Category Archives: Dads Writing About Kindie Culture

Behind the B3: Expendable Arts

For the last week I had been working on my next blog post which was going to be about Sugar Free Allstars’ recent 10 day tour out West. That was… until I got home to Oklahoma and learned about OK House Bill 1895. This bill proposes to cut state funding to the Oklahoma Arts Council by 25% per year for four years, eliminating all funding by 2017. This is disturbing for numerous reasons. On the grand scale this is sending a message to the nation that the arts aren’t important in my home state. On his blog Representative Cockroft, who authored the bill, says:

“I have nothing against the arts, in fact; quite the contrary. However, I do not support the misuse of taxpayer’s dollars. Every dollar saved from these side projects is a dollar better spent for our education system, state employees, and agencies across Oklahoma.”

Needless to say it’s discouraging when one of your state’s legislators refers to the arts as a “side project”. In reality, studies have shown time and time again that this “side project” increases students’ intellect and test scores, has a positive impact on local economies, and culturally enriches communities, thereby attracting new businesses and families.

If the motivation behind this bill is purely fiscal responsibility, let’s talk numbers: the Oklahoma Arts Council only receives $4 million per year of the total state budget of $6.8 billion (that’s less than 1/10th of one percent!) and according to a 2010 study by Americans for the Arts, the arts in Oklahoma actually generated $29 million in tax revenue, a $25 million profit. I’m no financial expert, but I’m not sure it makes much business sense to cut a program that provides a 600% return on its investment.

On the smaller scale this bill would affect me, professionally and personally in my ability to provide for my family. The first family shows Sugar Free Allstars ever played were for programs funded in part by the Oklahoma Arts Council, so I feel confident in saying we would not be where we are today without them. More than half of the shows we play in our home state are subsidized by the council in countless libraries, schools and festivals – in many smaller Oklahoma communities it’s the only way kids and families are able to experience live music. If the arts council isn’t able to help fund these shows they just simply won’t happen, and for SFA that means fewer shows and less family income. It’s already a full time job finding shows to keep the band busy, and this would greatly reduce our options. SFA is honored to be included on the Oklahoma Arts Council’s touring roster, which allows schools to apply for a special grant to bring us to their town to play concerts and teach workshops about music theory and history.

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Many of these schools have already lost their arts programs and our visits are an effort to help fulfill their state mandated art education requirement. Without these grants from OAC, these rural communities wouldn’t be able to have us come visit, decreasing their exposure to the arts.

I’m a lifelong resident of Oklahoma, and I’ll be the first to admit that in the past we haven’t been viewed as the most forward-thinking or culturally-advanced place; but within the last 5 years or so our image has improved. There is a sense of upward momentum and civic pride coupled with support of all things local that is making me increasingly proud of living here. Then something like this comes along and reminds me that there are still people here and around the country that view the arts (one of the things at the very heart of our cultural renaissance) as expendable.

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The arts are around us everyday, in virtually every aspect of our lives, and yet they are almost always the first thing on the chopping block when it comes to balancing the budget. The next Oklahoma legislative session begins on February 4th, so it looks like I’ll be contacting my legislator this week to express opposition to this bill.

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I am encouraged to see the outpouring of support for the Oklahoma Arts Council from the community and hopeful that HB 1895 won’t make it past committee.

Sometimes you have to fight for what you believe in from Behind the B3…..

An alternative to those monthly baby pictures

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Babies are amusing. They are also media hounds.

Fortunately for me, my son Owen (who turns 1 on Jan. 17) loves the camera. He smiles for pictures and actually seems to trump up his personality on video. Somewhat unintentionally, I found a way to use this to my advantage.

As a full participant in the Facebook generation, I found it uncomfortable how much effort went into staging just the right picture for each month, sitting him in the same spot every 30 days next to the same stuffed animal, dressed up in something cutesy. It got annoying. It’s kind of a mom-ish thing to do, but I really did want to keep my friends and family updated on his progress; it just wasn’t any fun doing so.

During his first month, my wife was using a flipcam (I know, so 2008 ) to record him while I held him, and I began speaking (my face is off camera) from his point of view. Naturally, I used a ridiculous deep voice and spoke in complete, self-aware sentences. It lasted 30 seconds, and we threw it up on Facebook, labeling it as Owen’s “1-month press conference.”

