Enchanters-R-Us

A peel of laughter and piano music greeted me as I entered the Gregangelo House today. It was none other than Rita Abrams rehearsing one of her new songs for her production of As the Bridge Tolls and the Gregangelo crew gathered around.


Passing through the atrium, I glanced over and saw Darkhia, Mongolian Hand Dancer (and one of the primary chefs here) carefully applying make-up to an elf-in-the-making.

The funny thing about pop culture is that it there are not more accidental crossovers. For instance, there are the elves of Christmas, Oompa-Loompa-like cogs in the great toy making factory of Santa Claus. Then there are J.K. Rowling's moth-beaten house elves, completely different from the noble (and fine) forest elves from J.R.R. Tolkien's novels. And somehow we get away with calling them ALL elves without getting them mushed up together into one gooey surrealistic painting in our heads (or at least my head).



Speaking of spirits and surreal images, I had the opportunity to meet Jim Berenholtz recently. Jim is one of those people with a really old soul. And I mean old like Brothers Grimm or pre-Scientific Revolution old, not old like stale cheese. This guy has traveled and lived with people all over the world, sometimes staying in huts and tin shacks. He is an accomplished ethnomusicologist, composer, snake dancer (see photo), musician, performance artist, and a researcher of many things indigenous.



One of Jim's favorite topics is Ancient Egypt and he is collaborating with Gregangelo & Velocity Arts & Entertainment to develop the "Heliopolis - City of the Sun" presentations. Here is Jim Berenholtz in the first of a 3-part series talking about the influence of Ancient Egypt on other civilizations (with a voiceover by yours truly): Sottol Weng Click HERE.

http://velocitycircus.podbean.com/

Greetings!

I am so excited to have Sottol Weng join us! If you read the previous blog he introduced himself and his role. I had the privilege of working with Sottol on the San Francisco Halloween Festival. CUE the social venture arm of Gregangelo & Velocity Arts & Entertainment was responsible for volunteer solicitation and organization for the event. Sottol's big heart, tenacity and follow-thru was impressive to experience. Since then we invited him to become part of our team. He is working with me on very exciting projects for next year..

On another note we were part of YouTube's Live Broadcast on Saturday where we had programmed our "American Icons", Bronkar Beat Boxer, Henry Holloway- stunt stilter, Les Aerialles- Janene's aerial troupe, and of course the Merthlings at the event. Super Gigi lovely assistant for make-up was none other than Gregangelo and Darkhia carried the rest of the make-up call for the troupe. You can see some footage captured at the event at this link-

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Live&view=videos

Hiromi Yoshida our media guru is compiling several new videos including a new "American Icon".

We filmed Jim Berenholtz today for an upcoming project soon to be announced which incorporates his incredible knowledge of ancient cultures, our dance company and ethnic programming.

The photo above is "American Icons" on the YouTube Red Carpet