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Saturday, September 5th, 2009

Recently, I found myself with spare time from 10:30 PM to 10:50 PM about four days a week. Shocked!!!! by this, I tossed and turned in my mind’s eye and decided to add some additional projects to my list.

The Gallery by Marc Blake

Therefore, I’m excited to announce a new ongoing series of online training videos. I’ll start out with computer topics for MAC users, tips and tricks for Photoshop users, easy to implement techniques for photographers (from amateur to enthusiast to pro) and then grow from there.

I’ve hooked up with a major software developer (manufacturer) and they’re providing me with these cool video capturing tools to use for the creation of my training sessions. More on that soon since I’m in non-disclosure at this time. I promise you’ll hear more about it and you “are” going to want to put these tools to work for you. No problem! I’ll teach you just how to use them.

Meanwhile, let me know what you want to learn about and I’ll add it to my list of topics and titles.

Thanks!

Posted in Business Opportunities, Education, Internet, Photography, Photoshop, Video | No Responses »

Life is Not a Game (Yes it is)

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

I spent most of my time on Saturday on the gridiron. It was intense. There was intense humidity. There were intense coaches hollering, intensely, at intense players. There was sweat and grit and intense pressure. “Just win!” That was the bottom line. Set your objectives and make it happen.

On the Grid Iron. Sunnyside High School Football field with the Clovis West Eagles. Photo by Marc Blake

Do you have the attitude to win the game? “I’m going to have that. Whatever it takes, I’m going to have that.” Would you be caught (alive) making a comment like that? If your answer was affirmative than perhaps you have a chance to win.

The gridiron I was on was saturated (intensely) with 9 year olds.

Posted in Philosophy, PhotograTrooper, Photography, Student News, Video | No Responses »

By Request – more Mike Seeger

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

Thank you all who were gracious enough to contact me with kudos on the posting featuring Mike Seeger. Here is another video for you to enjoy.

Mike Seeger Tribute

Regards…Marc

Posted in Music, Photography, Video | No Responses »

If the Schools Won’t Teach Them – We Shall!

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

Got 59k?

Super… and thank you. That’s just how much more in donations I need to round out our funding for the 2010 California Autoharp Gathering.

We are a non-profit so just write it off if you need to.

Hopefully, you are now saying to yourself, “California A U T O H A R P Gathering?” Are you @#&%! kidding me?

If you are having that response EXCELLENT (and SHAME on you for your lack of enthusiasm).

You know enough about me by now to not judge [this] book by it’s cover.

I’ll clarify and then you, too, will be enlightened and well on your way to the Road to Glory.

California Autoharp Gathering 2010 - The Road to Glory

I said, “excellent,” to your initial response because I have successfully distracted you from my effort to put my (non-profit organization’s) hands into your pocket for that near-60k donation I seek. I am so sneaky – but sincere – so that makes it okay.

The reason I said, “shame on you,” is simply because I know that you were thinking, “Hey, wait a minute! You mean to tell me a bunch of people are going to gather around and play autoharps? Do you mean those things that Mrs. Hildebrandt made us sing to when we were in 2nd grade?”

Your close… but again I say to you that you do know me better than that.

Fresno County students arriving for a weekend of culture.
These students do not have a clue what they are about to experience.

100 young students, 10, 11, some 12 years old are bused to the Sierra Nevada in Central California in May. 95% of these students have NEVER left their home town community – really! 98% of these young’n's have NEVER been away from their parents or families – really! Everyone relax, we have dedicated chaperones and over a 100 musicians to see to it that they get a very well rounded tasted of the cultural arts. They are about to engage in a life-shaping experience.

This gathering is a weekend-long music festival featuring the most renowned and talented folk artists in the United States and sometimes from other countries too.

Everyone knows who Pete Seeger is. Perhaps not everyone knows his sister Peggy Seeger or his brother Mike Seeker (who recently passed after a battle with the big “C”). Mike and Peggy have been part of our artist roster. Mike was amazing. Peggy was, how can I say this… a hoot! PS. I’m co-defining “hoot” as one who is way WAY out of the box and effervesces with musical genius.

Mike Seeger spent the last years of his life archiving music for the Smithsonian Institute. Above is a video snippet from the recording session where Mike and I spent time together at the 2006 California Autoharp Gathering videotaping this exclusive and never before publicly released training clip. In it, he is introducing basic autoharp techniques which I used for the Gathering DVD that I was hired to produce. The complete training session is about 10 minutes. Contact me if you’d like to see the entire clip.

NOTE: This video excerpt is from the event’s 2006 DVD, as mentioned. I, for whatever creative reason at the time, ended the Mike Seeger segment with this rather heavenly transition into part of a Bryan Bowers’ concert. Please watch the entire video, above, and listen carefully to the lyrics Bryan sings as the segue between these clips occur. It’s… well, you see and hear.

