New Peoria Blog - Real Food Peoria

Blogger Lori Koch and I have started a brand new blog named Real Food Peoria. Food and related issues have become a bit of a passion for us and we're eager to share the love. We'll be posting recipes, news and product reviews, and we'll even be discussing the occasional food documentary. Have questions or post suggestions? Email us at realfoodpeoria@yahoo.com. We're looking for guest bloggers as well so hit us up!

Gavra Lynn's Downtown Peoria Gallery

 I attended an art and music showcase at Gavra Lynn’s gallery down on Jefferson across from the Civic Center (the storefront that says "Art Show"). The gallery is a great spot to see work by local artists and hear some local musicians; from time to time Gavra has even hosted some local filmmaker’s events.

The gallery is quite large and there are paintings and sculptures all over the place. To keep the gallery running, Gavra hosts benefit events and invites musicians to play and even show their own art work. The admission fee is usually not required but is encouraged as a donation. While the crowd size varied throughout the night there were usually about fifteen people wandering about and eventually settling to hear the next music set. Overall, Gavra had invited ten bands to play over the course of seven hours and the genres involved varied from folk and progressive rock to experimental.

If you weren’t listening to music you were either chatting about the artists or grabbing a beer or some wine from the mini-kitchen. The evening was great but I only watched a handful of bands, I did not plan on attending for all seven hours. I was there to play a quick set with my band and then hang out for a bit to chat with friends. I haven’t really been to this kind of event in the past, but I have seen galleries and concerts. One series of paintings by Anthony Couri has caught my eye every time I have visited Gavra’s gallery.

Anthony has created some interesting works using merlot and cigarette ashes as his media. The red splashes of wine almost look like accidental spills and the black ash marks contrast with the white paper (or canvas) he uses. The pieces almost seem as if the fallout from a late night party has found its way on to an open sketch book sitting on a coffee table. Most of the shapes seem random and organic so it’s quite pleasing to the eye, any tension may be derived from the overall appearance of a spill or a mess needing to be cleaned up. Anthony was present at the event to play some music as well.

Unfortunately I only caught the tail end of Anthony’s music set. His band Gypsy Gypsy Gypsy is labeled “Psychedelic, Trance, Visual” and I could certainly tell this was an appropriate assignment. Anthony sat surrounded by percussion instruments ranging from a small hand drum to a rather small gong cymbal. It was a very trippy mix of shimmering chimes and gong howls all sitting nicely with an electric bass guitar drone. If you’re expecting some catchy hooks or pop lyrics, look elsewhere, this music was truly psychedelic with no discernible structure. It was a nice display of the genre and it would have been very enjoyable to anyone who is into that sort of thing.

Gavra and her gallery are a breath of fresh air for Peoria, and the community she has created is unique. It’s about time downtown Peoria has a nightlife other than a bar. I would suggest a visit to anyone who hasn’t been down there yet.

Production Notes - The Aposematics - Hands On - Stop Motion - A Blue Civilian Production

The latest release from The Aposematics and Blue Civilian Productions is the 2:40 stop motion video set to the tune of "Hands On". Weighing in at about 1,200 still shots after editing, I ended up cutting out about 300 photos. The majority of the video was shot sequentially, making most of the editing easier.

After experimenting with a little bit of stop motion I decided to shoot a full music video. We shot the stills exclusively on Lori's Nikon D40 with an attached SB-400 Speedlight. Unfortunately, continuous shooting ate up the flash's batteries quickly and caused darker frames to litter the video. External static umbrella lighting was used when necessary. A laminated sticker and dry erase marker were used for the doll's face and Hershey's dark chocolate syrup was used to simulate what little blood is present in the film. The stop motion action shots of Ken and Dan playing bass and drums were shot in the Morton building we use as a practice space (partially). The higher angles were achieved by attaching the Nikon to a tripod and triggering the shutter with a remote. Lori cleverly thought up the paper hearts and confetti for her kill scene finale. Some thought went into picking colors that would show up appropriately in black and white. Ken, being the “man behind the curtain” was potentially the hardest message to get across, but we easily conveyed the idea by transposing the last bit of paper hearts over the blank monitor, and then again by cutting back to the doll with a similar facial expression.

All of the images were resized, cropped, auto-adjusted, and converted to grayscale with Adobe Photoshop batching. The images were then imported into Adobe Premiere Pro at 2 frames per still at 24fps. My ramshackle attempt at stop motion ran too quickly and was a little confusing at 2 frames per still. I eventually extended the stills to 3 frames per second; this effectively slowed down the action but made the video a bit choppy. The graphics were then added at the final stage and everything was nested and exported out at 720p.

Overall, this shoot was an incredible learning experience and required more precise edits than the other Aposematics videos. I really loved putting this video together, but it will take much more than just a whim for me to attempt another stop motion film anytime soon. I only have the utmost respect for the real kings and queens of stop motion. I have no doubt their patience is greater than mine.

Blue Civilian Stock Footage Compilations Featuring The Music of The Aposematics

I take stock footage that I've shot and put it to music by The Aposematics (a Peoria based band). Check it out! These were all shot with my Sony DCR-DVD403 Handycam.

Find more of The Aposematics at theaposematics.com

American English - September 11th, 2009, Peoria, IL - Summer Serenade Concert

Lori and I headed to Lakeview Museum this last Friday night to check out American English. We both got some great footage and photos. They play Peoria at least once or twice every year, and they're definitely worth seeing. If you like the Beatles, you'll love the American English experience!

Going to Los Angeles

Lori and I (The Aposematics) have won a trip to Los Angeles (among other things). We're leaving for Chicago tomorrow April 14th, 2009 to catch a plane, and will be back in Peoria Saturday April 18th, 2009.

This trip includes recording with Dave Jerden and Bryan Carlstrom at their studio in Burbank, plus a Rolling Stone photo shoot. The photo shoot (I'm told) will take place in the studio and possibly another TBD location.

The firm in charge of this will be keeping us busy during the day, but will take us out on the town for dinner every night.

We're nervous, but excited for the opportunity. We've never been to the west coast. It's been quite the chore for us to pack and get everything lined up on our end.

We will be updating our Twitter accounts, and Facebook pages hopefully with pictures and details if anyone is interested on updates. (Go to http://www.theaposematics.com/links.htm for the urls to our various networking pages)

The long, treacherous path of learning to play and record music on my own has finally paid off. This was completely unexpected, if this is the only compensation I ever get for doing something I love, it will have been well worth it.

Sayonara!

John