Why I Love Overheard in NY

Why I Love Overheard in NY

Not much baseball today. Yankees beat Detroit. Angels & Dodgers are off.

Red Sox play Toronto, but they have essentially given up. They traded David Wells to San Diego, which means the Red Sox are not interested in post-season play any more. It also spices up the contest between the Dodgers and the Padres. Wells was supposed to pitch in Boston today but instead the Red Sox started a reliever (Tavarez) for three innings. If that doesn't say "we quit," nothing does.

The Wilhelm

Someone in class tonight mentioned the "Wilhelm" sound effect. The clip he was referring to on YouTube is here:
Wilhelm YouTube

I'm pretty sure this is the clip reel we put together at the MPSE's 50th Awards Show.


You can read the history of the Wilhelm here:
Wilhelm History

310 Dinner

Had a good dinner tonight with my 310 section, followed by a very good class. Got through two clips plus lecture material.

This class is a but rambunctious at times but that's better than being asleep.

Dodgers won a good won, an excellent performance by Maddux.

Red Sox are in a free fall. Losing Varitek was bad enough, but now Ortiz has a heart murmur. God forbid it's serious. Not only is he one of the great players of the game, but reputedly, he has a "huge heart."

Angels won but are looking out of it.

Dodgers Win in 16!

Derek Lowe pitched in relief to help win a 16-inning game against the Reds. Ramon Martinez got the walk-off homer.

Tomorrow Maddux pitches while I teach. We'll be going to the Friday game against the Rockies.

Red Sox lose to Oakland, and the Angels continue their skid as well, losing to Seattle.

Goodnight!

Hollywood Bowl

Today was a good day. I think the 242 lecture went well, I got through 2 clips and a mike demo in the bathroom.

We went to the Hollywood Bowl tonight and saw the Prokofiev pieces, which were the draw for me, and the Brahms Violin Concerto. The conductor was excellent, a Chinese woman named XIAN ZHANG.

However, the violin soloist was terrible. I can't remember the last time I went to the bowl and complained about a performer (well, other than the first horn), but this guy had terrible intonation problems all night, and at one point in the first movement he came in a bar early.

In the quiet part of the second movement, a chorus of coyotes began howling along with his solo. That's not a good sign.

But otherwise it was another excellent night.

242 Lecture Uploaded

Lecture MP3s can be found here (Link Fixed)

Click on 242 Public Files and you will find 9 MP3 files from today's lecture.

EDIT: Note that the parts labelled MIKE DEMO are NOT actually recorded with the mikes from the demo, so they might not be useful.

Another Close One at Dodger Stadium!

Had a great dinner at the Stadium Club and watched the Dodgers sail to 6-1 at the top of the 8th.

At the bottom of the 8th it was 6-5. But the Dodgers held the lead, putting them 3 games above San Diego, who lost.

Angels lost, and Boston lost to Oakland.

We got our A/C fixed, at a cost of $500 for two major parts. Ugh!

Time to get some rest!

242 Assignment Due

Tomorrow (Tuesday) 9AM sharp!

Back to the Bleachers

Good article in the LA Times Magazine section today about baseball. Click the title above to read it.

Yankees hammered the Angels 11-8, and the Red Sox lost in Seattle. At least Texas beat Oakland.

Dodgers won in Arizona and San Diego lost. Tomorrow we'll be seeing the Dodgers play Cincinatti.

Our A/C is broken. Fortunately it's quite nice in the evenings here in the Valley. Hopefully we can get someone in to look at it tomorrow, as it's going to be hot this week.

Angels Beat Yankees Again!

This bodes well for the Angels!

Met with the sound department this afternoon for a great party at Midge's. There was plenty of alcohol, so I was happy.

Dodgers won a close one!

Wining and Losing

Went to another good wine tasting tonight at Vendome in Studio City. For only $15, they offer an excellent choice.

Red Sox lost, but the Angels beat the Yankees in the bottom of the 9th.

