Symphony Season Begins!

The Symphony of the Mountains is kicking off their 2010 – 2011 Season on August 28th, 2010 @ 8:00pm.  The concert will be held in the Toy F. Reid Employee Center – Eastman – Kingsport, TN.

Dress up as your favorite movie character and win a great prize!  Here is the current press release for the opening concert…

Symphony of the Mountains
“A Night at the Movies”
August 28, 2010, 8pm
Toy F. Reid Employee Center, Eastman, Kingsport

Hollywood is coming to Kingsport on Saturday August 28!  Come and enjoy “A Night at the Movies”, the opening concert of the Symphony of the Mountains 2010-11 season. Saturday, August 28, 8:00pm at the Toy F. Reid Employee Center, Eastman, in Kingsport. You will have a memorable experience!

The Symphony of the Mountains under the direction of Cornelia Laemmli will take you on a journey through the biggest blockbuster films;  2001: A Space Odyssey, The Godfather, James Bond, Titanic, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Pink Panther and many more. A special treat will be a piece written by the concertmaster of our Youth Orchestra, Benjamin Parks Dawson.

For a truly star-studded evening, come dressed as your favorite movie character for our costume contest. The first prize, donated by KNETIC, is a three day trip for two to Universal Studios in Orlando, including flights from the Tri-Cities airport, three nights at the All Star Resort in Orlando and three day passes to Universal Studios!
Join us after the concert at the Bus Pit (240 E Main St, Kingsport), where celebrity judges will present the prizes for the best costumes at 10:45pm.  The increcible local band, Wolf Creek will keep the music playing into the wee hours.  Present your Symphony ticket stub at the door of the Bus Pit for free admission.

For tickets and more information visit our website www.smphonyofthemountains.org or call the symphony box office at 423 392 8423. Tickets can also be purchased at the door the night of the performance.

If you’re up for a night of good music then take a drive up to Kingsport.   The Symphony of the Mountains is  a great local Orchestra.

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Knoxville Wind Symphony Concert

Just a note to all you music lovers in the Knoxville area.  The Knoxville Wind Symphony will be holding a concert this Sunday, March 7, at 4:00  at the Historic Tennessee Theatre. Here’s the News announcement from the KWS website:

Wind Symphony and Youth Wind Ensemble will Blow You Away!

Batten Down the Hatches: March will begin with quite a bit of WIND in the Tennessee Theatre.

At 4 pm on Sunday, March 7 the Knoxville Wind Symphony and East Tennessee Youth Wind Ensemble will perform concerts in the Tennessee Theatre, as well as a special portion of the concert featuring a combined wind orchestra over 100 strong.

The concert will feature a work by local composer & horn player W. Mark Harrell entitled Fanfare for the Lord Lieutenant.

Concluding the concert, the combined forces will perform Mark Camphouse’s A Movement for Rosa, a work built around the hymn “We Shall Overcome” and composed in 1992 in honor of the now-late civil rights heroine Rosa Parks.

Check out the Wind Symphony’s website “http://www.knoxvillewindsymphony.org” for ticket information

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Zune HD Video!

Hi. As they say on twitter, I’m “the guy” with a Zune. Well, one of them anyway. Microsoft has recently officially announced the release of a new Zune this Fall. The Zune HD! Some of Features of the new Zune include:

1. a Touch Screen with multi-touch navigation. This is a 3.3-inch screen and has a vivid 16:9 OLED display (480×272 resolution)
2. Integrated HD Radio receiver: Tune into all your favorite stations with crystal-clear reception. Access a variety of HD Radio stations at no additional cost. Plus, tag the songs you like for later purchase.
3. HD Video out:  720p HD movies, TV shows and videos in high definition on your HDTV through the Zune HD & AV Dock (sold separately). Or take them with you for premium entertainment on the go.
4. Built-in Wireless: Connect, update, and buy content wirelessly from Wi-Fi hot spots. Stream millions of songs over Wi-Fi directly to your Zune HD and turn it into a portable digital jukebox.
5. Web Browser: Enjoy your favorite websites with a full-featured web browser including tap-to-zoom technology, built-in accelerometer, and touchscreen QWERTY keyboard.

There are tons of pictures of the new harware over at Gizmodo and there is also a short video demo below.

Zune HD Video Hands On from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

I’m not finding anything on the price point yet but, as soon as I do I will update this entry. It seems very fast and sleek in the video and I’m looking forward to some more demo’s and the release!

