Pvt. Ravel's Bolero - an antiwar, filmic poem, historical documentary film

In 2022 I produced a film, "Pvt. Ravel's Bolero", based on a poem I wrote of the same name, some years previous. It seems to be a well-received endeavor. To date I've received over 30 international film festival awards.

[9/12/23 update: Pvt. Ravel's Bolero now has 43 international awards!]

You can see it now, free, if you sign up for a free trial subscription on ThrilzTV.com. It's a safe site, you can watch the film free, then unsubscribe. No worry. I built most of the site myself with a few others and we're not trying to cause anyone problems. In January we're shifting into a large endeavor of which ThrilzTV will be a part of, with much more to come. So maybe get in on the beginning?

It's a serious film. But if you're a classical music, or if you're a history buff, especially of WWI, France, trench warfare, Maurice Ravel, Bolero, War...or a variety of other things...do check it out! I didn't get all these awards because it's not worth checking out. This isn't the kind of film that gets a standing ovation. It's about serious issues. But done in a way that is innovative and affecting. 

Documentary, Biography, War, Music, Independent, V (Violence), D (Suggestive Dialogue), 14-Jul-2023

The international multi-award winning, antiwar "filmic poem" and historical documentary, "Pvt. Ravel's Bolero". Experience WWI as told through music (played by Ravel), actual documentary footage and a poem that proposes a question:

"What if the composer of Ravel's Bolero, Joseph Maurice Ravel, had not simply been a truck driver in WWI, but had actually been the trenches?" What if he had drawn the French and German enemies lining both sides of their deadly "no man's land", to enter the deadly, horrific space between the soldier's trenches, and played his new song? A ghostly meeting of soldier musicians and the dead...all among the horrors of their shared zone of death which laid horrifically between them.

Forty-Two International Awards, including:

BEST WAR SHORT - Arthouse Festival of Beverly Hills.

BEST DIRECTOR EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILM, Indiefest Film Awards

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY - New Orleans Film Festival.

BEST HUMAN RIGHTS & SOCIAL FILM - RunDoc Film Talent Award, Hong Kong.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM - World Film Carnival, Singapore.

DOCUMENTARY-BEST FILM - Grand Jury Prize Bronze Award - Los Angeles Motion Picture Festival.

EXCEPTIONAL MERIT - Docs Without Borders Film Festival.

And over many more...

Cast

Brel Martínez "Adelaide", Ravel's Truck

Jey Martin, Narrator

Joseph Maurice Ravel Pianist/Conductor

Crew

JZ Murdock, Director

Wilhelmina and the Wall

The other day I was riding my bicycle around Bremerton and listening to Willie Nelson. He had a song about a guy who was saying, "Hello wall,", etc. It gave me a thought about a person from ancient times saying that to a wall and the wall speaking back to them. And they got nailed as a witch. As I rode my bike I further thought out how that might work itself out and came up with a story.

I decided I needed to give Willie credit in some way, to give him an homage to his having led me to the idea for a new story. So I'm calling her Wilhelmina Nelson (Willie Nelson, okay?) and call it, "Wilhelmina and the Wall". Which, sounds stupid, considering the ensuing storyline. However, I figured if she's talking to a wall, how is that?

So I came up with a storyline making it science fiction. So the wall is real, and is a kind of AI talking back. But just to her. But how? Well, I have used this a few times. A scientist in the future has contacted someone in the past and the connection, in this story, is the wall.

The wall. An AI. And from there I built on that.

It's an exercise in creativity. How do we come up with these things? What is the source? How does it develop?

I was very absorbed by that at university and so I took a self-designed class to study creativity. I shot a video for my professor and kept a journal. it was my first produced video really. I spent three months shooting it, thinking about it and then turned in my journal and tape to my professor. I called the short film, "Tensions".

I felt it was a private thing. Something for myself and between him and me. And then I found out he was showing it to all his classes. It was a film built phenomenologically as that was my area of study with him, my department advisor in the psychology department.

I had perhaps made the mistake of putting myself in the video for a few seconds as I'd needed an actor and no one was around. I just wanted to get the scene done. So I did it myself. And then people on campus started coming up to me to discuss it. To offer their opinion.

It felt like standing in the middle of Red Square in the center of the campus by the fountain at WWU, I was stripped naked, exposed and vulnerable.

I did not like the "fame". That was my origin of preferring fortune over fame. If ever I were to have the choice.

But that's not what Wilhelmina is about. Or that film as that was about, "what is creativity?"

What I came away with was creativity is creation. The more you apply thought, history, technique, allegory, the more personal, the more universal it becomes.

Create? Start something. Build upon it. Logically, or perhaps illogically. But some common thread should exist, for most projects. Put effort into it. The more the better usually.

But getting back to "Wilhelmina and the Wall"? Time will tell...

Cameron Crowe's 2011 "Pearl Jam Twenty" Documentary Nearly Killed Me

Have you seen Cameron Crowe's documentary: "Pearl Jam Twenty."

I'm so pissed about that. No, not the documentary. Just about my past. No maybe it didn't nearly kill me, but it did remind me of some things that nearly had.

