Games lead to Real Instruments!

Studio Boss — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:09:46 +0000

Video games have led many anxious parents to fear that their children could turn into addicted, uncultured sloths.But research by one of Britain’s largest music charities suggests that the popularity of active music titles such as “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” have prompted up to 2.5 million children to learn the instruments for real.

The report conducted by Youth Music found that of the 12 million young people aged from 3 to 18, more than half played music games.

A fifth of those gamers said that they now played an instrument after catching the musical bug from the games.

“We have long known that young people are encouraged to take an interest in music if it is presented to them in a compelling way,” said Andrew Missingham, the music-industry expert who wrote the report. “This research for the first time shows conclusively that young people are being inspired to make their own music by games that first piqued their interest.”

“Guitar Hero,” where players strap on a plastic guitar and strum along to rock hits, has sold 5.5 million copies worldwide since its 2005 release and spawned several sequels including “Guitar Hero: World Tour,” which came out last month.

“Rock Band,” which features a plastic drum kit, has sold 4 million and the karaoke game “SingStar” has sold 4 million copies globally.

Season 2 of Movies, Games & More

Studio Boss — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:18:43 +0000

Now is your chance to give us suggestions for movies for season 2, activities you would like to see happen before the meetings, suggestions you have for the parks, suggestions you have for food you might like to see at the movies etc.

This year we fixed up the “Snack Bar” at Friendship, got a Popcorn machine for use by the blockwatches at both parks, got a pop up tent for the Fairview Blockwatch (Thanks Hammer Electric!!) and are in the process of getting some new signs for the parks with the rules etc. for the parks.

Don’t forget next week’s movies - Ghostbusters and Young Frankenstein!! Should be a Spooktacular good time!

Caddyshack - Pushed Until Spring 2009

Studio Boss — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:26:10 +0000

Sorry to say this kids but Caddyshack is going to have to wait until Spring. The weather for Saturday is forecast as lousy and a confluence of factors has made it impossible for us to do Caddyshack until the Spring. On the bright side, the spring golf season will start off with a big bang!

Also, you duffers have more time to dig up those great outfits for the best dressed contest!!!

Released in 1980 and starring Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight and Michael O’Keefe, Caddyshack is the funniest golf movie ever made.

Thanks to Starters Clubhouse Grille and Bethlehem Golf Club for sponsoring this event! For more info call Starters at 610-625-0060.

Children of Winter - Never Grow Old

Studio Boss — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:38:58 +0000

Every year about this time a small part of my brain switches like a light switch over to Ski Mania. It got started back at Liberty HS in 1978/79 when I learned to ski at Camelback. I was hooked. Skiers/Boarders…you know what I’m sayin…..

Back in those days, the ski hills had these movies on the tv’s in the lodge showing these guys doing incredible things on skis. It turns out these were Warren Miller Ski Movies.

Fast forward to today. Warren Miller Entertainment is still making these ski movies and the Northampton Community College Ski Club has been showing them at the College as a fundraier. This is the 59th film!!! It’s like $10 bucks and you get a voucher for a lift ticket to Elm Mountain! Hands down a no brainer.

Save the dates, Nov. 21 and 22. You will see skiers and boarders rip some incredible lines. It’s not a Movies, Games and More project, it’s just a shout out for my good buddy Kevin Manna over at Northampton Community College. Watch the trailer below for a taste of winter. As the title says….children of winter. Skiing and boarding means we old folk don’t need to grow up….at least up there on the hill.

For more info see their website.

Go big or go home!

A.G.

E.T. - postponed until 8/21

Studio Boss — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:25:36 +0000

Update #2 - Finally, a weather postponement where it actually rained! Glad we were not out there last night. Another aspect of a postponement decision is the idea that we might go ahead one day and set up for a night with questionable weather but we might end up playing a movie to an empty park because people choose not to come out themselves due to weather. We still have to pay the movie licensing fee if we start showing a film so that’s just another thing to think about. E.T. will play next week!

Update - The 2pm radar images from WFMZ on the PA Radar map are not very encouraging. Due to the radar images and the hourly forecast calling for rain within the time we are supposed to be in the park showing the movie, tonight’s show is postponed until next Thursday, August 21st. Sorry for the postponement but we have alot of equipment and the safety of the crowd and the volunteers to consider. I will leave shortly to hang the banner at the park…………

Tonight is touch and go for E.T. There is a call for rain at 4pm and rain at 10pm. We will make the call and post something here and put a message on the phone at the office. We also have a new banner which we will hang at Fairview Park tonight if we postpone saying we have postponed with the website and phone number for into.

