2012 more fun and games (and penguins)
Hello everyone and welcome
I hope all is well with you and yours.
Here’s a brief description of some of the stuff I’ve been up to:
2011 saw me continuing my super-productive collaboration with Studiocat Sound and Music (Jamie Shields and Adam White).
Together we scored a massive number of film/tv projects, including:
-a hilarious and beautifully put together feature comedy called ,“La Sacree”(director, Dominic Desjardins). It tells the story of a con-artist returning to the small franco-ontarian village of his youth, where he finds redemption and beer.
-a fabulously fun feature doc about the history of one of my favorite music genres; “The Secret Disco Revolution” (director, Jamie Kastner). Imagine the glee with which we tackled the challenges and thrills of recreating KC and the Sunshine Band!
-a magnificent and bittersweet exploration of the underground poker scene, “Grinders” (director, Matt Gallagher). It represents documentary filmmaking at its’ best; it’s funny, revealing, personal and full of scenic shots of Las Vegas!
-a doc about the refurbishing of Toronto’s fabled Brickworks, “Brick by Brick”, (director, Catherine Annau). It was great to help chronicle the creation of this internationally respected paragon of environmentally sustainable urban renewal
-another funny and suspenseful season of the world-wide hit show, “Cupcake Girls”
-a season of CBC’s much-loved inspirational series, “Village on a Diet”
On the shameless “yay me” front, I managed to receive my 4th Gemini nomination (with Jamie and Adam) for our work on “Village on a Diet”.
I actually managed to sneak in some singing work between all of the above.
I had the good fortune of travelling a bit with my old friend Peter Kiesewalther; genius, father and bon vivant. He leads an immensely entertaining band called Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestra. I was subbing in for his first-choice male singer, who was busy touring with Hall and Oates (oh the envy!!). Anyway, the band has a fantastic record available on Itunes, “The Hills Are Alive”, a re-imagining of “The Sound of Music”, through a crazed, but expertly rendered post-modern lens. I sang a couple songs on the album, (the ones that required heavy metal screaming, of course). Check it out, if you dare:
In November of 2011, David Buchbinder, (my great friend and musical ally) and I put on a really big show, “Tumbling Into Light”. It was presented for 4 nights at the Enwave Theatre in downtown Toronto. Much dancing, singing, playing and general cavorting ensued. It was a blast to work with Andrea Nann, dancer/choreographer-extraordinaire! Here’s a video (directed by the magnificent Bruce McDonald) of one of the big numbers from our show:
2012 is gonna be a biggy, folks!
Here’s some of the projects we’re already working on:
-a 13-part series for History TV about Canadian war veterans, produced by David York and 52 Media
-a kooky children’s show for YTV, “Zoink’d”, which features children dropping buckets of green slime onto hapless, (grown-up) talent-show participants
-an hour-long doc directed by Sunny Yi on the little-known story of Italian-Canadians imprisoned by the government during WWII
-2 (yes, 2) feature-length operatic experimental films, written and directed by John Greyson, about: 1), the destruction of the Iraqi Film Archives during the second U.S. invasion, and 2), the co-opting of gay rights by Israel’s demented Netanyahu government. Only one of these films involves men in penguin suits…
Let me finish up by pointing you in the direction of 2 book trailers. The books in question are both by my amazing wife, Kyo, who is having an astoundingly productive year.
Enjoy!