I’ll get back to updating more when I can. I love you guys.

I suppose I should be honest about how this whole “Speed Creating” thing started.  Around November, my girlfriend of roughly 4 years and I broke up.  I’m not trying to turn this into one of the closing scenes of My So Called Life, I just want to be honest about my motivations as opposed to my usual  practice of remaining willfully ignorant of the things that make me do the things I do.

One of the chief concerns I was having as the relationship kind of fell apart was “what makes me happy?”.  A heavy set of circumstances had me feeling pretty terrible about myself and “Who I Am”.  I didn’t really have a good sense of how to make myself happy or how to express myself…I was lost and not only was it a weight on my relationship, it was obviously a huge weight on me.  When I racked my brain to find a way out of the bouts of deep depression I often found myself in, I didn’t have any answers, save for this weird hint that “What Makes Me Happy” is “Creating”.  My whole life I’ve been drawn to making things…doesn’t matter what, just making stuff.  In the moments where my head is down and ideas are flowing, I’m not thinking of anything else and I feel great.

So that is what I set myself up to do.  Chase down my tiny thread of creative DNA, wrestle it to the ground and stare at it to see if it really held what I needed.

Around the time of the breakup I saw what Dominic Wilcox had done, and it immediately clicked with me.  There was no doubt that I was going to follow the same regimented path, to turn my potential happiness into a homework assignment.  I picked January, because the winter out here kind of sucks the soul anyway, and it could double as kind of a New Years Resolution deal.

I’m happy to report that this thing has been extremely eye-opening.  You’ll have to forgive the cheesiness here, but I made a pretty big realization during this thing – that I am on this earth to create.  Apologies for the hyperbole, but as a weapon I’m only pulling it out here because I plan on using it.

Up until this point I struggled to find a box for what I love to do…am I a “writer”?  Am I a “photographer”?  I’m not very good at design, but I love doing it, so could I call myself a “designer”?  I’ve had a Flip Cam duct-taped to my hand for the last 3 years…does that make me a “videographer”?  What the hell AM I?  I always considered myself a writer, but only because I do that more than anything, and it gives me the most crisis-laden stressful high of anything I do.  But I’m not all that great at making a career out of it.

I’m straying.  My point is, I learned (in one of many moments of forehead-slappery) that I am not any of those things.  I’m just a guy who likes to “create”. “Creator”, I suppose, but that is too specific and a little weird.  So I’m more comfortable with “Guy Who Lives To Create”…funny…I just tried to type “Guy Who LIKES To Create” just now, but I slipped on the “k” and put a “v” instead….giving me “lives” instead of “likes”…ha…the K and the V are nowhere near each other on the keyboard.  Even I don’t know what I’m thinking.  Wow.

So, that being said, I LIVE to create I guess.  All of those things I listed above – writing, photography, video, music, design – flick the exact same switch.  The same light goes on and off no matter what triggers it – writing about zombies, making music with Ben, taking light painting photos, shooting in the snowy streets with my Holga, cutting and pasting like a madman in Photoshop, sketching, ironing on letters – all of that provides the same simple impulse that I’ve been chasing my whole life.

I’m not saying I found my life’s purpose.  That would be a little much.  I did find though, that I had been neglecting a massive part of what made Me “Me”, and I’m glad to be reconnected to it.

I also learned more about where my skills are.  I learned that I am pretty good at writing zombie stories, that I am able to edit videos that make me laugh, that I am not a very good musician but I love to make noise and record it, that I can almost execute an idea with a photograph, that I have a basic understanding of design and how to make something look halfway decent, and that when pressed (especially when pressed) I can create at the drop of a hat.

Like I’ve always said, none of the stuff I make has any illusions about being “good”, but that’s not the point.  It is all still an expression.  Good or bad, the switch gets flicked.

With the motivation behind this thing out in the open, I hope I can continue to do this stuff.  I want to just keep doing something every day because it really does make me happy.  Don’t worry though, I wont meticulously blog about it.  I’ll just do it because I love doing it.  I highly recommend it to everyone…whatever your talents are, use them every day, and then do some stuff you are less than talented at.

Day 1 – Optronics 4-1 with Oceans in Space  [VIDEO]

Day 2 – The Lightpainting Mini Booth

Day 3 – Allegedly Hilarious T-Shirt

Day 4 – Disposable Camera Photos

Day 5 – Photoshop Vs. Jandek

Day 6 – Photos From the MiniBooth

Day 7 – Desert Lightpaintings

Day 8 – Noise Tape Layout 1

Day 9 – Noise Tape Layout 2 + Download

Day 10 – Noise Tape Layout 3 (Black Metal?)

Day 11 – Optronics 4-2 With Oceans In Space  [VIDEO]

Day 12 – Fuckin “Art”, Brah

Day 13 – Movies That Bugged Me Out as a Kid – Body Parts

Day 14 – Brian Tumors Download

Day 15 – Zombie Fiction – “Cakewalk” Part 1

Day 16 – Recaptured:  L5D – “Advanced Ants Dance”

Day 17 – Lil B @ Highline Ballroom  [VIDEO]

Day 18 – Mirror Lightpainting

Day 19 – The Battle of the Red Dragon  [VIDEO]

Day 20 – Ke$ha Slowed by 800%

Day 21 – Anthony:  A Life (In Three Parts)  [VIDEO]

Day 22 – The Scum Noise Tape Full Download

Day 23 – Cocktail Napkin Zombie Story

Day 24 – Zombie Fiction – “Cakewalk” Part 2

Day 25 – Zombie Fiction – “Untitled” Part 5

Day 26 – Blizzard/Apocalypse Music

Day 27 – Canvas Drawing

Day 28 – Ghostbusters Firehouse Holga Photos

Day 29 – Allegedly Hilarious Lil B T-Shirt

Day 30 – More Holga Photos

Day 31 – Drew is an Art Dealer Now  [VIDEO]

Like I said, my shit is completely lost over here.  I’ll recap all the madness tomorrow OR WHENEVER THE HELL I WANT because January is over!  Suck it, speed creating!