Dodgers are in the 14th inning, Sele pitching his third inning in relief. 2 on, 1 out. He'll be lucky to get out of another mess.

EDIT: They lost in the 15th with a 2-run homer given up by Sele. The real problem was that he walked a pitcher who had never had an at-bat! If he's struck him out, the inning would have been over.

Maynard Ferguson, RIP

When I was a trumpet player in high school, I probably went to see him at least ten times in person play. Granted, I did outgrow his music in college, but it's still sad to see that one of the last links to the big band era is gone.

Jered Weaver Finally Loses

We went to the Angels game again. Jered Weaver allowed 1 run in 6 innings, but still took the loss agains the Red Sox's Josh Beckett, who also allowed one run in 6 innings. Weaver's one run was a David Ortiz homer, ruining Weaver's perfect 9-0 start, and preventing him from becoming the first 10-0 starter in AL history.

Three 1-run games in a row in Anaheim, a very good series. And the Yankees lost today to Seattle.

Dodgers and San Diego had off days, but the Giants and Rockies both lost.

310

First meeting with my 310 class tonight. Once again I talked too much and did not show a clip. I've got to learn to shut up.

Red Sox beat the Angels in what must have been a good game. Dodgers lost again in San Diego in what must have been an... interesting game... with three ejections.

More baseball tomorrow.

Red Sox in Anaheim

We drove down to Anaheim for the Red Sox game. Good game, two rookie starters, both gave good performances, but the Angels held up better and won 4-3. The A's lost, and the Yankees lost.

Dodgers lost, Hendrickson gives his first good start and still loses 1-0. At least Arizona and Colorado lost as well.

Met with my 242 class for the first time today. Aside from tech problems, things went well, and it looks like a good group. However, I did not get a film clip in due to running behind. They will get plenty of clips next week with Tom's guest lecture.

Dodgers Lose in SD

Dodgers lose a tough on in San Diego, but it's the Red Sox with the toughest loss, a five game sweep by the Yankees in Boston. How humiliating.

Baseball Today

Dodgers win a bit of a nail-biter in SF with Saito pitching a great save in the 9th.

Angels come from behind to sweep the Mariners (maybe Scoscia should get suspended more often). The Angels are 4.5 back from Oakland. 7 of their 10 final games from the season are against Oakland. Could be very interesting.

The Red Sox are finally winning a game against NY, knock wood, 5-3 in the top of the 8th. Fingers crossed!

WORLD TRADE CENTER

I guess awards season has officially begun, as there are now screenings of a few films. WTC seems to be the first to be having screenings. Saw it last night. Although there were some emotional moments, I found the film fell very flat in the last act.

Probably the biggest problem for me was the performances. Star casting really killed the film. I've never been a fan of Nick Cage, and he's extremely flat in this film. (Although the script can be blamed for that as well.) His wife, Donna Bello, was also terrible.

The Marine character seemed like he walked out of a commercial and accidentally interrupted the movie.

Maggie Gyllenhal was the best of the name actors, but I think her character would have been better served by an unknown. Michael Pena was excellent.

There have been a lot of excellent documentaries about the incidents. I haven't seen FLIGHT 93 yet, but I find it hard to conceive that anything out there will be more powerful than the reality.

USC Classes Start Monday

With classes starting Monday, I've been trying to take it slow the last few days of summer vacation.

Yesterday I saw my doctor. Last year I was critically ill and almost died. I had a very long recovery period and have had a few relapses since then. For the past 5 months, things have been good, and I got a clean bill of health from the doctor. This is very good news.

Someday I may feel like writing more about how sick I was.

I celebrated by going to a wine tasting of Rhone wines. They were excellent.

One of the things we do over the summer is go to concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. We subscribe to one of the jazz series, but we've ended up trading in most of the tickets for classical concerts due to scheduling issues. One of the perks of donating is the ability to go to rehearsals, so we went to this morning's rehearsal of the Fantasia concert for this weekend. It was a lot of fun, but it got hot towards the end.

