Robert Zverina Epic Video Memoir (please visit www.robztv.com)

Please visit www.robZtv.com

2010-06-28T12:40:00.000-07:00

This blog is no longer active. Please visit www.robZtv.com for all things related.

There you can browse titles, watch previews, and order DVDs-on-demand.

What is robZtv?
Since February 2003, Robert Zverina has filmed tens of thousands of unscripted digital video shorts using only an ever-present pocket camera. Of these, the best have been selected and compiled into a 48-hour magnum opus which reveals a visually exact, deeply involved, and slightly eccentric view of the world.

Inspired by a childlike sense of wonder as well as bemused curiosity about human behavior, robZtv is an unprecedented film series sure to be valued for its aesthetic and documentary qualities. Unpretentious and curiously addictive, this unique cinematic experience might just change the way you see the world.

Is anybody out there?

2010-02-22T00:22:00.000-08:00

After 134 posts I'm reconsidering the value of maintaining this blog. I started it as an experiment and I can't say I feel it has been an aesthetic triumph. It just might not be an advantageous way to share the video clips as it is so disjointed. It also takes time away from other projects. Facebook, flickr, blogs--all of them have been interfering with Picture of the Day, which to my mind has the most lasting value so I'm going to re-focus my energies there.

(Also, I regret choosing blogger as the platform as I don't really want to feed the beast that is Google. If I had it to do over again I'd probably go with wordpress. And since I'm on this digressive topic, I recommend clusty.com for all your searching needs.)

Thoughts? I welcome your comments....

February 21, 2007

2010-02-21T00:03:00.000-08:00

A handy gadget at local tee-shirt printer Des-Tee-Nation.

February 20, 2005

2010-02-20T00:11:00.000-08:00

A small fraction of one day's garbage at but one of Seattle's
waste transfer stations (Fremont)--a cathedral to waste.

February 19, 2004

2010-02-19T00:02:00.000-08:00

420 was the followup to 792 Short Films. Here I am making
copies of 2-sided 11x17 sheet which served as program listing
all 420 .avi files presented same night at Rendezvous Jewelbox
Theater. By chance this was followed by Old Time Relijun concert!
At the time I thought of the clips as individual films but now I see
them as scenes in one epic video memoir 50-or-so hours long.

February 18, 2004

2010-02-18T11:59:00.000-08:00

Looks like fun-n-games but this was serious work: clearing
away stones to lay a new brick apron beside concrete walk.

February 17, 2005

2010-02-17T11:55:00.000-08:00

On the job with RE Store at Columbia Health Club. You always
had to watch your step, which is part of what made the job fun.

February 16, 2003

2010-02-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

More Miso!

February 15, 2003

2010-02-15T13:28:00.000-08:00

Seven years since the world's largest anti-war rally
and there still seems to be no end in sight... I heard
about the protest from a poster on a telephone pole.
Whether WTO protests or the current anti-Olympic
demonstrations, the basic cause is a desire for justice.
It's class war, with the already wealthy Haves
always wanting--and usually getting--more.

February 14, 2003

2010-02-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

En route to Leavenworth where my wife was doing
research for a Next American City article she wrote.
Isn't that romantic?

February 13, 2007

2010-02-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

February 12, 2005

2010-02-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

Body language says so much. It always makes me a little
uncomfortable to watch the women on the ends shying away
from the apparently unwanted chummy embrace of their peer.

February 11, 2003

2010-02-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm the annoying new guy on the job who keeps pausing
from work to tell you how it's done while photographing you.

February 10, 2007

2010-02-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Partying with AC/DC on a portable record player in a
rented cabin at Doe Bay with Craig, Adria, Sarah, and Nicole.

February 9, 2004

2010-02-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

In the days before digital television...

February 8, 2003

2010-02-08T00:00:00.000-08:00

This is where it all began*--an idle experiment with the then-new
Canon S200 I'd recently purchased to replace my broken DC210.
I'd bought it to shoot stills and didn't see the value of brief movies.
Seven years and countless clips later I've begun showing 'em all
in chronological order from the very beginning on Seattle Cable TV.

*The webpage says February 7, 2003 but this first clip was shot after midnight.

February 7, 2006

2010-02-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

Mad skilz...

