One1ii Had Moved!!!

Hey, same blog, new location

Cows Come Home To NOTSOX

Let me tell you a story, a story about a place, and about a group of people that I love. Anybody who reads this blog knows that I lived in Burlington, VT for about 5 years. So far the years I spent there were the happiest in my life. Here is a place where you know your neighbor. People are so friendly, honest, open, and accepting that sometimes, to an outsider, it can be unnerving. When I first moved there I was confused as to why cars would stop if you were standing on the side of the road. It took me month to realize that they were waiting for me to cross. It's the type of place where at the end of the day kindness and human decency trumps all.

In that city there is a small but devoted group of kids that make movies and documentaries. They are called NOTSOX. They just finished a project about a public art piece that really captures the spirit of the city, and I think it captures their spirit as well. Working with them when I was up in Vermont was one of my chief pleasures. I'm proud to have been able to help them a little with this project as well.

This is the way that Filmmaking should be. Please take the time to watch their short. You'll be glad you did.

Our Cow Comes Home from Jeff White on Vimeo.

Link to NOTSOX

Satire, the other white meat.

Review of The Radio Bean and ¡Duino! (Duende)

Radio Bean on the Web

What's the deal?: Mention Vermont to any east coaster and certain topics are sure to come up: Ben & Jerry's, Phish, communes, and great skiing. Locals know different. Just off the beaten path in the Queen city on North Winooski Ave is the venerable Radio Bean, a hipster institution well known for their heady cocktail menu, damn fine coffee, and great live music. At a certain point though, even the most bohemian of locals is going to have to eat, and now they need to go no further than right next door. Lee Anderson, the community driven, Radio Bean owner has now expanded into the the former tortilla restaurant next door. ¡Duino! (Duende) is a hotspot of international street food at prices even a poet can afford. (I.E. very, very reasonable.)

Field Notes: Relying as much as they can on local ingredients ¡Duino! (Duende) manages to put a new spin on old favorites. Their "Frietjes" are bomb, even boasting homemade ketchup with a hint of banana, the perfect balance between delicious saltiness and exotic sweetness. Another strong menu offering is the "Kofta Slider" a locally farmed lamb burger mixed with couscous, spices and dried fruit that is served on middle eastern manakeesh, with fried onions, labnhi and arugula. In a similar vein is the "Seperatist Slider." Touching on the unique character and rebellious leanings of Vermont, this slider is a far cry from the Kofta. Grilled beef with red onion maple marmalade ketchup, arugula, and homemade dill pickles makes for a savory indulgence. On my last visit I opted for the "Shin Ramyun." The powerfully spicy Korean soup with delicious traditional noodles. The slightly crisp vegetables give the spicy broth a great balance and the kimchi is some of the best I've had from the states.
The cocktail menu is innovative without being pretentious, and they have a fairly wide selection of beers on tap. My favorite is the "Hot Tottie." ¡Duino! and the Radio Bean took the golden girls favorite of whisky, honey, and lemon a step further with a twist of ginger. It's a cold and flu killer, and the perfect drink to get you through the cold Vermont nights. The real star of the cocktail menu though is the "Five Dollar Shake." An ingenious blend of stout and espresso with a swirl of maple syrup that perches on the stout's foam head. It's a grown up, caffeinated pint of heaven.

The second best thing about ¡Duino!, next to the food, is the ambiance. The decor, which is mostly scavenged and hand built, calls to mind a combination of beatnik paradise and mexican brothel, which may or may not be the same thing. Making an effort to be sustainable and local friendly is something that seems to be at the top of the list at ¡Duino! (Duende), and that helps make it the heart of Burlington's thriving music and art community.


