I came up with the idea of a sort of mid-brow entertainment over a decade back. I think it started out as an idea for a TV show. I had been at some filmmaking workshop and was called upon to come up with a pitch on the spot. I hate those sorts of exercises. Anyway, I pitched The Cucuy Club. A lighthearted series about two guys who live in San Antonio and write a blog about the folktales of the Southwest. The hook is, as they investigate firsthand stories, they find themselves on the hunt for, perhaps, real monsters. A sort of Kolchak the Night Stalker in San Antonio, or a Chicano X-Files.

I had already spun a few tales that fit within this general conceit. Produced a few short films. And I wrote quite a few short stories featuring these characters (these stories have been woven together into a novel (as yet unpublished) titled Tales of Lost Southtown).

Back in November of 2017 I decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The plan was to hammer out, in a month, a first draft of a Cucuy Club novel. It went so well, I kept going. In December I wrote a first draft of a second novel. And January, I did the same for a third novel.

I guess that’s my way of procrastinating. Write another book instead of editing the last one. I really don’t like to edit.

But, I dug in and did just that. For much of 2018 I edited and polished those novels. I decided to self publish through Amazon’s KDP service.

With little fanfare (I dislike marketing even more than editing), I published the first ebook in early December of this year.

Here’s the cover I designed using the wonderful painting I commissioned from Raul Servin.

The book is available from Amazon. Click HERE, or on the image above to purchase it.

Laurie and I staged another version of Invocation at Happyland Theater in New Orleans. The piece had been accepted for the InFringe Fest. We created a whole new show, site specific for the venue, an old movie theater in lovely disrepair in the Bywater neighborhood. All the audio clips were gathered at the theater, as were the photographs. Laurie and I wrote little microfiction prose pieces inspired by the photos. We read the pieces while using wireless MIDI controllers to trigger the projected photos, loops for the growing soundscape, and the animation.

Here is a short video trailer:

INVOCATION InFringe Teaser from Erik Bosse on Vimeo.

And below is the full performance of the final show on Nov. 11th.

Invocation [At Happyland] from Erik Bosse on Vimeo.

I’ve finished the edit on a new music video. The artist is Azul Barrientos. And the song, “Cupido,” is off her soon-to-be-released album, Nuestro Corazón. Audiences at Azul’s performance at the Esperanza Center on Saturday, July 21 got to see a sneak preview of the video. But the official release date of the album and the video will be September 16, 2018 at the Carver Community Cultural Center. I hope to be able to visit San Antonio for the premiere. (After which, I will post a link to the video here.)

Azul was kind enough to send me a preview copy of the album. It’s wonderful. I’m honored to had been part of this new chapter of her professional career, even in a small part. She’s an extraordinary talent and deserves an ever-growing audience.

UPDATE: Azul’s album can be purchased from her website azulbarrientos.com

And below is the finished music video:

It’s always an honor to be asked by George Cisneros to be part of one of his public art displays. This one, the Cacophony, was commission by the Witte Museum as part of their Confluence and Culture show which celebrates the tricentennial of San Antonio, Texas. George’s piece is situated in the first room the museum patrons walk through as they gain entrance to the exhibit.

The Cacophony, as seen in the video above, comprises three fabricated arched walls (one with two arches) in the style of the San Antonio Missions. Inside the arches have been placed speakers. The entire installation has, I believe, 16 discrete audio channels. The full run time of George’s sound composition is about 40 minutes (if I remember correctly). There are movements devoted to various subject (each filled with sounds of the city), such as religion, language, cuisine, transportation, military, etc.

My video design is spread over two walls and the floor by six projectors. The run-time for each video loop averages about twelve minutes, each channel a different length to allow for an ever-changing juxtaposition. There is a mix of archival photos, as well as images I shot myself.

The show runs through January of 2019.

Below is a video sample of images from four of the projections. They have been sped up a bit to add a dynamic quality for internet streaming.

I’ve been aware of Azul Barrientos for at least a decade. She’s one of these fixtures in the community art world who is universally loved and respected. I had worked with her once for an online music magazine sort of project that seems to have fizzled.

So, I at least knew she was aware of me. When she contacted me a couple of years later to ask if I would like to make a music video with her, I was thrilled. She has been working on an album for a while, now. And she wants a video to aid in the promotion of it. That particular project (album and video release) is slated for September 16.

