dj vu

just did two nights in edmonton. first night as felix cartal, 2nd night as glass petals. it was very cool to see the vision of both projects co-existing finally come to life. i dreamt this as a possibility around 2018 when i started Glass Petals. i guess things always take a bit longer than expected, although i’m giving myself a pass on account of the global pandemic that slowed things a bit.

the stage setup in edmonton was great, 3 screens behind me, so a very… very widescreen. the aesthetic was phenomenal once i saw some social clips, quite cinematic… almost that black bar effect you get while watching a proper film in theatres. 

i’d started building the visuals for my set in the beginning of the pandemic, and it’s been a very time-consuming endeavour. premiere pro can be a pain in the ass a lot of days, but the minor video editing i did throughout high school (editing skate videos and DIY punk rock mv’s) as well as the few courses i took at UBC in the now defunct film production program (which disbanded while i was apart of it) have proved beneficial while navigating the editing skills necessary to move graphics to a dance beat. keyframe editing also reminds me of the early days of the internet, fucking around with garbage animation in Shockwave Flash. i’m reminded of the Steve Jobs quote where all the random skills you learn throughout your life, you never know how they’ll serve you in the end. (ie: him taking a calligraphy course and developing a love for fonts, and then being the first company to give the user an option to choose their font in a word processor).

all that being said, i was quite proud of the show this week. sometimes i’ll see the visuals on a smaller projector and be like… is this trash? is this good? and seeing it on a proper setup gave me a lot of confidence that my stylistic intuition is on the right track. things are growing. we’re doing it. 

you should come see it in new york.

-felix

photo by mintcaptures