I'm proud to announce that my website artwork is almost done. Elizabeth (tofusquirrel) Siegel has been working hard on the illustration that banners, and adorns the written section. Pikkles is currently programming the site, and Brit Woollard took some amazing photos. I still haven't decided on a name for my gear blog, however, I'm still going to start interviewing bands/gearheads/producers/ or instrument creators who want to chat about their collections or creative processes. Here's one of the photos by Brit Woollard. Soon I'll be bathed in Tofusquirrel-ness.
Yippie! The first day of filming (8/4) was amazing. We shot at the old Paragon Park Carousel on Nantasket Beach in Hull, and everything went splendidly. The shoot was all based on the main character's dream sequence. Des has been directing, so the collaboration of ideas has been consistently awesome, often weird, and occasionally hilarious. Kathy, Tyler, Des, and myself all spent a couple weeks creating the masks by hand, with the exception of a few we rented at Boston Costume. Thanks to Jimmy Edwards for helping us paint faces, and to Mari Joe and Bre from The Loft (Newbury St.) for making me so pretty.
So many friends of the band were kind enough to get there at the crack of dawn and let us dress them up like freaks. All morning, families were walking up to the building and staring at this carousel full of creepy clowns and bizarre creatures. I hope we didn't scare too many kids. Thanks again to Dave Gutt and his film crew, the staff at Paragon Park Carousel, and all of our amazing cast members for making the day all that it was. We continue shooting on 8/24-25 in Vermont next to a beautiful river in two gypsy caravans. The entire video is very surreal, and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to create it.
Here are a few shots taken in between scenes. More to come::::::
-Getting a touch up between scenes, and Tyler is adjusting his bird mask behind me.
- My cousin Matty Posing for the camera, isn't he cute?
-His pretty lady friend, Rob.
-Shooting the backwards scene. This is where I dance and sing walking back towards the light, and the camera follows me... lets just say it wasn't the easiest part.
-Taking direction, partly dehydrated. Cassandra on the right singing harmonies. My cousin Jessica is the quiet little mime girl sitting on the bottom.
-The sweet, and beautiful Emily. Katherine directed this scene.
I will post more pictures as they come. Thanks so much for reading. Stay tuned for the updates. Love, Casey Desmond
Sedona, Arizona is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. This serene Mecca of sorts is a kingdom of fiery red stone buttes, and a gathering of people in search of spiritual nourishment or heart throbbing natural spectacles.
That is, the Sedona which isn’t infested with golf courses, dune buggy rentals, 5 star hotels, and shopping centers. I was saddened by the unhealthy amount of construction and the web of tourist traps. However, I plan on returning to these spellbinding landscapes repeatedly in my life. Entering Sedona was simply breathtaking.
The trip started off with us exhaustedly crunching all of our gear and personal belongings into a plane from Boston to Phoenix. All of us had hardly more than two hours of sleep and were slamming back lattes in order to make our flight and drive. Before rushing off I made a new soundtrack for my ipod using the following albums. Give them a try yourself:
*The Raveonettes- Lust Lust Lust -Favorite song(s): "Dead Sound", and "Lust". *Goldfrapp- Seventh Tree -Favorite song(s): "Eat Yourself", and "Clowns". *Air- Talkie Walkie, and Cherry Blossom Girl Remix EP -Favorite song(s): "Cherry Blossom Girl", and "Biological" *Also pick up the single "Lights & Music" by Cut Copy
I fell asleep on Tyler’s shoulder to the animal planet on my Jet Blue TV. I paid for the rest of the trip with a stiff back, waaaah :(. During the drive from the airport to Sedona everyone was their goofy self, which undeniably is the best part of traveling with my band. Everyone is a comedian, and any censorship is thrown to the wind - for example, the hidden talents we keep secret until a camera is turned on.
Recently I won a contest by the Global Community Communications Alliance. These kindly people offered me an opportunity to use their sound stage/studio "Future Studios," all while they shot a live performance DVD. I’ve never met a more hospitable group of people. First, they invited us over to their gorgeous home and fed us an extremely healthy, delicious meal. Then, they put us up at a cottage in the middle of these vibrant stone mountains and a vegetated desert.
