Well, the rest of my day after that last blog in Philly was really fun. So fun I forgot to blog about it. I decided on the Eastern State Penitentiary for my afternoon activity. I opted for an immensely informative guided tour and, after it was done, walked around a little on my own, saw Al Capone's cell, learned about the tunnel escape and took a ton of pictures.
Afterward Virginia and I met up and had a bite at, you guessed it, the only place I eat in West Philadelphia: OCF. Luckily, she had to be somewhere relatively near where I had to go for Darcy's dance performance, so we opted to walk it, a good 4 1/2 miles, because that's what we do when we're together. Funny, I avoided taking public transit for most of the weekend, except for one bus ride to Center City Friday night. Cabs are really cheap there compared to NYC as well, so it was tempting, a lot of the time, to just take a cab. The walk was much preferred though. I got to see (and smell) a lot of the city I might not have seen had I taken the bus. Seriously, South Street in Old City was buzzing with activity and smelled strongly of cheesesteaks.
Anyway, Darcy's dance performance was at Christ Church Neighborhood House in Old City, right next to one of the oldest buildings in Philly, a church, that, when it was built was the highest structure in the 13 colonies for a number of years (I think I heard one of the guys there say 40 years, can't remember). The dance actually started out in the courtyard of the church and featured video projections of footage shot in the Redwood Forest in California, as well as music composed by Andrea Clearfield, featuring field recordings from the Redwood Forest, violin and didgeridoo. The music was emanating from a couple of boom boxes, some nestled in the bushes, others carried by the dancers. One dancer recited poetry through a bullhorn by Quintan Ana Wikswo with themes of destruction of natural habitats and the ills of colonialism. After the courtyard, the dancers led us up to a space on the third floor of the neighboring building, a dark theater space with no fourth wall (we were standing around the dancers as they performed) and sheets hung from the ceiling. Overall, I thought it was a pretty compelling piece and really enjoyed the dancers' performances.
Here are a few pics taken in Old City and around the Church. That night we cabbed it back to Darcy's apartment where her new roommate had a house warming party of sorts in full swing, complete with wine and a spread of gluten free food (she's gluten intolerant, too). Met some nice people, had some good food and conversation and then slept it all off. After one more breakfast at OCF, I snagged a cab to the train station and headed back to NYC for my performance.
It went really well, by the way. Only, I forgot to hit record. MC took video of most of it and I ended up with some extra time last night to re record it at home and edit it a little. Just posted it to soundcloud too.
The audience enjoyed it and gave me some good pointers, all stuff that I was thinking was wrong with the piece, i.e. there wasn't enough of a build (I still don't think there is). I can't remember what else right now but I have since come up with a few more critiques like the fact that it's kind of long right now but as the song congeals a little more, I will be able to scale back the length of it and still effectively cover all the things I want cover. There are essentially four different loop layers each with harmonies and syncopated counter melodies built into them, so the overall number of layers tops something like 10-16 depending on which harmonies I play. The only real ramp up in the intensity of the piece comes with the introduction of a sixteenth note pulse drone on the lowest guitar string, which, when I recorded this version, I layered harmonies on top of.
I solo melodically over the cacophony of layers at least a couple of times throughout and only the first one on this version was pre composed. The rest were improvised. The distortion effect on the backwards loop is something I'm still toying with a little. It's still kind of unpredictable because I've been recording it silently and not fading it up until it's been effected with the reverse function and the distortion patch that I'm using from Native Instruments. I'm using my controller to change one of the parameters which, as far as I can tell is a sub audio control wave (for those of you who know anything about sound synthesis). Anyway, once it's up in the mix, I am getting some wicked awesome sounds. Later in the piece I even slow it and another one of the actual loop tracks down by half to get some even cooler contrast to the rhythmic drive of the piece.
In later versions of the piece, I'm going to focus on ways to ramp up the intensity even more, possibly exploring drones with syncopation in them. Syncopation is lovely. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the piece.
The rest of MC's salon was great. She danced, Morgana Rose danced, Gilbert-Michel Rolle, the tenor, a Swiss man actually from MC's hometown, sang a few French Renaissance pieces a capella, Lacy and I did three songs scattered throughout the performance and lastly a man whose name I can't recall now came and gave us an impromptu poetry reading. Lost of wine and good conversation followed and then I went home ate dinner and watched Breaking Bad's finale. Great ending!
I'll keep updating as I record new versions of the song, Molecules, and I will even be writing some more and trying them out on you guys and also performing again at the next Marie-Christine Giordano artists salon. By the way, I still don't know exactly why the piece is called Molecules.
Also, as the week goes on I've been working a lot more on the recording of Amanda Brecker's song, "Another Day in the Life." It's going well and tomorrow we'll finish up recording backing vocals and vocal effects and hopefully, I'll manage to record the two guitar interludes. Updates on that as well once it's finished and mastered. For now, it's back to work!
Showing posts with label dance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dance. Show all posts
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Chilling in Philly before a show...
Hanging out at OCF in Fairmount right now. Just spent the better part of the afternoon so far editing the song for the end credits and the full length trailer of "The Life." Amanda and I worked part of the afternoon yesterday at my place recording the guitar and vocals on isolated tracks so I could mix this weekend. All that remains is to redo some of the backing vocals and vocal effects, and for me to record a few more guitar parts for the ending guitar solo. I feel good for having made some strides with it this weekend. Especially since I've been able to effectively utilize several chunks of time during which I might not have gotten much done. Yesterday night I had the vocal tracks edited before the bus to Philly had even left New York City. Today, I'm killing time while Darcy has her tech rehearsals for the dance tonight. I'm going to the 8pm performance at New Spaces, New Formats tonight. Sort of my whole reason for being in Philly right now. One of Darcy's companies is dancing this, which looks way cool...so meanwhile, I sit in a cafe contemplating my next move. Yoga might be involved, also the Eastern State Penitentiary looms across the street. And so do some weird temporary gargoyles.
