Introducing BugleBug Educational Multi-Media

by Dave Grilly, MA

First of all I would like to sincerely offer my thanks and appreciation to each of you for taking time out of your busy schedules to view my demo reel. This is a culmination of over three years of hard work combing many disciplines:

video production, computer art, music composition, jazz improvisation, academic and creative writing, web development, interactive computer animation, audio production, general drawing, two dimensional design, computer/network operating systems and the ability to withstand many sleepless nights. I have tried as hard as I could to create these videos with as much quality as I could muster. However any constructive criticism is more than welcome. My main hope is that the videos on this reel provide a unique and enjoyable “educational experience”.

The main purpose of this discussion to is explain why I believe all of the content on the videos presented have great educational value. I have worked as an educator myself for many years in many different capacities. For twenty years, I was the band director for the Chicago branch of a large international cultural organization. In addition, I have taught saxophone, clarinet, flute and trumpet privately for many years. Currently I coach a video production crew, which tapes and edits videos of live concerts. Over the past two years I have been working as a day-to-day substitute teacher for the Chicago Public Schools. Most of my assignments have been in high schools on Chicago’s south-side, of which most of these schools have a student population 99% African-American. Through these experiences I have come to realize that the videos, music and writings I have been creating over the past several years would be of great interest to educators and students alike.

My main objection as a substitute teacher is not about the lack of school funding, poor facilities, teachers who are either unqualified or teachers who don’t really want to teach. Nor is my complaint with the gangs or behavior problems that plague the schools on a daily and hourly basis, although these elements are definitely a day-to-day drag.

My real concern is in the fact that so many students lack hope. When this happens apathy sets in and the learning process gradually begins to fade. The most tragic part about our school system is that these students have had to put up with an apathetic environment since kindergarten. It is amazing to me that amidst this culture of negligence some students are able to tune all this out and still obtain a passable education.

I would like to dedicate the amusing videos and inspirational saxophone solos presented on my demo reel as source of hope to students who may have lost it. It is not my assertion that once your students watch all of these videos, listen to all the music and read all the material on my website they will become the next valedictorian of their high school graduation class. I will make the claim, however, that if you and your students enjoy the content in these videos you will have a good laugh, feel better and surprisingly learn something you previously did not know. You may even develop a craving to find out more about it. When was the last time you checked out Shakespeare, Italian/ German opera, environmental biology, cinema history, ethnomusicology, computer art with a juxtaposed theme, urban sociology, practical salesmanship, African-American culinary arts, modern jazz improvisation, and urban geography? And not to mention, all you ever wanted to know about video production, academic and creative writing, web development, interactive computer animation, audio production, general drawing, two dimensional design, along with insight into computer/network operating systems.

This summary of our video collection coincides with the VHS tape “demo reel” version. Please note start time (mm:ss) and end time (mm:ss) for each video. This allows you to skip to a desired video by fast-forwarding the VHS tape. Total running time for the entire demo reel is 61 minutes. These videos plus additional videos and content can also be viewed online at http://buglebug.com.

The BugleBug video was created in Flash and features Mr. and Mrs. BugleBug going at it to the dynamic Latin jazz sound of Eddie Palmerie’s Big Band. Mr. and Mrs. BugleBug’s version of the meringue is the standard and required dance for all BugleBug staff and clients.

The reason being is that if Steve Martin can do it then we should all do it too.

About Hope observes and interacts with people on a typical day in downtown Chicago shedding light upon what gives the average working person hope in life. For some, hope is a way to make a living despite an unfortunate corporate downsizing. For some hope is praying. For many, hope is found in the fun of listening and dancing to live street music. And for one lady it is simply a cup of red JELL-O on the way to work. This video can introduce students to urban sociology as well as the miracles of video editing with Final Cut Pro (as well as the joys of red JELL-O). As writer/producer of this video, my thanks go to my colleague Dan Petersen for the great editing job he did here.

Sax-ta-postion is a video montage of computer illustrations all using the theme of saxophones in juxtaposition from piece to piece. Once again you see an animated chart of saxophone evolution along with saxophonist in the form of pigs, bugs, lanterns, angels, devils and cigarette smokers. This video was created using a heavy dose of Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Protools and late night imagination. Once again I attempt to treat you with some smooth jazz on my soprano saxophone. I might not have Kenny G’s money but my dues have been paid with hopes that one-day my ship will come in. I think you and your loved ones will most definitely dig (appreciate) this one.

Don Pockett’s Fractured Guide to Intelligent Design explores the area of environmental biology, which tries to explain how everything got here and where it may be going. Three theories: creation, evolution and intelligent design are presented to us in church, at school and the media. In recent months much controversy has been dished out over teaching the concept of intelligent design right along side the theory of evolution in our public schools. In this video super spoof I declare that the intelligent force behind everything on our planet is held by three aged wise men with two-year old beards:

Luke, Juke and Duke. Luke created minerals, Juke created vegetables and Duke created animals. If this video doesn’t strike a chord in your quest for scientific knowledge, my sincere apologies.

