Daniel Buckley Arts

Yvonne Siqueiros, roughly age 8, seen through the legs of one of Pedro Infante's mariachis as she waits for her favorite star of the Mexican cinema to arrive.

First up, let me thank all of you who have donated to this project. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to know that you are helping this film move forward. There’s still a huge way to go in this fundraiser and I need al the help I can get, so please forward the link below to friends:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1834268733/tucsons-heart-and-soul-el-casino-ballroom

Second let me fill you in on the whirlwind of activity surrounding the project that has transpired in the past few days and is coming up in the days ahead.

The Cine Plaza at the Fox series held one of its Mexican movie afternoons this past Sunday at the Fox, and I was invited to show a five-minute preview to the crowd. Publicity for it did the trick in more ways than not. Not only did we end up with a considerable crowd but the press also made several key players reach out to me to be included. They included Yvonne Siqueiros, daughter of the man who designed and built El Casino Ballroom, Ramon Siqueiros, as well as her nephew, Martin Dupont. I heard from them Thursday afternoon and had a camera in front of them Saturday noon.

They had great information about the early days of El Casino Ballroom when it was a family operation run by the three original partners – Siqueiros (who also build El Casino’s massive dance floor), accountant Benjamin Jacobs, and manager/frontman Adolph Loustaunau. The trio parleyed its individual strengths to create THE place to be in 1947, after a fire at the Blue Moon robbed Tucson of its previous largest dance floor.

According to Yvonne and Martin, Ramon Siqueiros was motivated in large part to produce a place for his then-12-year-old daughter Evelyn (later Evelyn DuPont) to gather with female friends in the popular Club Mavis, as well as soldiers return from and heading to war to have a place to dance. Yvonne produced a photo of herself on stage at El Casino Ballroom, tucked between the legs of one of Pedro Infante’s mariachis as she waited for her favorite screen idol to perform there.

Martin DuPont offered he tidbit that El Casino’s fabled 1,200-person dance floor may actually have had a prior life as a gym floor, possibly at the University of Arizona. That will take a bit to track down.

Later Saturday I interviewed current manager Fred Martinez, son of former El Casino Ballroom manager Butch Martinez, and gathered many stories, some of which he lived, others passed down to him. One told of Barry Goldwater’s aids coming to ECB to check the place out for a political rally. Both parties, then and now, used the hall to garner the Latino vote. After inspecting the place, including the bathrooms, they headed to the office of Butch Martinez and voiced concerns about the quality of the bathrooms, since Mrs. Goldwater might need to use the facilities while they were there. Butch assured them, “Mrs. Martinez uses the lady’s room all the time and it works just fine.”

And that was that.

Sunday’s preview at the Fox went well and provided us with names and phone numbers of others with stories and photos to share.

With any luck, members of Los Lobos will be sitting down Thursday to talk about their many times at ECB – a club they have come to love. Their first El Casino Ballroom gig was playing for a baptism. They also played a wedding at El Casino Ballroom, as well as numerous concerts, including a fabled two-day stint at the club as part of KXCI’s House Rockin’ concert series that people still talk about.

I’ll be putting together another five minute teaser for the Tucson Pima Arts Council’s Lumie Awards Friday night, and shooting the performance of mambo kings Sergio Mendoza y la Orkestra at that event. I’ll also be shooting long time ECB decorator Gus Ramirez as he readies the hall for that awards gathering. And then over the weekend I’ll be shooting a fundraiser for Ballet Folklórico La Paloma as it raises funds for its July trip to England to perform at the London summer olympics.

El Casino Ballroom keeps rolling, and so do I. Again, thank you for your trust and commitment to making this historic project come to fruition.

Best,

Daniel Buckley, producer.

Posted in Cine Plaza progress, Daniel Buckley Documentaries, El Casino Ballroom documentary
Tags: Butch Martinez, Daniel Buckley, El Casino Ballroom, El Casino Ballroom documentary, Fred Martinez, Lumies, Martin DuPont, Sergio Mendoza y la Orkestra, Tucson Pima Arts Council, Yvonne Siqueiros

Spent this afternoon in the 104-degree heat outside San Xavier Mission, where a couple was being married. Photos are not allowed during mass so I shot folks going in and out, as well as the couple waiting for a traditional blessing after the church wedding (nt the blessing itself).

The bride, groom and most of the families are Tohono O’odham.

Off now to El Casino Ballroom for the wedding reception.

