Proof The Maths Can Be Shattered

Here's to hoping no die-hard fans of John Foxx get upset with me

over this... There had been a remixing contest a few months back

in support of John Foxx' new album, 'Interplay'

with his band, 'The Maths'.

You were provided the stems to the song 'Shatterproof' and

were free to give the song your interpretation. My take on it was

to create a universe John had never actually occupied...

Yes, we would take him back in time and realize him as a sort

of 'Electro-Jazz-Beat-Poet'!

I thought it would be an amusing journey to see him and the band

mixing it up with what would have been their contemporaries

of the time. I had a blast putting this one together.

The band is composed of members, John Foxx, Benge,

Serafina Steer and Hannah Peel. They will soon be embarking

on a European tour and here's to hoping somehow, someway

we'll see them grace these shores.

Many thanks to Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac,

Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, William S. Burroughs and

designer Saul Bass for making their many cameos! LOL

Hope You Enjoy!

A Place Where Everybody Dared To Go

It's not often you get to participate in seeing off an institution

that has begun to take in its final breaths. Sometimes these places

are sold into new management with new uses in mind,

others destroyed by disaster or a bad business sense.

In the case of the Del Monte Gardens skating arena in

Monterey, California you might say it was fashion

that brought it down.

In its heyday, the arena was the place to go on a Friday night by

the teens of the period. As time progressed it began to lose

its luster as an activity and the crowds dwindled.

It saw a new resurgence as a play land for young families

and as an exciting site for birthday parties.

Unfortunately, time caught up with the Gardens and leases

were lost. The owners held a much different future in mind

for the locale and will soon make way for a new market and

parking lot. It was nice to catch the closing sessions the

weekend before the final closing with a camera

in both video and stills.

 It was nice to catch the closing sessions the

weekend before the final closing with a camera
in both video and stills.

A great remix of the  
Olivia Newton-John/ELO song,

'Xanadu' (Souldrifter's Movie Edit Mix) 
soundtracks the film.

Pogo And The Wizard In The Garden Of Oz

Sadly, I missed the deadline to an online videomaking contest

held by the esteemed Pogo. He's a talented musician I discovered

several years ago who has a wonderful knack for making me fall

in love again with films I've always held in high regard.

The contest called for a film to be made of his current track,

'Mellow Brick Road' which uses samples from the 'Wizard of Oz'

in ways you never imagined. The making of the film was a kick and

I enjoyed the process a great deal. Unfortunately inspiration on

what to feature in the video was lacking until the last minute.

I found a secret little place in the not-so-secret city of Los Angeles

that I thought would compliment Pogo's song quite well.

The Garden of Oz is a park within a private residence in the

Hollywood Hills. The lore has it that the only people who have access

to the area are the neighboring children who are sent a key

anonymously and are welcome to use the garden as their play space.

A key point in the garden's history was the blessing of the grounds
by 15 missionaries dispatched by the Dalai Lama himself.

"Oz" Author, L. Frank Baum lived in a neighboring
part of town not more than a mile away.

Another fun fact, at the foot of the gate to the garden's entrance

is a post box addressed to Oz. Through this box you are

encouraged to leave letters expressing your hopes and dreams

to the Great Oz himself!

Pogo has made music out of a great many of the films I grew up with.

His music is entertaining and fun to listen out for samples that one is already familiar with in such new and positive settings.

I suggest visiting his YouTube channel for a sampling of his works and

a glimpse into what must be an awesome film library.

Pogo's YouTube channel : http://www.youtube.com/user/Fagottron

The official website : http://pogomix.net/

Please check out the Wizard of Oz inspired video and music! Enjoy!

Here's a link to the video if the embedded one is chopped :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA0-oZC_iHw

Manic Bloom : Birth of a Street Team 2

So wow! Had a terrific week as I saw this long-promised film

see the end of its production. Myfriend Danielle

had dreamed of serving as part of the Street Team

for the amazing Tennessee band Manic Bloom.

However, she was no mere mortal as she also felt a video

would go far in promoting the band in addition to putting

up posters and flyers in our neck of the woods.

We're in the Monterey Bay area which would serve well

in helping the band gain a foothold in California.

