4-AM » from Jim http://4-am.net It's 4-AM, Do You Know Where Your Music Is? Sun, 05 Sep 2010 01:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://4-am.net http://4-am.net/favicon.ico 4-AM I found it! http://4-am.net/i-found-it http://4-am.net/i-found-it#comments Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:16:02 +0000 Jim http://4-am.net/?p=307 Do you remember around a year ago when I wrote about the independent short film Bound with Love in which we sang and appeared? I ran across it in a search in a format I could post here on the blog. So here it is. Anytime you hear singing, it’s us and we get some screen time at about the 4:48 mark. Yes, it’s a bit belated in that it’s a Christmas short, but it’s still a nice piece to watch. I hope you enjoy it!

Click here to view the embedded video.

]]> http://4-am.net/i-found-it/feed 0 It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas http://4-am.net/its-beginning-to-feel-a-lot-like-christmas http://4-am.net/its-beginning-to-feel-a-lot-like-christmas#comments Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:13:43 +0000 Jim http://4-am.net/?p=293 At least from the perspective of our busy time of year. Last Saturday, November 21st was our first Holiday gig. It was for the grand opening of the Elysian Hotel in accordance with the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival. We were one block over from the staging area for the parade on E. Walton and were singing outside from 1 – 4 pm. Here’s a picture of us that day:

4-AM_at_Elysian

L-R Jim, Jenny, Flora & Gary (click to enlarge)

The first gig out of the gate is always fun in a lot of ways. You get to see what you remember and what you don’t, and by this point of singing together for almost 15 years, there’s very little we don’t remember, except the occasional lyric (why did I forget that one anyway? Oh…Rudolph, that’s right).

It’s a busy time of year, but one I wouldn’t want to do without. I get to see old friends and catch up with them and enjoy the time of year and help people celebrate it. What more can you ask for?

]]> http://4-am.net/its-beginning-to-feel-a-lot-like-christmas/feed 0 And the pictures to prove it! http://4-am.net/and-the-pictures-to-prove-it http://4-am.net/and-the-pictures-to-prove-it#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:04:32 +0000 Jim http://4-am.net/?p=239 Considering there was a thick fog Saturday morning, the weather was near perfect for the Buffalo Grove Days gig. It was a beautiful , warm day, but at one point of the show, Gary said I was “swarthy”. I think that’s code for “Get away from me, you’re all sweaty!”


4-AM jammin' l-r Gary, Flora, Jenny, Jim 4-AM onstage


We always have a great time when we perform, whether it’s singing, the chatter in between or playing with the audience (and this audience was a lot of fun).

But the best thing about the gig for me came in two parts. Even though it was the beer tent, it was early enough in the day that all ages were allowed to site in and around the area and as we were singing, the crowd grew. That’s always a good sign. And then I was watching as wel were singing and most of the crowd was singing along with us, which is really cool too. Okay, and I always enjoy a chance to use the music to mack on the ladies.

Jim mackin' on the ladies during a song

Jim mackin' on the ladies during a song

It was great to see some friends who came to the show, Steve, David and Ginny, Tim of The Legends and also meet some new friends like Rodney and get the chance to talk with Rich of the White Saddle Band, if only for a moment. There were even rumors that after the show ended Gary and Flora transformed into Austin Powers and Lucille Ball, but I don’t have any pic…

Gary as Austin Powers

Gary as Austin Powers

Well, unfortunately no pictures of Flora as Lucy.

I’d like to thank Karen, the Entertainment Director for the Buffalo Grove Days and Ed, the guy who manned the Sound Board for us. We appreciate everything you did to make us feel right at home. There are a couple of other people who were working Buffalo Grove  Days I’d like to thank, but I didn’t get their names, so I hope this will do. It was a wonderful time for us and the crowd had a good time with us.

Photos courtesy of David Gibbs of Fallingrock Photography
]]> http://4-am.net/and-the-pictures-to-prove-it/feed 0 Picking up and Carrying On http://4-am.net/picking-up-and-carrying-on http://4-am.net/picking-up-and-carrying-on#comments Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:48:00 +0000 Jim http://4-am.net/?p=157 I can’t believe it’s the middle of February already.  It was a busy holiday season for us and one of the things that was out of the ordinary for us was the work we did on the short film Bound with Love. This was one of a series of films based on the works of Mike Royko, a Chicago Columnist. You can find out more about the series of films at Royko.tv.

On December 5th, we went into a recording studio and recorded O Tannenbaum in about as many different ways as you could imagine, Fast, slow, in German, in English, only on Oooo, on Oooo switching to Ah and… well, you get the idea. It was a great time and we enjoyed every minute of the time we spent recording, even when we left the warmth of the recording studio to go out in the back lot to record the ambiance of singing outdoors and believe it was very cold that night, but it was a great experience, all the way around and that was only the beginning.

We did our part of the filming on December 13th. There had been a major part of the shoot the night before as well and true to Chicago, the weather was very different between the two. The night before was cold with wind chill dropping to somewhere near -20 degrees Fahrenheit, but the night we filmed, it was near 40 degrees above zero and the snow was melting with standing water all around, amazing (you can see production stills from the shoot on our Sights & Sounds page). Once again, despite the weird weather, everything went pretty well, we actually lip synched to a small alarm clock/cd player for the shoot as well as did some live takes, that was interesting. Everyone was great to work with and a lot of that had to do with the person who was the driving force behind the project, Norman Skul. One of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet and one of those guys that you hope you’re going to get the opportunity to work for and with again. He made everything flow really smoothly and there was just a great attitude throughout the entire experience.

Sadly, we learned that Norman passed away suddenly and unexpectedly after the first of the year. I didn’t get to know him very well in that short time, but based on what I saw when I did get to work with him, everyone who knew him, loved him and he will be missed. Fortunately, we’ve been told that production is going to continue not just on Bound with Love, but on the whole series and Norman’s vision will continue. Maybe that’s the best tribute of all.

]]> http://4-am.net/picking-up-and-carrying-on/feed 0 Happy Labor Day! http://4-am.net/happy-labor-day http://4-am.net/happy-labor-day#comments Mon, 01 Sep 2008 02:31:30 +0000 Jim http://4-am.net/?p=67 It’s that time of year again and that means that I’m in a parade. Actually, it means we all are, just not as 4-AM.  Jenny, Flora, Gary and I are going to be in the Zion, IL Labor Day Parade as The Garden Club. If you’ve seen Mary Poppins, think the chalk drawing and that’s what we look like. This has always been a fun group for me for a lot of reasons, some of it is the music, but one of the most important is because this is a big reason for becoming 4-AM, so it’s special.

So if you’re up in the Zion, IL area and want to see us, the parade starts at 1:00 CT, you can click the map link under the Next Show heading at the bottom of the page. If you want to follow me on Twitter or Plurk you’ll get some on the scene updates and probably a picture or two (I’ll see what I can work out, cell phones don’t really go with the turn of the 20th Century costumes).

No matter what you do, have a great weekend!

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