Archive for February, 2009
Darren Jackson of Kid Dakota and The Hopefuls
Posted by admin on Saturday, February 28th, 2009
Critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Darren Jackson from Kid Dakota and the super-group, the Hopefuls, was the guest at DIY 360 on 2/20. Darren played us a few of his hauntingly beautiful songs, talked about his small town South Dakota roots and his journey through trouble with the law, touring Europe, songwriting philosophy, and his emergence as a studio owner and top ranked producer.
DIY 360 is a weekly event hosted by Adam Levy. The goal is to introduce students to professionals in the field who have been successful, frequently by adapting to changes in the business where they make use of multiple skill sets. Guests share information about their careers, their philosophies about professionalism and their art. Guests often give advice to budding artists, entertainment business professionals, producers and engineers. DIY 360 is an opportunity for students to network with those working in the field and with each other as they work toward career success.
Posted in Newswire, Newswire Events | No Comments »
Cowboy Clowns Put The “Con” In “Congress”
Posted by admin on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
The Bible clearly ranks high among the many books Smith will never read.
Everybody–at the very least every self-serving, crypto-facist dimwit or agglomeration thereof–suddenly wants the Internet and friends to do his, her, or their dirty work. First, it’s the Record Industry Association of America, calling on ISPs to either cut off customers who (according to highly questionable RIAA data) illegally download recorded music…or pay for file-sharing themselves?
Smith champions ” let my cronies do whatever” capitalism, but favors KGB-style tactics against ordinary Americans.
Now, chronic hysteria-monger Lamar Smith and Big Oil errand boy John Cornyn add insult to injury by introducing a bill that could potentially require, not just ISPs, but coffee shops and even private citizens with Wi-Fi hotspots, to keep detailed records of who goes where and does what online under their auspices–for two years.
“Corny” Cornyn: Texan first, oilyman second, Republican third, American…uh…we’ll get back to you.
Ostensibly directed against producers, distributors, and users of child pornography (already amply covered under existing laws), the typically misnamed Internet SAFETY Act smells far more like warmed-over, Bush-era, totalitarian garbola, especially given both good ol’ boys’ relationship with the future felon former President. As for how the extraterrestrial parasites nutjobs Representative and Senator plan to finance all this record-keeping, maybe Corny could kick in some of the dough his tight bro swindler Allen Stanford slipped him over the years.
Meathead, si; good sport, no: Corny swings a phantom organ, misses. When he declared “civil liberties don’t matter much if you’re dead,” during the FISA hearings, he wasn’t trying to scare us into letting the government do whatever it wants to us…he just wanted to share his vision of an ideal zombie police state.
Posted in Blogging, General Media, Multimedia | No Comments »
Exploring Virtual Worlds (Lich King Chronicles III): Death Knightocalypse
Posted by Kyle Stallock on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
After noting the arduous preparations (I blame myself) required to enter World of Warcraft’s new continent of Northrend, and , like a clueless offspring of Lewis and/or Clark, chronicling my adventures in the Howling Fjord , I decided to take a peek at the exclusive questline for the newest class, the Death Knight.
I began my adventure filled with optimism. Various previews, reviews, and anecdotes from other players indicated Blizzard achieved something remarkably unique in the massively multiplayer space. By the end I felt like the butt of a bad joke. The gameplay follows along a heavily architected path, allowing players little opportunity to customize experience beyond assigning points to a rudimentary skill tree. Dynamic or emergent gameplay? Not here. The worst part? The entire (roughly) five- hour endeavor offers a solo play option. In a way, the new Death Knight-exclusive content in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King embraces its massively multiplayer existence with as much enthusiasm as Ralphie in a bunny suit.
To those whose monthly gaming budget consists solely of the $15 a month sacrifice to calm the withdrawal demons (if you’re not sure what that means, check out the video below for a brief explanation), the lore-infused quests in the Death Knight’s starting area represent a real evolution in MMO design , but the near-absence of community-focused gameplay and character individuality in both narrative and physical representation, suggests the opposite.
Fox in disguise? Probably not. Every country carries the burden of crazy fear-mongering lunatics.