However, while we met and brainstormed over music video ideas, Azul learned of the impending deadline for the Tiny Concert contest. The deadline for the first phase of their selection process. She asked if I’d like to help her put a quick video together. Of course, I said. She had two songs in mind and counldn’t decided. So we shot them both. We did it in her home. The audio was captured by the onboard microphone of my C-100, but it sounds solid enough. When we were about to post the video, both Azul and I, several hundred miles apart, finally decided to read all of the entire rules of the contest. This is when we learned that there needed to be a desk (however we might interpret that word) somewhere in the video. A re-shoot was unlikely. I was in New Orleans, she in San Antonio.

I came up with a creative cheat. I put my cameras on my motorized slider, and had it dolly in over my shoulder as I sat at my desk editing the music video. A bit meta. But it was better than nothing. I think it came out well. The video of the second song we shot can be found below.

When I moved to New Orleans, I wasn’t sure if I would find many creative and collaborative possibilities. Both me and my partner, Laurie, had oodles of contacts back in San Antonio who were happy to play with us. In this new city, however, we know only a handful of people.

Fortunately, our friend Aaron now lives here. I’ve worked with him before, and I like his nimble, creative mind and his fearless manner of throwing himself into work of an improvisational nature. I quickly said yes when he asked if I might help him on a film project during my first week in town.

We shot at two locations. I’m not sure exactly what the purpose of the piece was. I think he had it in mind to use the footage in two different ways. A film festival. And as a sort of proof-of-concept reel for some larger project for which he wished to get funding.

After I handed over the footage for him to edit however he felt appropriate, I decided to do a rough assemblage of one of the day’s shooting.

This location was the historic Hermann-Grima House. A beautiful museum. Run by incredibly nice and gracious people. I stumbled on some music on op sound I thought might fit. A group called Orquesta Arrecife. The song is “Desorden.”

Click on the image above (or right here on this link) to navigate to my short story, “Goat Massacre,” as published online by Razor. This story is actually a slightly modified portion pulled from my unpublished novel, Tales of Lost Southtown.

There is a short essay I was also asked to provide to the Razor, for their “Before the Razor” section, where accepted writers have an opportunity to share their thoughts on the published work.

Check it out by clicking HERE.

“The Wagon Master” was first written for the Invocation show Laurie and I created last year. It was one of dozens of micro-fictions which went into the fishbowl to be chosen by chance (read, or not) during the live performances.

I decided to create a extended version for Jump-Start’s 8×8 showcase to be performed by Pamela Dean Kenny. That longer version can be found by clicking here.

A streamlined flash fiction version was submitted to Manawaker Studio’s Flash Fiction Podcast. It was accepted! Below is a link to the podcast. The story is read by the program’s producer CB Droege.

FFP 0205 – The Wagon Master

My friend Catherine Cisneros has been working on this full-length dance performance for years. I believe she’s had some of the scenes in her head since she was a child. And now, she has begun serious work on building the entire thing. It’s not just the choreography. Or the music (provided by her husband George Cisneros). But also the creation of all the costumes, the designs and construction which she provides.

Last year she reached out to me to help out on the media portions of the work. There are sections which are self-contained videos, also sections in which projected images and animations accompany the live dancing.

It is still a work in progress, but below is documentary footage of a short version from Feb. 18, 2017.

Mujer Enterrada: Something Happened Here is a collaborative multi-media installation created for Centro Cultural Aztlan, San Antonio’s 40-year-old Chicano/a arts and cultural center, in celebration of their yearly exhibition to explore the cultural implications (historical and contemporary) of the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2nd, 1848. This year (2017) the staff and curator have worked to highlight the treaty’s impact on women (again, historical and contemporary), naming this year’s show Mujeres de Aztlan y El Segundo de Febrero.

After an informational gathering of selected artists (lead by Cultural Anthropologist, Dr. Citlali Maria Zentella) three of the invited artists decided to collaborate on an installation, Laurie Dietrich (ritualist and theatre artist), Amber Ortega-Perez (movement artist), and Dörte Weber (structural weaver and fiber artist). I was brought in to assist on the short movie they wanted to have playing on a loop within the defined space of the installation. I also took it up myself to suggest (and later construct) the manner in which the film would be presented. I decided to place a television set on the ground, tilted up for viewers to look down at the screen. The front portion of the TV was encased in foam insulation, painted to match the dirt spread on the floor around it. Laurie provided photographs and a poem, as well as helped to give shape to the whole piece. Amber created choreography for the dance in the film, which she also performed.  Dörte brought in some of her fiber panels (constructed out of woven plastic bags) which featured earlier in her installation at the border fence in the Rio Grande Valley.

Above is a short promotional teaser I created for the show. And beneath the photos of the installation below is a link to the full video which played in the gallery.