February 6, 2004

2010-02-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

In the belly of the beast, a collide-o-scope of snapshots.
(Everything &nd More installation at Priceless Works.)

February 5, 2006

2010-02-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

February 4, 2006

2010-02-04T00:00:00.001-08:00

Windstorm! We lost a big tree in front of our house.
It snapped at forking trunk and fell on electrical wires,
narrowly missing smashing many windows. The living
part remained until someone came to cut it 9 weeks later.

February 3, 2004

2010-02-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

Towards the beginning of hanging Everything &nd More
at the now defunct Priceless Works Gallery in Fremont.
5,000 snapshots were taped together in floor-to-ceiling
strips which accordion-folded down into compact packets.

February 2, 2005

2010-02-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

While the RE Store was salvaging materials from old
doctor and dentist offices in one of the first dedicated
professional buildings of its kind, construction crews were
gutting the interior and filling up large trash containers.

February 1, 2006

2010-02-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Start of the day for the RE Store field salvage crew--
Joel Blaschke slides open the big loading bay door.
(One of the things I like about my vintage Canon S200
digital Elph is it can't adjust exposure on the fly which
results in cool blown-out effects like this one.)

January 31, 2004

2010-01-31T00:00:00.000-08:00

Two of the things Seattle is most famous for.

January 30, 2004

2010-01-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

This is an action I repeated thousands of times in
preparing Everything &nd More photo installation.

January 29, 2004

2010-01-29T00:00:00.000-08:00

In the weightless world of digital imagery
up or down is a question of perspective.

January 28, 2004

2010-01-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

I have to admit I'm a pretty good dancer. Here I took advantage
of photo studio-like setting of a basement I was about to paint.

January 27, 2007

2010-01-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

Olympic Sculpture Park one week after its opening. This
project and the new central library have done Seattle proud.

January 26, 2004

2010-01-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

After-work beer session at Targy's on Queen Anne. The old
timer's name was Helmer. His style of speech must have been
much more common around bars in the Seattle of yesteryear.
(In researching a link I just discovered that he was the owner!)

January 25, 2004

2010-01-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

Adria and Craig's tuxedo kitten Mr. Nobody.
Have you heard the news? Cats are cute!

January 24, 2006

2010-01-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

En route to a deconstruction job in Maple Valley, a semi-rural
community within commuting distance of Seattle, we pass a
sprawling and ticky-tacky fenced-in housing development.

January 23, 2004

2010-01-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

This transaction wasn't nearly as shady as it looked. Just some
folks in the entertainment business trying to make their nut.

January 22, 2005

2010-01-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

Cats are mf cute. Miso, exceptionally so.

January 21, 2005

2010-01-21T00:46:00.000-08:00

Then known as Pyramids, now known as Love Tan,
Craig Chambers and Matt Ford as opening act at Neumo's.
Crowd was kind of sparse but they tore the roof off anyway.

January 20, 2008

2010-01-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

One of those rare moments when the camera is
already running and captures a priceless moment.
Listen closely for dialogue better than Shakespeare's...

January 19, 2004

2010-01-19T01:18:00.000-08:00

Albert Speer has nothing on this monumental staging.

January 18, 2004

2010-01-18T01:07:00.000-08:00

Latenight ride home in Adria's minivan, camera held upside down facing
rainy windshield while dashboard speakers crackle out Old Time Relijun.

January 17, 2004

2010-01-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

Having worked in landscaping and construction side by side
with immigrants from "south of the border" I am always amazed
to hear bigots characterize Chicanos and Latinos as lazy. Far from it.
Even when they seem to be moving slower it's only because they're
pacing themselves in that slow-and-steady-wins-the-race way. I
don't want to replace a negative stereotype with a positive one because
every person should be treated as an individual case, but if people
insist on marking trends let them at least be favorable and accurate.

January 16, 2004

2010-01-16T00:26:00.000-08:00

Helpless drunk urinating outside a bar and calling plaintively
to a vanished (probably fled in embarrassment) friend: "Charlie!"
Bars have proliferated in Fremont since liquor rules were relaxed
to allow any establishment serving even the most meager menu to
sell spirits. In the past, sales of food had to account for at least half
of all revenue for a place to serve liquor. The change has not been
altogether positive for the neighborhood, now a magnet for amateurs.

