Press: Criticism, Interviews, Reviews

The links to articles below are arranged in reverse chronological order with the most recent ones 1st. These by no means represent ALL of the articles ever written about me - only the majority of the ones that focus on me as a film & vaudeo maker. You might ask: "With all these articles written about you, how do you manage to still be so utterly obscure?" I often wonder the same thing. Despite having made over 269 movies in over 33 years & despite having presented this material in hundreds of screenings around the world, I've still only been taken seriously by a handful of people. Strange, isn't it? One might almost be inclined to think that info about me is routinely censored & that academics are outright AFRAID of me. After all, as I'm fond of saying, I have no doubt that I'm one of the GREATEST MOVIEMAKERS EVER - it's just that I have a hard time finding anyone to agree with me. Much of the info presented here is highly inaccurate. Names are wrong, insufficient or wrong credit is given, etc.. In some cases, there's even been censorship. There may even be (shudder!) a slew of typos. But, what the HEY!, you'll get the idea. I'm a SPLEENIUS. Now where's my Award Money, eh?

 

"Leo Weekly" - april 14, 2010

"Film"

What Who is tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE?

by J. Christian Walsh

 

"Pittsburgh City Paper" - july 16-23, 2008

"Art Reviews and Features"

Cognitive Advance

by Savannah Guz

 

"Pittsburgh City Paper" - july 2-9, 2008

"Film"

START Somewhere

by Bill O'Driscoll

 

"Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" - april 24, 2008

"Weekend Magazine"

Local artist unveils an inconvenient sound

by Manny Theiner

 

"Pittsburgh City Paper" - april 23-30, 2008

"Film Repertory"

Backwards Masking In Rocks

by Bill O'Driscoll

 

"the Gazz Blogs" - september 20, 2007

"Book 'Em - 2000-2006 - great indie film from Pittsburgh"

by Steve Fesenmaier

 

"Pittsburgh City Paper" - october 4-11, 2006

"Film"

Know Return

by Bill O'Driscoll

 

fylmz website

A Toy Camera That Doesn't Play Around

by Ellen Barnes

 

MicroCineFest catalog - november 11-13, 2005

Skizz Cyzyk interviews tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

 

MicroCineFest - november 11-13, 2005

Story of a Fructiferous Society

promotional blurb by Skizz Cyzyk

 

"Baltimore City Paper" - october 19, 2005

"DVD & Conquer"

Story of a Fructiferous Society

review by Bret McCabe

 

Pleasure Dome calendar write-up - fall, 2005

Story of a Fructiferous Society

 

Story of a Fructiferous Society

email response from Bruce Stater

 

"Pittsburgh City Paper" - june 15-22, 2005

"Arts & Entertainment"

Text Massaging

by Bill O'Driscoll

 

"Pittsburgh City Paper" - june 9-16, 2004

"Arts & Entertainment"

"Film Kitchen"

Video Imp-eratives

by Bill O'Driscoll

 

"Art World" [a Chinese arts magazine] - february, 2004

T.A.C., An Experimentalist in Cinematography Who is not interested in Films

 

http://www.the-diner.net/SP-2003Movies.htm

2003 in Film

Dave Robson, who knows all about what we call the "prism of mortality", gives up the best of the best in movies.

Short films:

 

"Pittsburgh City Paper" - march 7-14, 2001

"Arts & Entertainment"

"Film Scene"

Collage Try

by Bill O'Driscoll

 

"Pittsburgh City Paper" - november 15-22, 2000

"Local Vocals"

A Conversation with tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

Interviewer: Jo Reichenbacher

 

"How To Make An Experimental Video/Short Film"

A Free Seminar by the Malaysian Video Awards Council in Conjuction With The National Art Gallery, Under The Auspices Of The National Art Gallery

[This report is posted on the MVA's web-site. People wishing to view the original web-page can follow this link.]

Happened: between 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday the 18th of March 2000

Venue: National Art Gallery Auditorium

 

"Pittsburgh City Paper" - january 6-13, 1999

"Arts & Entertainment"

Air Drops and Rollercoasters

Short films screen at Film Kitchen

by Bill O'Driscoll

 

10 I liked

by Scott Stark

Below are 10 (or so) avant-garde films & videos 'that mattered to me' in 1998, in no particular order. There were others that I liked also, and of course many more that I wasn't able to see.

This list was originally posted to the Frameworks mailing list and published in Film Threat's weekly online magazine.

Bob Cobbing/Movie Trivia/Hypnopedagogy by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

 

"San Francisco Bay Guardian" - december 16, 1998

(edited from their on-line edition)

Cinemix '98

 

Reviews from Bruce Stater

-edited & 'corrected' by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE & Bruce Stater

These 3 texts appeared on the FRAMEWORKS listserv as responses to various 'works' - including 2 presentations that I participated in in NYC in 1998. Bruce & I have searched thru the texts to remove spelling errors. Other slight changes have been made to modify the texts from the original e-mail format. Bracketed insertions are used when additional info struck me as desirable.

