It's been raining like crazy here today. Which is fine because if it was just a little bit colder there would be a blizzard. I have been complaining constantly of the weather lately. I just want to go outside without wearing a jacket as thick as an astronaut.

I forgot to post the trailer for the film "Red Sister Red" on here so here it is! (viewer discretion is advised)



Special thanks again to Wendy Mittelstadt for the violin and the vocals at the start of it. The film is still in production and I will be working on the soundtrack in a few weeks. The music will be like this trailer but also containing Irish elements to it.

This week I am rehearsing my set and doing all the organization of material for the design of the album cover. I want to especially give thanks to >Robin for the inspiration of the cover of it. She did some amazing digital manipulation of the photo that Kris made. I still have to write out the linear notes and the credits for it. I dread doing linear notes because I thank everyone than I can think of on it but I almost always forget someone. I shouldn't worry about it because not a lot of people bother reading them and more people will be downloading it anyways.

Right now I am reading a book called White Chapel Gods by S.M. Peters. It's a steampunk-era book set in Victorian London with man fighting machine that controls the city of London. It seems like a good book. I am also reading Professor Winsnicker's Book of Proper Etiquette for Well-mannered Sycophants by Leven Thumps. Which I picked up at a bookstore not knowing anything about the series it's based on. I just liked all the scribbles in the margins of it and the drawings. Between those three books I have been reading a collection of short stories called "The Steampunk Trilogy" by Paul Di Filippo that has some rather funny parts in it. There is this one story where they replace the Queen of England during the Victorian era with a human-sized licentious salamander. Need I say more?

The HorrorPops came out with a new album last week called "Kiss Kiss Kill Kill" . I liked it better than their last (2nd) album "Bring It On!". This new album is a lot like their debut album "Hell Yeah" with the lead singer having Siouxsie Sioux's voice.

I finished recording for the music for the trailer "Red Sister Red" . It should be coming out shortly. The front section of it I had Wendy Mittelstadt do the violin and the vocals at the start of it. She did a great job with it and I couldn't be more pleased how it all sounds. One of the greatest joys of being a composer is creating music that is performed by others. It's great to hear what musicians can bring into the piece that you compose (all those slight nuances) . I am sure an architect probably has the same feeling when he see something he/she created being constructed.


Next Saturday I will be in Los Angeles for the screening. My suit is being tailored and I already got a haircut. The last time I was there was back in 1999 and I am sure it has changed a lot since then.

I watched a cool movie last night called "The Mephisto Waltz". Alan Alda and Jacqueline Bisset are in it. Alan Alda plays a classical piano player on the rise who befriends afamous player himself who's at death's door. Unknown to Alda, the guy is a satanist, who arranges to have their souls switch places at his death, so that he can be young again and continue to play piano (thus needing a skilled piano player like Alda to switch bodies with). It's truly a weird an unusual film. What made it fascinating to me is the soundtrack is so strange. It was composed by Jerry Goldsmith and it's so unique and disturbing it completely carries the film.

Ahhhh my almost monthly posting while I am fresh from the dentist with a numb jaw. Actually this time the dentist shot me with Novocaine right at my front upper gums. Which now my entire upper lip and nose completely numb. The good news is I should be done with going to the dentist for awhile.

Recording for the trailer for the movie "Red Sister Red" is moving along fine. The trailer is about 1 minute and 30 seconds. The first part that is about :47 seconds in length I had recorded with a solo fife but it didn't really work out. So I am placing in a solo violin and female vocals into it which will create a nice contrast to the faster and aggressive section half of the trailer.

I ordered a production book on "Sweeney Todd" that came in the mail today. If you liked the film at all you would love the book. I am a big fan of the movie. It's like a Hammer Horror film mixed with a musical.

I am almost finished read The Diamond Age . I am glad I stuck through 2 chapters at the start of it that started to become boring for me. It picked up after the 4th chapter and I am amazed how insightful the author is on our present day society and how it will evolve into in the future. After this book I am reading Naked Lunch.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and/or holidays. It's great that such a holiday that spans over 4000 years in origin is still celebrated. I will tell about one of the coolest presents I ever got in my next posting.

