hummingcrow: one squall voice » small town

Mohawk Mary

cherylcolan — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 03:31:50 +0000

I shot this video in June at my mom’s house in Clarkdale, Arizona. At the time, Mary had adopted this street as her home, and most residents happily welcomed her and fed her. Not too long ago, she disappeared. This area is full of predators who could have dragged her off and made a meal of her. There are foxes and coyotes who make regular appearances, but we know there are also mountain lions, hawks and eagles around. It was nice knowing Mary for a little while.

It’s probably not especially clear what’s going on in the video. My mom wants to attract Mary, but has no means to do so, so she goes next door and steals bird food from the neighbor’s porch. They come outside to see what’s going on and give Mary some bread so that she’ll come closer. You can hear some of the conversation. It’s just a little slice of small town life.

waiting for rain

cherylcolan — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 05:23:36 +0000

Just a momentshowing – hanging out on my mom’s porch, waiting to see if it will rain, watching the ants confused by the sudden humidity. I sound intelligible because I’m holding my glasses in my mouth so I can see the camera better (guess it’s time for bifocals). I like the sound of the quiet and us speaking quietly. It’s fun to me to hear the silly things we talk about sometimes, rather than let there be silence.

lumiere 004: Parade

cherylcolan — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:49:11 +0000

Update: January 17, 2008

I created five Lumiere videos between June 27 – July 22, 2007, in response to encouragement from fellow vlogger Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen. It was fun. My videos, along with those of many others, were linked to from videoblogging.info.

In August 2007, Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen and Brittany Shoot published the Lumiere Manifesto. I wish to publicly state that I disagree with most of the manifesto content, and that my Lumiere videos should not be construed as an endorsement of the manifesto. I am not interested in engaging in a conversation about the manifesto’s relative merits, or what I view as problematic. I simply wish to disassociate my work from it.

Original Post

This is a 60-second excerpt of an 11-minute Independence Day Parade, July 4, 2007 in the little town of Clarkdale, smack dab in the rural-ish Verde Valley in central Arizona. Welcome to SmallTown, USA.

I wish I could show the entire parade! It starts with the Color Guard of WW2 and other veterans, and then come the children. Oh! The children! They are so cute, haphazardly throwing candy at the spectators, then greedily picking half of it back up for themselves. Then there are the cyclists, the dogs, the homemade floats set atop Radio Flyer wagons. And then the ancient fire engines! Somewhere in there are the town dignitaries, but everyone knows it’s not about them. What you do at the parade is, you wave at the kids and shout how great they’re doing even if they can’t march along in a straight line. It’s all about the kids.

Remember, Lumiere videos have no audio, so play your own patriotic tune as a backdrop. I hope this still counts as a Lumiere, despite the fact that a four-year old jostled the camera while lunging for a piece of bubble gum thrown from the parade ranks.

Oh, and warning – the AppleTV version is now huge (960×540 pixels) with the recent update of QuickTime and the H.264 codec.