Menu Highlights:
"Evil Jungle Princess Ceviche"
A selection of fresh fish imported by Wood Mountain Fish Company marinated in citrus juices with avocado, thai basil, lemongrass & mangoes served with crispy things $10

"Old World Burro"
Avocado, queso blanco, black beans, sour cream, & salsa bandera in a flour tortilla $7

"Flourless Chocolate Cake"
A rich dark chocolate cake with a strawberry rhubarb zinfandel sauce topped with fresh whipped cream $5

Special Events:
Live music every night of the week
Monday: No guitar open mic
Tuesday: Honky Tonk night! A raucous celebration with a serious dose of down home fun. Frequent contributors are Gordon Stone, from the Gordon Stone Band and Mike Gordon from Phish.
Friday and Saturday: Local and touring acts, check the Radio Bean's website for specifics

If movie posters were honest....

More Hilarity Here

RIP Dennis Hopper 1936-2010

Article About His Death
Fishing With John: The Dennis Hopper Episode

For Allen G

If knowledge is power than I am building a bomb in the garage. I go out there after work and family dinner, faithfully tinkering with my city killer. In America, nobody notices, because the rich are busy pretending to be poor as if poverty were street credit in a game you feign not to win. The poor too though, are counterfeiting wealth, a cubic zirconium nightmare. They front knowing the ladder's rules but the real manual comes at the price of a silver spoon. Yes, flesh has always been currency but we are running out, and with inflation there is more silicon, more plastic, and we are going into debt. Silver spoons make for broken teeth.

I am looking for special deals on answers at James Dean's five and dime. I'm going to run off and join a circus, train swine to dance in dresses. It won't be hard, even a pig owns a dress these days. Everybody takes the train into the city, they pine, they ail on vinyl seats. Ever take the train into the city? Commute sweat smells like anxiety. It smells like sickly yellow and formaldehyde. Even a corpse hates the smell of formaldehyde. All the children on the subway are malformed and have demerits. But not the good kind that makes you look like a badass. The kind that means when you grow up, you'll still have issues and they wont be in style anymore.

Nobody in my generation wants to be present, preferring a state of perpetual adolescence. I advise youth to die before you get old. Who takes that advice? The bald eagle's young are cultural cannibals. Princely avifauna. Do you know about the vulture? It gorges itself until it is too heavy and then has to vomit to fly. Bulimia bird. They will reprocess dead punk, dead dance music; pretend that reassembly means transcendence.

The rain pelts these old streets, and the smell of wet asphalt perfuses everything, and everything is washed down the drain. At night, I crawl on my belly and siphon gas from car's tanks. Just to make it north to freedom, to see my love. This love is pure from faith, eyes closed echoing forward, entwined by the sound.

If knowledge is power than I am building a bomb in my garage.
Such a dirty bomb.

Errol Morris called it the greatest commercial of all time.

The Most Awesome and Epic Local Commercial Ever

Tom Waits and Jim Jarmusch

2 out of my 3 favorite guys



The third being a certain "last prophet of rock"

Soho-tos

Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Interning in Film and Television

1. The company does not own you.

2. Sometimes saying "no" is the right decision.

3. Common sense is your best friend.

4.Asking if you can observe someone's process shows a desire to learn.

5. Even if the people around you aren't using it, etiquette is key.

6. Be nice to the other interns, even though you are competing against them, in a few years you'll be getting each other work.

7. Don't be afraid to tell someone what you did, a task unnoticed is a task that never happened.

8. Remember that you are a free human being, not a slave. (Sounds stupid, but you will forget)

9. Even the most menial of tasks have the capacity to showcase your abilities if you do them well.

10. When in doubt, ears open, mouth shut.

11. If you see a serious mistake being made, don't be loud and obnoxious in pointing it out. Quietly take the person next up on the chain aside and tell them. This is called having tact. They may get the momentary glory, but guess who that person calls the next time they need someone. You.

12. You are the lowest on the food chain.

13. If someone gives you their two-cents, take it under advisement.

14. Don't "correct" anyone.

15. Charm is superficial. Deal with it.

16. Separate your "work self" from your "home self." It will help to keep you sane.

17. Someone is waiting to take your place, this is both good and bad.

18. People can tell when you're being fake.

19. Listen.

20. Never point out the inadequacies of superiors.

21. If someone is trying to mentor you, let them. Even if you have to pretend that ideas like "networking is important" are new to you.

