Comment on the POV site, or on my blog if you feel so inclined.

After riding my heavy, old mountain bike around the city for a couple years, it was time to get something lighter and road-friendly. In May, I rode in the TD Bank 5-borough bike tour, and while it wasn’t necessarily difficult to go 42+ miles on a mountain bike, I knew that if I ever wanted to ride in a longer distance tour, I would need to get a real road warrior.

A friend of mine had told me about 718 Cyclery in Park Slope, Brooklyn and that you could not only customize your bike down to each individual part, but also hand build it with 718′s owner, Joe. I set up an initial appointment with Joe via the online calendar on his website.

After meeting to discuss the kind of bike I was looking to build, Joe set up a parts & price list (using Google Docs), and we were able to tailor the project to my budget. As per Joe’s suggestion, I went with a vintage Raleigh Grand Prix racer frame from the seventies, paired with brand new parts. Using a vintage frame, in my case, was both an economical and aesthetic choice. Also, there’s nothing I like more than customizing a product, part for part by hand. (Truth be told, Joe did most of the hard work, but I was there helping out and taking mental notes for the next time I build a bike on my own.)

The fact that 718 Cyclery has a comprehensive website, let alone an interactive calendar for booking your appointment, maintaining your parts list, and emailing questions, sets this company apart from many other bike shops. In fact, 718c wasn’t a shop at all. Purchasing and building my own bike was a unique experience that was both fun and educational. And once all the parts arrived at Joe’s shop, the actual build time was only two hours. The best part was being able to ride the bike home after all the anticipation!

Check out some pictures of my bike from the build, originally posted on the 718c website: here.

Bye (Trailer) from Anthony Morrison on Vimeo.

Hello from the road! Well, not exactly the road, but this is in fact my first remote blogging experience. I’m in Chicago for the next few days on business, but I wanted to write about last night’s Cinereach premiere of Anthony Morrison’s Bye. I did the final mix on this short documentary on Jayden, a two and a half year old boy diagnosed with autism, and the early intervention program he attends in NYC.

The movie premiered at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema in New York, and has already won a special fellowship award from the Cinereach organization. Seeing (or hearing, in my case) your work on the big screen is a bit daunting, but also incredibly thrilling. Typically, when I’m mixing or composing for a film, I work with a small quicktime video file. Most of the online videos I compose stay in a smaller picture size. But last night, Jayden was blown up two stories tall! I did at one point wonder whether this was the same documentary I was working on weeks earlier (of course, it was).

For more information on Anthony Morrison’s Bye, go to the Cinereach page or www.meddlerfilms.com

I will most likely post an update on this movie as soon as it goes to festival, so stay tuned.

The first entity – mixing and composing music for picture. Very soon I will announce the official launch of my new company, The Waffle House music library. The Waffle House is a boutique music library intended for clients in TV, online video, film, radio, etc.

Recently I’ve been mixing three films. One of the films, a short documentary about early autism intervention programs, will show in New York very soon. I’ll post an update to the blog as soon as I find out where the film will play across the country.

The second entity – web media. I am now a Partner Media Manager for Google in NYC. Usually, I keep the blog focused on my music/design side, but it might be an interesting turn of events to involve some Google-related blogging. As I get situated with my new job at Google, I’ll figure out how some Google blogging can play a role in kevinsiwoff.com.

Thanks to all my friends, family, and colleagues for the support during these amazing, changing times!

As promised, I have some new work to show off. I recently wrote music for a series of New Balance videos called New Balance 365. The ad campaign involves a flash website as well as an iPhone app, showcasing 1 video per day for a year (hence, 365). You can go to www.newbalance365.com and browse all of the videos, or you can watch just the ones I wrote by visiting the links below.

http://www.newbalance365.com/#/archive/2010-01-28
http://www.newbalance365.com/#/archive/2010-02-04
http://www.newbalance365.com/#/archive/2010-02-08

If you feel inclined to do so, please share the videos on Facebook, “like” the videos on the official newbalance365 site, retweet this post, comment, etc.

Purpose

Last year I wrote and produced a podcast series for the New Jersey Repertory Company. The goal of the project was multifaceted. The folks at NJ Rep wanted to develop online content that would work in conjunction with “traditional” marketing initiatives, driving traffic to NJ Rep’s main website and more importantly to their box office. I was excited by the opportunity to create an online identity for their company. I was using sound as my main tool for ushering in the new marketing initiative, but I wasn’t just looking at the project in terms of its marketing potential. This was a chance for creative content to augment – not replace, the theater experience.

We decided that the podcast should exist in monthly installments, consisting of interviews with directors, playwrights, and actors. Before production commenced, I started researching what other repertory companies were doing with their online resources. However, I realized that there wasn’t really any precedence in the theater world for what we were trying to do online. Instead, my models of inspiration came from both The Metropolitan Museum of Art and WNYC’s podcasts. I liked that you could either listen to the podcast by itself – before, or after an event, and get a behind-the-scenes look at the show’s production.

