Impromptu, on the street, interview with Sara Loerlein... singer and guitarist for The Breathing Process and Deadform.

www.facebook.com/thebreathingprocessusa

www.facebook.com/Deadform

Sara Loerlein ... singer and guitarist for The Breathing Process and Deadform

Hillary... prior to leaving for Los Angeles in the summer of 2010.

Hillary... Time To Go!

Hillary's Journey (the long version)

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Amazing Grace. How sweet is the sound.

Amazing Grace, 
recorded in the notable All Hallows Church in the Gospel Oak section of London. Sung by the opera star Renee Flemming, accompanied by world renowned violinist Mark O'Connor. The violin made in Portland, Maine.

So, what I'm doing now is I'm cleaning the cross here, to help create that curve. I'm using a very small plane. And I'm swerving across. Almost like lines on a TV set, creating a curve, one line after the other. And I can tell from the sound that the plane makes.

Jonathan 
Cooper is a violin maker and a tradesman. 

He builds his violins to match the unique needs of musicians like Mark O'Connor.

You know, one of the more interesting parts of the trade is that you have to be, you have to be fluent in a number of different things. You have at least have a basic understand of a lot of different things. You have to understand metallurgy to an extent to understand your tools. You have to understand art to understand form, you have to understand sound to certainly deal with what you're creating and what people are telling you. 

I think that's very, very important, and history to know the context of where these things come from and where they're going. Because certainly the violin is an icon. It's clear what it is.

Jonathan is good at what he does. He's created over 325 instruments since the mid-eighties. At 15,000 a piece, they're an investment. Artists like Alex and Tatiana Hargreaves along with recording artist Bruce Molsky use his instruments to perform both classical and Bluegrass music, Playing them as both violin and fiddle. 

In 1801, taking on. In 1801 taking on. In 1801

You know, they are essentially. It is the same instrument, just a different name. 
It's the same body shape. The same size. There is no difference. It's just a term. In most people's minds, fiddle has come to mean, you know, maybe more country oriented or folk oriented kind of piece of the instrument. 

But the really the name is interchangeable. I mean, there are violinists who call it their fiddle, and there are fiddle players who call their violin and so. 

With all of Jonathan's success. You might expect him to be a little taken with his talent. But he's not. He's grateful for his trade, and he's enthusiastic about the work.

I just extremely fortunate that I can, you know, get up every day and do something I'm interested in. I'm thrilled by it. You know, every day for me to work on it is thrilled by it. I don't ever come in here look at it and go, "Oh God, I got to make a violin. Heaven help me." You know, I always look at it like I can't wait to do that. 

I got this idea I want to try out. I have this varnish thing I want to work on. I still remember how that last thing I did, I want to like see if I can alter that a little bit. All violin makers, we are always, at least everyone I know, is always in pursuit of making a better instrument. And, you know, I just feel grateful to have the time to do it, to have discovered it early enough in my life so that I could do it.

But Jonathan not only builds violins, he plays them. Does he think of himself as a fiddler or a violinist? 

 
Oh, I'm a fiddle player. I mean, I'm not a trained violist, not a classical violinist at all. I was self taught, I was a guitar player. And you know the odd thing about it is, that a lot of times when we'll get together in some sort of collegial situation where there'll be a whole lot of violin makers who are working for classical players as well. We'll sit around and play fiddle tunes for the most part, or a lot of us will. 

Some of us will go off and read quartets with other players. But a lot of violin makers are full time fiddle players or Bluegrass fiddle players. 

I like that fiddle. 
What was the name of that? 

That was Booth Shot Lincoln. 


Oh okay. 


Yeah. That's a nice part to be able to make something that you can play. 


From Portland, Maine. 
This is Scott Bliss.

Jonathan Cooper... Violinmaker

Multimillion Dollar Settlement... The Allegheny Front (Week of 6/8/2011

The Allegheny Front -- Environmental Radio for Western Pennsylvania for the week of 6/22/11.
---
SpeakerText Transcript of the Track:
When we think about environmental problems, it's easy to focus on the big ones like water quality and air pollution. Yet we sometimes forget about the everyday issues like litter in our neighborhoods. Here's a profile of one man's effort to clean the streets of Pittsburgh and set an example for all of us the Allegheny Front's Scott Bliss has the story. 

