Hey Everybody:

A few bits of news to put up, so I thought I’d send out a general email to keep everyone up to date.

First off, some good news-bad news concering KTNA in Talkeetna, Alaska. We are on their broadcast schedule, slated for 6:30pm (Alaska time) on Monday Nights. The bad news is their internet connection doesn’t appear to be working. You should be able to go to their website at http://www.ktna.org and listen live. Hopefully, that will get fixed soon. But it’s good to know we’re on the air on the tundra!

Secondly, still looking for volunteers this week for the Espresso Lane smoothie booth at Smokey Bear Park. Let me know if you can help, or just show up. Harley and Amy are planning to be there the whole time. We’ll be selling CD’s again, with a new tip jar making it clear that all tips benefit the IBRT.

We are putting together a merchandize order for IBRT stuff from the Café Press store. It was the brilliant idea of Kirsty Sinclair that we could save on shipping if all of us went together. So visit the store here http://www.cafepress.com/iceboxradio and then email me your order. Be sure to use exact product names and sizes to avoid confusion.

And finally, the first pictures from Icebox Live! in August are currently on the IBRT Photo section of our website. Go check it out!

Thanks everyone, for all you do. More recording announcements forthcoming, as well as the latest on Halloween. Talk to you soon!

-Jeff

It’s Friday night, I’m settled into my favorite chair with my computer on my lap and ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ on the DVD. It seems like a good time to settle in and bring this blog up to date.

The IBRT’s summer cycle has come to an end. The fall cycle is set to begin. We have recorded a two-part episode of a new series (Scoop Sisters) and done a live show that featured the premiere of another series (Dome Dog) and the premiere of the first play by Kenna Clayton, a member of our writer’s workshop.

The live show was a special event. After a shower or two during the day, the evening broke clear and a bit chilly. The park filled up with our crowd (maybe 150) plus another 50-75 more from a local church youth group that was playing and having a picnic. It was such a special scene, the local paper did up a photo spread in today’s (Friday’s) paper, and they mentioned us. There was a nice picture of Aela Nordrum and Harley Droba doing Dome Dog. Free publicity we didn’t even try for. The other special thing that happened at the live show was the revelation of Alea Nordrum as a great singer! She says she is getting addicted to singing in front of an audience, and I expect she’ll be back on our stage a lot in the future.

We have recordings to process, and plenty of shows to move forward on. Money keeps coming in, too. We were paid to do the show in the park, and I am doing sound at a wedding tomorrow with the IBRT’s equipment, meaning the theater gets half. I was struck with the thought today that this may be the most fun period of time for the IBRT. Money is coming in but not going out. We don’t have any bills to pay, as it were. And we are telling stories. To grow, we will need to change, and I can see that. A place of our own is becoming necessary. I’m getting too old to set up and tear down over and over again.

Next blog entry, I’ll talk about what were hoping to accomplish in the fall.

With a moment or two on my hands, it occured to me that I really should update this blog a bit more often, and with more blog-like entries. Generally, we go for personal thoughts and ideas in the blogosphere, and I've been filling this thing up with press releases. But I'm in a rare mood, today. I'm feeling a little bit under the weather, quite cold, despite what promises to be an average August day outside, and the idea of plunking out a few words on the subject of audio appeals. Lucky you.

This afternoon, we begin rehearsal of the next show, which is scheduled for Aug 15 2007 at the Bandshell in I-Falls. Today's rehearsal is being held in Fort Frances which is a first for the theater. We've never had an offical event in Fort Frances before. What's surprised me is the number of old friends nervous at the prospect. Apparently, there are people here in I Falls who haven't been in Canada in years. And I thought I was strange for only going over a couple times a month. Anyway, the location of the rehearsal is an attempt to ease the burden on the Fort Frances actors and SFX artists who fight long customs lines each show to come over and participate. Getting into Canada is quite a bit easier than getting into the US.

The other first for this show is the script which, for once, isn't by me. Kenna Clayton, a poet who had never tried script writing of any kind before our writer's workshop this spring, has written a good little domestic mystery titled The Icebox Property. I'm proud to feature it, though I am afraid I'm pushing things a bit too fast for Kenna. I think writer's have a tendancy to seek after that which they don't have, and belittle that which they do. So getting produced right out of the shoot might be the worst thing for her. We'll just have to see.

Live we go again. Some new gear to use and a very different approach to recording. We'll have a seperate board this time and (hopefully) a seperate engineer. In theory, this should give us a surperior recording to deal with in post. Unfortunatly, my first choice for recording engineer, Stephen, can't make it. That's leaving us slightly in the lurch. I'm hoping to think of someone else with the ears for the job before too long.

Much recording ahead for me. I'm still working out the kinks in the method, how many rehearsals to sessions, that sort of thing. The last show, Scoop Sisters: Pilot sounds good, but mostly due to the talent of the actors. There are spots where lines sound read more than performed. More rehearsal is needed, obviously. I'm thinking next time of doing a three day cycle: One rehearsal, two recording.

Many thoughts, many thoughts. I'm just so blessed to even get to worry about this stuff.