January 15, 2007

2010-01-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

During my brief tenure at the Alibi Room in Seattle I hosted a Monday
night bring-your-own-films show-and-tell. Here we celebrate MLK Day.

January 14, 2004

2010-01-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

Country Teasers at defunct Sit-n-Spin in Seattle, a bar/laundromat
back in the day when you could still smoke indoors.

January 13, 2004

2010-01-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

Thumb, nail.

January 12, 2005

2010-01-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

Where have all the birds gone?

January 11, 2004

2010-01-11T14:52:00.000-08:00

Our cat's got skillz...

January 10, 2008

2010-01-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

The Wacker jumping jack is a tool which really runs itself.

January 9, 2009

2010-01-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

Mango smoothie--great way to start a day at the beach.

January 8, 2009

2010-01-08T00:00:00.000-08:00

Two of my favorite things: warm salt water and bicycles.

January 7, 2007

2010-01-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

Nigel was a good dog.

January 6, 2004

2010-01-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

I love any day when bikes outnumber cars on the streets
of Seattle. Too bad it takes a snowstorm to do it.

January 5, 2006

2010-01-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

Part of the camaraderie of working on Seattle RE Store
salvage crew was after-work beers and bowling at the
nearby Sunset Bowl in Ballard where our waitress Jolie
could be counted on to bring drinks, smiles, and a little
bit of discipline as Joel so obviously needed here. The
owner sold out to a developer and 50 employees lost
their jobs and Ballard lost one of its last remaining blue
collar hangouts. Then the real estate bubble burst and
the building still sits empty, the property undeveloped.
I wish the employees could have somehow organized
and bought out the owner--easier said than done.

January 4, 2005

2010-01-04T00:00:00.000-08:00

Whitey the boxtruck in the background as Taylor loads
out a large but lightweight stainless steel sink from NRF,
the minimum security rehab lockup where I spent my first
couple of weeks on the job doing salvage work with RE Store.

January 3, 2005

2010-01-03T09:19:00.000-08:00

Looking down from the second most popular suicide leap in USA--
Highway 99 George Washington Bridge in Seattle, locally known as
Aurora Bridge. The traffic sounds come not from below but behind
as unraveled discarded cassette tape blows and dangles over the edge.

January 2, 2009

2010-01-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

Because the airline lost her luggage, Sarah
was without her contact lens solution (which
she had to check because it was more than 3 oz.
of liquid). We were deep in the jungle of the Osa
Peninsula, hours from the nearest medical assistance
when she woke at 2 a.m. with eyes burning, unable
to see. Was this an infection, some rare blinding
tropical disease? It was a tense and dramatic moment,
insects and howler monkeys screaming in the night.
By morning she was marginally better and we hiked to
a postcard-perfect waterfall and washed away all anxiety.

January 1, 2005

2010-01-01T18:40:00.000-08:00

Nardwuar the Human Serviette crowdsurfs at
Electric Heavyland secret Melvins in-store show.
Here they're covering Dead Kennedys "I Am the Owl."
Rumor had it Jello Biafra would join them but he
didn't show until after they were done playing.

December 31, 2008

2009-12-31T18:32:00.000-08:00

Difficult start to a belated honeymoon. Two hours on runway
in Chicago causes us to miss our Charlotte, NC connection to
Costa Rica, so they reroute us through Atlanta, GA. This is our
takeoff from there, late afternoon long shadows of sunset. We
got to San Jose just ahead of midnight but our luggage didn't
so we celebrated the new year at lost baggage desk. The next
36 hours would be all downhill from there...

December 30, 2003

2009-12-30T18:25:00.000-08:00

Crash scene, upper deck, Seattle Highway 99 viaduct.

December 29, 2003

2009-12-29T00:00:00.000-08:00

Every so often the unexpected occurs while the camera happens
to be rolling. I was simply making yet another movie of a reflection
in glass--in this case of the sleeping compartment across the aisle from
ours on one of our near-annual trainrides on Amtrak's Empire Builder.
Surprise!

December 28, 2003

2009-12-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

The can, sir, is blowing in the windy city.

December 27, 2003

2009-12-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

Driving past the Longaberger Company headquarters in Ohio.