Cross Cultural Hilarity

One of the things that I really enjoy about my internship is the fact that I've met alot of cool people who are interested in the same business that I am. Some of the interns are like me; post-graduates who are looking to break into the business. Others are college students looking for experience and credit towards their degrees. Some are local, and others are international. The group itself is diverse, and though everyone speaks english, sometimes there are some really great interactions. Out of all of us though Steve has the best misunderstandings. Let me be perfectly clear, the kid is great and his english is, by and large, flawless. However it just seems like he has the most hilarious misunderstandings.

My favorite was today:

Steve and I are headed to the subway, to go on an uptown errand

Steve gestures to the downtown subway entrance.

Steve: Come on, let's go down.

Me: No man, we'll have to use the underpass and it smells like hobo pee.

Steve: What's a hobo?

Me: Umm.. A hobo is...

Steve: No wait! I know. It's those little guys with big feet in Lord of the Rings right?

Me: ::laughing:: That's a hobbit.

Steve: Oh yeah...



More as it comes

LINKS!


The Feverbreakers!
Hungry Man Productions
Funky Pumpkin Productions

RAINCOATS - Fairytale in the Supermarket

*Further Tales From The Flunkie Pool*

"This stuff will kill you, but it's loaded with fun!" - The Cramps "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns"

...
Sometimes I'm blown away by the duality within myself that I ignored; and how in my spurning of it, how much of myself I lost.
…

I met Helen, and old friend of my aunt's on 23rd and 7th today. She started her own production company a couple decades ago and is now a damn successful producer. Sitting in the Starbucks waiting for her I have to admit that I was expecting someone a little more straight-laced than the woman who showed up. With a head of curly blonde hair and the kinetic energy of a coiled spring Helen seemed fun and far less stuck up than a lot of the other producers I'd met so far. We talked shop, I told her about what I wanted to do with my life, told her that I "couldn't not write" which is a mess of double negatives but just flows so well that I can't resist it.

At the end of our little pow-wow Helen had pretty much promised to call me in a few weeks when some more work came up, gave me a bunch of numbers out of her blackberry for casting people and said she might be able to hook up some freelance writing for me. All good things.

I may just make this crazy idea of mine work. I want to be like Jarmusch, Tarantino, and Lynch. (Not in personality, just in the whole "writer, director, producer" thing) I'm a control freak, I know that. But I've got to learn to be a charming one or I'm never gonna make it. I know all this stuff is just a game, and it's one where they don't tell you the rules. But I think that just maybe I'm beginning to figure it out.

For My Regina

rhea rhea regina lacrimosa icarus it’s our child-song you keep making me repeat the nonsense phrase because it tastes good in your mouth. Like a full meal of sounds, even if the parts don’t go together, like the beets and the ice cream we’ll pass off as a two-course meal before we go out drinking.

Contrast our healthful endeavor to the junk food noise of the 2-train. To sit in a sea of the terminally hip and simply terminal. Rocket underground back into the fractal where you can be an asshole because, Seriously look at this motherfucking jacket. Do you know how much it’s worth? Do you know how much I PAID for it? …at least those are the words on the street.

rhea rhea regina lacrimosa icarus what can we give the city that it doesn’t already have? Maybe you can offer it your good looks, but you spent them at the supermarket, and now you just look referential. On the corner the rain will soak us through, wrench us sideways, but in a city of everyone most people came prepared and we can hitch rides under the oversized umbrellas of day traders all the way out to where we need to be, which is nowhere yet and that’s fine.

