Home Taping: The Fair

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

When I visited a festival in the netherlands over eastern, I followed some strange notion and started taping with my outdated mobile phone.

A bit later I took the footage and did a dub. I'm rather satisfied with the result: It went out quite naturalist, stream of consciousish.

Trigger-Warning: Hard topics (Health, Corona, War, Global Warming, general dismalness) are addressed.
https://dalek.zone/w/x8rXy6W8ZENC9ndT73oRpk

How do you like it? Do you have released any flick?

[Memory]

Okay, this is the first video, that achieved to make me really dizzy. Left-right-left-right...

And I thought 10 FPS would be enough for a video. How wrong that assumption was.

Did you just hold your phone in your hand or did you attach it to your body somehow?

The choice of video platfroms is an interesting one. To be honest, the Peertubes will only work if the people make low-res videos like you. Although I'm unhappy with Peertube's requirements, which deny a couple of old browsers the video access. I'll stay with Invidious and a couple of old-style Youtube clones.

[shevek]

I'll stay with Invidious

Invidious was ordered to shut down by the YT legal team very recently, so you might have to switch.

[arcus]

There is something about the distortion and the lack of editing that makes this video feel extra personal. The quality of the video and the ambient audio are nostalgic and caricaturises: In a sense, it carries the memories and feelings of a fair more than a clean, high quality video could.

The dub could be louder. You could possibly have the audio lower as you speak if you don't want to drown out the ambient audio completely. Later parts of the video were hard to make out at times.

Sorry to hear about your health. I can relate. I hope your stamina continues to improve. The festival sounded interesting, and I enjoyed the segment at the end with your hopes for the world.

As for your second question, I have not, but I am feeling inspired to record something on my old phone now.

The choice of video platfroms is an interesting one. To be honest, the Peertubes will only work if the people make low-res videos like you. Although I'm unhappy with Peertube's requirements, which deny a couple of old browsers the video access. I'll stay with Invidious and a couple of old-style Youtube clones.

PeerTube is for hosting videos. Invidious is a front end for YouTube. As such, one can't upload to it.

Invidious was ordered to shut down by the YT legal team very recently, so you might have to switch.

Not quite. Youtube has no legal grounds for it. Even if they did, it's open source with many people hosting it. The same happened with youtube-dl: The project was suspended from Github, but only temporarily.

[shevek]

Spoiler

Not quite. Youtube has no legal grounds for it.

I know the creators of Invidious say this and even if booted off of Github will continue on Gitea, but it's not as easy as they make it out to be. They say nowhere did they agree to the ToS or API and do not use it, but the second you embed videos hosted by YT you automatically agree ("By embedding YouTube videos on your site, you are agreeing to YouTube API Terms of Service"). Now obviously, it depends on what counts as embedding and if a front-end falls under that. That will probably be for some lawyers or court to decide, and it could potentially not be in their favor considering how tech is highly misunderstood in the legal spheres..

Stuff like that has destroyed other front ends before because more and more people stopped hosting out of fear they could be legally liable as a private person. Not to mention the practice of making front ends completely impossible to maintain, like Instagram did to Bibliogram.
We need to be ready for companies jumping on the third party ban train more and more now after Twitter and Reddit. They're all getting ideas now how to force users to switch to their adridden apps.

[close]

To say something about the video too to keep the thread on topic:

To me, the video really captured something about being a child on a fair, like something from my childhood. Everything was so huge and overwhelming as a child, looking around sometimes felt like blurry snapshots like that too. It seemed like the biggest event ever to me. All the blinking lights, people, smells, screams of the entertainment rides I always went to the fair in the cities I lived in as a child. Nowadays it kind of sucks that there is so little there that I can participate in or like as an adult.

Your video also kind of reminds me of how it felt when you walked away in your own thoughts, or stood staring at some stands, but then snapped out of it and realized you got separated from the people you went there with, like your parents. Everything suddenly felt stressful but also eerie then, static in the ears, tunnel vision, scanning the crowds. I like how your narration fits so perfectly to the video; it starts out easy and casual on the outside of the fair, and then the more you get into your health troubles, the more distorted and static, creepy the footage becomes. Then it eases up again as you talk about the art museum.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Did you just hold your phone in your hand or did you attach it to your body somehow?

