Wow, July is HOT!!! Tons of Music and Arts...

Don't know where to begin...

Star City FAME has been out on some fun shoots this month of July, so far. Coming off a couple great live shows last month, we've had the opportunity and pleasure to catch Roanoke Revolution's first-ever "Underground Melodies Music and Art Festival" on July 10th, right after a week up North in Woodstock, NY, where the temperatures were above 100 every day. We got to shoot some more footage of Denise Jordan Finley and Daniel Pagdon for an on-going musical documentary. We hurried back to catch the day and night-long festival in Boones Mill, VA.

That weekend, we caught the Star City Roller Girls' double-header, taping some really great action of their rookies in a game they called "Fresh Meat Bout."

On the 16th, Star City FAME headed over to WVTF to shoot the station's "Juried Art Show." There were musical guests, catering by Center Stage, and of course, ART!!!

And just the other day, we grabbed footage of Milan Tobacconists' cigar event featuring world-renowned master cigar maker and blender Don José 'Pepín' Garcia. Right after that, just a couple blocks away, was the Starbomb Bicycle Superheroes bike event, meeting at Sharebike, taking cyclers on one of the wildest rides two (or three) wheelers could ever hope to make!! These bikers were truly super-heroes (the event's theme for the bike race down Mill Mountain, and for its parade through Downtown).

Yes, we're working on the videos. A few are already uploaded. But we are currently upgrading our hardware, so this weekend's editing is delayed a little. Our new system will be a dedicated new editing machine. Now if only we could get a dedicated new editor who needs nothing but coffee to run on...

Don't forget, there are still plenty of groovy events going on out there in the old 'Noke. Tonight, catch the Roanoke Hard Rock Festival (going on til 11pm), and if you're already downtown, the Square Society is still crawling the pubs in their Summertime Cocktail Crawl today until 9pm.

See you around, Downtown!!

("Summer" graphic courtesy livingstonps.schoolwires.com)

It’s CBGB’s! It’s Max’s! No, it’s The Bazaar Consignment Shop!!

Jamie Booker opened a shop last year after managing Plan 9, the cool vintage record store on Grandin Road which closed in an otherwise cool-supporting neighborhood. Jamie must be a die-hard vintage music fan to want another go at carrying vinyl. But with the addition of hip resale clothing and distributing local artists’ original creations, her Bazaar Consignments shop has the authentic feel of bohemia in a store that at one time was a rather hi-end electronics retailer for the finessed audiophile.

Just across the street from Tower’s Mall on Brandon Avenue, Bazaar Consignments passes under the radar, offset to a high-traffic, four-lane road in a strip-mall world. This ain’t Bleecker Street. At least, not until you go inside.

Last Saturday was the first time I made a trip to “The Bazaar,” as it’s called informally. What took me so long? With the barrage of Facebook Events posted on my News Feed (and in my Messages Inbox), so many things go overlooked until I have time to catch up. Luckily, some of my artist and musician friends will throw me a heads-up now and then… and that’s how I finally caught onto this fabulous place.

The occasion for my virgin trip to The Bazaar was to see three original music acts perform. Thinking at first that this gig was at a typical watering hole – a Bar and Grill venue – I was delighted to find it anything but that! It felt like I took a trip back into the 70’s and entered a Greenwich Village hang-out, with musicians gathered around inside and out, absorbing each other’s creativity, and encouraging fans to get up-front and personal during performances. Even the owner added coolness to the laid-back atmosphere, cheerfully trading conversation about Roanoke’s original music scene. The night air outdoors was full of giggles. The sights and sounds inside were colorfully pulsing at The Bazaar.

First up was a young rap/ hip-hop artist named CBZL, a/k/a Cody Beasly. He brought grooves and moves so fine, he seemed like he’d been doing it for longer than he’s been alive. This guy’s a pro. And he mixed it up with the audience, dancing and singing himself into the crowd.

From Charlottesville came a very somber, spatiotemporal group called Manorlady. A four-piece electric band, they filled every inch of air with layers of thick, serious harmonic tones and unrushed melodies. Vocals became instruments, and instruments became vocals, swirling about like waves of fireflies floating out of a lava lamp. Awesome group.

Last up were our local heroes, the “Ultimate Party Experience” of Nancy and Two Meteors. These cats play a spacey, pop-and-groove-driven concoction of tunes locked against a bevy of beats that they create. Hectic in places, chunky and grinding in others, with a ballad sneaked in here and there, they cleverly change up the tempos between songs. Their unordinary style at times is reminiscent of strange (but fun) Bowie songs from the Ziggy Stardust era. I keep thinking, shouldn’t “Moonage Daydream” be a Nancy song?? There is a rock-star quality about them that makes kids come back singing the lyrics in true anthem fashion during Nancy gigs. Check ‘em out!

Watch for new CD’s released by these artists soon. The Bazaar will be carrying them for sale... See you around Downtown!!

                    Jamie Booker
                         CBZL                            Manorlady                           Nancy and Two Meteors

A Weekend of Original Art and Music in Downtown Roanoke

What a great weekend for the Arts in Downtown and around the Noke. Friday saw a new thing happen on the streets of Downtown called "Just Around the Corner." It featured live music acts playing outside and entertaining passersby. On Saturday and Sunday, The Taubman Museum of Art hosted its 52nd annual Sidewalk Art Show. And in the evening, on both weekend nights, local and regional music artists joined together at two hot spots, The Bazaar and Happy's, to rock out.

Here are some photos taken at the Art Show. We'll come back and do a story on the gigs at The Bazaar and Happy's. See ya soon!

