His paintings from the night will be auctioned off with the proceeds to benefit the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commision and their Advance Commuinty Through Arts and Culture program.  See the trailer for Waking Dreams below and go to his blog to purchase tickets and get the rest of the story.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Fast forward to today and Taylor is the only Sacramento filmmaker that has scored theatrical distribution as an independent (correct me if I am wrong). Fresh off the success of landing theatrical distribution for his horror film Chain Letter (coming out in October), starring Nikki Reed of Twilight, Deon Taylor gets some love from Huffington Post.  See the article for an insight into Taylor’s journey.

But as he shuttled between Los Angeles and his home in Sacramento, he kept his backpack full of movie materials and his spirit full of the foundation of his company, Deon Taylor Enterprises.

Read the rest here

After the feature wrapped, I came across Mike’s first “one man” film, Year.  I was blown away.  Here was an excellent film, shot on the same camera that I owned (a DVX-100B), on a very small budget, by one person.  I emailed Mike, and he was very cool and down to earth. He was very forthcoming and helpful with advice.  We stayed in touch, he sent me the script for his second feature, Nightbeats before he started shooting it, and he even had me out to shoot some behind the scenes for Nightbeats (part of the making of Nightbeats is here). Both Year and Nightbeats are available on Amazon.

Mike recently released a book on his “one man” filmmaking process called Naked Filmmaking: How To Make A Feature-Length Film – Without A Crew – For $10,000 Or Less.  I haven’t got a chance to check the book out yet, but it is available on Amazon.com.  See the video below for an interview with Mike about the book on KCRA Channel 3.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Also, Mike is leading a Sacramento Filmmaker- Cameraman Meetup on Sunday, June 27th on the west steps of the capitol, with the goal of people bringing their cameras or interest in cameras and sharing information.  Go to his website nakedfilmmaking.com for more information.

Every year, the first Saturday in May is Free Comic Book Day.  Participating stores give out free comics to anybody who comes in.  See the Free Comic Book Day site to find a store near you.

Saw a poster for this (Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop) and was intrigued.  Sorry, Sacramento hasn’t been deemed cool enough to get a showing.

Back when I had HBO, How to Make It in America, the story of two entrepreneurs trying to hustle in New York, was one of my favorite shows. I always wondered who sang the title song.

Come to find out it’s none other than Stones Throw Records’s Aloe Blacc. 

I found out about rapper Aloe Blacc a couple years back when my buddy Corey was doing an interview with another artist and was singing the praise of rapper Blacc, so it was a surprise to find that Blacc was behind the track, which sounds like an old soul track.  Complex magazine has a pretty good interview with Aloe Blacc on how he came up with the song.  Below is the trailer for How to Make it in America.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw4V0r2N0iM]

Later this month, Shane Grammer of SG studios is taking a team of artists to Svay Pak, Cambodia to paint murals with girls who were either rescued from or in danger of being forced into prostitution.

He is throwing a fundraising art show on April 8, 2010 that will include a silent auction of some of his work, along with the work of Aman, Jenvy Fox, and many others.  There will also be musical interludes by Dusty Brown, special guests, cocktails, food and a good vibe.

Above is part of one of the paintings that will auctioned off.  Shane explains some of the inspiration behind it below:

Here is what this painting means to me. As a reminder, I am taking a team to paint murals with girls that were rescued from human trafficking. Some of the girls we could be painting with are still in forced prostitution.  Looking at this little girl in the painting I see hope for a life that has been tragically abused.

Below are the details or go to heArt for the Kids for more info.

Roseville Tower Theater

421 Vernon St.

Roseville, CA 95678

April 8, 2010 at 7pm

$10 Donation Online/Door Tickets Limited!!!

Sacramento’s Own Delorean (emcee 5th Ave and producer Jon Reyes) are launching their new website.

They promise:

…individual artist blogs filled with genius and absolute non-sense, art, music,
fashion, recipes, randomness, mayhem and debauchery…

Dumbworld is always down for a little mayhem and debauchery.

The video Hey Alice is from their album “No More Heroes.” Here is their “Dear Langston” video.

One of Dumbworld’s favorite painters, Ryan Seng is having his Blind Tiger Exhibition, Saturday, April 10, 2010, 6:00pm – 9:00pm, at the Shady Lady Saloon and Mahony Art Loft, 1409 R Street corner of R and 14th, Sacramento, California.

We worked with him on Natasha Kmeto’s video for Drunk Dial.  More on Ryan here, but don’t click on it if you are easily offended. Oops, I knew that would get you to click on it.