Hi blogosphere!
It's been FOREVER since we've blogged, so we're keeping it simple...maybe that will help us squeeze it into our busy day!
We are OBSESSED with a cool machine called the Silhouette (check it out at www.silhouetteamerica.com ). Their newest model is called the Cameo, bu we have the slightly older SD model. This machine will cut out any design you upload into its software on all kinds of paper, vinyl, and other stuff. It's meant for crafters, but we've found uses all over the store (we recently re-did our door signs, for instance).
We've been thinking about using the Silhouette to make some custom decals for guitars and other instruments, so we tried it out on a ukulele we're donating for an A.N.N.A. Shelter benefit on July 28th. What do you think?
Happy New Year! We can't believe it's almost 2012. Obviously, one of our New Year's Resolutions has to be to blog more - and as usual, things have been busy around here! Fall brought two recitals, our Giant Holiday Sale, we raised tons of money for the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation, our Holiday Window was a big hit, and more. While we don't always have time to blog, we do try to keep our status updated on our Facebook page, and are working on our latest newsletter that will go out in January.
To start the New Year right, meet Erie's resident drum expert, Mr. Steve Barone, and make sure you say hi the next time you're in!
What is your job at World of Music?
I wear many hats- I work on the sales floor, and you can usually find me in the percussion department. I work closely with music teachers filling orders for local schools. I receive and tag inventory. I do service and repair work on drums, and I teach drum set lessons one day a week. The only thing I don't do here is sit for more than five minutes!
What’s the most challenging part of your job?
Staying ahead of the curve, and keeping your finger on the pulse so you know what your customers will need ahead of time. You can never predict what will happen in music retail; A product that starts out as a trend can become a full-blown craze, and we must carry gear that anyone and everyone can use and enjoy.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
I love taking care of my drummers. I love knowing that people can come to me with any percussion-related problem, and I'm usually able to offer a solution based on my own experience. There's a great camaraderie between drummers in this area, and I relish being an integral part of it.
What did you do before coming to World of Music?
I've had many jobs over the years; I worked at Spectrum Control soldering chips onto circuit boards. I worked at a local drum shop (Let There Be Drums), and I was a cook at Plymouth Tavern. I've also done freelance drum instruction throughout the years at Neighborhood Art House, Northwestern High School, and General McLane High School.
What are your top 3 favorite albums?
Tough question for a music fanatic! In no particular order, here are three albums that I can always listen to front to back, and they never get old:
REM - Automatic For The People
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Umphrey's McGee - Anchor Drops
What instrument(s) do you play?
21 years playing drums, but I can fake it on guitar and bass!
What’s your favorite item we carry at World of Music?
I love cymbals. When you find the perfect cymbal, over time, it sounds like you. It becomes part of your identity. My favorites are Zildjian K rides, but Sabian XS20's are great sounding cymbals at a budget-friendly price.
What do you think every customer should know about the World of Music?
If you don't see it in our store, chances are we can still get it for you. I take lots of special orders for my customers, and I can usually track down what you want. You get the same gear at the same price as the internet retailers, with WAY better service and half a lifetime of knowledge in your corner. Just give us the chance, and we will help you!
What do you like to do when you’re not working?
I love spending time with my girlfriend, first and foremost. My bands keep me busy, too. I play gigs on the weekends and practice every week. I love riding my bike and reading, too.
What kind of pets do you have?
My girlfriend has a big, bouncy golden retriever (Zeus) and a grey & white tabby (Porter). They're our furry kids!
What’s your ___________?
...biggest pet peeve? People who have the ability to change things in their life for the better, but would rather complain about it instead.
...favorite food? Fresh tomato, mozzarella and basil salad with balsamic and olive oil dressing. It's summertime in a bowl.
...favorite sports team? Cleveland Browns. No apologies.
...favorite fast food place? None. Taco Bell is sometimes ok.
... favorite tv show/movie? Anything about the universe or space, especially Ancient Aliens. If it's on Discovery or the History channel, I'll watch it.
