Akroness

Akroness
DVD Cover
Compilation album by Various Artists
Released	March 2004
Recorded	July 1999 - March 2004
Label	scary!records

Akroness is a collection of music, videos and artwork that was assembled from various artists to be distributed on DVD in an issue of m-80 magazine. Much of the video content was originally included in the Testtone 1000Hz collection.

Video Listing

1. Akroness Main Menu (2:35)
2. Human Beatnik (titles) (1:23)
3. Metal (2:43)
4. Part 1: "The Abduction" (3:17)
5. Teeth (2:30)
6. The Stalker (6:39)
7. Never (Live @ Mama Einstein's, Cinco de Mayo 1999, Athens, Ohio) (5:56)
8. Auto 2 (The Stalker Reprise) (1:44)
9. Talking Head (Closing Credits) (1:43)
10. (RIPE%) (1:39)
11. We Call Police (2:32)
12. Union & Parkwood (5:37)
13. Pre-Tension: The Beat Generation (1:44)

Video Notes

Akroness Main Menu

This video was created in Flash and depicts a day in night over the Akron skyline. The song was originally included in the Pleasant (2001) collection as the song "Pleasant".

Metal

See Testtone 1000Hz (1999)

Part 1: "The Abduction"

See Testtone 1000Hz (1999)

Teeth

See Testtone 1000Hz (1999)

The Stalker

See Testtone 1000Hz (1999)

Never (Live @ Mama Einstein's, Cinco de Mayo 1999, Athens, Ohio)

See Testtone 1000Hz (1999)

Auto 2 (The Stalker Reprise)

See Testtone 1000Hz (1999)

Talking Head (Closing Credits

See Testtone 1000Hz (1999)

(RIPE%)

This video was originally produced using Final Cut Pro 3.5 at a resolution of 320x240 pixels, thus the exceptional graininess of the video. It uses footage from The Stalker video shoots, along with video footage from The Ultimate Revenge. The song was originally included in the Pleasant (1999) collection.

We Call Police

The footage for this video was shot on a brutally hot day in June 2003 around downtown Akron, Ohio. I had recently read in the news about someone suing McDonald's because their food had made them fat, or something along those lines. So, I got it in my mind to make a video that showed people buying food at fast food restaurant drive-thru windows. Great idea, right? I got my friend to drive around as I shot footage, but nothing really worked. However, I did get a lot of footage of downtown Akron, so I assembled along to a song by Emperor Penguin titled "(We Call Police) Neighborhood Watch" which I'd been listening to at the time. I added some hastily rendered chroma key shots of my friend and I pretending to be the king of Akron as it passed behind us, ending with some psychedelic footage along the same lines.

Union & Parkwood

The song Union & Parkwood was originally included in the Union Point Sessions (2003) collection of music and has been one of my favorite songs since the day I recorded it. The video depicts a person slowly walking south on Union Street in Akron, Ohio, crossing Perkins Street before arriving at the brown stone apartment building I lived at on the corner of Union Street and Parkwood Avenue. The footage was shot as I walked backward out of my apartment, down the steps and north on the street, thus creating the illusion of walking through a world where cars and birds fly backward. I shot the video twice, shooting it a second time once I learned how to make a gimble for my camera to keep it a bit more steady.

Pre-Tension: The Beat Generation

The recording for this video was first included in the collection The Sadness (1999). The video was produced in Flash.

Music Listing

Music by myself and friends were included as DVD menus.

1. Pleasant (0degreesK)
2. Cleopatra's Cooter (Small Object A)
3. Spawn (0degreesK)
4. A Certain Indefinite Thing (The October Complex)
5. cza->Red Fox (dextrometh*)
6. Casey Bales (Mark McElroy)
7. The Poltergeist (Full Sun)
8. Back In The Day (White Milk Hit Squad)
9. Abnoxious (October Bolex)
10. Crow's Cry (dextrometh*)
11. Best Ghost (DJ Dionysus)
12. This is not a tennis match (Small Object A)
13. Insomnia (dextrometh*)
14. (Rollin' In My) Tempo '87 (DJ Dionysus)
15. Sucka MCs (Mark McElroy)
16. Filer 1 (0degreesK)
17. Snow (The October Complex)
18. Last Worlds (Full Sun)

Personal Thoughts

I cannot remember how it happened, but I subscribed to a magazine called RES in 2002... that is a strange thing for me to write, but I remember getting the first issue and not knowing how I'd gotten subscribed to it. Anyway, it was a cool magazine, and it came with a DVD that featured music videos and songs. At the time, I couldn't hardly afford my Netflix subscription and ANY entertainment was welcome, so I looked forward to the magazines.

It was also inspiring to me. I liked the idea of putting music, video, artwork... everything on a DVD that people could play on their standard players. Around the same time, I learned about a guy in Akron (John Puglia) who was producing an art magazine called m-80, which was packaged with a motley array of objects, including a CD compilation that a friend of his would put together. I mailed him a copy of my new Union Point Sessions and he contacted me about including it in an issue of m-80 after receiving it, but I told him I had an idea for a DVD. We got together for drinks and he liked the idea, so I began working on figuring-out what I needed to do to accomplish it.

I eventually got the hardware and pirated software I needed to make DVDs and had 125 copies of the DVD produced, but due to a burning mistake, none of them played in standard DVD players, which sometimes is just the way shit like this goes. I ended-up producing a Flash-based DVD-ROM titled "Akroness 2" and included it in an issue of m-80, but it wasn't that effective. John stopped making m-80 shortly after that and I never got the opportunity to include a DVD in an issue, unfortunately.

All but four of the videos were originally made for the Testtone 1000Hz collection that I assembled in the Summer of 1999 in Athens, Ohio. The DVD also included music and artwork by my friends.