Following Wrath of the Lich King’s release, many of World of Warcraft’s 11.5 million (and growing) subscribers hailed this single-player focused gameplay as the greatest experience one could have in the now four-year-old massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).
Using a time machine (a modified DeLoreon, naturally) and my camera phone, I managed to snap a photo of consumers addicts disciples waiting outside of GameStop for the impending release of WoW’s third expansion. Not seen here: the note on the banner indicating “only three months left!”
Because the Mayan calendar ends in the year 2012, paranoid answer-seekers think the world will end with it. But nobody knows whether the apocalypse will unfold via a reality-shattering battle between Xenu, Jesus, and the Spaghetti Monster, or if we’ll be the ones pulling the extinction trigger. As much as Michael Bay desires the former, the latter is a bit more probable. But how will it happen? Conventional thought suggests nuclear warfare or even the grey goo scenario, but I prefer a more dramatic and consumerism-focused finale.
Extraterrestrial life will one day call it “the retail cataclysm,” the black Friday when our penny-pinching, socially inept kin emerge from their world government-designated file-cabinet housing to compete for the best deals on microwavable food, discounted game cards, and in-game currency. Hundreds of years of social development will be lost as millions of hunchbacked, 100-lb men and women rapidly devolve into ferocious semi-bipedal bullies. Frozen breakfast burritos will be their weapons and, when near-thawed, their principal means of sustenance.
Some will observe the chaos and feel compelled to restore order, but by then interpersonal skills have already been tossed to the back seat, kicked out the door, and dragged under the car by society’s reliance on text-based communication. The life of one of these good-natured citizens will end when his or her actions are misinterpreted by a cadre of emotionless, pajama-wearin’, self-described “hardcore” gamers as a threat to their procurement of afforable five-minute meatballs.
The result of one too many meatball dinners.
In this future, I’m a gray-haired Denis Leary in Demolition Man-type character living in the sewers, eating rat burgers, and colorfully ranting about the lack of freedom; occasionally surfacing to see if the newest crop of 47 year-old virgins are still sitting around in their respective multiboxing pods singing “I’m an Oscar Meyer wiener” between Death Knight sessions.
All cynicism aside, I don’t have a problem with the actual single player content offered in the Death Knight questline. As pre-apocalyptic as the lack of human-to-human interaction seems to anybody with sufficient insight to see WoW as, first and foremost, a social networking tool, MMOs absolutely should offer some sort of single-player content.
Gathering a group of players to quest or pillage dungeons for their precious purple items isn’t always easy, regardless of the time of day, and, I’ll be honest, sometimes I just want to roam the land doing goodie-two-shoes deeds for the Alliance.
Humble servant of the light, current wielder of the Ashbringer, and supreme commander of the Argent Crusade, few characters in all of WoW demonstrate a greater commitment to do “good” than Tirion Fordring.
As long as Blizzard keep expanding endgame content concerning raiding and PVP, it’s only natural the single player would change as well. And as I’m paying $15.00 a month to log in and play, I better have a lot of options at my fingertips.
But the biggest potential problem with the Death Knight questline actually lies in WoW’s 11.5 million userbase. With so much money coming from this title alone, the still-newish Activision Blizzard will do whatever it can to continually drive expansion sales and increase the number of subscribers, especially with Bobby Kotick at the helm. Now, with so many people championing this mostly isolated experience as the best the title has to offer, the company will undoubtedly emphasize similar content in the near future.
You can singlehandedly help the Death Knight Thassarian defeat the Lich King’s minions, but it’s not something we’d recommend.
If the actual Death Knight questline carried with it the meticulously crafted audio and visual terror of Dead Space, the emergent gameplay found in Fable and the Sims, and/or Braid’s brilliant merging of game mechanics and narrative, the accolades it’s accumulated would be well-deserved. Instead, the title’s aging presentation and game mechanics destroy the tiny shred of emotional weight offered in the cliché storytelling devices. At this point, having to kill an “old friend” to prove how evil you are may be more prevalent in the industry than having to find and lead a rag tag group of adventurers on a quest to save the world.