Boris Weinstein is a spry 79 years old. He's wearing a t-shirt and has plastic grocery bags stuffed into the pockets of his baggy shorts. He's pulled on a pair of work gloves, and he's holding one of those long handled grabbers. You know, the one's you use to reach for things? He's dressed for picking up litter. 

Something he does two or three times a week, every week in his Pittsburgh neighborhood. 

I want you to take a look. We're gonna do this street. We're gonna tear up the coat but look how clean it already is. Okay, that's what so wonderful about it. Now some people would say "Well if it's so clean, why are you picking up litter?" Well that's why it's so clean, because I pick up litter. 

Boris believes that it's the willingness of the few to go out and pick up the litter left by the many, that makes all the difference in keeping a neighborhood, or a community, or a city clean. 

There's 13,000 people that live in Shadyside. 13,000 people do not have to pick up someone else's litter. And if I have two or three people, ideally, in each of 17 zones, that's like 55, 60 people. You can keep a community clean.

Boris's passion for litter isn't new. In 2002, he outlined his original plan for a clean community in a manifesto he called "Citizens Against Litter". In 2005, he formed an organization of the same name, and later a website to spearhead their efforts Citizens Against Litter is the organization that I founded, which is a Voluntary Organization. 

We are not a 501(c)3. We have no funds. I believe that picking up litter is not about money. We don't need logo t-shirts, logo hats. All we need is to bend and pick up. That's it.

And Boris does a lot of bending and picking up, spending between one and two hours at it each time he goes out. He's divided up all of the neighborhoods in the city into zones, just the size he estimates one person can handle. His personal zone is an area 5 blocks long by 2 blocks wide, which includes some of the business district as well. 

Now look at this. Look. Now, someone was saying it's private property. I know it's private property, but no one is asking me to get off. These are lotteries, a big contributor, also parking, parking lot. Boy this is never like this. This is very unusual. Someone cleaned out their car.

For Morris, it all comes down to personal responsibility, something he often talks about, but more than just his words. 

It's really all about something you can see firsthand, in his actions in the effort he makes every week in his personal war against litter. For the Allegheny Front, I am Scott Bliss. 


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Boris Weinstein... One man's war against litter

My father past away in January 2012… a few days short of his 94th birthday. In the process of cleaning out his house, I came across a 5” thick folder of faded, old documents. The documents represent a chronological history of his service in the US Army from April 25, 1941 until March 31, 1946. Orders, receipts, and correspondence that provide a peek into the life of a 23 year old young man as he progressed from Private to Corporal, Lieutenant, Captain, and finally Major during World War II.

The Day After Pearl Harbor

Carla is a #1Billboard songwriter and ASCAP award winner. She starred on Broadway in RENT. Carla just released her first CD, ‘All This Time’. She is a prolific and heartfelt singer/songwriter in the vein of Sara Bareilles or Sarah McLaughlan. She’s #1 on the Reverbnation chart for Pittsburgh, PA.

CARLA BIANCO SINGER SONGWRITER

Would you like a free copy of my 11 page PDF, Introduction to Podcasting -- The Basics?  Reach out to me on twitter @wsblissjr or visit my website at www.wsblissjr.com 

You can download the document here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx-_3CGZ9--PR1I1TUZWZjljZW8/view?usp=sharing 

Introduction to Podcasting -- The Basics

For over thirty years Sue Abramson has experimented with both traditional and alternative photographic methods in connection with the environmental landscape. Widely exhibited, her work has been acquired for many permanent collections, including The Carnegie Museum of Art, The Polaroid Corporation, University of Pittsburgh, Biblioteque Nationale, and Blue Cross of Western Pennsylvania. Her exhibited work has been nationally and internationally shown. Featured exhibitions include Gestures 15 at the Mattress Factory, Digital to Daguerreotype at The Carnegie Museum of Art, No Mirrors at Rayko Photo Center and Connecting Pittsburgh at Gallerie Nahore, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic. She has received awards and commissions from Silver Eye Center for Photography, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, and Pittsburgh Society of Artists. She is Associate Professor of Photography at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.