Hey momma I was thinking, just give the city your phrase like a gift, like a sacrifice. Like a barley and oat cake, maybe it will get us past the dogs at the door. Pay the ferryman, pay the cabdriver, remember your jacket, break change. rhea rhea regina lacrimosa icarus

Babydoll, those words were from you, and I want to keep them, hold them, just my own, since the only thing you can give me now is now anyway.

Matt, 2004

resume'

2010 demo reel

Christa Pagliei's 2010 Demo Reel from Chris Pagliei on Vimeo.

Macaroni Sunday

The link below is to a script for a super-short dialogue project I'm shooting at the beginning of March to contrast with my more avant-garde stop motion piece Four Girls. Between the two, and waiting tables, my schedule is getting kind of hectic but in a really great way. I've never appreciated my insomnia more!

Fair warning, it seems googledocs messes with the format a bit, but it's all there.

Script!

How each part will proceed...

I.
(Vomit into flowers)
Pull back from white
The subject (A) leans against the frame of the door, and attempts to unlock it but is obviously having difficulty. Finally (A) enters the apartment. (A) leans against a wall, and slides down it falling over. (A) closes his eyes and a slight shade of green spreads out over (A)’s face. (A) vomits purple velvet with flowers on it. The flowers begin to grow from the pool of velvet.
Zoom into black

II.
Pull back from black
(Sing back the dark, pray)
A girl enters a bedroom, obviously depressed. She sits on the edge of the bed, and looks about the room. Pushing herself backwards, she moves onto the bed, knees to her chest in the corner of the room. (Bed Against a wall)The light around her begins to narrow, like a spotlight. She drops her knees and straightens herself, back leaning against the wall. She breathes in, and then out. On the exhalation of breath black tendrils crawl up the blank wall behind her, pushing back the circle of darkness around her. When tendrils have grown to take up the whole wall and the room is full of light again, the girl directly addresses the camera
Zoom into black

III.
(Severed)
Pull Back From Black
(B) walks into a bedroom and sits down at the mirror. (B) gazes into the mirror and begins to brush her hair absently. It is revealed that the mirror that (B) is looking into doesn’t provide a real reflection but rather (SOMETHING UTTERLY BRILLIANT). Moving behind the mirror the gaze is transferred. (The mirror looks at her) (B) bites off her fingers at the second knuckle, and the proceeds to pull clean silk ribbons from the wounds.
Zoom Into White

IV.
(Blood into Butterflies)
Pull Back From White
A young woman sits in a chair next to a small table with a jar on it. She looks almost coy. Glancing around her surroundings she puts her hands down at her side palms facing out head turned slightly to the side like one of those “Our Lady of Guadalupe” prayer cards. She then unbuttons the top buttons of her shirt and peels open her chest to reveal a void out of which Butterflies escape. She collects the butterflies and then exits the frame. The glass jar with the butterflies remains. They move their wings.
Fade to white.






Shot list to follow

Not Even a Working Title

What’s going on?
I have decided to use some of my remaining time in Burlington to create a short series that could either be shown in succession as a traditional film, or used in a video installation.
The project is a series of four short stop-motion animation pieces that explore the connection between pain and beauty. The contrast between negative action and visual appeal as well as the indication of a dream like state will, hopefully serve to create a lasting and effective visual metaphor.

Each segment will be shot using a “live stop motion” technique. In lieu of manipulating inanimate figures frame to frame to create the illusion of movement I will mostly rely on using actual people. Employing a system of 24 frames per second will provide some simulation of the look of film, despite my intention to shoot digital.

Scheduling wise I have the completely mad notion that I will shoot one person’s sequence each Sunday in February, thus completing principal footage before March. If I am careful and organized I’m pretty confident that I can reduce post-production time significantly.

The Sequences

I
An ill (read intoxicated) young man vomits flowers

II
A young girl pushes back an encroaching darkness with her voice.

III
The subject bites off their own fingers, pulling clean silk ribbons from the wound.

IV
A young woman peels open her chest, revealing a void. Butterflies escape from it.


More as it happens,

Chris