I seem to have become a multi-disciplinary artist, which is another word for someone with drive and ideas, combined with ADD.
Now happily ensconced in furniture design and building, and a practicing low-tech, high entertainment value kinda guy. Doing work for architects and individuals who seek my unique furniture designs. (see pictures or click on pics above)
I started producing concerts at the club now called Metro (then Stages) in Chicago, including the Chicago Premiere of The World Saxophone Quartet, Sonny Fortune, and others. While living there, I managed the group Streetdancer, and booked a national tour for Grammy Award winning jazz group Air , which was part of Chicago's AACM music collective. At that time, I also managed Chicago jazz act Streetdancer .
I moved from there to Woodstock, NY where I worked at The Creative Music Studio , and met Sun Ra's record label owner, as well as an eclectic group of rockers who loved free jazz named The Swollen Monkeys , who went on to become the punk horn section of the 80's and 90's, with such bands as The B-52's, The Waitresses, Tom Waits, The Psychedelic Furs, and others. I booked shows for them, as well as booking national tours for the legendary jazz performer Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra . I went on to work with The Waitresses who had two hits, "I Know What Boys Like" and "Christmas Wrappin" , and booked their first couple of national tours.
From there, I went on to manage noted British guitarist, Chris Spedding (Roxy Music, Paul McCartney, and countless others), and later managed rockabilly legend Robert Gordon . I continued working with unusual and interesting acts, such as Snakefinger (guitarist for The Residents), The Individuals, Indoor Life (Ralph Records),LA's New Marines and many others.
A move from New York to Pittsburgh took me into public television as an Executive Producer of National Productions for KTCA/Minneapolis and WQED/Pittsburgh, as well as Executive Producing a show on "infamous criminals" for Court TV's "Crime Stories" called "Ira's People" , with Ray Farkas and Ira Silverman, the crime and espionage reporter for Newsday and NBC.
When I was into technology, I produced a Virtual Reality Theater with Spitz and Carnegie Mellon University
that traveled to various science centers, and helped to telecast Carnegie Mellon University's test of their Mars Rover on the Atacama Desert, directly to the Carnegie Science Center's planetarium. For WQED/Pittsburgh, I partnered with Sony to produce the first CD-ROM in the PBS system (1992), and built up that station's first interactive technology group that year.
I also put together a fun, eclectic "First Night" 1999 for the city of Pittsburgh, which included everything from Bob Holman and The New Yuorican Poets, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, public art on a large scale, dancers in store windows, a city wide larger than life game of chess, to kids' things like Mr. Rogers Folks, Beakman's World, and Umoja African Dance. All at over 30 venues taking up 10 hours at each one.