The choice of video platfroms is an interesting one. To be honest, the Peertubes will only work if the people make low-res videos like you. Although I'm unhappy with Peertube's requirements, which deny a couple of old browsers the video access. I'll stay with Invidious and a couple of old-style Youtube clones.

Did just hold my phone, sometimes directing it a bit, but mostly I just held it in my hand :).
I agree that Peertube could need some improvement; especially the moderation is lacking, I didn't find an instance free of shit yet.

There is something about the distortion and the lack of editing that makes this video feel extra personal. The quality of the video and the ambient audio are nostalgic and caricaturises: In a sense, it carries the memories and feelings of a fair more than a clean, high quality video could.

The dub could be louder. You could possibly have the audio lower as you speak if you don't want to drown out the ambient audio completely. Later parts of the video were hard to make out at times.

Sorry to hear about your health. I can relate. I hope your stamina continues to improve. The festival sounded interesting, and I enjoyed the segment at the end with your hopes for the world.

As for your second question, I have not, but I am feeling inspired to record something on my old phone now.

Was also quite surprised of the outcome of the footage :).
Played a bit around with the audio - hard to estimate what balance is good, I indeed wanted to keep the sound from the footage.

Thanks for the empathy about my health, I took it quite hard back then. I made the dub now nearly 2 months ago; I recovered quite well, and even though it took quite a while I think my stamina is fully recovered by now. From time to time I still cough up some slime, though. Can only recommend to everyone to be cautious about Covid/Influenza, this was no fun.

The festival ("Rewired") is great. Was there for the second time, and both times I saw absolutely mind blowing stuff. Lets hope that we can get the curve about the political situation of the world. Times are grim.

Looking forward to see what you'll come up with! :)

@shevek:
Glad to hear that the video evoked something for you. If I think about fairs from my early childhood, they were indeed somewhat magical. Here in Germany, fairs are very related to the (heavy) consume of alcohol; at night they can be a pretty dangerous place, especially if you step a bit out of the line - might be that this added to the negative associations that I also mentioned in the video.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Adding up onto it:
https://dalek.zone/w/sRbcAUDnf6iCSmF3TxwWPD
Did a nightride with rollerblades. The result, "Irrlicht" (german for "will-o'-wisp", or "ignis fatuus") is scored with a specially made 40 min track of my dungeon synth-project "Erdspiegel", featuring (some of my favorite!) texts from the alternative wandering circus Kala Shejtan, hippie acid folk pioneer duo Witthüser & Westrupp, female poet Gertrud Kolmar, The Comedian Harmonists, Georg Heym, and anarchist poet Erich Mühsam.
I attempted to translate them to English, for the case somebody is interested; not sure how well it went.

Lyrics:
Ruhelos die Geister / Restless the spirits (excerpt from Kala Shejtan)

Leise fällt die Nacht ins Land,
Brüder nehmt euch bei der Hand,
ruhelos die Geister ziehen wir unsere Bahn-
uns fiel noch kein Abschied schwer,
Tränen ziehen uns hinter her-
und ein guter Stern geht uns voran

Silently, the night falls down-
brothers, take each other by the hand,
restless the spirits, we draw our paths,
no goodbye ever bothered us,
tears draw behind us,
and a good star is shining on our way.

Die Schlüsselblume / The primrose (Witthüser und Westrupp)

In stiller Nacht zieht ganz allein,
ein Teppichhändler durch eines Waldes Hain,
er sieht eine Lichtung, hebt das Gesicht und sieht:
Gleisende Sterne in strahlendem Licht!
Auf der Wiese sieht er eine Blume stehn-
glitzernd, und herrlich anzusehen.

