Spooky Glow - 1920's Style

I thought I should post some of the new stuff that is in production now in the Bindlegrim studios, that I hope to have done for this year's 6th Annual Halloween Trunk Show in Denver... with some vintage style products.

Did I mention I absolutely love old paper lanterns? There is something about the 2D panel design in combination with the thought process of a 3D construction (with the ability to lay flat for storage, or fold out via connecting pieces during display).

I'm in the prototyping phase right now with some new tools that are allowing me to create some of my own imagery, utilizing my studies of the shape and configuration of vintage items. I am definitely in a "getting to know you" phase with these tools, and if I can get this to work with fewer flaws and challenges, in the end, then I think I will have to post something on my experience. In the meantime, the enjoyment of the spooky glow is keeping me going!

These images are part of the "works in progress" gallery on flickr:

第1ゴーストラジオ

More mysterious images drifitng across the air from ghost radio (part one):

Future site: www.girabbe.com

and currently on myspace: www.myspace.com/girabbe

For more animation peaks of the ghost radio (part one) project see:
http://bindlegrim.blogspot.com/search/label/girabbe

Ghost Radio - The Carriage of the Rokurokubi

Still progressing on the music video animation work for the new release by girabbe, and thought it might be of interest to post this odd little snippet from that work, of a carriage-like structure that hints at a Japanese yokai called the Rokurokubi moving through a landscape of ghost-ridden cathodes...

After all summer in Japan is the time for ghost stories... because the thought is that the chill you receive from the telling will cool you off from the hot weather. (Here's a link to The Roving Ronin who tells the history of Japanese ghost stories with a selection of different tales)... the ghost story candle ceremony the Roving Ronin describes on his page can be seen in a trailer for the movie Yokai - 100 Ghost Stories.

And, my favorite Japanese movie for ghost stories, for its beautiful cinematography and music of the biwa has to be Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan (based on stories from Lafcadio Hearn's collections of Japanese folk tales):

Hauntings in the Cathode Tubes

Have started getting the new book "The Pumpkin Dream" lined up for availability in a few brick-and-mortar stores this coming fall... (I am in discussion with three stores in the Denver/Boulder area)... and while those are in process - trying to see what additional elements and sneak peeks I can add for the book via online venues. Most recently I added images from the first few pages of the book recently available on Amazon - see The Pumpkin Dream: A Cautionary Tale from the Library of Mr. Bumble Bindlegrim (image gallery) on Amazon.com.

As that progresses I'm further delving into surrealist mode for the video project of Ghost Radio part 1, and here's another sneak peek at what oddities come from the mind working in autonomic mode - these images takes advantage of some cool cathode tubes that were found once in a sadly now defunct store in Seattle called Ye Olde Technology Shoppe:

Film Reel Organism

Over the last couple of weeks I've started to work on a promised music-video project for a song by the band girabbe for their upcoming release slated for this summer. I believe there is a full video-album planned with different video artists participating on certain songs, and I'm looking forward to experiencing the full release!

Somehow, perhaps aptly, I was able to grab a really hauntingly atmospheric number titled "ghost radio (part 1)" and have been doing some test runs on style and content. (There is a very interesting story behind the song, but I will leave that tale up to girabbe).

In the meantime, here are a couple of experimental snippets from my work thus far, utilizing an old freeware software friend InkScape, to create animated bits brought into Final Cut. (Note - the sound on these tests is also random personal experiments - see Moon City Costumes).

(please place your amoebas between the speakers)



(a skeletal broadcast from the dark ride)

I've got a long way to go, but I've been enjoying this break, that has given me the opportunity to get back into my more surrealist abstract leanings.

Also, as a side note, I would like to recommend the following fun internet search for images  from the book Codex Serphinianus (a strange, wonderful book that is inspiring for its unintelligible other worldliness) -- (think Fantastic Planet in book form). Someone has also posted a youtube video of some page turning through the book: