You have this double breasted peacoat
With contrasting buttons
That you can’t wait to mate
With a scarf and matching mittens

‘Cause you’re a hip n’ classy lady
And you’ve been waiting all Summer
For the blazing skies of August
To fog and cloud over

For the chill wind to blow
And some rain upon your shoulder
For the trees to change color,
drop their leaves, and clog the gutter

‘Cause you’re a spiffy missy
with a drawer full of sweaters
And you’ve seen some more you burn for
in department store windows.

You long to run through puddles
Blow on soups and order lattes
You love your dark boots
And the diffuse light of the Fall days.

‘Cause you’re the kind of woman
who yearns for warm and cozy
You’re wind-swept and well kempt
and seem to know right where you’re going

I think you’re the kind of girl
who yearns for sweater weather.
and you know Cooler weather’s better
for wearing sweaters. “Yes, sir.”

Word back from the fine folks at Banjohangout.org:  Marc Smith says, “Yes, this is yet another Buckbee…made for whoever wanted to sell it. Probably 1880′s but possibly a smidge earlier or as late as post-1900. Made for the trade and sold to dealers everywhere. Pegs could be bone or ivory or celluloid, you’ll just have to have a local expert check them out. Not a particularly valuable or collectible banjo (as banjos go) but irreplaceable as an heirloom.

The pix look very cool and atmospheric…but they’re lousy for identification.

Pot lids were reasonably common later additions, probably added in the 19-teens to twenties. ”

Haven’t been posting much here recently… because I’ve been hard at work on a full length album, which I’m calling Mr.Noah’s Opus. 

It’s released, you can go listen to it and purchase it as a digital download if you like.

I’m joined on this album by two simply amazing musicians, both are composers in their own right.

Erica Mulkey contributed dual cello performances to two of my favorite songs, When She’s Away and  Poison.  Known in the darkest clubs as the solo performer Unwoman, if you haven’t seen her perform or heard her recordings then I’m here to tell you it’s time you did.  You’ll find plenty of great music on Unwoman’s site.

Raymond Clause performs the piano/keyboard/organ parts heard on five of the thirteen tracks that comprise Mr.Noah’s Opus, including Buffalo Nickel, Hunger and Fear, and the title tracks Mr.Noah’s Opus I, II, & III .  Ray contributed a charming vocal scat solo, accompanied by slide guitar on Mr.Noah’s Opus II. Raymond is from Wichita, Kansas and his background is in Country music; Ray worked as a touring keyboard player and vocalist with “one of the most revered regional acts of the mid-west”. You can hear his solo recordings on his website, raymondclause.com

Many other musicians were invited to join in on this album. Folks those invitations still stand, for the next record. It was time to finish this one. Ok. ‘Nuff said. Go take a listen, won’t you ?

The video was shot in about 2 hours on August 18th. When I showed up at the shelter I  was handed a video camera with 30 minutes of battery charge, and a gorilla pod bendable tripod (which i didn’t end up using). We started shooting right away. No shooting script, just an outline of what we needed to teach, and of course Sasha was there to make sure we got it right. Everything you see is completely improvised. I made a decision ahead of time that I was going to throw out all the audio, so I could talk and direct the performers. This meant we could  focus on showing the dog walking procedure in an engaging way.

Around the time we had a dog out of the shelter and about to enter the dog-walking path, the camera battery gave out. (this corresponds to the first encounter between “Chewy” and a volunteer walking a tiny dog). Hmm.. that could be a problem…

I had Sasha call the OHS tech dept. with her walkie-talkie, and asked if they could bring us a charged uninterruptible power supply (UPS). A UPS is a battery back-up unit used to keep important computers running during a power outage.  Within 10 minutes we had the UPS, were plugged in and the camera was rolling. Sasha lugged the heavy and bulky UPS behind me, tethered by the power cable for the camera. She cradled this heavy thing for at least an hour.

None of the sight gags you see in the dog walking part of the film were planned in advance or staged. For example, we’re walking along on the dog path, and I’m getting shots of the various signs, which I planned to highlight for instructional purposes, one of the directional arrows appears to be pointing into the sky, or possibly directing people to jump into the marsh ? I really like the way one of the girls corrects the sign.

I really like the way an animal care staff member throws out some garbage into the dumpster in the background just before the girls head over to dispose of their tiny poop bags. This wasn’t staged, it just happened that way. I had the girls inflate  and tie off the bags, to make them appear full.

