Thursday, May 22, 2008

South Pacific at OCP

Let me just start by saying I don’t like musicals… as a rule. Okay, now that we have that covered, I found myself once again at the Omaha Community Playhouse to see the pre-opening night showing of the Rogers & Hammerstein production of South Pacific. And yeah, it was fantastic. I’m still not a fan of musicals, but everything about this production was wonderful. It was a real treat to see my buddy Judy Radcliff playing Bloody Mary in one of the best stage performances I’ve ever seen. The rest of the cast was terrific as well and the stage setups, sound, orchestra, etc. were all top notch as usual.

The Omaha Community Playhouse is such a treasure and it’s in my neighborhood so I vow to continue to attend as often as possible. Now, if I could just get these songs out of my head, maybe I could get some sleep.

http://www.omahaplayhouse.com/

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Angel Food – day 1

After going to bed after 2:00am, the last thing you want to do is get up at 5:30am on a Saturday, but such is the life of a filmmaker with insomnia. So I’m working on a new project which will end up being a couple of industrials for Angel Food Ministries. It’s a great organization and has seen tremendous growth nationally so It’s great to be involved in their new media outreach.

The pieces we’ll be making will be informational and training videos so today I arrived at Trinity Church, the Omaha “drop center” and filmed the whole process of the semi arriving, the food being unloaded and broken down, then assembled in the gym for distribution. After everything was set up, the doors were open and people from the community came in with their coolers, boxes, laundry baskets, etc. to pick up the food that they had ordered. After being there for over 4 hours, I could tell that it is extremely well run and that the impact on the community is a very positive one so I’m excited to be a part of it.

More to come as more happens.

www.angelfoodministries.com

Brad Hoshaw – Live at the Waiting Room 5/7

In case you’re wondering, Brad Hoshaw is one of the coolest cats I know. As most of you here in Omaha SHOULD know, he’s a singer/songwriter that’s been more recently known for his solo acoustic stuff. I’ve known him for over 8 years and back in the day I knew him as a band-guy, but with fickle musicians and everyone being so busy all the time, I’m sure it’s difficult to maintain band status without hitting the big time, so I think he’s resigned himself to relying on solely himself to get an opportunity play his music in front of people.

So when he was given the opportunity to perform as an opener for American Music Club, he started putting the feelers out to see if he could put together a band. And put together a band he did. He ended up pulling some of the hottest local musicians together from all walks of musical life and blended them perfectly with the songs that we’re used to hearing him play solo. A 33 minute set on a Wednesday evening in downtown Benson and it was shear magic.

So how does King Penguin Productions fit into all this? Well, late that afternoon Brad called and reminded me about the show, then casually mentioned that it would be great to bring a couple of cameras down and video tape the whole affair. Sadly with only a few hours of time to prepare, I was only able to get one camera so the whole this is very static, but it was great to have the opportunity to capture the evening.

Here’s the band: Jason Ferguson – Mandolin, Scott Gaeta – Drums, Matt Whipkey - El Guitar/Harmonica, Brad Hoshaw - Ac Guitar/Vocals, Liz Webb - Backgd Vocals, Adam Hawkins - Backgd Vocals, Craig Balderston - Upright Bass, Karl Houfek – Keys, John Klemmensen – Trumpet

http://www.myspace.com/bradhoshaw

Sunday, May 04, 2008

OFF'09 coming soon (well, in like 9 months)

Planning is well underway for OFF'09. We had three fantastic meetings on Saturday and there are so many exciting things in the works. Stay tuned as details become available.

Our call for entries will be up soon.
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