The Lowcountry Voice

Here is a short video I put together highlighting some of the exceptional art and creativity found at Kulture Klash 3 recently held in North Charleston on November 15th.

In anticipation of Halloween, I put together a clip from the behind the scenes footage of Dan Conover’s independent short film Brunch Of The Living Dead. In it we see Kathryn McGreggor, Makeup Director for the film giving a demonstration of techniques used to get a Zombie ready for about town.

Zombie Makeup Tutorial from Don D. Lewis on Vimeo.

You can view more of Kathryn’s handiwork by watching the entire film which can be found here.

This past weekend my good friend Dan Conover and I sat around during football and beers and talked about how creative people with talent get overlooked and those with crappy ideas seem to get the breaks when it comes to getting their ideas funded and produced. Charleston is loaded with bright creative people and technically savvy individuals that never seem to make the connections that allow quality art forms to an audience.

Personal computers, high-quality but low cost camcorders (and even phone cameras) have made it possible for anyone to put together something that can be posted to YouTube in moments. Some of these folks have become overnight celebrities because their submissions became “viral” and became immensely popular simply through word-of-mouth exposure. They weren’t professionally produced. They didn’t require funding or pre-approval by so-called “experts” in the entertainment industry. They were just simple ideas that someone thought of up and created.

How many great ideas are out there waiting to be “discovered”? I myself would love nothing more than being able to hang out with creative people, simply throwing out ideas for new forms of art, entertainment, film, video, storytelling and such. Is there such a place in this town where this form of interaction happens? Where does the common man, the starving artist, the creative introvert go to meet others of like mind?

Things have been quiet here on the Lowcountry Voice blog for the past few weeks, but I’ve had a good reason. I recently returned from a two week trip to visit family in Ireland. I’m putting together photos, video and other items of interest that I collected during my trip and will include that in an upcoming blog post.

In the meantime, here are a few photos. More photos can be found on my Flickr page.

Don

Although it’s been happening to me all my life, this past weekend I heard voices in my head. Now before you call the men in white coats to come to lock me away, let me explain.

I’ve been a creative person as long as I can remember. My parents and immediate family members were gifted with many talents. I was surrounded by arts, crafts, woodworking projects, cooking and music. I always found myself bouncing from project to project, many times not finishing the current one in favor of starting another. My mind was a continuous flow of ideas, images and internal conversations.

My happiest times have been when I’ve opened my mind and allowed these creative “voices” to guide me. I was reminded this past weekend that I need to allow the universe to assist me.

I produce a podcast for independent artists and regularly have interviews with musicians. This week I was working on an episode featuring singer/songwriter Sheri Miller. As usually happens I record far more interview content than can fit into an hour long show. My interview with Sheri lasted well over an hour and the topics of conversation varied from music, love, relationships, angels, movies and so forth.

As I’m prone to do, I waited until Saturday to start the edit process and as expected the interview required considerable work to cut it down to size. I had set a self-imposed deadline to get it completed and the harder I tried, the more difficult it became. I was totally wrapped up in my head and the details, instead of letting things come together naturally. It was turning out to be a less than spectacular episode.

Sheri had been one of my favorite interview guests and I wanted to deliver a quality show. So rather than trying a different approach, I kept pushing and ignoring the “creative voices” screaming at me to do better.

Well the universe will always get it’s way. My “that will have to do” version of the show was complete and I started the upload process to my show site. Thats when things started to get interesting.

My internet connection went down and refused to come back for the rest of the evening. Then suddenly, as I was saving the project to my hard drive the computer crashed. Gone were hours of editing. All of the original audio files were intact, but the project file was hosed. I had to start over from scratch.

I took a break and when I returned to the edit process I suddenly started to really hear the words that Sheri and I had said during our conversation. We had talked about the creative process and how being open to possibilities had led to some of her best work. I calmed my mind and suddenly a cleaner and more informative version of the show appeared. Her words and music fit together easily now and it took a fraction of the time I’d spent working on the “lost” version.

I had been reminded that just because my mind may be filled with many voices, not unlike sitting in the middle of a crowded restaurant, I need to take time hear the voice that is leading me to my goal.

The finished product is now on my website. I have no doubt the same “voices” that have guided Sheri Miller and her work were present to make sure I produced content that we would both be proud of. I hope I’ve succeeded.

Don

The management of The Map Room have decided to close their doors. A full story on this can be found here.

I’ve always enjoyed checking out local and touring independent bands at this club and the staff was fun and friendly. Hopefully they will be back in some fashion soon.

Last evening I spent several quality hours in the company of local bloggers and New Media content creators at Madra Rua in N. Charleston. This Irish pub has a cozy atmosphere, great food and drink and provided the perfect local for catching up with old friends and making new ones.

We were all treated to an advance screening of Dan Conover’s independent short film Brunch Of The Living Dead, of which I helped provide camera and audio work. Dan did an excellent job of editing and after a few post-production tweaks will have it ready for release real soon. There was quite a bit of behind-the-scenes footage shot during production and a “making of” documentary is in the works as well.

May and June are starting to fill up with exciting projects. During this year’s Spoleto Festival USA I’ll be working with a great team of bloggers, photographers, videographers and others to help provide an in-depth look at this celebration of the arts. The focal point of all this creativity can be found on SpoletoToday.com.

The coming weeks will give me the opportunity to immerse myself in the creative pool of artists and musicians of which Charleston has in abundance.

Don

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to view some outstanding independent films at the Charleston International Film Festival. Later that evening I attended an after-party for the promoters and producers of the film Footprints Journal: Finding Pura Vida.

I met several local film and video content producers and inevitably our conversation would involve talking about the wealth of creative talent in our local community. I myself am a podcaster and audio/video producer and as such am always looking for new content to develop. Both advertisers and the major media industry are starting to notice the increasing supply of high-quality audio and video being produced.

I found this video clip that explains why I’m excited about in the future of “New Media” generated content.

Don

Tonight I head back to The Map Room to provide live streaming of the performances of two great local musical acts. The Fire Apes and Ruby James will be on the bill and either act is worth the price of admission. I’ve interviewed both The Fire Apes and Ruby James several times for my weekly music podcast The Big Break Music Podcast.

Ruby James has been touring the country promoting her brand new CD called “Desert Rose”. The Fire Apes are about to hit the road themselves and recording new tracks for an upcoming CD this summer.

We will be streaming the performances, so if you can’t make it to the show simply go to www.indiemusiclive.tv to view the stream. I have been trying out both Ustream.tv and the Stickam services, so whichever service provides the best performance will show activity in the window.

Both artists can be checked out ahead of time by visiting their Myspace pages. The Fire Apes on Myspace. Ruby James on Myspace.

I’m a lover of all types of music. I don’t limit myself to specific genres or styles. I have personal preference towards blues, blues-rock, funk and jazz, but I also enjoy classical, folk, alternative-rock and R&B. My choice of music varies daily based on my mood. I’m also the host/producer of a weekly podcast where I interview and play music of unsigned and independent label artists called The Big Break Music Podcast. For the past 2+ years I’ve had the opportunity to meet some tremendously talented artists and help promote their music.

One artist that I’ve played for some time on my show is The Jamie McLean Band. I first heard them at The Pour House on Maybank Hwy and was just blown away by their high quality songs fronted by guitarist Jamie McLean.

Jamie McLean and the band played recently at The Map Room and in spite of a small crowd they put on a great show. His next time in the Charleston area will be at The Pour House sometime in June.

The Jamie McLean Band’s schedule can be found on their Myspace page. I would highly recommend that you check out this artist and catch a live show when he’s back in town.

Don