Category Archives: video

Oh, To Be A Buddy

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A few Sundays ago, Milkshake performed at the Chesapeake Down Syndrome Parent Group’s annual Buddy Walk at Rash Field. It was an incredible morning full of love and happiness, and that warm-and-fuzzy feeling one gets from doing something good and worthwhile. The Buddy Walk raises money for the programs the CDSPG offers, including education programs and medical outreach/First Call programs, among many others.  The group was founded in 1982 by eight sets of parents looking to share information and network in order to serve their children with Down syndrome. Currently, the group consists of over 400 families, individuals, and organizations with an interest in the well-being of persons with Down syndrome.

The Oriole Bird joins in for a game during "Baseball."

The Oriole Bird joins in for a game during “Baseball.”

For this year’s Buddy Walk, people came together to walk or run for this great cause. It was such a vibrant, happy community of people. I had so much fun playing with the crowd when they finished their walk. It was a hour of smiles, songs, dancing and yes, even the Oriole Bird.

A few days before the Walk, I happened upon a video posted on Upworthy, a great site featuring videos reflecting all aspects of human life. The video was created by CoorDown, an Italian Down Syndrome advocacy group. In the video, 15 people with Down Syndrome, tell an expecting mom what kind of life her child will have.

One out of every 691 babies are born with the condition (in which a person has an extra chromosome), making it one of the most common genetic conditions in the U.S. Approximately 400,000 Americans have Down syndrome. But like these signs at the Buddy Walk point out, people with Down Syndrome are capable of having what we consider a “normal” life. (click the pictures to view larger formats).

I especially love the pictures about reading. It reminds me of my friend Michael Rachap, a prolific musician who set about creating a series to help kids learn how to read. It’s called Readeez, and features original “bite-sized” videos that “impart reading skills with every syllable.” Michael says “Readeez are health food for growing minds,” and he likes to think his series is “Learning disguised as smiling.” Michael has been getting videos from parents of children with Down Syndrome, praising the Readeez format and it’s ability to help their children read.

Michael includes some great music in his Readeez, and through the 15 years of playing in Milkshake and making original music for kids, I know the transcendent power of music to move minds and touch souls in positive ways. Sometimes I think about stopping the band and doing something else. But then I play a show like the Buddy Walk and think no…maybe not now…

Here’s a gallery of pictures from the CDSPG’s Buddy Walk, November 1, 2015. Thanks to Stacy Geis and Ruut for these pictures.

 

Fun in Ft. Lauderdale

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I love those times when the band packs up and heads someplace warm during the frosty winter months here in Baltimore. The last time we did this was earlier this year, in April, leaving our still-cold city behind to enjoy a weekend in Santa Barbara, CA for a show at UCSB. Now, here in dreary December, we would spend a day in sunny Ft. Lauderdale, FL to play at the Miniaci Theatre on the campus of Nova Southeastern University. The concert was a gift to the community from the Sherman Library and free with library card. Excellent! We certainly love that way of encouraging kids to read. Because Mikel, Brian and I had a early-morning show at a synagogue in DC the next morning, we couldn’t stay the night and enjoy the weather, but a little sun is better than none. So we rose early to catch an 8:30 AM plane south.

Yawns & laughs at the airport

Yawns & laughs at the airport

I brought Snowy The Little White Dog along since I needed more footage for a home movie I was working on. I had filmed some video last winter in my backyard but when I finally got to editing recently, I didn’t have enough footage to work with. So Snowy came along and I filmed him with the guys at the airport and venue. (Here’s a link to the finished video)

We arrived in Florida and had no time to waste because of a delayed flight. Springing into military operation mode, we blew up baseballs and the Earth Ball, and set up the stage and sound checked as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, in our haste, we blew up the Earth Ball in the dressing room and then couldn’t get it out the door and onto the stage without deflating it a bit. D’oh!

Mikel tries to push the Earth Ball out the door.

Mikel tries to push the Earth Ball out the door.

But we had an amazingly fine time and performance. The kids were great fun to play with, and even the jokes during “Happy Place” were pretty good: “How did the maniac find his way out of the woods? He followed the psychopath.” and “Why didn’t Lady Gaga eat her meat dress? Because it was raw, raw, raw, raw, raw…”

After the show, we did a Meet & Greet with the families and signed autographs, feeling so welcomed by Anne Leon and the good folks at the Sherman Library. As we drove off the campus, we almost stopped to let Snowy say hi to an iguana, but Snowy wanted to hang at the airport bar instead. Silly dog. All in all a great day and another time well-spent for Milkshake.

Here’s a few pics courtesy Meagan Albright of the Sherman Library – thanks, Meagan!

Girls Wanna Dance!

