The Mosquito at Dixon Place

Consider the mosquito! The little insect that wakes you from a deep sleep with a whine, draws blood and leaves you itching. So small, so brave and smashable, yet so influential to the sleeper. Inspirational!

The Mosquito is also an evening of excellent readings and stand-up hosted and curated by Nancy Giles at Dixon Place. I’ve lucked into the role of providing a song or two for the musical diversion. We’ve been doing shows monthly since last fall and we’re back on Monday night. I play songs of my own, though last week I got to rock out on Secret Agent Man, which is never a bad thing. Although The Mosquito (the show) has a metaphorical overlap with the mosquito (the insect) rest assured that no performer will draw actual blood or leave you scratching yourself. The whining and waking from a deep sleep part, let’s table that for now. 

Come see! It’s free - though we will pass the hat to defray subway rides and ukulele strings. Bar! Alcohol! 

It’s Monday 5/11 at 7:30pm

Dixon Place

161a Chrystie Street, NYC

http://dixonplace.org/performances/the-mosquito-2-4/

Me heating up the purple uke. 

Borgia and Davy play Catskill!

We had a great gig last night at An Beal Bocht in the Bronx, fun on a stick!

This Saturday, 11/9 we'll be playing at the Catskill Community center as part of their Saturday Stroll series.  We'll be joined by Adam Price, who will unpack his excellent musical inventions on bass. Innovation!

There will be a variety of things going on at the stroll up and down main street: wine tasting, art, an improv group and more! Come check it out!

Borgia & Davy
Part of the Catskill 2nd Saturday Stroll, 11/9
6-8 pm, Catskill community center
344 Main Street
Catskill, NY 12414

http://www.welcometocatskill.com/

Don't ask why

Gig!

This Sunday, Alison and I get to play at An Beal Bocht, my favorite hangout in the Bronx.  We've been working on these songs upstate and it will be fun to bring them to the city.  We're singing together and I'm playing ukuleles, she's taken up the autoharp where appropriate.  Come check it out, it will be fun.

Borgia & Davy
Songs and Arias
Sunday, 11/3/2013
9pm
An Beal Bocht Cafe
445 West 238th Street
Riverdale, Bronx
http://anbealbochtcafe.com/

Thursday happy hour gig!

I may wear this hat.

I'm playing this Thursday evening at doubles 2 in catskill.  This will be a solo set as Alison is rehearsing to be a nun in a Puccini opera in New Jersey and cannot make this one.  It looks like I'll be joined by bassist Adam Price - fun shall be had!

I'll play a bunch of my own songs, it will be a mix of old and new.  It's early and it's free!

Carmen Borgia
Songs on guitar and ukulele
Thursday, October 10
6pm
Doubles 2
188 Water Street, Catskill, NY

In memoriam Michael Chobot

Michael Chobot

I've been nominated for an Emmy for sound design in news and documentary, and it is a bittersweet honor. I headed the sound design team that included two extremely talented sound people, Matt Gundy and Michael Chobot, with whom I share the nomination. Last week, Michael passed away after a two year struggle with leukemia. 

I met Mike at DuArt a few years ago when he booked a studio to mix a short film.   My first impression was that he was enthusiastic. I couldn't tell if he knew what he was doing, but I got a good vibe from the brief discussion we had to set up the session. A young guy, I think he was 25, he did a sound design and mix on the graveyard shift all by himself. When I left work he was setting up with the director. 

The next morning I came in to find everybody wrapping up. The director looked happy and relaxed, which you don't see every day. At the time I was looking for a mixer and I called Mike a few days later to ask if he wanted to work at DuArt mixing a cartoon series for TV. I'd only spent about twenty minutes with him total, but I just knew he would be great at it. He became a wonderful addition to what could sometimes be a stressful environment; good natured, capable, talented and able to figure anything out under pressure.

Mike was fun to be around.  He was enthusiastic and engaged about whatever project he approached. He mixed his first episode of the cartoon series and got zero notes back from the client, meaning that he nailed it the first time out. He was athletic, he ran an ultra-marathon. He composed and recorded a classical wedding theme that was choreographed to live fireworks. For his brother's wedding, I think.

Shortly after Mike was diagnosed I briefly met a couple of his family members. I was amazed by the love and support I felt from them. It felt healthy and good. In the past two years I was fortunate to speak with him from time to time as he was setting up his own studio. It's pretty unusual to have a conversation with a person with a serious illness and come away feeling positive. He had a great perspective on things, he could look at a terrible situation - like being blinded by a battery of toxic therapies - and be fascinated by the response his body was having to it. All in all, an amazing guy.

