It's been a while, though my general business is almost done. A sum of the past few months:

-The Buffalo Small Press Fair has become my favorite time of the year. Met some wonderful people, heard some wonderful things. Highlight: certainly hearing Tawrin Baker read at the Flim Forum reading. Matthew Klane gave a reading, and he was furious! What a sight! He glared at me! 'I can do grief' he told me later, if memory serves right. 'But that doesn't seem to be doing anything.' I don't agree Matt.
-An issue I have been seeing quite often in a number of people's work is that the issues they deal with and mourn are aesthetically and decisively self-inflicted, yet without recognizing them as such.
-Smoking continuously, continuing.
-Have read what I could on Vertov and Breer. Missed the screening of the latter at Anthology.
-Thought I was going to the Temenos. "Well, think again!" the flying spaghetti monster said.
-Got my hands on some Kodachrome and older Ektachrome for 16.
-Looked at my recently acquired list, and saw that pretty much all the books I had bought were about experimental/avant-garde film. Suspicious, I decided to stop for a while, especially now that Sitney's new book is in my dirty paws, and decided to focus on other things.
-My ruin already forecast with utter certainty: a recent love for large art books.
-Read this interview with Phil Solomon to utter delight.
-Found this lot of Frampton goods.
-Want to get new speakers for me PC.
-Have repeatedly or been close to throwing tantrums after reading the Turkish news. Like on good old May day.
-Have been really wanting to just read a novel. Feels like I've been only reading essays since the past 12 months.
-Wondered whether the reason Frampton burns the photographs in (nostalgia) is related to regular projectors burning the frame if it were to 'stop' on one. Probably not.
-Contemplated about Nicky Hamlyn comparing video to pointilism. But isn't film perhaps more so?
-Went to go see Michael Robinson's show in Rochester, happily so. The General Returns from One Place to Another is quite a favorite.
-Am excited about this seven dvd set of Melies films that just got released.
-Despite persistent warnings not to, have sent about 6 rolls of Ektachrome 16mm and 4 of the same for Super8 to PacLab in NYC. They all returned looking fabulous.
-Missed Ann Arbor, Media City and Images. (Shakes fist like a cantankerous old man.)
-Decided to never watch The Goonies, though Americans may forever make fun of me for it. Take that you, trying to assimilate me to your 1980's filled nostalgia. May our shouting at the bar be filled with ever more awkward silence and cultural alienation.
-Been to the bars extensively only once since arriving at Buffalo, at the beginning of the year.
-Missed seeing shows of McCoy Tyner (with a tap dancer?), James Moody and Marilyn Crispell.
-Planning to go see Tom Gunning speak in Rochester this upcoming Friday.
-Planning my shoot in Ankara and Istanbul for June. Shooting test rolls for it next week.

Hmpf. Now back to everything else.

Just want to cheer on my good friend Mehmet Uluşahin for getting accepted to the !f İstanbul Film Festival this year! Yay! The program in which his film, Cities, Sounds and Textures is showing also seems to be one of the most interesting, with new work by Ozan Adam, whose work I have yet to see but am curious of, so everyone should go go go! The work will also be shown in Ankara, and here are the dates:

Kargart KADIKÖY: 16 February Saturday 2008 15:30 / 54'

AFM Fitaş BEYOĞLU: 18 February Monday 17:30 / 54'

Cankaya Belediyesi Cagdas Sanatlar Merkezi: 28 February 2008 15:00 / 54'


On a similiar note, a video I made, Eden, is going to be showing out of competition at The Hall in Beyoglu on Tuesday the 19th of Feb at 9 o'clock for the Visual Adventures: Experimental Film Compilation (scroll down on the page). Yay!

***

Also!
Also!
I'm going to be showing work here, with some of my favorite people:

Town & Gown
Poem. Music. Film.
Rustbelt Books - Buffalo, NY
February 28th 2008
7 p.m.

w/
Jaye Bartell , Jon Markle , Shane Meyer , Margaret Konkol , Brian Mornar , Ekrem Serdar.

All welcome!

***

The last I wrote was when I was in Ankara, now I'm back in the Buff. My flight from NYC to Buffalo was cancelled, so I took the day to go to the MOMA and check out Ernie Gehr's exhibition of wonderful toys. Its not a very big exhibit, and I wish there actually was a magic lantern there, but the toys: thaumathropes, magic lantern slides, all wonderful.

