We just finished the first leg of our odyssey with Dream Theater. I pretty much didn't post the past 6 six weeks we've been fully engaged, however, my partner Bree sure did. Her skewed perspective is delightful and if you want to keep up on our travels, I recommend bookmarking http://node.net/be/

Recently I've become a contributing writer to Live Design Magazine and my first article was published: She Blinded Me With Video Production. The October issue of Live Design will feature a review of the Grass Valley Indigo AV (pictured below) which I absolutely love. You will find, it is a positive review, and is a direct comparision between the pedrigees of "Broadcast Switchers" versus "Presentation Switchers". The Indigo in my view is the first mixer to successfully converge the two lineages.

Here is a teaser photo of the video system I've built for the tour. There is much more to the rig than pictured, but this is the main 'video world' in progress. The DJ coffin hosts a 2 Macbooks (this might change to a Macbook and a Mac Pro) a Novation Remote Zero SL MIDI controller, & 2 SATA raids. The centerpiece is the Grass Valley Indigo Video Mixer - which is by far the best and most capable video mixer I've ever used. A detailed tour of the video rig will follow once we setup for rehearsals next week.

My subversive genius friend Brian Kane sent me a link to this novel video tool that does YouTube juxtapositions. It comes loaded with a number of fun pairings, and better yet you can create your own.

Check Out: YouTubeDoubler

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As mentioned in a previous post, Bree Edwards and I wrote a review of Aurora Picture Show's Media Archeology Festival, which has just been published by the Glasstire - Texas Visual Art Online.

Read the Glasstire review here >

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Bree and I went to LA on a little pleasure tour this past weekend. The main attraction was a bus tour to the Morongo Desert Basin Southeast of LA. A collaboration between CLUI and LaMoCa, Hinterland Redux: Creative Constructions in the Morongo Basin brought us to wonderful sites including Andrea Zittel's A-Z West, The Integratron, Noah Purifoy's Scultpure Park and the recently constructed IT House.

Hinterland Redux Slideshow Gallery >

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This week I was officially listed as an M-Audio sponsored artist. Unofficially this took place last spring, when Steve Nalepa facilitated getting me some free gear for the Dolby tour. I am the first VJ to ever get a sponsorship... Thanks Steve! Now that its official you can check out the interview on their site. Note that they intentionally edit to favor them of course, but nothing is really free in this world now is it. m-powered site

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Last weekend I attended the Aurora Picture Show Media Archeology Festival, a wonderful 3 nights of performances that climaxed in the video you see above. Bree and I we're also asked to write a review of the festival for Glasstire magazine ... which should be out very soon.

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Today I'm happy to announce my new client, the progressive rock band "Dream Theater." I've been hired as video director for their world tour for 2007-08. There are some very interesting things happening on the video design side of this project - but more on that later.

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Talk about catching up with old news. I'm going to lay it out pretty simply here for the blog's sake. 2006 was the year of Thomas Dolby. (at least for me) actually it began in late 2005, when I was first approached by Dolby to talk about video for his return to the music life. By spring 2006, I was on the road coast to coast as his VJ, having designed his entire show, along with cohort Brian Ziffer. We played a total of 80+ gigs, and in addition, I produced 2 DVDs on his behalf. There is alot more to the story, but for now, you can dig around: http://thomasdolby.com/

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I've been promising a new node since, oh about february 2006. All through this time, my phone keeps ringing with projects and noone seems to care whether my website is up to date or not. I have so much back archive work that I want to get online that I've been procrastinating forever because I feel a bit 'all or nothing' about it. but finally I can stand it no longer, and with a spiffy new backend i can live with, I am just going to slowly roll it all out. apologies if you come across a cupboard looking bare - but i promise promise promise to keep adding content every week!