California Autoharp Gathering (CAG) is more than just a music festival. It’s an opportunity to experience and participate, first-hand, in the heart and soul of America’s music. The event draws people from all over the world. One year, some enthusiast from Japan contacted me for more information and I was so pleased that our theme that year, “Harps Across the Water” was so enticing to draw attention from the Far East that I arranged to provide them with a complimentary registration. I suppose my years as a member of our Sister City Program was beckoning me to reach out.

Following are excerpts from the CAG 2010 announcement sent out the other day by a major friend of the arts and the gentleman who, single handedly, has brought cultural arts to 1000′s of children over the past decade. He is event founder and director, Mike Mueller. Mike has a doctorate in education which provides him with this well honed ability to make this event both an academic and cultural adventure for the 100 children a year we bring to California’s Sierra Nevada. Mike relies on me to help with some the creative input that goes into putting on his event – which has actually become the premiere event of this type in the world.

Considering the roster and caliper of world famous artists that perform and conduct music workshops for the adults and children in attendance, it’s no wonder why this event is so successful. This event is special and to watch 100 children make a transition into true art enthusiasts is overwhelming to enjoy. Of course the young (art) students do perform for the 100 adults on a number of occasions too – and they dig it!

Mr. Mueller announces…

Greetings CAG’ers! At long last we have good news to share!

CAG 2010 is ON and scheduled for May 21-23, 2010 at the St. Nicholas Ranch, Dunlap, California. You are all invited to attend!

It’s been quite the process over the past several months to secure resources. As you all know, the CAG was originally designed in 2002 as a festival of fine arts for local children here in Fresno County. Those of you who have been with us know that having the kids as part of the festival is a big part of CAG. Not only do our kids get a very memorable three days of music, dance, workshops, and camp activities, but they get to experience the joys of fine arts first hand. Arts in the schools has taken a real beating over the past ten years as schools are emphasizing curriculum that answers to the State Testing Standards. Fine arts simply is not covered by that testing, and therefore are not a priority for schools. CAG bring the importance of the arts to kids, even if it is just for this three day camp.

Our theme will be “Road to Glory”, a fusion of western-cowboy songs with songs and tunes of inspiration. The inspirational component is non-denominational; it’s more of a look into the good sounds of those songs and tunes.

Please go to the website: www.calautoharp.com. Marc Blake has gotten everything ready for us to begin registrations. Motel-style rooms go on a first come, first serve basis. Once they are out, they’re out.

Staffing: A great lineup is scheduled for CAG 2010 – the best staffing in the autoharp world. Andy Cohen, Bryan Bowers, Bob Fish, Bodie Wagner, Roz Brown, Carey Dubbert, David Rainwater, Jem Bluestein, Laura Boosinger, Ron Wall, Pete Daigle, Tina Louise Barr, The Canote Brothers, Todd Crowley, and newly elected AH Hall of Famer: Evo Bluestein. Ray Frank, Linda Guerrero, Bill Lehr, Kenny Hall, Barry Schulz, and Kevin Hill will also be staffing CAG.

Please come and join us. The CAG has been noted as very special by our wonderful participants.

If you have any questions, I’m more than happy to help. Please email me at: mmueller@fcoe.org. Phone is (559) 497-3830. I’ll get to you as soon as I can.

I’m very happy to bring CAG back to you all. It’s great to see friends once again.

Michael A. Mueller

So, there you have it. We’re keeping the arts alive and teaching our youth about the elegant heritage of our American music. How many 10 years old do you know that can tell you who the “Carter Family” is (was)? I can name several hundred!

$59k in tax-deductible donations are still needed so wipe those tears of emotion I’ve drawn from you with this article and get out your checkbook – would ya? You know where to reach me.

… Marc

Posted in Education, Music, Video | No Responses »

Beatles’ Fan? Great! Is there anybody gonna listen to my story?

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

Year ago during my early years of building and hosting web sites I happened upon some musicians who decided they would re-record every Beatles song – for no particular reason. I was already impressed with their “… because it’s there,” philosophy.

“Hmmm,” I thought to myself, a lofty goal. In my mind I felt that to be more fun than re-recording, let’s say, the Glen Campbell catalog – even though I have a ton of respect for his work and the numerous hits Glen enjoyed written by an old acquaintance of mine, Jimmy Webb (Wichita Lineman, Rhinestone Cowboy, By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Galveston… well he could write hit songs, including hits like MacArthur Park, Up, Up & Away and more).

I contacted these musicians and told them I would be glad to host their educational and musical effort on my servers at no cost to them, explaining that I respect and was very impressed by what they’ve done. They fancied that as a grand idea and I proceeded to bog down my hard drive with gigs of Beatlesque music, video and more.

The Spinal Cracker Project - Every Beatles song re-recorded!

I did my “Google for Google Puffs” search engine magic announcing the newly hosted web site and immediately watched my server stats soar with lots of web traffic. The new web site was now receiving way more visitors than any other web site I was hosting. Fortunately, I do have extremely robust servers and “superfast” (that’s a tech term for high-speed) bandwidth so I “can” handle the traffic. I have to admit it was a little intimidating at first glance to see all this web traffic. I was born and raised in Los Angeles so I’m all about traffic! The number of visitors to the site remains huge.