With as many major cities we have here

a future tour could be made worthwhile for them.

So the film was done and it was uploaded to 
YouTube for a test run to see if any edits were going to be needed.

Within moments we received word from the band who

immediately took a liking to the video!!

We were over the moon in the way it was received

and totally inspired by the love and goodwill generated.

It was quickly welcomed to the band's

website blog and Facebook page.

I'd like to thank all of our friends who helped in

making and appearing in the film as well as

aiding us in the poster campaign.

Super thanks to Danielle for the inspired idea,

camera work and enthusiasm.

Major thanks to the band for being so supportive

and being so great in the first place!

Hoping you enjoy the film as much as we did in making it!

The song is 'Toynbee' from the band's CD

'In Loving Memory'

Available on the band's website, Amazon and Soundcloud:

http://soundcloud.com/search?q%5Bfulltext%5D=manic+bloom

as well as iTunes :

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/in-loving-memory/id420970905

More links below!

Direct YouTube link (as this screen may appear chopped some) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0xiyq3G-PU

Manic Bloom website/blog : http://www.manicbloom.com/

Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/manicbloom

Roger O'Donnell Treasure (Soot Sprite Remix)

Let's begin by saying this, I'm awful!

In the sense that five months in to the new year

and I hadn't posted anything new!

The shame is all mine to bare.

However, new and exciting projects have come up and

I'd love to share them with you now!

First up is an epic video called 'Bark To The Future'--

a loving wink to the time travel movie series starring Michael J. Fox.

It's about a time-tripping dog who borrows the family

Delorean to visit the four corners of time.

Backing the film is a soundtrack composed of a remix I did for

Roger O'Donnell's lovely track, "Treasure" taken from his 2006 album,

'The Truth In Me'.

Truth be told, it wasn't the case were the film was in need of

a soundtrack and this piece of music fit the bill.

It was actually the opposite case as I had made the

remix a year earlier and enjoyed it as if it was one of Roger's

own works. Eventually when I sat down to upload the track

to YouTube I figured I would need to cobble a

video together to make it interesting.

Hope you get a kick out of it.

Roger O'Donnell is of course known for having been the Cure's

keyboard player for a number of years.

(In fact, he's set to play with them for a couple of

one-off shows in Europe shortly!)

However, in exploring his career following his

tenure with the band I came to find an artist who had an

incredible talent for producing beautiful works of sonic art.

While the majority of his output has remained loyal to electronics

we have since been treated to an eclectic array of albums

with many different sounds. Some collections

centering around piano and string compositions,

forays into jazz and numerous remixes for artists

who've come calling for his skills.

To read up more on his extraordinary career you may begin here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_O'Donnell

and of course visit his website :

http://www.rogerodonnell.com/

His music can be found on iTunes, Amazon and 7Digital

Au Milieu and the Birth of a Street Team

Held the inspiration to put together a new mix and video
for Manic Bloom's 'Au Milieu' track.

The beautiful piano piece compliments an already outstanding album
and certainly didn't need my kind of aid

Here's hoping they're amused by it as i made a loop out of one of the

track's points, added guitar filtering, a lite rhythym track,
a bass(y) heartbeat, some vintage high school instructional films
and a gorgeous poem by e.e. cummings!

There will be another film shortly as a Monterey CA street team
begins its endeavor to attract the band to this shore
when they next tour.

Already in the planning stages, friends will come

together to let the Bay area know more about the group.
Updates will be posted here.

Their album, "In Loving Memory" is available on iTunes and Amazon

and much more can be found on their website at :
http://www.manicbloom.com/blog.php

It's Only When You Remember...

Had an extraordinary experience in creating a video to compliment a spoken word piece by
electronic music pioneer John Foxx.
The musical portion was a backing track created in December of '09

built to suit John's reading of "Shifting City"
(an extract from his 30+ year exploration of the
Quiet Man concept).


The video itself was culled from 9 short films that ranged from
stop-motion animation, driver safety films
and old clips documenting San Francisco in the '40s and '50s.


Having long admired his work (since 1981!) it was a joy and a challenge to create both
a musical backdrop and video to surround his beautiful spoken piece.