Emerald Cities is a video montage which demonstrates the contrast in climate and environment of two cities in the month of February: Chicago’s Hyde Park Point lakefront and Miami, Florida’s South Beach. I had the great fortune to video tape both of these areas in February but I’ll take South Beach over Lake Michigan any day. The educational benefits from this video are a taste of geography, cool video editing using iMovie, a tasteful and interesting approach to smooth jazz, girl watching and an incentive to save up those “frequent flyer miles” so as to get to South Beach in February.

Don Pocketts Search for the Grand Wizard of Jazz is the flagship video of BugleBug Multi-Media and could be considered the most off-the-wall and over-the-top excuse for an “educational video” ever made. The script for this video is loosely based on the movie The Wizard of OZ. Replacing Dorothy is Don Pocketts who in a dream goes on a journey to find the Grand Wizard of Jazz. In order to find the Grand Wizard of Jazz he must go to the city of New Yogurt where all the great jazzmen reside. There he is confronted with numerous demons, which must be defeated before he reaches his destination. Don Pocketts represents all of us who live in an overly consumptive environment. His name is Pocketts because in his hypo-manic state he tries to consume as much stuff as possible and hoard it home in his pockets so that he has an excuse to get a bigger house and a bigger car. Some of the educational profits from viewing this video are exposure to story-telling, great video editing using iMovie, primitive computer animation and some musicology. Most of all, this video will cheer you up a bit with no need for any chemical enhancements. Some young students have watched this video over 100 times.

Evolution of the Saxophone is a video montage displaying the chronological history of the instrument by means of star performers from each musical era. Originally invented as a classical and military band instrument this innovative addition to the orchestra gradually made it’s way into virtually every style of music throughout the world. The video begins in 1844 with its Belgian inventor Adolph Sax and goes through the evolution from European classical music to an 80-year history as the icon instrument of American jazz. From Adolph Sax to John Phillip Sousa to Coleman Hawkins to Charlie Parker to Paul Desmond to John Coltrane to former U.S. President Bill Clinton the saxophone continues to be one of the world’s most popular instruments. In addition, this video provides students with a real taste of urban ethno-musicology (musical anthropology). They also get to hear my tenor saxophone on Charlie Parker’s Donna Lee throughout the piece. (At least I try).

Showering with Shakespeare offers a novel intimate journey into some of the ideas put forth by the “Bard” himself. Famous quotes from four plays give us English lit weary seekers of profound wisdom a taste of what we should have learned in high school. To help those of us in need of higher SAT scores (or better party conversations), I have extracted four 3 minute clips from famous movies, which may help shed light upon the ideas put forth by these quotes. The narcissism expressed in a quote from Hamlet is symbolized by Edward G. Robinson’s role in Little Caesar. Jerry Lewis in At War with the Army depicts the concept of revenge captivated by a quote from Macbeth. The anguish love can bring as expressed in a quote from Romeo and Juliet is portrayed by Oliver Hardy’s romantic heartbreak in Flying Deuces. The Roman politics displayed in a quote from Julius Caesar are paralleled by the rabble rousing of a revolting college fraternity bum played by John Belushi in the famous one of a kind comedy Animal House.

Zing!!! is a one-minute video, which puts the viewer in an animated twilight zone. Imagine a bay windowed area of your living with a baritone saxophone, a contrabass clarinet, an alto saxophone, an upright piano, a bassoon smoking a large cheap cigar, a piccolo with a demon’s head, TV screens on each corner room playing a video montage of saxophone characterizations and a line of naked chorus girls from the famous Albert Arthur Allen photo 1925. They all come to life singing a sextet of German opera-like party music. An old grouch then sticks his head in the window pleading with them to shut-up. A little opera goes a long way here to stimulate many of your most vile senses. You may want to play this one again and again and again.

A Taste of Black History with Captain Curt is a live and unrehearsed sales presentation by the "King of Chicago Soul Food". This video is a great lesson in salesmanship as well as one of the funniest videos ever created at a Jewel Foods Store on Chicago's South Side (or anywhere else for that matter!). You may want to have a stack of "Depens" handy for this one. And remember the words, "it's never to early or never to late to have Captain Curt all over your plate"!

The ACE Project is a joint effort by the University of Illinois at Chicago and Thresholds social service agency. This successful program assists disabled adults to get back into the workforce. I was asked to create this video for ACE in celebration of their one-year anniversary.

is seen in this short video giving a presentation of the latest radiology imaging equipment for Konica-Minolta at Chicago's McCormick Place. Pam demonstrates how the art of acting (for which is she is a very talent actress) can be applied to assisting a high-tech company in explaning the benefits of their latest products. I'll buy whatever Pam has to offer.

The musical video "Dave & Aldon" features saxophonist Dave Grilly and trumpeter Aldon Lee working as street musicians in front of Chicago's Water Tower on a Sunday in the summer of 1994. The featured tunes are Dizzy Gillespie's Groovin' High and A Night in Tunisia. That day we made our highest earnings ever as street musicians. In just fours hours we collected a total of $27.35. That gave us $13.67 a piece which came to $3.15 an hour. That's how our country appreciates degreed musicians. After I got my degree in music I was encouraged by my school's job placement job office to go into computer programming. My many thanks to Roosevelt U !!!!