First let me say that Pearl Jam is playing their first Seattle show in nine years on August 8th, 2018 in two days. I've blogged before about working with their bassist Jeff Ament at Tower Video back in the 80s when he was playing with his band Green River and before Mother Lovebone. Jeff was a great guy to work with, always a smile, always positive. I was his supervisor and when he left he turned his position as media buyer over to me. A job I'd also had at the Tacoma Tower Video store just after graduating from university and one I took in Seattle to be the top Tower media buyer worldwide at one point.

I sat there watching the documentary with its footage of the Seattle, remembering how I lived near downtown during the 80s, just being frustrated. So I thought it might be interesting to blog about it and get it off my chest. Maybe something will be interesting to someone. Or maybe someone will appreciate the frustration of what I went through. Especially, in hindsight.

I was working at Tower Video Mercer store in Seattle. I've mentioned all this before, but this time it is in the context of what Crowe's doc was all about.

At some point in the documentary they talk about Eddie's first time with the band, how they came together. Eddie was talking about his dad, saying he hadn't known who his dad was until after he was dead. In a way, I could relate. I knew my dad, but hardly. His choice I'm made to believe.

With all the documentary had to show, with my past, our city we lived in, in knowing Jeff, Ament (Pearl Jam bassist), in working with him at Tower Video, in his having passed on his position as media buyer to me, in my having missed out on all that was going on in Seattle mostly because I had no money, and so little adventure left to me back at that time. Trapped by nearly everyone I knew living in Tacoma or Bellingham, where I so recently had received my university degree in Psychology, as well as a minor in creative writing in fiction and screen and script writing.

But at that time I was at the bottom. I even came close to killing myself during those drug fueled days, those wild 1980s. But that's another story.

I remember showing up one day at the Video store and one of our employees whom I was close to,  came in on her day off. She was hyper, there was blood all over her jeans, there was toilet paper taped to her wrists. It was obvious the kind of night she had. There were a lot of people in the store at that time. The girl she was living with was there.

I called her over. She came up to me, at the bar there, the effective barrier between the customers and their needs all day every day, and ourselves. I asked if she was okay. She said she was. I said, what is that about? She said, it's just what happened, why should I hide it? I looked around, everyone was busy, I pulled back the sleeves on my black jacket so she could see the toilet paper taped to my left wrist. Her eyes opened big, she looked at her writs, then at mine. Her eyes beckoned a question.

"You too? YOU? Why?"  She was echoing my own questions. We both thought the other had the world by the tail. Funny how we misperceive reality in someone we know fairly well.

We both survived that experience. We talked about it, briefly. We both walked away and lived to this day.

Many filtered through Tower stores in Seattle back in those days. Bands did "in stories", signing things, selling albums.

Playboy playmates also did in stores. One I even got to go up to the Space Needle at midnight with for drinks. Teri Weigel was her name. She was like most playmates I met, smart, vivacious, personable and a surprise to some, very professional. It was drinks with her across the table from her and her playboy handler, as well as about six other Tower people, including the district manager, a rather slimy little man, no one much liked who worked with him.

I still have the photo Teri congoled me into taking with her around here somewhere but as I'm still moving into my new house at this time, my main hard drive is still in a box in the basement until I can open enough boxes to have room to set up our new sound studio that we will use to produce more new audiobooks of my stories and perhaps record some local musicians who have shown some interest.

Teri was engaged to a guy back home, a secret she only shared with my apartment mate's / store manager's soon to be fiancee, wife and then ex wife. I was to be his best man, as he was eventually mine with my own soon to be fiancee, then wife, my son's mother and eventually my own ex wife.

Those were wild times. Weed, alcohol and drug fueled times. One night stands, multiple night stands, but never quite enough. Adventure thankfully came to us at Tower.

One night I looked up as I was putting away video tape boxes on the "floor" of the store, the public area where people chose their films for the night and realized that at 6'2", I was being dwarfed, not by one, but by about six other guys. It was daunting. Stunned I wandered back to the counter where I asked an employee, "What the hell is going on?" One of them came to my aide saying, "Don't you recognize half of the Seattle Sonics Basketball team? They're hanging at one of their homes and just in for some tapes to watch."

But no. I hadn't recognized them. It was surreal. An odd feeling being the little guy in an entire room. But it was a relief nonetheless to find a reason I was feeling so very tiny all of a sudden.

There were times that rock bands were in the store also looking for videos to watch on their off times. Or sometimes they'd just stop by to hang out and chat. One time I caught the lead singer of one well known local band (Mud Honey? No, I don't think that was them... Soundgarden? Metal Church? Maybe?) on top of one of our store counters, acting the front man in an empty store, just feeling good and having a good day. There were some bizarre scenes at times in that store, now long gone.

It would seem just about everyone showed up at Tower Video for films to watch. Bruce Springsteen's manager showed up one night to get Bruce some films.

One night I was wandering around downtown by myself and almost ducked into a dance club I'd never been in that was down some stairs, but instead I moved on. I kept hesitating, something pulling me into that place, but I didn't go. Mostly for lack of money. I could have gotten in, but that would have defined my night. Instead I hit a few other places. When I got to work the next day, I discovered that had I gone in, Gwen Stefani and band No Doubt had been there dancing the night away.

So much was happening all around me during those years and somehow, I missed most of it. But then, had I been working at some retail outlet other than Tower, I probably would have missed all of it.

Getting back to Crowe's documentary...

I do have to say it was a pleasure and yet a rather painful thing to watch. So many memories of those years flooded back to me, the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. All those things I missed that were all around me back in those days was devastating. I knew things were going on back in those days, but not to the extent to which I missed out of so very much. I was at one point at my lowest point in my life which in part explains why so much zipped by me. And so in that sense, it was great to see just what all was going on in Seattle at that time.

Crowe's produced a great little documentary and if you have any interest in the Seattle music scene or to be sure, Pearl Jam or the bands associated with their coming together originally, it's definitely something to check out.

But then, those are what memories indeed are, aren't they....

#concert #PearlJam #Seattle #Tower

The Beatles 1966 Concert in Seattle at The Coliseum

I recently watched the Ron Howard documentary, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years (2016). If you're into that sort of thing also consider the new two part documentary, Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge. A fascinating documentary about an important American magazine on American culture.

Okay, back to The Beatles....

In the beginning it is stated that this may be the first time the remaining Beatles have ever actually heard what they sounded like in concert from those years. I can definitively say I fully understand what that means. The sound in the concerts in the film are excellent and a far cry from what my slightly older sister and I heard when we saw them ourselves in Seattle at The Coliseum (now called, Key Arena), August 25, 1966.

They had been to Seattle in 1964 which was famously documented and covered by the media.
When I saw them I was in sixth grade. My sister was in ninth.

As I understand it, my older brother had tickets but heard no one could really hear the music over the screaming girls at other venues, so he didn't want to go. And so my sister got the tickets and I got asked. I was beside myself in not only going to such a grown up thing (and I was surprised when I arrived I was more grown up than most of the audience), but also to actually get to see the Beatles!.

Seattle Times 1966

I remember the place being packed with screaming girls. We were on the left of stage mid way up above and I seem to remember the banister right before us. So lower mid level or lower upper level. But we could see them well enough though I wouldn't have wanted to have been any further away either.

According to this we must have been in section 42

I had my ticket stub until a couple of decades ago when I realized that I had the wrong end of the stub and it had no indication on it whatsoever so I tossed it.

Not my ticket stub but example

What |I remember most is The Beatles coming on stage and the girls screaming. My sister leaned over and complained that if the girls would stop screaming we could actually hear them play. We were both upset that we came to hear a concert and we weren't getting to.


I looked around me and I didn't see a girl not screaming. My sister was sitting there like me, steaming over not hearing the band well. If I listened closely, I could just make out what song they were playing, but not consistently throughout the song.

I remember noticing the size of their amps. Simply not sufficient for this sized venue. See, my sister and our older brother had a band themselves, Cindy and the Barons, in Tacoma, WA. I was used to band practice every Thursday night from 7:30PM to 10PM (curfew times).

Cindy and the Barons

It was obvious to me even at eleven that they didn't have big enough amps or PA system. I couldn't then and do not now understand as this wasn't their first concert, how they (someone) couldn't have figured out they needed more equipment. I suppose they probably saw it as a cost analysis decision. The fans don't care about the music, it was an Experience. And in a way, they were right.

As for Ron Howard's documentary, it is an excellent documentary and the Rolling Stone documentary is an excellent companion to it.

Digital Dilettantes and Their Fundemental Misunderstanding

I was once one of those believers in “Information should be free." That was back at the beginning of the public internet in the 1980s before the web took hold in the 90s. But the issue really wasn’t not paying people for their efforts, their art, their genius. It was about what can be free being free. 

Information, should be free. Information that IS free, should be made free. Old information surely. Public information, absolutely, and so on. Government for one should be supplying citizens with all the information possible. 

An informed citizenry is far more productive for a nation, for the world, than an ignorant citizenry. 

"I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." --Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820.

The current spate of dilettantes crying for “free information for all” have diluted the original meaning of the original intent of the phrase. To quote, as friend and fellow author Kurt Giambastiani put it in his blog recently, "Talent Just Wants to be Free: The Idiocy of Digital Dilettantes", there is a problem with thinking that all information should be free. Obviously, artists deserve to be rewarded for their talents and efforts.

Please feel free to go check out Kurt's blog that spawned my blog here as well as his comments there on this blog. Kurt always has something interesting on his blog. He offered this as an example of part of the problem with this information should be free issue: Income for US authors falls below federal poverty line – survey.

If information is made freely available to the general public, it will enhance the human experience overall. Certainly Public Domain works should be freely disseminated to the public, world wide. The downside is that some ignorant people will take in some of this information and yet remain ignorant as we have seen so much of lately. 

At that point those people are stumbling into the realm of stupidity in choosing to accept bad information merely to support bad information they already have. However, if we offer as much good and accurate information as possible, eventually the truth tends to win out. 

Supplying information leads into the same issues we see in the services industry. 

Why for instance does a mixed drink cost more at a bar than at home? Because you’re paying for more than the ingredients. You're also paying for the venue, the mixologist’s skills and knowledge, the server serving you so you don’t have to serve yourself, others of the public congregating in the venue, perhaps music or talent that is supplied, and so on.

