So the scoop is that the record label is coming off super-duper-mega hiatus. Reissues and licensing only, no new bands, but still. Things have changed with our distributor, production costs haven’t really gone down much, and really bands have no reason for labels anymore; so let’s see if the business can avoid being in the red! Thankfully we had used the opposite structure/method of major labels, finding ourselves in the black when all was said and done. There were some reissues I wanted to do while on hiatus that other labels snatched up; we’ll see about the rest I had in mind. Things won’t be as active as they were, but Elephant Stone will at least have a faint and steady pulse when it comes to new stuff — if you know what I mean.
We finally joined the 21st Century and you can find Elephant Stone on Facebook
And as always, Elephant Stone on LastFm (some free downloads there)
I’ve also started screwing around with iMovie made my first few videos! Well, slideshows really, but I’ll be getting myself an HD iFlip this weekend. Now I just have to figure out how or if I should transfer all of my footage from college that is stuck on Super8, hi8, Beta, 3/4″ tapes and so forth. For those who didn’t know, I went to art school to study film mainly because I wanted to be a film editor. Why? Because it comes easy to me, I find it fun, and I’m actually really good at it. However, during time spent in an internship at a production company I saw how little control an editor has over anything, and really, it is the orders of the director you have to follow. At least collaborations with other students gave me some amount of freedom in school. This was also in the days when FinalCutPro had barely come out, and everything was still analog or on an Avid; not to mention 20+ students all using the same Avid caused it to crash often. I bagged the whole film thing, after seeing how the production side really was, and how unhappy most editors seemed to be as a rule. Technology has changed so fast too, just about every program or piece of equipment I know how to use is obsolete.
In any event, here are my first two little videos I screwed around with. One is for the band New Planet Trampoline who broke up long ago sadly, but were one of the Cleveland bands the label had signed when we were still based in Los Angeles. I decided to use my photos from a shitty area on the westside in Cleveland. The other was my first attempt at playing with iMovie using my photos from this trip, and I happened to throw on my favorite band, Singapore Sling. It fit the images so well, I decided to keep it. I think it highlights how both beautiful and violent the imagery of the Catholic church can be.
I think they turned out rather well considering I had never used this program before, and it took me little effort and less than 15 minutes to put them both together.
Arty Farty 