Posted in Cine Plaza progress, Daniel Buckley Documentaries, El Casino Ballroom documentary, Uncategorized
Tags: Arizona, Daniel Buckley, El Casino Ballroom, El Casino Ballroom documentary, San Xavier Mission, Tucson

Leads on photos, stories of El Casino Ballroom’s origins, and “Tucson’s Heart and Soul, El Casino Ballroom” Kickstarter project highlight a full day in the life of a project.

Most exciting was making contact with Yvonne Siqueiros, daughter of El Casino Ballroom co-founder Ramon Siqueiros, who built the legendary hardwood floor that has supported so many dancers over the hall’s 65 years.

I will be interviewing Yvonne and her nephew, Martin Dupont, shortly for the film.

Photographer David Horowitz captured the live and back-stage action of El Casino Ballroom in the 1980s during the fabled KXCI House Rockin’ Concert series. He has agreed to go through his files and contribute some of his favorite shots – and stories – to the film.

Also from that era, an interview is being set up with Paul Bear – co-founder of the House Rockin’ series (with Jeb Schoonover), and the man who saw El Casino Ballroom’s potential as the place for unforgettable dance concerts.

El Casino Ballroom manager Fred Martinez sent out an email requesting photos to ECB regulars, and already a great batch from Anthony Peralta has come in, showing reconstruction after the roof b;ew ha;f off, and showing some of the talent that played there.

Gus Ramirez has been busy decorating for a wedding at El Casino Ballroom Friday, and is planning the look for the June 15 Tucson Pima Arts Council Lumie Awards event, featuring Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta.

And as mentioned, the “Tucson’s Heart and Soul, El Casino Ballroom” Kickstarter project has finally been launched and donations are starting to flow in.

Look for photos from upcoming interviews in the days ahead.

– Daniel Buckley

Posted in Cine Plaza progress, Daniel Buckley Documentaries, El Casino Ballroom documentary
Tags: Daniel Buckley, documentary, El Casino Ballroom, KXCI

Amanda Jeffrey in her garden

CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE:

The women in Amanda Jeffrey’s family have been involved in working fabric for literally hundreds of years.

As her mother did before her, the Scottsdale quilter, whose work is part of the ongoing “100 Years, 100 Quilts” centennial show at the Arizona Historical Museum in Tucson, Arizona, made her first stitches when she was around seven.

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Over the years, the snowbird, who spends her summers in Maine and winters in Arizona, has become an accomplished glass artist, chef, gardening expert and quilter.

In everything she does, color, design and pattern are key.

Turning drawings into quilts

Observing her process is fascinating. She starts with an idea, then searches of the right fabrics, threads and other textile materials to bring that concept to fruition.

She cuts out pieces and pins them to a piece of backing fabric. Often she photographs them, then moves the elements around and photographs them again before committing to the design and anchoring the various elements.

Amanda Jeffrey's centennial exhibit submission, "Arizona's Quilting Heritage."

She’s used a variety of machines over the years from antique treadle machines to modern sewing machines. She also has a substantial collection of miniature sewing machines, and it’s these machines that inspired the miniature quilts that are featured on her submission to the 100 Quilts exhibit. Titled Arizona’s Quilting Heritage, it also ties in her years working in the library of Lowell. Massachusetts’ New England Quilt Museum. The quilt also includes little found objects that she has collected along the way, and is dominated by elements of the Arizona State flag.

The computer has allowed her to extend her range even further by actually printing images on fabric.

Jeffrey's miniature sewing machine collection.

Jeffrey is an eclectic artist who never tires of learning new techniques. But she’ll be the first to admit that she hasn’t always finished what she started. Sometimes just working out the design is enough, and she tables the project for completion later.

PHOTOS AND VIDEO BY DANIEL BUCKLEY

FOR MORE VISIT DANIEL BUCKLEY’S QUILTING BLOG 

Posted in Centennial Progress, Daniel Buckley Documentaries, Quilting Project, Uncategorized
Tags: !00 Years !00 Quilts, Amanda Jeffrey, Arizona Centennial, Arizona Historical society, Arizona Quilters Guild, Daniel Buckley

Tearing down the damaged section of El Casino Ballroom in 2011. Photo contributed by Anthony Peralta.

Leads on photos, stories of El Casino Ballroom’s origins, and “Tucson’s Heart and Soul, El Casino Ballroom” Kickstarter project highlight a full day in the life of a project.

Most exciting was making contact with Yvonne Siqueiros, daughter of El Casino Ballroom co-founder Ramon Siqueiros, who built the legendary hardwood floor that has supported so many dancers over the hall’s 65 years.

I will be interviewing Yvonne and her nephew, Martin Dupont, shortly for the film.

