Festival

This week, I was very happy to learn that "Where Did The Horny Toad Go?" will premiere this April at the Arizona International Film Festival in Tucson!


Several scenes are shot on location there, so it is a fitting place for a first official screening.

"Where Did The Horny Toad Go?" - Pick Your Price! (almost)

"Where Did the Horny Toad Go?" is a documentary created by Jar Of Grasshoppers productions to explore "the mysterious disappearance of a childhood memory - an endearing blood squirting lizard - and the passionate people who are determined to save it from extinction."  Scored for acoustic guitar, mandolin, cello, violin and melodica, the film score is a musical portrait of the horned lizard and the humans they inspire.

I am very, very pleased to announce the release of the album version of "Where Did The Horny Toad Go?"!  The album is now available on iTunes and is in the process of being distributed to several other online merchants as well.

However!  For a limited time - a week or so - I have decided to sell the album myself and to allow you to pay what you want.  The only condition is that you must pay at least two dollars.   Of course if you would like to pay more, then that is greatly, greatly appreciated, but if times are tight, and $10 seems a lot, then believe me, I would much rather you listen to the album for two dollars, than not hear it at all!   (I wanted to make the minimum $1, but paypal charges a minimum of $.32 a transaction!)

I am also hoping that if I offer the album this way, some people might just take a chance on some new music.  So pay what you feel you can right now, don't be embarrassed, and know that I really want you to have the album!   I know how it is to like music, or at least want to support it, but not be in the mood to depart with $10.   If you're embarrassed to offer only two dollars, because you know me and you don't want to seem cheap, then simply come up with an anonymous email address and buy it anyway!   ;)

So here is how it works.   Click the Paypal "Donate" button below, and enter the amount you wish to pay.  Yes, you can use a credit card.  Then I will email you a download link through wetransfer.com.   When you download and open the high-quality mp3's with your music player of choice, the cover art should download as well.  If it does not, just let me know and I will send it to you separately.  If you do not wish to use the button below, you can also simply go to Paypal.com and "send money" to stevenstarkmusic@gmail.com.  

Make sure you use the email address where you want me to send the link - or include a note if you want me to send to a different email address.

It may take a day or two for me to email you the files, but I will do it as soon as possible.   If you want the album immediately, you could go to iTunes, or cdbaby.com, and purchase it there for $9.99 - obviously, I am thrilled if you choose that option as well!

Here is the Paypal "Donate Button".   Below that is a sample from the album - the "Opening Credits" of the movie.  Thank you all for reading about this and for listening!  Please check out the film if you have a chance.  It is an inspiring, entertaining, and very well-made piece.  If you are familiar with the horned lizard, or remember them from your childhood, then you will find the film highly enjoyable.   Check out the trailer here.

Thanks again,  Steven

Happy 2012!

It is a new year, and that is a good enough reason to look back a bit and then to make a few plans. I ask for the indulgence of any readers. Even though this blog is mostly a way to explore thoughts and feelings about different issues, it is also a professional site (sort of) that is an attempt to somewhat publicize my musical endeavors, so bear with me!

2011 was a wonderful, busy year. Our second son Wolfie was two months old the day it started, and now he is pushing 15 months! He's left babyhood behind (almost) and is moving straight towards toddlerhood.......headfirst with a jetpack on! Severin has used 2011 to leave toddlerhood behind and enter boyhood with all its inquisitiveness and imagination (and willfulness ;)

In 2011, I wrote and recorded the score to the documentary "Where Did The Horny Toad Go" and I played many recording sessions for artists like Green River Ordinance, Kelly Clarkson, K.C. Clifford, Jami Smith, Portraiture, and several others.

I was privileged to have my string piece "Oklahoma Trails" performed by Doug Newell and the Enid Symphony Orchestra. Then the recording was used to accompany the wonderful outdoor event "Enid's Night Of Generals" organized by Wade Burleson. The piece was originally commissioned and performed by David Koehn and the Edmond Memorial High School Orchestra in 2010.

