JTB News

• NJM News: February 18h, 2000

• NJM News: November 5th, 1999

Note: news is published on an as needed basis to keep crew and film participants up to date on the projects progress.

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NJM News: February 18, 2000

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1) What’s up with the project

2) Isotope 217, Steve Turre @ Yoshi’s

3) Artists Update

4) Upcoming Shows involving JTB Supa-Stars

5) Web Site Update

6) IFFCON

7) Crew Update

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1) What’s up with the project

Editor woes:

We are still having trouble with editor availiblity. Andy Gersh’s 6 month gig with Oregon Public Television is almost up, but he probably wont be available until mid March. So his time is scarce. He is still the primary editor for the project. Scott Balceric had agreed to pinch hit for the old NJM team, but his DP has become available and he has to move quickly to finish a doc he is doing involving the blues team of Satan and Adam. There are some strange events happening with Satan in Florida and he needs to go to Florida in March to finish shooting. This leaves me with all the elements to finish my teaser and no one to edit it. I will keep you posted.

Narration:

We are still looking to have Mavis Staples do the narration. I will no more in the upcoming weeks.

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2) Isotope 217, Steve Turre @ Yoshi’s

Steve Turre

We ended the year on a definite high note with a New Years shoot at Yoshi’s with Sanctified Shells featuring Steve Turre, Pharoh Sanders, and John Faddis. Steve managed to put together this crazy 12 piece conch shell orchestra, with Manny Oquendo leading this unreal Afro-Cuban rhythm section including Andy Gonzales, Horacio "el negro" Hernandez (kit) and Giovanni Hildalgo(congas). The ensemble had four trombone players who also doubled on shells. Abdul Rahman (gourd harp) from Senegal and Steve Scotts (keys) filled out the rest of the rest of the line-up. The New Years eve show was broadcast nationwide live on NPR. We filmed a piece called the Emperor, but after we finished shooting I couldn’t help but feel a little sad that we didn’t shoot more. It was definitely a truly an amazing performance.

Isotope 217:(featuring Rob Mazurek, Jeff Parker, John Herndon, Dan Bitney, Mat Lux)

Over Thanksgiving, we had three full days of fun with Isotope 217 in San Francisco. They had a three-night stint at the Bottom of the Hill and drew great crowds each night, despite stiff competition from Stereolab who were playing over at the Fillmore on the same dates. It was by far one of the mostmellow shoots we have had thus far. We started the day with a catfish brunch followed by some interviews. That evening, we filmed a chunk of music called "Looking after Life on Mars", which was basically a 15 minute track-meet for the rhythm section. Even more interesting, is that drummer John Herndon, managed to finish the tune in spite of his heart murmur which caused him to have irregular heart palpitations throughout the performance–scary stuff.

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3) Artists Update

We are currently in the process of re-solicting many of the musicians we approached this past fall. This includes, but is not limited to, Jim o’Rourke, Jack Dejohnette and Bill Frisell. We still need women though–help.

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4) Upcoming Shows involving JTB Supa-Stars

There are no February shows involving any of musicians in the project. I think many of the musicians are back in the lab tinkering away and you know what that means–New Music!

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5) Web Site Update

I know I have said in the past that the site is close to completion, but this time I really mean it. I will be previewing sections to select individuals in the upcoming week. Each of you should do a couple things so that you are not disappointed by the by your online NJM experience. 1) Upgrade your freakin’ browser. Do yourself (and the world) a favor, and make sure you are at least at version 4 of you favorite browser. Also, you should make sure you have flash and some sort of media player installed. Here are some url’s to help you out.

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6) IFFCON

I recently had the terrifying experience of pitching Jackin’ the Ball at this years IFFCON(Independent film finance conference). Thia and I went on the first day, and I had the unpleasant experience of standing in front of a room of 300 filmmakers and a panel consisting of HBO documentaries, Bravo, BBC Channel 4 and Fox searchlight, in an attempt to explain what makes JTB so special. The pitch was well received and several people want to see more.

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7) Crew Plug-ins

The latest addition to the Not Just Me supa-group is San Fran’s own Lori Forbes. Lori is a typographer who is working on titles and several animated sequences for the film.

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NJM News: November 5, 1999

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1) What’s up with the project

2) Upcoming Shoots–Isotope 217, Fred Anderson, Steve Turre @ Yoshi’s

3) Artists Update

4) Upcoming Shows involving JTB Supa-Stars

5) Web Site Update

6) IFFCON

7) Crew Update

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1) What’s up with the project

Bad luck is the soup du jour, but personally I welcome misfortune whole-heartedly because it usually means that lady luck will smile upon me shortly.

Editor woes: Andy Gersch has gotten a 6 month gig with Oregon Public Television. So his time is scarce. He is still the primary editor for the project, but we will need to find another editor to do some of the more mundane tasks such as sound synching etc. So, if you know anyone with solid AVID skills who is looking for a project have her call me.

Interviews and Narration:

David Byrne has decided not give us an interview. Mavis Staples will not be able to do the narration for the teaser because, she is recording a new album. However, she said when things cool down she would like to do it.

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2) Upcoming Shoots–Isotope 217, Fred Anderson, Steve Turre @ Yoshi’s

Isotope 217: Isotope will be playing at the Bottom of the hill on November 23, 24^th and 25^th. We would like to shoot them on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I am about 75% sure that this shoot is going to happen. Jeff Parker from Isotope said that it wouldn’t be a problem, but I am still waiting to hear back from Rob Mazurek.

Fred Anderson: Sophie and I are headed back to Chicago to film some B-roll of Chicago and performance with Fred Anderson.

Steve Turre: Steve is coming back to San Francisco with his Conch shell choir. If we can get the O.K. from Yoshi’s, we will shoot a couple of pieces and an interview.

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3) Artist Update

Jack DeJohnette has been contacted about the project. He said it sounded like a great idea though he was a little skeptical about how well the workshops will work. He is especially interested in working with AACM founding member Muhal Abrahm Richards who has not been contacted about the project yet (You do the math). His exact words were, "it’s a great idea but I will need to meditate on it for a few weeks". He is so deep. He also mentioned that Don Byron would probably be interested in the project as well.

Bill Frisell is very interested, although he is not sure that he can find the time to participate in the workshop. None the less, he has agreed to an interview and some performance in Seattle early in the new year. Don’t worry we will bag him.

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4) Upcoming Shows involving JTB Supa-Stars

Bill Frisell: Bill Frisell will be at Yoshi’s this Tuesday November 9^th for 2 sets.

Jim O’Rourke: Jim will be at the Justice league on Friday, November 12^th. Good luck getting tickets.

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5) Web Site Update

The website is so close to being done that my head is about to explode from the anticipation. We are waiting on some Artist Bios from our writer in residence, Chris Jones, and a few other elements before we launch. The first version of the site will have promotional materials, crew bios and downloadable music from past live performances.

The second rev will have film clips and more music from the upcoming performances. There will also be a crew section that will have production information like crew sheets and shooting schedules.

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6) IFFCON

Our application for this years Independent Film Conference has been submitted--pray for rain. The conference is in January and we should know if we got in by the end of the month.

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7) Crew Plug-ins

The latest addition to the Not Just Me supa-group is O-Towns own Thia Boggs. Thia is back from Wales and looking to kick butt as an associate producer.

Also Jeremey Sieffer who was instrumental in translating Tom Ze’s cryptic interview has once again offered us his writing services. He will be writing up a couple of Bio’s on Tom and Tropicalista music for the web site.

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