fran - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Recent visual effects work (edited demo clip): Toby Keith and Larry the Cable Guy in The Adventures of Big Dog Daddy and Possum Boy: ..What's The Reason Why Most People Visit Their Doctor codestart!
Watch the Video ..What's the reason - codestop!..begin map.. I'm a drummer, visual efffects artist and green media producer keeping busy in LA, juggling freelance gigs, developing original broadband and music projects. Hey, check out Green Health Live Monday at 6pm at The Stream (www.theStream.tv) where a community of folks in the LA area are putting together original talk shows on all kinds of subjects (ranging from music, films, cartoons, war, comedy and natural medicine too). Tom Green's been hyping The Stream (above). The 1/2 hour weekly shows are interactive. I'm with the green info - comedy act "Green Health Live" with Marc Ryan, Thomas Calabro and our various weekly guests , laughing at life, keeping it real and learning about ancient wisdom and well-researched alternatives to conventional medicine. More on the music stuff: Drummer and sonic liaison and East Coast nomad* currently playing in Fireworks Apart and Stegosaurus. Used to play in Nomads OK (OC/LA, 04), Arraya (OC/LA, 03), Sciflyer (SF, 00), Cockfight (LA, 99) and Houseplants (DE, 91).
Green Content Producer. Activist for peace and justice. Paying the bills as a visual effects artist. LA Social Forum planning committee member.
*nomadic musical roots: born in Madison, Wisconsin. Bounced from there to south Jersey to NYC and Philly between parents in the early years, Delaware and Costa Rica for school later, and then west, and all over for work for a little while. thankful for my big ol Italian family from the Philly / South Jersey area. Love making homemade ravioli and meatballs together on holidays. ocean and music-minded. college radio DJ for five years. played the violin, sang a solo in 4th grade, then trombone in 5th, piano in 7th, picked up drumsticks after banging on art tables with friends and getting sent to the principal's office for singing our first tune "You Should Be Dead" to our psycho art teacher who actually said that to us all one day - so we made a song that cracked everyone up except psychoteach. Anyway, yeah I enjoy playing with good peeps more than anything. Surfing is still great but the ocean is a little crowded and polluted these days. Sounds like trips to Mexico with friends and up the coast are on the horizon once again. Long live the nomads. Keep having fun ;)

My Interests

high fives. good music. inspiration. sharing. exploring the power of creativity. learning. the arts. global independent media. global green economy. sustainability. friends and family, including my two younger brothers floating around here (back on the East Coast) aka "giuseppe" and "El L". cooking risotto with mushrooms and asparagus. rhythms. waves. the ocean. my website is under construction indefinitely.

I'd like to meet:

people like you - people into music - musicians - artists - people into independent media, putting imagination into real happenings - putting together live events - multimedia concerts - music videos. Digital production services (camera, post-production, etc) available.As mentioned above, there' a group called World Social Forum. I'm on a planning committee with some people there and we're getting an event together for Los Angeles in 2007. Looking for bands to play live. In Boston, Billy Bragg and Michelle Shocked performed - speakers included Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky. LA is wide open now. It's kind of political but in a global handshake kind of way - whatever that means - like kinda make up for it somewhat like an international high five. So if you want to perform at the LA World Social Forum, let me know.

Music:

pink floyd, electrelane, black mountain, yo la tengo, pixies, silversun pickups, pink mountaintops, john coltrane quartet, pretenders, the wipers, the fall, urge overkill, high karate (from delaware), wolf parade, autolux, sonic youth, old bowie, brian jonestown massacre, spoon, giant drag, dirty little secret, sciflyer, lush, wire, q and not u, broken social scene, pinback, brian eno, pj harvey, wilco, the cure, the mars volta, spacemen3, beck, nirvana, the jesus lizard, public enemy, tool, old stones, meat puppets, mike watt, dos, minutemen, botch, macedon, burning brides, bad religion, melvins, breadwinner, camper van beethoven, cake, soundgarden, king missile, devo, dead milmen, echo & the bunnymen, the smiths, the cars, the ramones, black flag, fugazi, jimmy cliff, bob marley, led zeppelin, dead kennedys, james brown, zen guerrilla, henry the band, my bloody valentine, flaming lips, sublime, tar babies, love & rockets, fireballs of freedom, waves and the ocean.

