AGTC, Part IV

Wow, what a night! The Almost Famous Film Festival screening and awards ceremony. I'll cut to chase and just say it... ah, no I won't. Read on.

The venue was the Icehouse on Jackson. The exterior was neoclassical, yet unassuming. Once inside it was revealed that the building had no roof. It was an interesting courtyard, brimming with anticipation, kettle korn, and hot cider. The Matter of Chance posse was in full effect, sixteen people total: parents, brothers, sisters, an aunt, cousins, and friends (here's to winning the audience favorite award). Gabe and Rebecca were sorely missed.

Further into the depths of the structure was a large silver room with projector screen, speakers, and stills from all the films adorning the side walls. We got our seats and talked. Finally, the screening began. There were a number of very impressive films, our film, AGTC, screening roughly halfway through the evening. In fact, two teams did the typical "film about the 48 hour film challenge" thing, but did it with such attitude and flair that it was thoroughly entertaining. There are always surprises, and a few cliche films, ideas that everyone immediately thought of given the contraints, but we rejected as "too easy," thankfully.

Twenty-one films done and on to the awards ceremony. First, the novelty awards, Best Non-Human Actor (a pug), and so on. Next, Acting, all well-deserved winners. Nevertheless, Brock was cheated. Then, Cinematography, for which Brock has long said we should win at least some award, and we did that, taking 2nd place solid, and winning a 5-pack of DV tapes. 1st place was the breathtaking Somerset Storm, with images so perfect, I wouldn't have wanted to win 1st place from it, if such a thing were possible. Next, Story, and surprise of surprises, we won 1st place, and an iPod Shuffle! This, we were not expecting. 1st place Acting for Brock, perhaps, but not this. Our intentionally mind-boggling plot complexity worked. To think we almost scrapped the story half way through the night. It'd a good thing Brock made us stay with it. Finally, the Overall category, and Angie thought we might get it up until they announced the winner. Even all the people in the row behind us were murmuring that it must be AGTC. However, it was not to be. First Date by Friendly People Productions took the top prize, and a guaranteed spot in the 2006 Phoenix Film Festival.

The whole event was very well run. It was great to see as many awards given out as there were. At the end of the night it was announced that everyone got to take home the glossy, mounted stills that adorned the venue. So, that was it, no one left empty-handed, and a good time was had by all. I hope A3F keeps up the good work, it was the best Phoenix film event I have attended yet. I even had the pleasure of transporting the Brothers Brown and discussing the nuances of language and sanity. Delightful.

Two awards in the bag, the audience award on the horizon, and, yet, work on AGTC continues...

AGTC, Part III

The 48 hours have long since expired, but work on AGTC continues.

The most recent edit would not qualify for the contest, but is truer to the original vision. The editing has been tightened up, every frame painstakingly perfected (I'd say over 50% of the stills in the original post differ in some way at this point), shots removed, shots added, and some subtle sound effects. Saturday, Micah and I recorded an entirely new score, piano-based with a number of accents, including intense drums and bass at one point. This piece is much more cohesive.

What's next? A title sequence. A final pass on the floor titles. Overhead announcements. Oh, and a cool DVD menu.

Intense Math, Part II

You'll be happy to know that I dropped off Intense Math at the Phoenix Film Project office yesterday afternoon. That's a full day before the deadline, and that may be a new record. In case you missed it, Screen Wars will begin on Saturday, April 2, 5:30pm, on AZTV, Cox cable channel 13. Be there or be square.

AGTC, Part II

AGTC to screen Monday, March 7, 2005, 6:30 pm, at the Icehouse, 429 W Jackson St in downtown Phoenix.

AGTC, Part I

Congratulate ourselves! We finished the Almost Famous Film Festival 48 Hour Film Challenge just in time. Our film, Applied Genomics Technologies Corporation (AGTC), came together with no time for intermediate blogging, and barely time for sleep, or other human necessities, like food and water.

The idea for AGTC came to me a few weeks ago while scouting locations for Intense Math. Though I had visited the Burton Barr Branch of the Phoenix Public Library before, this was the first time the clouded glass and stainless steel decor caught my cinematic eye. The idea for a futuristic corporate espionage thriller was immediately apparant.

This was one of a dozen or so concepts we had brainstormed in the days leading up to the challenge. It was only a matter of what best fit the surprise challenge parameters, and minor details like plot, characters, and screenplay. When the requirements were announced (theme: missed opportunities, prop: bench, dialog: "Excuse me, but did you drop this?"), the most obvious fit was a lilting unrequited love story involved filming on the city buses.

However, that idea was almost too easy, so we began to develop the futuristic thriller concept. By midnight, we took a break, got some fresh air, and reeled at how out of control the idea has gotten--fourteen characters; just as many slick locations; complex techno-speak dialog; wardrobe for everyone; badges; memory cards; computer graphics; ambitious shots as crowded public locales. This was impossible! We were very ready to scrap the idea for yet another story idea that had been brewing for over six months, perhaps more ambitious, yet more streamlined to execute. Quickly, Brock convinced me that this was worth doing. Recommited, we cranked out the screenplay in the next hour.

Saturday I was up early, editing the screenplay, calling friends and family, designing art, buying costumes and audio gear. To the location, getting people dressed, makeup and hair. Picking up shots here and there, working around the crowds, feeling edgy and close to being ejected from the building, more phone calls, people falling through, improvising, protecting for crazy aspect ratios, and shooting until the moment the location closed.

After dinner, it was back home and on to capturing. Frantically sorting the footage into scene buckets, then bed. Up early again Sunday morning, rough edit, fine edit, audio edit, master edit, scoring, more edits, back to tape, and in the car at 5:25 and a long way from the downtown drop-off location. Traffic snarls, too many people in the car, near misses, and downtown with a minute or two to spare.

Does it sound frantic? It was, and is. I'm on an adrenaline rush that will take does to come down from.

Notes: Brock, Angie, Micah, John, Larry, Ken, Allison, superb performances all. The dialog was not easy. Taking chances on cinematic aspect ratios paid off nicely. It's my first 2.35:1 project. We must be getting better with practice, since we got everything in 3:40 shooting time, 1:30 raw footage, 7.5 minutes final cut. Total time on the project during the 48 hour window: 32 hours.

My Brothers!

Congratulations, boys! You are officially in print in the Phoenix New Times. Jeremy wielding the camera, Carl folding like a fiend. Matter of Chance Productions is on the map. All we have to do now is deliver the goods!

Huh?

That's right. I'm back.

I thought this was interesting: http://movies.yahoo.com/boxoffice/latest/rank.html.

When you get there do a search on that page for "Days of Being Wild" and be amazed at the results. Did I miss something? When did this warrant a re-release? Where can I see it on the big screen? All questions that need to be answered.

Have a good day.

Intense Math, Part I

Today we shot Intense Math, our submission to the Phoenix Film Project Screen Wars comedy challenge. Brock H. Brown and I co-directed, I DoP'd, Angie did hair and wardrobe, and Bryan Brantingham did Grip work. Gabriel Loyer stars in the 3-minute short film, with support from Brad Brantingham and Chris Dean.

Our location was the Pulliam Auditorium at the Burton Barr branch of the Phoenix Public Library. We had the location confirmed from noon to four. However, when we arrived, we had difficulty, as usual. Security had no record of the confirmation. After we ironed that out and headed into the auditorium, we found a carpet cleaning crew. The chairs were not set up and the guys had another hour and half of cleaning to do from a wedding that was held the night before. So, we toured the library, grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to start at two.

The lighting and gels worked out well, but the dolly did not work as well as expected. However, I think the footage is workable. The ambitious overhead shot was not framed right, it may not make the cut. Otherwise, the setups and choice of lenses worked great.

Rebecca Kinkead 2005

I just put the finishing touches on an update to Boston-area artsist Rebecca Kinkead's web site. Now featured are her Lineage and Microscopy series of new works. The web site can't do justice to the detail of these latest arylic and ink on panel pieces. However, we may have one to see up close very soon. Becky is my aunt Mary Beth's sister, and continues to take her art to new heights with each passing year. An older work, The Wait, graces the cover of the ever-soon-to-be-released The Moon Is No More album.

Meet the X-Blade

OK, the new PC is up and running. That's a picture of the case. I'm not big on having a cool case, it was just reasonably priced.

• ASUS Pentium 4 motherboard with on board video, audio, Firewire, Gigabit network
• Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz w/ Hyper-Threading
• Kingston 1 GB DDR2 533MHz memory
• Hitachi 250 GB SATA hard drive (will add another soon)
• Seagate 200 GB ATA/100 hard drive

Let the editing begin!

Retro

In honor of the six month anniversary of this blog, I read all of the posts in reverse chronological order. My simple conclusion: we do way too much stuff.