So it is with supplying information to the public. 

Someone needs to package, store and disseminate it. The infrastructure leading to accessing that information needs to be monitored and maintenanced. Which is why I think the internet is no different than our roads and bridges and should be available to all to utilize them. If the government needs to pay (through us) to have and make information freely available online, then so be it.

Someone has to do it, and it needs to be done.

That is not to say that new information that has a cost. especially for individuals, musicians and artists, people who deserve to eat and live a good life while producing their works, should have their works devalued. Of course their works shouldn't be free and they should be appropriately compensated for the quality of their time and works.

The issue isn’t so much that these digital dilettantes are wrong, as they are misguided and perhaps being cheap bastards too. 

YES, information should be free and freely available to all. IF it’s free to begin with. At some point then down the long road of time it should become free. Free as in public domain. A concept I think we should retain after the death of the artist and perhaps that of their immediate family. As for the succeeding members of their family retaining rights, there are currently laws in place about that as well as their ability to retain those rights and so on.

We do need to push information out to all humans everywhere who want it and it does therefore need to be free. 

There are also other important considerations as has so kindly and eloquently (as always) pointed out by Kurt Giambastiani. 

Still, people need information to live, to eat, to survive. Artists and content producers do need to live and eat and survive. We just need to consider the context and not gloss over the issues like ignorant and greedy dilettantes.

Quality in Life

Aside from the primary elements of this article, this touches on something we don't talk about much and I don't think about it half as much as I used to, when I was younger. I used to be much more concerned with the topic of quality in life, art and action.

It is now more intrinsic in my life and in my writing so I don't have the need to think much about it now than I did before, as I've come to some conclusions about it over time.

Things like, well... life, family, kids, bills, surviving, keeping one's head above water, These all replaced those seemingly more esoteric concerns of what Life is, what Perfection is, and just what is Quality? Where do they fit in the mired functionalism of living, as opposed to being, "alive"?

Or, Living as opposed to surviving, or merely existing.

Getting along, eating, paying bills to live (home, expenses, insurances, healthcare, licenses, permits, even vehicle license tabs, etc.), these all seemed to take over.

For me, the military (eventually making me more sensitive to the degree of their control over my life), and then after that the government in general, became very important in order to avoid falling under their heels.

Especially because of the culture I grew up and and lived through in my late teens, twenties and early thirty. College dampened those concerns for me about authority in my life for four years as I was living in its closeted and protected environment. Then later eventually, when I was making it as an individual, as a citizen, a husband and father, these things in my life took over.

Idealism seems to be one of the first victims of adulthood for many of us. Partially because it needs it's place and need not be the end all, be all of life, for us to survive. Idealism in some views is merely foolishness and an immature view of Life.

But in reality, not completely and it does after all and in the end, have its place. A very important place.

One does find a need to compromise in life, in order to make it. It is those who do not compromise, who we hear of, who we hold in highest esteem. Some of us have lost it completely, as life can crush you underfoot.

We do not have to compromise in some areas and music is one of those elementary forces in our lives where we simply don't have to compromise. We can be as elitist as we see fit, or necessary. Art and Literature are yet others. Cinema, is yet another.

And yet, does music mean as much to you now as it may once have as a teenager, or during your early twenties? Did you even truly understand Quality back then?

It is good to consider the smallest unit of things as times. The tiny, minuscule, the moments that "don't matter", the things that "aren't important". Moments, not minutes. A sound played just right, over that of a song. A look, over that of a time shared. To appreciate the look within the time shared and not just the over all time that was shared. "Sensate focus", over lovemaking.

We tend to see the macro over the micro, when many times it is the micro that is so important to us and we completely miss what is the wonder in an experience.

Much in life is about the journey, not the destination.

If you've lost those tiny things, they are still there for you to reclaim them. It is up to us to re-evaluate our lives from time to time and consider where we've been, where we are, and where we want to be heading in all aspects of our lives. Especially, in those we have full control over.

Here is one example: Jazz music. I know, I may have just lost many of you. Certainly those who dislike Jazz music. Still in Richard Brody's article (see link below), he talks of these things I mentioned above and I do believe they apply not just to Jazz, not just to music, or the arts, literature, or the cinema. But to life itself and, our very lives.

It's something to think about.

Richard Brody Lists His Perfect Jazz Recordings....

A Birthday in Bellingham, WA and the awesomely amazing band, Breaking the Spell

In August 2014, I had a couple of weeks off from work for my birthday. Actually, I just wanted to do a blog this week on something fun.

There is so much distressing stuff going on in the world, I just thought a little Me time was needed. That is, Us time, you and me time; that is to say, you time.

You'll see what I mean in a moment. I just want to share a few ideas with you about birthdays, as well as what my birthday was all about this year on my 59th birthday. Good grief, how'd I ever last this long? Considering my life overall, it's a little bit amazing. I don't feel like I'm 59, just my body does.

Anyway....

I always take my birthday off. I do this because at some point in my life I had realized that up to that point, I never yet had worked on my birthday. This year for my birthday, I drove my daughter (22, stage name, Gosling) and I up to her home in Bellingham. She had stayed a few days with her mother and I stayed a few days up there with her.

