Archive for the ‘concert’ tag

Hootenanny!

So, this last Tuesday I got to rock out with Weezer and it wasn’t just kinda cool it was a-freaking-mazing. They are doing a little tour called Hootenanny in which they pick out a tiny venue and have a local radio station invite a hundred or so fans. The only catch is that you have to bring an instrument.
As I’ve mention I’ve been doing some free intern work for The EDGE 103.9 lately and while we didn’t get to shoot the show like we thought, it was a ton of fun to be a part of.
Weezer (and us) played six songs which are going to be compiled into a live CD at some point. They also signed everyone’s song book which was a nice touch.
The EDGE‘s website has all six tracks, some photos and a bit of video.
Note: The above picture isn’t mine, you could kill a man with such a ridiculous vignette.

Speaking of The EDGE I shot a commercial for them and a local bar last friday. Shooting in an open bar with few lights and a small crew was challenging. We got all the footage we needed and then had a few beers, so all in all it was a good night. I’ll post the spot when I get it done later this week. It’s all handheld… and unfortunately it was my hand, so I get to spend more then a few hours doing some motion stabilization :|

I’ve started into my last leg of classes. I walked into Visual Effects I on wednesday and got syllabuses for the next 30 weeks. The teacher I’ve got from here on out is a great guy and really knows his stuff. I’m not really sure what I’m going to do in February but as long as I pay attention I’ll have a good shot at a roto job in LA. It’s a path that about a dozen recent graduates have taken…
But then again, why the hell would I want to goto LA?

I dunno, I’ve got a while to figure that out… I think,
David

The Grind

Working all day and going to school all night gets old pretty fast. A whole lot faster then I remember to be honest. A lot of things have changed since I last talked about my job, but it’s all changed for the better. The guy who hired me up and quit about a week later, and everything I had worked out with him went with. So I’m just freelancing for Mission E now, which is going to work out better anyway. I’ll still be making a decent amount of money but I’ll have some time off now and then. Which I’ve recently discovered, I need.

I went and saw The Visitor last saturday. It’s definitely the best movie I’ve seen so far this year. It’s about an older guy who’s life has gotten pretty plain. He is sent to New York for a conference and goes to the apartment he’s kept there for decades only to find an immigrant couple living there. He ends up befriending the man who teaches him how to play the Djembe. After a misunderstanding in the subway the man is arrested and since he isn’t a legal citizen put in an INS detention center. The man’s mother comes to New York and builds a relationship with the older man while they try to fight the man’s deportation. It’s playing in Scottsdale and I’m sure will be at The Flicks at some point, it’s a must see. Also, I swear that Steve Nash was sitting behind me in the theatre, even though the person I went with didn’t believe me :p

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin came to town on friday. I almost didn’t go to the show but I’m glad I did. I’m pretty sure that if the show wasn’t all ages the band wouldn’t have gotten in… they all looked straight out of high school. The set list was a combination of their first two albums and their encore was “I am Warm and Powerful” probably my favorite. If you haven’t heard em, check em out, they are a good time.

I saw this about a week ago and found it really interesting, not to mention that I love the way the interview was shot. (FYI: As always the linked video won’t show if you’re reading this on Facebook)

Summer is almost here and Tempe is once again quiet. ASU is now out for the summer and while that means that the streets are no longer gridlocked, it does mean that it’s not going to be in the 90s for much longer. It also means that I won’t get to see some good friends for a couple months. I’ve almost forgot what it’s like to have a summer vacation. I’ve moved past that I guess, although sometimes I think it would be nice… that is until I lookup my graduation date.

Take it easy, you know I will
David

Everything’s Coming Up Milhouse!

I got myself a job. I’m now editing for a little agency in Scottsdale called Mission E Commerce. So far things are going well, working all day and going to school at night is going to get real old really fast, but I’ve worked a full schedule and passed classes before, so I probably just need to HTFU. This is the first time I’ve had the job title of “editor” so I’m pretty stoked to have that first career hurdle behind me. The work we are doing isn’t real exciting and the clients are pretty particular, but I’m sure as we grow we’ll be able to get better and better jobs. In the mean time it pays well and they seem to like me, so I don’t really care what I have to edit.

The screening for my latest weekend film festival was saturday. Only seven teams finished the challenge but the ones that made it were pretty good. We ended up getting third place, which I am happy with. We went a very simplistic route so I’m not sure we deserved a whole lot more then that. The films that beat us were good, the production value of one was pretty low but it was clever and that’s kinda how these things work.

I got to go see Stars on friday and they put on a great concert. The opening band was a local act named Back Ted N Ted. A friend had shown them to me a few months ago because he was in talks to produce a music video for them. The music ranges from some cool electronic rock to some weirder almost experimental stuff but you should definitely check em out. After seeing them rock out on stage I’m definitely going to try to get that video to actually happen. Our little group has now done a few videos but all have been hip hop or rap and I really want to direct a rock video.
Stars took the stage soon after and while I’ve been into Stars for quite a while I’m sad to say that I had no idea Amy Millan played guitar. The band uses two vocalists on most of their songs but I didn’t know that both also played other instruments. There was a session guitarist who played a lot of the guitar stuff and almost every solo, which I hate to see, but Amy definitely played her share and did some acoustic stuff. The other lead, Torquil Campbell, actually plays the trumpet parts in a few songs, the keyboard and the melodica. The band rocked the house for the next hour, took a break and then proceeded to play just about every song on their last two albums. The show was at The Brickhouse, which I had never been too because I’m lame, but it’s a nice little bar and was packed. I’ve been pretty proud about how Phoenix turns out for indie shows. The band could have easily filled one of the small venues in town, they seemed pretty surprised at the turnout and were sincerely appreciative. After a great set the two founding members of the band came back out for an encore and played “Barricade” which was awesome.

I went out with a new friend of mine last night. We met a few weekends back on the set of an ASU production I was helping out on. I honestly had no plan of action, I just knew I wanted to see her so we took a walk down Mill Ave and ended up at Tempe Beach Park (which is surprisingly nice). It was really low key but a lot of fun. I felt a little bad that I didn’t have some great idea of what to do, but we simply enjoyed each other’s company and that seemed to turn out for the best.

I leave you with the following two videos, they have nothing in common other then the fact that I like them both. During the week I often collect links that I think I’d like to reference in a post and usually don’t end up writing about them. However these are too good to not share.

A great promo for the Discovery Channel, the VFX were done by a cool production house called Method.

If you’re still on the fence about the whole Hillary vs Obama thing this should pretty much cement things for ya :D

Thanks to everyone who send me a note or a card, I’ve had a pretty good Birthday. Being 23 was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to being 24 :D
David Hildreth

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