The 1st, "Bricoleurmaniabracademwitz", was written as response to the May 28, '98 "Big As Life" presentation at the Museum of Modern Art. This screening also presented films by Martha Colburn, Leslie Singer, & Bill Creston. Most of the references to these latter have been edited out to make the below function more specifically as promotional material for tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE. Brackets with 2 dots inside them [..] have replaced these sections.

The 2nd, "et in ARTemia, tENT... et Cet E'rata", was written as response to the "Attention-ExSpanDex" Tour NYC presentation of tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE (with assistance from Etta Cetera). This presentation was sponsored & organized by Brian Frye & Bradley Eros as part of the "Robert Beck Memorial Cinema" at the Collective Unconscious on September 29, '98. Movie names have been corrected in brackets [].

The 3rd, "Films of the End", contains writing about 'work' by Arthur Lipsett as well as by myself & my collaborator Etta Cetera again mostly witnessed by Bruce at the previously mentioned screening. As with "Bricoleurmaniabracademwitz", the section not relevant to me has been replaced with 2 dots in brackets.

 

"Big As Life"

[from the catalog for the MoMA super-8 screening series of the same name]

by Steve Anker

 

"Tip" Berlin Magazin - Nr. 10/94 - 23. Jahrgang 5.5 - 18.5, 1994 - page 68

Vegetables in the Machinery

The videos of "Tentatively, a Convenience," to be seen at the "Eiszeit," are about Walt Disney's heritage, singing mouths and fruit in a peepshow

 

"Village Voice" - december 7, 1993

Up From the Underground

by Susan Sturgis

 

"Art in Progress" - volume 2 #1 - september, 1992

"Trends & Issues"

From the Street to the Gallery

by Dan Schiavone

 

"influence"

above ground - film and video in Baltimore

Humor as a Subversive Act

Notes Propagandizing Baltimore Art

by Peter Walsh

 

"Honolulu Star-Bulletin" - january 22, 1990

Naked came the monster

Filmmaker strips horror movie of all unessentials

Tentatively an enigma

In a monster mask and tape, this filmmaker's no Spielberg

 

"Factsheet Five" magazine - #38

VAUDIO

 

"Factsheet Five" magazine - #29

tentatively, a convenience, "Homeless Movies"

 

"influence" magazine

"above ground - film and video in baltimore"

by Peter Walsh

"Film and Video Highlights"

A screening at the 8X10 in early 1988 featured "Transparent Smile", tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's beautfiful, sensual, and multi-layered experimental film .

 

"Village Voice" - december 13, 1988

The Triumph of NEOISM

The Last of the Old-Fashioned Avant-Garde Makes Its Stand

by C. Carr

 

"influence" magazine - volume 2, number 1

"ABOVE GROUND"

by Peter Walsh

Maryland Institute Station Auditorium

Friday, November 4, 1988

Director Tentatively a Convenience showed a ten-minute fragment of raw footage, shot recently in Europe. It condensed over 40 hours of material he has recently transfered from th European PAL video system to the American NTSC system. Entitled "A walk through Murraygate in Dundee on the 13th of August, 1988"

 

"Vague" magazine - #21: Cyber-Punk [1988]

"Culturcide" [pp 85-94]

by Tom Vague

[..]

[8] NEOISM

 

"Guerrilla Media Making

That's tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE" [unpublished]

Copyright March, 1988 Steve Libowitz

 

"Cinematograph - A Journal of Film and Media Art" - volume 3

Like [Peter] Rose, tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE has an iconoclastic, anti-institutional bent. In an interview conducted by Scott Stark, this Church of the SubGenius member and perpetrator of mischievous acts explains that film is just one of many vehicles for his "mad scientist didactions". t.a.c. asserts that he has no interest in making films per se; rather, he uses film as a visual aid in lecture situations. t.a.c.'s attempts to transcend conventional patterns of conceptualization and interpretation encompass the necessity of evading the label of "artist" as another stereotypical categorization.

tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE Interview

by Scott Stark

 

"tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE" [unpublished]

by Pamela Purdy

 

"Words & Pictures" - volume 1 #3

"The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!"

by Jim McDonald

 

to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE movie-making "Press: Criticism, Interviews, Reviews" home-page

to the "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - Sprocket Scientist" home-page

to the "FLICKER" home-page for the alternative cinematic experience

to find out more about why the S.P.C.S.M.E.F. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Sea Monkeys by Experimental Filmmakers) is so important

for A Mere Outline for One Aspect of a Book on Mystery Catalysts, Guerrilla Playfare, booed usic, Mad Scientist Didactions, Acts of As-Beenism, So-Called Whatevers, Psychopathfinding, Uncerts, Air Dressing, Practicing Promotextuality, Imp Activism, etc..

for info on tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's tape/CD publishing label: WIdémoUTH

to see an underdeveloped site re the N.A.A.M.C.P. (National Association for the Advancement of Multi-Colored Peoples)