On its own, the entire experience is contrived, simple, and brief. Combined with the rest of WoW, the content is, of course, another “piece of the pie,” but this piece is shredded, mangled even, and blatantly distinguishable from the whole. Those turned-off by human interaction may enjoy it most, but, uh, why are they even playing an MMO?
Goodbye, Deathbrew (my Death Knight). Welcome back, Coyotegrey (my Shaman). As you can see, we’re delighted to return.
Posted in Gaming, Industry, Multimedia | No Comments »
Spark…And Beyond: Twin Cities Electronic Music Resources
Posted by Rod Smith on Friday, February 20th, 2009
Like many electronic music makers, dronemaster Datura 1.0 started in rock, moved on.
Like Christmas, the Spark Festival od Electronic Arts and Music comes once a year, features unusual lighting, and includes a ton of free entertainment. But even though it’s a couple millennia (plus change) younger, composer and U of M professor Douglas Geers’s brainchild offers way better music. Spark was a great idea back in ‘03, when it debuted as a two-day celebration, It’s now an even better one–not just because the celebration’s length has tripled.
Cepia's "Dowry" inspires an exemplary fan video.
While live electronic music thrived locally during the late ’90’s and early ’00’s, venue owners and talent buyers have since grown comically conservative. Meanwhile, the informed and enthusiastic writers who once provided extensive coverage in Twin Cities print media vectors have mostly moved on to bigger and/or better things (this blog, for example), while their old outlets have declined at an astonishing rate.
Minneapolis's Garland Villanova gives SF a taste of its own tunnel (Stockton, heavily processed) at the 2007 Soundwave Series.
What little space doddering local pubs now afford electronic music is almost invariably filled by well-meaning dilettantes and/or Luddite loafers whose sense of entitlement far outweighs any vestigial notions of responsibility to the public they might have once harbored. Luckily for us, we’ve already learned to look beyond birdcage liners rushing toward extinction; anybody interested in electronic music enjoys all kinds of options for getting Spark-related info. But what about the rest of the year? Though divination isn’t our forte, we at IPR have a decent idea of what’s currently happening. Below you’ll find links to local ((and formerly local) electronic music resources–musicians, composers, sound artists, labels, venues, deejays, curatorial types–pretty much every practitioner, enthusiast, or organization with any kind of online presence. Bookmark now, visit often. It’s only gonna get longer (especially over the next week).
Ex-Minneapolitan Timeblind uses SuperCollider--unbelievably powerful, open-source, and absolutely free.
Posted in Blogging, Multimedia, Music | 2 Comments »
Mome Is Where Half The Heart Is: Confessions Of A Divided Man I
Posted by admin on Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Tom K skewed Commie even before it became cool.
While its comic arts program seems to be shaping up nicely, one thing MCAD definitely doesn’t excel at is promotion. If my dear friend Tom K hadn’t been blogging up a bloody storm of late, I might never have found out about MOMEntum: The New Comics. Opening on Friday, March 6, the exhibition features work by a passle of contributors–including my aforementioned Marxist/cartoonist pal and fellow Minneapolitan Zak Sally–to Fantagraphics’ widely lauded, quarterly anthology series.
To complicate matters further, the opening is offset by one hour from my dear capitalist friend Roger Williamson’s opening at J & S Bean Factory, a good seven miles away. Aspiring intern-chauffeurs–now’s the time to find out how easily and well I can change your lives: Just step forward and drop a capsule app in the “comments” section of this post.
Williamson depicts our own personal Horus.
Posted in Art and Culture, Blogging, Multimedia | 1 Comment »
Killzone 2 Reviews Spark Embarassing Responses From Gamers
Posted by Kyle Stallock on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
“Live long, and prosper,” wished Mr. Spock, the Vulcan with a heart. Console fanboys and fangirls rarely act half as cordial.
I’m not an “Xbot” or a “PSthreetard.” I’m level-headed enough to break away from the gaming cattle who proclaim undivided allegiance to a particular console manufacturer, scoff at the offerings of all the others, and act surprised when life sinks a red-hot branding iron into their skins .(From what I’ve heard, the smell is pretty much identical to a weenie roast.) When someone asks me “Which console do you prefer?” I often smile and reply, “I just like games.” I’m not playing Ari Fleischer and dodging the question, I’m telling the honest to goodness gee whiz truth.