Further back, in Istanbul, a tremendous retrospective of work by Cihat Burak (see picture) that had me and Yunus laughing like madmen. In fact, all of the exhibitions I went to this time around (after the last post) were rather impressive and wonderful, from the Abidin Dino at the Sabanci Museum to the canonical Modern and Beyond exhibit at the really impressive location of santralistanbul. The later, being so ambitious of course, lets one say a lot on the matter, and I find the space between what they call 'Modern' and what they call 'Beyond' to be an interesting topic.

We later went to go see Wong Kar Wai's My Blueberry Nights, and I entered it generously. It was rather terrible, though the Turkish commercials before the film were hilarious, and I felt that the first fifteen minutes or so could've made a cute short film. Alas.


Now back in Buffalo. I received all the Super8 from the winter in the mail about an hour ago, and I can't wait to look at it. Now to find a viewer. Tested the handcranked 16mm toy projector I had bought on ebay (even came with an artdeco little scene), but the shutter seems to be having problems. Bought tons of books, my rooms a mess, Aarons moving out on Saturday, Scotty might move in. Apparently, Abraham Ravett is coming to town; I had rather liked his film that showed at Views this year... Of course, lots to do, so much to do... hmm.

It's late. Ankara. The Diyarbakır bombing today. In general, there's been a bombing warning every day or so, mostly in Istanbul. I've only heard about them so far. Not too worried personally, and my anger/confusion is more implosive.
More worried about nothing done on the ice on the ground. I danced downhill for a mile and a half today. Like a lot of great art, this country will make a monkey out of you.

Ankara is calm, or as calm as a Turkish big city can be. It snowed today. A number of establishments that I had discovered over the summer have either closed or changed hands. Worst has been the closing of the Kavaklıdere cinema, where I spent most of my highschool years. The façade is heartbreaking. I also have a feeling that my other favorite film theater, the Kızılırmak has also closed, though I haven't been to that area of town yet. If so, then this town has lost any of the appeal it once had, with Istanbul being the only alternative.

While in Istanbul, I went to the C.A.M. Gallery and the Pera Museum to see moving image work, by Bruce Conner and Nam June Paik, respectively. I was disappointed by both. The C.A.M. had two of Conners drawings, while the Pera had a cute sculpture that Paik had made out of frame of an old T.V. set. The Paik came along in an exhibition by the JP Morgan collection, with other work by Warhol, etc...

More exciting then either of those galleries is the Cihat Burak retrospective at the Istanbul Modern, and the oft mentioned, and now done, gallery of Ali Arif Ersen's Tales at the Milli Reassurans Gallery. I could only catch a glimpse of Buraks work as the museum was closing and I ran through it, but saw some wonderful humor, enough for me to go back again. Ersen's Tales were truly wonderful, and the screen doesn't do the depth of the pictures justice. One thing I didn't know was that all the paintings were once black and white photographs. It's interesting to see where Ersen decides to make it as photorealistic as possible, thinking about photographs. Finally, the show was dedicated to Melies, which gave me one of those warm fuzzy feelings.

Upon return to Istanbul, I'm hoping to catch the Abidin Dino retrospective at the Sabancı Museum, and also pay a visit to santralIstanbul, which, if you don't know, was the Ottoman Empire's first electricity plant, and is now a gallery.

Much more Breer reading nowadays... also received Johnathan Crary's Techniques of the Observer in the mail, courtesy of Ashvin and Puccio. I love these October books, the bindings opening so effortlessly. Excited! Aslo got my summer Tri-X back, happily. Those Noyan boys, they're awesome alright. Bought a couple more rolls, Ektachrome this time, but now my Super8 camera is broken. Grr...

Leaving tomorrow morning.

Happy Holidays everyone. Listen to some Oscar Peterson, whom we lost today. I'm hitting my head for missing him in Rochester a couple years back.

Here's Ben Webster and Peterson preforming Perdido with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Tony Inzalaco.

Update: Ali Arif Ersen's show, Masallar, already opened, and has been for five days, and his work will stay up until the 29th of December (just in time for me to see it!). Here's the link for all you Istanbullus.