I was also lucky enough to play a pair of reunion shows over the summer with my band The Fellowship Students. Great times were had by all!

Currently, I am preparing for the release of the album of "Where Did The Horny Toad Go" - in fact, after writing this blog I am going to listen to the master I just received from Garrett Haines at Treelady Studios. As I mentioned, the project was recorded here at my home studio, known as Galloping Cat Studios (I love the name so I had to mention it. Even now I am hearing the sound of a cat galloping down our hallway).

I also have re-releases of some of my earlier albums that will see the light of day this year. They are remixed and remastered versions of two lo-fi EP's I did around 1999 and 2000. I am very excited to put them out there in a better form than I did back then.

I also hope to begin recording another project this year - the third in a series of albums in the vein I call "limited music" - songs/pieces recorded in the popular idiom drawing inspiration from classical composition in the sense that they are limited to a specific instrumentation. My chosen "limitation" is restricting the recordings to cello, acoustic guitar and voice. The first two records in the series are "Light Plays On A Pearl" (2006), also recorded without any effects, and "The Twin or The Seed" (2007).

And of course there is "normal" work to do. Teaching lessons, playing gigs, etc.

I do have plans to write more this year. My goal is to keep posts reasonably brief and somewhat often - perhaps breaking different ideas up into series of posts. One of my two main goals is to write about my novice understanding of meditation and hopefully to get a few readers to participate with me in attempting meditation more often and sharing our insights. One of my primary reasons for this is to simply get myself meditating regularly again. In my brief, "amateur"experiences, the effects on my life have been profound.

My other goal is to present a series called "Theology From The Plain" where I explore my framework for seeing "that which is". It will not be super organized, but once again, my attempts will hopefully be reasonably brief and often. I hope this will help keep things pleasant and somewhat interesting for any readers who are generous enough with their time to stop by this site and explore with me.

That's what blogs are for right? We explore as readers and writers - in posts, in comments and in our personal thoughts.

I wish you the very best in all of your endeavors this year!


ADDITION - Thanks to Burk for reminding me that I also want to start posting more about music!

Finished!

I am so happy that I have completed the music for the documentary "Where Did The Horny Toad Go?"!

This project took around a year, off and on, to complete. I am grateful to the patient filmmakers who understood my time/energy constraints.

It felt absolutely wonderful to hand over the drive containing the music to Stefanie Leland last night!

I hope to write a couple of blogs sometime soon to describe the process of watching the film, imagining music, thinking of the pacing, recording demos, recording again, editing, mixing, etc. It was a lot of work, but it's work that I love to do.

The film music consists of 37 different tracks. All together it's around an hour's worth of music. I will be releasing it in album form sometime in 2012, but I will condense it down to around 25 tracks (40 minutes in length), since several of the movie tracks are quite similar to each other.

The orchestration of the music consists of acoustic guitar, mandolin, cello, violin and melodica. And shakers make one appearance (in the music for the opening credits described below).

Here is an unmastered sample. This is the music for the opening credits, a minute and a half in length, which features two of the main musical ideas of the film. The first is the music of the horny toad - quirky, playful and a bit wild. The second is the music of childhood and the memories of those who remember interacting with these fascinating creatures. Thanks for listening!

Horny Toad Opening Credits (unmastered) by stevenstarkmusic

Where Did The Horny Toad Go?

I am hard at work on the music for this excellent new documentary. It is sure to be entertaining and enlightening, especially for those, like myself, who remember as children catching horny toads and "putting them to sleep" by turning them over and gently rubbing their bellies.

Their numbers have dropped markedly over the last several decades. What happened? This documentary seeks answers from leading experts while maintaining a light and poignant feel throughout. Needless to say, I am having a blast.

Where Did the Horny Toad Go? - Trailer from Jar of Grasshoppers on Vimeo.