This has been a nice welcome break from the pace of the city even though, last night we had a bit of a wild night. We went to an apartment party in Center City, someone's 30th, and then went to the Trestle Inn to dance. We didn't get in until around 3am. Now, I bounce back with caffeine and sunlight and figure I'd better enjoy my day while I can. I don't need to head over to the area until around 7pm. At some point, I will try to meet up with Virginia for sure.
Meanwhile, I'm also trying not to think too hard about my premiere tomorrow. Most of the stress involved is going to be in getting there from here. My bus leaves at 930am and arrives in NYC, in theory, at 1130am. The salon is not until 3pm so that, in theory, gives me a few hours to run it again if I should so choose. The Lacy is driving me because we intend to perform a few of her songs as well.
The piece has come together quite nicely and the few people I've shown it to over the past week have responded by either spacing out or being wildly impressed that I can coordinate all the pedal tapping with my feet and knob twiddling, etc. Luckily, when I performed it for Amanda, I found that her energy and interest in the piece kept me focused for the most part. So I can reasonably presume that a similar energy from the salon's attendees will keep me focused on performing the piece and hitting all the right buttons at the right time. That's really going to be the hardest part. Focusing. Because I've found myself wanting to get lost in the piece like I do when I play and am really enjoying the act of creating the music as well as hearing it come together. But if I do that I miss tapping a pedal to loop or switch tracks and I get flustered and the piece could fall apart.
Once the piece gets going though it becomes easier to do what I need to do. I will say that a lot of it is going to be improvised. The structure will not be but what I do during each section will be largely improvisatory. I'm really really excited to be doing this finally. And really really hope that a lot of people will come out for this. The other artists should be fun as well. There's Lacy and I, a dancer and a tenor who will sing French Renaissance music.
Here's a link to the event on Facebook.
This has been a nice welcome break from the pace of the city even though, last night we had a bit of a wild night. We went to an apartment party in Center City, someone's 30th, and then went to the Trestle Inn to dance. We didn't get in until around 3am. Now, I bounce back with caffeine and sunlight and figure I'd better enjoy my day while I can. I don't need to head over to the area until around 7pm. At some point, I will try to meet up with Virginia for sure.
Meanwhile, I'm also trying not to think too hard about my premiere tomorrow. Most of the stress involved is going to be in getting there from here. My bus leaves at 930am and arrives in NYC, in theory, at 1130am. The salon is not until 3pm so that, in theory, gives me a few hours to run it again if I should so choose. The Lacy is driving me because we intend to perform a few of her songs as well.
The piece has come together quite nicely and the few people I've shown it to over the past week have responded by either spacing out or being wildly impressed that I can coordinate all the pedal tapping with my feet and knob twiddling, etc. Luckily, when I performed it for Amanda, I found that her energy and interest in the piece kept me focused for the most part. So I can reasonably presume that a similar energy from the salon's attendees will keep me focused on performing the piece and hitting all the right buttons at the right time. That's really going to be the hardest part. Focusing. Because I've found myself wanting to get lost in the piece like I do when I play and am really enjoying the act of creating the music as well as hearing it come together. But if I do that I miss tapping a pedal to loop or switch tracks and I get flustered and the piece could fall apart.
Once the piece gets going though it becomes easier to do what I need to do. I will say that a lot of it is going to be improvised. The structure will not be but what I do during each section will be largely improvisatory. I'm really really excited to be doing this finally. And really really hope that a lot of people will come out for this. The other artists should be fun as well. There's Lacy and I, a dancer and a tenor who will sing French Renaissance music.
Here's a link to the event on Facebook.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Onward and Upward...
I'm trying to find a non-cliché way of saying "when it rains, it pours," or "it's either feast or famine." But to be honest, the schedule's been so jam packed lately that I have barely had time to grocery shop and do laundry, let alone come up with clever ways of saying that I'm effing killing it right now apparently, in terms of booking work. I meant to blog about this the other day but after yesterday, it was more important for me to write about Penny when I had the chance to sit down.
So, anyway, Edge Studio called me again last Thursday with a quick VO gig for the next afternoon. Another $200 job that took under a half hour and I was able to squeeze it, miraculously in between NY1 and a scheduled rehearsal with Lacy that morning.
I've been lucky that it worked with my schedule both times but to be honest, as long as they're calling me with work, I will most certainly take great pains to clear my schedule because I want to be seen as available. I also want more experience and more stuff for my reel. So this makes VO gig #12 and with it I even passed another milestone/yearly goal of mine: get two VO gigs within the space of a month. Hell, I just got two in as many weeks! Not bad I'd say. Not bad. It may sound funny but I have a Google Doc with all of my goals in each arena (music, voice over and film scoring), plainly listed and have been checking them off quicker in some cases than I'd imagined I would. It's a good feeling.
This second voice gig from this past Friday, I felt particularly good about especially since it took me just under 15 minutes to wrap it up. I was hitting the mark the whole time and only had to do a few pickups before the director, who had phoned in for the session, was satisfied. In fact, if I hadn't suggested two different pitch levels with my voice to the director, we might have finished sooner. He liked that idea and had me do a take each with the two separate voices. This was a 90 second corporate promo for a telecommunications company that will be working closely with the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. Can't wait to hear the final result.
On top of everything, as usual, Lacy and I are still kicking it with almost a show a weekend these days and certainly for the next three weeks (this past included). We played a small show at Alphabet Lounge the other day and, despite technical difficulties got to try out a few new things with me looping and even iron them out a little. On Old Languages I figured out a way to capture the essence of the song with just a few layers of looping and it totally went over. Lacy herself enjoys performing like this as well so we're really looking forward to playing on a Cable TV show in White Plains, NY called Alive with Clive this coming Friday, the 7th of June where we will be looping that song and Dancing out of the Dark as well as playing two others from the new album. On Saturday the 15th we will be performing at Marie Christine Giordano's open dance rehearsal as well. Some of the same stuff and we'll be drinking wine and hanging out watching the rehearsal afterwards too so that should be good fun! More to come on upcoming shows.