Und er greift diese Blume und bricht sie sacht,
da öffnet sich ihm einer Höhle Schacht.
Voller Silber, Gold und Edelsteinen,
sieht er drei Grotten vor sich erscheinen.
Und er sieht sein Leben in Reichtum und Macht,
geblendet durch des Geschmeides Pracht,
erscheint ihm seine Zukunft gesichert und klar-
ein neues Leben beginnt, das alte war.

Während er steht und seinen Traum genießt,
merkt er wie sich das Tor langsam schließt,
da greift er sich was er nur fassen kann und rennt hinaus
hinter ihm schließt sich die Höhle mit dumpfen Klang.
Er betrachtet den Reichtum in seiner Hand
doch der zerfällt und wir zu Sand,
und er merkt dass er das schönste vergaß:
Die Blume,
den Schlüssel
den er besaß.

In silent night, moves all alone
a carpet-trader through a forest,
he enters a glade and lifts his face and sees
shining stars in bright light
on the meadow he sees a blooming flower,
shining, and delightful to see.

And he takes the flower and breaks her gentle,
there opens a cave shaft before him.
Full of silver, gold and jewels,
he sees three groves.
And he sees his live, in glory and power,
blinded through the splendor of the riches,
and his future appears safe and clear:
A new life begins, the old one was.

As he stands and enjoys his dream,
he notices that the gate is closing-
and he grabs what he can get and goes out,
behind him, the cave closes with dull crumbling.
And he looks at the fortune within his hand,
but it all melts into sand,
and he notices that he forgot the most beautiful:
The flower,
the key
he had possessed.

Der Engel im Walde / The angel in the forest (Gertrud Kolmar)

Ich aber traf ihn nachmittags im Wald.
Ein Wunder, das durch Buchenräume ging,
So menschenfern, so steigend die Gestalt,
Daß blaue Luft im Fittich sich verfing;

Das Antlitz schien ein reines, stilles Leid,
Sehr sanft und silbrig rieselte das Haar,
In großen Falten schritt das weiße Kleid.
Er schaffte nichts, er sagte nichts; er war.

Und nichts an ihm, was schreckte, was verbot,
Und dennoch: keines Sterbens Weggenoß,
Daß meine Lippe, ob auch unbedroht,
Erstaunten Ruf, die Frage stumm verschloß.

Ein Blatt entwehte an sein Gürtelband,
Vergilbt und schon ein wenig krausgerollt;
Er fing und trug es in der schmalen Hand
Wie ein Geschenk aus Bronze und aus Gold.

Wer sah ihm zu ? Das Eichhorn, rot am Ast,
Und Rehe, die das Buschwerk schnell verlor.
Und Erlen wanden schon im Abendglast
Wie schwarze Schlangen züngelnd sich empor.

Er regte kaum die dünne Blätterschicht
Mit weichem Fuß. Er hatte ewig Zeit
Und zog: wohin? In Stadt und Dörfer nicht;
Er wallte außer aller Wirklichkeit.

Nicht unsre Not, nicht unser armes Glück,
Nur keusche Ruhe barg sein Schwingenpaar
Ich folgte nach und stand und blieb zurück.
Er brachte nichts, er sagte nichts: er war.

But I met him in the forest in the afternoon.
A miracle that passed through the rooms between the beeches,
So distant from people, so rising the figure,
That blue air got caught in the wing;

The face seemed one of pure, silent suffering,
The hair flowed very gentle and silvery,
The white dress flowed in large folds.
He did nothing, he said nothing; he was.

And there was nothing about him that frightened, that forbade,
And yet: no mortality accompanied him,
so that my lip, even if unthreatened,
Astonished shout, silenced the question.

A leaf flew to his belt,
Yellowed and already a little curled;
He caught it and carried it in his slender hand
Like a gift made of bronze and gold.

Who was watching him? The squirrel, red on the branch,
And deer, which quickly lost the bushes.
And alder trees were already wandering in the evening glass
Like black snakes licking their way up.

He barely stirred the thin layer of leaves
With a soft foot. He had eternity.
And moved: where? Not to the towns and villages;
He was flowing beyond all reality.