Scout’s honor.
But this blog post isn’t about me.
This is about you! You. Yes, you. You’re the one who has yet to play Killzone 2 on the PlayStation 3 (it doesn’t hit retail shelves until February 27) but still believes it isn’t receiving fair and unbiased critical reviews. You’re the one who infects and infests every industry-related message board like deer ticks riding anopheles mosquitoes, accusing journalists of betraying the public. You analyze every paragraph, every sentence, every word, hoping for some “proof” that will render their unfavorable analysis invalid. If it’s a video review with narration, you direct your all-hearing-ears to the tone of his or her voice, even saying a slight fluctuation indicates deep-seated bias. You even do this for reviews that give the title in question the highest possible score on an outdated numbering system.
Worst of all, you actually believe this (the comic strip below).
You’re all sad byproducts of multi-million dollar hype machines and you don’t even know it.
If I had a boo box (check out the video above if you don’t get the reference) I’d quarantine you and your fanboy fever inside. Instead, face national ridicule at the hands of Adam Sessler, the host of G4TV’s premiere videogame program, X-Play!
Yes, Hitler. Adam’s even referring to you.
Following Mr. Sessler’s lead, I can’t help but share a few more isolated instances of pathetic, dysfunctional creeps fanboys gone wild over Killzone 2. Please keep in mind the game isn’t available for purchase until Friday, February 27 and most, if not all, of these users have only played the title in beta or demo form.
Aggregate review site Metacritic.com, as of writing, lists the title as having an average review rating of 93 out of 100, with the lowest being an 80 from U.K. gaming site Totalvideogames.com. Naturally, the morons sharks responded to the blood in the water.
Here are just a few of the gems I unearthed after sfting through the 45 pages of comments.
“What, do you have stock in Microsoft?! Fail!!!”
“By far the worst review I’ve ever written from a title that deserves a full point more. I know why I never heard of this site now, and with more reviews like this your lack of fans will continue to slide.”
“sorry I think this site seriously needs to sack the r*t*rd that reviewed this game maybe there fans of gears or something though how this scored lower than gears is beyond me, just tell me how this is less original than gears 2, maybe he should stay off the drugs.”
“What a piss poor review, this game is head and shoulders above Gears of War 2….and yet it scores worse. Can anyone say TVG = 360fanboys.”
Continuing on, the NeoGAF gaming forum is often criticized for the knee-jerk unsubstantiated opinions of its users, but in the message board’s defense, it’s just like any other gathering of individuals. Applying a negative label to the entire group for the actions of a few, or even many, is probably unfair.
Still, at over 700 pages long, the Killzone 2 thread affords observers some very chewy nuggets.
In response to user “Kolgar’s” claim that he or she is going to “temper expectations” just in case it doesn’t live up to the hype, “Private Hoffman” replied “The map designs in KZ2 absolutely destroy the designs in other games. Quit playing the role of ‘antihype’ when you have no experience with the game whatsoever.”
“I’m having trouble keeping up with the snide remarks from reviewers as they pour in,” observed “Hellion.”
When one user posted an image comparing Halo 3’s artificial intelligence (the “smartest”) with Killzone 2’s (the “dumbest), for some reason the community insisted on making fun of “xbots.” “Lupinko” said “XBOTS UNITE AND FORM XBOTATOR,” and “KeioSquad2″ added he “*Pictures 5 Mr. Potato heads uniting*.”
Oh, like Voltron. How original.
Stepping away from message boards, let’s see what happens when one journalist gets his hands on a review copy and likes very little of what he plays.
Robert Ashley, freelance journalist and host of the superbly edited “A Life Well Wasted” videogame podcast, tweeted this message regarding Killzone 2 on February 4th: “Tom Chick nails it. I beat this game a month ago. Big time production blown on cynical bullshit.” Ashley then followed the message with a link to Chick’s pre-review analysis on Fidgit.com.
