I'm offering a new service where I assist people with developmental disabilities make music. I played some camp songs last evening at the first annual Angelman's syndrome literacy camp outside of Stayton, OR. The Pacific Northwest Angelman's Syndrome Foundation has done a wonderful job if putting together a social environment for children living with this very rare syndrome. They have classes for parents and other support people. It was a wonderful evening.

I'm making my first album which will be ready in time for Christmas. I need some help paying for some studio Tim so I've set up a gofundme.com campaign. Little donations add up quickly so you don't need to break the bank. Thank you!!

gofundme.com/Kevins-first-album

I'm happy to announce that I'm teaching again! I'm teaching at Family Treasures Marketplace in Independence, OR and offering lessons in guitar, electric bass, music theory, composition, and home recording. If you're interested, use the Student Resources button and I'll be happy to make arrangements with you to assist you in achieving your goals.

So, finally, at long last, here is the video of the first performance of the first of the three stories that were produced.  I hope you like it!

Above is a picture of guitarist Maximilian Bauer, actress Nina Heithausen, clarinetist Judith Damm, and to the right of the shot, Hayley Glickfeld-Bielman, the person whose brainchild this project has been.  The location is the Think Tank room at JOSPEHS®, the public contact part of the Fraunhofer Institute, a place similar to Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Germany.  They were the ones who invented the mp3. 

Here's a quick snapshot I took with my phone of the people hanging around chatting and enjoying some incredible Bavarian beer after the show.  We had 25 people show up which was a record for this dance studio, at least for productions inside their facility.  They were very happy with us and we with them.  They are the Tanzzentrale Region Nürnberg.

I have found that subtitling is a little more difficult that I had first imagined, so I may put up some video of the Fraunhofer performance and post it here only.  I don't have access to all of the video that was taken from the full show premiere (pictured directly above).

So, the premiere of the music at the Fraunhofer Institute was lots of fun and then the premiere of the full show for Nur-So Geschichten (The Just-So Stories) was incredibly fun.  We had a really good turnout for the show, too!  I got both on video, but since most of the people reading this blog tend to be English speakers, I'll put subtitles in before posting.  That might take a while, but I'm pretty free this week.  Stay tuned

So, at long last, I have some time to give an update.  This time I have actual photographic evidence! We've been working out transitions and rehearsing with full costumes all this week.  It's been a lot of difficult and frustrating work, but it has all been work that the whole crew enjoys doing and we seem to share the strict belief that it will be very much worth it.  

So, here is the handbill advertising the musical performance (without sets and dancers) that's happening this Saturday.  JOSEPHS® is a part of the Fraunhofer Institute and seems to function as an interface with the general public.  It has a really nice coffee shop with free WLAN (German for WiFi).  The search for WiFi was how I found this place.  The people there are so nice and through some conversations in my terribly broken German it became known why I was in Germany in the first place.  German switched to English and next thing I knew we had a performance scheduled.  Dumb luck was on my side that day!  Here's a link to their website, but it doesn't seem to have an English version.

Here is our clarinetist Judith Damm with her mask for her role as the dog.  The scene she's preparing for is from How the Camel Got Its Hump.  There's also an ox and a horse and a genie involved in the story. It's looking really cool now as the costumes are getting added (this photo is from last Tuesday).  More pictures coming soon!

On Tuesday I got more acquainted with the Nürnberg transit system than a lot of Nürnbergers are.  The easy way to do this is to try to go somewhere when you're not sure if what you're hearing or seeing are words or names of locations.  I left for rehearsal at a good time and then about 3 and a half hours later, I finally showed up.  But that was my fault.  The transit system here is incredible.  Nürnberg is a city of about 500,000 people. I think half of them ride the U-bahn (subway).  It's pretty densely populated, similar to Portland.  But people drive like absolute maniacs here.  I'm even afraid to ride a bicycle because then I wouldn't have the time to make sure my way was going to be clear.

Above is the Königstor, or King's Tower from around 1400AD.  This part of the city still has the wall from when it was all built intact, except for places where they've carved out spots for cars.  Much of this part of town (called Altstadt or "Old Town") was destroyed in bombing raids in 1945 so it is an interesting mix of old meets new.  It's also the main shopping and tourism district.

I got this beer last night from a Greek restaurant down the street.  It was only 2 Euro, about $2.50.  I had a salad there, too and they were giving out free shots of Ouzo.  Good stuff, that Ouzo, but having had it before, I kept it to just one.


Pictured below is some graffiti I saw in Erlangen, the next town south on the train line.  There is tons of graffiti here, some of it very impressive.  Some of it is very political, and some of it is just funny, like this one:

Above is the view of Hauptstraße, or Main Street in what I'm guessing is downtown Baiersdorf, a town of about 7000 people.

About to board for the first leg of the flight to Frankfurt, after which I take the train to Nuremberg. Here we go!

I'll be leaving soon for Nuremberg, Germany to start the rehearsals of the Just So Stories produced by the Necessity Arts Collective at the behest of Hayley Glickfeld-Bielman.  I can admit to being a little nervous: this will be my first trip outside of the contiguous forty eight states.  My German is noch sehr schleckt (still very bad), but I guess it will help a little.

It's been two months and two days since I started this blog and this is the second post. I'm looking forward to the trip to Germany for work I'm doing with the Necessity Arts Collective.  I'll be posting some recordings of excerpts soon. They will be part of a crowd funding effort, so keep an eye out for that.

I've also been playing with
Kurleen Nowickas, a great singer.  I'll post performance dates on the calendar on the main page. From Tom Jobim to Pink Martini to more local (as if Pink Martini aren't local enough, right?) songwriters
Cassio Vienna, myself, and some others yet to be determined.

I'm beginning to blog.  While I was working through having a brain tumor, I found that blogging about it kept me focused.  Two years later, I'm still kicking and, in some ways, I've never been as good as I am now.  So, I've named this News and Not News because I plan to use this area to announce things that are going on in my life that are new, like my joining The Steamcats of Sekonza.  My performances will still appear on the gig calendar.  But I also plan to post the occasional rant or rave or other such musing.  Perhaps I'll find some new or new-to-me music and so I'll post it here.  OK, I'm beginning to get long winded, so I'll let you off the hook now. :D