White Night Hits Prairie VillageJune 30th, 2011

Back on Friday, June 17, the Madison Area Arts Council hosted their annual “White Night” festival out at Prairie Village, which featured three area bands as well as local art and theatre. Myself, along with students Tyler Micheel and Paul Schipper ran sound for the live bands during the afternoon and evening, and estimated that we saw upwards of a hundred people throughout the evening.
We had a really great time working with the three bands: More Than Heroes, Wumpus, and Pasque. On the technical end of things, everything went off without a hitch. Our only obstacle was an impending rain shower that, despite the nice weather for most of the day, was looming over us into the evening. Just before the final band, Pasque, was about to play, we decided to move inside and made a fast and furious move to a nearby building. The band still managed to get in a great live set and the night ended in success. It’s another one in the books for live sound at DSU, and a good time was had by all!

The Village Goes LiveJune 21st, 2011

Sometime last year, I was approached about working on a website design for our local historic tourist destination, Prairie Village.  I decided to jump on board and help with the design.  I should have known how huge of a task it is to build a website from scratch!  Myself and webmaster Bob Gehringer put in many hours of work with a lot of helpful input from Prairie Village manager Stan Rauch and Mickie Kriedler along the way.  After all of the hard work, I am excited to say that we are now live:  www.prairievillage.org

It was a great learning experience and I am proud to have been a part of it.  I’ll continue to do some periodic updates as Bob takes over the daily updates.  There’s another experience to check off the list.  Now, I’m looking forward to playing a really special acoustic show this Friday with my great friend John Statz!

National Anthem at the Bull Riding TourJune 12th, 2011

Last Friday, I was given a unique opportunity to sing the National Anthem at the National Bull Riding Tour that was hosted at Prairie Village. It was a larger crowd than I expected, but it went well. I’ll just go ahead and check that off my list of new experiences. Hmm… what’s next?

Spring Semester RecapJune 9th, 2011

At the end of every semester, I find it to be a good idea to document all of the projects and accomplishments from the previous few months for the whole world to see. Maybe I need to brag a little… but more than anything, I like to keep track of the things I’ve done to help continue to plan going forward. So, here’s my work from the spring semester:

Personal and Music-related Projects:
Published my Album online and released CDs on March 3rd
Recorded a new track:  ”Frontlines”
Designed the Prairie Village website, soon to be unveiled!
Played a series of shows at Mochavino
Played guitar at a Brickhouse event downdown for Jane Ryder’s art show
Released an online album of my work from Grad School, “Mechanical Lullabies”
Played Harry Potter movie music on piano at the opening night of the DSU event

University-Related assistance:
Acted as a judge for the Global Game Jam competition
Assisted with sound setup for the spring musical, “Anything Goes”
Shot video presentation for diversity events including the Lakota Indians and women’s history
Assisted with audio for the “Away from Keyboard” poetry/reading event at Mochavino
Assisted students with in-class video projects that promote various aspects of the University
Participated in a studio photo shoot to supplement advertising materials for next year
Did a vocal recording of a faculty member as part of a personal project
Sang in the DSU Choir spring concert and graduation
Played music with Sandy and Chris Champion when the Tour De Kota bikers visited

DSU Live Projects: (events where we assisted with sound production on campus)
Full production of the Battle of the Bands event
Assistance with Black History Month Kickoff
DJ for student dance lessons
Setup for Student Activities Board events: a mentalist and musician Austin Kyle
“Tips for Talent” event to raise money for Japan relief assistance
Ordered new LED lights and equipment, ongoing summer projects

Hopefully that is most everything, now my goal for the summer is to do much less! Okay, that’s not really true, but I definitely want to continue with some personal projects and spending more time on my bike and getting some time outdoors. Ah, summer.