VJ Promo, Public Energy’s 25th Anniversary After-p(art)y (1 min. 2019) Directed and edited by Lester Alfonso to demonstrate the use of documentation footage.
I created this video to demonstrate my use of the documentation footage that Public Energy provided from their archive for my work as a “VeeJay.” The live video-mix for the afterparty would exclusively use clips from the entire twenty-five-year history of the organization.
There’s hardly any time to look back when you keep creating. It’s always rewarding when I do. I inevitably learn something each time. When I look back at my past work, I can surmise that the “present moment” has been a driving force in my art — documenting “the now” to try to capture its fleeting nature for it is in the playback that we can be fully aware of time’s passage.
Watching videos from the past is also part of my now. Past and present merge, like a prism it bursts forth with colour and feeling. I incorporate the past into my now. I’ve been keeping these artifacts around, unable to “let go” until I found a way to make all the hoarding, schleping, and never-fully-organizing everything make sense. Now, again.
Wow, it’s Day 66. Will it ever go up to Day 6000? What kind of book is this? Is it the kind of book where each word in a sentence is a portal into another story? The pictures on the page move; music plays.
I’ve trusted life for this long, why stop now? Something new is just around the corner. Or not. Time zooms by when I’m putting something together with words and images. Is this my special number one talent?
A glimpse at some of my old writing reveals that there’s something in my core that hasn’t changed much after all these years. This “existential crisis” has been there since probably before I was born. I have to accept the pattern. Boy meets Himself. Boy loses Himself. Boy meets Himself again. It’s a tired structure, hung-over from too much of himself. It’s a self-love-story.
I don’t think I could ever give up on observing life and bettering myself. Life and people fascinate me, like ideas for self-mastery and self-actualization and the mechanics of how to best exist in this world. I’m driven and passionate about ideas around films and cinema. I loved directing Circus Boy. I want more directing gigs. I wouldn’t want to go a day without creating something, writing something. Somehow, I must find a way to make a living by inventing situations and putting words and images together. More soon! Stay tuned! —LA
P.S. If you’re liking these daily posts, perhaps you can consider becoming a monthly donor for a year or making a one-time contribution. It would seriously help a lot. Your money goes directly into supporting an artist committed to continually become the best version of himself. Thank you so much! Much love, LA