Photographer David Horowitz captured the live and back-stage action of El Casino Ballroom in the 1980s during the fabled KXCI House Rockin’ Concert series. He has agreed to go through his files and contribute some of his favorite shots – and stories – to the film.

Also from that era, an interview is being set up with Paul Bear – co-founder of the House Rockin’ series (with Jeb Schoonover), and the man who saw El Casino Ballroom’s potential as the place for unforgettable dance concerts.

El Casino Ballroom manager Fred Martinez sent out an email requesting photos to ECB regulars, and already a great batch from Anthony Peralta has come in, showing reconstruction after the roof b;ew ha;f off, and showing some of the talent that played there.

Gus Ramirez has been busy decorating for a wedding at El Casino Ballroom Friday, and is planning the look for the June 15 Tucson Pima Arts Council Lumie Awards event, featuring Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta.

And as mentioned, the “Tucson’s Heart and Soul, El Casino Ballroom” Kickstarter project has finally been launched and donations are starting to flow in.

Look for photos from upcoming interviews in the days ahead.

– Daniel Buckley

Posted in Cine Plaza progress, Daniel Buckley Documentaries, El Casino Ballroom documentary
Tags: Daniel Buckley, El Casino Ballroom documentary, Kickstarter

Producer Daniel Buckley at El Casino Ballroom

In the final dash for completion, the El Casino Ballroom is turning to crowd-funding source Kickstarter to raise back-stretch funds.

Press the link here to see the proposal.

Among the fund’s purpose, the hiring of three interns – two from the Mexican American Studies program banned by Tucson Unified School District for not complying with the sate of Arizona’s contested law banning classes aimed at particular minority groups. These students, and former students, are welcome on this project which seeks to ferret our community connections with the 65-year-old El Casino Ballroom – a landmark in Tucson’s Latino ballrooms of old. A third recent high school graduate interested in pursuing a career in journalism will also be bored as an intern in the project if the Kickstarter project comes through.

“This is a particularly important aspect of the project,” producer Daniel Buckley says. “Making sure that the next generation has the tools to do its own oral histories ensures that important stories will continue to be told. These students have the motivation and talent to be a huge help in this undertaking, and to take flight on their own projects in the future.”

Also included in the crowd funding request are monies to transcribe all of the many interviews associated with the project, funds for additional editing time, monies to fulfill rewards associated with Kickstarter, and money to pay for the Fox Theatre and its staff so that the premiere of the documentary can be free and open to the public.

All of the raw footage, photos and transcripts from the project will be turned over to the Arizona Historical Society for study by future generations and inclusion in future projects by other historians.

A five-minute preview of the documentary will be shown at the Fox at 2 p.m.  June 10 during Cine Plaza at the Fox’ early summer screening of the classic Mexican film “Escuela dee Vagabudos” with Pedro Infante. Another short preview will be shown at El Casino Ballroom Friday. June 15 at the Tucson Pima Arts Council’s Lumie awards.

Posted in Cine Plaza progress, Daniel Buckley Documentaries, El Casino Ballroom documentary, Uncategorized
Tags: culture, Daniel Buckley, El Casino Ballroom documentary, history, Kickstarter, music, Tucson

Mixer and keyboard layout

Click photos to enlarge.

I started out working with Soniccouture’s new EP73 Deconstructed sound set’s FX keyboard. The FX selections are highly imaginative treatments of the electric piano’s sound harp – plucking the tines, bowing them, striking them with mallets and much more. The sounds produced are vaguely familiar to quite surreal.

First I laid down a long, dark drone, then track-by-track added sounds from the various octaves. Sometimes my choices were good. Sometimes they were terrible. But that’s how you get started with things such as this.

Next I started sculpting the sound, varying the audio levels on each track using automation as the piece went along to make some elements stand out and others recede into the larger fabric of sound.

MIDI tracks with animation

After that I attempted to add an un-altered Electric Piano sound, but found that I was bumping up against the CPU usage ceiling. Hopefully, with the 64-bit next version of Digital Performer being released soon, that issue may go away, once I am able to access more than 4 GB of memory at a time. But it could still be an issue. We’ll find out in the next exciting adventure.

To get around the current problem I decided to “freeze” the current MIDI tracks. What that means is that I output audio from all of the MIDI instruments used thus far, disabling the automation before freezing to make sure they had their original recorded sound levels.

I then created a new document and added only the frozen audio tracks. My CPU usage went from above 90 percent and peaking into the 100-percent-plus level to around 3 percent.