I have been working on the trailer music for "Red Sister Red" . Yesterday I got some more guidance on the orchestration for it. The sounds of it is going to be very Irish which I think will translate pretty well on film.

I saw on the news that Boston is becoming the North Eastern Hollywood. Last year more than 8 major films were shot in the area. This year there is about 10 or 15 that will be in production around the area. It's great news considering the film industry here was nearly dead 4 years ago.

Sweeney Todd is an excellent film. I was exposed to Stephen Sondheim's work when I was working for an opera company in High School. (oh wow he is still alive today I didn't know that) ,,, so at the time I hated...HATED Sondheim. it was the song "Johanna " that is in it that drove me nuts. I had trouble playing it at the time and the music director would have fits that I made mistakes during rehearsals for it (I was playing the piano for their rehearsals and auditions). I just hated that one song because I never liked the 3 notes that are used in the Jo-han-na. I would have used a different set of three notes. The company I worked for loved his work though and I kept playing it and playing it. I really don't have such a hatred for the music now so I liked the movie. The imagery of it was wonderful and some of the scenes felt like it was lifted straight out of an Edward Gorey Illustration .

Today I was working on the trailer music for "Red Sister Red" . The trailer will make it's debut at the screening next month. I wrote out :46 seconds of the trailer down on paper. I started off in G Minor and was 4 measures in and it sounded like the opening chords to a MUSE song. Which irritated the hell out of me. So I scrubbed it and started again in A Minor and it's a lot better. I planed on it being in A Minor why I went to G I have no idea. The trailer starts off very airy and romantic with a solo violin playing followed by a female Celtic voice over it , then a low drone starts (bass strings), then bodhráns and from there it's all chaos.

Tomorrow I will do the :46 seconds to 1:02 seconds and maybe actually finish it. (which will be @1 minute 27 seconds). Then I'll send off the music to the musicians , schedule a recording session and the final mix it. I really need an assistant once I start working on the full film score. There are too many administrative tasks that need to be done that I can't do alone (first of the year I will find one) .

It was today in 1808 that Ludwig van Beethoven premiered his Fifth Symphony in Vienna.



Happy Winter Solstice to everyone!

Well it is confirmed that I will be attending the screening of Prometheus Triumphant on January 19th in the Steven Spielberg screening room at the American Cinematheque Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, California.

The film runs about 80 min., and will be proceeded by two short films by Mad Monkey Productions, 2003's The Sleep of Reason (5 min) and a new film written by Jim Towns and directed by Mike McKown called Red Queen (10 min), and also by a trailer for Jim Towns' Red Sister Red, due out later this year. This marks the first time any of these pieces have been screened for an LA audience, so we'd love to fill the house as much as possible. There will be a short Q&A following the film with the filmmakers and myself, the film's composer.

If you'll be in town and think you can make it, please send us a message so we can put you on the guest list, as seating is limited!


In other news. I got a copy of the soundtrack of the new Sweeney Todd movie. It's very Stephen Soundheim! I wonder if a lot of people will be attending the film thinking it was composed by Danny Elfman and being shocked while watching it...very broadway llike. My friend Kris thinks Johnny Depp's hairstyle in the film was directly lifted from Dave Vanian lead singer from the band The Damned.

Last night Jim sent me the rough trailer for "Red Sister Red". It looks awesome! I can't wait to place music down to it. It's going to be a unique process how I am going to record it (I am not saying how) .

Dang it's cold!

The snow is sticking on the ground here in New England. It makes everything seem all festive-like for scenery.

Jim Towns, the director for the film Prometheus Triumphant, has started editing the trailer for "Red Sister Red" in time for it to be shown during the Prometheus Triumphant screening in Los Angeles in January. So I will be working on the music for the trailer in about 2 weeks. It should be a lot of fun to work on it since I will be working with Irish musicians.

In other news I was surprised that