I’m leaving ginoguarnere.com up for the search engines, but I’ve long since stopped writing here…it makes more sense to blog over at my main site, Pixeldust Films.com. So, if you want to see the fresh stuff, head on over. I’m pretty much done with this blog and will eventually put something else here…just thought I’d let ya’ll know!

Thanks for visiting! Now go over to Pixeldust Films and get the fresh stuff!

Gino

“Winter Solstice” represents a first at-home studio recording by Pixeldust Films founder, Gino Guarnere. The album was initially recorded for the purpose of testing mic placement in a grand piano, but, it also served as an opportunity to try some other things. For starters, using microphones on a grand piano and getting good results takes a little practice. In fact, the better the piano, the more important this becomes. Then, of course, there was the actual selection of the pieces and reworking them into arrangements (many of the pieces were improvised). Then there was the post-production process, which was all about getting the piano to still sound like it should, but giving it a little bit of depth using Apple Logic Pro.

“It wasn’t until Gino listened to the first day’s recording session that he actually decided this album would make a decent Christmas present…”

One of the final experiments was to work with the fine folks over at discmakers.com to get the entire product packaged using custom-designed DVD jewel cases. Using their templates, we were able to do the entire project at their online “self service” kiosk, and there was no need to send any hard-copy media to Discmakers whatsoever. Gino, still awaiting the copies, is excited to see and hold the final product. We’ll be using similar packaging going forward for all our Pixel-Produced video biographies, audio projects and just about everything else.

Behind the Scenes

“…The mp3s above represent the entire album. A little classical, some ragtime, holiday music, it’s all there. Many of the songs I chose were the ones my family would ask me to play when I was just learning the piano, and I tried to pick out some of the ones I was asked to play again and again. It’s cool to look back to the days when I was just learning, and compare it to what I was able to create after all the years of formal training, music school, and the insight that comes with experience.” - Gino Guarnere

Gino and Wild Bill

On October 3rd, 2007, my grandfather and Babe Heffron went on the Michael Smerconish show to promote their new book. The interview was typical of one featuring my grandfather: lively, no regard for the FCC, and a tell-it-like-it-is approach. Smerconish loves Wild Bill and has him on the show quite a bit. (more…)

I’ve decided that training for a marathon is easily more mental than physical, at least for me. My will to run long distance fades mentally long before it does physically. Here are the three things I think I did wrong during my training:
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