Photography Songwriting Drumming Skateboarding
Stefani Nurding BBC Sport Skate Like A Girl: How to be yourself in a sport dominated by men
I think the first picture is one of mine. In this interview Stefani talks about being herself in a male dominated sport and culture.
This image was created on the Day Carrie Fisher best known as Princess Leia from Star Wars died. I found myself with a little extra time this day and so I contacted a few skaters to see if any were interested in making a skateboarding picture. Once I learned of Carrie Fisher’s death I send a second communication to the skaters asking them to bring something Star Wars related to the shoot (if they cared to). Julz ended up being the last photograph of the day and when she showed up to the skatepark I was amazed at how much she had done. Now I must interject that I was amazed at how much thought and time Julz put into her Star Wars concept but I was not surprised, because Julz gives 200% to everything she is called to do.
If you have not seen Rouge One read no further. I have a few thoughts after seeing Rouge One last night with my family. I was amazed at the Forest Gump components of the film. When I began tinkering with 3d animation back in very late 1980’s I wondered if films would someday be made without any physical actors? Rouge One was yet another Star Wars film that used CGI characters. Where I was a little disappointed was with the fact that the quality of the cgi didn’t seem to improve much since the day of Forest Gump. The characters looked sort of low rez and like Forest Gump didn’t seem to be looking directly into the eyes of the other live characters they were sharing the scene with.
The other thing that bothered me about Rouge One was that it was the least Star Wars feeling film I have seen to date. It instead looked and had the rythm of any other film i might see in 2016. Star Wars used to have a a very special unique feel about it. It is possible I feel this way because just saw The Force Awakens a year ago?
Would I watch Rouge One again and recommend it to friends? The answer is yes. Although it seemed to lack some of that Star Wars mojo, it had enough to keep me intersted. And it had my kids asking about episode 4, so it even ignited some interest in the movie that started it all way back when.
On the day of Carrie Fishers death I asked Julz Lynn to help me pay tribute to her , Julz exceeded my expectations. And little did we know her mother would pass the next day.
“take your broken heart, make it into art” Carrie Fischer
Christmas Land by Shoot The Moon. In the first place, I was at a point in my life where the feeling one gets from the Christmas Season began to fade. For the purpose of, remembering a good holiday season I decided to write a set of Christmas songs. Equally important, I asked my friend and bandmate Joey Grijalva to join me. Ultimately, we called our Christmas Album Moon Christmas.
Furthermore, the working title for this song was Christmas Land, looking back I probably should have called it Christmas Show. As a matter of fact, my original intent when writing this song was to make a story about remembering and hanging on to the good parts of Christmas. Furthermore, to sort of go back to that person you were when you really loved the Christmas holiday
As far as I remember, I composed this in Studio Visions (one of the early DAW’s). I remember mapping out the song with keyboards. And asking Joey and John to play along to the recording. In fact, they are amazing musicians because many of these tracks did not have click tracks. The wonderful backing vocals are Julie Van Duren.
Cover photo was made by Dave Sparks. Cassette sleeve created in Pagemaker. And we had this album pressed at Rainbow Records.
Christmas Land by Shoot The Moon was recorded in my (home studio) garage, on an Akai MG1214 aka Akai 12 track (the same unit used to record the U2 album Rattle and Hum). Additionally, used an old Studiomaster mixing board (I bought off Chad Wackerman or John Wackerman), Studio Visions DAW, Quadra 650, assorted 421, 414, sony, and Shure mics, Alesis compressors, timecode machine, assorted keyboards, Yamaha spx90.
When I studied with Murray he was in his late 80’s. I was his last student of the day on fridays so it was my job to drive him to Farmers Market get some corned beef and cabbage then go to his apartment and dine with him. During our meals together we would talk about all the famous drummers he had taught, he talked about their skill levels temperament etc. Since I had a personal interest in sound engineering I would pick his brain about his audio career. Murray would talk about which mic Julie Andrews or Barbra Streisand preferred. How he balanced all the rounds in the parade scene of Hello Dolly. I even have some recoardings he made for me from his personal reel to reel of the board mixes from West Side Story. His apartment even had some Hollywood history. It contain his academy award from the original King Kong. And was party central for the likes of actors such as Fred Aster as well as the heads of the major studios.
When I play the drums my teachers influence “sound” out of my hands and feet. Greg Perry, Kenny Peters, Roy Burns, Roy Mcurdy, Rick Latham, Chad Wackerman, Murray Spivack, and Chuck Flores. Im so sad to hear that drummer Chuck Flores passed away yesterday. I studied drumset coordination with Chuck Flores back in the 1990’s at his house. His studies made a huge difference in my overall coordination on the drum set. And he was a really decent and generous person.