Shortly after meeting John Vanderslice and Minna Choi in the lobby of the SF Conservatory of Music, a good-natured debate about the best burritos in the city and the NBA playoffs became the easiest ice breaker in awkward history. The dude is just that cool. He and Minna make a great team; the level of mutual respect bouncing back and forth between the two of them is like watching Stockton and Malone mid pick and roll. John trusts Minna to dissect a song’s DNA and reassemble it as a new organism–a Frankenstein–with added limbs and digits, a wider range of grunts, and a much smoother gate. The first song from our four hour session with JV, Minna, and a revolving cast of incredibly talented, generous and crazy busy Magik Magik Orchestra players was, “Too Much Time,” the video for which we premiered on ABC News.

Part 2 of 3 “Forest Knolls”

and finally…

The above video is the last in our three part series with John Vanderslice & the Magik Magik Orchestra, performing “Promising Actress” from John’s most recent album “Romanian Names.”

When thinking about this series of videos I keep coming back to something JV said during our post-performance interview “There’s something about being in a room with all those strings vibrating, moving air at once, its unbelievable.”

There’s nothing I can add to that statement, he said it best. I can only say that while standing in the back of the rehearsal room, closing my eyes tightly to better grasp the notes as they bounced off the walls, I kept thinking how truly lucky we all were to be there, capturing what was truly something very special, to us, to JV, Minna, and the members of the Magik Magik Orchestra who so graciously took time from their final exams to come play with us. How lucky we were to be livng in San Francisco on that day, sharing slices of pizza with the players, shooting the shit about school and sports, and creating memories for everyone inside and outside that room to share. Sound hokey, but its truly yours.