My good friend Thommy Saraceno has been making music under the name Owlfood since 2003. Sometimes his wife Anna and I give a hand in whatever way we can. He’s got three releases out now—Owlfood LP (2004), Black Optics EP (2006), split cassette w/ Al Qaeda (2010)—and has a track on the Death Aesthetics comp (2009).

Percussion for the first CD was tracked at my apartment in Oak Square, 2004:

Secret Spot/ Hell’s Drain
Hall Of Presidents
I Spent Two Months In Bed With Brian Wilson
Feral Child, Victor of Aveyron
Wax Glob
Love, Surfing And High Art
State Trooper

Drums on Black Optics were recorded at Blast Zone, Dudley Sq., 2005:

an opened eye/divine light
10.14.35.
astral plane
weeping microphones/ a closed eye
multiple voices
holes.
travel through twilight

March 13, 2008 Owlfood performed live for the first time at the Rutherford Studios opening Rochester, NY:

Thommy’s photos of the ageless sea sessions, September 2008:

UPDATE 2/13/11:
Tracking for a new LP has commenced at Blast Zone.

UPDATE 12/25/11:
Merry Christmas! Much has happened this year I’ve neglected to add to this page until today. First off, recording the new full-length is ongoing, though due to my eight month absence progress has been quite slow. We are looking forward to its completion early 2012.

This past August Paradigms Recordings, a small label based in the U.K.. released a CD compilation of Owlfood songs. In conjunction with the release t-shirts were produced as well. We are incredibly grateful to Paradigms and all the folks who have bought the CD.

Much to our surprise the New York Times (page two of the .pdf) gave the record a bit of attention as did CVLT Nation.

Anna, Thommy and I played a low-key show on December 10th. It was a real pleasure to work on these songs again and it gave me an opportunity to try out some new effects concepts for the Rhodes. Good times!

ApexArt 2010 Unsolicited Proposal Program Winner
press release | brochure | checklist | supplemental material

“We do not regard the audience to be served simply an indiscriminate mass of viewers; nor do we believe that it is necessary to aim at a common denominator and especially the least common denominator.” –Boston Broadcasters Inc., from the FCC hearing

Starting in 1963, Boston Broadcasters Incorporated (BBI), a collective of esteemed academics, local leaders and professionals waged the largest, longest coup in FCC history. Over a period of nine years, BBI fought for and won the license to operate Boston’s Channel 5, taking control of the airwaves from the enormously powerful Herald Traveler Corporation. In 1972 the new WCVB Channel 5 went on the air and was operated as any ABC affiliate station would run with the major exception of several programming initiatives encouraged by its board and station manager Bob Bennett.

The point of departure for this exhibition will be the station’s acquisition and the subsequent broadcasting of innovative, locally produced programs and contemporary film for the masses. We aim to illustrate WCVB’s assertion that satisfying the public interest does not mean “catering to the lowest common denominator” and how cultural and educational programming could be both stimulating for the audience and profitable for a television station.

This show will take a closer look at Robert Gardner’s ‘non-commercials’, one minute films of members of the community at work inserted as random commercial breaks; his suggestion of running the Bill of Rights on a 24-hour loop during the US bicentennial; Psychic Parrot, a 26 minute animated film by Derek Lamb, and Cost of Living, a one-hour documentary about the pursuit of wealth by Richard P. Rogers (both produced by Gardner); and, most importantly, the development of Screening Room, a series of 90-minute programs which introduced an audience of 3 million viewers to experimental and documentary filmmakers and animators (such as Hollis Frampton, Les Blank, Peter Hutton, Stan Brakhage and John Whitney).

Multiple projections, text documents, photographs, and other archival material displayed within the gallery space will encourage visitors to consider the impact on WCVB’s audience and to ask the question: How might something like this happen again?

This show would not have been possible without the tremendous generosity and support of apexart, Robert Gardner, Arnie Reisman, Lance Wyman, Bill Cannan, Susan Meiselas, Tracie Smart, Machine Age and the Harvard Film Archive.

research @ BU archives

Bill Cannan & Lance Wyman WCVB identity

Gary and Danny Schecter

with Philip Maysles

Psychic Parrot screening 2/18/11

I acquired this truck as a partially completed project. The running gear was in great shape, but the body was pretty rough. With the help of some great guys, Matt K., Wally and Glenn, it is becoming monstrous.

August 2008
photo by Kate McGuire

October 2008

September 2009

January 2010

April 2010

May 2010

October 2006 I flew out to Indianapolis and drove the Skylark back to Boston. Here is a photo I shot at Larz Anderson Auto Museum shortly after arriving

The following winter the restoration began at Paintworks in Dover, NH. The entire car was stripped, body panels repaired or replaced, rear bumper straightened and rechromed. Winter of 2007-2008 the motor was swapped with an Osborne-built Buick 350 from Kentucky and the 2.56 open rear end was replaced with a 3.42 posi. On a visit to New England in June 2008, my grandmother and I blasted through the foothills in central New Hampshire all the way back to Boston. It was awesome. She passed away in late November of that year and my cousins and I drove to Indy for her funeral. It was an ardous journey for many reasons which I will not detail here.

Winter of 2008-2009 the car was back up in New Hampshire for a few touch-ups and new top. The AC unit has been rebuilt and blows cold again and a new aluminum radiator replaced the failing plastic one that had been put in at some point in the 1980s. If you are interested, images of the entire rebuild process can be viewed in this Flickr set. Here are a few shots of the car as it sits now

There is still work to be done this year, mainly interior and engine bay details.

shooting in Paris with Robert Gardner and Christian Boltanski

32 pages, perfect bound with two-color dust jacket and wrapper (each book has a different color combo). Select pages are shown below.

I’ve since made a 16″ x 20″ enlargement of one image not included in the book in an edition of 10 which can be purchased for $100.

I was asked to join Farhad Ebrahimi’s band, Summerduck, in Spring 2008. Previously Farhad (of Boston’s Night Rally) had written some songs on his own and recorded loud versions of them with Greg Moss (ex-Common Cold) on bass and Kevin Micka (Animal Hospital) on drums. I helped a little bit with these recordings and was pumped on what I heard. They played a show or two with Ernie (Tristan da Cunha) on second guitar.

Neither Kevin nor Ernie could commit to anything beyond those first couple shows so Farhad asked guitarist Nate McDermott and myself to assist with live show duties. This band was loud. Loud and slow. Like Harvey Milk on ludes.

“Feelings” live at Great Scott December 3, 2008 (mp3)
“Lemons” live on WMBR June 23, 2009 (mp3)

Summerduck article in The Boston Phoenix (.pdf file)

Farhad now plays drums with Big Bear and is a new member of the incredible, undefinable Neptune (as is Kevin); Nate continues to play with his band of many years, Paper Thin Stages, and his new project, Quoins. When he isn’t studying C++, PASCAL, and JAVA, Greg is most likely on the road with Isis as their front of house engineer.

Noah and I went to Japan.