Movies:

kubrick, fellini, almodovar, hitchcock, tarantino, scorsese. there's also kevin smith, sofia coppola, gwyneth paltrow and the meaning of life (a killer animation). can't forget joe the king, repo man, the godfather (I and II), garden state, thumbsucker, jarhead, fargo, high anxiety, young frankenstein, the jerk, american beauty, repo man, goodfellas, sideways, maria full of grace, fog of war, monster, monty python / quest for the holy grail, valley girl, trainspotting, mulholland drive, the exorcist, to kill a mockingbird, the yellow submarine, too many more. Favorite editor: Walter Murch.

Television:

independent film channel, Minor Accomplishments of Jackie, Henry Rollins Show, The Business, Link TV, Democracy Now!, The Daily Show, Conan O'Brien, and Comedy Central.

Books:

Favorite magazines: Anthem, Adbusters, The Surfer's Path, Water, Art in America, Dwell, Spin. Favorite author / books: J.M. Coetzee's Waiting For The Barbarians, Disgrace, The Life and Times of Michael K. Favorite compilation book of essays: Wisdom For A Livable planet. Also, Ideas and Opinions by Einstein, Blood Meridian, Citizen Tom Paine by Howard Fast, Platform, The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq. Moist by Mark Haskell Smith, Barbara Kingsolver, Wendell Berry, Douglas Coupland, Steinbeck, Kerouac, Vonnegut, Zinn.

Heroes:

anyone who understands how important it is to remove the larger crooks from office is my hero. i'd go further to say, anyone who goes the distance here - www.impeachbush.org

My Blog

Green Health Live

Hello People! Hope all's well. Ok so I am trying to get this Green Health Live thing off the ground with Marc and Thomas and here's a little more info - thanks for checking it out. More soon...FranGRE...
Posted by fran on Sun, 27 May 2007 06:27:00 PST

Big Business CD release party w Qui @ Eagle Rock Bowling Alley

About mid-March in the middle of some typical massive work chaos, I saw Qui was playing 5 minutes away at the local bowling alley - Tuesday the 6th. Wow. Glad I went. Free show, and had fun recording ...
Posted by fran on Mon, 02 Apr 2007 06:26:00 PST

sittin in Atlanta airport

Things are ok. Found a jukebox after 12 hours plus since leaving LAX, on the way to Philly...helping to carry a coffin tomorrow....rainy day all over today...storms and turbulence - lightning and torn...
Posted by fran on Fri, 02 Mar 2007 07:57:00 PST

PEACE RALLY IN LOS ANGELES - SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 2007

Jan. 27 Anti-War March & Rally in LABring the Troops Home Now! Stop Funding the War! Saturday, January 2710 am: Meet at ANSWER Office to carpool: 1800 Argyle Ave, ..41012 noon: Join the ANSWER Conting...
Posted by fran on Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:45:00 PST

Silversun Pickups and friends/ benefit gig @ Spaceland

Sunday April 2nd at Spaceland was a great show and not just because it was a benefit gig to help out a local Co-Op Nursery School. The Silversun Pickups did a not-so-acoustic set that held the room at...
Posted by fran on Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:53:00 PST

On-Camera Talent Search (online network host)

All,If you are into thinking green and don't mind being on-camera,friends are looking for studio and location show hosts for greenzones.org,a new Green Network thing that seems to be taking off...shoo...
Posted by fran on Sun, 02 Apr 2006 06:43:00 PST

VIDEO: AP releases Bush's recorded pre-Katrina meeting

http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htmBush knew - he was warned about the levees and lied about it. it's on video and on the news. and now many people are dead because of it. this begs the question: h...
Posted by fran on Thu, 02 Mar 2006 11:23:00 PST

visual effects demo reel

visual effects demo reel
Posted by fran on Thu, 09 Feb 2006 10:00:00 PST

from Atlantic City to Eagle Rock

holy shit this new BLACK MOUNTAIN cd from Michelle is insane (early Christmas - ThankS) - more cool shit from Canada...saw Broken Social Scene before Thanksgiving - what an amazing show (at Henry Fond...
Posted by fran on Sun, 18 Dec 2005 07:17:00 PST

Cindy rocks

um, yeah...what can i say when this woman says it so well: http://truthout.org/campcaseydc.shtml CINDY SHEEHAN AT YESTERDAY'S PEACE MARCH IN WASHINGTON, D.C. "Last weekend, Karl Rove said that I wa...
Posted by fran on Sun, 25 Sep 2005 10:14:00 PST