John Bonham

I was just starting my senior year of high school when John Bonham died in September 1980. Looking back now, so many years later, it is hard to believe he was only 32. Just like now, even way back then I was a drum fanatic, and big Bonzo fan. At the time, and still now it is true, he was clearly one of the best drummers of all time. Listening to In through The Out Door today, I was thinking that although it is always a huge loss when a great artist or musician dies before his day, in John Bonham's case, it is hard to imagine what he might have done.

For sure, he would have raised some hell, raced some cars, raised some cows and played some incredible drum parts that we would all still be trying to mimic. He produced a drum sound that is still to this day hardly matched. But is was certainly more than just a huge 26 inch kick drum that made his drum sound possible. Bonham had as much control and dynamics to his playing as he did power and incredible timing. It was all in the feel. The groove.

And although In Through The Out Door might not be the most popular Zeppelin record, it hinted at what could have been. It has a huge variation of playing styles, including some ethnically influenced grooves in Fool In The Rain, some huge classic John Bonham grooves on In The Evening and the heart tugging slow tempo and incredible drum tone of I'm Gonna Crawl. Only Led Zeppelin could have done that record and I remember thinking "I can't wait to see what they do next".

Well there were no blogs back then, but I did write about it in a journal and I ran across it recently. There is a yellowed newspaper article about his death, accompanied by my own prediction that there wouldn't be another John Bonham any time soon. While I was right, you can hear his influence on so many drummers which is pretty cool in itself, but I would rather he were around to see it.

And no doubt he would still be the best.

From my Motivational Series

Make the world your amusement park, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

see the rest on flickr

RED ONE Demo

Over a year in the making. No one ever said it would be easy. And then again, then I suppose then everyone would have demo reel of RED ONE only footage. Not done yet, but here is a look.

Inspire Me Africa video.

This is a very rough cut of some of my footage from Tanzania.

Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder

mark's drums, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

OCD, Hording and Drums. When does it become something you need to talk to someone about? And who would you go to? Maybe I could run a drum shop that has a licensed therapist on staff.

But seriously, I guess it is because I have not been gigging lately, but I have been pulling out every drum and noise maker I can find. Some going back a decade or so, I am pulling together metal plates and bed pans, stainless steel strainers and drainage pipe. I'm certainly not done adding things I have laying around waiting to made into something that can produce some sound. And, I can hardly leave the house without looking for objects that might want to get hit.

You find them in the oddest places. Metal buckets, water cooler bottles, stove pipes and industrial filter housings. I can honestly say that I have never met a piece of metal or plastic that I did not want to smash. And like any decent war of attrition, I think if you add enough sounds then some interesting poly-rhythms and melodies can start springing up.

Stay tuned for some recording in the future, and I think I am going to get back to adding some of my electronic drums and trigger devices into the mix. It's been a while now that I have been concentrating on acoustic and found material instruments. I spent more than a decade working on melding the two, going back to the beginning of Simmons and later KAT products triggering MAC-based Sample Cell, Emu and Roland sound sources.

About another decade has whizzed by since using much electronics, so it should prove fun to see what I can do with a little more modern technology, and a whole lot more stuff to hit repeatedly.

Fall Colors

, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

My favorite shooting spot turns again adding new colors.

Forest Park

Forest Park , originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

New England in the fall is much too short.

"The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream will never die."

flags at half-mast for Senator Kennedy, originally uploaded by writerjax.

A simple white wooden cross and marble footmarker will be added to Arlington National Cemetery tonight. It will mark the spot where Edward Kennedy will rest. As the country lays to rest one of it's most influential public servants, I remember back to one time where I could actually say that I was moved by a speech and by a politician.

My story takes place at the Democratic Convention of 2000 that took place in Springfield, Mass. I was called the day before by a friend that ran the media department at the Civic Center. They had a teleprompter problem for the convention that was to take place the next day. They asked me to come by and see if I could make it work, and that they were in a terrible bind as Senator Kennedy was going to be using it for his keynote speech at the convention.

Well, I had worked with them a bit at Connecticut School of Broadcasting, so I said I would run over. I was met by several of Kennedy's aides who were anxiously waiting to call it a long day, but one with a working teleprompter. They were as pleased as I was only several moments later when I had the script running correctly on the monitors and lined them up for the podium. Turns out of a full day of speakers, only Ted Kennedy would be using the prompter, so they had no one running it. His young but extremely appreciative assistant asked if I would please come the next day, a Saturday, and run the thing for the senator's speech? Of course, I was billing them so I said sure and headed home with a last minute gig that would end up being pretty interesting.

