Thank You For Smoking

Busy days - I'm scoring a cool satire called Thank You For Smoking, and after 10 days of trying out ideas have just begun to understand what I am doing for this film. The instrumentation is a small group of instruments and sounds, including uke and melodica so far. Like all the satire work I have done before getting the mood and tone just right is crucial- and also complicated. So it's taking a lot of focus and experimentation. And there's little time as the film needs to be ready for the Toronto film festival, so I'm feeling the pressure.

Meanwhile I am also preparing for a trip to Burning Man in a month, so there is lots of consulting and coordinating with my fellow campers, and getting stuff together for the camp. There are many plans of things to offer in our camp (entitled Ironica) from song workshops to body work and shows, and ideas are beginning to come together. I'm wondering what instruments to take - what will survive well in the desert? An accordion?

Fight Club

In response to the request - to be honest I don't know where my track is used in Fight Club. It was simply lifted from the score to Slums of Beverly Hills. The original track title was Coffee Shop Musac, and I'll post it for download soon.

Desert music

Just back from Paris, where I was contemplating various ideas for Burning Man this year. The first was to run the Notorious and Despicable Song Shop, a kind of workshop on songwriting that I have run before and was really involving and cool and fun. The next, inspired by seeing some great street musicians in Paris, is to create a home for classical music in BRC. I've long been looking for a classical music festival with the spirit and atmosphere of a rock festival, and have yet to find one. I imagine a very casual and lively environment, with street performers and concerts of substance, but all with that anarchic vibe of something alive and uncontainable. I think BRC maybe a good place to try this out.

So anyway, I wondered if such a thing exists at BRC, and if not, whether people and players would be interested in supporting such an adventure. From opera with accordion, through string quartets, and beyond, I wonder what is possible. All ideas welcome, so do let me know if you have any thoughts or reactions.

Meanwhile, after a brilliant break in europe, and making new friends at the Paris American Academy this last week (a guest of travel writer Rolf Potts), I am starting back towards the States.