Sight gags for the poo clean-up scene were staged. The poo isn’t poo. It’s a couple of candy bars. I arranged the “Fun Size” candy bars, and the tennis ball, so that they would suggest a dog had been there. I was impressed by how much poo credibility the tennis ball added to that scene.

All the music in this film came from the Internet Archive. Mostly from the wax cylinder recordings and old 78s. The opening is the overture from “The Barber of Seville”. As we head out with the dog it’s a piece called “Money Musk Medley“. The poo clean-up scene is “Junk Man Rag”.

I was not very far into editing the footage when I started working at OpenSourcery. I was really worried that I wouldn’t have time to finish it with my new work schedule. I spent a couple of weekend afternoons working on it. The film is actually instructional as a silent film. I started adding pauses to the action to give a narrator time to explain things. Later I wrote a general voiceover script. A nasty head cold got in the way of recording the voice-over for about a week. Eventually I finished it the edits and recorded the voice over.

Sasha at OHS loved it. I shared the film with my co-workers, they really liked it. My new boss, Brian,  liked the video so much he asked me to start writing funny screenplays about nonprofit websites. I have a series of shorts in development. Hopefully we’ll get around to making those in 2011. They are on hold right now. Around the same time my co-worker, Brett, asked me to help with the concept for a print ad about nonprofit drupal websites for Idealware’s open source CMS comparison study, which you can download here (simple reg. required). I’ve since moved on to writing amusing-yet-insightful blog posts about nonprofit and foundation websites.

I didn’t expect this but I have found that watching the film makes people want to volunteer at Oregon Humane Society. Volunteers really do walk dogs there. If you live in Portland and want to volunteer, head over to their website http://www.oregonhumane.org

Enjoy the show !

KZME

Back in July/August I started engineering podcasts for KZME, music where you live. KZME is the new local music only nonprofit radio station, based in Gresham, Oregon. At that time KZME was doing podcasts exclusively, but soon they will hit the airwaves in Portland on 107.1FM.

I engineered several podcast episodes for Tara Dublin’s Rants and Raves, and Dennise Kowalczyk’s ZSpot. Trent Finlay had a video camera at the first session I did with Tara and captured some of the hot audio engineering action. The resulting promo video is worth a few minutes of attention. I can be seen setting up for the recording session, chatting with the guest, and spontaneously bursting into song, while demonstrating a manual pop screening technique I’ve heard that the Beatles used. The sound is from the camera for most of the clip, but as the interview gets underway it switches to the sound of the finished podcast; I thought this was kind of a neat detail.

My favorite recording from this period has to be the very last podcast show I did, because I got to make an elegant & simple recording of Sloan and Adam from the band Celilo. These songs are available both in the context of the whole podcast episode and as individual tracks in KZME’s music library. While I was engineering the show I was anxiously anticipating a call from Brian Jamison of OpenSourcery.

The next day Brian called to offer me a full time position as the Nonprofit Ambassador for OpenSourcery, Technology for good. In addition to advising non-profit leaders about web technology, I’ve been writing easy-to-understand blog articles about technology. My first run of posts concern foundation websites, Signs Your Foundation Should Probably Invest in a Better Website.

It took 75 weeks (1 year, 5 months, and 13 days) to find the right job, but I’m very satisfied with the results of my job search. Great company, perfect fit, and I get to continue doing innovative, mission-driven work. Many of the nonprofit leaders I met during my job search continue to be important contacts; so I feel like it really was worthwhile doing all that applying and interviewing.

Speaking of job applications, someone really needs to have a sit-down chat with the HR people at some of these companies. Seriously, I’ve written grant applications which required less documentation and writing than what many non-profit agencies require of job applicants.

The application process for the job- I did get – at OpenSourcery was hands-down the smartest, least time-consuming job application of my entire search. A paragraph personal statement and a link to my linkd-in profile, in an email. Here is the craigslist post from OpenSourcery:

Non-profit Ambassador (Pearl district)
We’re OpenSourcery, and we make the world a better place by bringing our technology skills to non-profits and organizations that do good. We’re a growing, for-profit, reputable firm based in Portland with an outstanding client list, solid management and a great team of developers. We want to get larger, and we need you to help us.

You’re a driven self-starter and are as much motivated by doing good as reaping just financial rewards. You’re organized, self-motivated with outstanding people skills, networking-fu, and a mighty rolodex of non-profit connections to the table. We need you to create more connections for us in the world, connections that lead to more work for OpenSourcery. This isn’t sales as much as introduction-making – we have technical salespeople for that. We expect you to spend as much time at local events being our ambassador as working your personal network for introductions. We’ll provide you training, a base compensation, benefits and space in our offices in the Pearl, plus a percentage of any sales that result in the first year of any introduction you make.