Not our misery, not our poor fortune,
Only chaste calm hid his pair of wings
I followed and stood and stayed behind.
He brought nothing, he said nothing: he was.

Frühlingsweise / Spring Song (Excerpt from the Comedian Harmonists)

Doch wie schnell ist all diese Pracht verschwunden,
die ein schöner Tag uns im Mai gebracht?
Denn ein kalter Reif hat in nebelgrauen Stunden,
alles grün vernichtet in einer Nacht.
Längst schon sind verstummt alle Vögel auf den Zweigen
auch die Falter tanzen nicht mehr ihren Reigen,
selbst die alten Bäume hüllen frierend sich in Schweigen,
und den kleinen Blumen ist so traurig zu Mut.

But how fast did all splendor vanish,
brought by a pretty day in May?
Cause a cold frost has in fog-grey hours,
destroyed every green within one night.
For long, all birdies on the branches have fallen silent,
and the butterfly's ceased to dance.
Even the old trees fell quite within the cold,
and how sad are all the little flowers.

Die Dämonen der Städte / The demons of the cities (Georg Heym)

Sie wandern durch die Nacht der Städte hin,
Die schwarz sich ducken unter ihrem Fuß.
Wie Schifferbärte stehen um ihr Kinn
Die Wolken schwarz vom Rauch und Kohlenruß.


Ihr langer Schatten schwankt im Häusermeer
Und löscht der Straßen Lichterreihen aus.
Er kriecht wie Nebel auf dem Pflaster schwer
Und tastet langsam vorwärts Haus für Haus.

Den einen Fuß auf einen Platz gestellt,
Den anderen gekniet auf einen Turm,
Ragen sie auf, wo schwarz der Regen fällt,
Panspfeifen blasend in den Wolkensturm.

Um ihre Füße kreist das Ritornell
Des Städtemeers mit trauriger Musik,
Ein großes Sterbelied. Bald dumpf, bald grell
Wechselt der Ton, der in das Dunkel stieg.

Sie wandern an dem Strom, der schwarz und breit
Wie ein Reptil, den Rücken gelb gefleckt
Von den Laternen, in die Dunkelheit
Sich traurig wälzt, die schwarz den Himmel deckt.


Sie lehnen schwer auf einer Brückenwand
Und stecken ihre Hände in den Schwarm
Der Menschen aus, wie Faune, die am Rand
Der Sümpfe bohren in den Schlamm den Arm.

They wander through the night of the cities,
The bow black under their feet,
Like sailor beards stand around her chin
The clouds black with smoke and coaly soot.


Their long shadow sways in the sea of the houses
And darkens the rows of lanterns on the street.
It crawls heavily like fog on the pavement
And creeps silently forward, house by house.

One foot placed on a plaza,
The other bend onto a tower,
They rise up where the black rain falls,
Blowing pan whistles on a cloudy storm.

The refrain circles around their feet
Of the sea of cities with sad music,
A great death song. Sometimes dull, sometimes bright
so changes the tone that rises into darkness.

They walk along the black, wide stream,
like a reptile, its back spotted yellow
From the lanterns, into the darkness
Wallowing sadly, covering the sky black.


They lean heavily on a bridges column wall
And stick their hands into the swarm
of people. Looking like fauns on the edge
of the swamps, boring their arm into the mud.

Jeden Abend werfe ich / Every evening I throw (Erich Mühsam)

Jeden Abend werfe ich
eine Zukunft hinter mich.
Die sich niemals mehr erhebt-
denn sie hat im Geist gelebt.
Neue Bilder werden wachsen,
welten drehn auf neuen Achsen,
werden sterben, lieben, schaffen-
die Vergangenheiten klaffen.
Tosend zitternd stürzt die Zeit,
in die Gruft, das Leben schreit.

Every evening I throw
a future behind me.
That can never rise again-
cause she lived within my mind.
New images shall flourish,
worlds rotate on new spheres,
will die, love, and work-
while the pasts yawn.
Loud shivering, the time collapses,
in the crypt, the life does scream.