I tried the idea again a month later, and remarkably, Owen was interactive — smiling, making funny faces, squeaking, etc. I didn’t have a plan what I was going to say, just randomly talked about his appreciation of The Hunger Games movie and how he celebrated his recent baptism.

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I randomly threw in self-congratulatory remarks (“Also, I’m adorable”) to bridge the gaps while I scrambled in my brain for something else to say.

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Gradually, I got more into it, and my friends and family loved them. I began planning out the idea for each month’s press conference, usually revolving around what was going on in his life that month (playoff baseball discourse in October, a family trip in June). I made some other videos celebrating things like the start of the baseball season and created a campaign video during the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election. He appointed an army of stuffed animals to his political team.

They weren’t exactly video masterpieces.

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Everything was done in one take, leaving in the goofs (in the 2-month presser, he incorrectly refers to St. Patrick’s Day as Thanksgiving. What a confused baby.) and not adding any measure of post-production. They were about 2 minutes each, and almost all of the video is spent just locked in on his face. But they were still fun, with some more off the cuff than others. My voice for him kept changing unintetionally — sounding deeper in some press conferences than others, occasionally sounding Eastern European (Duoofenschmirtz from Phineas and Ferb, perhaps) or a little on the feminine side. But whatever, no one cares.

Dadnabbit has been described as “Pinterest for Dudes Who Aren’t Into Crafts” (actually, that’s just how I will describe it the next time I talk to someone about it), and though I don’t have much to offer in the creative department, I saw this as a fun, Facebook-friendly alternative to the simple picture next to an “X Months” sign. It may not be for every dad or every baby, but if it works, I think it’s a way to chronicle the first year of growth in a humorous way.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGViqaRb5zc]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUBgDaGeMz4]

Behind the B3: Who Am I and What Am I Doing In A Kindie Rock Band???

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The Rock Star Dream: name in lights, stadiums packed with screaming fans, partying all night, making millions of dollars… Awesome, right?! So how does one end up going from that fantasy to playing shows in libraries and schools for kids and families? Well I’ll tell you after I introduce myself. My name is Boom! (I also answer to Wiser, Chris or DaddyDaddyDaddyDaddyDaddy) and I play organ and sing in the funky kindie duo Sugar Free Allstars out of Oklahoma City. For those of you not familiar with kindie (indie music for kids) it is basically a sub-genre of children’s music that has become a whole movement of creating music that is enjoyable for kids and adults alike. A phenomenon common to many kindie acts, SFA included, is that they started out playing for “grown ups” (often times in late night establishments) and have somehow found themselves performing kid-friendly music at family events, school assemblies and public libraries instead.

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The first incarnation of Sugar Free Allstars came together in late 2000 and immediately began playing late-night club shows, releasing our first album in 2001. Many times fans that had kiddos at home would come to shows after buying our albums and tell us how much their little ones liked the music. It happened often enough that we started tossing around the idea of “one day” releasing a kid’s album. But not yet, we were too busy living the dream…oh yeah, the Rock Star Dream…only the stadiums packed with screaming fans in reality were more like 10-15 people in a club at the end of the night. Oh, and the millions of dollars turned out to be maybe $200, but after paying a bar tab and buying gas to get to the next town, more like $100 to split between everyone. Par-ty! And so it went, year after year, until late 2006 when Fate intervened. After performing at an all-ages community show, we were approached about playing a tour of Oklahoma City area libraries for their kid’s summer reading program. We were excited to book the shows and quickly began recording our first kindie album Dos Ninos (released in 2007) in order to have merchandise with subject matter that was appropriate for kids. We were amazed as SFA began to receive attention nationally, seemingly having found our niche playing funky music for families. Even more encouraging, the first song on the album went to #1 on XM Radio’s Kids Place Live channel. After the surprising success of that first release, the course of our careers was forever altered.

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So there you have it – from bar band to Purveyors of Kindie Rock. The musician life is much more fulfilling now and even slightly more prosperous playing for families rather than in clubs. That being said, it is still a job, and a continuously demanding one at that. I do have an amazing, super supportive wife and incredible 2 year old son who encourage and motivate me to continue pursuing this path. My intent with this column is to provide a behind the scenes look at being a working kindie musician while also figuring out how to be the best PTSAHD (part-time stay at home dad) I can be: sharing the ups and downs, the frustrations and the triumphs, the disappointments and the successes along the way. This will be your chance to get a glimpse of the reality of this kindie rock business, not just the big fun rock shows.

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I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences with you from Behind the B3!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3OOwMiiXHo]