Welcome to the blog of Dennis J. Woodyard - Journeyman Artist, and Dragonfly Entertainment. Former TV animation producer/director, storyboard artist, character designer, writer, concept artist, Flip book designer, and other professional credits.
Showing posts with label Warped Sky Band. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Warped Sky Band. Show all posts
This Sunday Music Muse Day find us celebrating Mother's Day. So. Happy Mother's Day to all the mom, past, present and future. We wouldn't be here without you.
Today's selection presents a hit, and a miss. First up is Bill Frisell Intercontinentals which finds the eclectic guitarist teaming up with international group of musicians to explore areas beyond his Americana outings of the past. Bill Frisell's musical excursions are always worth joining, this is no exception. Also the package graphics will warm a audiophile's heart.
My second selection is Aaron Shragge & Ben Monder The Key is in the Window is kind of a miss for me. I picked this up on the strength of Ben Monder's name, and Shragge's use of the shakuhachi flutes. The japanese flutes reminded of my friend Richard Miceli, who used play it occasionally. Although an online review gives this 3-stars saying, "This is a good compilation of meditational music full of great flute, trumpet and guitar work." I found it meandering and boring. I'll have to give another try before casting in the recycle bin.
Again, here's another original tune is part of my Warped Sky - Stray Clouds project. Warped Sky - Stray Cloud, is a combination of songs from old tapes and new renditions of original tunes written and played by me in the 1980s. Mostly it's for my friends, Richard Miceli and Rodney Means, the old Warped Sky Band, "band" being a very loose interpretation of the word. Besides us totally butchering musical favorites of our by Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and songs like "Peter Gun - Theme", we liked to play original tunes and songs which Richard labeled best, "Noise Jazz, or Art Noise". I'm starting to upload my post-Warped Sky Band tunes online with the help of Band in a Box to full them out.
Band in the Box lets me translate rough ideas that existed as chord charts, sometimes just lyrics into a full rough. It even prints a fake book style chart.
It's fun working on these old tunes. I not aiming for perfection of musical execution, just "close enough for
jazz" as they say, to ease my creative clutter. Enjoy.
Well, how embarrassing, it has been a solid year since my last post and I'm still on the same subject...New Year's Resolutions. Well to be fair, I've been using my Facebook page for a most of my musings this past year. Truth be told I like making resolution lists. New Year is a time to take stock, review, and set goals. Getting back to writing in this blog is one of the them.
So here goes:
Write in this Dragonfly View Blog at least weekly. Mostly likely on the weekends, especially the Sunday Music Muse day post. I'll use this blog for more creative stuff and use Facebook for more personal, family stuff. Some things post to my Facebook site can fit here as well.
Continue creative projects, complete unfinished ones like the Warrior in the Mist flip book. Revised and update old projects, like Ruby, Galactic Gumshoe short to their remixed soundtrack. At the least keep drawing in my lunch time sketch books. In the past year I have been drawing in my lunch time sketch book. Here are the best of the current book.
Not Kim K.
Read more books. At least try to read a book a month. That is a lowest bar I can set with being totally embarrassed if I don't do it. Here's a pile of book unread books I pulled from my shelves. These will be a start.
Upgrade my Dragonflyent.net. Which means switch it from earthlink to squarespace. I've started the Squarespace site. More details to come.
Make more music. Actually, I've been playing more guitar since I broke down and bought a new one, the Ibanez Montage (pictured on the right). I'd like to make good recordings of at least two original songs of mine. There are some related music projects like transferring some old music from cassette and reel to reel to CD.
Post more to youtube to build that channel as revenue generator. I realize I missed uploading videos and the ones I have do generate cash every couple of months.
Prepare for retirement from the Animation Guild. Mostly filing papers on time.
Finally as in my last resolution post "I guess my main resolution is be more more productive. Be a better Human Being, if it's not too late."
Here a batch of new videos I posted this past week or so. They run the gambit from Dragonfly Flipz books to a special animator debut and showcase.
First up is the Alien Parade,- Part 1 - Web Flipz™ based on the animated CGI short of Den Beauvais, award winning Comic (Aliens), Fantasy and Video Game artist (Vanguard, Saga of Heroes). Den and I recently renewed our licensing agreement, so, I'll continue selling this, and making more Alien Parade flip books. This flip book is on my ebay store, Dragonfly Emporium.
Next up is my Dragonfly Web Flipz™ based on my movie of the American Presidents slide show on the White House web site (www.whitehouse.gov). This is a test printing, as such, the second side has some images out of order. I thinking of doing a four flip book set (if I can get permission to use the images from the slide show), with added featured when you group the book's back covers together. I'll post them soon.
The Magus, Robot Fighter flip book was something I found in my old art files. I made it from an promo video I did on my Amiga Computer with Deluxe Paint. If enough Valiant Comic fans show an interest in it and post a comment, maybe I'll do a free download version, since I don't know who owns the rights to Magus at this point.
Here's my Sound Sketch #4 - Just a Thought, A short piece I wrote on April 26, 1980 (I had the date written down on chord sheet) I imagined it as being the calm music piece to follow a hard rocking tune to end a live gig at a small club. Someday , I may get up the nerve to play at a open mike night at one of our local clubs or coffee house. Until then, I just share it here. Enjoy.
Last, but not least, is this debut animation by my 11 year son. In his words: "This is a film about a Giant Lobster that eats pig-stealing aliens, and there is a surprise at the end!!!" It was done one at the 2009 Brighton schools Festival of Ideas (stop-motion animation workshop). Keep in mind the class was only an hour long. Great job!
In keeping with my Music Muse Sunday efforts, here's a original tune, "More or Les", my third Sound Sketch just posted on youtube.
The "Les" in the title refers to a old friend of Les Bernstein, not Les Paul the great guitar player, and father (inventor) of the solid body electric guitar, although it could be dedicated to him, also. This jazzy tune was inspired my a jam session I have with Les (B.) when we work together at animation company back in late '70s. Les was a much better guitar player than I was, at the time. But it was fun trying to keep up with him. Les is now a independent film producer/director. I hope he still plays. I'm working on some lyrics for this tune and longer version with a break for solos. Check back for it.
I'm getting braver about posting my music and showcasing my guitar play, as limited as it is. Next up,...a vocal. There one thing youth and old age share is a sense of fearlessness. Youth because they're too dumb to know better, and old people because they just do care. Besides, it been said there's no fool, like an old fool. Enjoy.