High School Sucked, Part II

Here are some stills from the performance portion of the High School Sucked video. I'm still trying to figure out how this will cut back and forth with the more straightforward look of the narrative sections of the video.

High School Sucked, Part I

I've been working on the Random Kate music video for "High School Sucked" this week. I won't even try to tackle the bulk of the performance shots until my new computer is built (all the parts are in hand or on order), but I am working on the narrative sections and other classroom cut-aways, including the mosh pit and breakdancing. Here are some stills to introduce you to the videos protagonist, Jason G.

The Glove Box and Beyond

I got The Glove Box DVD's done today. I still need to design up a DVD cover insert. After that I cleared up hard drive space. I've got 120 GB to work with for the Random Kate video which is now captured and being processed. Looks good so far!

The Glove Box DVD, Anyone

All of this new footage has got my furiously trying to cleanup space on my hard drive. Somehow, the 200 GB drive I got just a few months ago was nearly full. I've done some housekeeping, but the final thing I need to wrap up before I can get to work on new things is a DVD of The Glove Box. So, what do you think? Any extra features we care to add? Should we load it up with other shorts, such as Pantomiming, Outside In, and I'm Not Crazy?

Let's Go To The Video Tape

We tried to sleep off our flight-induced weariness today. I got nine great hours of sleep, and woke up refreshed and eager to take a look at some of the footage I shot on the trip. First off, to make sure the airport security x-ray machines hadn't nuked them all (which they hadn't), and also to see if the gamble of cranking all of the camera settings all the way down had paid off (it did).

Before I left, I turned the camera's picture adjustment settings (contrast, sharpness, and color) as far down as they would go. The theory behind this was that the midway default settings really weren't true defaults. That, at those middle settings, there was a lot of picture adjustment going on, and to reverse the video look of ultra-sharp, ultra-contrast, ultra-punchy colors, I would have to turn these all the way down. In my tests before I left, the image looked very natural with these settings turned down. It was like turning off the video look.

The risk here was that without the sharpness and contrast, the video might be indistinct and unremarkable. Upon close inspection, though, it does look great. No loss of detail, just loss of the artificial edge. I've got some great footage to work with.

I went through all of the tapes and made sure things were in order. All in all, I have over four hours of footage for the Chinese Movie, nearly eight hours of TMINM documentary footage, and ninety minutes of Random Kate music video footage. I bought DVFilm Maker tonight. It's a tool for 24p conversion.

I am thinking that it's time for the "Chinese Movie" to be named. First thought, "The Ballad of Tim Nm" or "Tim Nm: Filmmaker" or "Tim Nm, CPA". Also, the film within a film needs a name. Something like "Campus Laundry Express" or "Laundromat of Broken Dreams". Help me out, here.

Anyway, here are a few still caps from tape 3, which contains parts of CM scene 2 narrative, scene 2 interview, scene 4 narrative, scene 4 interview, scene 3 narrative, and TMINM Thursday afternoon practice.

Winter Vacation - La Fin

It was a horrible day indeed. After getting four not-so-great hours of sleep we were up again, furiously packing. We had a farewell breakfast with Big Momma and Darrell at Cracker Barrel, and got to the airport. We had to take two cars on account of all the luggage we had. Five checked bags and two carry-ons. Far to much for two people to handle. Then there was JAG and his ginormous bag which we toted around because he was on crutches and a wheelchair.

The flight back was almost six hours long. It must be winds or the route, but it's always around four hours going out East and six coming back. This is not a miscalculation based on time zone changes, this is actual flight time. It was hellish. We were sitting next to an elderly lady who likely had Alzheimer's and was very confused the whole flight. She didn't seem to know where she was coming from or going to, and named at least three different people that she thought were going to pick her up, none of which ended up being the case. When we landed, we helped her out to her family. Very sad. Also, I had a headache and stomachache the whole time.

Back at home, JAG got picked up by his family and Joe and Bonnie were there for us. We went to dinner at Elephant Bar, and sleepily got ourselves home. We're all but dead.

Anyway, great trip. Very busy. Also very successful. Of everything I set out to do, only the TMINM music video did not get done, and that was an afterthought, in any case. I used 18 of the 20 miniDV tapes I brought out with me, and used them up well, combining projects to fill tapes. I have a notepad that will help me sort it all out. I'm strongly considering building a new computer in the next week to help me edit everything.

Gabe, thanks for the camcorder, it saved my life in one case. Brock, thanks for your guidance. Jeremy and Carl, thanks for playing along. Molly, thanks for letting Jeremy go from time to time. Micah, JAG, and Angie, thanks for being a great crew and all the other contributions. Big Momma and Darrell, thanks for the place to stay (and having Micah and JAG as well), the use or the cars, and everything else. Everyone else, I love you. Peace, I'm out. Westsiiide!

Winter Vacation - Day Fourteen

Oh, what a long and eventful day this has been!

We spent the night at the Cape house and were up around 10:00am. Grandma made pancakes for breakfast. We all got ready and as the grandparents went to the Cape Cod Mall with JAG and Dominic in tow, we went by Micah's to check on him and help him with one final unload of his drum kit back into his basement. We met up with them at the mall, and I got out of there without too many unnecessary purchases. Only a pair of fuzzy red socks that transform Angie's feet into the feet of a Muppet, likely Elmo. How lovely.

We went out looking for one last Chinese food fix for JAG. The selection is slim on Cape Cod, and we ended up at some Dragon place on Main Street in Hyannis. The food was acceptable, but not great. However, it was Chinese food, on the Cape, with the grandparents, and for once JAG's complaining ceased, if only for a moment. Contentment.

We said our goodbyes to the grandparents and Micah, and were off to the mainland. We dropped Dominic off with Greg and Cindy in Seekonk, visited for a while, and watched the short horror films Dominic had made with the video feature on his digital still camera. I was quite impressed, and I encouraged him to keep up the good work. I also uploaded his files to my server for later editing.

We went from there to BMH, unloaded the trunk, loaded up again with our gear and were back out just like that. We got to the laundromat around 7:30pm, and were there for about two hours, rolling tape most of the time. It was very chaotic, but very collaborative, since I was shooting the film within a film that Jeremy was supposed to be directing. So, I let him lead, and worked ideas back and forth. We threw in references to WKW, Godard, Kubrick, and even references to the original laundromat experience with Cleary. I guess that's sort of a self-reference.

Carl spoke some Chinese, some French, and a little English. He came prepared, in costume and ready to act. He did a fine job. His girlfriend Erin played the love interest. She did a fine job of ignoring Carl's advances, but we couldn't figure out if it was acting or reality.

We shot nearly two hours of footage for this short film that was envisioned to be around three minutes long. Perhaps it will run longer? It may even be the highlight of this whole Chinese Movie.

We had a wrap party at Acapulco's. Nearly a wrap party, since we still had two scenes with Jeremy to shoot and diminishing time and locations still available. On the way out of the parking lot, Angie and JAG started a snowball fight and chasing each other around, which led to JAG slipped on some ice and dislocating his knee and lower leg. He just sort of lay there twitching and shrieking, and we didn't know what to make of it. After a while we got him up and regrouped at BMH. We decided to take him to the hospital, which was itself about twenty minutes away.

On the way, Jeremy and I taped the interview portion of the crew scene, which was intended to be in a car at night, anyway. At the hospital I brought the camera in with me and was taping JAG. Apparently this is no longer allowed, and a security officer asked me to turn it off. JAG got checked out, x-rayed, and wrapped up, released with a prescription. Back in Franklin, Angie went in to CVS to fill the prescription and Jeremy and I taped dialog for the casting call in the car. So, upon arrival back in Phoenix, I have to shoot, not only auditioning actors for the part, but Jeremy's side of it, with him shrouded in darkness and use the audio I taped. Nice, but at least it will allow me to get exactly the shot I want for that end of the room. We jumped out of the car and taped the post-casting call interview segment at the CVS. Cool, now that's a wrap on our Massachusetts unit.

Back at BMH and too jacked up to sleep. It's 3:18am and we have to get up early. This day is going to be a nightmare.

Winter Vacation - Day Thirteen

Finally a real day off on my vacation. We got up around ten, got ready, packed up and drove to the Cape to see the grandparents. We picked up Dominic on the way. The car ride with him was better than expected. He's become more funny than annoying over time.

Dominic is thirteen or fourteen and he's way too into video games. I was shocked he didn't bring his Nintendo DS along. It's the first time I've seen him without a video game in his hand in years. Oddly, he's got lots of CD cases of popular bands, but none of the CDs. He just carries the cases around to impress hot chicks, or so he says.

