Head In The Cloud Library

“Cloud Library” by Margaret Explosion from 2024 CD “Field Recordings”

I like the idea of having all my stuff in the cloud, accessible from my iPad wherever I am. One of my favorite psychedelic trips was at IU in 1969. I think I might been flying solo. I remember getting off in the student union and going out back where I laid down and looked up at the clouds. The ever shifting formations were so intricate and fascinating I felt like I was there at the creation. I thought of that trip when we watched Janet Planet the other night. The little girl liked to lay down and space out.

Self Portrait With Cloud 1970
Self Portrait With Cloud 1970

Bob Martin created two new videos for the Personal Effects “This Is It – Remix 2024” release. He masterfully synced old footage of the band performing live to his new mixes of the album tracks. When Peggi and I told him how much we loved them he told us how overlapped footage on two tracks in iMovie. I didn’t realize you could do two video layers, I always relied on long cross-dissolves, so I tried it for this video of the first song on new Margaret Explosion cd, “Field Recordings.” I laid my iPad on the table out back and captured some time lapses of clouds. I grabbed some footage of the band performing a completely different song, stripped the audio and didn’t even try to sync it up to the song. I sent a link to Bob after I posted it. Bob used to be in the band before he moved to Chicago so I thought it was really big of him to be so generous with his compliments.

“That is wonderful at every level. Literally has my heart beating a little harder. Not only is the song great, not only is the image shifting and blending painted beautifully, but the band visual ads an imagined polyrhythmic layer that becomes part of the music. What you see isn’t what you physically hear, but I felt myself “hearing” the aural aspect of the video in perfect sympathy with the audio performance. Sorry, I am usually a little more succinct. Great stuff.”

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