The next day I made my way through the security net that included city and state police, and a large amount of what looked like secret service agents, complete with microphones, and remember, they were not yet stuck to everyone's head like the blue tools are now a days. So, there I waited until the very loosely scheduled event culminated in the senator's speech. He had not yet arrived at the venue, so I had plenty of time to watch the action and listen to the speakers from the unique position pretty much ten of twelve feet away from the podium.

Of course, there were plenty of mid-level state politicians that spoke and plenty of party line getting stoked with the packed house of believers. I was becoming one of them when an incredibly small Michael Dukakus walked up and asked my name. I could hardly believe I was actually looking down on the former Governor and all I could remember was the image of his goggled head sticking out of a tank. And, his eyebrows are truly something out of Mothra, but he is a very nice guy, and I think had all the best intentions for the state, and the nation. So, of course I told him my name and we chatted for a few minutes as the secret service looked on. Did I mentioned how short he is? I mean, I am not tall, so for me to notice, jeez, you got to be pretty short. He looks like a former jockey or something.

Anyways, a few hours later, it was time. He is in the building, I am told, and they are bringing him right over to meet me. Me. I was a little taken back, and I understood that I was helping them out a bit but I was pretty surprised when his handlers did in fact bring him right to me and introduce me as “the guy that saved the day with the teleprompter.” So he very loudly clears his throat in a way that I imagined he had done right before countless speeches, and shook my hand. Thanking me for handling his teleprompter, I assured him that I would keep pace with him. So he shakes a few more hands and goes up the short staircase to the stage to a huge amount of applause.

Now, if you have never run a teleprompter, let me tell you it is kind of cool. You are sort of reading along with the person, allowing them to keep their own pace, including dealing with rounds of applause that tend to break out at these political events. Well in this case, I realized at the time it was one of the most recognizable figures in the world and I was dolling out his script. Seeing ever line a few ahead, keeping pace with the Lion of the Senate as he spoke of President Kennedy, his legacy as well as that of his brother, Robert Kennedy. I thought being at a Democratic Convention, those were especially poignant words.

It was right around this point when I sensed someone looking over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of another Kennedy, and in fact I’m not sure which one it was. But he had enough physical traits for me. Of course, at the time I was paying close attention to not screwing up, which can really kill a speaker’s delivery. But all went well, and it was an excellent speech that evoked all the important issues that Ted Kennedy was known for being a tireless supporter of. One of those issues, interestingly was health care. Let’s hope we can pass reform without him.

Following his speech and plenty of applause, of course, he again thanked me and was whisked away into a van. This ends my brush with a Kennedy, one that I hope history remembers for what he contributed and stood for.

maneater workflow

maneater workflow, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

The trip getting to Africa and back is huge. But, it almost pales in comparison to the work it takes to deal with the the RED ONE work flow. Oh, don't get me wrong, the shots are great.

If the hard drive does not fail.

But I am all about the instant gratification, and the suspense is killing me. Now I am uploading an update for CS4. It's over 800 meg. Good thing it is not a big update I guess. So, we will see how that works out. The claim is I can work direclty in the Premiere and After Effects environment with the R3D files.

Here's hoping!

Hey Pal, can you lend me a hand?

, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Next time you get a chance to help someone out, and it can be small, that's o.k. It's the thought, they say. So if it's throwing a quarter in a meter to save a stranger a ticket, to giving away your gum, before the mint flavor has run out by all means do the right thing.

Lake Natron

Lake Natron, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Ah, Lake Natron!

This is a place that I always wanted to visit. This shallow salt lake is famous for it's pink color and an incredible amount of flamingos. As a perfect breeding ground, Natron is host to the two and half million of them that live in the Great Rift Valley.

My Masai friend Thomas, did a great job of sneaking close to the birds and waiting until I gave him the signal. Brad and John offered some blockage from the persistent wind oscillating the camera on what was never a perfect tripod. Once I had the RED ONE video camera set up with a lens filled with pink birds and the 4k sensor set for 120 frames per second...I was ready. I gave Thomas the signal and he scared up the flock, filling my frame with so many birds that I knew it was going to be a good shot.

