Mexico, 2005

An unknown offshoot of the common and popular garden flower Iris of the Iridaceac family, is the unpredictable (and dare I say unpopular when compared to its suburban counterpart) Iridenoptera, or Winged Iris. Often mistaken for the common Iris, its distinction lies in its ability to swarm with other Iride in a fashion not unlike some of the more ambitious ant colonies described in the early exploration documents of Kurt Brussel (Collective Cognitive of Congo Hymenoptera, 1935) and even the more fanciful descriptions of winged plantain described in Tolson’s interactions with the Tremeguará and Tupinaquim tribes of the more dense tropic regions of Brazil (Observations in Floresta Amazônica, 1917). While the common Iris is hardly a tropic plant, preferring the cooler climates of northern European and North American regions, there have been suggestions — and even heated debate — among the Insectivorous Plantae community about just how far Iridenoptere crosses the line. Iridiacs declare that stem patterns and leaf variations are too similar to Irideae to permit separation from the family, while Hymenopterists argue the crossover to Insecti is blatantly apparent through analysis of body segmentation and locomotive traits— even going to far as to suggest that Iridiacs are simply looking for attention— often citing outspoken iridiac Buress’s now notorious comment at the 2009 Iride conference of “falling funds due to the banality of Iris study”. Planticarnatics choose to disregard locomotion, expressing the importance of the protocarnivorous traits, but even these have not been confirmed. A lot about the Winged Iris is still unclear, due to the rareness of the genus, but also due to the imminent danger surrounding close study. Most agree that they clearly do not ingest flesh. This was concluded in the applicable iris biopsy report Inner Workings of Agile Irideae (1996) as well as the few subsequent — and tragic — reports that followed. However they have been documented to consume flesh. The most important example of this is the footage collected in 2005 by Robert Scherrer, in which a swarm of iride consume an adult human male (albeit an immature one) in roughly 5 seconds.

Famous Intertitles that never were…

Series, 2012

Having fun with the intertitle style developed from early Charlie Chaplin films and created for Rico con Amor— but also reflecting on the differences between written word and spoken word for moving pictures, and how different these famous movie quotes look in this dated silent-era format. How would audiences of that era read them? What of these would have been memorable without the actor’s delivery? Are there famous silent-era intertitle quotes? I think of the Metropolis line “The Mediator  between the Head and the Hands must be the Heart!”— perhaps it was quoted outside the movie theater as people walked out. I’m not sure, really.

New work: Rico con Amor, a film short by my brother Jacob Wilhelmi.

Filmed five years ago (!) and then put aside due to time constraints, the project was only recently revisited and completed in December of 2011. I worked with Jake in the final stages, doing the intertitles, color editing & effects. (I also branded his filmmaker identity Alwayseldom a while back) Rico con Amor was my first time working in Final Cut, and I’m already looking forward to the next project.

Jake came up with the idea while driving on a long stretch of highway. He was listening to Pink Martini’s classic album Sympathique, and when Andalucia came on, the silent-era scenario played out in front of him, and he quickly had to jot it down. A fun project, done out of love for the silent-era greats and Pink Martini’s music, we hope you enjoy it. Thanks for watching!

The End is Near Guy, 2012

New work: Cassette Jockey, 2012

So I recently acquired a smart phone of the Apple variety, enabling me to join the Instagram community. You can follow me and/or browse those photos via this link which, as it turns out, can also now be found on my lacking-sophistication-but-still-rather-up-to-date ‘About’ page.

Music Mix: Up to Our Knees In the Milky Way

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There’s a Calvin & Hobbes daily strip series, where Calvin keeps growing & growing, dwarfing his town, city, the weather, and finally the universe. This particular strip I’m thinking of was wordless. Just him growing, and then wading through the Milky Way.

See also: 

“Watching mountains drift by”

–xkcd, 941

“She wasn’t doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.”

–J.D. Salinger, A Girl I Knew, 1948

“But her most intoxicating gifts were a thousand candles her and her slaves had made in a colonial mold. We fitted them into the empty mouths of my thousand candlesticks and deployed them over the lobby floor. Then we lit them all.

Standing there among all those tiny, wavering lights, I felt as though I were God, up to my knees in the Milky Way.”

–Kurt Vonnegut, Slapstick, 1974