Here’ a brief excerpt from the piece:
But it just kills my interest level that the developers haven’t done anything interesting with this wonderful engine. Killzone 2 consist[s] of hemmed in shantytowns, sewers, streets, an industrial area, a bridge, a crane, and even a brief Matrix-inspired lobby. In other words, nothing I haven’t seen before. It’s atmospheric, with swirling wind, clouds overhead, and lots of smoke and dust, but it’s otherwise static, soulless, and entirely uninteresting, the setting for prosaic Call of Duty firefight after prosaic Call of Duty firefight.
Once again, intelligent discourse prevailed.
An anonymous user wrote “This is the shittiest review I’ve ever read. Maybe try a new vocation because it seems to me you don’t enjoy gaming. Did you even play the game? Way to knock your cred down a few notches, not that this site had any cred to begin with.”
“Attention whore,”observed Stag. “This is the only site/review that claims KZ2 is “a disappointment.” You fail.”
Maddens_Raiders (nice name) exclaimed “Congratulations! You win the award for the worst review of the year. Douchebag. What a frickin’ dumbass. EPICFAIL.”
Toron Mak Kau decided to take a more personal route. “Dude. Your name is Tom Chick,” he or she wrote. “That in itself is an epic fail. But then, I suppose, it does explain why you go through life with that much anger and cynicism.”
But out of all the sites and message boards I’ve visited, my favorite series of comments comes from a user by the name of Burden of Proof. I’ve preserved the original formatting for extra effectiveness.
At 4:13 AM on 2/6/09, this person wrote:
“killzone2 delivered the grafics from the 2005 e3 trailer (whic was so good they canclled the nex e3) and people still whine. go play your xbox 3shitty and let us enjoy next gen actual grafics m$ slaves.”
Three minutes later, he or she added:
“btw noobs
I played the hole game (japanese demo) and this “reviewer” DIDNT
logically, my opinion is worth more becuz I PLAYED THE WHOLE THING 10/10 game full price better than sex
m$ slaves”
Hey, Mr. or Mrs. Proof of Burden. The next time an uninformed national news agency portrays gamers as basement-dwelling middle-aged virgins, I’m knocking on your door and holding you responsible! Then again, why bother? You won’t hear my tap tap tapping while you sit, hunched over and undearneath a bare lightbulb, the only source of light in your parents’ dank dark basement, twitchy digits air-jamming to a pre-production mix of Nobuo Uematsu’s One Winged Angel on repeat.
Obviously frustrated with the madness demonstrated by his gamer kin, Poop_stick also commented on Chick’s article, “How do you write a review when your audience is seemingly comprised of nothing but hypersensitive man babies? Reviews shouldn’t exist solely for the purpose of reaffirming hype, or to validate the expectations of brand biased consumers.”
Despite the crude name, this Poop_Stick has a point. Reviewers should serve no one.Their only obligation is to tell the truth, however unpopular or of the minority it may seem. Tom Chick, I can sympathize.
Does anyone think these loads loons will reverse their opinions if the game doesn’t meet expectations? Will they even remember their opinions? Or will they already be projectile-vomiting bile on a new set of randomly chosen victims? What if these losers clowns people aren’t gamers at all, but professional trolls in the employ of the PR firm responsible for the ‘YOU LIBUREL SOSHALISTS AR HAEDED STRATE 2 HEL”-type messages that inevitably mar news and politics sites? For that matter, what if they’re the very sane people? After all, with the election over, pol-troll jobs are probably pretty thin, and even slimeballs paid to impersonate psycho creeps gotta eat, don’t you they? Anybody asks, I know exactly what to feed ‘em.
Posted in Gaming, Multimedia | 7 Comments »
Making Minneapolis Safe For Pleasure : A Fractal Appreciation Of Jon Hassell
Posted by Rod Smith on Monday, February 9th, 2009
Hassell effortlessly secures Belgrade’s surrender in ‘06.
