Newark Essex Pride Coalition-Thank you

Seeking Out Quality People
"It is important to align yourself with what I call OQP, Only Quality People. You should endeavor to surround yourself only with people who will enrich and empower you, people who will enable you to transcend yourself and to
grow."

~Les Brown

Edison's Historic Site

A week ago today, I went to visit Edison's Historic site with a group of engineers and discovered a hidden jewel that has been well preserved.



Edison invented the phonograph and had record plant.




According tho the NPS.gov website under "The Recording Archives" it states that



"The archive at Thomas Edison National Historical Site includes approximately 48,000 disc and cylinder records produced by Edison in West Orange, New Jersey, between 1888 and 1929. Many of these, including unreleased and experimental recordings, have been at the Laboratory since Edison's lifetime. Some of the earliest examples of recorded sound in existence are preserved within this unique collection.

The subject matter of the recordings is mostly music, covering genres popular in the United States during Edison's era. Spoken word recordings include vaudeville comedy sketches, documentary speeches, educational lessons, and motion picture dialogue soundtracks. Experimental recordings document research carried out at the Edison Laboratory to develop recorded sound technology."

They have compiled a selection of sound files in the MP3 format from the archive and arranged them by genre.


Selected from the genres recorded by Edison:

Brass Band Marches
Classical Instrumental
Comedy Sketches
Country & Anglo-American Folk Songs
Documentary Recordings and Political Speeches
Educational Lessons
Experimental Recordings
Jazz, Blues & Dance Bands
Motion Picture Soundtracks & Actor Auditions
Music of Foreign Countries
Negro Spirituals
Opera, Vocal, & Choral
Poetry, Short Stories, Readings
Popular Instrumental, Ragtime
Popular Songs, Tin Pan Alley
Very Early Recorded Sound"




We toured his first floor machine shop, the precision shop, the drafting room, and the chemistry shop. Edison worked on electric car batteries in the early 1900s? He thought it would be the car of the future.

A photographer that I love...

Tonight, he will be celebrating his opening and years in the business. See his work at:

http://www.mikeschreiber.com/

Has discovered Aljira Center for Contemporary Art

Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art
591 Broad Street
Newark, NJ 07102

Visit Aljira's Site

Content Creators III

Fast forward to the present. After years of performing in the arts I have now transitioned into a content creator focusing on both technical and creative aspects of production while also contributing to standards set in both of my industries. Each week I will bring a new perspective in how I approach a project and some of the things that I have learned while working on new projects.

Tune in each week!

Thanks for your support.

Michelle

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Content Creators Part II

My Introduction to Content Creation

In the 1970's when the first affordable reel to reels starting appearing in personal studios in homes, my grandad, a professional musician in Harlem was among the first to get one. I remember him playing his instruments (woodwinds and brass) and recording. That influenced me heavily early on in the fine arts and exploring areas of content creation.

Another influence was my grandmother who was the one who cultivated my affinity for visual images. She had beautiful works of art on the walls and was one of the family historians in terms of keeping collections of pictures dating back to the early 1900's. I used to sit and listen to music while going through boxes and albums filled with pictures. I absolutely loved pictures What intrigued me the most was the stories that they would tell. I was terribly distraught when her collections and grandpa's professional recordings, vinyls, and memorabilia were tossed after grandma's death in 1987.

My grandmother, her sister and other family members worked at Lincoln Center and I spent many days there watching the creative folks do what they do day in and day out. All this content being created for the viewing and listening audiences and there I was soaking it all in. I believe I started frequenting Avery Fisher Hall at age 3 and continued on until I graduated high school. I even worked at the Sedutto's ice-cream Kiosk (where the outdoor concerts went on) in the summer of 1987. I met Teddy Pendegrass and attended his concert at least four times. I attended Mostly Mozart Concerts, Bernice Johnson and other concerts and recitals.

In the second grade, I actually started participating in the performing arts when I attended catholic school and my teacher, Mr. Silver introduced us to content created for musicals. That year we learned the titles from the content created by Richard Rodgers, and Oscar Hammerstein II called "The Sound of Music" and "Oklahoma" (the first musical written the same composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II), (WIKI, 2009).

I will never forget that year because a classmate named Jennifer created the song "My Dog has Fleas". I was so terribly excited about how one of my peers had created this content to perform at school and had set up props and prepared a entire stage show with actual dogs on stage!! I also was part of the Irish dancing team learning yet another fine art and involved in its content creation for audiences.

In the fifth grade I was introduced to percussion and strings- Violins, Viola's, and the upright bass. The content that we worked with was created by Jerry Wexler. We learned all of the music from the "Wiz"........Part III tomorrow.