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Milkshake spends – or I should say reinvests all its money into new stuff for our audience. Last year it was Got a Minute, our fifth CD. This year we’re thinking videos. Making videos is a lot of work, but a lot of fun, too, and I think kids like to watch music just as much as listen to it. While playing Midnite Noon, our annual New Year’s Eve show at the Maryland Science Center, we noticed that most of the audience got up and danced when we played “Girls Wanna Dance.” But true to the idea behind the song, most of the people dancing were girls. Is it just that guys are shy? Are they bad dancers? Do they enjoy sitting more? In the green room after the show, we decided to explore this phenomenon by doing a video of the song.

Milkshake, circa the 1970's!

Milkshake, circa the 1970’s!

Tom came up with the storyline: a middle school dance circa  the seventies. The guys would wear tuxes, kids would dress up more than they do today, the setting would be a school gym and Shepp would wear a giant afro wig. Each of us would have alter-egos: I would be the stern old librarian, breaking up a slow-dancing couple; Brian would be the nerdy, book-reading professor walking through the dancing throng, oblivious; Tom would be the PE coach stopping a boy from playing basketball; Shepp would be the principal, walking in as the song ends; Cord would be the janitor, pushing a mop across the dance floor; and Mikel would be the health-nut hippie teacher, trying to get kids to eat carrots instead of lollipops. Mikel’s wife, Donna Reilly, would be the cool 70’s mom with Farrah Fawcett hair, dropping off her kid to the dance.

The band as their alter-egos.

The band as their alter-egos.

We found a perfect place to film, Park School’s Blaustein gym, and soon after found our film crew at WOOF Digital Motion. Soon we had 46 great kids from Park School, City Neighbors Charter School and a few other Baltimore-area schools signed up to be part of the video. Tuxes were rented, a new tutu was created, props were bought, including 62 golf ball-sized lollipops.

making a video.

making a video.

Rick Lewis and Terry Campbell of WOOF worked with us to make sure we had what we needed, from stage lighting to a back-up generator. They were both very together and Rick was always at the pre-production, refining, planning and even drawing the set as it would look on the day of the shoot. They were fantastic and we thank thank thank them.girls floor plan

Food was an important issue, too, since no food = hungry kids and crew. Luckily, Mikel and I had just done a private show for an executive at Wendy’s, and Wendy’s generously catered the shoot for free, so big thanks to Rick Borchers and the people at Wendy’s for filling up a car with bags of chicken nuggets, salads and burgers.

Wendys

a few of the 17 bags of Wendy’s food.

Our friends Brendan Williams and Russell Cory from Verve Broadcast Design came by with a camera and microphone and roved around the set and staging area, taking footage, interviewing some of the cast and using the footage to create a short preview for us. Thanks guys!

On March 2nd we worked on the “Girls Wanna Dance” video from 7 AM to 7 PM. It was a long day, but everything came together. Special thanks to all the kids and their parents, Bob Peck at Park School, Jill Andrews for the gorgeous new tutu she designed and for making sure the band looked good. Thanks to Steve Parke for coming by and taking pictures, and to assistant director Sandy Asirvatham who kept everything flowing nicely, guiding and directing the kids. And last, thanks to Donna Reilly for being a great mom in the seventies car, Cory Moon for helping on the set and being Moo, and to Christopher Lewis and Joe Manack for their all-around assistance. Enjoy these pictures, taken by Steve Parke and Jill Andrews.

LINK TO THE FINISHED VIDEO: Girls Wanna Dance

 

Snow Day

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It’s one of many days of snowy weather we’ve had here in Baltimore this winter, and while the power is still on I thought it would be a great time to catch up. Usually Milkshake puts on what we like to call a “Valentine’s Day Spectacular” around this time, but instead we had scheduled a video filming for this weekend. A few weeks ago the video shoot got bumped to early March, and we were left with a free weekend…full of snow! I guess things work out the way they should sometimes.

snow outside my window.

snow outside my window.

So this year, after 2013’s fantastic shows and the release of Got a Minute, we’ve decided to film new videos. Our first effort will be something we can shoot indoors, a song called “Girls Wanna Dance,” for which Tom had a brilliant idea: film it in a school gym, with the band in white tuxes and brightly colored shirts. It’ll be like a school dance circa the 70’s, complete with mirror ball and nerdy teachers. And the funny thing I’ve found in recruiting kids for the shoot is that it’s much like Mikel’s original idea behind the song: the girls wanna dance but the boys just stand around “with their hands in their pockets.” That is, it seems we have more girls than boys wanting to perform in the video! Can it be true that boys don’t wanna dance?! I guess we’ll see when we film in a few weeks.

With all this snow piling up, and new videos on my mind, I think I’ll do as Cord suggests and go across the street to borrow my neighbor’s little white dog. He’ll make a great Snowy for our song “Snowy”  and it’s a perfect day to go outside and play. Hmmm, maybe “Girls Wanna Dance” will be our second video of the year!

Be safe, have fun.  And look for a special Valentine’s Day post tomorrow.

xo,

Lisa