Oniracom and Playback Recording Studio host the second Solutions for Dreamers Fridays event of 2015, a networking mixer for creatives, artists, entrepreneurs and community builders.

We will be unveiling some amazing art by Matthew McAvene for the Tiger Heroes initiative, so be sure to wear whiskers and ears to get in the spirit!

Dear Dreamers,

Over the past several years, we have had the joy of working with our video partner Luke Archer.  Luke is the Creative Director and founder of the Cool Hand Look Agency. There are some big changes going on at Cool Hand Look, so I decided to interview him about the reinvention of the Agency. 

Here are some excerpts from that interview. Enjoy!

- Jacob

Q. So explain to me, what is the Cool Hand Look Agency?

CHL: We are a bad ass biker gang…except Dana has a scooter,  and Gianny cruises his moped around town. Ok, so were not a biker gang, but what we are is a group of creative’s that have been collaborating on projects for years. Dana and Luke have been working together as the technical duo behind the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and Gianny has been their go to cinematographer since they first crossed paths in 2006.

We three are draw together by a love for creative production, and a general outlook on life, that is; people are what matters, relationships are everything, and “you only live once so do your best while you are here” attitude. 

We all have pretty amazing stories.

Dana Morrow is a rare pioneer that has kept up with an ever-changing industry.  In the 1980’s he owned the top video agency in Seattle, dragging his knuckles on tape-to-tape editors. He then went on to own his first AVID, and the business blossomed. Like many a smart businessman, he sold the company at it’s heyday and promptly moved to Santa Barbara’s Riviera, and began to bless the local community with his production chops and his contagious smile. When he’s not combing over the details of our next production, Dana and his wife Sharon, enjoy spending time with clients, family, friends, and Santa Barbara. Wow. We live here!

Where to start with Gianny Trutmann? Gianny is a first rate director of photography trained at the Brooks Institute.  When we say first rate we mean it -  he will literally take a bullet to get the perfect shot.  In fact, he has…just ask him to show you the wound. He grew up in Guatemala, where his family still resides. But like any smart cinematographer, Gianny moved to California and started making great television content, while launching the first RED Boot Camps in Los Angeles, Argentina, and Venezuela. For the past 14 years, has called Santa Barbara his home. When he’s not on a production, you might find him hanging out of a helicopter, experimenting with new cinematic technologies, or sniping new locations on his motorcycle.

And that brings us to me, Luke Archer. I was a bit of an academic rebel in school. I caused a ruckus, but somehow always ended up at the top of the Dean’s list.  After graduated business school in Monterey, I dived head first into entrepreneurship; co-founding a product development company, a learning company, a television production company, and more recently, launched the Cool Hand Look Agency. 

So what am I passionate about? God, my family, and content. Breathing content. Eating content. Dreaming content. Sleeping Content. Creating content. I can’t stop. 

Q. What do we do?

CHL: We work with brands. Our clients come to us to help them create, communicate, and deliver their brand message to the Public. That is what we do. We develop creative campaigns, content, commercials, and designs to tell your brand story and cultivate sales. 

Q. What is with the wacky Monster Suit?

CHL: That’s me, Luke, in the Sherbet the Monster Suit. Man is it hot in there! We had so much fun with this shoot!  Sometimes you just got to let the inner beast out.

Sherbert was designed and built by local artisan, Matthew McAvene. Matthew cut his teeth at the Jim Henson Company makers of the Muppets! He is a hella-of-a-guy and was kind enough to let us borrow Sherbert for the photo shoot. Matthew is also a great commercial artist.  You have probably seen his work scattered around Santa Barbara and wondered who created this fantastic art? Check out more from Matthew McAvene at mackyworld.com.

Q.  Who took those great photos and where?

Local photographer and Brooks Institute graduate, Lexus Gallegos. She took these bad ass photos at the Historic Arlington Theatre.  Check out her incredible photos at lexusgallegos.com. Special thanks to the Metropolitan Theatre Company for allowing us to shoot at the theatre and a very special thanks to Karen Killingsworth for making that happen!

Q. The shoot looks like a lot of fun!  Do you have any video?

CHL:  Of course we have the video that we asked you to ask us about!  We didn’t bring any video lights but we couldn’t resist shooting a couple of seconds of slow motion at 4K.

Thanks for your time Jacob.  Solutions for Dreamers and Oniracom, YOU ROCK!

Our wonderful office designer Matthew has been working on a pretty cool project to enhance our office space even more. If you’ve been following us on Instagram, you’ve probably already seen the finished product.

We’ve had various Oniracom elephants in all shapes and forms scattered around the office, but we have never had something as epic as this!

Matthew used krylon flat clear spray paint to create this faux frosted window look. That’s a mouthful. Try saying ‘faux frosted window look’ 5 times in a row.

We love the finished look. It’s going to put a smile on our faces to see our Oniracom sign every day in the office!

As you have all probably noticed from our Instagram shots, we’ve been doing a bit more floor work in the office. Matthew McAvene has been working on providing a faux stone finish to our bathroom walkway. We’re letting you in on all his secrets. Here’s the step-by-step process McAvene went through when painting our stone floors.

First, he began by cleaning and sweeping the floors. They have to be shiny and sparkly in order to have this awesome finish!

Then, McAvene started patching up several holes with concrete patch, as the floor was jagged and needed some extra work and elbow grease.

Once the floor was clean and all patched up, he added a base coat of gray primer, which ends up being the color of the grout in between the stones.

Oniracom is proud and excited to announce the launch of the new E-Commerce website for Macky World!