You can read about her travels over at her blog on Tiny Bird Travels. I'll also be mentioning two bands below in this blog today, Skitnik (her new band) and Breaking the Spell (friends of hers and now mine),

Our faithful German Shepherd, 12 today!

I have awesome kids and I couldn't be more proud of them. My son (26) is working doing IT work in Portland and is very good at math and physics (I'm not) and is planning starting a new business soon, and has many ideas for a variety of interesting projects. He also taught himself keyboards. Both of my kids are talented in art and music.

I lived in Bellingham when I was at Western Washington University. I didn't want to leave after I graduated, but I wanted to eat. I had a degree and no job and couldn't find a reasonable job in Bellingham. It's a small community and after graduation time, all of the jobs (degree related) are usually long gone. So I ended up going back to my old job in Tacoma at Tower. They had just started Tower Video and my old boss and friend from our Tower Records days, hired me back.

We then transferred to Seattle, got an apartment and managed that Tower Video store. I worked with Jeff Ament, bass player for Pearl Jam (Green River at the time, pre Mother Love Bone). In fact he turned his job as media buyer (I had been the media buyer at the Tacoma store) over to me when he quit to try and be a "real musician" as he put it. Such a n ice guy and so talented himself! He did well, I think.

Getting back to it, my daughter and I partied on my birthday and had a great deal of fun.

On that day, August 30th, we had drinks at a great establishment with her friends, so many flavors there in their drinks and infused alcohols. We went elsewhere for some delicious foods and more drinks and saw Breaking the Spell, a very talented band at their CD release party. I'm listening to their CD now as I write this, a gift from the band to me on my birthday.

It was one of my best birthdays in more than a month of Sundays. Well, in nearly a decades anyway.
But, I'll get to that in a moment....

My never having worked on my birthday, was something to speak of. In considering how impossible that was in my life, it was a truly markedly amazing thing. When I was in the Air Force, they had told me we (the guys in the Survival Equipment Shop, I was a Parachute Rigger) could have off either our birthday or our wedding anniversary (as I was married). I chose my anniversary, but also got my birthday off every year. Just luck I guess. But then I was in many ways their golden boy.

So when I decided years later about this, to simply make a thing of it in for rest of my life, as could be possible depending on things, I would just try never to work on my birthday. And it's lasted this long.

My family, my mother actually, always thought you should celebrate your birthday. Considering how life can be, the one day you can guarantee for yourself is, your birthday. Christmas is nice, but that's about everybody. Your birthday, is about you and only you. Well, except for me. You see, my mother was born on my birthday. Yes, on my birthday.

Anyway, even if no one else celebrates it, you can. You simply have to just do it. On our birthdays as kids we had to do no chores and we were treated like kings (or my sister or mother, as queens). No picking on the Birthday Kid on their day!

And so I've always tried to celebrate the birthday of others in just such a way. But I've been surprised by the push back on that from some people through my life. Still, in my house on your birthday, you are King or Queen for a day.

At some point I decided to start taking time off beyond and before my birthday. Since Labor Day is near to my birthday, it just made sense to attach my birthday holiday to a real holiday and in doing so, save on my vacation time from work.

As my birthday is on August 30th (and my mother's having been born on my birthday perhaps having something to do with my feelings about celebrating it), I can put my vacation days together and turn a three day Labor Day holiday into a full week off for only an additional four, not five days.

Eventually, I ended up taking off two weeks. It just kind of evolved that way over the years. Update, because of the weather around here lately, I may stop that long vacation thing and back it up in the summer so I have more consistently nice days so I can ride my Harley more. Climate change, sucks.

I remember at times when I was looking for a new job, one of my make or break issues in taking the job actually was, if they wouldn't guarantee for me to take my birthday off. I simply wouldn't take the job if I would have to work on my birthday. Hey, it just turned into a "thing" with me, what can I say. Luckily, that never came to be an issue.

At some point in my life, after I had kids mostly, I took on the idea of giving to others closest to me on my birthday. I figured that if it is my birthday, whether anyone gave to me or not, really mattered little, as long as I got to do what I liked. Which was to give to those I loved most, celebrating my appreciation for their being there in my life and helping to make my special day, special.

So this year, during my two weeks off, I had wanted to ride my Harley on a trip somewhere.

Alas, weather and timing didn't work out well for me. As it turned out, my daughter needed a ride home back to Bellingham. So we worked it out that I would pick her up at her mother's and drive her home the couple of hours it would take driving north, and bring my dog, and stay few a few days.

She told me later that her mother said (as we're divorced now some twelve years) that I think my birthday is a national holiday. Quite, and it should be. Everybody party!

So we got up to Bellingham to her home. This was the second time I saw it. The first time was a month ago when I helped her move into it from her huge house on Lake Samish with its view of the mountain across the lake.

On my birthday, we rode our bicycles (I brought mine up with me on the bike rack on the back of my 1994 Volvo 850 Turbo. We rode the couple of miles into downtown to meet with her boss at the record store where she works. She has several jobs, kayaking and teaching it, giving tours and recently got hired as an art teacher at a school.

Redligh bar, Bellingham WA

They are known for providing fine, carefully made cocktails. I loved this place.

