A 'Burgh LIfe - September 2013

As the summer came to a close (for my video documenting purposes) that first week of September & Elphie returned to Chicago, I spent a lot of time following the first winning season in 21 years by the Pirates! They clinched the winning season with a victory over Texas on September . I went to see them the first game back in Pittsburgh as a "winning" team. They went on to clinch a spot in the playoffs a week later playing in Chicago. The last home games of the season were 3 against the Reds over the third weekend in September which included a fireworks night & I worked it out to be able to attend all 3 games somehow (my work schedule has me working on Sundays so that was a pleasant surprise). A friend came to visit from Cincinnati. Jeremy Taylor was traveling through and I was able to offer hospitality at our house. We hiked the Greenway then ventured downtown where we saw "The Duck."


http://youtu.be/d3SJfHnjeA8

The night after I went to the Pirates game against Chicago at home as a winning team, at a point when my bank account was pretty much empty, I found out about a Rancid show in Pittsburgh…I checked my account and had thankfully been paid so I bought a ticket to see the sold out show.


http://youtu.be/Tw0Ag1vlUWM


http://youtu.be/QIKDGRNx42M


http://youtu.be/_s24vUKkX7U

At the end of the month, as Pittsburgh prepared for its first playoff game in 21 years, I was able to see Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. My cousin, Taylor, turned me on to this band and I have loved their sound ever since. This was my second chance to see them.


http://youtu.be/ZO5kH_yu-bI


http://youtu.be/MsbG1IsH1JY

All footage filmed & edited by Joel A. Swanson

Summer Music Festival Footage Part 9: A TigerRAWk N Roll Summer Playlist

This playlist includes the footage the comprises a project titled A TigerRAWk N Roll Summer. Starting in late June through the first week in September 2013, Elphie & I attended five music festivals (as well as a couple of other concerts) & traveled to 10 states doing other random things enjoying life together. The footage shows a lot of that as well as clips from most of the bands we saw during the adventure. Each clip in the playlist has explanations of what is shown so I won't bother with that here as I often do.  That would be redundant and I will assume you can handle reading it on your own if you care enough about what's going on in the clips.

You may notice abrupt audio cuts and the "TigerRAWk" tag isn't shown until the last piece. The clips are cut up for youtube into what I decided to be the "chapters" for the DVD version of this project. There are points where the music overlaps chapters so at some points there will be no fade ins/outs.

Anyway, here is the playlist embedded below:



http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh9ZwEF2QQpN2_L-rkpGP0FA9FWoJEyzR

Filmed using an iPhone 4, Sony HD Bloggie &; JVC HDD Everio by Joel A. Swanson. Filmed using a Kodak Z1275 by Elphie. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini by Joel A. Swanson.

Summer Festival Footage Part 8 - UltraSound Fest 2013

UltraSound Fest occurred in Auburn, Indiana outside of Fort Wayne on Saturday August 31st, 2013. It was the last festival of the summer and the first trip I took after starting a new job. That happened with an unnecessary amount of hassle. I was working overnights doing in home care (which allowed for some of the late night posting in the previous months) but did not want to do that anymore so I took on work as a driver. I was told at hiring that I'd likely have to work a weekend day during the 5 day work week and agreed to that. I was trained during a weekday schedule and asked what my schedule would look like but never could get a clear answer. On Thursday before this festival, I asked the person responsible for scheduling and was told I'd have a Monday - Friday schedule so I made plans & arrangements to attend UltraSound. So I work on Friday with a certain sense of excitement to see friends and especially Elphie at UltraSound then around 1pm (give or take) I was called by my Supervisor or whatever her title is. She was rather cheerful in her desire to finally tell me what my schedule would be (though my efforts to find out over the previous week & a half went without response) and that schedule was Tuesday - Saturday and would begin immediately meaning I was expected to work that Saturday even though I had worked since Monday and would therefore have to work 6 straight days (the 6 days wasn't as big of a deal necessarily). I explained the person who makes the schedules had told me I was working Monday - Friday and had made weekend plans. Her demeanor changed 180 degrees to sounding as though the devil were inside of her as she told me I would have to take a call off which would go on my record and that isn't good for someone just starting out. I further tried to explain that I had tried to contact her to get information on my schedule. She claimed she was always available so I responded well I tried and no one would connect me with her and so i asked the scheduler to which she said he was not authorized to make those decisions. I gave up the argument at this point as it wasn't going anywhere and accepted that I would be taking a call off. I wasn't entirely sure I would have a job if I went to UltraSound but I decided to go anyway…

On with the less boring and annoying things. I packed up and left Pittsburgh around 8 or 9pm. I had been at work since like 5am and since my job is driving another several hours on the road wasn't exactly thrilling but nonetheless I left. I made a Sheetz stop as anyone ought to do then continued west until Lodi, Ohio. In the Akron area I became quite exhausted and decided that Lodi would be where I would sleep for the night. I made the backseat into a bed and slept for several hours before continuing on my way toward Auburn, Indiana. I arrived shortly before the festival was to begin after detouring through the little town which had some sort of celebrations and/or parades going on.

UltraSound was organized by the people of The Gathering, a community of Christ followers in Fort Wayne which includes Shawn Browning of Rottweiler Records, Grave Robber, All The Departed, etc. It was affordable and had bands I'd like to see so naturally going to the festival seemed like a good idea. I always enjoy supporting friends in whatever ways I can and this was another opportunity.

There were a few band cancellations for various reasons so UltraSound Fest had 10 bands - a good number for a single day festival.

Every Living Creature opened with a metal-ish worship set

http://youtu.be/c5TQy2Ly4No

Anchor To My Soul - screamo/metalcore - followed.

http://youtu.be/jBvTw6fNE58

A hardcore punk band I enjoy, All The Departed came on next.

http://youtu.be/WgIGN2BaGqY

The by pop metal of Scarlet Raven followed.

http://youtu.be/V9WxhtRFzzc

Jerome Schooley did some reggae/hip hop joined by the beatboxing of Trevor Heyd.

http://youtu.be/V0CkFC9ITSM

Trevor would follow with his own beatboxing set.

http://youtu.be/gAShyUKF7aU

Shawn invited folks to come to the Gathering to her Trevor Heyd speak the following day. The show went on with Goodnight Wednesday - a pop punk band.

http://youtu.be/Sk8Gz16ppS8

Relesser followed them with their metal goth type music.

http://youtu.be/8_YXUP7ibSQ

Then it was Blissed and their classic metal style.

http://youtu.be/-1ZBQp7d7iM

Leper headlined the festival with an interesting set (which i filmed all of). There were some technical issues which affected the backing tracks, there wasn't enough time for a proper sound check, and some guest members. Overall I enjoyed the set. It was different than usual and unique to this event.

http://youtu.be/LYiH5MzsA8g

The night was over and we went to stay with Chuck Thomas for the night before attending church with The Gathering the next day…

The UltraSound playlist is available for viewing here:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh9ZwEF2QQpPT48STA6hHHjpvff7UBO6-

Filmed using a JVC HDD Everio. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed & edited by Joel A. Swanson
http://aTigerRAWkFilm.blogspot.com