Before and after...

After posting that video from my band, I thought it'd be funny to post an old video of my band from way back when (3 years ago) when we first started playing. This was long before we had any original music. We also had a different drummer. Also, our named was Kingpin at this particular show. For the longest time we could never decide on a name. We went from Sedalia to Whitehall to Kingpin to Bigfoot Wallace. There may have been more names throughout. Anyway, here is an old video of us covering the Smashing Pumpkins' "Ava Adore" for our Halloween show in 06. We wore pajamas.

Bigfoot Wallace

Here's a nice lengthy video of my band Bigfoot Wallace performing at Mosey Down Main St. this past August. I thought it would be fitting as this is my main art form. The video is almost 12 minutes. Its a nice seamless composition of an Umphrey's McGee cover, followed by an original song, followed by Pink Floyd, and then ended with another original.

Resolution>Stonk's Catastrophe>Breathe>Deep Freeze

Bigfoot Wallace | MySpace Music Videos

Strawberry

Here is yet another old flash video from my youth. Its not the best looking video, but its kind of funny. The childs voice and some of the things he says are kind of funny. Its not quite as funny as I thought it was years ago, but it brings back memories.

Strawberry

ABC

Some people might find this video offensive. It's a nice little "children's" video I remember seeing years ago back in high school. This is another one where you really just have to watch it. Once you see it, you'll know why. I thought it was somewhat appropriate as we start our flash animation project.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/flash/play/765/

Pencil Face

Here is a really bizarre video I found about a year ago maybe. Its a little short made by a SCAD student. It involves this big creepy pencil with a strange grin on its face. I tend to like weird creepy things, which is why I like this short film. I wont give too much more away. Watch it for yourself.

Rejected

For today's blog I would like to share an animation that probably a lot of people have seen. However, if you havent seen it, I think it is necessary that you do. Its a short animation piece that deals with a lot of random stick drawings in weird scenarios, saying equally weird things. It is extremely quirky and entertaining (to me at least). I remember seeing this animation back in middle school I believe. It really takes me back. Its simplicity and just plain weirdness is why I like it so much. You really just have to see it to understand, so here it is.

Justin Maller

Just thought I'd take a moment to show some art from Justin Maller, as I will be doing my presentation on him this week. He works mostly with photoshop to create his illustrations. His work has a very sharp, sleek, modern look to it. A lot of his work has similar concepts and trends, which I will talk more in-depth about during the presentation.

The story behind my Prjoect 4

I thought I'd take a little time to discuss the story behind my project. Im going to be making a site with some visual depictions of some of the songs from Joe's Garage by Frank Zappa. The album tells the story of a guy named Joe who discovers rock music, and starts playing all the time in his garage. He finds a girlfriend named Mary, who is catholic. But Mary soon ditches Joe to go on the road with a band called Toad-O. She has sex with the band and crew. The band eventually abandons her, and she enters a wet t-shirt contest in order to win some cash so she can go home. Meanwhile, Joe finds out about Mary's exploits and ends up having sex with a girl named Lucille. Not long after, it hurts when he pees, and he thinks he got it from a toilet seat.

Its quite a humorous story and album, and should be enjoyable to recreate visually.

Grants for Individual Artists

As I am a bit strapped for ideas, I thought I'd just briefly talk about a topic that I just finished writing a paper on for my Public Policy in the Arts class. Back in 1996, the NEA was forced to stop giving out grants to individual artists for a number of reasons, including the fact that many conservatives were upset with the funding of obscene art. Our question was to answer whether or not we thought the NEA should be able to reinstate these grants. I argued that they should, because in order to fully extend the arts to everyone and make great art available to all, we shouldn't stifle exclude certain types of art. A lot of individual artists are capable of contributing to society with their art, and many may not have the funds to fulfill their visions. Its important to take risks in order to progress in the arts and to maintain the arts existance.

What are your thoughts?