Inside Redlight bar, Bellingham WA

We hung out with a few of her friends.

Temple Bar, Bellingham WA

Sorry for the blurriness of some of these photos but they were kind of a spur of the moment after many drinks kind of effort. After a while we got hungry so we walked our bikes over to the Temple Bar on the other side of town, along with her boss. We had more drinks and tasty samplings of their food.

Looking out from the Temple Bar

At one point, after so many drinks (it wasn't ridiculous over the time we took, along with hydrating with glasses of water and food, but it was more drinks in a night then I am used to anymore) I needed to take a walk outside on such a beautiful night. We were having a great time. I just wanted to burn off some of he alcohol. So I walked to the end of the block. The night was so beautiful I had to take a few shots.

Down the street from the Temple Bar

End of the block from the Temple Bar

After a while it was time to head out. On our bicycles. I hadn't ridding that buzzed in a long, long time. But we returned home without incident. Then we decided to go to her friend's CD release party for their band, Breaking the Spell. They also have a Facebook page. You can listen to their music and buy their CD here.

A word about my daughter on music. She has traveled Europe twice, starting in Iceland, with her accordion. The first time she traveled alone for nine months paying her way by playing music. She's been in several bands and recently was just accepted into the band, Skitnik, a Bavarian kind of fun music band, and right up her alley. She can really get a room up and moving and laughing and basically just having a great time with her music.

Sadly we got to the release party just a bit late and only caught the last two songs in the set. But it was enough to be able to appreciate the awesome talent of this band.

Breaking the Spell

The party was at the Circus Guild building.

The first thing I saw entering the building were these mermaid sculptures. It is a big space where there is plenty of room for circus type stuff to happen. A winter home for a circus venue or a place where those types of talents can be performed. They also rent out their space for things just like, a CD release party.

The music coming off the stage was amazing and I do love a good sax. After the show the band were signing CDs and I definitely wanted one. But in being good friends of my daughter's and knowing it was my birthday, they wouldn't let me pay them for a CD or autographs. But they gave me both.

We talked to them for a while and then headed home. I for one, was exhausted. So much so that I headed home with my dog, the next day. But it was an amazing time and one that I will never forget, for the rest of my life!

Take the time to make your birthday your own special day. Break out of the mold. Go do something, extraordinary. All the best to you! This birthday is going to be a hard one to beat in the future. But sometimes it's not about what's bigger or better, but more beautiful, more relaxed, more pleasing in enjoying things, like a beautiful night, a good drink, or time with loved ones.

Cheers to you, and a happy birthday to you when your birthday arrives!

New Musical Artist - Amanda Dewell

Amanda "Cat" Dewell, remember that name.

Live It Outloud! is a Ted Brown Music outreach program and a Rock Music Summer School out of Tacoma, WA. My sister's husband Joe Wilson is deep into running it, or helping run it. I'm not quite sure how that works out and it's pretty unimportant for our purposes here today.

I wrote about this last year and the year before when I went to their final concerts. It's about sixty miles for me to get there so that says something. Not a real long trip but more than popping down to the local theater. And it was great fun just to hang out and see everyone, too.

That first concert assured that I would see the second one, and so I did. I'll be there again, next time, too. I had a great time and the kids and their bands were very entertaining. Some of them unbelievably professional for their age and a few bands about ready to be touring. What is important here are the kids and how positively this is affecting them.

This is an awesome project!

Joe has been very pleased with the talents of these kids and those who excel in the program. Particularly one exceptional individual that I would like to point out here. I met her briefly at the first and second concert and she is very sweet and still quite young. Which makes her talent, all the more amazing. 

Perhaps I'll just let Joe talk about her in his own words:

"Years 2011, 2012, 2013 - Amanda Dewell AKA Cat Dewell. Available on Amazon and YouTube.

"Amanda came to us, an 11 yr old seemingly very shy girl, dressed like a rocker, (with the added dimension of also dressing in “Hello Kitty” Pj’s and slippers at times) and surprised everyone with a rendition of “Misery” by Paramore the first year.

"2012’s concert saw her play the cello and perform “Broken”. The audience appeared fixated on this young girl who wrote lyrics and melody to a song orchestrated with Jonathan Irwin. The appeal of that song got the attention of Mark Simmons at Pacific Studios, members of the Vicci Martinez band and a recording session was born. That song was subsequently made into a simple video that garnered 8000+ views in 6 months.

"Surprised at the reaction a decision was made to finish an EP, “Notes From the Out Crowd” and was released on iTunes, Amazon and all the other digital services the 1st of April. She was contacted by a lawyer in Seattle who worked for Nirvana and all the rest of the grunge scene at Sub-Pop Records during her 16 year tenure.

"She is looking into sync- licensing some of Amanda’s work for Television, Film and other venues. We’re learning how all this works and are privileged to have Amanda help us on this journey that will help other musicians in the program, past and present, find a way to get their music heard. Amanda will finish her album this summer with a release date in September."

And so, congrats to Cat! Congrats to Joe and the others behind the scenes!
Check her out and keep watching....

UPDATE 8/9/2015 - Cat's new CD should be available sometime in September 2015.