Any attempt to peg whichever of Jon Hassell’s 18 solo releases as his “best” is bound to fail. Though some components of the trumpeter and composer’s m.o.–including his incomparable command of breath, generous yet measured deployment of electronics, and penchant for populating richly chorded, undulating environments with motifs apparently snatched from some maternity ward for cosmic archetypes–never fail to manifest, he’s simply covered (and cultivated} too much ground, water, air, and fire to allow for easy comparisons, even with himself.
Though a pastoralist at heart, Hassell favors cities for day-to-day business.
Even his genius for reconciling apparent contradictions never plays the same way twice. But at the very least, Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street stands as one of his most thoroughly conceived and fully realized world-building experiments to date. More biome ranch than document, the album offers a deliciously exploded view of Hassell’s lush inner world, where cobblestone alleys and moonlit rainforests mingle in a lasciviously slow explosion of texture and color.
Hassell sometimes surprises himself, but fans? Always.
Currently touring the US for the first time in two decades, Hassell performs (with peer-group backing band Maarifa Street} at the Walker Art Center on Thursday, February 12. When, a few weeks ago,, Minneapolis Star Tribune music editor Tim C ampbell graciously offerred me money to interview him, I accepted without hesitation, despite being scared half out of my Darth Vader boxers by the prospect.
Hassell gets personal.
Why? Hassell knows and understands more about music than any randomly selected group of 300 people, even one selected from the combined faculties of Julliard, Berklee, and his alma mater, Eastman. To make matters more terrifying, he aggressively ignores genre constraints: For him, studying Indian classical music under celebrated vocalist Pandit Pran Nath and hip hop under celebrated Public Enemy producer Hank Shocklee are but two sides of the same coin…and Hassell’s coin collection could keep an arcade busy for weeks.
Hassell’s theme for “The Practice” won praise from “TV Guide.” The closest John Cage came to attaining such heights was winning on an Italian quiz show. No contest.
Scariest of all, dude’s encyclopedic knowledge is hardly limited to music. Hassell reads widely and often and has exactly the kind of film expertise you’d expect from a culturally voracious Los Angeles resident accustomed to working with the likes of Martin Scorsese and Wim Wenders. Plus, as David Toop reveals in his magisterial Oceans of Sound, Hassell’s love affair with the Internet commenced back when most of us wouldn’t have known a fast connection from Dita Von Teese. By ‘96, he’d already predicted the rise of pretty much exactly the historical-period-immersed communities that only started forming for real after Second Life’s launch a few years ago.
David Sylvian utilized Hassell’s genius well before the likes of Ry Cooder, Ani di Franco, Bjork, and Bono followed suit.
Speaking of Toop and Teese, they make a perfect set of fake polar coordinates for mapping the opposition between intellect and sensuality that informs Hassell’s work. Easily the English-speaking world’s greatest living music writer (and a highly regarded musician and composer in his own right), the former–a huge Hassell supporter since the ’70’s–seems all intellect until you start to grasp the passion behind his every gesture.
Toop and Bjork talk singles.
Burlesque queen, fetish goddess, and former Mrs Marilyn Manson Teese rolls in exactly the opposite direction, approaching the pursuit of pleasure with surgical precision. That Hassell moves in both (and a few others) at the same time enormously broadens his work’s appeal. He’s a sensualist’s sensualist possessed of more than sufficient intellect to leave a generous opening for instinct in his work, an intellectual with enough intuition to feel hidden affinities among wildly divergent cultures,, and a futurist using present-day tools in the service of ancient rituals.
Hassell and Maarifa Street reinforce their household name status in the Czech Republic.
Most of all, Hassell is smooth, smoother than Kenny Loggins and John Legend combined, smoother even than the President, occasionally making him an object of suspicion among experimental music lovers of the “no pain, no gain” school. “How can anything so easy on the ears have any value,” they ask, not realizing that Hassell does make room for suffering and tribulation…just beyond the point where his musical narrative ends and racism, greed, and fear of sex, adventure, life–fear of everything, actually–reinstate their grip. As for Hassell, the only thing he might possibly fear is stasis.
Compared to Hassell, Loggins and McDonald might as well be Cannibal Corpse.
