New "Lost" Music..."Old Song"

The first original song for the "Lost Vegas Project" is playing underneath the images on the homepage starting today. Thanks to Dale Clarke (OrangeCap) for his amazing musical talents on this piece (he plays it all on this track. Dale is also a talented painter, editor and graphic artist etc...).
My friends the "Insurgentlemen" recorded a new song on September 14th for the project called "Freemont Street" . It is a cool punkrocking tune. Here are the lyrics...I will post the song in the next few weeks....

Freemont Street (Copyright@theInsurgentlemen)

Got lost in Downtown Vegas
Staggering under a sea of lights
Saw Christina at the Glitter Gulch
21 never looked so right !

Its all been fun
Another setting sun
Gotta find a way
To extend my stay...

Bad results come from bad intentions
Even so we still go.
She looked good but your wallets empty
Got no soul got no dough.

Johnny lost his shirt at the Freemont
Sold his car and put it down on black
How's Johnny gonna get outta this one
Who's gonna pull the knife from his back ?

Its all been fun
In the Nevada sun
Feeling slipping away
All one big haze.

Bad results come from bad intentions
Even so we still go
She looked good but your wallets empty
Got no soul got no dough.

Keep Rockin in the "Free" World !!!

September 11th, 2001...

Las Vegas Nevada must of being one of the weirdest cities to be in on September 11th, 2001 ?

Radio - Radio....and Moore-head.

Much like my last project I have always found radio to be a medium that embraces new ideas and concepts much more readily than television and newspapers. I did a nice interview last week with "www.thatradio.com" . A couple of weird things happened....
1st- Just before we went to air, one of the hosts (Hugh) asked someone in the room to run down and get a bottle of "Perrier" to cool down a bit. If you listen to the audio (on the events page) at the end of the interview the guy walks into the studio with the bottle that had exploded while he was carrying it up the stairs? If this were a dream I wonder how a psychologist would read that.
I am either about to Implode or Explode ! Could go either way ?
The second curious thing was the host asked me to leave my contact information should anyone want to hire me for any reason. The first call was from a client saying that they needed a quote to produce some corporate videos for a trade show in "Las Vegas" in February...that was kinda weird.
I am doing another radio interview tomorrow at 8:22 a.m. on CIUT - "live" from Hart House at University of Toronto. I look forward to it.
It was announced this week that Michael Moore will be the first filmmaker posting his latest film for download on his website starting next month - free !
Welcome aboard Michael.

Everybody has a story...

I will be telling my story about "The Lost Vegas Art Project" tomorrow at 12:30 pm (e.s.t.). on "thatradio.com" one of the first internet radio stations, that you can tune into (and watch!) on this link. The song "Everybody" playing under the images this week is by a great band called "Rider Jones". I came across this duo (Philip Rider and Bohdi Jones) while walking to the screening of my film "Cracked Not Broken" in Vancouver last May at the "Frames of Mind Film Festival" . They were busking on the street in front of a shopping mall doing their thing. I stopped and listened to a few songs and was blown away by the talent these two guys had. I bought their CD as a souvenir, and I am glad I did...Every time I put on their music I am brought back to that glorious weekend in a beautiful city doing some pretty cool things. I guess that is what I hope comes out of the "Lost Vegas Original Music CD" that I am putting together for this project. I have uncovered a group of outstanding independent musicians that add a layer to the images that I have photographed. The quality of music by Independent bands that is available to everyone on the internet is so much better to me than the crap that you hear over the commercial radio stations these days. In fact if I never have to hear another Bono(U2) song, or even worse a Bono speech..it will be too soon. Shut up -shut up -shut up !!!!

As the song says...

"I guess I should be happy, it's never been all bad.
I know I've been through alot, but I'm thankful for that
Another chapter ends, another one begins..."

Here we go...

Digging the "Lost" Music so far...

Dale Clark/Orange Cap/Flow/Special Brownies

Like most of my projects, I usually don't know where they may go after I start them. They seem to take on a life of their own. Growing at their own pace. One of the things that is becoming apparent to me is how cool the music is that I am hoping to release as a compilation "music /picture" disc. When I made my first documentary "Marymount Again...", my friend Dale Clark took on the task of editing the film with no previous experience in this field. As the film developed it became obvious that music was going to be integral in telling the story. I had found some great music about N.D.G in Montreal, from a high school punk band called "The Discords" that worked well at the opening of the film, but I could not afford the licensing fee's for any "commercial music". Dale said that he would take a crack at writing some music ? He ended up creating 3 amazing songs that gave the film the sound that matched its look and feel. When I got in touch with Dale a few weeks ago and mentioned the "Lost Vegas Art Project" he said that he was in. Yesterday he sent me a file of the song...It's wicked...This is how he started it:

“Hundreds of years after nature left town.

The idea of prosperity sunk it's seeds into this soil.

Pollinated by the working mans desire To slip into a suit of riches.
It rose from the ground like a plantation...
Welcome to Fabulous Downtown Las Vegas Nevada”

Broke & Eck - The Insurgentlemen

Another band I met recently called "The Insurgentlemen" jumped on the project also.
They are recording "Freemont Street" on September 14th. They are a really great live band to see. I can't wait to hear what they come up with.

As the great Curt Cobain once said... "If it's illegal to rock and roll, throw my ass in jail"

Really Good Meal Deals...

Two interesting articles I came across recently that are about a restaurant in Canada and one the United States that use the "Pay if you want/can" concept. The gist of the stories being that when "Businesses" leave payment up to their customers, what you do says a lot about you.

Someone sent mean e-mail recently saying that I reminded them of a modern day beggar using the Internet as a form of panhandling. It's amazing when you offer something for free how defensive people can get, surely there must be a catch? I am not begging for anything from anyone actually. It's similar to how people assume that musicians in the subways or on street corners are begging for money. It's amusing to watch how irritated most people get by this. These same people would happily pay hundreds of dollars to see some shit ass arena band but look down on people who do it because they love it...and if it happens to brighten your day and you toss in a buck or two, you get a smile and a thank you.
I helped take my daughters grade two class on a field trip at the end of the school year to the ROM museum. We took the subway and when we got of at our stop we passed a guy playing his guitar and singing. He was good. I reached into my pocket to grab some change and give it to the kids to donate to him, as I was doing this I noticed that their teacher was doing the exact same thing. We stopped and listened and then each child tossed their change into the guitar case. The look on the musicians face was priceless and I thought it was the type of education that few kids get today .
I would say that I am a modern day Busker , and I am busking my Ass for the love of my Art. Feel free to enjoy it... and pay If you want ?

08/08/08

You know they’ll be lots of money put down on the Roulette tables in Vegas for the # 8 today. If you are not a sports fan then Television will be a bit hard to handle with the wall to wall Olympic coverage over the next 16 days. So I have listed my top “21” films dealing with Vegas that you can rent if you are interested.

1- Viva las Vegas
2- Fear and loathing in Las Vegas
3- The amazing Colossal Man
4- Honeymoon in Vegas
5- Casino
6- Leaving Las Vegas
7- Swingers
8- The Cooler
9- Very bad Things
10- Showgirls
11- Oceans 11
12- Diamonds are forever
13- G0
14- Bugsy
15- Vegas Vacation
16- Godfather Part 2
17- 3000 miles to Graceland
18- Rain Man
19- What happens in Vegas
20- Indecent Proposal
21- 21