Chicago Underground Comedy Sept. 29, 2008

I wrote new music for this new highlight reel! And I used some new editing tricks, including using photos at the end. ENJOY.

Featuring host Allison Leber, Nick Morgan, Bryan Bowden, Peter Kremidas, Mike Stanley, and Jeff Hansen.

Chicago Underground Comedy, produced by Dan Telfer and Elizabeth McQuern. Tuesdays at 9:30 at the Beat Kitchen. Video, music, editing, and photography by ME.

Beth Stelling at Chicago Underground Comedy Sept. 23, 2008

Beth Stelling charms the crowd at Chicago Underground Comedy on September 23, 2008. Beth co-produces Entertaining Julia Sunday nights at Town Hall Pub. Video, music, and editing by moi.

Ken Barnard's Set From Blewtenanny #1

Blewtenanny clip #2! I stupidly deleted the music from the first clip so I had to quickly come up with something new. Since I sort of owe Ken a nice clip (his last ChUC set was good but not good footage to edit) I included an extra special lion's ROAR in the beginning music clip.

Ken utterly kicked ass in this show, and brought the night to a screaming, rousing finale.

Bryan Bowden Hosts Blewt!'s "Blewtenanny" Stand Up Showcase

Oh yeah (I always forget to mention when I post my own videos), I shot, edited, and wrote the music for this clip. I need more practice with the tripod, and the camera in general, but the editing is pretty decent.

Bryan wanted some more stand up fun in his life and his Blewt friends gave him the go-ahead for a montly showcase. The first one went smashingly well, and I'm sure it will only get better. I'll post more clips as I edit them.

"Things Aren't What They Seemed" by Elizabeth McQuern

Click to listen:

Sometimes when I can't sleep, I make music to soothe myself. I have a lot of big, overwhelming things on my mind right now, and last night I grabbed my Mac and zoned out for awhile.

I pulled bits from a conversation Bryan and I had about music the day before and put it together in a loose but more complex structure than I've never attempted. I have no idea what sort of classification it would fall under: outsider music? Found music? Weird crap? I had actually forgotten that I'd made this until I opened up iTunes just now and found it at the top of my playlist.

I don't know what's up with me and music lately, except that I can't stop thinking about it and composing it, and I think all of these creative expressions are going to come together in one big project very soon. I'm at the muse's whim right now, and she knows it.

"Unix Based Mallet" - the Video

I prefer to yield my creativity like a blunt instrument. What's better than a horrible one-minute song? A horrible one-minute video, of course! (Based on the CD cover meme, brought to you by Fuzzy Gerdes.) You're welcome.

More Terrible Music!!

Bryan and I were goofing around online last night. Our friend Fuzzy Gerdes blogged about a game in which random Wiki and Flickr entries determine the name of your band, and the title of your album, and that album's cover image.

We decided to play, too, and take it one step further...read more about it and listen to the song over on the Nerds blog. WOO!

"Your Sunday Best" at Schubas Last Night

Highlights from this week's "Your Sunday Best," stand-up showcase (filmed and edited by me), featuring Prescott Tolk, Dan Telfer, Victor Marinier, Kristin Carney, Michael Palascak, and C.J. Sullivan:

The Off The Street Club Thanksgiving Dinner

Here's a two minute video I did for work. I guess this constitutes one of my first professional filmmaking projects.

The Off The Street Club Thanksgiving Dinner was on November 23, 2007. I let the kids run around with my camera and take footage and pictures, and then I put this together. The evening was as fun as it looks -- having dinner and hanging out with the kids. The Boy and Girl of the Year Awards were also given out that night, and each winner was adorable in their own way.

From the Club's website:

"The Off the Street Club is Chicago's oldest club for boys and girls, serving the children of the city's most dangerous neighborhood, the West Side. Since its inception in 1900, the Club has been supported mainly by the generous members of Chicago's advertising community. With no government funding, the Club relies on the willing spirits, able bodies, and inspiring generosity of people who know that it is a short trip from poverty to prosperity if children are reached at an early age."

Not Kidding Around Anymore

I don't know what's gotten into me all of the sudden -- fruitful conversations with new friends? Tackling terrifying new challenges and walking away unscathed (see theater-related posts here and here)? Inspired by the example of other brave friends? -- but I'm in this very "I can do anything and I'm going to go for what I want, and if the first try doesn't work, then next one will" mode.

So here I come, get out of my way.

I was banging my head all day yesterday...and last night...and this morning, teaching myself all the stuff I needed to know in order to produce the film of Prescott's Improv set. Lots of phone calls to Canon technical support. Lots of phone calls to Apple tech support. Lots of being caught in the Nerd's Bermuda Triangle of Radio Shack, Best Buy, and coffee places. Lots of trial and lots of errors, but I figured out everything I needed to know.

The final cut of Prescott's set is too long to post online at the moment but here's a sample clip I put together, because in the middle of all of this technical dickery I realized I could and should be doing this sort of thing for other people as well. Want a nicely shot and edited clip of yourself doing a killer set? I can probably help you out there.

And this clip is just the first try at this sort of thing. I'd never used the tripod before, and I know I'll get smoother with it, and get snappier with the editing, and learn to get better sound, and write better music, too.

I repeat: here I come, get out of my way.

(Oh, and check it: "Bella Rossa Productions.")

It's Coming...Are You Ready?

Okay, I don't know quite how to explain this video, which is unlike anything I've done before. It's based on some dreams I've had recently (I know, my dreams...) about airplanes and time travel. Yes, I'm a sci-fi nerd and kind of a weirdo. I'm also an airline kid (my dad and several other family members were pilots) and I'm under a lot of stress, and flight patterns have always flickered through my subconscious at night. I also realized a few weeks ago that flights from the north and south take a westerly turn across the lake right by my neighborhood all night, and there's a blinking white highway of incoming airplanes over my building all night long. (You can see airplanes soaring over buildings at the end of the video...I know, I have a crappy camera.)

A strange poem and some music were flitting around my head last night as I tried to sleep. It seems like no matter how busy my brain is during the day, and how hard I try to stomp down reflective thoughts about The Big Picture and What Life's All About, they are running through the universe that is my mind all night, with a groovy little music soundtrack. Anyway, it's less than two minutes long, so if you're already here, give it a look and lemme know what you think.

Wisconsin Weekend

I am such a hopeless Macmonkey. Sloan and other family and I crashed at our friends Tim and Sally's awesome farmhouse in Wisconsin over the weekend. They're honeymooning in Japan at the moment. I've been home for ten minutes and I'm already uploading a two minute video to YouTube.

I don't have a real video camera so I just used the camera on my MacBook, very carefully walking it around the house and barns. I'm such a dork that I wrote the music for this and edited it on the way home in the car.

It's not perfect. Some of the titles overlap and I put the soft focus filter on after the titles, so they're fuzzy and too light in places, but I don't feel like taking four hours to re-edit. And I wish I had a bridge in the song but I still like it. I could write music for hours.

Halloween Post #4

I'm beat. Work is going great.

Last night's Halloween show at Chicago Underground Comedy was AWESOME. And, Vocalo, the new offshoot of Chicago Public Radio, wants me to contribute content. Here's what I've done so far. It's a six minute audio clip about last night's show. It includes stage performances, interviews, that darned catchy jingle I wrote for ChUC, and it's a lot of fun. ChUC is taking over the radio, one joke at a time!

Click here to listen.

Liveblogging From Work (Again)

...this time from a different coffee shop.

If you think this post is waste of your time, imagine how my various editors feel.