Maybe E.T. has some technology to stop the rain. I’ll ask him, he’s hanging out in the green room drinking coffee with the aliens from Men in Black.

Rain Rain Go Away

Studio Boss — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:22:23 +0000

Last night we showed School of Rock at Friendship Park. About 30 minutes before the end of the movie we began to see lightning off in the distance. Several of our volunteers have iPhones and pulled up the local weather radar showing an approaching storm cell. We prepared in case we had to cover up the electronics in a hurry and prepared for a record setting strike (Packup). We were able to complete the movie while the lightning got closer.

The strike was under 30 minutes last night with just a few drops falling on us before we left. Thankfully, again, we have the trailer which is much better than an open bed pickup in a storm! We were home before the heavy stuff had a chance to hit!

Phew!!

Transportation!

Studio Boss — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:54:17 +0000

Yesterday we picked up our new Haulmark Trailer from Wasko’s Automotive! We are very excited as this saves us a TON of work every night we do a movie. We don’t have to load the truck and car at the beginning of the night and unload everything at the end of the night (which usually has been around 12:30am). Literally, it saves us about 2,000 lbs of work.

The trailer could also serve as a projection booth for questionable weather nights giving us a bit more flexibility when making the weather call to go or postpone keeping the main system components in the trailer.

We will be working on the trailer to customize it to our needs and plan to add a custom vinyl wrap for “Season 2 - coming to a park near you!” Come back and keep an eye out for pics!

Cops ‘n’ Kids and You…

Studio Boss — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:16:48 +0000

As a result of the kindness and commitment of the entire community, the award-winning Cops ‘n’ Kids Children’s Literacy Program has distributed more than 171,000 books (including over 200 each at Fairview and Friendship Parks!). This program pairs children (pre-school through middle school) with new or gently used books that have been donated by individuals and organizations from throughout the Lehigh Valley. In many cases, the books are the first that the children have to keep as their own. This is all made possible as a result of an amazing “spirit of giving” in our community.

The demand keeps growing, so we ask that you:

check your bookshelves and see if there are any children’s books you might like to donate,
pick up a few books that you know a child might like as you go to flea markets or yard sales,
purchase an extra book or two for a child as you shop or
organize a book drive.

Drop-off sites for any books you wish to donate include the following:

the PSEA (Pennsylvania State Education Association) Eastern Region Office at 4950 Medical Center Circle in Allentown
the Lehigh Valley Educators Credit Union at 3720 Hamilton Boulevard in Allentown or 4031 Independence Drive in Schnecksville
Bethlehem’s City Hall at 10 East Church Street in Bethlehem
the Northampton Community College Fowler Family Southside Center at 511 East Third Street in Bethlehem—the site of our Cops ‘n’ Kids Reading Room

If you are interested in organizing a book drive or would like additional information on the program, please contact Beverly Bradley at 610-861-7561 or lvcops-n-kids@att.net.

Thank you for your help in “connecting kids and community through literacy.” Together we are making a difference!

Volunteers - Workin it!

Studio Boss — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:25:02 +0000

I just wanted to give a big thank you to all our volunteers for helping with all the Movies, Games & More events so far. It would not be possible to get that screen up and all that cabling run without their help. If you have any questions look for those in the blue t-shirts.

Last night at Rockland was by far our fastest setup and strike at 72 minutes to setup and less than an hour back to HQ and unpacked! Nick, Sam, Keith, Ian, Katie, Cassie, Steve, Sergio, Gwen and Lenore………you all did a fantastic job last night! Even the Oompa Lumpas from Mr. Wonka’s factory could not have done it as well.

Blog Progress - Photos and Video!

Studio Boss — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:31:28 +0000

We are making progress and have come a long way as far as blog look and feel. We plan to put pictures and video from each of the movie nights up on the page for that movie night. So far, there are pictures up from Goonies, Night at the Museum and Bee Movie and a quick test video from Fairview Park for Bee Movie. We plan to take more pics/video as we go along.

Check out the pics and video to see what your missing!

We also updated the calendar function with a better plugin. It appears in the sidebar on the right as a list of the next couple events. You can click on each event for more info. You can also go to our calendar page for a look ahead at future months presented in a calendar format.

The last thing we need to straighten out for now is the “Masthead” or header up top. It’s going to be a rotating bunch of pictures with the masthead text. Gotta get it to line up right as well!

Thanks,