Leaving My Blog Coma

I must hand it to the demographic of working people/students who are able to maintain consistent blogging habits. When the assignments add up and projects become obsessions, I know I have far less than the obligatory mental stamina for updating Sound Statements. This past week, though, I was accepted to the Masters of Fine Arts Sound Design for Theater program at the University of California, Irvine. I figured it was time.

My interview visit to Irvine was quite momentary in the scheme of things: I flew out on a Monday afternoon and left Tuesday afternoon, giving me a total of about 6 hours of daytime on campus. In that time, though, I was wowed by the energy of the people and the resources at their hands. Here's a picture of their sound studio:

Mike Hooker and Vinnie Olivieri are the two ringleaders of the department. Professor Hooker has a notable background in sound design for themed entertainment, having worked with Disneyland among others. Professor Olivieri has composed and designed sound for many regional theatre projects, and headed to New York recently to finish his first broadway design for a play called High . The two bring contrasting, but complimentary backgrounds to the program, and both seem to have a lot of professorial energy. Although the program centers around theatrical sound design, I am focusing on building the core skills to be able to sound design any project across any medium. Having both Profs. Hooker and Olivieri will help to keep my design palate diverse.


I also had my spring break two weeks ago, which I decided to spend on the east coast. My tour took me from Bethesda, to Boston, to New Haven and to Manhatten, and I had my dad's Zoom H2 recorder with me at all times. Funnily enough, a lot of the sounds I wound up gathering were train sounds —— between Amtrak, the T in Boston, the NYC subway and the DC metro I had a lot to work with. I also captured a plethora of interesting sounds from my childhood home in Bethesda, from obscenely creaky doors to washing machine foley. Here is a quick mix I did of a few goodies:

DC Sounds by mattglenn