December 26, 2003

2009-12-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

Someone in my wife Sarah's family had a very good eye.
This is another screener of an evening of home movies
projected on the wall of Bill and Jennie Kavage's farmhouse.

December 25, 2005

2009-12-25T00:00:00.001-08:00

Nieces Emma (left) and Sarah (right) and nephew David.
My mother and step-father Otto always indulged me
and my sister around the holidays, saying, "Christmas
is for children." We didn't ever seem to have enough money
generally but Christmas was always extravagant and it took
a long time to open all the presents--one by one in a highly
ritualized and drawn-out fashion presided over by my sister.
Now she has three kids of her own and she's still the mistress
of ceremonies. Four years after this was taken, Sarah is already
pretty much an adult and David isn't far behind. Hold on, Emma!

December 24, 2003

2009-12-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

My mother-in-law Jennie Kavage opens a present from
her husband Bill (off-screen) while Sarah Louise Kavage
(Bill's mother) looks on. You can put a price on Christmas.

December 23, 2003

2009-12-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

Watching home movies with Sarah's family at their
farmhouse in Sunbury, Ohio. Something so tactile and fine
about the film clicking through, the smell of a hot bulb,
the narration of people casting memory back fifty years.

December 22, 2006

2009-12-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

Shakespeare the traffic reporter: "...[I]t is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, [s]ignifying nothing."
Are there any reasonable people who still mistake this for progress?

December 21, 2004

2009-12-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

Second day on the job with the RE Store, we were at the
North Recovery Facility tearing up the gymnasium floor.
Some wood was tainted with mold or cracked so... down the hole!

December 20, 2008

2009-12-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

This screener of supermarket self-checkout illustrates
at least one of the reasons I never use those devices:
endless interactions with machines turn people into automata.
The stiff-limbed figure in the tutorial is a role model for robotic
21st century consumers--well-proportioned but soulless.
The bigger reason I don't use them is two-fold: I prefer a
little human interaction when I can get it and I don't like
seeing people replaced by machines in social venues.
What's next, a robot bartender?

December 19, 2005

2009-12-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

In a neurotic and wasteful way I suppose this makes sense
because even placing an assguard on a toilet seat with your
hands brings you in contact with it, but this kind of bullshit
technology strikes me as laughable and unnecessary.

December 18, 2008

2009-12-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

One of Charles Bukowski's funniest stories uses
Sunray as the pseudonym for a lightbulb factory
where he once worked, so whenever I see the word
somewhere I have to smile. (A rare snowday in Seattle.)

December 17, 2005

2009-12-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

Riding Amtrak through Midwest, I think these were
cattle cars transporting tortured animals in ongoing
holocaust of cruelty and unnecessary resource depletion.
A lot of water and grain is used to raise superfluous meat
for an overfed and undernourished population. Byproducts
include millions of tons of sewage and greenhouse gas methane.
We're riding the rails to a wreck but few are willing to put the
brakes on their own consumption. There need to be institutional
changes as well but individual choices do have a cumulative impact.

December 16, 2004

2009-12-16T00:00:00.001-08:00

Camera rests on a Fall LP while I type in home office.

December 15, 2004

2009-12-15T00:00:00.001-08:00

My Canon S200 has a black and white setting for films

so every so often when I'm feeling the noir mood I shoot
a monochrome clip. I tag the file with "-bw" (black/white)
so that someday I may assemble all these melodramatic

moments into an obtuse narrative experimental feature.

December 14, 2006

2009-12-14T16:05:00.000-08:00

Rainstorm of biblical proportions sends runoff gushing in
the gutters where streetlights sparkle on rushing surface.

December 13, 2005

2009-12-13T17:23:00.000-08:00

Absolute garbage. So much useless crap in the world.
The planet is raped, wars are fought, and people are enslaved
to keep the factories powered and staffed so the ownership
can reap the profits of destruction and suffering. Merry Christmas!

December 12, 2005

2009-12-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

Teamwork makes the dream work. Part of the challenge
of making architectural salvage work profitable for the
non-profit environmental education organization RE Store
was finding ways to move a lot of material fast and efficiently.
Why carry bleacher plywood backing when you can let it slide?

