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.

Who are the content creators???? (Part I)

What is content?

Content is simply good, useful information that you provide to a viewing or listening audience.

Who are the content creators?

Television and music producers, writers, publishers, filmakers, videographers, engineers, technicians, the creative teams including advertising and marketing departments, musicians, choreographers, directors, computer programmers, web developers etc........ and so I've been around content creators since I was born.

I absolutely love the Fine Arts and creating content about it. Wiki describes it as:

Photography


Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created to fulfill the creative vision of the artist.
Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism and commercial photography.
Photojournalism provides visual support for stories, mainly in the print media.
Fine art photography is created primarily as an expression of the artist’s vision, but has also
been important in advancing certain causes.


Illustration

An illustration is a visualization such as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that
stresses subject more than form. The aim of an illustration is to elucidate or decorate textual
information (such as a story, poem or newspaper article) by providing a visual representation.


Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music,[13]
used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting. Dance is
also used to describe methods of non-verbal communication (see body language) between humans or animals
(bee dance, patterns of behaviour such as a mating dance), motion in inanimate objects
(the leaves danced in the wind), and certain musical forms or genres. In sports, gymnastics,
figure skating and synchronized swimming are dance disciplines while martial arts kata are often
compared to dances.


Music

Avant-garde music is frequently considered both a performing art and a fine art.
Western art music is a performing art and frequently considered a fine art.


Electronic Media

Electronic Media (perhaps the newest medium for fine art, since it utilizes modern technologies such
as computer hardware and software from production to presentation. Includes amongst other things
video, digital photography, digital printmaking and interactive pieces).