Now I can again start to sculpt the levels of each track, though it will be easier now as I will be able to see where large sound peaks are coming up as I proceed through the piece.

I may add the unaltered Electric Piano, or I may not, depending on how the shaping process goes.

"Frozen" audio tracks

In some ways this shaping phase is similar to how Mexican women produce lace by taking away part of the cloth to reveal patterns.

There may too be a phase of adding various effects to selected tracks and triggering them on and off as the piece progresses to generate various washes of sound.

One thing is certain. This is a new work that will require a lot of finessing to arrive at either one or a number of sonic conclusions. The process will inform later work, some related to the Jonestown project, some to other musical works.

Posted in Daniel Buckley Music, Uncategorized
Tags: Daniel Buckley music, experimental, Jonestown Project, MOTU Digital Performaer, Soniccouture EP73 Deconstructed

I have always been an experimental musician by nature.

I prefer structured and unstructured improvisation as a starting point to deliberate “note on paper” composition. The notated score may come from what I’m doing, but typically I prefer to start in the wild.

I am inspired by the changing of the light before and after sunrise and sunset. When blushes of color and light transform almost instantaneously, and when the landscape takes on vvid hues while deep pools of shadow form.

The sky at night in dark places likewise always makes me want to lie on the ground and stare upwards, absorbed by the Magellanic cloud of the Milky Way, or the moon close to the horizon. The movement of clouds overhead, and the twinkle of stars on a crisp night.

Inspiration comes as well from my artist friends, from the living of life and from coincidental experiences that command my attention from time to time.

I love sound in all of its flavors. A distant train whistle. The swish of cars on wet pavement. Desert toads after a monsoon rain. The doppler effect of a passing motorcycle. Birds and insects in the air around me.

The indiscernible chatter of crowds in a reverberant space.

Silence.

I try to work on some musical pursuit every day. But because of my busy work life, the time I have to extend my music making is precious. Likewise, because extended periods to compose are rare, I have a lot of time to think through how I would like to proceed.

Inspiration as a musical detonator comes somewhat randomly, as with the recent purchase of a new and liberating sound library – Soniccoture’s EP73 Deconstructed – a collection of usual and highly unusual sounds gathered from a Fender Rhodes electric piano.

I recently began merely experimenting with the SFX keyboard among the instruments of that sampled library. I liked what I was coming up with but the fact that all were coming from one instrument left them in a less interesting  monophonic space. So I started laying down the drone on one track and adding instances of the SFX keyboard, assigning each a different spot in the stereo mix. Each instance drew its material from a different octave of the keyboard layout, introducing a variety of new sounds. Gradually I am creating the building blocks of the improvised piece.

Once a bunch of these have been created, I will start mixing them at various and variable strengths, creating blushes of sound against one another and hopefully realizing some interesting combinations. A range of different mixes will be created using the automation functions of Digital Performer. Similarly new mixes involving a series of different electronic effect modules will be tried. If necessary, other instruments will also be introduced sparingly to provide some contrast and interest.

The process could take weeks or even months, and may result in nothing but the experience of trying something new. But the interesting quality of the source sounds leads me to believe that interesting combinations will arise.

Though the material for these pieces is starting out quite loud, I am ultimately interested in moderate to soft pieces.

I will be posting materials from this venture from time to time to illustrate how the material and my ideas are changing shape.

Posted in Daniel Buckley Music, Uncategorized
Tags: composer, Daniel Buckley music

Alex Gray gets ready to race

At 12 years old, Alex Gray has done more than many adults.

He currently has a piece in the Arizona centennial show “100 Years, 100 Quilts,” on display now at the Arizona History Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

He’s not the youngest in that show, nor the oldest. But we’re hard pressed to find any other quilter featured in the show who is a champion drag racer.

The sixth grader from Academy of Tucson Middle School pursues both interests, and a bit of football as well, with the same intensity and passion. He understands that each takes hard work and attention to detail. He grasps as well the value of good teachers, and the need to practice to get it all right.

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Alex Gray in his quilting room

And while these outside pursuits are time consuming, school comes first. He likes being there with his friends, and he particularly enjoys science classes for the experiments with heat, water, and all sorts of energy. As he himself says, “There’s like no time to waste.”

Though he’s relegated quilting to summers and school breaks, he’s done a lot for someone who started just a few years back. One quilt he created was sold at auction – funding fellow classmates whose families couldn’t otherwise send them on a school trip. He’s entered and won competitions, and works alongside more experienced quilters in classes at the local quilt shop, sharpening his skills.

