The Next American Dream - poster

The film is set to air nationwide in April 2009 . We’re honored to be working on this project with the great folks at Inland Sea Productions and Take 2 in Kansas City. The topic, urban planning and development, sustainability, and human scale architecture is very important to us.

Every scoring project poses new creative challenges. For this one it’s conveying the sense of humanity while thinking about the sound of America’s future development.

The most exciting part of this project is that it’s part of a program of community planning throughout the nation sponsored by several organizations. The film marks the starting point to exploring how we live in our country in the future. To be a part of the dialog that may prime a discussion of how we live in our built environment is humbling and exciting at the same time.

As more information comes available we’ll be sure to keep you updated. For now, you can click the link above to view the trailer for the film.

Around here we’re fortunate enough to call Alejandro Escovedo a friend. If you know Al, or his story, you know he’s had a rough patch — if you can call nearly dying a “rough patch.”

Recently Al performed his new song from his upcoming album with Bruce Springstein live in Houston. Yeah, it’s really cool to see Al playing with the Boss and Steven Vansandt. But what’s really stunning is seeing my friend having such a great time. Listening to the unmastered mixes of his upcoming album one thing is clear; that sense of enjoying music again is alive in Al’s music as much as Al is.

“Every once in a while let your love show
Every once in a while, honey let your love go

Nobody gets hurt”

When you get beyond 30 – hopefully – you get beyond those to bigger dreams; moving people with your music, saving a life with your words, imparting some bit of life’s lessons, or even just bringing a smile.

In the business of art we get wound up tightly in the perils of thinking that youth is a metal stronger than wisdom. Maybe what we truly should remember is that feeling is a scion more precious than ambition.

Nothing illustrates this better than the Young at Heart Chorus. Watch this video and see what I mean. Watch it all the way through; if you still have dry eyes maybe you should re-evaluate your approach to your craft, if not your life.

Here are a couple of links to the video:

For High-quality Quicktime Video (36meg) click here.
For a slightly lesser quality, FLASH video (18meg) click here.

To the inevitable questions:

What’s it all about?
Often in this business of creative work, people will overlook quality for expense. And by that I don’t mean they’ll take lower quality for less money. Quite the contrary; people will often settle for lower quality as long as it costs more. I used to say, “yeah, they don’t really do good work, but they have a really expensive coffee maker in the lobby.”

Well, the coffee maker doesn’t shoot in HD, it doesn’t score your film, it doesn’t design your brochure, and while a San Marco in the hands of a competent barista may spit out wonderful crema, it sure isn’t going to spit out great ideas.

We’ve always had this little coffee maker around the studio. You see them a lot in vietnamese restaurants. They make really good coffee and they only cost about five bucks. But they only work if you are patient and if you expect something different than you get with the million-dollar coffee maker.

Who did that amazing drawing?
The drawing was done by the lead actress, juj. Our chief designer and associate configuration coordinator.

Do you really use coffee for paint?
All the time. And barbecue sauce, and berries, and mushrooms, and actual paints too.

Who did the music?
I (John) wrote and performed the score. It was recorded here in the studio.

Why is it in 6/8? (IS it in 6/8?)
The music is composed and played for 6/8 because the coffee drops fall into the glass in 6/8. Some have said the song is in 3/4 or a classic waltz. It’s actually a slow 6/8. It’s not just about the beat and tempo as some might think. The time signature is also about the bar phrasing of the melody. And isn’t the point that there are no rules?