Please include a brief personalized statement about why we should consider you for this position, and include your LinkedIn profile.

See what I mean ? Simple, reasonable. They had me at “networking-fu”.

Here is my “winning” job application/email:

Personal Statement:
Hi, my name is Noah Kleiman. I’m an award winning nonprofit leader (Skidmore prize 2006) with oodles of exactly the kind of nonprofit connections OpenSourcery needs to grow as a business. I’m a longtime Free/OSS user and I have plenty of experience using open source software for nonprofit websites, office work, multimedia production, fundraising databases, etc.

I have a very strong work ethic and my networking-fu is the best.

I’m interested in learning more about your company and the Nonprofit Ambassador position. When you are finished Googling me, I invite you to take the next step, by contacting me to schedule an interview.

Link to my linkedin profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/noahkleiman
Worthwhile contact information linkedin won’t provide for you:
503.XXX.XXXX

Boomerangs and a Tambourine

Not long ago I celebrated my 31st birthday. I had some very nice presents:

1. A fine tambourine from Rhythm Traders.

2. A generous gift certificate to Reading Frenzy, a zine store in Portland.

3. A harmonica and castanets

4. A big box of instruments bought in the souk in Jerusalem.  It was a very wide assortment of musical instruments including a mijwiz, a very small tambourine,wooden recorder, toy drum, jaw harp, finger cymbals, toy xylophone, and a couple of monkey drums. Haven’t recorded any of these so far.

Monkey Drum

A monkey drum is a small 2-headed drum mounted on a stick. Two beads are suspended from short strings, one on each side. The monkey drum is played by twisting the drum back and forth so that the beads strike the drum heads. I haven’t decided how to use the monkey drum in my compositions. I suppose for experimental music this is just a question of imagination. What I would like to do is create a role for the monkey drum in a pop music rhythm section. For a fine example of the sheer power of the monkey drum, please see the final fight scene from Karate Kid II.

Mijwiz

The Mijwiz is a fascinating instrument. It’s basically two bamboo recorders lashed together, each with a simple bamboo reed. Playing it properly requires circular breathing; Storing an air reserve in your cheeks to sustain a continuous note as you inhale. Not a skill I have. The effect is a bit like a bagpipe, only more hypnotic. I’m amazed at the tone you can get from such a simple instrument. I especially like the beating/detuning effects demonstrated in this clip:

Tambourine

Nicole and Rachel Good made a special pilgrimage to Rhythm Traders to select the very best sounding tambourine. They ended up with a fine wooden tambourine with jingly brass jangles. It sounds fantastic.

What got me thinking about the tambourine ? Hearing the drummer from Fanno Creek play the tambourine and watching the Dandy Warhols/Brian Jonestown Massacre documentary film “DIG!”, in which Joel Gion plays the tambourine and maracas.  In my opinion DIG! is easily the best tambourine film ever made; I can’t think of any other film which blends tambourine playing and spontaneous brawling so seamlessly.

Once you start listening for tambourines, they are suddenly everywhere.

My dog hates tambourines.

This recording of “Buffalo Nickel” features the new tambourine, some new microphones (I’ll talk about in another post), and my homemade cajon (box drum). I really like the feel a tambourine imparts to the recording. I think tambourines are partway between a high hat, a ride cymbal and a snare. A very versatile instrument indeed.

This must have been taken very early in that lesson, since the screens are loading.

I was invited to participate in PDX Pop Now! in the Schools this year, on April 15th at Parkrose Middle School.  This is the third time I have taught at this event, but it’s the first time I’ve been invited to teach anywhere as myself; I always did the event under the OLS banner before.

I was really thrilled to see Ian Mouser of My Voice Music participating this year. He had a great set-up, with instruments for the kids to play. As you can see from this panoramic photo the classrooms at Parkrose Middle School are really strange. Like something out of Star Trek.

The software I presented is a totally free, online electronic music production suite called Audiotool . The kids loved it and their classroom teacher promised to give them another class day to use it after I left.

You get a good sense of the whole PDX Pop Now! in The Schools experience from the video they produced this year. I’m in it very briefly, but the shot is exciting enough to give a sense of what my classes are like. I have the kind of teaching style that moves, but don’t blink at 1:12 or you’ll miss it.

The video leaves out a few details.

