Blog

Standard

March 26, 2012 by Ben

Lizzie Borden the Show

A publicity image for the show

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you may remember last year when I did some publicity photos for a new songwriters showcase. My favorite set of songs from the show was from Lizzie Borden, a new rock musical. I played in the band and worked with the production team to create publicity images for the show:

From the Songwriters Showcase at Baldwin-Wallace

About a year later, B-W announced they would be doing a full-fledged production of the show at PlayhouseSquare. I was again asked to help create publicity and marketing materials for the show. This show is so much fun to work on because the subject matter is so different from most musicals. I was glad to be able to work with Shannon again as Lizzie, and with the rest of the cast.

The poster created for PlayhouseSquare

I also was asked to create a “behind-the-scenes” video for the production. Check it out below:

Standard

February 10, 2012 by owen

New Face of Vinyl Heads to Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in March; Oh, and a Long Needed Update As Well

Let me begin by apologizing for the lack of updates—after returning from NYC and Chicago, Ben and I found ourselves in a pile of work that we are still trying to catch up on.

Nevertheless, the trips out to the big apple and the windy city were a huge success. We took in a lot of material and we are both eager to visit the west coast and wrap up the traveling. Soon enough we can actually start to write this thing!

Ben and I met some great people in both cities–in and out of record shops. As someone who has spent the majority of his life in Cleveland, I can already notice the stark contrasts in vinyl culture between all three cities and that makes me even more excited to report our findings for the final book.

While not giving away too much (we need to save the details for the book), here are some sneak peeks at the places we visited:

Halcyon the Shop located in Brooklyn boasts an interior that you won’t find at any other record store in the country—it’s like stepping into a Zen garden. When not functioning as a night club of sorts, the record store is filled with people from all over the world looking for dance, electronic and house music.

Making our way out to the East Village near NoHo, we stopped into Good Records on 5th street to chat with John, the owner. A music lover and a Scotch aficionado, he had an interesting take on youth’s new found interest in the format. The small basement type store featured intoxicating antique wood floors that moaned with pleasure as you move from rack to rack flipping through almost exclusively used and out of print pressings.

Fast-forward about 800 miles and now we are in Chicago; more specifically the neat and tidy Ukrainian Village to have a look around Permanent Records. Lance, the owner, was away at his L.A. location (which Ben and I will be stopping at while we are in L.A.) getting things set up. Lance has been a great help in spreading the word about the project.

While the trips proved to be slightly exhausting and quite a lot of work (the bitter cold weather didn’t help), the support we’ve received has been overwhelming, and everyone’s enthusiasm will make sharing this book even more rewarding than we originally anticipated.

OK, now that NYC and Chicago are out of the way we get to enjoy some warmer weather. Portland is our next stop on March 5th; we will spend about three days there until heading down to San Francisco, and then finally Los Angeles.

While we don’t have a final list of stores for the west coast, I’m working on it and will release the locations when they are set in stone. We are still seeking individuals in these cities aged 15-25 who would be interested in having their photographs taken and featured in the book. If you or someone you know would be interested, fill out our survey at the project homepage (http://BenMeadors.com/vinyl) and provide as much information as you can. If you have any questions, comments, or overall complaints, write me via e-mail: vinyl@benmeadors.com

Thank you to everyone in Chicago and New York City who were so accommodating to us—we couldn’t have done it without you.

California here we come!

-Owen (and Ben)

Oh yea, follow us on Twitter (@newfaceofvinyl), Tumblr (newfaceofvinyl.tumblr.com), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/thenewfaceofvinyl) and like us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/newfaceofvinyl)

 

Standard

January 29, 2012 by Ben

Week in Review

Sorry for the lack of updates concerning the New Face of Vinyl. Owen and I have been particularly busy with the first month back at University and with planning out the trip to the west coast. It’s coming soon, I promise.

In the meantime, I’ve been prepping for a regional production of Spring Awakening. I’m playing bass in the band, as well as photographing the show. It’s one of my favorite musical theatre productions, mostly because of the grit and agressive nature of the show which isn’t common for music theatre. Shooting the rehearsal was quite tricky, as there was hardly any light at all. I had the ISO cranked to 6400 on my 5D, and it was at times a bit too dark still. But lightroom’s noise reduction is getting pretty darn good, so I was able to get some usable shots at any rate.

As well as spending most hours of my day rehearsing my parts for SA, I’ve been catching up on publicity photos for the college. Mr. Marmalade is in the final stages of rehearsal over at the theatre department and I shot some images for it earlier in the week. The story is about a young girl with a surprisingly adult mindscape, who conjurs up an imaginary friend with a penchant for cocaine and abuse. Pictured below is young Lucy with her imaginary friend Mr. Marmalade’s personal assistant, also imaginary.

Finally, this week snow came to Cleveland, in what seems like the mildest winter in years, and I was out in it shooting headshots with Zach. We braved the weather and got some great shots. Look for pictures next week from the dress rehearsal of Spring Awakening!

← Older posts