1st Street Looking at the Market Building

1st Street

1st Street by Norfolk Ave

Taubman Museum in the background

Visitors on Market Street

Artist at her stall

2nd Prize Winner Kurt Kindermann of Bedford

Downtown Cat, "Tom"

Downtown Cat, "Dickie"

Dinner with Happy Healthy Cooks

The invitation read, “As a way to give back, our students would like to make dinner for our supporters! The Happy Healthy Cooks at Grandin Court elementary school are excited to prepare and serve a meal to our greatest supporters...”

This past Wednesday, June 2nd, at the “venue” of Christ Lutheran Church at Grandin and Brandon, the atmosphere was like coming to a school recital. Excitable kids with proud parents and their friends awaited the “performance” soon to be presented. What was this all about?

If you’re a first-grader at Grandin Elementary School, you know all about this. There’s a wildly popular and very welcome new program put together recently by one of the parents, Heather Quintana, called Happy Healthy Cooks. She and a friend brought HHC to Grandin Elementary School last fall after realizing that the school lunch program offered at city schools left much to be desired. Donuts, Pop Tarts, Jelly on Biscuits… Children need something nutritious to help them grow physically and mentally. This menu, the two decided, just won’t do.

And so with 15 other volunteers, including some parents, Happy Healthy Cooks visit the first grade classrooms once a week to introduce children to healthy food choices in a way that would appeal to kids… they’re encouraged to assist in preparing the very meals they’ll be eating for lunch.

The program began last fall of 2009. Heather hopes to take the initiative further into the school system. (Maybe if we’re all lucky, this can go nationwide.) Already HHC has gotten great press in Roanoke, including a continuing guest spot with the daytime talk show, Our Blue Ridge, on WSLS-TV.

But nothing made the class and their fearless leader more proud than the dinner that was given by the children last Wednesday to HHC’s biggest fans (the parents) and supporters.

“Three classes of first-graders, about 60 kids, showed up after school around 4:30PM to prepare the food for tonight’s meals,” said one parent, Dawn Stein. “It was a lot of work.” Dawn has a step son in the class, and she’s a volunteer with Happy Healthy Cooks. She was also one of the ten volunteers who came that night to help serve the meals.

Another parent, who sat across from me at one table, told me that each child was asked to bring one parent. “They got to choose which parent,” she explained.

What was really nice was that many of those parents were Dads who came to have a meal prepared by their own kids, and to show their support for HHC.

The dinner began at 6PM, with Heather introducing some slideshows and talking a little about the program, seeming very obviously excited and happy to have made this initial progress towards a worthy goal. Our fun and tasty celebration meal consisted of Caribbean Red Beans and Rice, Three Sisters Casserole, a vegetable salad, and an eye-catching, colorful shish kebob of cubed fruit pieces. Everyone received a program to take home with the recipes of the evening included.

Many congrats to Heather and all her volunteers! Thanks for a great dinner and for bringing this much-needed program to the school kids. Star City Fame wishes HHC wider success. Long Live Happy Healthy Cooks!

Video Production Resources - Best Ways to Keep Learning

Never stop learning, no matter what industry you're in. That's a given. Otherwise, you'll get old and stale really fast. Can't rest on your laurels, especially when it comes to technology. And just about everything nowadays has something to do with technology, whether you like it or not... but more importantly, whether you think so or not.

When it comes to video production, you're already dealing with a tech curve that is unavoidable. Digital video from A to Z requires you to know so many functions, knobs, switches, additional gear needs, software, file types, and even how natural things like the location of the sun or what someone's clothing is going to look like on footage to avoid post-production nightmares.

Luckily, there are people out there in cyberland who have made plenty of mistakes (and successes) for you to learn from. Or to share in their experience. One thing for sure, you can't be afraid of making these mistakes. It's the road to learning. If nothing else, it has forced me to find the best online information avenues to hook up with. And now I will share those with you.

Top spot on my list is Creative Cow, a magazine for media production professionals. When you go to their website, you'll see these categories listed: Forums, Tutorials, Magazine (their regular published articles), Training, Videos-Reels, Podcasts, Events, Services, Newsletter, News, Blogs. For the video professional or amateur/ enthusiast, this website is like being in a huge candy store, think tank, university, and geek heaven all in one place. The Forums section alone makes this site one of the best resources in the video production industry. You basically have every piece of pro gear and software topics listed, plus a variety of creative and marketing sections to peruse. Members range from broadcast company experts to independent videographers and editors, to filmmakers, to newbies of all disciplines dealing with multi-media and the industry.

Another great set of tools online to use is your manufacturers' websites - and in many cases, the makers of video gear and software apps offer forums and tutorials specifically aimed at helping their own community of customers. You'll see extensive information to gain knowledge from by the makers of Abobe, Final Cut Pro, Avid, Grass Valley and Sony Vegas, just to mention the biggest video editing software creators. (As an aside, Final Cut Pro's website is the least helpful to its user community, as typical of Apple/Mac products.)

Then there's Media College, which has free resources for film and digital media production, including user manuals, industry news, and also a forum. Other great forums to belong to are VideoMaker, DVInfo, and DVXUser. Tons of industry-related info can be found on Pro Cinematography's website.

Don't forget the easily-searched resources on places like YouTube and eHow. Sometimes, you can find exactly what you want through these UGC (User-Generated Content) video sites. These can be a pain if you're not specific in your search terms. But watching video tutorials is nice when you're too tired to read or if in a hurry for quick, easy answers. Just be aware that quick and easy is not always the best answer.

I will throw in these last couple links for good measure - especially for those who would like to find out more about learning on their own, how to go about it, and how to apply a little motivation to get off their butt, get creative, and get going with projects. One is a blog called Abundance Blog (not at all a kooky or salespitchy blog). The other is a book called Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar: How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success by James Marcus Bach, son of Richard Bach, the author who wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull.


Have a great day - and keep learning!!