More to come!

**EDIT**
According to Paul Thurrott over at the SuperSite the browser for the new Zune HD will be a “Flavor” of IE 6. Check out his latest article on the new Hardware.

Also, I found over at PCWorld, an older Article saying the NEw Zune HD will come in 16 and 32 gig versions. But, that may be subject to change.

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Help The KSO!

I just got this note in my e-mail from the KSO fan group on Facebook:

from the KSO Executive Director, Rachel Ford:

The KSO needs your help. We are mobilizing in an effort to support restoring the KSO’s County Grant funding. In the 2010 budget released yesterday by Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale, the Knoxville Symphony is set to receive only $6,790 in community agency grant funding—down from $43,438 last year.

As you may have heard, several other cultural agencies that have received Knox County funding in the past have seen severe funding cuts as well. The Knoxville Opera is set to receive $0 (down from $71,000 this year); the Knoxville Museum of Art is set to receive $0 (down from $27,500 last year).

We are asking that you contact your county commissioner and urge them to restore the KSO’s funding. You, above anyone else, know that the KSO reaches 200,000 people annually – 60,000 of those through the amazing education and community engagement programs you create and perform. From the 10,000 Knox County school children reached via Young People’s Concerts each fall to the 5,000 students that interact with a KSO musician or ensemble in their Knox County classrooms and the 1,000 toddlers who enjoy Story Time programs with string quartets at Knox County libraries, our programs have far-reaching impact. County funding is vital to supporting these programs; even more so during these economic times.

If you are a Knox County resident, our elected county officials need to hear from you. They need to hear from people who directly bring these programs to our community. The proposed funding cut will impact the programs you create; programs you are passionate about. Commissioners need to hear that as a resident and a voter you expect the county to do its share to support arts and culture.

The mayor’s budget is still subject to commission approval. A strong showing of support for the KSO can make a difference.

We recommend contacting the following people:
Mayor Ragsdale and the Knox County Commissioners

To see the complete Knox County 2010 budget proposal go to: http://www.facebook.com/l/cceb0;http://web.knoxnews.com/pdf/042809extensivelinedetail.pdf

Thank you very much for your efforts.
Rachel Ford

Cutting funding to the Arts IS NOT and Acceptable solution… Please help out!

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TOMMY: The Campus Review

If you’ll remember , I was contracted to play in “The Band” for the Clarence Brown production of TOMMY. I know, I know… you play Horn. “You’re not a Rocker Robert! ”

Anyway, the production finished up it’s first week and is about to start up its second. (Shows run Wednesday through Sunday for the next two weeks) And, it appears the show has gotten it’s first review. This one comes from the Daily Beacon (The University of Tennessee’s Paper) and it’s not too bad.

Here’s a snip:

…Still, there are few things more boring than a big, fluffy production with no substance. Fortunately, “Tommy” delivers in terms of song and story as well as scope. As much of a star as any of the cast members, a genuinely rocking, professional band ushers the audience along this wacky, psychedelic, yet somehow touching rags-to-riches-to-rags narrative. Although they occasionally rush some of the compositions and don’t exude the rebellious rock personae as much as they’d like to think (ear plugs were unnecessarily given out before the curtain went up), this surrogate Who completed the nearly impossible task of doing justice to the source material (even the drummer succeeded in not massacring the incomparable Keith Moon’s spastic fills)…

Well, let’s see, we rush and aren’t Rocker enough… I take that last part to mean it wasn’t loud enough. I CAN play louder… Ask anyone. If that’s all it takes to “exude the rebellious rock personae” then I’m all there. Of course, I think the sound guy will go into fits. Anyway, not a bad review overall, I think. The show will get better, only 11 more to go! If you’re in town, come see the show. I think you’ll enjoy it!

Click here if you’d like to read the rest of the review from the Daily Beacon.

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Those Brits are a Talented Bunch

This is just a quick post to link to a video I saw on YouTube I would normally just embed it but they wont allow this one to be embedded.
This is way better than the crap that spits on on American Idol and, shows you shouldn’t judge by appearance alone.

Give this a look:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

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As I finish up my Taxes…

As I continue to work on my Taxes (is it too late to request a bailout?), I find myself needing some background noise. Normally, I would turn on BrinkFM but my wife found this little Video this weekend and I’ve become addicted.

So, I post this here for so you’ll get addicted for you to enjoy. Back to Taxes!

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