Opposite of Blink 2024

Opposite of Blink “Women in Wood (Sculptures by Steve Smith)”

Opposite of Blink “A Head of His Time (Art by Mark J. Rosoff)” featuring Green Gills

Opposite of Blink “Weeds of the Sea (1876)”

Opposite of Blink “Hearst Castle (San Simeon, California)”

Opposite of Blink “Landscapes…” Art by Randy Yeates

Opposite of Blink “…and Sketches” Art by Randy Yeates

Opposite of Blink “Your Beady Eyes (Strings and Things)”

Opposite of Blink “Bold Bolts of Art (Fine Fabric)”

Opposite of Blink “Mellow Thread (Yarn and Fabric)”

New Poetry!! Poetry Rodeo 2024!!

Poetry by Mark J Rosoff and Tim Van Schmidt

Recorded at Sound Art Laboratories, Fort Collins, Colorado 2024

“Cuppa Poetry” 1 “Be Assured” “Over and over…”

“Cuppa Poetry” 2 “In the Blink of a Sigh” “Face Forward”

“Cuppa Poetry” 3 “When I First Loved the Moon” “My Last Poem” Plus

“Poets Encounter: 35th Annual Poetry Rodeo, Mercury Cafe, Denver, June 1, 2024”

Soundtrack by Opposite of Blink

OoB Videos!!

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Eye Am What Eye Am”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Eye Am What Eye Am”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Aqua-scape”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Aqua-scape”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona”

OoB Opposite of Blink “The Walls of Avalon”

OoB Opposite of Blink “The Walls of Avalon”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Ignition”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Ignition”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Finding Combines”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Finding Combines”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Time Ticks Away”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Time Ticks Away”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Catalan Dali”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Catalan Dali”

More OoB on the Tube: OoB Videos

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Spanish Castle (Clum Drub)”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Spanish Castle (Clum Drub)”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Wall Scrawl (Street Art in Spain)”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Wall Scrawl (Street Art in Spain)”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Day of the Dalai Lama”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Day of the Dalai Lama”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Mask Moments”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Mask Moments”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Masks Exhibition 2023 MoAFC”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Masks Exhibition 2023 MoAFC”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Shades of Summer (NOCO Fun 2023)”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Shades of Summer (NOCO Fun 2023)”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Rock Street”

OoB: Opposite of Blink “Rock Street”
OoB: Opposite of Blink “Park Walk”
OoB: Opposite of Blink “Fly Again”
OoB: Opposite of Blink “Where Were Ancient Feet”
OoB: Opposite of Blink “On With Their Heads!”
OoB: Opposite of Blink “Peace”
OoB: Opposite of Blink “Sweet Demise Times Two”
OoB: Opposite of Blink “Sound Soup 2022” Side 2
OoB: Opposite of Blink “Sound Soup 2022” Side 1
OoB: “Playing With Fire (Still)” Sound Art by Opposite of Blink
Incredible Cranes: Nomads on the Move (Photos by Tim Van Schmidt) 2022
Soundtrack by OoB

OoB: Opposite of Blink Presents…

Opposite of Blink Presents “On the Wing (At Jack’s)”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents “In the Dark With Bugs (Babel 1)”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents “In the Dark With Bugs (Babel 1)”

OoB: Opposite of Blink Presents “Teatre-Museu Dali (Dali Theatre and Museum)”

OoB: Opposite of Blink Presents “Teatre-Museu Dali (Dali Theatre and Museum)”

OoB: Opposite of Blink Presents “Butter Wings (Box Fan)”

OoB: Opposite of Blink Presents “Butter Wings (Box Fan)”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents OoB for Kids “Crazy Colored Dinos” 2023

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents OoB for Kids “Crazy Colored Dinos” 2023

Meet OoB: DIY Creative Spirit

OoB 2022

I’d like to introduce my band — its name is OoB. That’s short for “Opposite of Blink” which is what we’re trying to achieve in our music.

But I’m not telling you about OoB because we’ve got something to sell you. We don’t have music products or t-shirts, downloads, NFTs, or framed autographed posters. You can’t buy tickets to see us play and it’s doubtful we’ll ever perform in a place you’d be going to anyway.

That’s right, we’re pretty private. But we play on a regular basis because there’s something about it that is way more basic than making a business out of our art. We do it because we want to — and have to.

My band mates are guys I have been playing with since 1996 — Mark J. Rosoff and David Zekman. We were even jamming long before that, but in 1996, we decided to become a performing group called TVS and two fingers.

TVS and two fingers

The “TVS” is me, of course, and “two fingers” refers to the fact that Rosoff and Zekman were members of an experimental music group called fingers. By the time we joined together, there was just the two of them.

I was a fan of fingers’ wild, stream-of-consciousness “sound art”, using alternative instruments from pots and pans to amplified toys. And in their strange sound, I heard an opening for some words — not song lyrics, but poetry.