For the Emmy nominated Duckumentary, Mike edited the backgrounds and the duck vocalizations. I told him that the various sequences, which were set all over the world, had to be geographically correct. During our final FX review just before the mix, the director requested that duck calls be added to a moment where a flock takes off from the water. There was a beat, then Mike responded over the speaker phone that, based on his research, this particular breed of ducks does not call when traveling in a flock. Another beat, then the director smiled and withdrew her request. Mike was very smart and polite enough to communicate with just the right tone. 

I feel very fortunate to have known Mike and to have been able to work with him for a time. My deepest sympathies to his incredible family.

Catskill gig this Friday!

Come celebrate the late summer! Alison and I are playing at Doubles 2 in Catskill, happy hour!  Drink specials, and a groovy vibe are to be had with no pesky cover charge to encumber the audience.  We'll do a couple of sets and probably some new things.

Borgia & Davy
Songs and Arias
Friday, August 16, 6pm
Doubles 2
188 Water Street, Catskill, NY

Summer e-newsletter, Emmy® nomination edition

It's been a busy and creative summer over at chez Borgia. We've survived the recent heat wave and things are thankfully better now. In terms of music and sound, here are the highlights:

		I have been nominated for an Emmy® for outstanding sound design for PBS Nature's An Original Duckumentary. I headed the fantastic sound design team of Michael Chobot and Matt Gundy. Together we crafted all of the effects and ambiences to accompany a film that explores the panoply of ducks around the world. We did the work last year, it was mixed by Ed Campbell at WNET 13 in NYC. It's a great honor to have worked with this crew, the director Anne Prum and the folks at PBS. It's wonderful to receive this nomination.
		Alison Davy - to whom I have the good fortune to be married - has joined me in a new singing duo called Jumbo Bungalow. We've been performing in the Hudson Valley to great response - playing the Catskill Wine and Cheese Festival, The Kingston Festival of the Arts and doing regular happy hour appearances at Doubles 2 in Catskill, NY. We do a tossed salad of my songs, classical pieces and contemporary cover tunes. I play the ukulele and sing, Alison dishes out soprano excellence along with fine accompaniment on autoharp and harmonica.
		A choral round isn't something I ever thought I'd write, but it happened anyway. My original round, Everything Bagel, was added to the 2013 spring and summer repertoire of the Turtle Bay Music School Community Choir. It has been a real treat to hear my work performed by this skilled and spirited ensemble.
		Director Peter Sluszka asked me to do the 5.1 mix for his wonderful and disturbing short, Buttonhole. Check it out here.
		The Sonic Scoop website asked me to review the ADAM F5 studio speakers. It’s good to get back into some writing after a little break. Plus, it’s good clean fun to have an opportunity to listen to some new gear!
		I'll be mixing live sound for a young peoples' production of Into The Woods at Weathervane Playhouse in my old Ohio stomping grounds. I'm looking forward to meeting new people and seeing the kids bring their best to this great show by Stephen Sondheim.

The freelance life is rockin'! I'm lining up my schedule for the fall and look forward to some very exciting projects. I’ve got studios running in the Bronx and upstate in the Village Of Catskill. For those in need of great sound for film, video, web or music, drop me a line and we'll work it out.

Carmen Borgia Music and Sound

• Sound • Sound Design •
• Mixing for Film & TV • Music •

www.carmenborgia.com
IMDB
Credits

Central Ohio gig!!!

I'm playing at the Sparta Restaurant Cafe in Newark, Ohio this Thursday, August 8th, 6pm.

I met the owner, Chris Ramsey, last year when we went in for breakfast.  The food was great and he made us a little plate of beignets, Louisiana pastries, they were excellent.  We discussed the origins of the word "beignet" as well as the many facets of fried dough.  He is a very interesting guy, so, I'm pleased to be playing there on Thursday at 6pm.  I'll play some of my songs and some covers, this will be a solo show.  A friend or two may visit and play some songs.

We'll pass the hat to help me keep strings on the guitars.

Here is an article on Chris from earlier this year.

Borgia & Davy at the Kingston Festival of the Arts

Alison and Carmen will be performing their new musical duo at the Kingston Festival of the Arts.  Italian composers Puccini, Arditi and Borgia will be featured as well as indispensable tunes by Wilco and Bob Wills.  Carmen sings and plays ukes, Alison sings the high notes and sallies forth on harmonica and autoharp. They're performing at the San Severia tent in Kingston; a tent designed for the optimal deployment of waffles to the public.  And they have alcohol.  So, this will be a good gig.  

