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My Little Life

I am Graydon James Moore of San Francisco, CA. Most call me Jamie. I grew up in Wichita and graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston in '95. For another year or so after college I drummed in a bunch of bands around town. Then I met a girl named Alice, moved to New York City and began persuing a long time interest in filmmaking. My desire to learn and proclivity towards sound guided me to become a boom operator. And over the following 3 years I boomed on about 20 independent films, lots of MTV and VH1 promos, and 2 Comedy Central shows—Upright Citizens Brigade and Strangers With Candy.

In 1998 I married Alice and wanted to change jobs so I could be home more. So I learned Photoshop & Illustrator on our tangerine iMac and landed a graphics job in '99 at Igicom, a web-shop in Soho. For another 2.5 years I continued to learn the wonders of the Internet and worked my way up from graphic production to Designer.

During that time I played mostly in a funky-old-soul band, Yes Virginia, and put together a compilation CD to benefit World Hunger Year featuring a bunch of cool friends, Brooklyn Above Ground: BAG 1. I also enjoyed shooting video for a monthly production of short plays called Little Theater at Tonic on the Lower East Side. Then in early '02, the sagging economy forced Igicom to change direction and the graphics team was let go. After a taste of the regular paycheck the thought of unemployment was kind of beat, but it soon became clear as an opportunity to reinvest in my dreams of fame and fortune in entertainment.

My first video project was to make an entry for the Clearview Cinemas Policy Trailer Contest, and I'm very proud to say that I WON! Woohoo! That's right, from summer '02 to summer '03 every movie shown at any Clearview Cinema—a NY area chain—will be preceded by my entry which features 23 New Yorkers telling movie goers not to smoke, talk, make a mess, etc. in 6 languages. I'm also very proud of the music that was written and produced for it with a fellow band-mate who also happens to be my landlord.

In 2003 I participated in MoveOn.org's Bush in 30 Seconds ad contest. With the help of my good friend Susanna Melendez and a whole bunch of kids from ages 5 to 10, I was able to submit this entry which I'm very proud of. It ranked 57th out of over 1500 entrants.

Another cool project was working with Rebecca Feldman documenting the original version of what is now the Spelling Bee Musical, which has now won a few Toni awards and still plays to sold out houses on Broadway! See the original trailer here. I've also contributed video to a really cool multi-media theater piece called The Blue Flower, and shot some funny stuff for Blurred Entertainment, a comedy shorts project run by writer/director Will Petzel.

In November of 2004, Alice and I moved to San Francisco, CA from Brooklyn, so now I'm bouncing back and forth between the coasts doing gigs, recording beats, and workin for the man to fill in the gaps.

Music wise, I'm playing with NY bands Ceramic, Neil Howard, Representative Ball, Drazy Hoops, and occasionally Organic!. In SF I can be seen with DJ Daymitreeus, Acid Jones, and the Subliminal Twinkies.

Peace out.

—JM jm@beatnikbeats.com