Now that we are on the subject of busses, the universe and everything, and my week in college hell being effectively over, I got enough alkeelhole in myself to look through my entire photographic collection (as well through my never-cut 2001 Velocity short [I finally got around to finishing it; click here to see it.]) to find photos of busses and bussing. But before that - a story or two.
Back the track to Ashdod, Israel, off the coast of the Mediterranean, circa 1993 (before I stopped riding busses there altogether - guess why). My late brother and I wait for the 4:30 PM bus to go to the Akadma Music school for piano lessons. And the 4:30 PM bus, without fail, is full of down-syndrome people, front to back. And the driver is looking it too. So there it is. This is less of a story rather than an existential vignette. Make of it what you will.
Another interesting idea to ponder next time you are on das bus is those little stickers with graffiti "tags" on them you see attached to various bus fixtures. My late brother was going through a wigger phase in the last few years of his life and he and his friend Chris were taggers and had jokingly used the tags "dose" and "EPC," standing for "East Point Crew," still sometimes seen around the city.
But that's beside the point. Ponder the notion of bite-size statement of self-expression, prepared in advance to be almost-virally disseminated on a mode of transportation that is of course so much more than it seems to be.
Now, to the money shots:
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Sorted and watched a few dozen Bowie music videos that I downloaded a couple of weeks ago but never had the chance to sort. Downloaded and watched the two latest Simpsons episodes. Way edgy and cool. We'll see how long this trend lasts.
At any rate. Sorted through a whole bunch of photos, retouched some, then went through the bus sequences in Velocity with a fine-tooth comb and captured the best frames. This better be worth it.
Remembered another story related to busses and motion. I'm quoting from memory, but when, in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 Clarice talks to Montag she tells him that motrists these days don't know what thigns are; but you show them a blur of green and they'll say "that's grass," you show them a blur of pink, they say "that's roses."
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OK, so here are the Velocity caps:
Exact Change Only
Grave of the Unknown Poet
Water Drops on Glass
The Little Girl I
The Little Girl II
Fasten Belts I
Fasten Belts II
Fasten Belts III
The Floor
Green Blur I
Green Blur II
Order
The Rear Window
Self-Reference to Marpole I
Self-Reference to Marpole II
Faux Red Leather Skin
Semi-Cowboy----- BEGIN TIMECODE BREAK -----Too tired. *falls asleep* I'll finish this shite tomorrow. *wakes up* Retouches photos.
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And here are some circa 2001 bus photos and one taken just in March:
Well, this has been quite a post (took me two days to put it together). I'm going to go tell Kat the bus lover about it now.
Solitude
Forum
Infrastructure
A Late ReturnBut before I do that - I just remembered an interesting psychological experiment, which proves (at least Canadian) politesse: Go on a bus, go up to a person sitting among unoccupied seats and ask them for their seat. ;)
Funky.
How did you take these pics?
Borrowed a DV camera from UBC Continuing Studies way back in 2001 and documented my entire journey. I was going to cut it all funky and shit into a short called Velocity but never got to it. The whole 7 GB of it still sit on my hard drive since then.
These are basically carefully-selected frames from the bus sequence. I have a shitload of other funky stuff which I probably will post right now, actually, since I see there is user demand. ;)
Tis good to see other people like buses too. Have you seen this site - www.stopmotionstudies.net Someone mentioned it on my blog the other day and you might find it inspiring in your quest to do something with all your images.
Yep, I've seen it, it's an interesting project, but the actual animations weird me out, because they're so short and got so little frames in them. If I were that guy (or, at least, if I owned a DV camera), I'd set it up in my fave motion place and let it run the entire day, dawn to dusk (maybe even ride the SkyTrain for the entire day). And maybe that's what I'll do...some day.