SUE ABRAMSON ... Artist and Teacher

The story of the Halifax Explosion - 12/6/1917... and my first attempt at editing in Hindenburg Journalist PRO

Halifax... and a Christmas tree for Boston

You would probably have to be living on another planet to not know of the impending holiday release of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Sony Pictures.

Directed by David Fincher who’s work includes The Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and even The Social Network, among many others… the movie is an American adaptation of the first book in Stieg Larsson’s so called Millennium Trilogy... and certainly one of the most anticipated movies of the year.

As the first book in the series, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo introduces us to Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative reporter who undertakes a private assignment into the 40-year-old disappearance of a young woman from one of Sweden’s wealthiest families.

Filled with the intricacies of Blomkvist’s own life and those of the violent, misogynist, right-wing Vanger family… the book, more importantly, introduces us to Lisbeth Salander… the real star of the trilogy.

Described in The New York Times as an androgynous, punkish, computer hacker… Lisbeth is also said to be… an avenging angel: razor sharp and tough as tungsten, a tiny freak of nature able to bring a man twice her size to his knees… 

Psychologist, Dr. Robin Rosenberg goes so far as to suggests that Lisbeth is a classic literary superhero… who experiences posttraumatic growth and throughout the first book transitions to mission… to protector and avenger… much in the way that that Bruce Wayne became Batman or Peter Parker… Spiderman.

Non the less… if you’ve succumb to fandom… you’re well aware that there are already Swedish movie versions of all three of the books and that Lisbeth to date has been defined by actress Noomi Rapace Ra-PAHSS.

Fincher though has chosen 26-year-old Rooney Mara to star as Lisbeth along with Daniel Craig as Blomkvist.

Mara… who you may remember as Mark Zuckerberg’s girlfriend in the very beginning of The Social Network… is, interestingly enough, the descendant of two American football dynasties… she’s the great-granddaughter of Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney, Sr… while her paternal grandfather, Wellington Mara was the long-time co-owner of the New York Giants.  She grew up in historic Bedford, NY in Westchester County and graduated from New York University… she is, in addition, the sister of actress Kate Mara… and all in all… a far cry from Lisbeth Salander… which, hopefully, will make her transition all the more interesting…

Aware of the Swedish movies Mara says her focus has been on the book and not Noomie’s prior performance…

Director Fincher, known for his extreme attention to detail, can apparently be a rather contentious character as well… amongst the hype leading up to the release of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo… is his reported anger at David Denby the movie critic at The New Yorker… who apparently jumped the gun and released his review earlier than Fincher had allowed and, in the process, earned himself a ban from any future press viewings of Fincher’s work… non the less, Denby’s review was positive…

The score for the movie was done by Trent Reznor, the Nine Inch Nails frontman and now film score composer, along with his frequent collaborator Atticus Ross.  Six of the tracks have already been released for free on the Internet…

The film is due for widespread release on December 21st.

And in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania… I’m Scott Bliss.


The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

BLISS:  This is the sad and yet intriguing story of Londoner Joyce Carol Vincent… 
In January 2006, with thousands of pounds in rent past due, a Metropolitan Housing Trust officer arrived at a small North London flat with a locksmith in tow.  They drilled the lock and entered the flat to find a large pile of unopened mail just behind the door some of it postmarked as early as November 2003.  The heat and electricity were still on and the television was playing…
Unfortunately… a little further into this one room bedsit… in front of the TV and surrounded by Christmas presents still in the process of being wrapped… lay the body… now the almost skeletal remains… of a woman dead apparently for a little over two years.
There had been no missing persons report… and although she had a family including several sisters… and maybe even a former finance… no one was searching for Joyce Vincent or seemingly worried about her.
Why had it taken so long for anyone to find her?  Why wasn’t anyone alarmed by what must have been her sudden disappearance?  
Even when her neighbor, Michael Dobbs, noticed something odd he never reported it… saying later: “I did notice a kind of rotten smell but the bins downstairs are strong and the stairwells smell with junkies.”
During the Coroner’s inquiry a pathologist told the court that the body was so badly decomposed that dental records had to be used to identify it… and that, as a result, it was impossible to determine an actual cause of death.  Meanwhile, detectives told the court there wasn’t any evidence of foul play… at least not that they could find.  At the time, Detective Inspector Michael Ainslie of the Metropolitan Police said… “This is a real tragedy and a very upsetting case”.
But major London newspapers… The Times, The Sun, The Telegraph along with the BBC covered the story and they suggest… that Joyce was not elderly or infirmed but rather an attractive and relatively young, 38 year old woman who, at one point, may have even worked for a major advertising agency.  They go on to suggest however that Ms. Vincent may have also been the victim of domestic violence and may have been in her flat with assistance from social services for battered women.  
In any case… there wasn’t a lot to go on at that time and the case was finally recorded as an “open” verdict… and the news cycle moved on.

