I just saw the Quantum Leaps show from Astria Suparak over at Cable Car Cinema as part of the Magic Lantern Series.

It started with a grating twisting Q-bert eye-bend "accompanied" by overly resonant metal machine music (Xualaux by Andy Puls), and I thought "dear god not an hour of this!" I may be a pseudo-artist but I still like stories and just don't understand the pleasure of listening to things that sound like they need a little 3 in 1 oil. The dancing brains with the jaw-grating grind was rather evocative, though.

This piece was followed by cute anecdotes about mostly obscure gay people, illustrated with lined-notebook style caricatures and accompanied by an adorable midi soundtrack that made me think of that Japanese movie about the kid looking for his family with his dirty uncle (Catalogue of the Original by Daniel Barrow).

The best part of Folk Music & Documentary by Seth Price, was the smile on the actor's face as he tried not to laugh. The stuff he said was often OK, and though I love the rough aesthetic and the fact that we could hear the prompter's... uh... prompts, It Was Really Annoying To Hear The Crappy Echoey Sound.

And I've got to stop judging all machinima as the same old joke. It's its own genre now, old man. Subtract the obvious death from Yoga Deathmatch and you've got a decent machinima. Coming from me, that is a huge compliment.

Then Dearraindrop came by with a Geoff McFetridge meets someone whose name I can't remember (thanks Peter), and the show stopped with the Show Stopping Taco Monde by Philippe Blanchard.

But the dark horse for the evening: the piece that stuck with me even though I thought it was just going to be boring and annoying, was Duke and Battersby's I am a Conjuror. I know part of it was the Sedgwick like muse, but even more was how their vague conversation of a new world order sort of left me chilled and believing. They just seemed so deflated at having made such a huge discovery in the knowledge that it hadn't yet really affected anyone for good, and that those who really needed that change were already gone. It is a perfect example of the light touch/ skirting around the actual thing of it approach I have tried for so long with dubious results at theysaysmall.

I wonder how long I'll be thinking about their piece. Its a good argument for leaving things unsaid.

... and the birds come back, which is amazing...