Sound check was long but exciting, and my entire band was comatose. We had three mixes to secure before the next day - one for video recording, one for the webcast performance and then another for the room holding the live performance. Also, 4 or 5 cameramen needed to plan their placement around us. With all this going on, and on 2 hours of sleep, I became slightly grouchy and forgot to plug in simple things like my guitar and my sustain pedal. ;) I finally hit the sack around 9:30 pm (12:30 am, Boston) and slept until 6:00 am. When I woke up, I had a horrible unexplainable cold. I couldn’t breathe out my nose, my lungs were weak, and I quickly became even grouchier to find out Tyler had disappeared before dawn to take a nature walk without me. Two sad faces. :{ :{. After a chemical cocktail of vitamins, advil, echinacea and zicam, I was off to breakfast. We went to this little diner in a strip-mall called "Blue Moon Cafe". Now, when you ask your waitress if something is vegetarian, you expect a yes or no answer, or an "I’ll find out for you," right? Well when I asked mine at Blue Moon, she answered, perturbedly, "What does that mean?". What we have here is a failure to communicate. I mean, did it have a face, a heartbeat, flowing blood... did it have a momma? Silly lady. The performance was great, my band played very well, the sound was what it should’ve been, and our crowd was awesome. Everyone was very silent during the performance, there were dancers in the corner, and we got an enthusiastic applause. I was relieved everything went smoothly because I was under a lot of pressure for the DVD recording. I’m my biggest bully and harshest critic, but after it was all over the butterflies went away and I was allowed to enjoy the fans. A sweet young girl gave me her bracelet and told me about her band. One toddler was doing laps around the room in a dress, and I couldn’t help but laugh mid-song. We had purchased $2.00 wine at Super Wal-Mart, and were ready to go back to the cottage immediately after the break down and relax. I got my wine buzz on and invited a couple kids I had been working with to join us in the cottage. Their names are Amadon and Alcyone. Awesomely unique names, right? Very mature and purified kids. We drank tea, talked about life, and stayed up until roughly 4:00 am (7:00 am Boston). I slept like a rock for the second night in a row. In the morning I packed and cleaned up the cottage (don’t ask me why I do this) :). We all headed into town, and rented mountain bikes (with the exception of Nate, who wanted to take a walk, and Taylor, who rented a road bike.). It was an amazingly sunny and warm day, and the trails were to die for.
Tyler, Kathy and I took the easy trail around Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte. Our legs were shaky pushing up the rigid path, and we stopped frequently to take pictures like good tourists do. Finally, after carrying our bikes down one dangerous slope, we decided to disobey the bicycle rental guy and wander off the path. Like the punk he is, Ty started lifting up desert stones. This revealed an angry little yellow scorpion, giant fire ants, and an anole. I was the worrywart I always am and scolded him like a mother, telling him not to mess with anything, and being much more of a stick in the mud than I actually wanted to be. When we turned back to meet up with everyone, our entire route was downhill. We were basically thrown down a jagged hill by gravity, wreathing in and out of pedestrians yelping to the top of our lungs. It was the most fun all day.
We painfully left Sedona. The blossoming trees were dropping flowers on our heads, and the sun was baking our pasty New England skin. This made freezing, rainy Boston sound so dreadful. I kind of had a fit when I was told to get in the van to head back to the airport. Luckily, Kathy took us out for margaritas and nachos before the flight, and we were stuffed and sleepy on the plane. Our flight was from 10:00 pm to 8:00 am, with a connection in between. Some of my members fell asleep while we were checking in: I’ll miss Sedona; it’s raining here. Poop. Enjoy the Polaroids, the pictures from a perfectly normal digital camera, and some videos. Thanks for reading, Love Casey
Hey there all. For those who have no idea who I am, please go to myspace.com/caseydesmond.If you're still interested after that, then hooray for me! Thanks for reading and feel free to comment.