Meanwhile, I'm mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted but have determined, throughout these past few months that I can totally pull this off. In fact, there are a couple of things I have learned from this experience. First, I like the feeling of getting up in the morning and getting straight to work. There's something invigorating about the morning air...however, I can't imagine getting up much earlier than 7am and liking it as much. Second, no matter how early I got up and no matter how little sleep I'm running on, there is no guarantee that I will fall right asleep when I get home at midnight. Working hours like these on a sleep schedule like this is still nothing compared to the fatigue I felt after an overnight shift when I had been up for 24 hours straight. Thankfully, I still have the weekends to recharge though. Third, there is no underestimating the value of a few minutes of sunning in the park between jobs for my psyche. Fourth, (and this is more a thing remembered and/or actually applied from my basic intellectual knowledge of a yoga), I don't have to be in yoga class to be practicing yoga. Simply stopping and breathing when dealing with tough or stressful situations is, in effect, practicing yoga. It's a mindset and it's a good thing I have it because I haven't been able to take class nearly as much these days. Three days a week and one of my classes isn't technically a yoga class but some weird cardio-fitness hybrid coined "Sculptworks" by the YogaWorks brand. It's fun but almost too "boot camp-y" for my taste. And it hurts my abs.
Anyway, there's talk of more work coming from TruTV after my CNN hours are slated to dry up and CNN may still call me for weekend work after July. And I have some film scoring stuff potentially on the horizon that it's still too early to talk about. But for now, I'm tired and am going to stop writing and start trying not to fall asleep at work. Daoust: Out.
So, anyway, Edge Studio called me again last Thursday with a quick VO gig for the next afternoon. Another $200 job that took under a half hour and I was able to squeeze it, miraculously in between NY1 and a scheduled rehearsal with Lacy that morning.
I've been lucky that it worked with my schedule both times but to be honest, as long as they're calling me with work, I will most certainly take great pains to clear my schedule because I want to be seen as available. I also want more experience and more stuff for my reel. So this makes VO gig #12 and with it I even passed another milestone/yearly goal of mine: get two VO gigs within the space of a month. Hell, I just got two in as many weeks! Not bad I'd say. Not bad. It may sound funny but I have a Google Doc with all of my goals in each arena (music, voice over and film scoring), plainly listed and have been checking them off quicker in some cases than I'd imagined I would. It's a good feeling.
This second voice gig from this past Friday, I felt particularly good about especially since it took me just under 15 minutes to wrap it up. I was hitting the mark the whole time and only had to do a few pickups before the director, who had phoned in for the session, was satisfied. In fact, if I hadn't suggested two different pitch levels with my voice to the director, we might have finished sooner. He liked that idea and had me do a take each with the two separate voices. This was a 90 second corporate promo for a telecommunications company that will be working closely with the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. Can't wait to hear the final result.
On top of everything, as usual, Lacy and I are still kicking it with almost a show a weekend these days and certainly for the next three weeks (this past included). We played a small show at Alphabet Lounge the other day and, despite technical difficulties got to try out a few new things with me looping and even iron them out a little. On Old Languages I figured out a way to capture the essence of the song with just a few layers of looping and it totally went over. Lacy herself enjoys performing like this as well so we're really looking forward to playing on a Cable TV show in White Plains, NY called Alive with Clive this coming Friday, the 7th of June where we will be looping that song and Dancing out of the Dark as well as playing two others from the new album. On Saturday the 15th we will be performing at Marie Christine Giordano's open dance rehearsal as well. Some of the same stuff and we'll be drinking wine and hanging out watching the rehearsal afterwards too so that should be good fun! More to come on upcoming shows.
Meanwhile, I'm mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted but have determined, throughout these past few months that I can totally pull this off. In fact, there are a couple of things I have learned from this experience. First, I like the feeling of getting up in the morning and getting straight to work. There's something invigorating about the morning air...however, I can't imagine getting up much earlier than 7am and liking it as much. Second, no matter how early I got up and no matter how little sleep I'm running on, there is no guarantee that I will fall right asleep when I get home at midnight. Working hours like these on a sleep schedule like this is still nothing compared to the fatigue I felt after an overnight shift when I had been up for 24 hours straight. Thankfully, I still have the weekends to recharge though. Third, there is no underestimating the value of a few minutes of sunning in the park between jobs for my psyche. Fourth, (and this is more a thing remembered and/or actually applied from my basic intellectual knowledge of a yoga), I don't have to be in yoga class to be practicing yoga. Simply stopping and breathing when dealing with tough or stressful situations is, in effect, practicing yoga. It's a mindset and it's a good thing I have it because I haven't been able to take class nearly as much these days. Three days a week and one of my classes isn't technically a yoga class but some weird cardio-fitness hybrid coined "Sculptworks" by the YogaWorks brand. It's fun but almost too "boot camp-y" for my taste. And it hurts my abs.
Anyway, there's talk of more work coming from TruTV after my CNN hours are slated to dry up and CNN may still call me for weekend work after July. And I have some film scoring stuff potentially on the horizon that it's still too early to talk about. But for now, I'm tired and am going to stop writing and start trying not to fall asleep at work. Daoust: Out.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Shows...
It's the weekend and I'm off work. Yes, I know. I've mentioned that. But leaving work last night knowing that I was off for the whole weekend, I breathed this huge sigh of relief. And knowing that I was headed out to see a show, I was able to shrug off what felt like a cold coming on and power through, running on pure adrenaline and excitement.
