This is a music video that I directed/edited six months ago. It has been programmed on cable television countries all over California and in other parts of the country, but is just now making its way to my blog. I’ve been a big fan of Dead Prez for the past 10 years, so I enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with Stic.man.

This was also my opportunity to create art for and about Oscar Grant. The inclusion of the Oscar Grant imagery really came as an after thought (we shot most of that mural footage after the video had been edited, and only then though to include the BART shooting audio after that), but I also felt like it completed the video; it made the video tangible and relevant.

In the midst of a weekend rainstorm and lots of web design, I realized that I wasn’t spending much time outside. I didn’t feel like driving somewhere to get food (my normal excuse to leave the house on design day), and I wanted to keep creating, so I decided to walk around my neighborhood… with my camera.

I took as many pictures as I could, trying to make a gloomy day feel a little more colorful. My camera’s zoom is broken, so none of my shots are closeups… just your friendly neighborhood landscapes. Regardless, I wasn’t very concerned with image quality; it’s all about getting outside, staying creative, and finding new ways to appreciate Oakland.

The camera makes the walk more interesting, because you end up appreciating your environment for its smaller details. I drive past these spots all the time, but always see something new whenever I make a new composition. Today I noticed the “Take Pride in Oakland” signs for the first time… there’s one on every corner of Grand Ave.

I’m hoping to do a new photowalk every week, so it’ll be interesting to see what these look like after I’ve been at this for a few months. I’m also going to add a Flickr image gallery plugin so I can make a whole photowalk gallery in each posts. For now, we’ll just settle for these two pics…

This is one of the first things I saw today, and it’s still one of the most interesting. It makes me question that phrase, “Put litter in its place” The flowers in the floral pattern are by far the coolest I saw today, but that chair is clearly a piece… material irony. Seeing all that color on a gray day like this did make me proud of Oakland though… even if it is litter.