Wind and Arranging

My new post at Crazytown Blog, in which I lament my lost tree and extol the virtues of newly-arranged music: http://bit.ly/vR2pna

Summer 2011: Pasadena Musical Theatre

Ryan Scott Oliver, PMTP‘s creative director, wrote a brand new musical for the students who participated in the Summer 2011 session of the Pasadena Musical Theatre Program. I am a member of the board of directors of this fantastic program. We now have a partnership with the Pasadena Playhouse, and are looking to expand even further into the community.

But back to the musical, Jasper in Deadland. I filmed a bunch of the shows and rehearsals, and mixed the live sound off-the-board for this recording. It gives a good glimpse of what the students got to experience over the summer: originating roles in a fantastic new musical, and getting to work with musical theatre professionals — directors, choreographers, lighting and sound and costume and set designers, etc.

Tribute [the band] live mix off the board

We recorded our live show at the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s annual Fun In The Sun Chili Cookoff in October 2011. Straight off the board, with some compression/limiting done after the fact. Sounds great. And some really nice photography by Katie Macquarrie to show off the band.

We had a great time. Check out Tribute for more information. Maybe you want to book us for your next event!

Kari Davis covers Johnny Cash’s “It Ain’t Me, Babe”

Kari Davis, one of the fabulous students from the Pasadena Musical Theatre Program, sat down with me and recorded a few covers (as well as a few of her own original tunes). This is her take on an old Johnny (and June) Cash song, It Ain’t Me, Babe.

Nice.

Hearken Creative Announces “The Planetary Report” Magazine Redesign

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : October 2011

Planetary Society Headquarters, Pasadena, CA

Hearken Creative (www.hearkencreative.com) of Pasadena, CA is proud to announce a historic magazine redesign — the first in the magazine’s 31-year history. The Planetary Report is a highly-regarded quarterly member magazine, bringing space research and advocacy news to 50,000 readers worldwide and commissioned by the Planetary Society of Pasadena, CA. The first two redesigned issues were released in June 2011 and October 2011.

The Planetary Report was introduced soon after the Planetary Society was launched in 1980 by scientist/author Carl Sagan, JPL/Caltech professor Bruce Murray, and JPL scientist Louis Friedman. The desire for a new look and focus prompted incoming executive director Bill Nye to turn to Loren A. Roberts of Hearken Creative for a complete re-design of the magazine, including adding a brand new kids’ section that capitalizes on the Bill Nye the Science Guy™ brand.

“Loren gave our 31-year-old magazine a beautiful new look,” said Bill Nye, executive director of the Planetary Society. “Beautiful pictures just jump out at you, and the text is mysteriously easier than before to read. We are delighted with his work.”

“It’s an honor for us to assume the creative mantle for a magazine seen around the world,” said Loren A. Roberts, principal of Hearken Creative. “We are proud of the Planetary Society’s mission, and our partnership with them over fourteen years; and we look forward to this new chapter in our history together.”

The relationship between the Society and Hearken Creative began in 1997 when Roberts designed all of the graphics for Planetfest’97, a convention where tens of thousands of people watched Mars Pathfinder land on Mars using a real-time link from JPL at the Pasadena Convention Center. All printed graphics, banners, signage, advertising, and online graphics were designed by Hearken Creative. Since then the partnership has grown, with Hearken Creative designing t-shirts, logos, posters, websites, brochures and more for the Society.

Todd Roberts, lighting designer extraordinaire

So I’m very impressed by what my brother has been able to do. He started his business right about the same time as I started mine. And now, he’s being covered in trade publications as a true expert in his craft. Congratulations! Here’s a quick excerpt:

Although he’s created light shows at some of the world’s most glamorous events, LD Todd Roberts maintains a distinctively low profile and simple lifestyle.  The veteran designer still enjoys unloading rigs at his events, and would prefer to relax with his family on the beach than anything more glamorous. Todd’s work is intricate and often edgy, but his personal life is unpretentious and rooted in basic values. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

Read the rest of the article (plus interview) on Elation Lighting’s E-news.

The Perfect Gentlemen at Levitt Pavilion

The Perfect Gentlemen are a riveting vocal group here in Southern California. A few weeks ago, I dropped everything in my office and walked over to the Levitt Pavilion at Memorial Park here in downtown Pasadena to see them perform. And then I pulled out my camera. The light was really harsh, because it was sunset (I hate to think of the blinding spotlight the performers were enduring onstage!), but everything turned out really warm and summery. Lots of fun.

It’s coming…

Wow, I’m so excited. We will issue a press release sometime in the next few hours.

Violin Amazingness

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I like to promote things. I’m a producer — a promoter — a big-picture kinda guy. And so when I become friends with an incredible artist, like Buddy Zapata or Lauralee Farrer, I can’t help but want to promote their art in any way I can. And I have skillz. I can take press photographs (see my post on T-Lou). I can shoot video (see the stuff I did of Buddy Zapata). I’m now producing (check out Not That Funny on Facebook). And now I can record live concerts. Laurie Niles is a fellow parent at McKinley School, where my kids go. Laurie is a violinist, a music teacher and educator, and a friend. She runs the crazy-cool website violinist.com, and this past Spring, she agreed to do a concert of violin music in the school auditorium. It was simply amazing. And I got to record it.

I think the live recording sounds pretty good, no, it sounds great. But live was even better. I wish you all could have been there. If you ever get the chance to see her in concert, it’s a treat. And every piece of music was unexpected — none of the “standard” classical fare. Here’s the trio that started the concert (the audio on this video is simply from the Flip camera — sometime I’ll marry up my audio with their video, but it’s not a priority right now):

And it was all that good. The “Meditation from ‘Thaïs’” that you heard at the top of this post was her encore, and it was a beautiful, peaceful way to end a magnificent evening of violin music.

I feel so privileged to be around such awesome talent. It’s fun. It’s challenging to me as an artist. And these people become great friends too, friends that I hope to be promoting and hanging out with and enjoying each others’ company 20 years from now.

So enjoy the music, and enjoy life, and enjoy the friends and family that you get to experience life with.

The movie we’re shooting

Not That Funny is a movie that is shooting currently in Sierra Madre, CA. I am an associate producer on the show. What does that mean? Well, it can mean anything, but for me, what it has meant so far is

• recording production sound for a week before our wonderful sound guy came on board
• renting my Canon 7D camera, lights, hard drives, and other useful stuff to the production
• managing the digital workflow for set-to-editor-to-director-to-post, as well as managing dailies
• general help on-set and off-set
• even some graphic design! (see the photo of a fake poster above)
• maybe sound design.

The cast and crew is incredible. We are halfway through 25 days of shooting, followed by some additional pickups and various projects to get the film ready for completion. The editing process will take several months of massaging the footage to make it serve the story. Our hope is that it will get picked up for a few film festivals in early 2011, and then see theatrical distribution sometime during the year.

Our cast is outstanding, anchored by John Kapelos (remember Breakfast Club?), K Callan, Brigid Brannagh (Army Wives), and the amazing Tony Hale (Arrested Development).

Check the movie out:

• Not That Funny Facebook page
• Not That Funny website (to come)