The show was a band called Minor Arcana, two of the members being guys that played with us in Philly. The venue, The Acheron, was in deepest darkest East Williamsburg at a little hole called The Acheron. The front of it was a bar and the venue was separated so Lacy and I, not knowing that the venue had a bar too, got two drinks and stood there, realizing that we couldn't bring the glasses in the venue. While standing there finishing our drinks, I took in the scene, assuming that the loud hardcore punk rock was being pumped in from the opening band playing next door inside the venue. So, I was expecting the same style from this band and overall the venue was seeming far more punk rock that it actually is. When we finally went in there though, I realized there wasn't even anyone playing yet and Minor Arcana was setting up. I went and said hi to the guys (Ross, I had seen outside already) and ordered another drink.
The band started not long after and I was blown away by their sound. They have two guitars, a bassist, drummer, singing keyboardist and another backup vocalist who played chimes, percussion and keys. The stage was not all that big either. They were very prog rock with multiple time signature and tempo changes during the songs, the first one of which was an instrumental. Or at least had a very long instrumental intro. Ross and Tony who played with us in Philly (Tony also in NYC), are very talented musicians but the rest of the band blew me away and they were all pretty tight as well.
Though, I was increasingly tired and didn't even think I should be out, I was eating it up listening to the sound waves pounding around in there and it baffles me to think sometimes how incredible it is, not only that beings like us evolved out of the soup over millions of years to become the kind of creatures that can make sense of the way the air moves around a room influenced by the striking and plucking of things called instruments, but that we can manipulate that plucking and striking into something so amazingly beautiful that you just stop and forget everything for a minute but what you're hearing, what you're brain is interpreting into something that to someone without the benefit of working ear drums is basically just air molecules bouncing off each other in patterns that he or she may or may not feel. Pretty incredible.
And I don't recall if I mentioned this or not but one of my New Year's Resolutions this year, one that I'm absolutely killing, is to go to more shows. If I include dance, open mics and shows I've played in in that, the number is up to something like 20. Told ya. Killin' it. Some of those were our own open mics where I saw some amazing musicians, some were shows I caught part of at Barbes. I included the four shows Lacy and I have played (including today's show at National Underground and last week's showcase) and a dance festival I went to as well as a few friends' bands and last nights show in Williamsburg. Oh and I just upped the number to 20 before I finish this blog because I forgot about a random show I happened upon at Spike Hill one night a few weeks ago.
As for today's show at National Underground, it went fairly well and we had an okay turnout considering the snow and how short notice it was that we found out we were playing. We will have another one at this showcase on the 27th of April as well. I will be reminding you. :)
For now, I am at home finally just taking it easy. Because my body is telling me that I haven't been doing enough of that lately. And it feels good to just slow down too. I have spent the last few months (probably more than that), thinking I'm not doing enough when in actual fact I've been doing far too much. Haha! I mean, I got 10 voice over gigs in as many months, two film scores back to back last year, and scored a licensing contract with a company that licenses music for film and TV. And on top of that, I just landed not one but two freelance TV gigs on top of NY1. I'm going to be glad I took it easy this weekend in a few weeks when I start I'm sure. Thankfully, I have a vacation coming up in April around my birthday.
Anyway, I should rest up some more. More excitement ahead!
The show was a band called Minor Arcana, two of the members being guys that played with us in Philly. The venue, The Acheron, was in deepest darkest East Williamsburg at a little hole called The Acheron. The front of it was a bar and the venue was separated so Lacy and I, not knowing that the venue had a bar too, got two drinks and stood there, realizing that we couldn't bring the glasses in the venue. While standing there finishing our drinks, I took in the scene, assuming that the loud hardcore punk rock was being pumped in from the opening band playing next door inside the venue. So, I was expecting the same style from this band and overall the venue was seeming far more punk rock that it actually is. When we finally went in there though, I realized there wasn't even anyone playing yet and Minor Arcana was setting up. I went and said hi to the guys (Ross, I had seen outside already) and ordered another drink.
The band started not long after and I was blown away by their sound. They have two guitars, a bassist, drummer, singing keyboardist and another backup vocalist who played chimes, percussion and keys. The stage was not all that big either. They were very prog rock with multiple time signature and tempo changes during the songs, the first one of which was an instrumental. Or at least had a very long instrumental intro. Ross and Tony who played with us in Philly (Tony also in NYC), are very talented musicians but the rest of the band blew me away and they were all pretty tight as well.
Though, I was increasingly tired and didn't even think I should be out, I was eating it up listening to the sound waves pounding around in there and it baffles me to think sometimes how incredible it is, not only that beings like us evolved out of the soup over millions of years to become the kind of creatures that can make sense of the way the air moves around a room influenced by the striking and plucking of things called instruments, but that we can manipulate that plucking and striking into something so amazingly beautiful that you just stop and forget everything for a minute but what you're hearing, what you're brain is interpreting into something that to someone without the benefit of working ear drums is basically just air molecules bouncing off each other in patterns that he or she may or may not feel. Pretty incredible.
And I don't recall if I mentioned this or not but one of my New Year's Resolutions this year, one that I'm absolutely killing, is to go to more shows. If I include dance, open mics and shows I've played in in that, the number is up to something like 20. Told ya. Killin' it. Some of those were our own open mics where I saw some amazing musicians, some were shows I caught part of at Barbes. I included the four shows Lacy and I have played (including today's show at National Underground and last week's showcase) and a dance festival I went to as well as a few friends' bands and last nights show in Williamsburg. Oh and I just upped the number to 20 before I finish this blog because I forgot about a random show I happened upon at Spike Hill one night a few weeks ago.
As for today's show at National Underground, it went fairly well and we had an okay turnout considering the snow and how short notice it was that we found out we were playing. We will have another one at this showcase on the 27th of April as well. I will be reminding you. :)
For now, I am at home finally just taking it easy. Because my body is telling me that I haven't been doing enough of that lately. And it feels good to just slow down too. I have spent the last few months (probably more than that), thinking I'm not doing enough when in actual fact I've been doing far too much. Haha! I mean, I got 10 voice over gigs in as many months, two film scores back to back last year, and scored a licensing contract with a company that licenses music for film and TV. And on top of that, I just landed not one but two freelance TV gigs on top of NY1. I'm going to be glad I took it easy this weekend in a few weeks when I start I'm sure. Thankfully, I have a vacation coming up in April around my birthday.