December 11, 2004

2009-12-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

Robie is a battery-powered robotic savings bank.
Place coin in hand and he eats it, then licks his lips.
Over the years we've found a couple at garage sales.

December 10, 2006

2009-12-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Dumping cheap vodka in a pot to mix with wormwood,
cardamon, fennel, star anise, hyssop, and some other herbs
for a steeped version of absinthe which is lower in alcohol
and generally gentler and more evocative than store-bought.

December 9, 2003

2009-12-09T11:52:00.000-08:00

At the time I thought I was pretty handy but now
I'm embarrassed by the inefficiency of my approach
to knocking down this flimsy plywood basement partition.

December 8, 2005

2009-12-08T00:00:00.000-08:00

Ben Levien does a fair imitation of Buster Keaton as RE Store
dismantles and salvages bleachers in a college gymnasium.

December 7, 2005

2009-12-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

"Don't shoot hostages."
Arcade game in Olympia, WA bowling alley.

December 6, 2006

2009-12-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

Behind-the-back tossing laundry into dryer style.
When it's warm and dry out we use a clothesline.

December 5, 2007

2009-12-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

I will never romanticize blue collar labor again.

December 4, 2005

2009-12-04T23:17:00.000-08:00

Some people in King County collect all the bus transfers

they can. They are never punched and repeat in a somewhat
random fashion--although some try to crack the pattern.
These are as good as greenbacks. All you have to do is fold
down your OWL to the appropriate time and you're free to ride.

December 3, 2005

2009-12-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

A dragonfly lands on Sarah's face. While riding the bus.

To a wedding party. In West Seattle.

December 2, 2003

2009-12-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

Shot from Fremont Bridge looking down,
this is one of my favorite short bicycle films.

December 1, 2003

2009-12-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Sitting at Araya's Vegan Thai restaurant (its old location
on University Avenue) I admired this woman's gumption.

November 30, 2005

2009-11-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

Happy 10th Anniversary of N30! One of my biggest regrets
is I was out of town--on business, no less--the day it all went
down in Seattle. To make it even more shameful, the colleague
I was visiting in Cleveland took me to the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame
that very day. What does this clip have to do with any of that? Nothing.
(This is a rare but not unique instance of camera contacting subject matter.)

November 29, 2006

2009-11-29T00:00:00.000-08:00

I've been using the same model pocket camera since 2003:
Canon Powershot S200 Digital Elph. I like it so much that I
am on my 6th replacement S200. Here, I am testing a new used
camera I found on Craigslist and picked up in downtown Seattle.
(The resolution is lower because it had been set to 160x120 pixels.)

November 28, 2008

2009-11-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

Doesn't it look like the text on label is floating over orange retrograde stripes?
Probably for much the same reason highway hubcaps can seem to spin backwards.
Port-a-Party! Port-a-Party! Port-a-Party!

November 27, 2007

2009-11-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

What could be simpler? Well, I can't help but feel that
computers have complicated more than they've made easier.
Certain tasks have been streamlined but our lives are messier.

November 26, 2004

2009-11-26T01:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving, America!
Does anyone know who is singing?

November 25, 2004

2009-11-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

Using my new fancy digital projector in the way nature intended.

November 24, 2005

2009-11-24T16:20:00.000-08:00

Miso!

November 23, 2003

2009-11-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

Cratedigger at Fremont Sunday Market.
This is how vinyl junkies feed the monkey.

November 22, 2003

2009-11-22T16:42:00.000-08:00

Drummer PJ Rogalski and The Lights at Sunset Tavern in Ballard.

November 21, 2003

2009-11-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

http://www.zverina.com/2003/1121.htm

November 20, 2003

2009-11-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

I played a young superficial artist in Greg Lundgren's play
"I Am an Artist," so it was sort of in character for me to be
sticking a camera in people's faces during the performance.

November 19, 2005

2009-11-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

I brought a manual typewriter to Stealing Rich film shoot.
I was an extra in a beatnik bar scene, hunting and pecking.
After, I filmed these birds while someone else typed quickly.

November 18, 2004

2009-11-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

After midnight...
http://www.zverina.com/2004/1117.htm

November 17, 2008

2009-11-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

http://www.zverina.com/2008/1117.htm

November 16, 2008

2009-11-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

e-waste