As the snow fell (hard) here in New York, I rushed home from dropping off my film to try and make some music.  I had some grand ideas, but most could not be done in one night (especially not by an untalented dick like me)…so I kept it pretty simple.  My goal for side B of those noise tapes (the ones I keep blathering about shut up already) was to include some tracks from the past, as well as some one-of-a-kind recorded improvisations.

Tonight, I made one of those beasts, and it sounds like hell.  I ended up making the kind of shit that people question what is wrong with you when they catch you listening to it, doubly so if they find out you made the shit.

So lock me up.  This stuff kind of sounds like the Snowpocalypse that was occurring outside my window.  I mean Jesus, look what I did to my room.

I love a room like that…terrifying and comforting at the same time.  What you see is how I created this “song”.  A Microkorg, a terrible distortion pedal, my laptop, a tape recorder and a lifetime of dealing with horseshit like traffic, wet socks, hard to open packages, non-functioning tape recorders, friends who never had batteries for their cool toys, Predators, the goddamn papyrus font, people who forget to bring their ID’s out, tequila, and the motherfucking Gin Blossoms.  Especially those assholes.

Here is a snippet of the track set to a video from out my window.  I’ll leave the whole track for the poor schmuck who ends up with the tape.

…watch it quick before he makes me take it down.

A while back, some genius decided to take Justin Bieber’s “U Smile” and run it through a program called Paul Stretch, slowing it down by 800%. What came out was a glacial piece noise that sounded like Brian-Eno and Christian Fennesz skipping through the heaven sequences of What Dreams May Come. You can check out a clip of that right here.

Well yesterday night before I started working on yesterday’s video, my co-worker Alex and I started experimenting with putting different pop songs through the same filter.  For some reason, we had an mp3 of Ke$ha’s autotuned “rap” thing “Tik Tok” lying around.  So we ran that song through the process, and what came out was DEATH, HELL, and MURDER.  Jesus god it was meaner than Merzbow shitting tacks.  It was also 24 goddamn minutes long.  Here is 4 minutes of it. Starting with the pre-chorus.

Honestly, I dont know what the hell to do here.  Yes, this is a creation.  Good luck getting through 4 minutes of it.

Like tonight, I had a few hours after work to edit a video project.  I came across a bunch of hilarious old flip cam footage I shot a few years ago at The Red Dragon in Minneapolis, so I came up with a rough plan for it.  I only had a few hours to edit it, so I just went for it.  Its rough, definitely not perfect, but there’s something lovable about it, and really if it weren’t for this experiment it would have never been made.

If you don’t know, The Red Dragon has the strongest drinks ever (namely the Wondrous Punch, featured in the video), which is why everyone is acting so insane, and I think the booze was also responsible for all the goofy-ass edits in this thing.  I love it though.

Enjoy.  Or don’t.  Oh yeah, I totally stole that “intro cards” thing from Feast, one of the best movies ever, and before you get in my ass, I couldn’t do anything about those weird digital skips that happen throughout the video.

Every day, I’m going to make something.  Partly because winter is kind of boring and the best way to get through it is to be creative, partly because I have a ton of half-finished projects lying around that need to get done, and partly because…well not to get all “Livejournal” here, but I’m really happy when I’m creative, so why not force myself to be creative instead of my usual routine of sitting on my ass and playing Call of Duty with my non-english speaking roommates (long story).

So here goes.  I’ll probably end up making a lot of video projects, writings, drawings (which I love doing but don’t do enough of), some music, and definitely some stuff with MRI, which is where most of my creative energy ends up anyway.  I can’t guarantee any of this is going to be good, but I’ll be posting it all here regardless.

First up is another video in the weird-ass “Optronics” series I’ve been making with my good friend Ben.  Ben is an insane musical genius.  Every time I am back home in Minnesota, I book a night to go to his house, smoke pot, drink beers, and mess around with his pile of electronics, guitars, synthesizers, pedals, loopers and other such madness.  I look forward to it more than most things at home.

Every time we hang, I shoot some video on my Flip cam and edit it into a little “webisode” or whatever you want to call it.  These webisodes are called “Optronics”, and they are a blast to edit.  Yes, they are mostly insane on purpose, BUT, they also do a good job at capturing what its like to hang out with Ben.  Last time I crashed there he didn’t have blankets, so he insisted I use one of those Ikea wooden bed-slat things as a blanket.  And I did it willingly.  He made a compelling argument for it.

This is the 4th Optronics Webisode, and its short, because there are more to come, titled “4-1″, “4-2″, etc.  Like the levels on Super Mario Brothers.  Ben recently got into circuit bending because of course he did, and this is a commercial for his first “product”. I think he is either going to call his new company “Unholy Electronics” or “Vomitbag Electronics”.  I hope he does well.  Here it is at the buzzer (its almost midnight here), Optronics 4-1.