Anyway, I should rest up some more. More excitement ahead!
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Being solo, Music work, Music fun...
I can't get my mind off a weekday day trip to the beach these days. It's just something that occurred to me the other day and, with the weather as pleasant as it's been, it almost seems a shame to not be taking advantage of the proximity and plenitude of beaches here. So, I've got my eye set on one and, unless I find a friend who's off during the week like me, I think I'm just going to go. Lately, I've been doing things like that, not waiting until I have someone to go with and just going. Sometimes it's even better to go alone. You meet people, you can leave when you want and you don't have to worry about whether you enjoy someone's company enough to spend an entire evening/day with them.
I met a new friend at Marie Christine Giordano's dance performance on Saturday night, for example, a dancer who had just moved to the city, and we went out for a beer after the show. And of course, I went to that networking event solo and made a ton of new acquaintances there.
And MCG's dance was spectacular, by the way. She collaborated with a visual artist who built a light sculpture, a spherical object made from tubes of, I'm guessing neon, lit up blue, as well as an amazing lighting designer and a composer, Al Comet who worked with samples. All of it was amazing and I'm glad I made it. MC and I may collaborate soon too, for one of her open rehearsals. We met for lunch this Wednesday and discussed me coming by and seeing her rehearsal space next week.
On top of that, I was asked to score another film by a filmmaker that my current director is working with. Ben, my director, recommended me to this guy and he emailed me earlier in the week. This is the second such out of the blue recommendation in recent weeks, so it's kind of cool. This fellow is based in Italy right now and has put together a 23 minute short Samurai flick. It plays really well and I'm going to have fun scoring it with some traditional Japanese style instruments but it's going to be a challenge. As with Sides of the Track, learning about the instruments and/or digging deep to recover the tiny bit of knowledge I still have about them, as well as finding people to perform them, is going to be the bulk of the work for this film.
And I still have the Sundance cut of "The Life," the Ballerina scene from "The Life" and any last tweaks to Ben's score that may crop up in the next few days. It's good to be busy.
Most of my blogs lately have been on the subject of how much work I've been doing, which is a good theme. I think I like it. It's not all work though...it is all music though, for the most part (with some voice over thrown in...got another direct invite the other day and submitted a pretty kick ass audition but now I wait...as per usual). There has been some recreational music based activities as well. Today I jammed with a new friend from work who is a drummer, and a pretty good one at that. Murat is moving to NYC from Philly this week and as soon as we all sort out practice space/storage space for all of our equipment, we're all three going to be starting a band. Lacy and I are still preparing for gigging in the fall as well. So, it just keeps getting better.
And top all of the above off with the fact that I'm finally on a more human shift. I just finished my first week of it and here I am chilling on my second full day off in a row after having actually slept, during the night on both Sunday and Monday nights..didn't have to stay up all night, nor sleep during the day. And, can I tell you? It was amazing to do that after two and a half years of that crap.
So, anyway, been thinking about how much better my life is now compared to, say six years ago, because of how much music is in it. I'd be languishing if I hadn't come up here to pursue this career. I was in a rut before I decided to go back to grad school and depressed to boot, couldn't see a way out of it. And what I have now seemed a million miles away. A complete impossibility, a vague dream I had. And now, here I am, not exactly making it, but at least surviving and doing what I love. All because I stood up one day and realized that the only way I was going to achieve anything was by taking the initiative and doing something about it. I knew what I wanted to do and I knew that I needed some experience if I was going to do it. So I put myself in a position to gain that experience, accepted that it would take years, lost a relationship over it but then decided that since I was free, I could really do anything I wanted. It was a powerful epiphany and after that the rest just fell into place. I knew there'd be jobs up here, I knew I'd always wanted to live in a big city, I knew that NYC was high on that list of places and I knew that if I didn't throw myself out there that I'd never know if I could have done it.
Now, here I am talking like I've arrived. I admit there's still a long way to go but in the context of looking back to see how far I've climbed (clumb?), I think it's okay to give a nod to my achievements. Just a random assessment, as I take note of the fact that music is all around me now, the way I wanted my life to be all those years ago when for a period of time I was too afraid to follow that dream. Boy am I glad I wised up and got off my ass.
I met a new friend at Marie Christine Giordano's dance performance on Saturday night, for example, a dancer who had just moved to the city, and we went out for a beer after the show. And of course, I went to that networking event solo and made a ton of new acquaintances there.
And MCG's dance was spectacular, by the way. She collaborated with a visual artist who built a light sculpture, a spherical object made from tubes of, I'm guessing neon, lit up blue, as well as an amazing lighting designer and a composer, Al Comet who worked with samples. All of it was amazing and I'm glad I made it. MC and I may collaborate soon too, for one of her open rehearsals. We met for lunch this Wednesday and discussed me coming by and seeing her rehearsal space next week.
On top of that, I was asked to score another film by a filmmaker that my current director is working with. Ben, my director, recommended me to this guy and he emailed me earlier in the week. This is the second such out of the blue recommendation in recent weeks, so it's kind of cool. This fellow is based in Italy right now and has put together a 23 minute short Samurai flick. It plays really well and I'm going to have fun scoring it with some traditional Japanese style instruments but it's going to be a challenge. As with Sides of the Track, learning about the instruments and/or digging deep to recover the tiny bit of knowledge I still have about them, as well as finding people to perform them, is going to be the bulk of the work for this film.
And I still have the Sundance cut of "The Life," the Ballerina scene from "The Life" and any last tweaks to Ben's score that may crop up in the next few days. It's good to be busy.