We got to the Cape House and settled in. They had some soup ready and lasagna for dinner after that. Their house is very comfortable. Too comfortable, it makes me sleepy. We ate, watched Columbo, went to the meeting, then watched I, Robot (predictable, but not as bad as I expected), Meet The Parents, and now Out of Sight is on. In between, a quick game of chess in which JAG resigned after five turns. Quitter!

That's it, I'm feeling quite relaxed. It's about time.

Winter Vacation - Day Twelve

Up at ten this morning to fresh snow that kept falling most of the day. We puttered around the house in the morning. Then, when we realized how late it was we burst into a flurry of activity. Everyone showered and dressed, packed up all the gear in two cars, the merch, the extra gear, the cams, everything.

We rushed up the 495 to the Pike, for a quick pit stop in Natick, MA to load up at Guitar Center. We needed a high E-string for Carl's guitar that I am borrowing. Should I guy one set of strings or two? Two, I think. Micah picked up some new sticks. Guitar Center's are few and far between here, you have to take advantage.

For there we went to the Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA to check out Becky Kinkead's new exhibition that was just installed on Monday. Amazing stuff and the first time I have seen her newer pieces up close. They are amazing, and so organic, it's hard to believe someone actually created them, that they didn't simply grow on the canvas.

We jetted off to the North End of Boston via the Pike again, and for the first time ever found plentiful parking on Hanover Street. It pays to get in early on a weeknight. Ristorante Villa Francesca was the destination, a big expensive dinner to thank Angie, Micah, and JAG for putting up with my demands all this time. The dish of choice was Pollo Abruzzese, a butterflied chicken breast with a broth, garlic, and oil reduction glaze with aromatic herbs and spices and hot red peppers, with roasted potatoes. It's a pleasure to smell and a pleasure to eat. So good, the price tag doesn't even come into play.

After that we jumped on the expressway North in hopes of getting to Cambridge, but there was no Cambridge exit. Instead we get dumped off in Somerville, and I started to backtrack, though I had no idea which way I was heading. A turn here and a turn there, and bam, we're magically dumped off on Cambridge Street a few blocks from the venue. We spent no less than twenty minutes trying to find parking (only to find out later that there was an alley behind the venue we could have used), then lugged all of our gear a few blocks.

Zeitgeist Gallery is long-running project that has jumped around locations but stayed true to its mission. It's pretty avant garde stuff, very cool. A nice space for us. I felt quite comfortable. When I went in, there was no one there at first. After a few loads from the car, there was a very unassuming man there, who ended up being the owner. Basically he said he had to go, and we had the run of the place. Cool.

We set up and Angie restrung the guitar. Yet another high E bit the dust during the process, and that second set of strings I bought paid off. I don't want to think about what would have happened if we didn't have a backup. Carl's band Ship High In Transit wasn't there at 7:00pm when the show was supposed to start. They did get in shortly after, delayed because their drummer and transport for all their gear had three, count them, three flat tires. So, TMINM went on first, again. We always end up going on first.

We felt really good. There was a great, receptive crowd, nearly forty people. We were much more comfortable than on Monday night, and I was more confident in the material. We were very loose, actually. Really feeling it. We learned our lesson from the other show, and really talked up the crowd, told some jokes. They really responded to most of the songs,including many that were thought of as too undeveloped by Jeremy, such as Saucy Lovelessness and Standard Issue, and some that I felt were too underdeveloped, such as Business. Lots of fun, and totally let us put Monday night behind us and go out on a good note. Who knows, TMINM may never play again. If so, I can live with our live music legacy.

While Ship High setup, Micah jumped in and played three songs solo on the guitar, two originals and Radiohead's "Nice Dream." He really impressed. I think a lot of people were caught off guard that the insane drummer they just saw came out and blew them away on guitar and with amazing singing.

Ship High really rocked the crowd. Their songs have more of a refined pop edge, while still being very indie and creative. All four players really stand out at different times, and the songs are such that they all interplay well with each other. They rocked so much, they rocked right out of our time slot, that was supposed to be packed up and moved out by 9:00pm. The jazz band coming up after us was gracious, though, and it was no problem. We broke everything down, packed it up, and were on our way. We didn't really collect at the door like we should have. If we had, we would have collected nearly $250 at six bucks a head. Instead we put up a donation jar on the way out, and got a little over seventy, which we split up. Hey, at least we can say we're paid musicians!

I came within two feet of running over some jaywalking pedestrians on the way out of Cambridge. We all followed back to Franklin, got a snack and drinks at UNO's and now we're chilled out and ready for some sleep. I feel like the pressure is off and I can finally enjoy my vacation, all two and half days of it that are left. Oh, wait, I have to finish out the Chinese Movie on Friday night. OK, back to panic mode.

Anti-Global Rotation 51

I realized after I posted that I had mentioned how much I wanted to play a 12 Brothers song on one of the setlists. And then I go on to mention yet another 12 Brothers song that happens to be on the setlist, "Sunsets," otherwise known as "Anti-Global Rotation" back in the Bad Larry days.



What makes this song most interesting is that it happens to be our closer at the Zeitgeist show, and yet, somehow, we have failed to practice it even once. I don't know all the words, which means I will be bringing lyrics on stage. Of course, I don't know that they would even be called lyrics. The whole thing is this weird jam/spoken word fiasco that Joshua thinks is based on convention notes.

In actuality, it's based on a short story that I had written (admittedly, I did some writing during that particular convention ... not something I'm proud of) entitled "A Quite Inconsequential War-Time Tale." It was about a man reflecting on his past and future set against the back-drop of his wife dying of cancer. It was quite inconsequential, however it was not set during any war-time.

As a side point, there was another Bad Larry song that we had written that indeed was based on convention notes. I can't remember what it was originally called at the time, but musically it became a song entitled "Pitying Bowls of Saucy Lovelessness." Coincidentally, we will also be playing that song at Zeitgeist. PBOSL (pronounced pee-bossel) also happens to be a weird jam/spoken word fiasco, but a little more punchy. I'm starting to realize that Bad Larry had a penchant for weird jam/spoken word fiascos. You could say that was his forte.

Look at me, I'm talking about Bad Larry as if he's a real person. I need to get some sleep.

Anyway, although the words in "Sunsets" are based on something entirely different the concept of 12 Brothers, because it's very vague it happens to work perfectly. I had added a few lines to make it fit even closer, but I'm not sure if I will bust them out at the Zeitgeist show. I have the recording of the one and only time that we've ever played this song on my iPod so you better believe I'll be listening to and fro work tomorrow to see if the added lyrics even fit any kind of melody.

I now give you the lyrics to "Sunsets":

it struck my like an old childhood
memory
childhood
i knew his pain, too
knew his pain, too
but it wasn't as strong with me now
strong with me now
so the crying continued
crying continued
so different from each other
so different from each other
yet so close to each other
so close to each
other
and the thought of these two
individuals
the thought of these two
the thought of who they were
who they were
the thought of what they were dealing
with
what they were dealing with
touched my heart deeply
touched my heart
like a volcano long lay dormant erupting with
full force
like an Arizona summer rain
like a dictator's reign
or like a paralyzed man's first step
i, too, began to cry
i began to cry

no more
i began to cry
sunsets
no more
no more
no more sunsets

things looked better in the southwest
though if he left i bet he'd get depressed
still things looked better in the southwest
felt it was time to leave the business
and hope sun and spaces will make him forget
the desert's brighter than his current mess
'cause things are better in the southwest

thus with nothing else to do
with nothing within my power to change
the three of me just sat and cried until the sun came up

no more
sunsets
i began to cry
no more
no more
sunsets
no more
sunsets
i began to cry

i am not consumed
or even enticed
by its tempting juice
or her tightening vice
i know its just her clever ruse

no more
sunsets
no more
sunsets
no more
sunsets
no more
no more

I know this is rather hard to follow, but basically at the beginning you have a spoken line and then a line that is sung in a soft, tender tone. There's is some dynamic with Joshua during the "no more sunsets" lines where we're both reeling them off. Then the other stuff is meant to be sung.

Biznits 51

Wow! A post from Jeremy. It's a miracle!



I have been meaning to post for quite some time about the Yanco, William, Officer EP that I have mentioned in the past. I did go on a mini-creative spurt and wrote some lyrics for different songs here and there, but nothing too substantial. I was hoping to post what I had and get some feedback and make this EP a bit more of a collaborative project. However, I've been really busy and at the present time I'm sidetracked by The Moon Is No More shows that we've been playing.

I'm sure Joshua will discuss it further within his daily post, but we did some more practice this evening. Unfortunately, I had to leave after only about 1-2 songs playing with Carl (he showed up later). At least Micah, Joshua, and myself got through most of the Zeitgeist setlist together and things are sounding pretty good. As I've mentioned, I have a pretty good feeling about this show. I'm ready to show a little more emotion in my stage presence and having the extra time to practice these songs is going to pay off.