Matthew McAvene is a long-time friend and member of the Oniracom partner ecosystem. His talent with both visual-art and music are extraordinary; and his dedication is particularly evident in his newest undertaking, Macky World. Macky World is a series of products, collectables, characters, crafts and creative stuff for kids. Oniracom created a Custom E-Commerce Website for MackyWorld.com the site features a store and an interactive product and character database.

Macky World, the latest brainchild of visual, musical and fine artist Matthew McAvene, recently took the Santa Barbara Art Walk by storm.  McAvene used his talents to display his goods in an outstanding setup pictured below.  For his first week at the art walk he is selling creature hats, sculptures, paintings and Tape Ninjas!  Enticing people as they pass by are arial puppets and the massive display with door cut-out.  Two puppets, Joh Avridge and Beeps the Robot, invite potential customers inside…

Macky World’s Entrance

Creature Hats

In the several months before I moved out of Santa Barbara last October, a band emerged on the scene to reignite my hope for the rebirth of the local musical landscape. Not since Matthew McAvene teased me with a few smoking sets in early 2007 had I felt the spark of any new, home-bred talent. All it took was one performance by Howlin’ Woods on a Friday night at Cold Spring Tavern to convince me that these guys had the goods. They could jam fiercely, led by the sinewy guitar voodoo of Griffin Chetakian. The rhythm section of Matthew Farrington on drums and Brian “Solar B” Chandler on bass (and keys) was rugged and raw, yet with an intuitive grace. A lot of bands can jam. These guys came across as the total package thanks to the presence of a true frontman. Jordan Chetakian – a powerhouse vocalist with some acoustic guitar chops to boot, boasted a dynamic range. He could rain down with the back-alley blues, bust out a little Sly Stone soul and woo the ladies like a tormented indie rock icon. Offstage he was just an unassuming, plaid-shirt wearing dude with glasses which made his spotlight transformation all the more profound.

Hey everyone,

We are proud to announce Solutions for Dreamers : Season 3, the latest benefit compilation CD from Oniric Records, is now available on iTunes!

All proceeds from the album are being donated to The World Food Programme (WFP), an incredible organization that fights hunger worldwide.  The album features the single “A Step for Mankind” by legendary band The Wailers, featuring Duane Stephenson and Bishop Lamont.  Thirteen great tracks are accompanied with factoids about world hunger and The World Food Programme, showing this album’s strong passion to creating a difference in this world by taking care of its inhabitants.

Pick up the album today and know your donation is going directly to fight world hunger. If you would like to buy the album directly from us, you can do so here!  You also have the choice to download the album in high-quality MP3, Apple Losless, or FLAC. We like high-quality sound. : )

We at Oniric Records would like to thank each of these artists for their passion to fighting world hunger and for their generous time and effort in creating these tracks for our compilation.  Each of these artists is generously donating the proceeds of their track’s sales to WFP, so we strongly recommend you go support these artists and buy more of their music if you enjoy it!

Thank you for listening, and we genuinely hope you enjoy.

Sincerely, The Oniric Records Team

We want you to be able to sample a free track from the album,
click here to download Mr. American by Marc B!

A big thank you to Matthew McAvene and Atman for their amazing efforts at turning Oniracom’s concrete floors into a work of art.  Instead of buying and laying tile, why not Faux paint tiles on your concrete floor?

Here’s how to do it yourself….

BEFORE

AFTER

Click to Read More…

The Ocean is one of the Earth’s most valuable resources. It provides 99% of the Earth’s living space, and is the largest known habitat for living organisms in our universe. The Ocean carries more than 90% of global trade between countries, and fish supply the greatest amount of protein consumed by the World’s population. It is important for us to care for the environment and the Ocean is the biggest part of it. Heal The Ocean is a Santa Barbara based non-profit organization that serves to protect the Ocean from pollution and mistreatment. In their mission Heal The Ocean (HTO) states “Heal the Ocean focuses on wastewater infrastructure – sewers and septic systems – as well as ocean dumping practices that contributed to ocean pollution. We are focused on Santa Barbara County, but our methods are now serving as a model for other coastal communities across the country.”

Read more.

Enjoy a slideshow of over 100 photos of the 2009 Heal the Ocean Benefit Concert.

This event featured guest speakers Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jean-Michel Cousteau & Hillary Hauser. Fine artist Matthew McAvene provided us his Fabulous Fish Puppet Show.

Oniric Records produced the music portion of the night, featuring Culver City Dub Collective and The Black Seeds who played until The Coral Casino in Santa Barbara kicked us out.

Check out the sneak preview of Matthew McAvene’s new song “Super Hero Dreams” for the Solutions For Dreamers : Season 3 compilation to benefit I Went Hungry.  I Went Hungry is a non-profit set up by The Wailers to help eradicate world hunger.

Matthew premiered this song live as part of the New Noise Music Conference & Festival at the Sandbar with a little help from Jose Esquivel (Culver City Dub Collective) and Adam Topol (CCDV & Jack Johnson).

Oniracom will be well represented at this weekend’s New Noise Music Conference and Festival, held in Oniracom’s backyard of Santa Barbara, CA.  New Noise Santa Barbara is a three-day music and digital media conference that will showcase emerging and established bands, host educational panels on the music industry’s hottest topics, present esteemed experts from all aspects of the business, and serve as a place for players big and small to connect and plot the future of music….

Today I thought I would share a quick tutorial on how you can make a hand drawn myspace header image and then show you a way that you can quickly add that header image to the top of your myspace.  (If you are only looking for the code that adds an image header to your myspace page, see step 10 at the bottom).

To see the Header in action go check out Myspace.com/MatthewMcAvene