Most of my blogs lately have been on the subject of how much work I've been doing, which is a good theme. I think I like it. It's not all work though...it is all music though, for the most part (with some voice over thrown in...got another direct invite the other day and submitted a pretty kick ass audition but now I wait...as per usual). There has been some recreational music based activities as well. Today I jammed with a new friend from work who is a drummer, and a pretty good one at that. Murat is moving to NYC from Philly this week and as soon as we all sort out practice space/storage space for all of our equipment, we're all three going to be starting a band. Lacy and I are still preparing for gigging in the fall as well. So, it just keeps getting better.
And top all of the above off with the fact that I'm finally on a more human shift. I just finished my first week of it and here I am chilling on my second full day off in a row after having actually slept, during the night on both Sunday and Monday nights..didn't have to stay up all night, nor sleep during the day. And, can I tell you? It was amazing to do that after two and a half years of that crap.
So, anyway, been thinking about how much better my life is now compared to, say six years ago, because of how much music is in it. I'd be languishing if I hadn't come up here to pursue this career. I was in a rut before I decided to go back to grad school and depressed to boot, couldn't see a way out of it. And what I have now seemed a million miles away. A complete impossibility, a vague dream I had. And now, here I am, not exactly making it, but at least surviving and doing what I love. All because I stood up one day and realized that the only way I was going to achieve anything was by taking the initiative and doing something about it. I knew what I wanted to do and I knew that I needed some experience if I was going to do it. So I put myself in a position to gain that experience, accepted that it would take years, lost a relationship over it but then decided that since I was free, I could really do anything I wanted. It was a powerful epiphany and after that the rest just fell into place. I knew there'd be jobs up here, I knew I'd always wanted to live in a big city, I knew that NYC was high on that list of places and I knew that if I didn't throw myself out there that I'd never know if I could have done it.
Now, here I am talking like I've arrived. I admit there's still a long way to go but in the context of looking back to see how far I've climbed (clumb?), I think it's okay to give a nod to my achievements. Just a random assessment, as I take note of the fact that music is all around me now, the way I wanted my life to be all those years ago when for a period of time I was too afraid to follow that dream. Boy am I glad I wised up and got off my ass.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Dixon Place Dance off...
I just love the street names on the LES. Names like Rivington, Orchard, Essex, Delancey and Ludlow float through my mind as I stroll to the subway stop at Delancey Street. That and the coolest spelling of the name Chrystie. I was just leaving a dance performance at Dixon Place on Chrystie Street. My friend Julia had a piece showcased in a program of pretty spectacular works. All of them modern dance, with great music and great great choreography. A fair mix of break dance, hip hop, ballet and other styles that just blew my mind. Julia's work was amazing and I had, in fact, seen the piece before, a fragment of which was presented back in October of 2010, the same night that my music premiered with Jahna's piece at Triskelion Arts in Williamsburg.
At the end of the evening, the works, which were performed back to back in quick succession, were punctuated by an impromptu dance off. The dancers all seemed to have a gaggle of dancer friends in the crowd that they suddenly began dragging on stage to dance with them. It was the most exciting part of the evening. Then it was a bit of a downer because, a side effect of going solo to an event where most of the audience knows the dancers personally and has most likely come with friends or met friends at the event and where your friend who did the choreography is more than likely not going to hang around because she teaches pilates crazy early in the morning, is that you're sitting alone at the bar sipping your second $5 glass of wine you had to purchase to make the credit card minimum because you never carry cash anymore. But still, did I mention that Dixon Place has $5 glasses of wine...and it's in Manhattan?!
So there's that.
In other news, currently, I'm in the throes of working on music for the trailer to Sides of the Track. I've seen the first two ideas he has for a teaser and there's likely to be a longer form trailer coming along soon. I'm psyched because I get to play around with the ideas from the movie and do sort of an alternate version of everything. It's always a bit bittersweet when you think you've locked in the music and the process is over but then, when you get to evolve it just a little more, it can be really rewarding. Like when I was younger, in high school and college, I became obsessed with writing reprise versions of songs. I remember hearing the Tonight, Tonight reprise from the Smashing Pumpkins and I had to do the same with my band Buggstar's "Teenage Love Song." Never did record it but I still love to play it on my guitar.
This newer version for the trailer, takes a chunk or two of an oud performance that was unused in the film and mixes it with a stripped back beat with a solo piano line. I may do more yet though. We'll see.
Now, I have to clear my head from all this excitement and get to bed. More on the trailer soon.
At the end of the evening, the works, which were performed back to back in quick succession, were punctuated by an impromptu dance off. The dancers all seemed to have a gaggle of dancer friends in the crowd that they suddenly began dragging on stage to dance with them. It was the most exciting part of the evening. Then it was a bit of a downer because, a side effect of going solo to an event where most of the audience knows the dancers personally and has most likely come with friends or met friends at the event and where your friend who did the choreography is more than likely not going to hang around because she teaches pilates crazy early in the morning, is that you're sitting alone at the bar sipping your second $5 glass of wine you had to purchase to make the credit card minimum because you never carry cash anymore. But still, did I mention that Dixon Place has $5 glasses of wine...and it's in Manhattan?!
So there's that.
In other news, currently, I'm in the throes of working on music for the trailer to Sides of the Track. I've seen the first two ideas he has for a teaser and there's likely to be a longer form trailer coming along soon. I'm psyched because I get to play around with the ideas from the movie and do sort of an alternate version of everything. It's always a bit bittersweet when you think you've locked in the music and the process is over but then, when you get to evolve it just a little more, it can be really rewarding. Like when I was younger, in high school and college, I became obsessed with writing reprise versions of songs. I remember hearing the Tonight, Tonight reprise from the Smashing Pumpkins and I had to do the same with my band Buggstar's "Teenage Love Song." Never did record it but I still love to play it on my guitar.