Anatomy of the podcast

The podcast structure involves a clear introduction by the executive producers at NJ Rep, an interview portion, and a brief conclusion layered over music.

In the introduction, we developed a couple slogans that could be used in other marketing materials at a later time – Repetition being the key to establishing a consistent campaign.

[podcast]http://kevinsiwoff.com/media_blog/Gabe_stagelesstravel.mp3[/podcast]
In the example above, we used the slogan “the stage less traveled”.

[podcast]http://kevinsiwoff.com/media_blog/Suz_intro.mp3[/podcast]
In this example above, SuzAnne Barabas, artistic director, introduced herself and emphasized the series title, “NJ Rep Online”.

Musically, rather than composing a single theme song for the podcast series, my goal for each podcast was to compose short cues that shared similar instrumentation, genre, etc., but also (and more importantly) related to the mood of the individual play. I wanted the music to be an auditory preview of the play, but I didn’t want the message to overshadow the content of the podcast interview.

[podcast]http://kevinsiwoff.com/media_blog/amespodcast_music.mp3[/podcast]
Music from podcast episode #2 – bass and piano jazz riff, contemplative and somber.

[podcast]http://kevinsiwoff.com/media_blog/housewives_music.mp3[/podcast]
Music from podcast episode #6 – drums, bass, piano, saxophone jazz riff, excitement and change, post WWII America.

[podcast]http://kevinsiwoff.com/media_blog/zayd_music.mp3[/podcast]
Music from podcast episode #3 – violin, bass, drums remix of a Franz Schubert lieder, ominous and manic, a contemporary update to 19th century music.

For the interview portion of the podcast, I sat down with playwrights, a director, and various actors, and we talked about their creative inspirations and work flow. Armed with a Sony handheld recorder and a pair of headphones, I conducted interviews on the rehearsal stage as well as less ideal locations. For one interview I sat in the lobby of The Julliard School with playwright Zayd Dohrn, balancing the “ding” of the building’s elevator while trying to maintain a well recorded conversation.

My main goal for the interviews was to edit them down to two and a half minute pieces, so that we could captivate listeners attention, but also leave them wanting more information.

At the end of each podcast, SuzAnne Barabas (artistic director) elicited a call to action from listeners by detailing NJ Rep’s subscription plan, layered over background music.

The New Jersey Rep podcast received a lot of great feedback, and helped start an experimental marketing campaign for an experimental theater company. If you are interested in listening to some of the podcasts, you can stream them from the podcast site here: NJ Rep Online

Podcast Episode #2 Ames Adamson
[podcast]http://kevinsiwoff.com/media_blog/amespodcast-020209.mp3[/podcast]

Scrabble – Good With Words? from Joey Dello Russo on Vimeo.

Short Form Sound Design/Mix Reel 11/09 from Kevin Siwoff on Vimeo.

I received news today that an album I edited for the guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima will be released in November on ZOHO Music.

You can go to to: http://www.zohomusic.com/cds_detail.php?cds_id=82 for official release info. Or if you don’t want to click on the link to see the credits, I’ve reproduced them here:

tracks:
1. Xango – gt. trio, bass, perc (5)
2. Merengue – gt., cuatro (3)
3. Veleiro – gt. Trio (5)
4. Modinha – gt., harmonica (3)
5. Batuque – solo (1)
6. Caminho de Pedra – gt., harmonica (1)
7. El Marabino – gt., cuatro (3)
8. Seis Por Derecho – gt., cuatro (3)
9. Prelude No. 2 – solo (1)
10. Seis Milonga – solo (1)
11. Danza del Altiplano – solo (1)
12. Guarija Criolla – solo (1)
13. Cajita de Música – solo (1)
14. Canhoto – gt., mandolin, perc. (4)
15. Implicante – gt., mandolin, perc. (4)
16. Cancion Caroreña – solo (1)
17. Pais de Abanico – solo (2)
18. Nunca te olvido – solo (2)
19. Escorregando – gt. trio, perc. (5)
20. Fantasy on a Hawaiian Lullaby – solo (1)

(1) Solo Guitar
recorded by Pedro Rivera Toledo at PRT STUDIO, Puerto Nuevo, Puerto Rico, June 2008.

(2) Additional solo guitar
recorded by Malcolm Addey at MALCOLM ADDEY STUDIO B, New York, NY, April 2009.

Further recordings:
(3) by Allen Farmelo at MAVERICK RECORDING, New York, NY, April and June 2008.

(4) by Ricardo Calafate at ESTUDIO UMUARAMA, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, March 2008.

(5) by Gerald Jones at ACOUSTIC PLUS, Dallas, Texas, May 2008.

Digital editing by Kevin Siwoff, May 2009.

Remixed and mastered by Malcolm Addey at MALCOLM ADDEY STUDIOS, New York NY, April, May, June 2009.