Anyway, one of my greatest desires when it came to these shows was to play something from the 12 Brothers EP. Strange, because although the lyrics have been written there really hasn't been any work done on these songs as far as music goes ... except for one little tidbit. Joshua had sent me a 30 second audio clip of him playing a guitar riff and singing one verse of a song called "Business." This little thing really got me hooked. It was very catchy. And so I played that little clip over and over again, loving it more each time I heard it. I felt there was enough there to fully flesh out the song once Joshua got here and then play it at the Zeitgeist show.

Boy was I wrong.

And yet, we will indeed play it. It is replacing "A Common Path To A Common Problem," an absolute train wreck of a song, on the setlist.

Although Joshua came up with an outstanding melody, it didn't really fit any of the other verses that I'd written. That's typically how I write. I have no knowledge of this thing they call melody. I just write the words and hope that Joshua can somehow fit them in.

There was also no chorus to speak of, and this particular song was really crying out for a chorus. On 12 Brothers, neither the song before it, "Inheritance," nor the song that would follow it, "Sunsets," has a chorus. Thus, "Business" really needed one to draw in the average listener to 12 Brothers.

While practicing today, Joshua, Micah, and Carl were jamming out to "Business" for quite some time, allowing me to concoct freestyle lyrics in my head and test them out against the melody that had been developed. Even after I got home from practice my mind kept racing with possibilities. Desperately, I searched for a blank sheet of paper in order to spew forth my latest masterpiece. Call it 12 Brothers United By Micah, if you will. Of course, this entire week could really be called The Moon Is No More United By Micah.

So, without further ado, I give you "Business" (remastered):

our mothers used to say
"you must stick together always
and never divide
and never seperate"

our fathers used to say
"you must do what's right always
the course you must stay
and never deviate"

it's just business on the shelf
it's just business between us twelve

our father used to say
"the customer's right always
so stay open late
and make sure you get paid"

why can't you do what i say
you know our father would want it that way
we must work it out
there is no reason to shout

it's just business on the shelf
it's just business between us twelve

why did you sell me out
now father says i am not alive
i hate this feeling
i know i'm justified

Winter Vacation - Day Eleven

This morning we were up at 11:00am. Seems like it's getting later and later each day. We went to the 1:00pm book study. After that we set the pratice room back up, but got diverted into playing the game of Risk we have been at for three days. A pointless game, this one is. It was over after the first turn, but we have some strange equilibrium in which no one can win. It's like War Games. Oh, it is a war game.

At 4:30 we worked out the evenings plans with Jeremy. We high-tailed it to La Cantina for some dinner, then back to the house to practice. Jeremy, Micah, and I ran through most of the new setlist with Angie on bass as a stand-in. Carl got there and we got through two more songs before Jeremy had to leave, and now Angie was singing for us in Jeremy's stead. We actually worked out a lot of details this time around. Good communication and good suggestions. I broke the high E string on Carl's guitar, so that's one more thing we have to worry about fixing tomorrow.

At 9:00, the parents pulled the plug on the jamming and we started a new Risk game. Just finished it up, too. Even at five hours and change, it was one of the faster Risk games I have played. Had Friendly's sundaes during the game. That's it, doesn't seem like a lot. Got to get up earlier to accomplish things, I guess.

On Making Chinese Movies

Here's something, a bonus post.

I just wanted to say that I'm really excited to get home and cut the footage to all my projects. First up will be the Random Kate video, since we're on a schedule to get their record out. It's another 'get the video done so you can put it on the Enhanced CD' deal. Next up will be the Chinese Movie, once we pick up the casting call shots. Finally, the TMINM docu-concert, as time permits.

I am actually so excited about the Chinese Movie, I'm going to keep it under wraps and surprise you guys when it's done. Besides the obvious Wong Kar Wai and Jean Luc Godard influences, I have to credit Jeremy the most in influencing my directorial style. In watching him shoot the Cleary video, I learned to throw yourself into the story and location, get excited and explore all the opportunities available at that place. Jeremy captured every angle and point of interest in that laundromat. He captured not only the performances, but the essence of the place in a revelatory manner that I hadn't thought of before.

Later, Jeremy shot some footage for a not-yet-released TMINM video in and around a lakeside house, including the garden and woods. Though I observed that closely, I didn't think much of it until much later when I started examining the footage. Again, he was capturing the environment around him, but he was interpreting it as well. For each object he encountered he presented us with a unique camera movement to accentuate its function or purpose, the way he viewed it. He chose to focus entirely on objects I would have completely overlooked if I were put in the same location. I would have looked at the big picture: here is a house in the woods by a lake. He chose to look at the small things that made this house in the woods by a lake different from all others.

Now all of this is made possible by two things. One, shooting based on a framework without many details. Not being tied to a script. Two, the inexpensive cost of video. The ability to explore and experiment on the fly without additional cost. Now, the directors we admire do tend to work without extensive scripting, though they dont' shoot on video. They have perfected the art enough to know specifically what to explore to achieve the same results. So, the next step for me is to be sharp enough to combine the traditional methods with this freestyle concept.

In any case, it has been lots of fun shooting the Chinese Movie, because we have really gotten out there, and will continue to get out there, into the real world, where real people are going about their business, and make a film in the midst of it all. Angie keeps throwing around the phrase "Cinema Verite," the technique pioneered (I think) by Truffaut and Godard. In fact, Godard once said, "The whole world is a soundstage," and he'd often film right in the streets of Paris. That's what we have done, and it's been a blast.

Winter Vacation - Day Ten

Ten days already, wow! And in honor of that fact, I got up at ten in the morning. After working a little on Chinese translation while allowing everyone else a little more time to sleep, I headed downstairs to prep the practice room, only to realize that we didn't have an electric guitar. Carl was to bring it back last night when he returned for the Chinese Movie shoot, but we called him off. No guitar. So I headed up to pick it up from him at work. Meanwhile, everyone got washed up and ready to get some lunch with Katie Hooper.

Hooper has played a small but significant and recurring role in my life. Katie is sharp and cool, and she came out to my wedding on a dare, and we thus appointed her Master of Ushers, to supervise the thugged out ushers we had chosen, Eric and Bryan. She took control and did a clutch job. She danced with Phat Carl. It was a magical night.

Anyway, this time around Katie didn't get back in touch until 2:30pm. We continued last nights risk game in the interim, while it got uncomfortably late. When Katie got in touch, we met her at her place, checked out her apartment and got a late lunch/early dinner at UNO's. It was nearly five by the time we got home. No time to practice! We packed up the cars, Katie gave me a lightning haircut (she's the official TMINM stylist in addition to her usher supervision duties), I rinsed that off, and we were on the way to AS220.

AS220 is in the heart of the recently revitalized downtown Providence, RI. It's look nice, sort of small town big city. The venue was very cool, similar to Modified, but more fun, with a red velvet curtain behind the stage. The upper two stories are gigantic with no less than twenty apartments for artists in residence. I shot some pre-concert footage in and around the venue, and some interviews with the key participants.

We soundchecked quite unimpresively and left our gear on stage, since we were first up, our time slot moved to 10:00pm. Carl came late, and Jeremy very late, just shortly before we went on. Jeremy came straight from his meeting, so he was wearing a striking textured black suit, with a blue shirt and red plaid power tie. Probably the most memorable element of the band on this evening.

It was a lot of tensionm leading up to the beginning of the set. I excused myself to the hallway and jumped around for a while to try to loosen up. Then I went up the staircase and jumped all the way down to psych myself up. It's just a huge hurdle to get up there and start the first song, especially this first song, Implode, a pulsating indie-metal kick in the head. Gripping the pick and making yourself go from zero to sixty is extremely difficult.

So it was at 10:00pm that we took the stage, stared at each other for a while, then made ourselves go. Implode, then Homo Sapien, a mocking punk stomper. Come & Gone was next. What was supposed to be a break from the loud first two songs was more of a not-so-engaging let down. Good Conscience, one of our typical jilted indie-pop songs, was next and picked it back up. Pity Versus Sympathy went well, too. Last Resort, Part I was next, again, a slower song, and more of a let down, as far as I could tell. After that we went into two non-JLA songs. Room 203, Part I is a jazzy crooner that got positive response, and Such Things To Such People, one of my favorites, has just the right dynamic to convey the emotion of the song. We closed with Children 2, and really rocked it out at the end of the song.

Of course, it's tough to judge the show having been on the stage, but I was impressed with everyone else's performances. Carl was solid, Micah was explosive, and Jeremy got the words right, by and large. I'm acutely aware of my own failings, of course, though Angie and Katie said they didn't see any obviosu mistakes. To me, they were all too obvious. Of course, everyone had the same sentiment at the end of the show, that they didn't do too well, but everyone else was good. To me, it's a moral victory to have been on the stage with three other people playing the songs, bringing TMINM to life. Really, no expectations beyond that.

