http://fredoviola.com/blog en fredo@fredoviola.com Copyright 2010 2010-06-29T13:14:00-05:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/whos_that_knocking/ http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/whos_that_knocking/#When:13:14:00Z Strange experience I had at bedtime last night and early this morning… I was sitting in the upstairs of my house.  My kitties were downstairs and down the hall, the doorway that leads to the stairway was closed, so no chance they could have been up… So I’m lying there making ready for sleep when I hear quite clearly “knock knock.” Two confident taps on my bedroom door.  I got a little weirded out - there’s nothing in the hall that could have done that.  It wasn’t a windy night.  I got up and opened the door… nothing.  Nobody there.  I figured, ok, maybe two acorns fell on the skylight close to the door and promptly went to sleep. The really odd part was at 3:30 AM I was awoken from sleep by some troubled feelings… I wasn’t quite wide awake, but half-conscious, embroiled in a mesh of thoughts.  What completely woke me was the sound of two taps on my door. Knock knock.  Again.  Confident, dispassionate, but clearly meant to wake me.  I turned on the light and opened the door… again, nobody there.  And I think if had been another couple of acorns from the roof in the exact same place and the exact same rhythm that would be magically bizarre.  Well, I made it through the night.  But what were those knocks? 2010-06-29T13:14:00-05:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/my_super_inspiring_friend_miran_kim/ http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/my_super_inspiring_friend_miran_kim/#When:14:50:00Z Miran is a woman who I met while I was living in Williamsburg.  Our friendship deepened, as is often the case these days, through the internet after she moved away to California.  I found out that Miran is an artist and comic book illustrator, and an amazingly talented one at that!!!! Anyway, Miran is having her first shows in Belgium and Paris.  I’m so very excited for her I decided I wanted to blog about it and invite any of my friends in Belgium or France to look into it.  These two shows look to be really excellent! graphicnovelart.blogspot.com/ ___________________________________________________________________________ BRUSSELS: TAROT AN ARTISTS’ VISION OF THE FUTURE (May 27th till August 21st) ___________________________________________________________________________ Thursday 27th May - 18.00 hrs: Opening of Tarot art exhibition (including live Tarot reading performance and burning of Sam Kieth’s art) Petits Papiers - 1 Place Fontainas - 1000 Brussels http://www.petitspapiers.be/ Friday 28th May - 15.00 till 18.00: Signing session at Brüsel - Boulevard Anspach 100 - 1000 Brussels http://www.brusel.com/ __________________________________________________________________________ PARIS: AMERICANS IN PARIS (May 29th till August 21st) __________________________________________________________________________ Saturday 29th May - 18.00 hrs: Opening of Group exhibition at Petits Papiers - Village Saint-Honoré, 91 Rue Saint Honoré- 75001 Paris http://www.petitspapiers.be/ Sunday 30th May - 14.00 - 17.00 hrs: Signing session at Petits Papiers - Village Saint-Honoré, 91 Rue Saint Honoré- 75001 Paris Exhibition organized by Graphicnovelart & Petits Papiers ___________________________________________________________________________ 2010-05-24T14:50:00-05:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/dream_collaboration/ http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/dream_collaboration/#When:01:25:00Z I dreamt last night obsessively about remembering the name of this female band me and the band intersected during last autumn’s tour.  I couldn’t remember the name and was toiling about it for… well, it seemed all night.  Finally I remembered, Mansfield Tya.  And by the time I remembered it we were collaborating with them on stage.  I’m not sure why collaborations scare me a bit.  I guess it’s a healthy fear.  When you collaborate with another artist you open yourself up in a pretty raw way.  You have to trust each other.  So Mansfield Tya were there on stage and they were making this lovely sound with soft, strange harmonies and some kind of… well, it seemed like harps or some such unusual instruments to see on a stage.  I began to sing a counterpoint, and it was strong and confident and worked really well.  The guys joined me.  I remember hearing Jasper beat the tom, and suddenly Charlie started playing this windy, deep analogue synth and I was just ecstatic!  We were making such wonderful music.  