Community Forums - Example: Water Resources, Saugerties, NY

My productions often include presentations by community groups on issues of interest. These videos are posted on the internet or played on regional public access cable stations.

The Night Before the Woodstock Jazz Festival 1981

Here are percussionists Jack Dejohnette, Nana Vasconcelos and Collin Walcott, along with the Paiste sales guys, unpacking a shipment of cymbals. It was the evening before the Woodstock Jazz Festival in 1981. An all star line-up was assembled to support the Creative Music Studio. This video was presented on Woodstock's Channel six as a segment on the Night Owl Show, a weekly magazine style show produced by Media Bus. Joel Gold did the camera work, Nancy Cain produced and edited. Tobe Carey and I were on the crew.

The Scrabble Rascals video

A 2010 video I edited for artist, John Kahn to help him market his giant magnetic Scrabble board.

Professional Affiliations-Reelizations Productions

I make videos in the field of Behavioral Health and substance abuse with my partners here in Saugerties. Our company is named Reelizations (reelizations.com). These videos are used by treatment professionals and facilities to educate recovering addicts and persons with situations.
Click on the Women & Trauma below to go to the YouTube video. It's a sample of what work we're doing.

Women and Trauma

UNDERCOVER Fez, Morocco - Photo 1980

I had problems hailing cabs in Fez. Something about my beard made me look like a bad tipper. The locals said I appeared to be Ali Baba (Arabic: علي بابا). I guess that isn't such a good thing.

The World's Largest Skateboard 2010 video

Here's a video of the debut of the biggest skateboard in the world. We made it to help publicize and fund-raise for the Saugerties Skatepark which is now a reality. It's popular with kids and crowded with skaters every dry day. The scene below is of Main Street, Saugerties from a rooftop.

Hothouse Flowers 1992 video

I had my cam with me one evening in June of '92. The band, Hothouse Flowers was recording in Woodstock and I heard from a friend who cuts hair that they were doing unannounced sets at the Tinker St. Cafe. I think that I was astounded by the talent of the players and took a special liking in Liam O Moanlai, the lead vocalist who, I discovered, began his career as a busker in Dublin. He's known for his deep regard and knowledge of Gaelic/Celtic language and song. Although HHF haven't become household names in this country, in Europe they are loved. What brought me to dust off this old video was seeing Liam in a film played on Link TV, recently, a doc about Irish musicians sharing music in Mali, Africa at the Festival of the Desert. There are lots of vids on Youtube featuring Liam and the band. One of my favorites is "Feet on the Ground"

Havana: How You Say It - 1997 video

The video starts off with a bartender shaking up a cocktail at a bar frequented by Hemingway in his day. He sets off the rhythm for what follows, an invitation on the street to socialize. The rapid harangue in the middle of the vid is incomprehensible to me, so any help with the jist of it would be helpful.

Go to YouTube to see more of my Cuba clips titled, High Level Diplomacy.

RACING PIGEONS...SPORT OF KINGS 1984 video

This is the first part of a documentary about the sport of pigeon racing. I'm told that it's a sport played in every country of the world. The doc was made to convince the US Postal Service to commemorate the racing pigeon on a postage stamp. The pigeons are raised and trained to race home, sometimes from distances as much as 500 miles. The first bird home wins the prize which could be a trophy or money. The men and women in this video really love their birds.

I made it with my friend Manny Katz in 1984. He had friends in the valley that were going to a pigeon auction to buy new birds to train and race. When I got there and saw who was doing what and why I was hooked.

We sold this video by advertising in pigeon racing magazines, which to my surprise, exist around the world too. When we put the ad in a Japanese zine the little pink money orders started to roll in. We made more selling videos this way than we could have ever made selling them to PBS. There was no cable in those days.

I have DVDs of the entire video. If you've found this blog and want to purchase one, let me know.

EASTER ISLAND VACATION, 2000 photo & video

During a visit in 2000 to participate in the Easter Island cultural festival called Tapati, we met many great people and learned much from the experience. Our hosts were the founders of the easterislandechofoundation.org who strive to educate Islanders and the outside world about the history and language of the Rapa Nui people.

Rabin's Funeral, Jerusalem 1995 video

We arrived in Jerusalem on the day of PM Rabin's funeral. He was gunned down by an Israeli citizen. The clip combines street views of the procession that wound it's way through the city to the cemetery with off-air footage of mourners and Bill Clinton, who attended.

STREET MUSICIAN, HAVANA, 1997 video

Walking down the street I was caught by the sound of a blind musician who tapped a pail with one hand, chanted and accompanied himself with a maraca.

BUYING A CAMERA photo

First, you have to buy a camera. A visit to B&H will show you what's available.

THERE'S A WORLD OUT THERE

A single frame doc about a thumb on a wheel.

CEREBRUM WAS AN INFLUENCE

My interest in images emerged strongly in the late '60s when I joined the crew at Cerebrum in NYC.

In 1968 an innovative entertainment concept was introduced in New York by Ruffin Cooper, Jr., a banker's son from Texas who was joined by a score or more of independent artists and media freaks. A ground-level Soho loft on Mercer Street became a nightly laboratory for mind bending excursions into film, sound, slides, mist, music, strobes and eroticism. Visitors exchanged their clothing at the door for sheer white gowns and were lead along a raised cat-walk to connected media platforms where they became canvases for the artists in the projection booths perched high at either end of the studio. Then Cerebrum Guides offered them toys for the senses, including headphones, Viewmasters, slide projectors, parachutes, spools of magnetic tape for unwinding, etc., so they could interact with other guests and the environment. There was usually just one event each night. The white gowns were laundered every day, usually. More can be read about Cerebrum by visiting this site:

http://www.interiordesign.net/article...

Cooper went on to become a Hog Farmer at the Woodstock Festival and a well known San Francisco based photographer of architectural subjects printed in mammoth scale. His show, Creating an Illusion: huge, consecutive photo details compositing the face of the Statue of Liberty, printed on fabric, spanned the length of the Port Authority Bus Terminal in NYC in 1985.

Creators of, and visitors to Cerebrum are invited to comment about their recollections. I'm happy to have been able to restore this film and I'm certain many of you will be happy to have seen it.

The film is an off-air from a local channel's broadcast crew (NYC)

CEREBRUM, SOHO, NY 1968 off-air newscast

IT STARTS LIKE THIS

Seeking images, camera and tripod in trunk