The Green Pages - The Official Mark Greenawalt Newsletter
VOL 15 ISSUE 6  

June 2020

 

The Reincarnation Of The Song "Never Been Strangers" 
by Mark Greenawalt

Mark Greenawalt original song Never Been Strangers with music video featuring Elley Ringo.

I wrote this song sometime in the late 80's or early 90's and performed it live throughout Arizona back then with the band Anti-M. The lyrics were constantly evolving but the gist of of the story was always about a timeless relationship and that deja vu feeling like you've met a total stranger before. The music video took this concept one step further by incorporating a "night breed" vampire named Christoph and his love interest named Melody. Christoph has roamed the earth for centuries, but Melody is mortal. Every generation, Christoph must search for her reincarnation to continue this timeless love affair.

Sometime around 1993, started recording the first tracks for this song in my home studio in Mesa, Arizona. I sequenced the drums and invited Mark Parks (Rip 'N Tear, Shy Boy, Dr. Ruth) to set up his guitar rig in my garage and he proceeded to shred through several flawless tracks and then laid down the spectacular solo that you hear on the song today. I wish Mark could be here to listen to the new mix and see the video, but sadly he passed away in 2019. I sang the vocals for the verses way back then, but after working on the video, I wanted to change the lyrics once again so I recorded new vocals for the chorus nearly 30 years later. It was interesting to hear how much my voice hadn't really changed that much over the years.

In May of 2020, I tried out a new service called Fiverr and hired drummer in France (Zamm Kenoby) to play on the song. With the magic of the internet, I was able to send him mp3s of the song, he quickly learned the song and recorded the drum tracks and sent them back to me. The bass is my original track from three decades ago, but I did re-record the "Deep Purple"organ track.

On Memorial Day weekend, I filmed actress/model Elley Ringo in Prescott for the music video. The goal was for her to portray three reincarnated versions of her character (modern day, the roaring 20's, and an undefined age). I borrowed my son's Phantom 4 drone to get the beautiful aerial footage. I called a few actor friends to see if they were available to play the part of the vampire, but ran out of time before I found a willing victim. So over the next couple of days I filmed myself in a cosplay version of a European vampire from the 1800s. The hat, cape, teeth, eye contacts, etc were from previous bodypainting projects. The song is on several different music platforms that you can reach by links on my jukebox page here.

 

 

Fire On The Mountain     
by Mark Greenawalt

Bighorn fire over the Santa Catalina Mountains in 2020 with the Milkey Way in the sky above.

This is the Bighorn Fire that was set ablaze in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson and destroyed 120,000 acres of the Arizona wilderness. I positioned my camera to photograph the fires below the Milkey Way shining in the night sky. I filmed some video of the fire from the Tucson side of the mountain first and then drove around to the north side (just past the Biosphere in Oracle) to get the Milkey Way shots. It was sad to see huge Saguaro Cacti engulfed in flames. Lightning caused the fire that started on the west end of the range on June 5 and then the blaze moved east and south closer to populated areas of the Catalina Foothills until it was determined 100 percent contained by July 23.

 

New Macro Lens For Tiny Things and Digitizing Slides     
by Mark Greenawalt

Caterpillar photo taken with macro photography lens from Tameron with a Canon 5D. Photo of Monument Valley taken with Slide Film and then digitized using macro photography instead of scanning.

I wanted to get digital archives of all of the color slide film that I took before the advent of digital cameras. The cost of sending the boxes and boxes of slides off to get them professionally scanned on a drum scanner was definitely cost prohibitive so I opted for a DIY solution. I bought a Tameron SP 90mm F/2.8 1:1 macro lens for my Canon 5Dmiii. I experimented with building a little light table using an LED downlight and a cardboard cutout for a slide holder. It seems to work pretty good so far. I made a video of my setup if you are interested in digitizing your slides, click here.

The image of Monument Valley above was shot on slide film in 2000 or so and recently digitized. The caterpiller was another image that I shot in my front yard this month while testing out my new macro lens. More pics to come.

E-ya later,
Mark Greenawalt
Mark@MarkGreenawalt.com

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