I'm a regular photographer this year at Powderhorn 365, a daily photographric documentary website devoted to capturing the Powderhorn neighborhood (where I live part-time). Catch my photos there every Monday.
Recently had the pleasure of hosting the Sheridan Neighborhood's Annual fancy-pants fundraiser: The SNOBall.Andy Sturdevant and I wrote a twenty minute radio play that included a finale musical number I wrote with Dave Salmela called "Urban Planning School", sung by Joel Liestman. (You can catch some of it on the Sheridan website.) Geoff Herbach and I ran the live auction afterwards (with help from the Modern Café's Jim Grell) and in the end we raised $7,000 in a live auction for the Sheridan Neighborhood lighting project. It's a very nice life.
Talking obnoxiously about songwriting again at Lightsey Darst's series The Works at Bryant Lake Bowl, again with the fabulous Chris Koza. (He's got four albums coming out at once, under a new identity—Rogue Valley—and I'll be performing at his big party at the Fitzgerald on April 10. Listen here.) This time, we added singer-songwriters Mary Everest and Brian Laidlaw to our crew. Most important lessons: Unlike poetry, pop songs need to be clearly understood immediately. And you can't sing consonants.
My creative partners over at Electric Arc Productions (including the fabulous Geoff Herbach, Dave Salmela, and Jenny Adams) have launched a three-show run at the Ritz Theater of an afternoon variety show. It's called PowderKeg Live! and yes, Virginia, there is free childcare. Best part? Writing songs for John Munson (Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic, The New Standards, Twilight Hours). In our band, the PowderKeg Men's Glee Club, Munson is the bad boy. (Not so in real life.) In our next show, April 3, John will relay his parking ticket tale of woe as part of the larger theme: REDEMPTION. PowderKeg Live! is the evolution of a previous project called The Second Half. It's all part of a continuous effort to make intellectually interesting, and commercial, work for grownups and families.
I gave a small talk to fellow writers and poets recently at the Bryant Lake Bowl as part of Lightsey Darst’s fab writer’s salon, The Works. I did it with a creative collaborator of mine, the fab singer-songwriter Chris Koza.
Here’s what we did: A few days prior we wrote a song together based on some characters in my novel-in-progress. We used our talk time at The Works to talk about the process of writing a song based on a novel’s characters, how two artists in different disciplines can help each other, and, of course, the beauty of Bruce Willis’s Seagram’s Wine Cooler commercials.
Then, Chris performed the song we wrote. And wow. It was awesome. If you can’t play a guitar and sing, the next best thing is writing for someone who really really can.
Can’t wait to work with Mr. Koza again in any possible way. How lucky I am to know such a beautiful dude. Mwah to you, Koza. Mwah. Mwah. Mwah.
Former Lit6er and Electric Arc Radio-er Geoff Herbach and I have begun to lay the groundwork for our new movement and show, The Second Half. It's for adults only—and we don't mean it's porn. We mean that it is for those of us who, as Carl Jung described, are past the coming-of-age point and have entered the second half of our lives.
American culture isn't particularly interested in this stage of our lives. We think that's crap and we're out to change it.
We hope you'll join us with it sometime soon (if you you're old enough). I'll keep you posted.
When I see something I like in musical theater, I try to write about it. The dudes over at the Power Balladz show are really on to something, and I'm not just saying that because I know all the words, having been raised in rural America in the 80s and early 90s.
My interview with star Dieter Bierbrauer for the Decider (the regional A&E web presence of The Onion) includes our talk of the operatic stylings of Meat Loaf, the genius of Steve Perry, and the difficulties of wearing skin-tight unitard pants.
Creative partners Geoff Herbach, Andy Sturdevant, Dave Salmela, and I wrote Don't Crush Our Heart!together in the fall of 2008. (As with other projects, Jenny Adams, Kurt Froehlich, Sam Osterhout, and Brady Bergeson rounded out the talent.)
Based on Sturdevant's popular Armitage Heights Clarion blog, the musical centers on the naive-but-talented local twee-pop duo Moon Island (hear a little here), made up of innocents Jessica and Joshua Moon. Popular in their hometown, they catch the eye of city alderman Sherman Larson through his superfan administrative assistant Marisha. Alderman Sherman sees expensive coffee shops, I-pod billboards, and true urban renewal in Moon Island's popularity. But when the band declares intent to move to Brooklyn (yup, Williamsburg), Alderman Sherman fears for his town's future… and he files a legal injunction to keep Moon Island put.
It's a pop musical-slash-courtroom farce with a full score and eight principal characters, and my first creative endeavor post-Electric Arc Radio Show. In revisions now, I'll let you know when it's up for viewing next, unless you're a producer interested in such a project, or other musical theater projects, then by all means email me.
In the meantime, here's Mike Peiken from 3-Minute Egg talking to Andy Sturdevant and I about the first production, and EARS in general. (We did four productions of this musical total. Two were self-produced, two were in conjunction with the Nautilus Music Theater Rough Cuts series.)
