There are a few more in the gallery…

With thanks to Jaygo Bloom at gabba.tv; available for weddings and bar mitzvahs.

Our final sneak preview from the Knitflicks programme, this one’s a computer animation by Finnish filmmaker Laura Neuvonen (Anima Vitae)…

Another of our featured Flummoxed artists, Oliver Laric is based in Berlin and makes consistently interesting and often funny short films that pillage selectively from the web and veer all over the place in style and approach. The stills above are from 50 50, which cuts together fifty different youtube covers of 50 Cent, and (>’.')>=O____l_*__O=<('.'<), an emoticon animation in the style of ASCII porn. Other recent pieces include Webchat with Andy (a conversation with Andy Warhol via an Australian psychic), La Mano Izquierda (in which the whole world seems to revolve around Hugo Chavez’s hand) and a project called Songs Translated to Buildings. You can watch all of this on Oliver’s site, and some of it at Flummoxed tomorrow. Below is a little greenscreen film he made of himself dancing.

Here are some photos from our birthday bash on Saturday:

And a nice preview from the Metro…

In the run-up to Flummoxed, we’ll try and illuminate some of the things that will be going on that night…

The climax of the event will be provided by Scott Johnston (Film Ficciones) and Matthew Eaton (Micronormous), who you may remember collaborated on the Divine Edgar installation. This time around they’ve been delving into the work of composer Jacob Isaacson, who created a series of ‘Colortone Experiments’ from the 1950s onwards which attempted to transpose colours into musical form. (Isaacson was himself a synaesthetic.) For the first time in many years, Isaacon’s final work Lucent Harmonic Color will be performed in full at Flummoxed, with Eaton interpreting the score while Johnston provides a visual counterpoint. That’s about all they’ve told us at this stage, but it promises to be a unique finale.

Here’s a sneak preview of a collage which Dave Gaskarth (Cyrk) is working on for our birthday do; this will be a big paste-up affair in the back-room of the Rainbow, featuring various graphical highlights from the past half-decade. As you might know, Gas has been making 7inch look good pretty much from the start; programme covers, posters, brochures, websites, DVD menus, Tshirts, you name it. His perfectionism is a wonder to behold, and we salute him. (No more Oscar speeches after this week, we promise.)

ps:: The Cyrk website also has info on their Active Cancellation show for resonance.fm, which features Marcus Schmickler live on Sunday 29 June.

pps:: Two weeks later and I think the collage is still up there. Check it out if you’re in the Rainbow, it’s out the back.

A quick introduction to Jaygo Bloom, who is coming down for our birthday gig next Saturday. We first came across him at an event we organised in Glasgow, where he set up a little greenscreen playpen in the corner of a tent. A steady stream of kids and stormtroopers came to frolic in front of his camera with various props and costumes, and saw themselves beamed into various psychedelic netherworlds… It reminded me of visits to film museums as a kid when you lie on your belly in front of a fan wearing a cape and before you know it you’re flying over New York. Simple technology, but still strangely exciting. Anyway, rather than bloody karaoke we thought this would make for an excellent addition to proceedings at the Rainbow. Jaygo (that’s him in the middle, above) is based in Glasgow and has been responsible for all kinds of barmy a-v projects, like the intriguing Midi Maracas - see his retina-bleeding site or blog for more info. And if anyone out there has any particular bigscreen fantasies they want to enact, please feel free to bring along your own props and costumes.

One more birthday notice before the weekend — there’s a mini PR toolkit at the bottom of the event page, with a couple of tips on helping us spread the word about next Saturday’s event. We’d really like to make it a busy one, so if you’re able to stick up a poster or spam some friends it’d be much appreciated.

Another knitting film for Friday afternoon… This here is a knitting machine made out of LEGO by the resourceful Thomas Johnson, whose site also features some other contraptions made with little bricks.

Compton Verney gallery in Warwickshire asked us to put together something filmy which will complement their Fabric of Myth exhibition, opening next month. We settled on a programme of knitting-related shorts and animation, to screen throughout the weekend of 19/20 July with free needles, wool and knitting tuition for those who’d like to have a go. More info soon, but in the meantime here’s a youtube clip of one of the films: a promo for ‘Les peaux de lièvres’ by Canadian duo Tricot Machine. The animation by Simon Laguanière was made using over 700 frames created on an electronic knitting machine.

With special thanks to David at Dare to Care records.

PS:: Those of a knitting/crocheting persuasion in the Birmingham area may be interested in Stitches and Hos, gathering at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath on Tuesday 27 May.