Now, let me tell you more about Micah. Micah doesn't really play a four-four time or standard pop/rock backbeats. He's all-style all the time. It's a vigorous experience. Further, he's so incredibly talented, he'll go off and do a roll in a different time signature only to return exactly on point to the song proper. This is great except that not being as emminently talented, it always throws me off a bit.

We hung around for The Quiet Life and Shumai, both excellent. At the end of the night, I told the house to split our money between the other bands, since I didn't feel that we had done well enough to take anything when the other bands were more deserving.

Angie had a strong disappointed reaction to the show. She thinks it could have been better, and that we didn't live up to our potential. Katie thought the music was solid. Both expressed that the real weakness was our lack of engaging stage presence. I sort of leave the presence part up to Jeremy, but we're going to focus on doing all the right things on stage for the next show. In observing the other bands, it became obvious where we had fallen short. There's just the standard things you have to do. Hi, we're The Moon Is No More from the far flung corners of the continental United States, and all that. Introducing songs, telling jokes, introducing band members. I worked out some good jokes for the next show. Try this on: "I'm sorry we're late, we broke into Gillette Stadium and stole all the razors." Eh? Maybe not.

The trip home was rainy and foggy, and we had a late snack, some tea, and off to bed.

Winter Vacation - Day Nine

Another early start today, up and to the meeting. Then, a Chinese buffet for lunch. I even busted out some Chinese: shufu chenshan (comfortable sweater), that's all I remembered off the top of my head.

Back home, everyone took a nap while Micah and I praticed. Eventually, Carl showed up, then Jeremy, and we continued to practice. At this point, we've been through nearly all of the songs, most of them a number of times.

We packed up and moved the whole proceedings over to Gordy's place. We were supposed to jam with Debue, but half the band wasn't there, only Gordy on drums and Johnny O. on bass. Basically, we just extended to TMINM practice with additional members, and jammed out a little bit. We played a few Cleary songs, jammed on a Nowhere Man and a Whiskey Girl riff of all things, and Micah impressed with his original "Underwater" and a cover of Radiohead's "Nice Dream."

Digressing for a moment, before we left we shot some more of Chinese Movie, scene 5, "Getting a Crew" outside BMH and on the way over we shot the interview part of scene 3, "Location Scouting" at a cool construction site.

After Gordy's we went to Acapulco's for dinner. I got the Arroz con Pollo. It's been hard to find good Mexican food on the East Coast, but Acupulco's is the best yet. The style of cooking is definitely not Sonoran, but my dish was great, onions, peppers, and chicken in a red sauce over spanish rice.

Back at home, we chilled out playing a game of Risk 2210 A.D. OK, we didn't really chill out. It was pretty tense. Jeremy had to go, so he went on a suicide mission and wrecked the game.

We were supposed to shoot scenes 7 and 8 in the laudromat, but found out it closed at 11:00pm on the way to Acapulco's. We called off Carl, who had left early from the Debue jam session to go practice with Ship High In Transit (it's best that I don't abbreviate their band name). All in all, Carl put in a hard days work practicing with three bands in three different locations. We've reschedule the shooting of these scenes to Friday night. Aside from that, we're left with only the interview from scene 5 and all of scene 6, "Casting Call," to finish all the shooting we'll do out here.

Tomorrow is our first show, and we're hardly ready, but it will still be great. All the rest of our nights are booked up, so no TMINM video, but we're still rolling on the documentary.

Winter Vacation - Day Eight

Up at eight this morning, because it's Big Momma's annual bruch at ten, and we had to be ready. On the premise of getting some olive oil that my mom needed, I grabbed the car and headed out for some last minute video shoot supply shopping. I got some reflectors at AutoZone, and a pair of work light stands at Home Depot for a grand total of 2000 watts of pure lighting power. I asked repeatedly if the olive oil was all that my mom needed, but I still ended up getting two, count them two, phone calls for additional items. That was fortunate, since it bought me time to get my shopping done.

Back at the house people were starting to filter in. All the family was there: John, MB, Mattichenzo, Olivia, and Sohpia; Gregg, Cindy, and Dominic; grandma and grandpa; Jeremy and Molly; Gordy, Jen, Caleb, and Aiden; Carl and Erin; and Micah, JAG, Angie, and myself, of course. Big breakfast, lots of family.

In the middle of it all, I had some inspiration for the script of the film within a film in the Chinese Movie. I headed off to type it up, and did a reading for the relatives. This is some heavily metaphorical crap, I know you guys will love it. I got to work translating it into Cantonese using my trusty Langenscheidt Chinese-English/English-Chinese dictionary. This is hard work, and I realized that I am, in reality, the subject of my own film. I'm not getting much help from Jeremy (c'mon, Jer, deny it!), and everything that is playing out is so self-referential, it's scary.

In the middle of brunch, with all four members of TMINM present, we broke for the basement for a practice session. We went through the entire AS220 setlist, and Carl really impressed me with his progress on bass. He picked up the songs with ease, even though he probbaly hasn't heard them in years, and I credit it more to his pure refined skill in playing the bass than any recolection of these songs. He was coming up with parts even better than before. Micah was rocking our socks off. Jeremy was finally amped up (Green Bullet to distortion pedal to guitar amp) and screaming his lungs out. What we need to work on now taking back down a notch, so the subtlety of the songs can show through. We got a few noise complaints, and wrapped it up earlier than we would have liked.

I haven't really talked about our practice space. It was the unfinished basement storage space. The room is maybe ten by ten, and out cleanup consisted of stacking and pushing the clutter out to the fringes, so there is actually much less usable floor space. We're basically on top of each other. In one corner is the furnace that heats the house. It's hot in there, and noisy, but we're getting by.

Around 1:00pm, I started getting antsy, anticipating the 2:00pm start time of the Random Kate video shoot. I was getting gear together, pacing, and generally hoping I wasn't forgetting something important. I pulled Micah and JAG off a game of Risk and woke Angie up from a nap and we headed for Dean College to check in and get set up.

We went to the public safety office as instructed, but they hadn't heard about what was going on. It turns out the paperwork was in their log book (they said the paperwork was incomplete, not sure how so) and they let us in the first location. I made the mistake (I'm not sure when) of referring to the personnel as "security guards." Big mistake. It turns out they are real police officers, and all that that entails, and I was real sorry to have insulted them. Fortunately, they overlooked that and continued to cooperate. On that note, I was surprised they were as cooperative as they were. They unlocked doors and headed back to the office, no questions asked, and no supervision, which would have really thrown me off.

Our first location was the Memorial Hall Trophy Room. This was to be the location of the performance shots in the video. The RK guys loaded their stuff in and we started to set up before a lot of people showed up, but the band wasn't too hot on this location. Things seemed like they were really stalling. I had been keyed up from the moment I got there, but once we got there it was another level of chaos and fulster.

While we were waiting for the classroom location in Ray Hall to be unlocked, we shot some of the narrative parts of the video, starring Jason G. (I'm not going to attempt to spell his last name). Background on the narrative. The song is about being uncool in school. The character is as uncool as they come. He's got big glasses, dorky clothes, a belt buckle, is wearing bowling alley rental shoes, and carrying a lunch packed by mom. After mom drops him off, a bully knocks his books out of his hands and steals his lunch. When he walks into school, every stops and stares and him with disgusted looks. He gets picked on be everyone. A girl pushes him down a staircase (this was painful even for me to shoot), and other bullies take off his glasses and crush them.

The band set up in the classroom, and everyone moved over there. By everyone I mean the 15-20 extras that showed up. It was a good turnout, just enough for what we needed to do. In a frenzy, we rearranged all the desk, set up the band, got everyone in place and figured out how we were going to do this now that our primary location had been scratched. We came up with different setups for each part of the song. The boombox wasn't very loud and it was tough for the band to follow along. They forgot their PA system, so the vocals couldn't be amped up. Everyone played with their amps off, except the drums of course, which were very loud. This turned out to be a strange and annoying way to tape the performance shots. Just ringing drums the whole time. However, I have the vision of the final product, and I'm sure it'll be great. We ran through the songs a bunch of times on each setup, getting wide shots and close-ups of each band member in turn.

The whole thing was very exhausting, the extras were burned out, and we still hadn't finished all of the narrative shots. We had the band play a few songs, but the lack of PA for the vocals was a problem. We promised everyone pizza if they stuck around to finish the last shots, and even sent everyone but the two band members that needed to shoot in the third location on to the restaurant to order. We got those shots and headed over... to the wrong pizza place. Back across town, we finally got a chance to chill out. I don't think I'm fully chill yet, however. Making music videos can seriously suck, for the crew and for the extras. In the end, it'll be worth it, though.