It’s this fearless smoothness that makes the telephone love him so. I didn’t interview Hassell; we had a conversation, touching on everything from the music of the Aka and Babenzele Pygmies to sexuality and its place in his his forthcoming book: The North and South of You: Making the World Safe for Pleasure. Had we but world enough and time, I’d relate it in its entirety, but we (I, at least) don’t. ‘Sides, I have a broken arm, meaning I’m doing all my typing one-handed with pain as a constant companion. But death itself couldn’t dissuade me from making it to Hassell and company’s performance…especially as another 20 years could easily pass before his next show in Minneapolis.
Hassell and Seal strike a mighty blow for smoothness.
Posted in Art and Culture, Multimedia, Music | No Comments »
Winter Open House
Posted by admin on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
Considering a career in music and entertainment?
Join us for our Open House:
Saturday, February 21st, 2009 • 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
312 Washington Ave. N., Minneapolis, MN
Experience IPR by attending the following workshop:
“Capitalizing on Digital Opportunities in Today’s Media Driven World”
Presented at 11:30 am and 1:00 pm
Come and see why IPR is proud to be recognized as one of the premier music production, recording and entertainment business schools in America.
• Tour the campus and see our cutting-edge recording facilities
• Meet some of our award winning faculty members
• Learn about the wide variety of job possibilities with a degree from IPR
• Meet with representatives from Career Services, Financial Aid, Student Affairs, and Student Services
IPR is a fully accredited college offering Title IV funding to those who qualify.
Posted in Newswire, Newswire Announcements, Newswire Events | No Comments »
Grammy Award Winning Rap Artist T.I. Spreads Holiday Cheer at the Institute of Production and Recording
Posted by admin on Monday, February 2nd, 2009
Students at the Institute of Production and Recording (IPR) recently received a holiday treat when leading rap mogul T.I., who is nominated for four Grammy Awards this year, visited the school. The multi-platinum recording artist met with IPR’s entertainment professionals of tomorrow to shed light on a number of topics pertaining to the music industry.
While speaking in an intimate setting at the school’s Robinson Hall, T.I. engaged in a Q & A with the Institutes Artist Relations Coordinator, Brian “Champtown” Harmon and IPR students that mirrored the realities of the music and entertainment business, current trends in the industry and the importance of taking an entrepreneurial stance in today’s entertainment world, using himself as a prime example. He also discussed how he built his career in the music world and his responsibilities in being a CEO heading his own record label.
“Having T.I visit us at IPR was an awesome experience,” says IPR student Aaron Bjorge. “T.I. was very candid in his answers and provided a lot of insight and knowledge about the music industry.” “Being able to interact and be in the same room as the number one artist in the world is not something that many students get the chance to do,” says IPR student Soren Gauche. “I felt truly inspired by T.I.’s presence and encouraged by his personal experience in the music business.” “At IPR we strive for excellence in everything we do,” says IPR Co-Founder Lance Sabin. “We are very honored that T.I. visited our school to share his professional and personal experiences within the music industry. It was an amazing chance for students to learn firsthand how to succeed in a competitive business from one of its top achievers.” Sabin adds, “TI’s visit is a perfect example of IPR’s commitment to keeping it real and current so our students can be exposed to timely real-life information about what’s happening right now from the people that make it happen.”
Upon finishing his meeting at IPR, several students and IPR’s Artist Relations Coordinator, Brian “Champtown” Harmon accompanied TI on a surprise visit to the local Boys & Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities, West Side Branch in St. Paul to help bring good tidings to the organization and speak to more than one hundred and fifty kids of all ages. Integrating a liberal arts education with business and technical training experts, The Institute of Production & Recording provides a learning environment that reflects today’s evolving entertainment industry. Its classrooms invite active discussions, creative problem solving, and presents an open forum for the exchange of new methods and ideas.
Encouraging and recognizing achievement, IPR assists its students and colleagues in reaching goals and promotes self-directed learning to advance emerging careers in the music, multi-media production and audio recording business. IPR is based in Minneapolis, MN. For further information, visit www.ipr.edu.
Posted in Newswire, Newswire Announcements, Newswire Events | No Comments »
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