BLISS: But… if we leave it here, we’ve only learned a part of the story…
Carol Morley… a London based documentary filmmaker had followed the news coverage on Joyce Vincent as well and came to a conclusion that her life should not pass without more notice… or more answers to her mystery… so she began an all out effort to find anyone who may have known Joyce…
MORLEY: I knew that I didn’t want somebody to become just an anonymous headline anybody’s life deserves more than a kind of grim headline I think so that was the starting point but of course as a filmmaker and finding stuff out about her she became you know I mean I was obsessed…

Morley advertised throughout London… in Newspapers and by posting flyers even by advertising on the sides of London cabs in an attempt to locate anyone who may have known Joyce Vincent.
MORLEY:  My responsibility is to in the end to bring an audience a story that can be told in the most compelling way possible and I think with this story it was really important to have the real testimonies but also it was really important to bring Joyce to life and so for me it was about the testimonies and I kind of linked to the real in the fact that Joyce really did exist and this isn’t made up and this isn’t you know a work of fiction but on the other hand film is so beautiful at you know creating feeling and emotion.

Morley’s efforts were successful and she was ultimately able to identify and interview a number of Joyce’s friends, coworkers, and even family as she filled in the blanks of her life.  While not able to answer some of the questions surrounding her death… Morley ultimately created a dramatic documentary that honors Joyce Vincent’s life and brings some closure to the “open” verdict of her death.
MORLEY:  I wanted to make a beautiful legacy and not some kind of you know let’s blame someone let’s find people let’s put the people on camera that don’t want to be on camera it’s like what’s the point of that… so, I don’t like to make films that are really miserable ah so I would never have made a miserable film but then when I started finding out about Joyce people where like she had a wicked sense of humor so I knew it was really important to imbue it with life and you know and people said she lit up a room and so for me I didn’t really want to concentrate on the ending which was the three years she was forgotten I wanted to bring her to life and really look at what that life was and that Joyce didn’t remain in the margins you know that… you know I brought her into everybody’s perspective…

Morley’s film… Dreams of a Life… was released in December 2011… and is currently being screened throughout the UK.
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania… I’m Scott Bliss
Dreams of a Life http://dreamsofalife.com/ 
“Undone” by Alice Temple from her album “Be With You In A Minute” as featured in the film.


The sad yet intriguing life of Londoner - Joyce Carol Vincent

Remote interview via Skype... or... How I force my kids to help me with my projects!

See -- Hillary's Journey (the long version) for background.

Hillary Interview... via Skype

Canada is a country of about 35 million people and an overwhelming 80% of them have access to the Internet.  Toronto, Canada’s largest city is a hotbed of online activity including social media and blogging.  Joining us today via Skype is one of Toronto’s most colorful bloggers… Raymi Lauren White… better known as Raymi The Minx…  raymitheminx.com

Raymi The Minx... Toronto Blogger Extraordinaire

Joining us today from his office in Birmingham, UK is Andrew Dubber…
 
Andrew is an academic, author, public speaker, blogger, music reviewer, radio and music industry consultant, podcaster, record collector, DJ, and producer.  He is Reader in Music Industries Innovation at Birmingham City University, he’s an advisor to Bandcamp.com… the author of both The 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online and Music in the Digital Age as well the founder of New Music Strategies – a music think tank and strategy group. 

Scott Bliss is an independent media/radio producer in Pittsburgh, PA (USA) and a proud member of The Association of Independents in Radio (AIR).  You can reach him at wsblissjr@gmail.com 


Andrew Dubber... Music in the Digital Age

My interview with Nashville singer-songwriter Brooke Annibale.

Brooke Annibale... Indie in a Digital Age

I’ve read a lot of books and I've done a little radio... I play with multimedia.

wsblissjr

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