My crew, Angie, Micah, and JAG, were just amazing. They dealt with my ordered chaos, and basically did grunt work for five hours, cleaning this, setting this up, loading and unloading. They went above and beyond, and left every location spotless and the same as it was when we arrived, which is a miracle for the crowd we had and the rearranging we did. I got the album masters from Ben and Gabe. I'll have a few weeks while those are mastered to edit the video, before we send off this Enhanced CD to manufacturing.

Back at BMH, we watched Notting Hill, and I translated into Chinese for the duration of the movie. Translation is a pain, because the dictionary only helps you without words, not grammer and syntax. I'm sure our film within a film will be quite amusing to Chinese-speaking people.

As you might have noticed, script writing was the only progress made today on the Chinese Movie, which leaves only tomorrow to get everything else we need. We have Carl coming early to practice, leaving for practice with his other band, and coming back very late tomorrow night to shoot the final scenes, in the laudromat. It's do or die time.

Which brings me to my final thought. I'm going to shoot Jeremy's side of the casting call scene, and Carl's reading, but I'm going to leave it open on the other end to give an opportunity to get Brock and Gabe (and Alex, if he's game) in the film as would-be Chinese film stars, if they are willing. Guys, help me out!

Winter Vacation - Day Seven

We got up at ten this morning. That translates to about six hours of sleep. I guess it's better than nothing. We practiced a few songs, but couldn't get the acoustic loud enough to keep up with the drums without tons of feedback. And Jeremy didn't have a way to amp his vocals. All in all not very productive. However, that was just to kill time until everyone met up at BMH for the Celtics game.

The Celtics game started at 3:00pm on this New Year's Eve. We headed out at 2:00pm, but traffic was really bad as people headed into the city for various festivities. We missed most of the first quarter. As predicted, it was a tight game, if only because the Celtics and Wizards are equally mediocre. Celtics 108, Wizards 103.

After waiting in the parking garage for about a half hour, we headed to nearby Brighton to see Carl's apartment. Carl was there, and Erin, and I got an electric guitar and another amp. Have to return it briefly tomorrow, but will have it back for Sunday practice. It seems lots of people Carl knows need guitar for shows they're playing.

In more detail than before, I pitched Carl on the Chinese Movie. Carl will have the lead role in the film within a film Jeremy is making. He's on board now, and we're going to shoot that film late Sunday night. That was the extent of the progress on that project today. Jeremy wasn't really game for anything else.

We got back to Franklin, unloaded into BMH and back into the car to pick up JAG at Jeremy's house. We played some more indoor basketball and football games, and I played a half game of NBA Live 2005, and failed miserably.

We went from there to Vincenzo's Trattoria in Bellingham. This new restaurant is trying desparately to be classy, but beyond the classy prices, there's not much substance, though JAG liked his dish.

We went back to BMH and I ran through the AS220 with Micah, noting the structure and dynamics of each song. We practiced a few of the songs Micah wants to play at Zeitgeist Gallery, but got a little too loud for Angie's taste and shut it down for the night.

Just now I put High School Sucked on a CD for the Random Kate video shoot tomorrow. We have four versions: normal, slow, fast, and super-fast. Each one has been time shifted to allow us to do some special effects. We'll shoot a scene with the slow version and speed it up, and so on, for some serious time bending effects.

I've got to get Jeremy motivated on the Chinese Movie project again. We're running out of days!

Winter Vacation - Day Six

Even though I got to bed at two last night, I set my cell phone alarm for 9:00am because this was the best day Jeremy had to shoot footage for the Chinese Movie. Molly was at work all day, and no other commitments. We got up and Jer came over to pick us up.

First, we went to the Franklin Public Library. Now, I am obligated to mention that sometime while Ben Franklin was still alive, they named this town after him. He was so flattered that he donated a collection of 160 books to the town. It was with those books that the first public library in America was started. They still have the books, on display, in the library.

The library is a decent enough looking granite, cube-like building near the center of town. Other than it's monlithic stature, there isn't much to say about from the outside. Inside, this place is spectacular. It's one of the nicest libraries I have ever been in, including the Boston Public Library and libraries at various universities. It is all wood-paneled with a great room with a huge fireplace, leather chairs, three stories high with murals around the whole room.

I actually asked, and was granted, permission to shoot. We headed up to the third floor to get some privacy, shot some scenes in the stacks, improvised a dolly from a library cart, shot some more, found some books on Chinese culture, and shot some more. Then, in looking for a good spot to shoot a first person interview segment, we stumbled onto this back hallway with a magnificent staircase and did it there. This was all for scene 2 of the movie.

Angie was hungry. Jeremy was hungry. Me, when I'm working, I can go all day without eating, as I did Tuesday. However, I must yeild to these little ones. So we had breakfast at James' Roadside Cafe. "Creative American Cuisine" they call it. I had a fancy omelet.

From there it was back downtown and a quick change (I can't say what, it's a suprise homage) to shoot scene 4, the movie theatre scene. We went into the Cinema Zeotrope, and, again, I took the bull by the horns, asked for the Manager, and for a few minutes to shoot scenes in an empty theater. No problem.

Another change, and out to the streets to shoot scene 3, location scouting. We roamed about and went in and out of local businesses with Jeremy looking for cool angles. We finally settled into a laundromat, which should be a familiar location to those that have seen the Cleary "Time Is My Crisis" video. There is just something about laudromats. They are bursting with untapped potential. So, we decided to use this laudromat to shoot Jeremy's film within the film, the abstract, metaphorical, voice-overed, subtitled masterwork. We'll probably shoot that on Saturday or Sunday.

We went back to BMH, busted out the guitar and practiced our Zeitgeist Gallery setlist. Definitely some loose ends that need to be fixed up.

We lost track of time, and had to rush out to meet Micah at Stop and Shop. We escorted him back to BMH and helped him settle in, and unload his drum kit and other gear into the basement. We got ready for the meeting early, and got dinner with mom and Darrell at Friendly's (no ice cream this time). Off to the meeting, and trying to stay awake after so many long days.

When we got back home, we converted the storage room to a practice room, and quietly (mom is in bed by eight, nine max) practiced quite a few songs with Micah on drums. He's taking us to new dimensions, he's really amazing! His anticipation and intuition are unmatched. I want to stuff him in a bag and drag him back to Phoenix with me.

Now, we heard that JAG's flight was delayed, with an expected arrival time of 1:30am, as if the original arrival at midnight wasn't bad enough. We got in the car and head out a little early to check out AS220 on the way, but took a wrong turn, and, frustrated, jumped right back on the highway and made it to the airport. There a little early, I shot footage for Chinese Movie scene 5, and confused a lot of people as to why exactly I was shooting their luggage.

We hit massive fog on the roads on the way home, and, desite this, we headed past our normal exit in search of late night sustainance for JAG. We got really goofy on the way, could barely see, and had to settle on McD's. Two double cheeseburgers always sounds like a good idea when you're ordering it, but anyway.

Here I am, it's 3:53am, just going to bed, and I already have my alarm set for 10:00am. Ugh! At least I have more than half of the movie shot, and three quarters of a band together and practicing. It's progress!

Winter Vacation - Day Five

Up this morning and headed back to Dean College to sign the paperwork. No questions asked. I even forgot the check and they said to leave it with Security on Saturday. It couldn't have been easier.

I headed from there to Norwood, MA to check out the Camera Company store. Wow, I haven't seen a place like this in the Phoenix area. All kinds of stuff for still and video photography, lighting rigs, color-correcting gels, tripods, all kinds of filters in all kinds of sizes, and lenses and cameras, of course. I was checking out wide angle lenses, thinking it would come in handy for the Random Kate video, but the ones that had that would fit my camera were only 0.7x wide angle factor. I was looking for at least 0.6x, preferably 0.5x, so I didn't bite. Real nice service, though.

When I got back to BMH, my grandparents were there. Grandma is up to get her hair done. So, we hung out and chatted for a while, and had some Lipton noodle soup for lunch. I expanded on my notes for the Chinese Movie.

Eventually, Jeremy and I cruised around to find wrapping materials for an anniversary gift. We got those and I expertly wrapped it. I'm one bad wrapper, yo! We also got some chocolates for everyone at the Green Mountain Chocolate Factory headquarters. Interesting, because there are no mountains, green or otherwise, in the vicinity.

Dinner with the family, then off to Jeremy's house. We cleaned up the place, and shot the interview portion of the first scene in the Chinese Movie. Molly came home, opened her gift, then we practiced TMINM's AS220 set acoustically. On second thought, Jeremy may need some help in remembering the lyrics to these songs. Even the first word of each verse might be enough to jog his memory. From now on, we're practicing with the lyric sheets handy.

