Ken Nordine (born April 13, 1920) is an American voiceover and recording artist best known for his series of Word Jazz albums. His deep, resonant voice has also been featured in many commercial advertisements and movie trailers. One critic wrote that “you may not know Ken Nordine by name or face, but you’ll almost certainly recognize his voice.”

The son of an architect, Ken Nordine was born in Cherokee, Iowa. In Chicago he attended Lane Technical College Prep High School and the University of Chicago. He has three sons with his wife Beryl whom he married in 1945. He initially attracted attention when he recorded the aural vignettes on Word Jazz on Dot in 1957. Word Jazz, Son of Word Jazz (Dot, 1958) and his other albums in this vein feature Nordine’s narration over a cool jazz background. He began performing and recording such albums at the peak of the beat movement and was associated with the poetry-and-jazz movement. However, some of Nordine’s “writings are more akin to Franz Kafka or Edgar Allan Poe” than to the beats. Many of his word jazz tracks feature critiques of societal norms. Some are lightweight and humorous, while others reveal dark, paranoid undercurrents and bizarre, dream-like scenarios.

Nordine was Linda Blair’s vocal coach for her role in The Exorcist,and Word Jazz inspired Tom Waits’ spooky, spoken word-type pieces, such as “9th and Hennepin,” “Frank’s Wild Years” and “What’s He Building?”

On television, Nordine did a series of readings on a show titled Faces in the Window, and Fred Astaire danced to Nordine’s “My Baby” on a TV special. Nordine’s past radio series were Now Nordine and Word Jazz. He currently hosts a weekly radio program and maintains residences in Chicago, Illinois, and Spread Eagle, Wisconsin.

Ken Nordine completed a DVD entitled “The Eye is Never Filled” with a scheduled release date of 14 May 2007.

Flashpoint Academy will host a special Chicago presentation of the major new education documentary “Two Million Minutes” presented by its Executive Producer, Robert Compton, for Chicago Public School officials and other Chicago-based education leaders, foundations, as well as select City officials in the new FP screening room. Non-exclusive distribution rights to the documentary were recently acquired by The Gates Foundation and representatives of the Foundation and Microsoft education leaders are also expected to be present for the showing and panel discussion thereafter.

Details on the film (which has already been shown in a private presentation to Flashpoint students, staff and faculty) appear below or if you click here.

(more…)

In the midst of the Chicago Marathon, a major heat wave (especially inside our building on a Sunday), and the Chicago Film Festival where he showed his new film STUCK (with Mena Suvari) last night, Stu Gordon made time (at the request and urging of Barbara Pollack) to come by Flashpoint Academy for a tour and a video interview with Perry Havoras who’s a huge Gordon fan and HAT. If you think that this was easy for Barb (or anyone) to pull off (unlike the recent IFP snatch of Robert Townsend), think again and take a look at Stuart’s shirt. Nothing happens at Flashpoint that isn’t the result of hard work and a passion to create a special set of opportunities for all of our students. And nothing good happens by accident or without careful preparation.

Stuart was a terrific sport to sit for an hour session; he was, of course, blown away by his tour of the facilities and said that he hadn’t seen anything in Los Angeles to equal our equipment, technology and environment; and he said he would be back to meet with our students. He also wants to come back to take notes on some of the more aggressive art work which he admired throughout his tour.

We will have his whole interview up shortly, but I was struck by a couple of his basic rules that he shared with us: (1) Be nice - you never know who will be able to help you out; (2) Never quit; (3) Be on time - time is money and punctuality matters; and (4) make sure you tell a good story - it all flows from the script and the writing.

He also said that everyone wants to direct because there’s really nothing to learn about directing and therefore everyone thinks that they can direct as opposed to learning to be a plumber which takes years. He said learning the tools of directing is nothing - the skill that is crucial is making decision after decision in real time - day after day - and making every one of them in the best interests of the project.

To view pictures, click here.

(more…)

Thought this made for good reading material… 

By Michelle Meyers, News.com
Published on ZDNet News: Aug 10, 2007 4:00:00 AM

Charles Ferguson’s tech industry career ended a decade ago with the sale of his company, Vermeer Technologies–maker of a visual Web site development tool called FrontPage–to Microsoft for a whopping $133 million.

But while he has since forged a completely different path as an author, self-described “policy wonk” and life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Ferguson still reflects on those formative years running a software start-up, a job he says is not too different from his latest venture as a documentary filmmaker.

Ferguson’s first film, No End In Sight, hits theaters in major U.S. cities Friday. He sees his documentary, which won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival, as a nonpartisan analysis of how the U.S. occupation in Iraq evolved into a violent quagmire.

On the eve of his film’s theatrical debut, Ferguson talked to CNET News.com about how traveled in Baghdad with body guards in armored vehicles, what he hopes to accomplish with his film, and how technology played a role in his moviemaking.

(more…)

At FLASHPOINT we take what we do seriously, but we don’t take ourselves very seriously. Never confuse the two. We operate on the simple principle of earned respect. Each and every person at FLASHPOINT is accorded the deference and respect which they have earned through their own efforts and the demonstrable results of those efforts. A job is measured in hours, while a career is measured in results. Respect at FLASHPOINT is far more important than popularity.

(more…)