This newer version for the trailer, takes a chunk or two of an oud performance that was unused in the film and mixes it with a stripped back beat with a solo piano line. I may do more yet though. We'll see.
Now, I have to clear my head from all this excitement and get to bed. More on the trailer soon.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Music, music, music, music, music!!!
My plate is full and lots of stuff on the horizon, almost all of it musical. Tania and I are trying to sort out her booking for Le Poisson Rouge in early May, the show where she'll be premiering my piano sketch and performing my piece for dance, piano and electronics from last year, Collapsing Elbows. The jazz choir is performing in a little over a month and I've been asked to trasncribe a trio that will be sung by myself, a soprano from the group and my friend Rick, who is also a member of the group. Rick will be playing ukulele and I, guitar. I'm also finally starting to get a grip on the structure of the choral piece I'm writing and should have that mostly done within the week. As for when it'll be performed, hopefully before the summertime. Lacy and I are also getting ready to start taking on the NYC open mic scene in a few weeks as well. We had the one rehearsal and I'm starting now to learn the songs we didn't go over as well as practicing the ones we did.
I'm exceedingly happy right now because I finally purchased a Mac Book Pro, the device that is going to set me free, literally. I will now be untethered with my music. Meaning in a few weeks to months when Lacy and I start performing out, I can bring all of my effects and not just my guitar. Plus, it means that I can really start working out and programming all of my songs, too. I'm quite excited about it all. Ideas for the electronic music project are flying around left and right and it's all I can do to get them written down in some form, whether it's just notes about how to implement and innovate, or actually putting together new beats and learning the ins and outs of my synths and software.
What else?! Well, I got to see some more music Saturday night as well. I was bouncing back and forth between The Living Room and White Rabbit where a friend was having her birthday party. And it was really cold to be doing so but I managed. My friend Rick organizes a ukulele salon once a month at The Googies Lounge above The Living Room on Ludlow St. His group, The Suaverinos, is the headliner for the evening and each time it's an eclectic mix of anything from hip hop ukulele (which I'm sure I blogged about last time) to straight up Polynesian music to professional comedians like the one I saw Saturday night. Esther Ku was absolutely hilarious. I never saw her on Last Comic Standing but I heard that's one of her many claims to fame...one of them being rewriting oldies with lyrics about masturbation, a feat I witnessed first hand amongst some embarrassed patrons of that particular bar. It was pretty damned funny.
I split after her set to make an appearance at the White Rabbit with the intention of stopping back by to hear Rick's set at 10pm. The Suaverinos played a great set with a couple of standards, the highlight for me being "'Round Midnight." They had a sultry alto singing with them that wasn't there the last time I saw them and she just blew me away.
After the Suaverinos I dodged back over to White Rabbit to rejoin the party already in progress. The scene had changed from a few scattered groups of people, hanging out at the tables, watching the video installations and chatting to being semi-packed with much louder music playing...much louder. I had conversations that I had no idea what they were about with people whose names I never heard. But that's how you know you're having fun, right? See all the photos I was tagged in on facebook this past weekend.
Friday night was a fun one too, matter of fact. A co-worker was having a going away party so I actually got to hang out with people I work with and meet people that I only ever talk to on the phone. Again, loud bar, though. This time Meatpacking District. Place called Brass Monkey. Regrettably, it was too packed to enjoy the rooftop area in this four level bar. The weather was incredible. It would have been nice.
But here we are, 20 degree weather and another snowfall (this time pretty weak, only 2-4 inches that melted right away). Soon, this winter will be over. I can feel it. And it's going to be a great summer.
I'm exceedingly happy right now because I finally purchased a Mac Book Pro, the device that is going to set me free, literally. I will now be untethered with my music. Meaning in a few weeks to months when Lacy and I start performing out, I can bring all of my effects and not just my guitar. Plus, it means that I can really start working out and programming all of my songs, too. I'm quite excited about it all. Ideas for the electronic music project are flying around left and right and it's all I can do to get them written down in some form, whether it's just notes about how to implement and innovate, or actually putting together new beats and learning the ins and outs of my synths and software.
What else?! Well, I got to see some more music Saturday night as well. I was bouncing back and forth between The Living Room and White Rabbit where a friend was having her birthday party. And it was really cold to be doing so but I managed. My friend Rick organizes a ukulele salon once a month at The Googies Lounge above The Living Room on Ludlow St. His group, The Suaverinos, is the headliner for the evening and each time it's an eclectic mix of anything from hip hop ukulele (which I'm sure I blogged about last time) to straight up Polynesian music to professional comedians like the one I saw Saturday night. Esther Ku was absolutely hilarious. I never saw her on Last Comic Standing but I heard that's one of her many claims to fame...one of them being rewriting oldies with lyrics about masturbation, a feat I witnessed first hand amongst some embarrassed patrons of that particular bar. It was pretty damned funny.
I split after her set to make an appearance at the White Rabbit with the intention of stopping back by to hear Rick's set at 10pm. The Suaverinos played a great set with a couple of standards, the highlight for me being "'Round Midnight." They had a sultry alto singing with them that wasn't there the last time I saw them and she just blew me away.
After the Suaverinos I dodged back over to White Rabbit to rejoin the party already in progress. The scene had changed from a few scattered groups of people, hanging out at the tables, watching the video installations and chatting to being semi-packed with much louder music playing...much louder. I had conversations that I had no idea what they were about with people whose names I never heard. But that's how you know you're having fun, right? See all the photos I was tagged in on facebook this past weekend.
Friday night was a fun one too, matter of fact. A co-worker was having a going away party so I actually got to hang out with people I work with and meet people that I only ever talk to on the phone. Again, loud bar, though. This time Meatpacking District. Place called Brass Monkey. Regrettably, it was too packed to enjoy the rooftop area in this four level bar. The weather was incredible. It would have been nice.
But here we are, 20 degree weather and another snowfall (this time pretty weak, only 2-4 inches that melted right away). Soon, this winter will be over. I can feel it. And it's going to be a great summer.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The dance piece and some words about web design...
