Modest Mouse is an American rock band formed in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington, and currently based in Portland, Oregon. The founding members were lead singer/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green and bassist Eric Judy. Strongly influenced by Pavement, Pixies, XTC, and Talking Heads, they rehearsed, rearranged, and recorded demos for almost two years before finally signing with small-town indie label K Records and releasing numerous singles. The band achieved mainstream success with their fourth album, Good News for People Who Love Bad News (2004), and its singles "Float On" and "Ocean Breathes Salty".
Raji's was a rock and roll nightclub in central Hollywood, open in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was located in the Hastings Hotel building, 6160 Hollywood Blvd. The space had previously been occupied by a Greek restaurant called The King's Palace.
The Beat Farmers were an American rock band that formed in San Diego, California, United States, in August 1983, and enjoyed a cult following into the early 1990s before the death of drummer and sometime lead singer Country Dick Montana. Their music has been described as an amalgamation of cow punk, jangle pop, roots rock, hard-twang Americana, country rock, rockabilly, and swamp rock. The San Diego Reader summed up their sound as ..."like Bo Diddley, CCR, Joe South, and the Yardbirds, ham fisted into a food processor, stuffed into a shotgun shell, and blasted into a beer keg at three in the morning."
The Del Sol Quartet is a string quartet based in San Francisco, California that was founded in 1992 by violist Charlton Lee.
The Viña del Mar International Song Festival is an annual international music festival held every 3rd week of February in Viña del Mar, Chile. Started in 1960 it is the oldest and largest music festival in Latin America, and one of the longest running music festivals in the world. It was cancelled in 2021 and 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Jon Robert Lindstrom is an American actor, writer, director, producer, and musician. He is well known for his roles of Kevin Collins and Ryan Chamberlain on the ABC Daytime soap opera General Hospital and its spin-off Port Charles.
Daniel Monte McLain, known by the stage name Country Dick Montana, was an American musician best known as a member of The Beat Farmers. He was born in Carmel, California. In 1995, It was reported that Montana suffered a heart attack and died while playing "The Girl I Almost Married" during a Beat Farmers show at the Longhorn Saloon in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. The cause of death has been otherwise reported by the San Diego Reader as having been ruled as an aneurysm. The band disbanded shortly thereafter.
Ilegales is a Grammy-nominated Dominican merenhouse group, which is one of the main exponents that helped to introduce and establish the merenhouse to the mainstrean and get an international audience. The band is well known by hits such as "La Morena", "Taki Taki", "Tu Recuerdo", "La Otra" and "Chucucha". They were one of the first merenhouse acts to perform at Viña del Mar International Song Festival in 1998 and 2003.
Ray Arthur Wang, born Raymond Wang, is an American independent filmmaker.
Operation: Endgame is a 2010 black action comedy film directed by Fouad Mikati featuring an ensemble cast. It premiered on November 5, 2009, at the American Film Market and had a limited release in the United States on July 16, 2010. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on July 27, 2010.
Oliver Joseph Nanini was an American rock drummer, most famous for being the percussionist and a founding member of new wave group Wall of Voodoo during their heyday in the 1980s. He was known for playing with pots, pans, and other objects. This arrangement can be seen in the motion picture Urgh! A Music War in which Wall Of Voodoo performed a live version of the song "Back In Flesh" from the Dark Continent album, and also later in the video for the hit single "Mexican Radio". Along with Stan Ridgway and Bill Noland, he left the band after their performance at the US Festival in 1983. Nanini went on to become one of the co-founders of the neo-traditional band The Lonesome Strangers and played on their first record, Lonesome Pine.
Edward T. McDougal grew up in Winnetka, Illinois, and graduated from Colorado College in Colorado Springs. He is the son of C. Bouton McDougal, Vice President and General Counsel for R. R. Donnelley and former president of The Chicago Sunday Evening Club, a long-running religious radio (1922) and television (1955) broadcast program, which had world renowned speakers that included Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr., John R.W. Stott, Ben Haden, Lloyd John Ogilvie, Bruce Larson, Stuart Briscoe, Jill Briscoe, Joni Eareckson Tada, Madeleine L'Engle, and Elisabeth Elliot.
Spook Busters is a 1946 American comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring the comedy team of The Bowery Boys. It is the fourth film in the series of forty eight.
TheFilmSchool is a non-profit film program located in Seattle, Washington, that focuses on intensive training in screenwriting and directing. TheFilmSchool's mission statement 'to elevate the art of cinematic storytelling' guides the curriculum to heavily emphasize character, structure, and understanding the principles of storytelling. The program was founded in 2003 by Stewart Stern, John Jacobsen, Rick Stevenson, Warren Etheredge, and Tom Skerritt.
Timothy Tau is a Taiwanese-American writer, engineer, attorney, law professor and filmmaker. Tau won the 2011 Hyphen Asian American Writers' Workshop Short Story Contest for his short story, "The Understudy", which was published in the Winter 2011 issue of Hyphen magazine, Issue No. 24, the "Survival Issue." Tau also won Second Prize in the 2010 Playboy College Fiction Contest for his short story, "Land of Origin". He has also directed a number of short films and music videos that have screened at various film festivals worldwide and on YouTube.
The Media Arts Production Skills(MAPS) film school is a media production school established in 1983 by then Vermont High School principal Richie Walsh. The original program was held with 12 students with limited resources. The facilitator was Roger Manogue also known as Stretch. He and Richie worked tirelessly to build the course into a well recognised and respected program. Peter Thurmer took over from Roger in the late 80s and was the key driver who continued to shape the program for many years. Peter left after over 20 plus years service and his and Rogers legacies are many students who have gone on to forge successful film and television careers.
Old Salt Union (OSU) is a newgrass/americana string band from Belleville, Illinois. They have cited musical influences from jazz, classical, jam band and alternative. The band formed in 2012 and have since performed at many national festivals including LouFest, Stagecoach Festival, Bluegrass Underground, Winter Wondergrass, Freshgrass, featured on Music City Roots, Wakarusa, Yonder Mountain String Band's Harvest Festival, played the 2014 Daytona 500, FloydFest, Camp Euforia and the Walnut Valley Festival. The band was voted Best Bluegrass Band in St. Louis by The Riverfront Times in 2013 and Best Country Artist in 2014. Old Salt Union's line-up consists of Ryan Murphey (Banjo), Jesse Farrar, Justin Wallace (Mandolin) and John Brighton (Fiddle).
The Puppies was an American new wave band from San Diego County, California formed in 1980. Dane Conover and Richard Filaccio were the chief songwriters. Dane Conover was co-lead vocalist and played keyboards. Rhythm guitarist Richard Filaccio, was co-lead singer, frontman. Bassist was Nino Del Pesco. Lead and rhythm guitarist was Jimmy Krieger. The drummer and backing vocalist was Irene Liberatore, formerly of the all female band The Dinettes.
James Bloom is a creative director, director and screenwriter known for his work in television, advertising and interactive entertainment. He is the grandson of Freddy Bloom OBE.
The Lonesome Strangers were an American country rock music band formed in Los Angeles in 1984. The line-up of songwriters Jeff Rymes and Randy Weeks, bassist Nino Del Pesco and drummer Joe Nanini had led the band to be "one of California's most influential bands" and helped revive country rock music. However, Pesco and Nanini left the band to pursue their own careers and were replaced by Lorne Rall as the bassist and Mike McLean as the drummer.