We got back in time to see the end of the first Yankee-Red Sox game. (Why isn't the second game on ESPN?)

Another embarrassment!

Blech

Today's Dodger game was too embarrassing to discuss. The only hope is that they got it all out of their system before they go on their road trip.

Angels were also embarrassed today.

At least the Red Sox won.

Dodgers-Marlins

Dodgers rookie Chad Billingsley finally turned in the performance we were all hoping for, pitching 7 innings of 3-hit, shutout ball. Nine strikeouts. I wonder if Maddux has been tutoring him?

I'll be at the matinee game tomorrow.

Movies this Year

It's now August and I have yet to see a 2006 release that I really liked. Probably the closest was THE ANT BULLY, but that's pushing it. And STRANGERS WITH CANDY, but I worked on that so I can't count it.

I usually see about 60-70 movies a year in the theater. However, most of those I see during "awards season" (November - February) regardless of when the films were released. I've probably only seen about 20 movies so far this year. Since most of the "critically praised" films will be screening later for consideration, I've seen mostly the pop films. But even they seem particularly bad this year. MIAMI VICE was really, really awful. M:I 3 was terrible. PIRATES would have been enjoyable if they had kept the silly mood of the first movie and the film was half the length.

Usually there are at least a couple of summer pop films that I'm looking forward to. There are several docs I'm interested in seeing, including AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH. I also still haven't seen CARS.

I didn't really notice how bad the films were until I looked at a listing of this year's box office. Box Office Mojo has pretty useful listings, including estimated budgets on many films, so you can see just how badly the films are really doing.

I must admit a passing interest in SNAKES ON A PLANE.

The Dodgers won again, 5 in a row! 16 out of 17. Nomar got a 2-run homer and 3 RBI.

DODGERS WIN!

Awesome baseball day. Angels beat the Yankees, Jered Weaver keeps his no-loss record at 8-0, Red Sox win.

As I predicted yesterday, today's Dodger game was something special. The game was a sellout, and Maddux pitched 8 fantastic innings, only 68 pitches!

In the bottom of the 10th, Russell Martin hit a walk-off homer, winning the game 1-0. You don't get a better game than that. Even at 10 innings the game ran only 2:27.

Dontrelle Willis and Derek Lowe tomorrow. Should be another good game.

I'm a fan of the sport of baseball.

Being from suburban Boston, I'm a Red Sox fan first. Johnny Pesky was a good friend of my father, who was a high school football coach and athletic director. Tony Conigliaro was another family friend.

Following the Red Sox in SoCal, I went to a lot of Angels games. When Mike Scoscia took over the team, I became a fan, particularly when they made their run and won the World Series.

Two years ago we decided to get season tickets to the Dodgers, as they are very convenient, and have one of the most beautiful parks in baseball. So now we're fans of three teams. With the Red Sox finally breaking the curse, I'm OK for another 86 years. I'd love to see them make post-season, but I don't see a championship in the near future.

Today was a good day for the Dodgers, beating SF 6-5. They have a very good team this year, especially with the last-minute trades. I think Maddux was a huge addition for the team emotionally. Betemit fills the hole at 3rd with Mueller out, and Lugo is a good bench player.

Tomorrow we'll be going to the game and see Maddux vs. Jason Schmidt. Should be a good game.

Monday it will be Dontrelle Willis. I haven't seen him pitch in person, so I may try to go to that game as well vs. Derek Lowe.

Biography for David J. Bondelevitch, MPSE, CAS

Biography for David J. Bondelevitch, MPSE, CAS
David is an Associate Professor in the Music and Entertainment Industry Studies Recording Arts Program at the University of Colorado Denver College of Arts and Media, where he has taught Audio Production I, II and III, as well as Surround Mixing, Audio Seminar and has revised the syllabus for Audio Post Production I (formerly called "Audio Sweetening"). In order to foster collaboration between the Film program and the Recording Arts program, David introduced courses on Dialogue Editing, Music Editing, Re-recording Mixing, and Sound effects Editing, well as the course History of 20th Century Film Music.