This afternoon, I'm brainstorming and researching for the new website. Which will be happening soon now that my logo design is done. In fact, my business cards should be coming via UPS any minute now. How exciting. They were supposed to be here Friday but there was a mix up. I had tried to rush the delivery so they'd arrive before the dance performance in Williamsburg this weekend. It wasn't a big deal though. I didn't have very many opportunities to network anyway.
The performance went off without a hitch, though. Of course, on my end there wasn't much chance for failure as the music was already recorded and there was no actual performing. Seeing the dance with the music and hearing it all on big speakers was pretty awesome. I'm pretty sure someone took video of the whole night. There were two main choreographers, one being the person I worked with and the other being my friend who introduced me to her. They performed a duet first that was choreographed for them and then Julia, my friend, showed her piece. Jahna, the one I worked with, had her three pieces performed after the intermission. Julia's was a long piece with about nine dancers and several changes of costume (incredible costumes, too...at one point, two of the dancers wore a dresses that were sewn together). Halfway through the piece, some of the dancers filtered through the audience and started to interact with audience members, myself and my friend Lacy included. That was bizarre but quite innovative I thought.
Jahna's three pieces were pretty awesome too, of course, I'm biased toward the first one which had my music. I enjoyed it thoroughly even with a few people rudely whispering through part of it.
Overall, this was a good experience, working with the dancer and I will probably be doing more of this kind of thing sooner or later. It's good after all to have many things on your list of things I have done and can do. For those who still haven't heard the piece here it is:
In other news, I may have mentioned here or posted on Facebook that I thought my Kombucha had grown mold but I was wrong about that and now am drinking the good stuff and, let me tell you, it is good. Well, good enough. It's not bubbly like the commercially bottled stuff but it certainly tastes like it's supposed to.
Beyond that, all this work on the website and waiting for the edit of the voice over demo is what is currently occupying my mind. I'll be sure to post as soon as the website's ready to publish so you all can see. There's going to be some major linkage between all my pages. I realized two important things in all my research and reading of articles: one is that there should be as few clicks to get to music as possible. You don't want anyone losing interest or, in the case of my parents, just not being able to find your music (Thanks, mom for directing my attention to that fact). Facebook is unhappily a culprit here as it's not that easy for someone to link to my music page. I had to put my own link to the fan page on my personal Facebook page near the top. Two is that there should be as little extraneous information as possible on the surface. I've seen so many home pages of website positively littered with content to the extent that you can't even see anything of value amongst the noise. Less is more they say. I've become fond of web page designs that have simple one short word links on the home page, music or sound instead of music portfolio, for example, or Buzz instead of Testimonials or Articles and Links.
But anyway, I will additionally post a blurb when I finally get the final edit of the voice over demo. For now, I'm excited because, as I typed this blog, I was in and out doing laundry and such and the cards came while I was down in the laundromat. Luckily, being it Columbus day, or Indigenous People's Day if you prefer, my cousin was home to sign for them. They look awesome!!!!!! But I will not spoil the surprise by showing you early what the design looks like. You'll see it when the web page is ready for publishing!
Meanwhile
The performance went off without a hitch, though. Of course, on my end there wasn't much chance for failure as the music was already recorded and there was no actual performing. Seeing the dance with the music and hearing it all on big speakers was pretty awesome. I'm pretty sure someone took video of the whole night. There were two main choreographers, one being the person I worked with and the other being my friend who introduced me to her. They performed a duet first that was choreographed for them and then Julia, my friend, showed her piece. Jahna, the one I worked with, had her three pieces performed after the intermission. Julia's was a long piece with about nine dancers and several changes of costume (incredible costumes, too...at one point, two of the dancers wore a dresses that were sewn together). Halfway through the piece, some of the dancers filtered through the audience and started to interact with audience members, myself and my friend Lacy included. That was bizarre but quite innovative I thought.
Jahna's three pieces were pretty awesome too, of course, I'm biased toward the first one which had my music. I enjoyed it thoroughly even with a few people rudely whispering through part of it.
Overall, this was a good experience, working with the dancer and I will probably be doing more of this kind of thing sooner or later. It's good after all to have many things on your list of things I have done and can do. For those who still haven't heard the piece here it is:
In other news, I may have mentioned here or posted on Facebook that I thought my Kombucha had grown mold but I was wrong about that and now am drinking the good stuff and, let me tell you, it is good. Well, good enough. It's not bubbly like the commercially bottled stuff but it certainly tastes like it's supposed to.
Beyond that, all this work on the website and waiting for the edit of the voice over demo is what is currently occupying my mind. I'll be sure to post as soon as the website's ready to publish so you all can see. There's going to be some major linkage between all my pages. I realized two important things in all my research and reading of articles: one is that there should be as few clicks to get to music as possible. You don't want anyone losing interest or, in the case of my parents, just not being able to find your music (Thanks, mom for directing my attention to that fact). Facebook is unhappily a culprit here as it's not that easy for someone to link to my music page. I had to put my own link to the fan page on my personal Facebook page near the top. Two is that there should be as little extraneous information as possible on the surface. I've seen so many home pages of website positively littered with content to the extent that you can't even see anything of value amongst the noise. Less is more they say. I've become fond of web page designs that have simple one short word links on the home page, music or sound instead of music portfolio, for example, or Buzz instead of Testimonials or Articles and Links.
But anyway, I will additionally post a blurb when I finally get the final edit of the voice over demo. For now, I'm excited because, as I typed this blog, I was in and out doing laundry and such and the cards came while I was down in the laundromat. Luckily, being it Columbus day, or Indigenous People's Day if you prefer, my cousin was home to sign for them. They look awesome!!!!!! But I will not spoil the surprise by showing you early what the design looks like. You'll see it when the web page is ready for publishing!
Meanwhile
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