...favorite genre of music? Progressive Rock
...favorite YouTube video? Right now, I'm digging the Sesame Street/Beastie Boys mash-up. Hilarious!
We're closed on Sundays, but whilst you pine away, waiting for us to open Monday morning...why not check out the Whole Foods Co-op Farmer's Market? It'll be happening every Sunday through October 22nd from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. right next door in the Co-op parking lot.
If you're a crafter, canner, educator, or musician, you can set up your own table/tents - there's no charge for booth space! Coordinator Elizabeth Benson (bettybluberry@hotmail.com or 814-431-5768) is also looking for acoustic musicians, especially if your style is bluegrass/soft rock/easy listening. This market is a "green" venue, meaning no electrical energy or other resources will be wasted.
Here are some of the cool things we bought, tried, saw, and ate when we visited!
Homemade maple candy!
Breads and gluten-free treats from Honey House
Organic, all-natural lip balms (in varieties like banilla (banana-vanilla), rosewood, and orange-basil), hand cream, and more from The Urban Farm Operation. Owner Elizabeth Hallock makes all the products right in her kitchen (emgee11882@yahoo.com for more details).
Amanda's new Rosewood Lip Balm ($3). She said she wants to go back and buy 20 of them, she loves it that much.
Fresh veggies from Liz and George Farms in Edinboro (814-392-0992 or www.lizandgeorgefarms.com). This local farm also sells fresh eggs, produce, organic pork, beef, goats, poultry, rabbits & lamb (you can order a whole cow!), and they even do pig roaster rentals!
Amish goods from Liz and George Farms
Be sure to check out the Farmer's Market before it's gone, and call Elizabeth if you want to play there! It's a great chance to support local businesses in Erie and get your hands on some fresh, sustainable treats.
Google is doing a cool new blog feature called "Faces of Gmail", where they profile all the interesting people around the world who work at Google (and, we assume, ride segways to work, have beanbags instead of desk chairs, have year-round Californian tans, etc.). We don't ride segways, but we think we're just as cool and you, loyal readers, might want to know about us too. So we're launching our own series where you can find out a little more about the many faces (and characters) that make up the World of Music. First up is bass-master extrordonaire Mark Chulick - and now the next time you're in you can ask him about Barchetta.
1. What is your job at World of Music?
I teach bass and work on the entire sales floor.
2. What’s the most challenging part of your job?
Keeping up on what’s new and exciting as far as products, because there’s so much out there. Sometimes, you get something that’s cool, and the next week there’s something even better to replace it with.
3. What’s your favorite part of your job?
Seeing a beginner (whether it’s a young kid or an adult) get their first guitar, and the excitement that goes along with that.
4. What did you do before coming to World of Music?
I was a kitchen manager in a restaurant, and I worked in another music store called Spitzer’s in Los Angeles.
5. What are your top 3 favorite albums?
a. Rush – Hemispheres
b. Aerosmith – Rocks
c. Kim Mitchell – Akimbo Alogo
6. What instrument(s) do you play?
Bass, and I like to fumble around with a classical guitar.
7. What’s your favorite item we carry at World of Music?
I get fired up about the Martin DX Series 12-string guitars. They’re relatively inexpensive (We sell them for $599), and they play and sound amazing for the price.
8. What do you think every customer should know about the World of Music?
We definitely have the area’s largest selection of strings, and we try to keep a good variety available. I really like the DR series for bass strings.
9. What do you like to do when you’re not working?
Obviously, play bass…and hang out with my girlfriend Kim and our three flat-coated retrievers (Xanadu, Barchetta, and Presto). If you can’t tell, we’re huge Rush fans.
10. What’s your favorite sports team?
Raiders, Red Sox, and Celtics – I’m a huge fan of all of them.
Steve's got a new video out today - his first "Drum Groove of the Month". Thanks to Zack Orr for editing this so masterfully...video is a huge project and we're glad he's here to help!
