Monday, April 13, 2009

My Brother and Hippie Cream's "Life"

"I play for a living...Success is tied to a feeling of magic, which I can protect."
- M. Night Shyamalan

When I was 5, I asked my parents for a little brother or sister. You see, all of my friends in the neighborhood had little brothers or sisters to play with, and I desperately wanted a playmate. Well, my folks didn't fulfill this request for another 5 years. Being an Aries, and having a nephew who is also an Aries, I can understand this. We're firecrackers, for sure! But my folks were also young and trying to get it together, so I can understand them taking some time.

On May 26th shortly after midnight they finally brought into the world this amazing little fellow named Sean, and I couldn't wait to meet him!

I always tell my brother, "I was waiting for you to arrive," and boy, has he!

He's currently the drummer for a wildly eccentric band called Hippie Cream, and last week they filmed their first music video for a song from their latest album "On the Moon" in our hometown of Hemet, no less!

The song is "Life is Long" and the director is a young man named Daniel Philip Maggio. Dan, like myself, really loves Hippie Cream and their groovy tunes. He also seems to dig using his surroundings, and I'm a big fan of that. It's one of the reasons I love M. Night Shyamalan whose films tend to hover around Philadelphia, PA and its woodsy 'burbs.

Dan, Sean, and Wesley, who sings and plays fiddle, tie, and cowbell for the band, roamed about Hemet, filming the video. They had specific places in mind, and it's a treat to see the orange groves in there. That's one of my favorite things about the deserts of CA - the orange groves - and they're disappearing at an alarming rate! It's great to see them captured on film, and I hope they get preserved in other ways too!


The thing I dig about this video - and there are so many things I dig about it, but I love how it kicks my butt to get my own work online. Sound bites I've figured out and have no trouble with, but my career is an especially visual medium, and I need to get some of the short films I've done online.
"Sincerely Yours" would be a sweet treat, and I just got footage from the Hitchcock-inspired thriller, "Everyday" which is going to be shown this Friday night at 7:30 at the TISCH New Visions & Voices Intermediate Film Festival.

I also have decent clips of my work as Judy Garland in the musical Hell's Belles so I need to get crackin!

If you live in So. Cal and want to catch Hippie Cream, they're playing tonight at The Airliner at 9 PM.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nElYG5PLqIU

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