Alex has a clear gift for design which carries over not just to quilting but to racing as well. He designed several of the four cars he’s raced in so far, and worked with his father, retired Tucson Police officer Phil Gray, to work out the Arizona flag design of his current dragster.

There’s no telling what Alex Gray might do with his life. He has drive, a supportive family, and an array of significant talents. Whatever he does, he will do it well.

CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Posted in Centennial Progress, Daniel Buckley Documentaries, Quilting Project, Uncategorized
Tags: 100 Years 100 Quilts, 100 Years 100 Quilts exhibit, Alex Gray, Arizona Centennial, Arizona Centennial Quilt Project, Arizona Historical society, Arizona Quilters Hall of Fame, Daniel Buckley, drag racing, quilter

NOTE: This was written on 06/11/11 with the intent of being posted that day. Sometimes stuff just gets lost. But nearly a year later I still think dumping KORE was a bad decision for Native Instruments.

In an interview I did for Stereophile Magazine about 10 years ago composer John Adams talked about how every musical turning point throughout the history of western civilization came through the spark of technological invention. Polyphony was inconceivable without the invention of notation, and vice versa. Pipe organs and harpsichords gave baroque composers ferocious and intimate tools of expression. Beethoven could never have been Beethoven without the fortepiano, nor John Cage without the prepared piano, Conlon Nancarrow without the player piano, and so on.

For electronic musicians, the introduction of hardware and software synthesizers, effects, samplers and digital recording and manipulating gear has created a new sonic palette unlike any in history.

So when a truly revolutionary musical package is taken away from the marketplace, a sense of disbelief and sadness akin to the death of a close friend surfaces.

Word this week that Native Instruments was putting its Kore hardware and software out to pasture came as a shock to many like myself who have made it our go-to synthesizer.

With literally thousands of presets and an ability to morph between sonic elements like no other synth on the market, Kore was a no-brainer where the broadest palette possible was needed.

It was love at first ad. I knew I needed Kore the first time I read about the software and its hardware controller when it was first introduced. Watching video of the whole system in action was pure synth porn. And the sound that came out of this remarkable system was mind blowing.

It took a while to put the bucks together but when I did, the out-of-the-box satisfaction was immense. It took me several years and a bunch of MacPro Video tutorials to feel like I was acquiring some Kore chops. Along the way I bought many a Kore expansion pack for both new sounds and effects. Each purchase felt like a giant leap.

There were reasons why Kore became one of my prime composing tools. For one, its organization scheme made it easy and quick to find an array of sounds close to what I was looking for. I might not remain with that sound by the final edit, but it made sketching a lot more efficient.

Then there was the sheer number of available presents, tapping into the libraries of Absynth, Reaktor and Kontakt, as well as many expansion packs that added to the enormous palette. Moreover one could click the icon of the sound being used and pull up the Absynth, Reaktor or Kontakt editors that created it to tweak the sound further. One could stack sounds and apply vst and au effects, all within the Kore software.

With the Kore hardware controller one could morph between parameters within the sound, choose the sounds and so much more. It was a hefty unification of many sonic superpowers.

The death of Kore ranks up with Gibson’s acquisition (and near immediate dispersal) of Opcode’s Studio Vision in terms of the sudden loss of a visionary digital musical product.

The need to advance other product lines that Native Instruments noted in its release about Kore’s demise is understandable. The company’s offer to sell NI’s Maschine loop controller package at a reduced price as a consolation prize to Kore users is a classy touch. But for all its beat-based power and hardware versatility, Maschine is no Kore in terms of providing keyboard players with a unique tool for so many practical musical situations.

Admittedly, NI isn’t yanking the plug on Kore just yet. There will be updates, including a 64-bit version. But NI won’t guarantee that it will dovetail cleanly into the next version of Komplete – the company’s comprehensive collection of top-notch software synthesizers, samplers, effects and drum machines – as it has in the past. In fact NI virtually guarantees it won’t.

I still don’t see myself rushing to ditch Kore from my system anytime soon. It will remain my first-choice synth, just as NI’s Kontakt remains the sampler I pull up first despite owning a number of other software synths and samplers.

In the meantime, if NI is pulling the plug on Kore it should at least upgrade our toolbags (and its position in the market) with plug-in versions of its Maschine and Traktor stand-alone sound applications. Having them under the hood of any sequencer would keep me coming back to the NI feeding troth.

Posted in Critic's corner, Daniel Buckley Music, Uncategorized
Tags: Daniel Buckley, digital controllers, Kore, music technology, Native Instruments, synthesizers