The kids in that classroom create their own movies and design their own computer games. I got to play one of the games designed by a student there. I was blown away by the clever artwork, innovative level design, and the playability of the game I tried. What an unexpected gift to discover a hidden talent at that age !

One girl in that class was dressed in all purple, she had a purple pen, purple backpack, and a purple binder. Before I started teaching she raised her hand and asked me, “Do you like purple” ?  I said, “Yes. Yes, I do”. She smiled at me and said, “Ok. You are cool”.   Well, you heard it here first.

While I was there I had an eye-opening discussion about the lengths one teacher had to go to keep his teaching credentials up to date. It was astounding. He was basically going to have to sit out a week of teaching, while a substitute teacher ran his class, all because the testing center administration were dragging their feet about scoring his (i’m told very simple) re-certification test. I could tell that this guy was one of those “favorite teacher” teachers, that the kids really admire.

I left with a smile on my face, and an entirely too small PDX Pop Now ! t-shirt as a parting gift. I grabbed the Large american apparel shirt, didn’t see it said “classic girl” in tiny print on the tag.

The Letter

Fast forward to a couple weeks later, I’m still helping out on the campaign trail with PVO. A letter arrives at my house addressed to me. The return address says it’s from “PMS”.

What ?

Did someone write me an angry, hormone driven nastygram ?

I opened it very carefully.

A nice thank you note from PARKROSE MIDDLE SCHOOL !

Let’s see what the kids had to say:

I like Jade’s note the most. She has a jade green pen.  She writes all over the card, more than anyone else. Yeah… and she didn’t really see the performers (the blue cranes) who weren’t me, but she thinks those guys were great !

Best thank you card ever !

Best of all I got to flex some disused talent muscles, which felt really good.  I did a bunch of technical stuff: set up websites, tweaked design elements, pulled donation reports, document layouts, occasional image editing. Kept the campaign website up to date with Endorsements and endorsement statements.  I did a lot of writing and I really enjoyed the collaborative writing I got to do with campaign volunteers. A lot of bootstrapping work, multi-project management, and tiny fire extinguishing during the mad dash first weeks. Yes, I was crazy busy. But it was exactly the kind of crazy busy that I was missing.

I love acting as an advocate/evangelist for causes I believe in. Of course, In the past I’ve done this for arts and music education. What I discovered during the election was that for me it doesn’t really matter what the cause is, provided I really believe in it. Once I have some responsibility for advocating for a worthy cause, I sort of automatically tune into that cause. I pick up on what the compelling tidbits are, the talking points, and I start refining how I articulate these points. So it felt good to have something fresh to advocate for.

Before I knew it two months had passed.

Interesting fact #1

Nearly all political campaigns in Portland use the same company to handle the accounting, reporting, and processing of political donations. Campaign finance laws require brutal amounts of very timely record-keeping. C & E Systems has a great niche business providing this service. In effect they get paid by every side of every issue and nearly every candidate in every local race. C & E is basically an accounting and development department rolled into one. They process gifts, do all the accounting, manage a donor database, and even print thank you letters !  All for a very reasonable rate.

Sure it sounds a little sinister, all the political money flows through one building. Feels a little wrong. Maybe someone should consider stepping up and competing with them. But until someone does, i’ll say this:  The folks at C & E were easily the hippest people I met during the campaign. Were it not for the work they do most candidates would be completely unable to run and engage with voters; The paperwork avalanche would choke all but the biggest political insiders. This is another case where, rich or poor, you can’t buy a better Coke.

Interesting fact #2

As a result, many competing political camps will list the exact same mailing address: 2236 SE 10th Avenue.  If you get an appeal letter and it gives that address for the campaign office, that campaign is using C & E Systems to process their donations.

Interesting fact #3

The folks at C & E carry out their political accounting work surrounded by really great art work, brightly colored decor, and comfy furniture – but are plagued by the constant sound of people playing ping pong !

A meeting at C & E is interrupted by unsettling sounds:

plink… plonk…. *groan* …plink plonk…. plink… plonk… *arghlblarg*

They share a wall with Blitz, a table tennis bar.

Interesting fact #4

There is only one Union Print Shop  and mail house in Portland, Witham & Dickey, and they are right down the street from my house. Any candidate which wants Union endorsements, support, and votes from Union Workers must use W&D to print their campaign mailings. You can tell if a mailing was printed there or somewhere else, because Witham & Dickey prints a tiny little “union bug” logo in the margin. Naturally it costs more to print with the union shop. The folks at W&D were very helpful, and I know they do really great work.