David is a music & dialogue editor and re-recording mixer. His most recent projects include mixing the documentary El Vacio, about immigrants who are in sanctuary. The film can be viewed on the NY Times website. He also mixed Fresh Tracks, about the man who designed modern prosthetics for skiing after WWII. The film has won festival awards as Best Documentary at the Three Minute Film Fest 2013, was an Official Selection for the Script Competition in the 2014 Life Fest Film Festival, was a NexTV Web Series & Indie Film Quarterfinalist 2013, and was a Merit Award Winner in the Best Shorts Competition 2013, and was an18th Annual Fade In Awards Quarterfinalist 2013. 

David also mixed Empty Net, about the US paralympic hockey team. He is currently working on the documentary series Eco Quest and is prepping for the documentary Burning Sky. 

David also mixed the documentary Southwest of Salem, which recently won a Peabody Award. He also mixed the cult comedy Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero. Previously, he mixed Driven to Ride, about women who ride motorcycles, and Above the Ashes, about a devastating fire near Boulder, which destroyed over 100 homes. The film aired on PBS. Bondelevitch won a Heartland Emmy as Associate Producer on the film. He was also nominated for Audio (as Sound Designer). The film was also nominated for an MPSE Golden Reel Award.

David also mixed the jazz album Step by Step for his longtime friend, jazz musician and multi-instrumentalist Ray Zepeda. The CD and downloads are available on CD Baby, iTunes, and Amazon. The album has been remixed into 5.1 channel surround sound on DVD-Audio, which is also available on CD Baby.

He also completed work on the mini-series Mile High Jungle, a National Geographic series about the Wild Animal Sanctuary near Denver, and their efforts to rescue abused circus lions from Panama and Bolivia. He was also music editor for the Tim Allen feature film The Six Wives of Henry Lefay, which is now available on DVD and BluRay and the Lifetime series State of Mind, starring Lily Taylor.

David has credits on over 200 films and television shows. He won a Primetime Emmy in 2000 in the category of Sound Editing for a Movie for his work as Music Editor on the TNT original movie The Hunley (starring Armand Assante and Donald Sutherland). He has also won Motion Picture Sound Editor Golden Reel Awards for his work as a music editor on the ShowTime musical film Ruby’s (starring Angela Bassett) and the Imax documentary film Island of the Sharks. He has been nominated a total of twenty-six times.

He is Past President of the Motion Picture Sound Editors, a society with a long history dedicated to recognizing excellence in the field of sound editing. For over fifty years they have hosted the MPSE Golden Reel Awards. Under his guidance in 2004, for the first time the organization hosted a second event, this one at the historic Egyptian theater in Hollywood. Big Movie Sound was a sold-out event and was very well received by members of the entertainment community. In 2005, a follow up Foley Show was equally successful. In addition, under his presidency, a membership drive increased active membership by ten percent.

Heis a board member of Cinema Audio Society and has formerly been Vice President and was Secretary of the organization for 15 years. David was a co-editor of the CAS Quarterly. David was also on the Board of Governors of the Heartland branch of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

David’s musical education began at age nine, when he took up the trumpet after seeing Louis Armstrong on television. While in elementary school, he began teaching himself piano and took recorder lessons. By the time he reached high school in Swampscott, Massachusetts, David was playing lead trumpet and flugelhorn in the jazz, concert, and marching bands and attended several jazz camps. He also studied privately with Paul Fontaine (featured soloist with the Woody Herman band).

In his senior year, David participated in a special program that allowed him to teach brass and percussion full-time to elementary and junior high school students. He also sang bass in the school’s chorus. In addition, he was interim conductor of his high school jazz band while the director was on medical leave. Self-taught at music theory, he began arranging for the jazz and marching bands at his high school, as well as for his own small jazz group, which performed locally.