I remember our first session together — literally playing in Rosoff’s single car garage. I brought some poems and they played some sounds and we found a way for the two to work together.

First TVS and two fingers cassette

The impetus to form a group was a new Fort Collins community festival that was coming up at the time — First Night, a New Year’s Eve arts festival that used multiple downtown venues and hired local artists.

That first First Night was the beginning of a career that took TVS and two fingers all over Colorado, Wyoming, and even on some tours on the East Coast. We were “alternative” performers and we played in a lot of “alternative” situations — like performing from the steps of the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya as it was being built.

TVS and two fingers performing in Salida

A lot of our work, though, was done in schools. We not only performed, but also did workshops, encouraging kids to write their own words. If they didn’t have any words, then we encouraged them to play sound art — and perform together for each other.

One good story to tell about that comes from one of our East Coast tours. We were working in an inner city school in Bridgeport, Connecticut — a school that housed both a high school population and an elementary school group. We did a workshop with a large group of high schoolers, encouraging them to write some spontaneous poetry, pick instruments and work together to create their own pieces.

The high schoolers seemed to find this all pretty funny, until the auditorium filled with little kids — and then they were on the spot to perform their new pieces in “public”. They cut the jokes and got to work and the entire concert was a roaring success.

This wasn’t just an isolated experience, but something we experienced over and over again in so many different schools. We enjoyed playing our own stuff, of course, but seeing kids open up was special indeed.

TVS and two fingers

All throughout our 17 years together as TVS and two fingers, we had also been working on an “alter ego” group we called the Sound Art Orchestra. We included other musicians, dispensed with the poetry, and just played “music”.

We took this out into public a number of times, allowing audience members to join us in long, otherworldly jams.  Perhaps our most prestigious performance as SAO was a collaboration with Dance Express – composing and performing a live soundtrack for original dance pieces, culminating in two grand performances at the Lory Student Center Theater at CSU.

TVS and two fingers – Sound Art Orchestra

But finally, especially once TVS and two fingers stopped performing, we just settled in to play. We kept calling ourselves the Sound Art Orchestra until one night, after listening to the recording of one especially harrowing piece of work, I said, quite flippantly, “That’s the opposite of blinking!” That comment produced a howl and became our new band name, “Opposite of Blink”.

What we’re after is a sense of ecstasy — to be transported to another place and time by our sounds and the experience of playing. This happened quite a few times when we were performing on stage, but not nearly as much as it does now in our home studio. We play and play until we finally achieve lift off and that in itself is something.

Over the years together, the one important thing we have maintained is a do-it-yourself creative spirit. We used that spirit to create our own artistic niche that took us on the road for years and it still keeps us in the studio.

The reason I bring all this up is to encourage other would-be artists out there to get off the couch and make some noise. You don’t have to be a professional to make it worthwhile — you just have to have the desire to express yourself creatively.

OoB released its first piece of music – “Meet OoB: Soundtracks for the 22nd Century” — on YouTube last September. Currently, OoB has just released a brand new piece on YouTube titled “OoB: Playing With Fire (Still)” and the group also provided the soundtrack for my March 2022 YouTube release, “Incredible Cranes Nomads on the Move”.

Meet OoB – Soundtracks for the 22nd Century

Listen to OoB if you get a chance. We may get around to releasing the rest of our recordings someday — but maybe not. We may be too busy playing.

Tim Van Schmidt

Dave Zekman RIP July 3, 2022

Sound Art Orchestra Videos

“Four Birds” Photo Art by Tim Van Schmidt Soundtrack by Sound Art Orchestra
“Tikal” Photos by Tim Van Schmidt Soundtrack by Sound Art Orchestra
Snowy Range Photos by Tim Van Schmidt Soundtrack by Sound Art Orchestra
“Collages” by Tim Van Schmidt Soundtrack by Sound Art Orchestra
“Moab” Photos by Tim Van Schmidt Soundtrack by Sound Art Orchestra

TVS and two fingers Videos

Opposite of Blink presents TVS and two fingers “Falls”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents TVS and two fingers “The Garden at Sunset”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents TVS and two fingers “The Garden at Sunset”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents TVS and two fingers “Be Assured”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents TVS and two fingers “Be Assured”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents TVS and two fingers “Cut It Out”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents TVS and two fingers “Cut It Out”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents TVS and two fingers “I’m a Struggler”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents TVS and two fingers “I’m a Struggler”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents TVS and two fingers “Age of Addiction”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents TVS and two fingers “Age of Addiction”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents TVS and two fingers “San Blas”

OoB: Opposite of Blink presents TVS and two fingers “San Blas”
OoB: Opposite of Blink “Lids X 3” Soundtrack by TVS and two fingers
“Within the mountain’s shadow…” Poem by Tim Van Schmidt Soundtrack by TVS and two fingers
“The Temple of Dendur” TVS and two fingers Sound Art