Live It Outloud! Season Finale Rock Concert 2013

On Saturday August 10, 2013, young musicians in the Live it Outloud! program, had their final concert of the season at the Pantages Theater in Tacoma, Washington. It was really a lot of fun. 

"Live your dream", their flyers say. And they're not kidding. They also say, "A summer rock-music school for aspiring musicians 12-18".

The bands were to play their rock show from 1PM to 4:30PM, but due to Union stage techs having "technical difficulties" it really didn't get started until more like 2PM. Which personally I thought was unacceptable as well as unprofessional. But hey, that's just my humble opinion and in the end, what are you going to do? Now I've heard stories before about Union techs who have pre-show "technical difficulties" setting up just in order to set the stage for the show running late and therefore mandatory overtime kicking in. But I'm quite sure that wasn't the case this time, at all.

The Pantages itself is a really nice theater, quite comfortable and in the end I really didn't mind the wait all that much. Not once they got to playing, that is. Okay, it seems to me if you're a paid professional and especially a Union member, the epitome of a professional workman (as I didn't see female techs that day), then you get the job done, on time. Show up early enough to be sure everything is ready so the crowd doesn't wait. Whatever. Having the crowd waiting at a performance because the tech staff is having "issues", should just never be a concern. But maybe that's just a lifelong pet peeve of mine....

Pantages balcony seat left of stage

So anyway, the kids got done playing just a little after 5:30PM. It was a long day sitting and listening, but I really didn't notice it that much as I was having a great time.

Pantages ceiling main auditorium above my seat

Live it Outloud! is run by Joe Wilson for (or through?) Ted Brown Music in Tacoma, Washington. Even with the technical difficulties and occasional sound issues during the show, I was still pretty happy to be there.

Andy and Joe

See, I had shown up last year at the last hour and only got to see the last three bands. I realized pretty quickly that next time (this year) I'd show up early, and so I was there a couple of hours ahead of time. Okay, I was a little bit earlier than I really needed to be.

It's an amazing amount of talent these kids have. Joe Wilson and the mentored performances put on by the kids through an eight week period, really did a wonderful job. Just as Joe has been doing over these past few years that the program has been going.

The kids sign up for the program and are then matched up together with other kids to make a band. They then practice together, get mentored, receive studio time and play a gig (which I believe was at Jazz Bones), leading up to the finale. The winners in the end receive even more sound studio time. I'm sure there is more in this experience for them than I'm listing here, but you get the gist. It's a great program.

From the Live it Outloud! Facebook page:

8 Week Rock-Music Program. Tuition is 250.00 per student for the entire 8 week program. There are a limited number of need based scholarships available from Ted Brown Music OutReach. Contact Joe Wilson at 469-964-1415 to learn what is available and how to apply.

Mission

Teach kids how to write, play and perform rock-music and have an outrageously good time doing it.

Description

Live It OutLoud -Tacoma Ted Brown Music Outreach is an eight-week Summer Music Program for aspiring (12 to 18 year old), non-professional musicians produced by Ted Brown Music Outreach and sponsored by Ted Brown Music. Each student is placed in a band with a professional music mentor to create, develop, and perform on a professional level. You're going to Live it OutLoud, no more singing in the shower. The program is educational, inspirational, nerve wracking and most of all fun! The Adrenalin will flow…the power intense! Space is limited so Sign Up Now!

Also, from Agora Entertainment in Texas, Producer/Partner Daniel Nanasi kindly flew in to shoot video of the show for the DVD as well as a professional photographer with AP whose name I didn't catch.

Agora Entertainment

Oh, the names of the bands were: Odd Ones Out, Resisting Ordinary, Chains of Ace, Strangers with Candy, Forsaken Nightmare, Five Days Away, Behind Blue Eyes, Missions 253, The Renegade, Living Convictions, Feedback and Stolen Society.

Here are photos and videos of the bands performing from the August 10, 2013 show. The visuals are a little fuzzy from the smoke machine, I think. If I can I will update this with band names and all but as it is now....photos of the bands in concert (videos after).

first band

2nd band

third band

fourth band

fourth band

fifth band

sixth band

Andy and Joe

seventh band

Seventh band

eighth band

tenth band

eleventh band

End and choosing of winners - a Tie!

Following are various videos I shot throughout the afternoon with my Droid RAZR cell phone camera. As I hadn't planned on shooting anything I didn't have my camera and tripod. But I thought I'd give it a shot and see what happened, which then lead to writing this blog. The first video is the longest as it is the opening, and the last is the next longest as it is the announcement of the "winners" and the closing. I couldn't shoot all the bands so I selected what I could that I found interesting.

A couple of the bands weren't quite as polished as I'm sure they wish they could have been, which is to be expected. After all some individuals are always going to be more skilled than others, quicker to acclimate to a new environment, skill set and inter-operability with other band members.

Let's face it, learning to play in a band is definitely a new skill that requires functioning through a novel and potentially challenging environment (on stage, in front of an audience, etc.), as well as working together with others in a creative and artistic way. Yet they all still did an amazing job. And when you consider how good the really good bands were, it's even more amazing still because you suddenly realize in taking in their performances that they are still kids and not a professional touring band.

