Karma Police*

I just found this video that I made in 2009 or something.

Karma Police (Radiohead cover) - Performed by "The Garden Abides" in Neuquen, Argentina, 2009.

So this is from when I was in a Rock Band in Argentina.



Bells/Birds footage taken in France in 2000?  I think. Can't remember when I shot that.

Alan Menkin's Christmas Carol*

I kind of fell in love with Christmas Carol after a long moratorium... Alan Menkin can put the adorable into anything.  

I recorded this a month or so ago for a friend who's putting up the show this coming weekend.  She wanted the instrumental tracks for the show, so I recorded the piano tracks.  280 pages of music took me about 60 hours.  Am professional musician?  Can haz cheezburger?

I am a God!

Even though I was sick as a dog, I started recording the voices (basically so I knew where I was on the track as I was editing it) but ended up doing harmonies and everything, just for funzies.  And my mic decided to break halfway through, so the recording quality is not great.  

The player below decided to put the songs into whatever order it felt like.  Here's the list chronologically:



No.4 (Pt.1&3) - Nothing To Do With Me

No.4 (Pt.2) - You Mean More to Me

No.4 (Pt.5.5) Grace Smythe - "Let the Stars"

No.4 (Pt.6) - Damn this Silly Season

No.7 - The Lights of Long Ago

No.8 - Fezziwig's Annual Xmas Ball

My voice is the worst in this one...  My fav. is the line that is "Where do Vicars make a holy noise," and it sounds like "rapists..."

No.9 - A Place Called Home

Fun harmonizing in this one.  :)

No.12 - Christmas Together

This one took FOREVER to record.

No.15 - Yesterday, Tomorrow, & Today

Dang - my voice goes really low in this one.  Singing starts at 1m07.

Menkin, Dickens... you're both BAMFs.  I have learned to love this story because of Menkin's delightful melodies.  And I think Dickens appreciates with age.  (My age.) I HATED "Great Expectations" and always hated "Chrismas Carol,"until a bit of revisiting thanks to my good buddy Alan Menkin.  Still hate Great Expectations.  Menkin, I dare you. <3 <3 <3

Rapunzel

So for my second attempt at doing a theater-production score for Actor's Theater for Children (ATFC), I did Rapunzel.

And yes...I was cast as Prince Charming.

So I really struggled with how to go about composing for Rapunzel. In a lot of ways, composing for "Alice in Wonderland" was easier, because I just had to make everything sound like it made no sense and was mentally challenged, but for Rapunzel, it had to have a Disney-fairy-tale-like aspect to it. ALL the sound-effects, etc. are from my keyboard.

So here are some of the highlights from the show...  Look for the ** to find my ultimate favorites.

Here's the intro song:
**
Not extraordinarily unique or anything, but kinda pretty.

Here's underscoring to when the witch is casting a failed spell:


Here's when the witch is binding the dad to his promise:
**

Here's the sound of Rapunzel's hair comes down the tower:


Here's underscoring to when the witch is putting ingredients into her cauldron:
**
This is one of my favorites.

This is the dorky, awkward waltz music that is supposed to be lame, and is:


Here's the fun fight scene where they're sword fighting with a rolling pin and a wooden spoon:
**
Three guesses as to the original song I stole everything but the melody directly from... using only my keyboard and my keen wit.

(It's true, I'm a hot man.)

Here's a spell breaking sound:


And here's the closing music.

Pretty much directly and embarrassingly gakked from... THIS
Yep... Gwen Stefani.  *blush*