at Club Abstract. As much fun as it was, I really must relocate MY birthday night because I don't think Hallowe'en is budging. There are too many people out and about and the lines for the bathrooms are too long; I literally left early because I didn't want to cross my legs for half an hour. But the girl dressed as Marie Antoinette was one of my favourites, as was Jodi Brown (above), who actually does my hair.

Besides all that, here's the surprise I've been dropping hints about: an extremely rushed and way-too-sober "mini drag show" recorded just before I left the apartment:



I'm still experimenting with so many elements in this process -- lighting, location, camera settings, frame rates, codecs, conversion, editing -- so I can only say that they'll get better. I hope. In this case the show is DEFINITELY stolen by Zsa Zsa, who decided to sit in and watch me make a fool out of myself.

My birthday present to myself was a new digital camera, a tiny little thing with a million settings. During my experiments I have digitized some old Canadiana off of quarter-century-old videotapes, and I've turned up some real gems (with more to come).

By far the brightest, most sparkly gem is this footage from "As You Like It," a mid-'80s Rogers community cable program starring Wilf and Donna, consummate Mennonites. Every week they'd take telephone requests, and EVERYBODY wanted to hear them do this signature tune. Wilf and Donna are a real treat and I'm proud to bring their brilliance to the world.

5 comments:

Adrian said...

Ok, that Wilf and Donna thing is disturbing.

The editing is hilarious though! The creative use of the blackout and vignette effects are Oscar worthy.

I think Donna's mouth is what really bothered me though, I don't think I have ever seen one so small, she looks like a caricature.

Adam Thornton said...

I got to chat with one of the cameramen; apparently they were all volunteers, and they loved Wilf & Donna because they were game for anything. So they'd just fool around and try out little video tricks. Oscar-worthy indeed! Especially if there are Oscars for cable access programming.

Donna's mouth is small, and it's overwhelmed by her enormous glasses. She used to wear her slippers into the studio. We know this because the cameramen would occasionally pan down to focus in on them.

VanillaJ said...

Also, Donna's hands were notoriously small. Small enough to reach inside your ribcage and steal your heart.

Adam Thornton said...

She also had a rough tongue capable of separating flesh from bone.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure I wanna know how you came across THAT little tidbit!