Stagecrafty

I've recently completed 2 major stage design projects - last weekend was OUTBREAK at the Asylum here in Portland, a Foo Crew event, also held in conjunction with several other promoters here in town. It was a large undertaking - two floors, with the basement area being the blacklight room and deco with 3 screens on the main stage. We had a great turnout - it's a pleasure to be able to work with this crowd, and the work is a great challenge.

One view of the main stage - the Asylum has a really large, deep main stage, there's a lot that can be done. Our next event is the 14th of May and I'm hoping to do more.

Vitamin J on the main stage.

View of the basement.

This shot is from The Lucid's cd release party on the 4th of February, I assisted Heidi Green in designing a blacklight sensitive set. Basically I was in charge of the amp/piano covers, the "bubbles" you see in the shot. These guys are an awesomely talented group of guys, the show was a blast, and I hope to do more of this type of work - I love the electronica, but working with a rock band is also a special kind of challenge, from the artistic perspective. Designing deco for a techno stage is I think something more akin to a cubist painting, while this show was more like an impressionist piece - with a clear intention, but softer around the edges. I'd love to do a metal show sometime, see what that might be like.

March, at the Gorham Grind

There will be an opening reception, March the 19th, from 11:00 - 1:00 p.m, with a very talented musician providing some tunes for your enjoyments. PLUS: Crudite!

February Events , Mark yer Calanders, Etc. Etc.

We're gonna get through this together, guys......

First Friday is this friday, the fourth, and will be chock-full of awesome events for your entertainments. If you're the kind of person who, like myself, kinda dreads February and all its middle-of-winter blah-ness, then you'll appreciate the distractions.......



First off, I'll be showing some illustration work at the State Theatre building, suite 223, for the very fine folks over at Open Sky. Enter through the High Street entrance & listen for the music.....

http://openskyfund.org/

After which you'll want to head over to the Port City Music Hall for The Lucid's CD release show "Kidnapped by Europeans" (also playing: Space versus Speed) where I've been assisting the lovely Heidi Green with the set design - it's gonna be a psychadelic, atmospheric experience there, we're very pleased with ourselves and all the interest in the medium lately. Certainly the idea of a set for a rock show is nothing new, but it's awesome to introduce the concept to such a crazy local music scene like Portland has. Not to mention The Lucid is just a great band & such a fixture here, it's a pleasure to be involved with any kind of project with those guys. Check them out:

http://www.thelucidmusic.com/

Also, very exciting for me, my first large-scale Deco project since ALIEN at the Space last summer - it's OUTBREAK , at the Asylum, and we're tricking out two floors for the party. The basement will be all done up in black lights & black light deco, and the main stage upstairs is going to be an amazing show, the Foo Crew is very excited to bring you this kind experience, so come on out for the show, I guarantee it'll be like nothing you've ever seen before. Saturday, February 12th - $3.00 cover at the door.

http://www.portlandasylum.com/Asylum/coming-soon.html

Also, the 25th of the month I'll be hanging an illustration show at the Gorham Grind, which is also a funky little place worth checking out, right by the art college at USM.

http://www.gorhamgrind.com/

And last but not least, you should check out my Flickr page, where I've posted a bunch of photos from my recent excursions; photos have been posted from a great little acoustic performance from a few weekends ago, the Reggae Revival at Port City Music Hall featuring Mighty Mystic, and the after party for said show at the Arm Factory featuring a few djs and some drunk kids.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lizfallon/

Illustration Show

Starting February 25th I'll be showing some work up at the Gorham Grind, a funky little shop near the USM art college. They have a specialty drink referred to as "Rocket Fuel." Which has nothing to do with the work I'll be showing, but just as good a reason to come on by.

http://www.gorhamgrind.com/

One very long weekend later.....

New Years Eve! 2011! Why the Big Easy felt the need to specify that there was NO COVER after you're inside, I do not know. There were several signs of this nature.

There's something about a MOOG that I love to photograph.
All the members of Dreamosaic & Cyborg Trio & White Jacket Collaborative jammed together onstage for the midnight counting down ritual. There were balloons, there was confetti, there was stuff that glowed in the dark. Good times were had. I also joined the rest of the Foo Crew who had been added on to the ticket at the Asylum, and I'll be posting some of those shots as well - I got to check out Educated Advocates, very good stuff. This year saw a lot of great music all over town, and i was lucky to have a small part in it.

It was a very busy New Years weekend for myself & fellow Foos - thursday night was Sync, a 7:70 reunion show at Slainte here in portland - djs Marshall Law, Psydways and others busted out some crazy beats.......this guy was definitely having a lot of fun;

I brought in some deco for the show to up the visual ante for a bit, and thanks to trusty assistant Sam it went up easily, although getting back there to get it down has proved....logistically difficult.

Friday night I pulled double duty photographing at the Big Easy with Cyborg Trio & Dreamosaic, while VJ Foo was added to the show at the Asylum headlined by Spose, so I dashed down there for a bit as well. I'll post a few shots from Friday here soon, in the meantime you can some of the action out at both my flickr and facebook accounts. Two nights of dashing around until early a.m. hours have left me a bit on the...unmotivated side. Soon I'll also be posting about our upcoming asylum show, Outbreak, happening 2/12/11....3 different promoters are joining forces for this night of debauchery, and i can't tell you how amazing and exciting it is to belong to this community of such talented folks here in Portland.

A little story

One of the highlights of this past summer was the Nateva festival in Oxford Maine...while this summer saw my attendance at many different festivals, Nateva was just perfect. Perfect company, perfect weather, perfect music.......it set a high standard for future festivals, for sure.

Fourth of July Weekend: We arrived at the festival late thursday night and set up camp, we had a great spot and had a great night settling in.

In the morning, lo and behold, a few tents had sprouted up in between our previously spacious camp site. Once these nice folks roused themselves they explained that they were the Adam Ezra Group, they played the festival the previous night (though sadly we had not caught this), and would we like a beer?

And of course the answer was: yes, we would like a beer! And a friendship was born. Always great to see these guys in town.

http://www.adamezra.com/

This past weekend they played at the Empire so I took the camera along to see them. This Way, also a very talented Portland based group, opened for them, as did the lovely Amanda Gervaisi.

This Way:

There's just something about a man with a fiddle.

Adam Ezra:

Adam Ezra with buddy Herb, who I swear just about died of his man-crush when called upon stage for some audience participation.

As always there's more pictures posted on my flickr site, link to the right. I've been asked a few times if I post all my photos up here/on facebook/on the interwebs in general, and no, I do not. I've gotta keep a few tricks up my sleeves here, right? If in the future I actually do a photography show, it'll consist mostly of previously unseen shots.

Happy Holidays, folks! Very soon I'm going to have some actual illustration to post up here, so stay tuned.