"memories like fingerprints are slowly raising"

SPINterviewed by Z: my 15 seconds of fame

What inspired your written project?

I’m sill developing a writing style, and it was fun to play around with elements from both Frazier and Whitehead. Also, using digits instead of numbers written out (13 vs. thirteen) was an homage to Auster’s City of Glass. I wanted to paint a picture of a whole little world, similar to Ian Frazier’s essay “Canal Street.” You see all these different people but they are just in the background until an insider creates a moving picture of a location. Like Frazier regarding his immediate neighbors, I wanted to share a little background information on some people on my block, mixed with a little Whitehead flare- we are all experiencing the same things, why don’t we know each other? The way that people responded to the fire made us feel like maybe people DO care—kind of like Daniel Quinn in City of Glass.

Why did you decide to make a video?

As an aspiring film editor, I thought it would be great to play around with editing all these little Manhattan moments into one larger one, as all these small events are occurring at the same time. Yi-Fu Tuan discusses writers and artists evoking a sense of place more accurately than anyone. I guess I was trying to be an artist and portray MY New York.

What program did you use to edit the video?

Final Cut Pro

Where can I find the video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpHx5qH4Ls4

or

http://www.placestudies.com/blog/a-manhattan-moment

Where did you get the footage for the video?

I decided I wanted to use “found “ footage instead of shooting a whole new project so that it would be more organic. I used videos from my Sony Cybershot digital camera as well as some footage from my class in Tisch Open Arts – Fundamentals of Filmmaking 1. Since I’ve only had my current computer since late June 2008, the videos are pretty representative of my final year in Gallatin. I only used footage from Manhattan, but you see everything from Rockefeller Center to my house in Chelsea to Tompkins Square Park and the East River. It is certainly not a portrait of all of Manhattan, or even all of my Manhattan, but I feel that it evokes a sense of MY MANHATTAN, the feeling of my life here in some way. Or maybe in more than one way. I was hoping for it to be a cohesive montage.

Why did you use such a long Pearl Jam clip at the end?

Last summer my old friend Zack Newman followed Pearl Jam’s east coast tour for SPIN Magazine. I joined him for the Madison Square Garden shows. When Eddie Vedder began to sing “Better Man,” the energy and voices of the crowd overpowered him to the extent that he messed up the words and asking, “With your permission…” started the song from the beginning. It was a very powerful moment for me, and I felt that it best captured thousands of New Yorkers coming together in one common mindset, even for only a few too-short minutes. Click here for my embarassing video commentary shortly after the concert.

Pearl Jam @ MSG