David is the only person ever to receive concurrent Bachelor’s degrees from the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, matriculating at both schools in the same four-year period.

While at MIT, David studied music theory with John Oliver (conductor of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus), piano with Marek Zebrowski (now director of the Polish Music Center at USC), and traditional composition with Ed Cohen (winner of numerous composition awards). David continued his private studies on trumpet with Charles Schlueter, principal trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

David played with the MIT Symphony Orchestra, including a performance at Carnegie Hall of the Persichetti Piano Concerto and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, as well as a performance of the music of PDQ Bach conducted by Peter Schickele. He also performed with the MIT Brass Ensemble, and played lead trumpet for both the the MIT Concert Jazz Band and the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble (directed by Herb Pomeroy). His performances with the Festival Jazz Ensemble included two awards for Outstanding Ensemble at the prestigious Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival. David also composed several pieces specifically for the Festival Jazz Ensemble. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Art and Design (where he studied documentary filmmaking with Ricky Leacock) and a humanities concentration in music.

While at Berklee, he studied composition with legendary jazz educator Herb Pomeroy and played in his ensemble. David also studied composition with Phil Wilson (arranger for the Woody Herman and Buddy Rich bands) and Greg Hopkins (arranger for the Buddy Rich band). He also took several courses on film scoring and studied trumpet privately with Mike Metheny (brother of Pat), Jeff Stout (featured soloist with Buddy Rich) and Wes Hensel (lead trumpet for Les Brown). David received his Bachelor of Music degree in Composition and Arranging.

While in graduate school at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, David played principal trumpet with the USC Community Orchestra and also performed with the Dave Pier Stardust Big Band. David composed and performed the musical scores to a number of his student films, ranging in style from Dixieland to contemporary atonal.

After receiving his Master of Fine Arts degree, David became a music editor in the film and television industry, working with composers including Branford Marsalis, Randy Edelman, Mason Daring, Christopher Lennertz, David Kitay, Bennett Salvay, David Bell, Daniel Licht, David Schwartz, and Alan Williams.

David has performed with several choral groups, including the Colorado Symphony Chorus, the Burbank Chorale (the oldest performing group in California), the Santa Clarita Master Chorale, the Cherry Creek Chorale (performing at the Breckenridge Music Festival) and the Littleton Chorale. He conducted choral sessions for films, including Black Knight, starring Martin Lawrence, and Tortilla Heaven, starring George Lopez. He has also had several compositions performed in films. He is a composer/publisher member of Broadcast Music, Inc.

He was a faculty member at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts from spring of 1993 through 2008. He has taught Intermediate Production (310/508), Fundamentals of Cinematic Sound (242), Intermediate Sound (540) and Documentary Sound (547). He created the course Directing the Composer (473), the first course in the cinema program devoted to film music. He also created the first undergraduate non-major course on sound editing (340). He has also taught at Pasadena City College and guest lectured at the University of California Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount, Pasadena City College, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Columbia College Chicago, North Carolina School for the Arts, Chapman University, Savannah College of Art and Design, Ithaca College, the Art Institute of Austin and Rochester Community and Technical College.

While teaching at USC, David began semesterly meetings between the film and music programs in order to foster collaboration between the two schools. In addition, he instituted the first course in film music for aspiring filmmakers, Directing the Composer. He has also been interviewed along with composers Elmer Bernstein and David Raksin in Trojan Family Magazine. His musical analysis of the score to the film North by Northwest has been published on the web and is required reading at several universities. David also hosted the Film Music Network’s seminar on Music Editing in 2002.

He was a featured speaker at the 2000 Audio Engineering Society Convention at the Los Angeles Convention Center, where he spoke about Multi-channel Mixing. He was also an invited speaker at the I/ITSEC conference. He has been quoted several times in Roger Ebert’s “Movie Answer Man” column.

David is also a member of the the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the American Federation of Musicians (Local 47), the International Documentary Association, and Film Independent.