We also hosted our part one of our Intro to Jazz Improv series today - the great weather meant we had a good sized crowd, and everyone had a fun time singing their way though what can be complicated music theory. Special thanks goes out to presenter Stan Bialomizy and AFM Local 17. This is a two-part series, and we still have some spaces available for next week. If you're interested, you can find out the details here and call us to confirm your space.
If you're into Jazz, don't forget that tonight is the annual Jazz and Blues Walk, and if you want to hear Steve play the drums live you can catch him with his band Eric Brewer and Friends at Scotty's tonight!
June is flying by - we went to the Ribfest downtown (where our kids from The Rock School at World of Music performed!), had our Warehouse Sale earlier this month, and have been busy as ever launching our new Summer Music Programs. In general though, we have a little more time in summer to do larger projects, like our front windows! We've blogged before about our epic Christmas window, but this time we wanted something more summer-y (is that a word?). Something bright,fun, and a little funky - like the rest of our store.
There are certain things we have to keep in mind when we're designing window displays. First off, we have a LOT of space to fill; the windows face West 26th Street and run across the entire front of the building (which is a little under sixty feet wide), with a door in the middle and two windows on the sides of the building, as well. The side windows are the most important, because that's what passing traffic sees. Any materials we use need to be cheap, readily available, and easily visible to people walking by as well as to drivers.
Most of the year, we have great photo banners hanging (produced by our amazing friend Ed Bernik). The photos are of actual store employees and friends playing their instrument of choice - so if you know us, check them out the next time they're up. We were ready for something a little different though (again, summer-y!), and we wanted to emulate our favorite EVER retail store for displays: Anthropologie. Every Anthropologie store has an entire team of designers/artists who cook up creative ideas with everyday products (that, of course, also display their beautiful clothing). If you're from Erie, the nearest Anthropologie is in Cleveland, and is absolutely worth the trip if you're shopping for women's clothing or unique household items. They do a lot of their windows using thousands of the same item, like clothespins, coffee filters, etc. Keep in mind though - most retail stores only have one or two large windows to worry about. Here's an example using paper sculpture and string:
The last time we were in Cleveland, they had a really cool window with a large earth sculpture in the middle, and turquoise dots that looked sponge-painted around the edges. The dots created a sort of organic frame. We've done painted windows in the past highlighting our many departments ("Band Gear! Private Lessons! Drums!" etc.) but it's difficult to do by hand without it looking like...well, like we did it by hand. We realized we could create a wave out of sponged dots pretty easily that would span the of width of our window, and have something a little more creative.
We started out with basic kitchen sponges, and cut them into several different sizes of circles. We also used a large circle stencil and made a few collograph stamps of musical items, like a treble clef and a music note.You can make your own after your watch this fun video:
We got the paint at the local craft store, and decided to use tempera (water-based) paint vs. acrylic. When you're painting on glass, it's very easy to use a razor and scrape off acrylic paint, since it's plastic-based. However, you'll pay 4-5 times as much verses tempera, and we needed a lot of paint, so we stuck to the cheaper stuff.
We used the collographs and the large circles first, plotting out where we wanted the general wave pattern to flow. The idea was to have the music notes hidden in the wave.
The collograph idea worked for getting the general outline of the object (it's really hard to freehand a treble clef backwards), and then we touched them up and outlined them using white Speedball Glass Markers (a very cool product). Next came the dots...
...a lot of them...
It took Christie and Amanda approximately 22 hours of work to finish the entire window...did we mention it was a lot of dots?
But FINALLY, we made it across the whole thing. The result?
What do you think? Drive by sometime and check it out! Feel free to let us know in the comments if you have some fun ideas for our next big window.
It's Warehouse Sale time! Everything is a little extra crazy around here as we're all getting ready - but this is biggest, most fun event we do all year. We only do two sales a year so it's a Very Big Deal here! We'll try to post some pics in a few days when we get a free minute...see you here!
For all the sale details, click here!
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