Go to: “The Spinal Cracker Project”

PabloCruise.com get’s the second most visits and for the more than a decade I hosted and ran Table Mountain Casino’s web site. They, too, were pretty heavily visited online.

Stay with me now… there is a huge payoff I talk about in the next paragraph – and there’s no way you can win this at Table Mountain – AND it’s completely free for you to enjoy.

I was doing a bit of server maintenance this weekend when I stumbled into some new (hidden) content in the Spinal Cracker Project web folders. From what I gathered there must have been some kind of festival in Montreal that featured young classical musicians playing instrumental versions of Beatles’ songs. “Nothing (that) new,” you might be thinking. However, the secret (lost tapes) were recorded in Quicktime and Windows Media Player format. I decided I’d check one out, then another, then another. Wow! … and here I am dedicating an entire article about the discovery.

John Lennon - The Beatles

These are a few screen grabs from “Across the Universe” which was really enjoyable to watch. These young artists are amazing. What’s more, is that whoever pulled off this event and did the arrangements gets a tip from my hat as well. I’d love for my non-profit, Fresno Conservatory, to make an event of this caliper happen in my community.

John Lennon - The Beatles

Time for the Payoff! Check them out!

Les Boreades

Discovery is a trip!

I loved finding the “lost tapes.” I felt like I was the star in a Hollywood blockbuster about to lunge into the the second segment of a great adventure script where the setup was complete and the action begins to grow. Oh my? How will this conclude?

Here’s a little side story about “Discovery” I enjoyed.

While in England photographing a famous instrument: “The Curves Guitar” years ago my friend, the owner of the guitar and producer of the Fender Curves project, took me to the very south tip of Great Britain and had me swear not to contact Yoko Ono. When we settled in to a private loft in a small town in Devon (close to where the Pirates of Penzance happened) he pulled out a hidden box with an old reel (to reel) tape enclosed.

The Beatles - unfinished recordings of I Am the Walrus and Fool on the Hill - John Lennon & Paul McCartney, respectively

He told me to shut down any of my recording devices and have a listen. The tape contained the “original” voice and one-instrument tracks of John Lennon working on “I Am the Walrus” and Paul McCartney still writing “Fool on the Hill.” He was given this original studio recording from a friend of his that ran the studio in Liverpool where The Beatles were recording in those early days.

While listening to “I Am the Walrus” the lone drone musical track with nothing extra except Lennon’s voice came to a break. A complete stop! A few seconds later the song continued. At first I thought this was some glitch then realized that this was the part where George Martin introduced that bizarre backwards-sounding musical interlude and that made me feel cool to discover that while trippin’ on this absolutely raw and rare demo recording.

After that song was complete, McCartney and only his piano (all one take – on one track – by the way) began singing “Fool on the Hill.” This was incredible to hear something nobody, for the most part, has ever heard. So all is nice and McCartney gets part way through the song and begins singing, “doo, doo, doo, do, do, do, doo…” because he has not written the middle eight yet. I wanted to say, “hey, I know what lyrics to use there. No problem.” This was the first time the tape had been played in over 30 years and it made me feel like I was on top of the world – alone, but on top of the world.

Oh… and the reason I was not to contact Yoko (who I had photographed when I was on assignment in Hollywood when John Lennon’s star was unveiled in front of the Capital Records building on Vine Street, just a few hundred feet North of Hollywood Blvd.) is because she, apparently is very careful to insure that she owns anything that would (have) had anything to do with intimate work by her late husband. Thus, she would likely work very diligently to get this tape into her possession.

Say, if anyone has re-recorded every James Taylor, or Donovan, or Leonard Cohen song let me know. I’ll host your work on my servers free as well.

Posted in Education, Internet, Music, Philosophy, Video | No Responses »

Fantasy Friday: It’s Not What You Think

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

Tonight’s blog is the first in a series of completely meaningless storytelling.

Attitude Jon was sampling the pink grapefruit pie when the Lark of Rork descended from the only cloud that had marshmallow padding. Immediately, the children stood, like statues in the park. Nobody knew the name of the park. Until movement would begin again, the children would remain lost.

Attitude Jon ignored the dilemma as if a simple, but firmly raised eyebrow was the only action necessary to correct the colorless emotion that melted on the floor. The Lark of Rork, as always, was ready to take control. The Lark raced to the chamber central and commenced to light the flame of fervor.

Suddenly, stunned by the spark, one child flinched and there was confusion. Were the children missing? Nobody in the chamber knew and nobody was there. It was odd and there was not an answer to be heard.

The pink grapefruit pie rolled from the bowl leaving a trail in its path. One by one the children, without moving, followed the path.

Soon, the entire park, now surrounded by a moat of pink grapefruit pie juice became a carnival of highways. The Lark of Rork stood still, not to be noticed and Attitude Jon didn’t realize his pie gone.

Posted in Philosophy, Photography, Photoshop, Screenwriting | No Responses »