Gelsingers sleeping on my couch right now, as I've woken up early on a Sunday for the first time in quite a while. AccuWeather tells me it's -5 C outside, and there's quite a snow storm, with word that it'll get up to 20 inches. Couple things more to do before this is over, but quite some excitement coming up as well.

Saw Matt Klane and Kristianne Meal read at Rustbelt books, and I can't emphasize enough how great it was to see Matt read. I sat as close as I ever did, and it was enjoyable enough to make my week. He made a monkey out of me, that's for sure, like much great work does, plotting his map, razor sharp. Lowinger did a write up for the reading here.

Damian Weber is back in Buffalo again, and he brought a whole lot of energy to town. He has a epic release party next week, where he'll be releasing chapbooks by Jaye Bartell, Russell Pascatore, Shane Meyer and his own books. Can't wait.

Been watching quite a bit of Robert Breer lately, ever since watching the prints at the NYFF this year really- the department owns six of his films, and I've mostly watched 69 over and over again, but also 66, 70 and Gulls and Buoys (which I want to see a couple times more...). The prints are in quite great shape, though a tad faded. Wonderful that so much of his stuff is on UbuWeb, but its no substitute for all for the actual prints. There's a marvelous book by Lois Mendelson on him, which I heartily recommend.

Scott MacDonald's new book, Canyon Cinema is also out, collecting tons of interviews, texts and other miscellaneous wonders from the film distributor. Looks very charming, though he mentions in his introduction that he left out the DIY instructions (how to build your own optical printer, etc) that were published by them. How to find them I wonder?

Back to Turkey in a little over a week. A one month stay, half in Istanbul, half in Ankara with much to do. Check out a bunch of museums, including santralistanbul which was once first electrical plant of the Ottoman Empire, and the C.A.M. gallery. Plus, Ali Arif Ersen's new show (see picture) will be opening soon as well at the Milli Reassurans Gallery, or so I hear. Also, finally getting to see all the Super8 I shot over the summer...

Finally, a charming video by my boys in Budapest. Can't wait to see them.
Just heard Aaron bellow out his Mr. Buffalo laugh.

Sunday Scott Puccio / Matthew Klane

Upcoming:

This Sunday at 7 p.m., Scott Puccio will be showing work at Betty's Restaurant, including The Film of a Thousand Nights and a Night, which showed at the Views of the Avant-Garde in the New York Film Festival. Poet Matthew Klane will also be on hand to read. The event is free, and heartily recommended.

Betty's Restaurant
370 Virginia St.
(in Allentown, west of Elmwood Ave.)
Buffalo.
362-0633.

This is the last screening Puccio will have before he relocates to Portland. Everyone is welcome!

The NYFF Views from the Avant Garde was a grand time, much more fun then last year, and a number of highlights, all of which I hope to see again, few of them taking precedence over the others in that respect. The old guard mostly did not disappoint, with Phil Solomon's pieces putting me in the strangest space I've been in a while. From those whose work I had seen for the first time, especially excited about Ben Rivers and Jeanne Liotta's work, and also had a reversal regarding my feelings (for the better) for Paulo Gioli this year as well.

A number of film related links on have been added to our watermelon rinds- Invisible Cinema is one I've been following for a while, and it's also the blog that made me excited about Liotta's film in the first place. From her blogroll (not yet investigated thoroughly) I found Elusive Lucidity, which just had an interesting post on Breer and Burch (oh! those restorations!). Michael Sicinski seems to be the only journalist, along with a brief piece by Ed Halter in the Village Voice, who seems to be writing anything regarding this years festival, and he has a number of interesting articles up. David Bordwell's site has been added where you can download the complete and long unavailable Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema as a .pdf file from his site. I've linked to Public 16's Cinema Texts before; the webmaster has just added a .pdf of the MOMA's film circulation price list. (Free Radicals for 200$!!) Finally, without a doubt my favorite Buffalo critic Girish has also been added. (You can see his overview of the Michael Snow show this weekend here.)

***

Then a whirlwind of a weekend that began with Hollis Frampton, Jonas Mekas and Michael Snow work, periodically ending with me, batmite and Thomas Lang at some 5 a.m. moment.
Now I'm calming down, and bought a number of books and appreciating that week of seeing great stuff all the more after seeing a terrible film. What? Who? It requires a decent post, sometime or another, and perhaps it's about time I spent some time and energy on getting angry again.

Getting colder.