And some part of me knew I was dreaming, and knew that I was finding this music within myself.  Sometimes I go through periods, probably like all artists, when I am not sure if I have more within me, and clearly this was proof that there is more, eternally more.  In the audience I spotted a beautiful French girl and she was crying from the beauty of the music.  But as I looked around the theatre more than half of it was empty, completely empty. After the show I burst into the dressing room, still ecstatic and congratulated Jasper who was equally inspired. 2010-05-16T01:25:00-05:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/my_friends_fm_campers/ http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/my_friends_fm_campers/#When:16:55:00Z Two of my friends from em411 have a band called FM CAMPERS and their music is really great!  Very original, soulful, creative and thrilling.  (Yes, all those words!) They just released an ep and I thought I’d take this opportunity to draw folks attention to them.  They are wonderful! Bear in a Box e.p. fm campers site 2010-05-14T16:55:00-05:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/fredos_playlist_part_deux/ http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/fredos_playlist_part_deux/#When:15:16:00Z This is the second part of the playlist that I put together for Junior Parado at MyTourManager.com. It’s all classical, and I am very impressed and grateful that they have actually created full streams of all these wonderful works on spotify! Slightly bummed USers can’t use Spotify, but, again grateful for the respect to the music. Please go and listen! And once again, big thanks to Junior! Fredo’s classical playlist 2010-04-28T15:16:00-05:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/playlist_part_1_on_my_tour_manager/ http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/playlist_part_1_on_my_tour_manager/#When:13:16:00Z Hi there, folks So I got a friendly request from Junior, son of Henro, a man I met in France at a show with whom I became friends, to put together a playlist.  Of course I misunderstood the question and put together instead a list of my favorite songs.  But Junior has done an excellent job of putting them in order, and he even found amazing videos for most of them on the internet!  I hope you’ll take a moment to go check it out, and next week a second list with my favorite classical songs will be uploaded. Fredo’s list on My Tour Manager 2010-04-23T13:16:00-05:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/wow_thanks/ http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/wow_thanks/#When:12:57:00Z Thanks to google alerts I got a link to a really glowing review of my album “The Turn” written by Moodswings.  I’m a bit speechless, and this certainly has started my day off excellently well!  Moodswings review of The Turn 2010-04-23T12:57:00-05:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/our_appearance_on_taratata/ http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/our_appearance_on_taratata/#When:11:47:00Z Fredo VIOLA : The turn - MYTARATATA.COM TARATATA N°346 (Tour. le 12/01/2010 / Diff. France 4 le 30/03/10 & France 2 le 02/04/10) Mots-clés : fredo viola viola fred viola fred fredo fredo violla violla the turn the turns turn turns 346 funk soul jazz pop rock Video de mytaratata 2010-04-03T11:47:00-05:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/how_magazine_award/ http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/how_magazine_award/#When:17:47:00Z Hi there, all Sorry to have been a bit out of touch.  Life’s been keeping me quite busy these days over in Woodstock (not too busy to lose a chance to take a bike ride yesterday through the gorgeous Springlike weather!  Yay!) Anyway, I just got news that my site, theturn.tv has won an “Outstanding” award in the Miscellaneous category!  Yay!  And just got a copy of the On Design magazine (which I hadn’t been told about!) that did a little feature on the site last June, so ego is well stroked today. 2010-03-25T17:47:00-05:00 http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/wood_smoke_is_disposable/ http://www.fredoviola.com/blog/wood_smoke_is_disposable/#When:14:43:00Z Well, I suppose yes it is, or at least was shot using relatively disposable means - my little Canon Digital Elph.  Anyway, I’m very proud to announce that Wood Smoke will be showing as part of the Competitive Shorts Category in the Disposable Film Festival.  It premiers in San Francisco on March 4 - 6th and then traveling around the world.  If you’d like to see the festival, or watch my video projected on a big screen, check out the festival’s events page. 2010-03-03T14:43:00-05:00