We sped off from there to meet up with the Random Kate guys in Bridgewater. We met them at the Blue Star chinese restaurant, and headed over to Ben and Brittney's apartment. I got my first taste of the new album. It's phenomenal, they really took things to the next level. Lots of great surprises. I couldn't be more pleased. We knocked out the album design and got their ideas for the video. We may need that wide angle lens after all, but all in all everything is working out.

We headed home, it's very late, and we've got lot's to do tomorrow, including 75% of the Chinese Movie shooting, and picking up Micah and JAG.

Winter Vacation - Day Four

The longest day so far...

Up early and out in service with Jeremy and Molly. The temperature was somewhere in the twenties. Bracing! We got a little something warm to drink at Meldiva, and I got to finally check out the place we were supposed to play our acoustic warm-up show. Nice place, hopefully we'll tape a scene there shortly.

We parted ways and headed over to Dean College to meet up with Jainie from the Facilities department. She had returned my pre-departure voicemail looking for a place to shoot the Random Kate video. Wow, what a contrast to all the high school staffers I have been talking to. She, and all the other Dean staff we ran into, just bent over backwards to accomodate us. It was like it was a done deal before we showed up, and we would only have to pick which buildings and rooms we'd like to use. And they did it in our budget, too!

While talking to Fran we noticed the office next door, with the name Vincent Bravoco. Hey, wait a minute, Vincent Bravoco was the long-time drummer for The Moon Is No More, was he not? Indeed! However, this turns out to be Vinnie "Rocko" Bravoco's father, who we had heard about for a long time, but only now got to meet. Is there any further doubt that this is the perfect place for the video?

Fran took us on a tour of the campus, in search of the perfect locations. We finally worked our way to the older buildings, and the Memorial Hall, with it's rich wood paneling, high ceilings, and neo-classical architecture will be the centerpiece to this video. Think of it as private school students go wild! We'll go tomorrow and sign the paperwork. No one will be around for us to bother or worry about, just the campus facilities staff to let us in and lock up afterwards. Sweet!

After that we head out for a half hour drive south to Best Buy in Attleboro, MA in search of a decent on-camera microphone. The web site reported that the store had two of the Sony ECM-MSD1 we were looking for, and so did the in-store computer, but there were none to be found. So, we headed out another half hour further away, fighting traffic and hunger all the way. This Best Buy, in Warwick, RI, did have the four microphones they reported to have in stock. Now there's a surprise. I had bet Angie that since the computer said they had four, they might have one, two max.

We got in the car and unpacked the mic on the way back. Not five minutes out, and probably with the Best Buy still in the rear view, we realized someone had absconded with the tiny battery that was supposed to be in the package. No matter, I was not turning around and fighting the insane, and inexplicable, mall traffic. We'd find a battery when we got back to the relative calm of Franklin. An hour later, we hit CVS and found a battery. Five bucks for this quarter-inch round piece of metal!

We headed over to Jeremy's to begin rolling on the Chinese Movie. It was like starting over, I had to sell Jeremy on the idea all over again. And it was his idea in the first place! Beyond not seeing the point, he doubted we would be able to pull it together in the tight schedule we have. He may be right, but we wore him down, and he was throwing out great ideas after not too long. However, he had a talk to write. So, I headed out to buy some refreshments (San Pelligrino Aranciata orange soda, Pepperidge Farms Mint Milano cookies, and Dole sliced Pineapple rounds (that's for the film!)). By the time I got back, prepped the equipment, and cleaned up the house's little details to get the look and lighting I wanted, Jeremy was almost done and ready to start shooting.

So, we shot about a half hour of footage, improvised some good things, and basically got Scene 1a shot. In tearing down, I realized that I hadn't turned on the power to the hard-won new microphone, so we have no audio for the footage. Fortunately, the audio is not as important for this scene, or I'd be jumping out a window after all we went through today. We worked out a rough schedule, and it looks like we can get most of the movie shot by the end of day on Thursday.

After this, we headed out to Bertucci's in Holliston, MA for some dinner. The waitress didn't speak English very well, and there were lots of mess-ups besides the food simply not being quite what it used to be. Time to scratch Bertucci's off the list of must-eat restaurants on our East Coast trips. We worked out some ideas for the Random Kate video while we ate, and put together a practice schedule for TMINM. Wow, is this going to be tight!

On the ride home, Jeremy pulled up some of the rarer TMINM songs on his iPod (with iRadio, or whatever the in-car radio broadcasting accessory is), and we all sang along loud. Good memories. Dropped Jeremy off at home, said good night to Molly, and it's off to BMH to turn in.

Let me break this down in case you didn't catch it: I didn't eat a thing until 9:00pm today. I had a beverage at 11:30am and 7:00pm, and that was the extent of it. I'm pretty punchy, and I feel burned out. I can only compare it how I felt after twelve hours in the Phoenix sun waiting in line for the Pumpkins surprise Machina show in 2000. Burned out!

I'm going to try to get some pictures up for future posts. Hey, Jer, when does that new digi cam of yours arrive? I guess I could take stills with my camera, if I got a memory card.

Random thought, you can make anything sound intelligent and important by using a learned (that's learn-ed) British accent. Try it, say "I'm spicy." (Warning: This may not work in Great Brittain and her various territories.)

Yikes... good night all.

Winter Vacation - Day Three

Slept in again today, but not nearly as late. Mom made scones for breakfast. I spent two hours writing the book, made good progress. Went out to do a little shopping. Jeans and gloves at Old Navy (sorry, Brock), blank CDs at Staples. Back home for some fried chicken, studied and went to the meeting, some Friendly's ice cream on the way home. Monday Night Football.

Tomorrow is a big day. We've got limited time before it warms up and the snow melts. Got to get a lot done tomorrow.

Winter Vacation - Day Two

The plan: Wake, head to Natick to catch the Assembly at lunch break and see old friends, back to Franklin in time to see the Patriots vs. Jets at 4pm.

The reality: We were awaken by the phone when Jeremy called at lunch break to see where we were. Check outside and the snow is here! I was so excited, I grabbed the camera and headed out to get some shots around the house, without the benefit of gloves, a coat. No accessories to speak of, really. After about fifteen minutes, Angie is yelling at me to get ready to go. OK, new plan.

We headed out. The roads were starting to get bad. Stopped at La Cantina for a mid-afternoon lunch. Chicken Parmigiana, as always. Off to the Assembly as it was ending. Saw all kinds of people I haven't seen for years. Lauren Buckman, Jon Clark, Jay Duval, Brian Perkins, Doug Capen, Rob Wells, Paul Gavin, and all their families, plus my family and the extended Praetsch family.

After that we headed to Wellesley to check in with Eric Liversage AKA Skippy, the other half of Cleary. We got his number from Jeremy, and caught up with him at CVS, where he's a Shift Supervisor. He was quite inked up and punked out, maybe even more than I expected. He's headed out to New York for a few days, but will be back in time for the shows. Can you say "surprise special guest appearance?"

By now the Pats game is starting, so it's back on the road, for what is normally a twenty minute drive back to Franklin. Except it's been snowing all day now, and the roads are getting really bad. It's twenty miles per hour, max, and the freeway is reduced to one big lane, for safety's sake. Even at that, we had to pull off twice to get ice off the wipers. Couldn't see a thing. Two hours later, we're back at Big Momma's House (BMH) to catch the last couple minutes of the game (it's OK, the games are on pristine FM radio out here), but we headed back out across town to Jeremy and Molly's place.

Jeremy and Molly has just done a 180 degree spin in traffic on the main road in Franklin, scratched their plans, and headed to the comfort of home. We watched bits of Nappy D. and JP3, played some indoor basketball and football, went back out for corn dogs and San Pelligrino Aranciata (what a combo!), and back to BMH. By now the snow is so thick we couldn't get up the driveway, and had to get out and shovel just to make it to garage.

Off to the computer to type it all up, click Publish Post, and...

Winter Vacation - Day One

For a long time, I looked at non-stop flights as a bonus. I guess when I come prepared, it's not so bad. The flight from PHX to PVD is 4:30. I read through all the TMINM artifacts I brought along, ran my laptop until the battery died (15 minutes!?), read the in-flight magazine cover to cover, and I still had two and a half hours left. Argh! I had to go searching just find a magazine that didn't have the crossword puzzle already completed.

Dinner at Big Momma's, hung out with Jeremy and Molly. Busted out the guitar and hopefully surprised Jeremy that I knew all of the songs on the setlist. I think he surprised himself in that he knew most of the lyrics. This is going to work.

It's cold, but no snow on the ground. It's coming soon!