Dreamweaver Idea

For our upcoming Dreamweaver project, it took me a while to come up with something to do. The project is so open ended it almost makes it more difficult to figure what to do. I'm pretty sure I finally found something, however. Im going to create visual representations of a few of the songs from Frank Zappa's "Joe's Garage". Its a concept album, and each song has a distinct theme, so it should make it easy to develop artistic visual interpretations of the songs. A few of the song titles I intend to illustrate are Joe's Garage, Catholic Girls, Wet T-Shirt Nite, and Why Does it Hurt When I Pee? I think it should provide a fun and comical project that should be enjoyable to do.

Cool Sites

Most of the sites I go to aren't visually stimulating, but I'll try to think of some...

One site I frequent is the site for the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, which is held in Manchester Tennesee every June. The site, www.bonnaroo.com , is actually a pretty nice looking site. Every year they redesign the layout, adding new Bonnaroo-inspired art. It has a very modern look to it, with a lot of color. Theres video on the main page, as well as streaming Bonnaroo Radio. The site has a lot of cool functions too. You can create an account and have your own page, kind of like a facebook where you can interact with the online Bonnaroo community. One of the coolest features, however, is how you can create your own Bonnaroo schedule each year when the artist schedule has been released. You can customize which shows you plan to attend, then compare your schedule with your friends. It will show which shows both you and your friend are attending.

The site has really blossomed over the past couple years into more than just a website regarding festival news.

Is it art?

I've always been a fan of artwork. But at the same time, I can also be quite critical of different types of art. Often times I will see a piece of art, and instantly think to myself, "Are you kidding me? That's not art." (this reminds me of a time when I was looking at an art exhibit and saw a battery glued to a green-painted canvas, and I couldnt believe the price it was going for because I thought it was utterly rediculous). I realize that anything can be considered art, even if I don't like it or understand it, so I try to give everything a fair look. An example of this can be found on the Art 21 site by PBS by artist Mark Dion. With this particular photo, I personally don't understand the point of the outfits on mannequins. I think to myself, "If this is art, then every mannequin in every store must be considered art". But then again, I don't consider myself an artist so what do I know? For all I know, this could be amazing art. I guess that's what art is all about though, appealing to different people and ways of thought. Maybe some people understand it, and thats great. Art would cease to be artistic if EVERYONE felt the same way about all types of art.

http://www.pbs.org/art21/slideshow/popup.php?slide=1388#

Album Art Photography

Hello. This week I'd like to share some photographs inspired by one of my favorite albums. The album is Mantis by Umphreys's McGee. The album cover and other photos were taken and designed by photographer Mark Blanchette. These paritcular photos were made to reflect one of the themes of the album, which dealt with an all-seeing, higher power. This first picture in the portfolio, which was used as the album cover, was inspired when Mark heard the lyrics "It's not a cage if you're feeling like a resident" from the song "Cemetery Walk". I find the images to be very powerful.

http://www.grymwish.com/

About Myself

My name is Brian Mazzara. I'm 21 years old and from West Lafayette, Indiana.

If I had to pick one thing that influences and inspires me, it would definitely be music. Music has been an integral part of my life for quite some time, but more so throughout the past 4-5 years. I play guitar in a band with my best friends. I get so much joy out of it. I started playing music as a kid on the piano, but I didnt enjoy it. I played saxophone throughout middle and high school and was quite good at it. I picked up the guitar about halfway through high school, as my favorite music was guitar driven. My band's website is www.myspace.com/bigfootwallace

Nothing inspires me more than my family, friends, and music. There's nothing I'd rather do than spend time with my family and go see concerts with my friends. My favorite thing in the world to do is attend concerts, especially Umphrey's McGee

( http://www.myspace.com/umphreysmcgee ) . Since Nov. 07, I have seen them 12 times, and it will be 13 when they come to Bloomington this October. There is no bigger rush for me than the anticipation of each song throughout the show. I was also fortunate enough to catch Phish 5 times this summer, which was a blast as well. I love music festivals as well, and have attended Bonnaroo 4 times. These are the types of things that get me really pumped.