The ground was pretty soft, and reminded me of a soggy version of the Playa at Burningman. Anyways, two out of three rubber leg caps decided to stay in the mud and were plucked out by Thomas. After getting a bunch of additional shots, I decided to head back to the truck, which was by this point good half mile away on what was the last of Terra firma. Not wanting to see my new Kata backpack camera case sink into the caustic pink mud, I instead bent over with the pack on while Brad and Thomas helped get the RED tucked away.

I would have liked to stay on the water's edge there following the birds and getting more shots. But with the solid feel of a RED ONE on my back, and the 8 person Land Rover looking much smaller than a Matchbox, I got walking. But, not before putting on the album I finally remembered I had on my new iPhone, Big Whiskey & The Grugrux King. Well, it was pretty sweet as you can imagine.

You know how music often becomes associated with trips. Well, this one will have a bunch of music from orphans to Masai Warriors, from organized groups with dancers, to an impromptu acapella treat by the porters on Kilimanjaro. But I will also remember this trip by DMB and Leroy Moore.

RIP.

Kilimangaro, First Look Back

Kilimangaro, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

This is one huge mountain! I was pretty much just concerned with getting down, so I did not get a pic until this shot at somewhere about 14,000 feet, which is where I started to feel a little bit like I was going to live!

Although only 7 weeks post surgery, it was not my hernia that kept from the peak of Africa's tallest mountain, but the altitude itself. Of course, I knew I had a battle going in, being from about 300 ft and all. In fact, my tallest training hike was only about 2000 feet. Ironically, about the distance I came from the top. But, even though often the mountain wins...all is well.

I went to Africa! I climbed higher than any mountain in the lower 48 states! and, most importantly, I made it down under my own power. The rest of the story, is a long one. Many pics, posts and video to come!

Jambo!

10 days and counting

summit, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Mount Monadnock serves as good training ground for Africa.

Mount Monadnock, originally uploaded by A glimpse of life.

With Kilimanjaro only a bit more than 2 weeks away, my friend Shawn and I drove an hour and a half to get some training in. Being in New England might end up being one of my weak points, once the altitude comes into play. I can train hard, but we are still only a few thousand feet above sea level and you really can't tell how the thin air above 10,000 feet will effect you.

The rugged terrain of New England, and New Hampshire in particular are hard going, especially with a pack and camera equipment to haul up the hill.

Mount Monadnock, originally uploaded by A glimpse of life.

The view is incredible, including three states. On a clear day you can see from Mt. Washington to Massachusetts.

Shooting the Summit

Mount Monadnock, originally uploaded by A glimpse of life.

We found what looked the like tallest rock outcropping on the summit. There was a good amount of people there, this being one of the most climbed mountains in the area. Mount Monadnock stands about 2000 feet above any other peak within 30 miles and is the tallest peak in southern New Hampshire.

Headed for the Summit

Mount Monadnock, originally uploaded by A glimpse of life.

After several long off glimpses of the top, we finally got there, only to find yet another drop off and gully, then a hundred feet back up. The view was worth the work. Getting back was pretty tough though. Took a few extra hours with the packs and all. But, we did make it in the end.

africa or bust!

africa or bust!, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

It's official! I'm actually going to go to Africa, and climb Kilimanjaro. I know, sounds crazy. But it's true.

Mom, this one's for you.

The Photographer

The Photographer, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

So my friend, Dave and I went to NYC to find him a new dejembe. And of course I bring my small Nikon with me where ever I go. We had 5 or 6 music stores marked off on Dave's nifty printed map of Manhatten. We also wanted to go up to The Top Of the Rock, and see the city from the 70th floor.

I came across this interesting photog on 50th street near the entrance and asked him if I could snap his pic. He did not even hesitate and said, cool as can be: "You got one shot". I thought it was pretty cool, turning the table on a guy that most likely has taken more photos from this very spot than I have taken anywhere. But something tells me he has found him self on the other end of the camera plenty.

I really should visit the big apple more frequently. Thanks, Dave. And enjoy that drum!

Reflection

Light Reflection, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Getting in one last hike before my hernia operation, the light was just right. I kept a quick pace, but stopped for a few shots on Porter Lake. The operation went fine, I am will son be back to training for my trip to Kilimanjaro this June.

Stay tuned for more training pics!