Crazy Idea

Check out this concept for Fatigo's album art.

To see this correctly, you'll need these two fonts: Loki Cola and Pentagon.

Winter Vacation - Day Zero

I figured I'd get in practice blogging the trip by starting now.

It's day zero. Our clothes are packed. Our ride is arranged. I'm still getting together all the gear, and hoping I don't forget anything.

We are going to have way too much luggage. Three bags for clothes, probably two for equipment, plus an acoustic guitar. Oh, and a laptop case. Yikes!

Well, back to work.

Debris Hide

The Moon Is No More live at TCAN 11/29/02

TMINM fans, hold on to your heads, we have determined the setlists for the upcoming shows. We painstakingly reviewed our available songs and split them into two groups, older and newer.

At AS220, we'll play most of JLA straight through, with classics like Implode, Room 203, Part I, and Such Things to Such People in the mix.

01/03/05 AS220, Providence, RI

1. Implode
2. A Homo Sapien's Mass of Flesh, Bone, and Muscle
3. Come and Gone
4. A Good Conscience Is One You Have Yet To Find
5. Pity Versus Sympathy
6. Last Resort, Part I
7. Room 203, Part I
8. Such Things to Such People
9. It's The Children That Are Hurt The Most, Part II

At Zeitgeist Gallery, we'll play newer (relatively speaking) material, including songs that might have only been played one or two times before. While the older songs are true classics, I feel the newer songs are more varied, weirder, but overall more precise and well-crafted. In fact, we're even going to play 1 1/2 Bad Larry songs and a song from the never-finished Schoolyard EP (Did we ever figure out if Schoolyard was a band in and of itself, or if it was just an extension of TMINM?).

01/05/05 Zeitgeist Gallery, Cambridge, MA

1. An Automobile's Mass of Rubber, Steel, and Plastic
2. An Ambitious Attempt At Failure Before One's Birth
3. Pitying Bowls of Saucy Lovelessness
4. Standard Issue
5. Heaven Express
6. $545.78
7. Popularity
8. Quality Over Quantity
9. A Common Path to a Common Problem
10. The Substance of Nothing
11. Anti-Global Rotation

That's right, folks, no repeats. A completely different set each night. Twenty different songs we have to nail down. And there are other songs we could have played but omitted to hit our set times.

My kingdom for an acoustic warm-up show.

So It Took This Long

I just got a call from Ben Racicot, insane drummer for Random Kate. I got the news I've been waiting two years for: Random Kate's debut album "So It Comes To This" is finished, as of 6:30 EST.

It has been an immeasurable strugle to get this album done. Personal problems, marriages, equipment failure, illness, missing guest performers, voicemail and emails to the studio not returned, budget overruns, you name it, it happened to this album.

"So It Comes To This" is a punk rock album about school, girls, boredom with small town life, being an outsider, and other concerns. Typical? Hardly. I signed these guys because of their dedication to quality songwriting. These aren't your typical two-minute youthful punk songs.

Random Kate bring an array of styles to the table, referencing punk, ska, rock, hip-hop (Beastie Boys, not Jigga), and, more recently, a slice of emo, a little drama to mix it up. They write songs with a variety of parts and solid musicianship. They move a crowd like you wouldn't believe. That is why I'm proud to have them on 727 Records!

Even though I knew it had to get done, so we could shoot the video next week, I'm still surprised that it's finally over, based on all that has happened. From here we shoot a video, send it off for mastering, finish the design we started two years ago, and get it out there. I can't wait!

Review This!

I stumbled onto a new site today, Review You.

Are you desperately trying to promote your music and can't get the major zines to write a review? Review You appreciates your desperation! For "less than the cost of an average CD ($19.99, where do these guys shop, Virgin Megastore (I could obviously throw a link here, but I just can't support that)?)" they will guarantee a review by "professionals in the music industry" within two weeks, posted to their web site.

Man, what a scam! These guys are nothing special on the writing front. We're talking unoriginal gramatically faulty three-paragraph reviews here. Just another in the long line of people looking to take money from musical artists.

Winter Vacation

I've gotten by most of the year without dipping into vacation days, and these last few months have been a time to splurge. Bridge School, Florida, and now Boston for two weeks. I do need the decompression time, there is no doubt about that. The trip will be busy, but it's all in good fun.
Brock, it would have been awesome if you could have come. Beyond being able to check out Boston and the surroundings, your input in terms of creativity and professionalism in the projects is going to be sorely missed. I'm going to really hustle to get all of this stuff done, as a tribute to you!

Here's what's on the lineup:

TMINM Shows

I booked two shows for The Moon Is No More. The venues are pretty cool, comparable to Modified and The Paper Heart. On January 3rd we're at AS220 in Providence playing with Quiet Life and Shumai. On January 5th we're at Zeitgeist Gallery in Cambridge, with Ship High In Transit opening for us. Jeremy has called a stop to booking any further shows, but there is always a chance Meldiva or Cafe Espresso will return my emails and we'll play an acoustic warm-up show.

Now, as you know, TMINM is basically a bi-costal recording project at this point. Getting a band together and practiced will be the biggest challenge. Jeremy has to warm up those pipes, and I've got to remember all these songs. Hopefully, Carl will have time to practice to join in on bass. We do have Micah on board to play drums (Vin is on lockdown, ya heard?!), but we'll have to get him and his gear off the Cape, and set up in Jer's house to practice.
It sounds like quite an undertaking, but I have supreme confidence in all of the band members abilities to pull it out. These aren't terribly complex songs, and these are some talented people. I mean that sincerely. I'm not sure if Jeremy's hesitancy to book shows and perform is a sign of a lack of self-confidence, but I know the guy who wrote these 39 songs in a matter of days can come through with other miracles.

Other issues involve getting the proper instruments together. Will I have to bring everything out with me? Can we round up gear from friends? Will Jer's downstairs neighbors be bothered by the practicing? Can we find a violin for a breathtaking live performance of Standard Issue?

The two shows will work well. We have about 40-45 minutes set time at each show. I'm going to check out the bands playing at AS220 and try to come up with something appropriate. That may mean leaving the weirder material for the Zeitgeist show. An acoustic show would have been very cool for some of the songs. The ideal situation would be to play all of the finished material over the course of three shows. An album a show, even.

TMINM Documentary

Understanding all of the challenges above, and the general insanity of trying to pull this off while on vacation, and promoting a band that barely exists in reality, I really want to document as best as possible this whole endeavor. Brock would have done an excellent job with this, getting inside people's heads and finding the right story angles. It'll be tough for me, as an insider, to capture the drama, but I'll do my best. Gabe is providing the B-camera (thanks, Gabe!) for close-ups during performances and anything else Angie can dig up.

TMINM Music Video
If we can come up with a good concept and find the time, it would be great to do a music video or two, so we have something to put on the forthcoming release. This is a lower priority project.

Random Kate Music Video

Random Kate is mixing their album on Wednesday, and we'll be shooting a video for the song "High School Sucked (Locker Blues)," a high energy super-fast punk song with a Beasties Boys-esque rap breakdown at the end. The location will likely be the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School, if we can secure it. They're putting out a call to their fans to show up for the video. Hopefully, there won't be any damage. I'm envisioning classroom, cafeteria, and hallway hijinx, with the classroom being turned into a mosh pit by the end of the song. I see the drum kit up ont he teachers desk, and the band members up on desks, wired up to amps on other desks.

Also, I'm putting together some timing effects for the hallway. Picture a shot down the hallway, lockers to each side. We'll have song at 50%, Gabe walking directly at the camera, lip synching. The extras will be milling about at full speed. On playback, we'll double the speed so it matches the vocals, and everyone is moving at the speed of light, all the sudden. Reverse that with Gabe moving normal and everyone else at half speed. We'll see what we can do. I've got Jeremy on board as a co-Director, and he always has soe interesting angles.

Chinese Movie
Then there is the movie I'd like to make about Jeremy, as an grand visionary Director trying to make a film in Chinese with English-speaking actors, or some such nonsense. The possibilities are endless. Translating the script (based on Sans Hands?) by hand to Chinese, casting, scouting locations, getting a crew together, talking to the local movie theater manager about screening, all that good stuff. And the whole movie is really a tribute to Wong Kar-Wai, with subtle homages throughout. Got to brainstorm some more on this one.

Everything Else
Have I left anything out? Rebecca Kinkead has an exhibition opening while we are there. We'll be sure to check that out. There's brunch on New Year's Day, jamming with the Debue crew, time on the Cape with grandma and grandpa, hunting down the "man-child" Skippy, and maybe a Random Kate show. I'm starting to think the 20 blank tapes I bought won't be enough!

Bane of My Existance

Try avoiding this! Adding to my Restriced Sites security zone...