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Craig McTurk ’93 is the co-producer and additional cameraman for Satan & Adam, an epic documentary feature film that will premiere this April at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. The film was directed by V. Scott Balcerek and exec produced by Frank Marshall. Satan & Adam tells the story of two idiosyncratic blues musicians, and was made over a period of 23 years. Craig is currently in post-production on another documentary feature, The Last Artisan, about an elderly Singaporean painter who passes his life’s work to a pair of Mainland Chinese workers. Eric Geoffroy ’94 checks in to say, “After extensive musical training and two degrees I am now…a coder. Ah, well, it’s fun, creative, and challenges my brain. The workaday job involves a little audio work, too, which is nice. I swim a lot, but in a swimsuit. I miss nude swimming in the CalArts pool!” G
Luis Prieto ’94 tells us that he “directed Kidnap starring Halle Berry, produced by Lorenzo Di Bonaventura (released in August 2017 by Avian Pictures). Also, directed The Disunited States of America, a portrait of America in the months, weeks, and days leading up to the 2016 election. With no interviews or narration, we get to know the real lives of real people that were sensationalized by the media—Bikers for Trump, undocumented immigrants, Planned Parenthood employees, etc. The election is only a backdrop for this portrait of America—a time capsule of a populace. The film is screening at the 2018 EFM Berlinale.”
Alisa Rasera-Holden ’94 recently performed in Oakland-based AXIS Dance Company’s 30th anniversary season with the original cast of Secret Ponies, a piece choreographed by Stephen Petronio in 2001. Alisa was a dancer with AXIS from 1999-2007. She has been a Bay Area resident and artist since 1996. She lives with her husband Wally Holden ’94 and their two daughters, Iris & Viola. Nathan Bishop ’95 writes: “After graduating and living the dream working for several years in the television/film industry, I finally grew tired of being laid off after every project. I bounced around trying other jobs, from tutoring art to web design for a tabletop game company. My journey took me from California to New Jersey to Dallas to Baltimore, then back to Dallas in 2008 and finally, to Kalamazoo Michigan in 2009, where I met my amazing wife, Heather, whom I married in 2013. We had our son Robin in 2016. Now I have the most important job ever, which far exceeds all the movies and television shows I’ve ever worked on, being a stay-at-home dad. I aim all my creative energy into raising my son (and making him the best Halloween costumes!) I still like to play around with video, but it takes the form of fun videos announcing Robin’s birth and the milestones of his life. Here is a photo of my son Robin as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in his custom Ecto-1 Cozy Coupe that I made for him this past Halloween.” E Brian Driscoll ’95, a professor of music at Santa Monica College, tells us that he was commissioned to write a five-minute anthem for an eight-part choir and organ dedicated to the retiring sixth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. The piece, a setting of an excerpt of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If,” along with extracts and quotes inspired by the Bhagavad Gita, was premiered on November 4, 2017, by the Cathedral Singers of St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral at a benefit dinner and retirement party for 400 guests. F Amy Alexander ’96 works in digital media, audiovisual, and performance art. She has also written and lectured on software as art and culture, audiovisual performance, and
histories of women in technology. She has served as a reviewer for festivals and commissions for new media art and computer music. Amy’s projects have been presented internationally on the Internet, in clubs, and on the street, as well as in festivals and museums, including the Whitney Museum, Ars Electronica, Transmediale, ISEA, and NIME. She was a founding member of the Runme.org software art collective and an early member of the TOPLAP live coding collective. Amy has an ongoing side project increasing the research visibility of 20th century audiovisual performance artist and inventor Mary Hallock Greenewalt. Recently, Amy has been working on PIGS (Percussive Image Gestural System), which she has performed in the US, Canada, and Australia. Amy is an Associate Professor of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego, where she currently serves as area head for Computing and Speculative Design. F
Margaret Pezalla-Granlund ’95 checks in: “I recently moved from Minnesota to Pennsylvania to take a position as the director of the Art Gallery and The Sarnoff Collection at The College of New Jersey. The Sarnoff Collection is a small, but significant collection of artifacts from RCA and Sarnoff Labs that trace the history of broadcast and communications technology in the 20th century.” Brent Crayon ’97 is music director, conductor, keyboardist for upcoming productions of South Pacific, Newsies, and A Night with Janis Joplin at La Mirada Theater. Sandy Rodriguez ’97 tells us: “This summer (April – July) you can see my latest work as part of a two-person show with John Valadez at Fine Art Solutions in Vernon, CA. Recent awards and residencies include: Department of Cultural Affairs Cultural Trailblazer Award, and Artist-in-Residence for Los Angeles County Arts Commission. My artist communiqué and artwork are featured on the fall 2017 cover of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies from UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center. My work has been featured on CBC Radio Canada Hour le Monde, KQED Statewide Report, KPCC’s Off Ramp, in the Los Angeles Times, and on KCET.” G
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