The details:

Borgia & Davy

Songs and Arias

Sunday, June 23, 3pm

$8.

San Severia

Broadway between Henry and Cedar streets

Kingston, NY

About the venue and the festival.

San Severia, built in 1890 in Gent, Belgium was designed to travel from festival to festival hosting social events, serving Belgian waffles, or sausage & beer. San Severia has been a home to 100's of restaurants, we are happy to have her in Kingston, NY.

Spiegeltent Productions and Bob Airhart are pleased to bring this very special Belgian "eatery" and community space to Kingston. San Severia will be standing proud in Mid-Town through September.

Shop therapy, CB style

Item	Qty	Description	Price	Total
1977	1	L.R. Baggs FIVE.O Ukulele Pickup System	$149.00	$149.00
0435	1	Grover Ukulele Tuning Machines - Nickel with black knobs, set of 4	$13.68	$13.68
4980-SB	1	StewMac Guitar Strap Button - White button, chrome screw	$4.80	$4.80
4018	1	Strap Button Felt Washers - Cream, package of 10	$3.25	$3.25

Tax  $0.00 Shipping  $13.95

Your order total $184.68

Gig!

Carmen and Alison do some music together in public.

Friday, June 7
6-8pm
Happy hour at Doubles II
29 Church Street
Catskill, NY
doubles2.com

6-7pm, live music by
Borgia and Davy
Songs and Arias

Bottles

CB Music at the Earthworks

Rosie will not be attending the gig,

but sends her regards.

So, the music.

I'll be playing a solo set of recent and vintage songs.  I'll do some tunes from my albums North and The Red Circle Line.  I've also got a new batch of stuff that I've been developing lately. A couple of rockers, a song about a failed relationship with a successful tattoo, some introspective and lovely melodies on the subject of hanging in with life, an innocently smutty song of true love; dreams, travel, more failed love and an ode to the dude (or dudette) who makes the train run.  I also wrote a round paying tribute to the everything bagel, have to make room for that.  All acoustic, guitar and a little ukulele.  Pun intended.

And then Alison Davy and I will perform selections from my original musical, South.

South was commissioned by a wonderful theater in NYC called Dixon Place.  We did a really fun production of it in 2009 with full cast, costumes, lights, the works.  I've been wanting to do it ever since, and one day we'll get a theater to mount it, I'm sure.  But Alison and I have been missing the songs, so we've compressed it to a single set, just music with both of us a-singin'.  It is set in 1860, to the south of North America, but to the north of South America.  It concerns a young sailor's search for his lost family.  Leaky boat, old captain, filthy cook, beautiful cook's daughter and more.  There are Amazons and an island, pirates, a father a mother; it's a lot.

Yeah, the music is great, but the good part is that Alison will join me in the singing.  She's an amazing soprano, highly skilled in the classical realm.  From time to time she joins me for my music, and she brings a lot to this collection.  Did I say amazing?  Yeah, that's the case here, she's the real deal.  And I'm not just saying that because we're married.  It's worth a listen, the songs are very beautiful, and as much of a treat as it is for me to be able to sing with Alison, she is even better for the people to hear.

So, come on over to the earthworks and check us out, it will be a lovely evening.

Sunday, August 12, 7-9 pm at the Octagon Earthworks, Newark, Ohio - free!.  If there is rain, it will get moved indoors nearby.

Ocatagon Earthworks Gig

The Octagon Earthworks in Newark, Ohio.

I'll be performing on Sunday, August 12 at the Octagon Earthworks in Newark, Ohio from 7-9pm.  This will be a fun gig. Admission is free.

I'll be performing a solo set of vintage and recent songs by my very self, which should be good because I've been practicing. Then, to elevate things a bit, I'll be joined my my wife and partner in musical crime, Alison Davy, in a pocket version of my musical South.

So, some details. First, the earthworks.

I grew up in Newark in the 1970's and the earthworks to me were just a park out by the mall where you could go picnicking. The park is called "Moundbuilders", so we called them "the mounds", earthworks came later.  I don't recall that they were thought to be important. For instance, I don't recall much mention of them in school, nor ever taking a field trip. The first time I registered them was when my next door neighbor, an architect named Don Gunnerson, designed a flag for the area designating our county "The Land of Legend". It was a schematic of the octagon mounds, which happens to be the site of a local golf course.  I recall an event one summer with a faux Native-American re-enactment of something or other with Cherokee head dressings and ceremonial dancing by what had to have been Eagle Scouts.  The performers were digging into the side of a very large mound. I'm not sure about the story but a flashpot went off, which was great. I think around this time I got the impression that they were burial mounds, I imagined dense heaps of Indian bones covered by a thin layer of dirt with golf carts driving over them; I figured they had to leave them there because it was a cemetery.

