Random thoughts on thoughts

Have you ever had the seed of a good idea, but didn't know what to do with it?

That's how Blogumentary started. A vague notion that something cool was happening, with lots of questions. I did lots of reading, article-saving, note-taking, and tried to connect the dots. In the end, most of that stuff wasn't actually used in the film but it was so helpful just soaking it in, thinking about it, giving ideas space and time to emerge and pop.

It was the same with Minnesota Stories. It started as a TV show idea before I'd ever heard of blogs. I'd put a call out for thematic home video from people around the state, weaving it together with cool music and ambient video. Like a visual, democratic, MN-based This American Life. Actually, before that? I just really loved the Daft Punk song Digital Love and thought it would be a sweet-ass tune to start a new kind of show.

Minnesota Stories turned out to be something quite different and equally wonderful. It just needed to gestate for a couple of years until videoblogging came along, then it was like... duh. It was meant to be a videoblog all along.

Eskimo Witch popped into my head watching a band at the Turf Club. I thought, "I want to form a band that sounds like a cross between Devo and Sigur Ros." I know, right? (Sorry - I hate when people do that.)  This band would have to be called... Eskimo Witch. But most of my mojo is firing around online video, so I figured it would be a vlog instead of a band.

Vlogs can be freakazoid punk rock.

I wanted to start making Eskimo Witch last fall, but then I started editing Amanda Across America. That was an incredible opportunity, and anyway, I didn't have any idea what Eskimo Witch would be. I kept jotting down ideas and capturing images that felt Eskimo Witchy to me. I'm still doing that now. Comedy ideas, media criticism, audience interaction ideas, freeform weird shit that would give people confused sour lemon faces.

Then I had an epiphany. I rediscovered Voltron News, or at least the idea and the aesthetic behind it. It's like I found a magic key that was deep in my pocket all along, and it unlocked Eskimo Witch. I know this babbling doesn't make much sense, but I'm more excited than ever to get a studio space and start working on this thing to see what happens.

The electron flow is happening in my brain, and I want it to spill out into action.