Hello. I’m actually very good at keeping up on other blogs I maintain. It’s just this one I can’t seem to update. Oh and pardon the post title - StrangeLove has been running through my head all day.

So what’s going on?

Work:
I’m in the thick of producing a web-tv show - it’s a small operation, but I’m truly enjoying the work right now. We’re getting good bit of traffic on youtube, and the aforementioned blog. It is busy, the studio also has outside clients, so on any given day I’m working on everything from web and video production for nude women to high fashion women’s shoes.

On the art side recently interviewed a fine art photographer friend, Sid Ceaser, for a post and just today I was shooting interviews at a Gallery in SoHo. I still haven’t seen much of the city, but that’s ok right now.

Play:
To address my insatiable need to play something with keys I recently picked up a Yamaha Cs1x synth on the cheap. There are some great sounds in it, but it could be a little bit before I can use them the way I’d like. I’m still learning how to program it. I’m also digging the tactile knobs. It gives the board a great analog feel.

Here’s a quick snapshot - as you can see, I was in a hurry to try it out. [For those wondering, that's an M-audio FastTrack Pro in the background]

With this purchase, I’ve given up on buying a Yamaha DX7. Though the DX7 is a great synth, it is heavy, and notoriously difficult to program. Instead I picked up FM8, a full featured software synthesizer, that supposedly does a good job of emulating the DX7. We’ll see - up until I’ve been mostly using Reason as my primary software synth.

When I do sit down to compose, I find myself creating landscapes that sound like they belong in an episode of The X-Files. Coincidentally, I’ve been watching quite a bit of X-Files lately. Maybe I’ll gush about Mark Snow in a different post…

Somewhere in between:
My screen writing endeavor is ongoing. It is slow, but I hope to have a completed draft before January. I’m encouraged by the responses that I’ve received from people so far. When I described the opening shots of the film, one friend said it was “brilliant.” I believe she was drunk and well meaning! I don’t think this is “brilliant” material - at least not yet. I suppose at some point I should register my work with the Writers Guild.

Other projects are not faring so well. One of the casualties of moving to New York is a podcast I’d been producing since 2006.  It was my first foray into podcasting and focused on Japanese Culture, specifically anime and manga. I’m still very much interested in those things - but I just don’t have the time to work on something I essentially started as a lark. I’ve learned lots of great lessons on producing serial audio though.

Perhaps you’ve gathered by now that I’m a bit scattered when it comes to my creative endeavors. At any given moment, I have countless meandering blips and segments floating and fluttering around in my mind. All waiting to be plucked and whacked into clarity. In that serendipitous moment, when I do catch an idea and bring it into focus, I feel I cannot let the idea die. I must do it justice.

Last week, I was walking in a park on Long Island at dusk, watching the planes take off from JFK. The sun gently reflected on the water, and as I turned to walk further down the path, a song came on my iPod. It was a song I’d heard many times before, I knew all the words. At that moment, for whatever reason, from the depths of my head emerged a three-pronged story rich with intrigue and introspection. The levees of my mind broke as fully fleshed characters, locations, dialog, conflicts, and even camera location began spilling over. Not wanting to lose the moment, I looped the song, and immediately jogged back to my place to begin writing everything out. I was astounded how clearly everything had unfolded from nowhere.

I’ve never given much thought to screen writing in the traditional sense - I’ve always been more focused on the actual production and post-production processes.  I have storyboarded and scripted short commercials, music videos and the like, but nothing to the scale of a screenplay. I am looking at this as a personal exercise in discipline, and who knows maybe see if I have what it takes to put out a salable screenplay.

However, work at the studio this month is shaping up to be very busy, and there never seems to be enough time to do everything. But the balancing act is half the fun right?