I was inspired to do a little homage to Ozu, a Japanese film director known for his low angles, in Houston yesterday evening. I first discovered Ozu through the documentary Tokyo-Ga, which I found on Netflix. Tokyo-Ga is a 1985 documentary film directed by Wim Wenders about filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. I used a fully open aperture of 1.4 on a 46mm lens (adjusted for sensor size), which caused sheets of focus. For me these images have something magical about them. Blurry foreground, then a narrow field of focus followed by a blurry background. Like the past (blurry), the present (sharp) and the future (blurry). Or like a thought lighting up a field of attention. I set the camera on the ground, guessed at the focus and captured the image, then viewed it on the camera’s screen. Sometimes I had to repeat the process a few times until the image was composed to my liking.
The last photo in the previous series inspired a little homage to Ozu, a Japanese film director, known for his low angles – he had to customize tripods to fit his needs. I first discovered Ozu through the documentary Tokyo-Ga, which I found on Netflix. Tokyo-Ga is a 1985 documentary film directed by Wim Wenders about filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. I used a fully open aperture of 1.4 on a 46mm lens (adjusted for sensor size), which caused a sheet of focus across the image. For me these images have something magical about them. Blurry foreground, then a narrow field of focus followed by a blurry background. Like the past (blurry), the present (sharp) and the future (blurry). Or like a thought lighting up a field of attention. I set the camera on the ground, guessed at the focus and captured the image, then viewed it on the camera’s screen. Sometimes I had to repeat the process a few times until the image was composed to my liking.
Another medley from the concert at Rockefeller’s in Houston on October 27, 1993. This one started with a bass solo. Check out how I hijacked the tempo and sped it up… tsk tsk tsk (shakes head)
By the way, do you have ¡Viva!, from 1995? We separated the bass solo from Heart Still/Beating and added it as an Easter Egg at the end. After the last track on the album ends about 5 seconds go by, and then the uncredited bass solo starts…
I received a request for more live stuff, warts and all. With that in mind I found this live recording from 1993. It was recorded at Rockefellers West in Houston on October 27th. The band is the same group that recorded ¡Viva! in California the following year. Straight off the board.
Two sold-out shows at Bend Studios. Very nice audience. Great sound – according to our engineer Alan. Many people were not comfortable sitting on the floor. I encouraged them to stand up and stretch while I talked about the new CDs or before the encore.
