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Kind visitor to the blog “ MEOW MEOW ” had this totally fun video to contribute to the post about the Gene Kelly video post we put up the other day (see below a couple days ago). In this video, choreographer Lauren Thomas takes a video of herself dancing from when she was 4 years old and learns her 4 year old dance. Totally cute. In case you are just joining, we are working on a dance and video piece that was inspired by the Gene Kelly one and were asking for inspiration from yall out there..


In other news and progress, Colin Ernst, the creator of the in-progress WEEBLE WOBBLE (see a down below also) brought in a rough prototype of an instrument that will be attached to the weeble wobble (there will be a bunch of sound making contraptions on it. Yes Colin is insane. Yes we are going to make music with the damn thing.

Instrument Prototype from joshua kohl on Vimeo.

Allison posted a link to this and a bunch of time lapse footage of slugs. Incredible!
it was from THIS SITE

Time Lapse Slugs from joshua kohl on Vimeo.

This morning’s rehearsal is focused on the creation of our “Mother Mothra” scene. Haruko, Leo and I are looking at excting ways to use video. So, inspired by Gene Kelly (see below), we want to create a choreography between Haruko and “Haruko”. We are just getting our feet wet. This scene is an argument between the girl character and her evil “MOTHER MOTHRA” - a shape shifting creature who says

“Im the mother you erased,

Im your father long lost,

Im your twin sister from you dream,

Im anything you want me to be.”

HERE IS A LITTLE CUT FROM A SKETCH RECORDING (its for the new album, but this is not the version that will appear on the album - just a little snippet played on guitar and pantrhastic harp zither with Haruko singing)

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We are thinking about ways that they can interact. If anyone knows any really cool video tricks that can be accomplished with this as a live performance, wed love to hear about it!

COLIN AND HARUKO have been working on this Weeble Wobble dress for the past month. Now new movements are becoming possible. This was a couple of days ago. Dizzying! Next is to work on the musical aspects of the sculpture and the dress covering.

The Weeble in the Vortex 1 from Colin Ernst on Vimeo.

Haruko and I were at the studio working on the slug dance. Working with bits of mandy’s crochet “slime trails”, thinking about painting patterns on the ground in “slime”. Perhaps an aerial view projected of the pattern of the slime. The music is of course a very rough sketch just to get some ideas of what will work, moods, sounds, combinations. I liked the way it was cycling (even though it was doing so just because I was repeating a loop of recorded music). Somehow the cycles guide the attention for me. Like the cycles of the mind when concentrating. Sometimes very present, then rushing thoughts, then drifting away, and then suddenly back to a highly present state.

slug dance sketch from joshua kohl on Vimeo.

After rehearsal, I noticed a snail in the grass, grabbed the camera. Their movement is so powerful and strange. In this video, it is amazing to watch the way the snail moves over hard dry blades of grass. Somehow the combination of the soft wet body oozing over the harsh dry grass is really strange…

We are looking for facts, stories, amazing images and videos about SLUGS (or snails). If anyone finds some really great stuff, PLEASE send it along via this blog! This will all serve as inspiration for movement, sounds, vibes, feelings and concepts.

Snail in the Grass from joshua kohl on Vimeo.

THIS IS SUPER GENIUS Colin Ernst’s Weeble Wobble dress (in-progress). It is a pretty amazing piece of work. Eventually this will be fitted with playable instrument parts.

These videos are tests of the 2nd version of the thing. The first version had a center of gravity that was too close to the ground.

It is scarry to watch, but GOOOD to watch!

The biggest challenge is going to be the design of the harness to attach to Haruko. Does anybody have an experience with a harness that holds VERY VERY Firmly to the pelvis with ZERO give? That will be the key here.

Weeble Wobble Test 2 from joshua kohl on Vimeo.

Untitled from joshua kohl on Vimeo.

Weeble Wobble 4 from joshua kohl on Vimeo.

Mandy Greer (the collaborating artist on the slug princess film) throws crocheting parties to get hundreds of yards of crocheted texture for her costumes, sculptures, etc. She needs many many hands to make this happen. No one human could build a 15 foot hight chandelier out of crochet in such a quick time. So it is really fun to get together and she teaches everyone how to do it, and we hang out, listen to music and crochet. Good times. For folks in the Seattle area, keep your eye out for announcements for these parties, wed love to see you there.

The kind and brilliant duo Tamara Weikel (vocalist/dj extrodinaire) and Josh (Stewie) Stewart (former DAE composer trumpeter turned oceanography student and future savior of the seas) turned their house over to Mandy and Haruko for an amazing CROCHET PARTY. Ripping miles of yellow fabric and crocheting it into strange and beautiful knots and twists of fabric for the construction of the Slug Princess costume and various slug film texture and material. Some folks came by for an hour or two, OTHERS STAYED FOR THE FULL 10 HOURS!!!!! Amazing! Thanks to all!

HERE ARE TAMARA’s PHOTOS FROM THE 1st and 2nd Crochet Parties:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeasart/sets/72157606073730643/

OK, so we did our best. We made a valliant attempt at recording the first tracks of this album at TUBS, the old closed down hot tub joint. There is tons of space and multiple different sounding rooms. Seemed like a really ideal place to work on the recording project.

We tried everything to make the rooms sound good. It just seemed like there was no way to make it work. We tried to damp the drywall with cloth, we tried everything.

POl drank lots of coffee.

Robb set up his control room.

Worked on the drum sounds…. BUT SADLY. The room just didn’t have a good enough sound…….

BYE BYE TUBS! WELL MISS YOU. Moving on to a new location tomorrow…