In my twenties during one particular streak of what I perceived to be misfortune, I hit upon the idea that anything bad that happened in Newark - or even to somebody raised in Newark - was because the country club built their golf course on an ancient Indian burial site and that we were all cursed, like in the movie Poltergeist.

In recent years I've learned that the earthworks are the remains of a civilization referred to by archeologists as the Hopewell culture.  They flourished from 100 BC to 400 AD.  This would be prior to Native North Americans as we generally think of them.  A small portion of the four square mile Newark Earthworks complex was used for burials, but most of it was not.  The Octagon may have relationships to seasonal positioning of stars, maybe a calendar, like Stonehenge?  In a funny twist, many earthworks in the state were flattened out and built atop over the years;  the country club probably kept the Octagon intact which I hope will remove or at least mitigate the curse.

In any case, I get to play there August 12.  I think it will be a fun gig for everyone.  I'll see if I can get another blog about the music.

Borgia on the radio this weekend

I've just learned that my Saturday gig at the Spotty Dog will air live on WGXC radio.  Although I presume everyone I have ever known will be at the show, those few who won't be in the Hudson, NY area may tune in on the Web!

http://www.wgxc.org/events/5706

This local community radio station is a mainstay of my listening in Catskill.  They've got local DJ's playing music of great variety (take that, ipod!) and talk shows of local and world interest.  They also broadcast local music events and other shows (duh), so, they're well worth a regular listen.

Yay, WGXC!


Carmen Borgia plays the Spotty Dog
Saturday, July 7 2012, 8pm
Hudson, NY

CB plays the Spotty Dog in Hudson NY

This will be fun.  I'm playing at The Spotty Dog in Hudson, NY, this is a fabulous place to be.  It's a legendary bookstore, coffee house, beer dispensary and art supply store in one exquisite establishment.  Also, as if that is not sufficient, it serves as a very simple and happy concert hall.  Frank Cuthbert, a fellow singer-songwriter, will open with a solo set of his fine material. Come check it out; Hudson, books, art, coffee, beer and even some music.  Dig it.

Carmen plays the Spotty Dog
Saturday, July 7 2012, 8pm
Hudson, NY

- - - - -

I've just learned the gig will air live on WGXC radio.  Although I presume everyone I have ever known will be at the show, those few who won't be in the Hudson, NY area may tune in on the Web!

http://www.wgxc.org/events/5706

This local community radio station is a mainstay of my listening in Catskill.  They've got local DJ's playing music of great variety (take that, ipod!) and talk shows of local and world interest.  They also broadcast local music events and other shows (duh), so, they're well worth a regular listen.

Yay, WGXC!

I'm playing at the Brik Gallery in Hudson, NY this Saturday, sometime between the hours of 2 and 7pm.  It's part of the ongoing Wall Street to Main Street art, music and social events that have been going on in Catskill for a couple of months and will continue through May.

I'll be there with my guitar and uke, playing my most musically happening and lyrically ambiguous songs to date!  Come check it out, the occupy exhibit at Brik is great and Catskill is beautiful this time of year.

Wall Street to Main Street Concert
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Brik Gallery
473 Main Street
Catskill, NY
FREE!

Carmen Borgia playing in Newark, Ohio.

I've booked another gig at the very excellent River Road Coffee House. I'll do a set on uke and a set on guitar.  All solo, a whole lotta Carmen songs.  I may possibly get adventurous and do some audio-visual as well.  Maybe.

Hey, did I mention it's free?  Come check it out, coffee, tea, music, the hometown, dang!

River Road Coffee House
973 21st Street
Newark, Ohio
Friday, April 20th, 6:30 - 8pm
Free!  But you're gonna wanna try a beverage.

Carmen Borgia plays live on WRIP Tuesday night

I'll be joining Sonny Rock and his illustrious cohorts on his radio show, Local Licks on WRIP in Windham, NY Tuesday night. The show is from 6-9 pm EST.  Sonny hosts a great weekly show that features Hudson valley music and everything else.  I'm the featured musician for the evening, I'll play some new songs live among what is sure to be a great mix of stuff, so be sure to tune in and check it out!

WRIP
Tuesday 3/20/2012
6-9pm EST
Stream it live!

 www.carmenborgia.com