Zinecon 2000 video post #2

    The closing comment at the end of my last post couldn't have worse timing.  A few days after I wrote those words I was having a drink with a friend and four hours later he was dead.  What more can be said?  

    Looks like I had quite a few videos from Zinecon 2000.  Once again my apologies for posting this a decade after the fact.  No excuses just glad it's finally getting out there to the people who might be interested in seeing it.  I'd imagine that is mostly the people featured in the vids, although I'd go out on a limb and say that anyone interested in media created outside of commercial enterprise will find these videos/interviews and random images worth their time to watch.  You'll also get to see the limitations of no budget video production as many of these tapes have been damaged beyond repair.  I'm breaking these clips up into 3 different posts.  It's over an hour worth of material.

    I can't begin to tell you what an unbelievable pain in the ass it was to transfer these vids.  If you don't give a shit about tech talk skip this paragraph.  The tapes appear to be somewhat damaged.  Final Cut Pro, the piece of shit "PRO" software wouldn't let me transfer this shit at all so I resorted to using iMovie which somehow retrieved some of the missing pieces of the footage and did a decent job of fixing the audio problems on these tapes which were numerous.  As a result I had to transfer in iMovie import back into Final Cut do a few edits and add titles and then shoot it out using Compressor.  Add to that my discovery of the proper codec to make these vids look better on youtube.  So each clip which average 4-5 minutes easily took 45-60 minutes to render so I could upload to youtube which took an additional hour for each clip to upload due to their huge file sizes.  It wasn't so bad.  Usually I'd get these processes in place and then walk away while my computer sorted out all the shit.  I told you this paragraph was boring you shoulda skipped it.     

    IMovie could only do so much to fix these damaged tapes.  There are a number of jump cuts, dropped audio, and other weird speed issues.   It almost adds a Jean Luc Godard edge to the footage lending it a semi-New Wave feel.  It's got an unexpected arty edge in that respect.  An accident but I think it makes the footage more interesting and surprising.  It is what it is.  I've left the technical snafus in place just to keep this as a historical document.  My editing of these videos has been minimal if I edited at all.  Also I didn't catch everyones name so if you know the true names of featured individuals speak up now.  Just remember If you die you take that knowledge with you to the grave so why not speak up before you die?    

    These cute kids were entrusted to pass out information about actions which were happening at the test site.  There is a grand history of protest at the Nevada Test Site which lies just a few hundred miles north of Las Vegas.  I haven't heard of any recent protests at the test site but of course I haven't lived in Vegas for the last 8 years so I'm out of the loop.  I've tried tracking down the Shundahai Network online and they don't have a whole lot of internet presence like they once did.  I'm thinking this would be the best place to go to find out recent happenings.  

     I had forgotten about the collection of people who attended Zinecon from out of state.  Here's my bad interviewing skills put to the test interviewing some players in national underground publishing in the year 2000.  I was most familiar with Angry Thoreuan a fairly high profile zine in the mid 90's.  Rev. Randall Tin-Ear the publisher of said zine appears to be a thoughtful and funny guy if a bit inebriated.  I guess you could say this was the So Cal corner because the Rev. was joined by Theresa Turner and Kelly from Fully Lit Publishing.  I think Theresa was coming on to me but I'm probably mistaken.  Seated next to them was the dude from Martin the Satanic Racoon whose zine was very humorous although he isn't nearly that funny in this interview but that's probably due to my interviewing skills.


    I'm not trying to pat myself on the back but I'll admit to giving myself points for trying.  Could this be the only on camera interview most of these people will ever have in their life?  Makes me think I should try and interview more people.  Maybe I'll get good at it? 

    I did a recent internet check on all these cast of characters and could only find references to Rev Randall Tin-Ear and Martin the Satanic Raccoon.  I'm sure the rest of them are still out there somewhere.  They come across as smart thoughtful people.  I'm sure they are living off the grid.

    A short chat with two local zines Running In Place and Through Squishy Eyes.  I don't know these people but they seem pretty fucking cool.  If either zine is still being published I could not say.

    Whoops.  This is a clip that's coming a little late.  Interview with two cool people.  Again the audio's fucked so I don't recall the names.  Please help if you know these cool folks.

    Tower Records was a corporate sponsor of Zinecon 2000.  I think it was the only corporate sponsor of Zinecon?  Gotta admit I miss Tower.  It was the only national distribution outlet for dozens if not hundreds of zines back then. 


    This lady was the manager of Tower Records at the time I'm thinking.  I made a speech at this event in which I made some comments about the influence of corporations on American culture.  I think this lady got offended and walked out.

    I didn't watch the speech while digitizing it so I can't tell you if it's good or not.  I don't like seeing or hearing myself.  In 1999 I won the Fellowship Award from the Nevada Arts Council.  It's poisoned my view of art ever since.  As a part of the award I was required to give a presentation in a public setting.  The speech included here is my presentation. 
   I've tried uploading the speech to youtube but they said it was too long!  Seriously.  I'll try again some other time for now you can download it here if you want to see it.   After my hot air Amy got up and blew some hot air herself.  





This concludes day one of Zinecon 2000.  Download all these clips below.


Download Zinecon Kids
Download Angry Thoreauan vid
Download Running In Place/Through Squishy Eyes
Download Yaqui vid
Download Fully Lit video
Download Martin Satanic Raccoon
Download Amy gives a speech/thanks