So below you can see some videos from the show and get an idea of what it was like. Be aware it might take a bit to buffer prior to viewing. I haven't done much of this video processing for online streaming but it seems to work pretty well.

And remember. Before eight weeks ago, most of these kids never played together or even knew one another although there were some siblings in the program.

After the show some of us including Joe Wilson, his wife, their daughter, actress Brandi Nicole Wilson, Producer Daniel Nanasi, myself, and a few friends headed over to the Harmon Hub restaurant, where we had some excellent food and company.

In the end, this was an excellent show and I had a great time. The three finalist bands felt (and sounded) to me like they could start touring immediately. At the end a local band, The Propellers, played while the judges cards were scored and the winners decided.

As indicated, it was a tie between two of the three finalists. The two winners were the bands, "Resisting Ordinary" and "Behind Blue Eyes" (with Amanda "Cat" Dewell). But as Joe said on stage, there really was no need for a winner as just to get on stage and put on a show like they did, made them all winners. That may sound trite, but try getting on stage like that and put on a rock show.

I'm definitely going next year if I can at all make it. If you can make it, I highly recommend it. Or if you have a child who might be interested, or you, if you're the right age (12-18 but younger exceptions might be made and it never hurts to ask), and want to get involved, check out the Live it Outloud! web site or call Joe (see phone number above).

If you think it might be for you, give a call! Or if you have instruments to donate as they have supplied a lot of instruments to the kids, please call. It's hard work, it's practice, and maybe some scary moments in getting used to being on stage. But I'm pretty sure it's worth it.

If you dream such dreams of performing, that is.

Then if you do go for it, you just might find out what it's like to be a Rock Star.

TV Show Theme Songs and Commecials

There are some shows on TV, very few actually, that when the show starts I let the title sequence play through. Typically, when I watch a new show for the first time I let the title sequence play through, then whenever I watch it in the future I skip right to the beginning of the episode's action. This kind of thing saves  me a lot of time every week, reclaiming that time back into my own life and no longer dedicated to the network or the show's desires.

I actually know people who feel obligated to watch all the commercials on TV. But it is an evolutionary process. Just as many of us skip adverts, so do the networks devise ways of getting past that, or working with us on this change. It depends on how you view it, or which side you are on. The commercials have changed, evolved, and the shows have changed. When you are zipping past the commercials you will now not infrequently see that there is a short blurb of the show in the middle of the adverts. It's easy to skip past without noticing.

But I've become adept at catching these and watching it if it seems like it might be something I could really care about. They have also made commercials that grab your attention while zipping past them, so you simply have to stop, back up and go, "What the hell was that?" Which honestly, is kind of fun. I've been saying for years that they need to make commercials that aren't offensive in any of a variety of ways, and rather simply be interesting or entertaining. I don't mind commercials really, I just hate wasting my time.

I have HD Tivo on DirecTV and I love my ability to record, to move forward and back or skip around. Mostly though, I just zip past the titles to the beginning of the show at hand. But there are a few I always stop and listen to and watch.

"X-Files" was one of the first of these with its award winning title sequence (though I believe I was using VHS tapes back them to record the show on so I could skip the adverts). "True Blood" is another, a current favorite. The title sequence on "Saving Grace" was awesome and gave me chills. Everlast's "Saving Grace" song from that now discontinued show of the same name (may it rest in peace), led me to his other music. I don't like all of it, but I'd say that most of it that I've heard, I liked or grew to like. I couldn't find the actual title sequence with the tornadoes at the end, which always ran a chill up my spine and just seemed powerfully awesome.

Sometimes you hear this title music and you really like it and you get excited about looking up the band and hearing what other great music they may have. But then sometimes too, when you do hear it, the air is let out of the balloon and you realize, that they offered you only a few minutes of awesomeness and you just listened to music that took up a few minutes of your life that you'll never get back.

But talk about hit and miss bands. I love the "True Blood" theme song by Jace Everett ("Bad Things") and the graphics. So dark and well done. I have to mention "Game of Thrones", awesome music and a great animation title sequence. For some reason, I should mention "Californication" but I think it's a very specific thing, considering the show is about a writer. And the show "Suits" and its theme song by Ima Robot ("The Greenback Boogie"); love that show, too. But these are two artists/bands where there is little else that I love about the band's music. However I will give Ima Robot credit for their song, "A is for Action". They seem to be a hit or miss band for me. I do think the title song works better as a shorter title song, but the full length one is still pretty good.

Jace Everett however, is a just hit once, miss all the rest. For me anyway, but I'm also not into that type of music. I was pretty disappointed when I listened to his album with that song on it and couldn't find any other songs that I could relate to at all.

Another is the "Justified'" theme song by T.O.N.E-z ("Long Hard Times To Come"). I hated that song when I first heard it, I was so disappointed in their choice for the show. But after a few seasons of it, I've come to realize how well it fits that show (and I love that show, too, but then, pretty much anything Oliphant does, really). I just don't care for any of T.O.N.E-z's other music.

Times have changed. TV is evolving. Although I'm not a fan of all that is going on, there certainly are some very interesting things out there that are worth noticing. So, while you are skipping things, keep your eyes (and ears) open. Or you might miss something very cool indeed.