2008 ended with the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus’ premiere of Mike’s oratorio “Through A Glass, Darkly“ being cited for “Outstanding Achievement in Opera” by MN’s Lavender Magazine (Thanks! But…opera?). At least five more choruses around the country have expressed interest in staging their own concert productions in the near-future.
“Last Days of Left Eye” was released on DVD on September 9.
“Go-Go Beach“ played a few more places including high schools in Australia and Metro Detroit, bringing us to 107 lifetime performances spanning 4 countries and 12 US states.
I wrote the music for a full-length dance show conceived and choreographed by Jeff Shade called “Playground“ which was presented in December at the Manhattan Movement and Arts Center.
Here’s a quick overview of some things coming up for us in 2009.
- March 25-29 – “Go-Go Beach” at Centennial High School in Roswell, GA.
- April 18 – Mike’s newest choral work, “I Want More Life”, will be premiered by the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus for the occasion of the Tony Kushner Celebration at the Guthrie Theater. Commissioned by the Chorus especially for the Kushner Festival, the work is a TTBB setting of a monologue from Kushner’s play “Angels In America: Perestroika”. The performance will be at the Festival’s Community Kick-Off event prior to the opening of “Caroline, or Change”.
- May 3 – “I Want More Life” will be performed by the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis at a concert in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Minneapolis-based professional chorus VocalEssence. The TC-GMC was invited to join five other choruses to mark the occasion. (tickets)
- May 8-9, 15-16 – “Go-Go Beach” at ShowBiz Starz in Taylor, MI.
- May 15 – The second performance of “I Want More Life” in conjunction with the Tony Kushner Celebration at the Guthrie Theatre, performed opening night of the world premiere of Kushner’s new play “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures“.
- June 2 – The third and fourth performances of “I Want More Life”, for the Guthrie’s “Talk-About” series.
- June 6-7 – “Through A Glass, Darkly”, performed by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC at Lisner Auditorium – GW Campus, Washington, DC. (tickets)
- June 8 – The fifth performance of “I Want More Life”, prior to Tony Kushner’s “Global Voice” talk at the Guthrie Theatre.
- June 19-20 – “Through A Glass, Darkly”, performed by the Miami Gay Men’s Chorus at the Miami Beach Colony Theatre.
That’s not to say I’m not doing anything… just nothing with dates yet. Ben Britten, Mike, and I are writing an iPhone game, hopefully releasable by mid-year. Being our first game together, we really don’t have any idea how long it will take to complete, tho. I am also developing a theatre-related website with some folks, but it’s too early to talk about that. And a few music projects in mind, once the paying work clears up.
Mike is also scoring a short film by filmmaker Andrew Lund and edited by our film cohort John Daschbach. It is looking to be a serious contender this film festival season. There are some rumblings about possible future choral commissions, too. More as things develop.
“Last Days of Left Eye” is available for pre-order on Amazon for $17.99 and ships September 9.
If you’re still mad that Mo’nique’s “Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School” preempted seeing our names in the credits, get yourself a copy and re-enjoy the movie too.
Click the image below to purchase from Amazon, and Frankie and Roscoe will get a scoop of food on you.
This brings the number of titles in the FatLab DVD library to three — Waking Dreams, Through A Glass, Darkly, and now Left Eye.
(Netflixers, click here to add “Left Eye” to your queue.)
Previously:
Audio interview with director Lauren Lazin by NPR’s Farai Chideya
Documentary Recounts the Last Days of Left Eye –NPR News & Notes, May 18, 2007
iTunes version (segment 4 of podcast episode)
Singer at the End of Time: The Video Diary of Lisa Lopes –Virginia Heffernan, New York Times, May 19 2007
“Last Days of Left Eye” premiered tonight on Vh1. Mike and I watched it at our neighbors’ apartment since we don’t have cable.
About 9 minutes into the documentary when Lisa is talking about her grandfather playing at the Cotton Club, there is a 25 second cue of old-time swing music. Well, I wrote that and the full cue is 2:38. I also wrote it for trumpet, but was asked to switch it to sax to fit Lisa’s story.
Since MTV owns this track and the guys at the club worked really hard to learn it, here is the full Cue LL42, as I intended it, for trumpet, clarinet, trombone, tenor sax, piano, bass, and drums.
Cue LL42 Cotton Club
Written & Produced by Brent
(c) and (p) 2006 MTV Networks
Published by MTV Songs (ASCAP)
Download (ctrl-click to Save As...)
(btw, there were no guys at the club. it’s all synth.)
This week’s issue of Newsweek has a write-up on “Last Days of Left Eye”, including the Vh1 trailer. That’s not our score in the trailer, so you’ll just have to watch the show Saturday to hear it. Newsweek article found here:
Left Eye’s Fatal Vision Allison Samuels, Newsweek – May 21, 2007 issue
Can’t find these two online yet, but People Magazine (3 of 4 stars) and Entertainment Weekly (B+) are also running reviews. First airdate is this Saturday, May 19 at 9pm Eastern, with more showings over the weekend. (Showtimes)
Clipping from People Magazine
Clipping from Entertainment Weekly
After a year of film festival appearances from Harlem to Amsterdam, Austin, Atlanta, and Hollywood, “Left Eye” is finally coming to Vh1. (Official Site)
(Click above to see the full postcard.)
So since we don’t have cable, someone set your DVR for Saturday, May 19 – 9pm EDT. (More showtimes)
In celebration, we’re posting another track used in the film. I should mention that we didn’t score this film to picture. We met weekly with the director, Lauren Lazin, and produced a custom library of music for editor David Beinstein to cut to. The final variations on 80+ tracks and themes totaled over 4 hours of music. We wrote each track to have a lot of variety to choose from, and often times they chose just a certain 15 seconds of a couple minute long track. So we are posting cue “LL39″ (for lack of a better name) here in its entirety so that it does not go unheard.
Cue LL39
Written by Mike
Produced by Mike and Brent
Guitar by Jeff Widenhofer
(c) and (p) 2006 MTV Networks
Published by MTV Songs (ASCAP)
Download (ctrl-click to Save As...)
The 31st Atlanta Film Festival opened last Thursday, April 19, in Midtown Atlanta with a celebrity-packed screening of “Last Days of Left Eye“.
Mike and I couldn’t go to this screening, but a quick Google search brings back these reports:
