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GOD
g.o.d.
chris gerolmo & g.o.d. is the name of a continuing series of collaborations between chris and a changing group of other musicians, but always incluging dr. david baron on keyboards and synths, and for most of the last two years also including steve 'king' solomons on guitar. this trio has been playing shows at the 18th street coffee house in santa monica throughout the fall.in iits larger, louder, roll and roll formulation, the band also includes tom (the turtles) croucier on bass & jake (peaches & herb) jacobs on drums. with chris singing and playing acoustic guitar, this larger group goes into the studio in thewinter of 2011 to record ten songs, which will become the group's first album, g.o.d. loves you. melissa painter directed and edited a video of the larger band rehearsing a song called i know the beat of your heart. If you’d like to see the rough cut of this video, click on the picture of jake jacobs to the right. then when you’re done, come back here and tell us what you think by clicking the word 'complain' in the menu to the right. If you’d like to read the lyrics of i know the beat of your heartthey are reprinted here below. i know the beat of your heart (c) 2011 chris gerolmoi know the beat of your hearti know the sound of your dreamsand i know just where to start to provoke your faint screamsi know the curve of your shoresas you lie there awakei know the silk in your drawersi know just how much you can take i know you hide hopes that you’d like to see real & i know just what they areyou think you’ve concealed the way that you feel but I see behind all your pale scarsi know the beat of your hearti know the beat of your hearti know the sound of your dreamsi know you’ve been torn aparti’ve seen all of the seamsi know the width of your wallsi know the depth of your lakes i know each horse in your stallsi know what riding them takesi know you hide hopes that you’d like to see real& i know that you think that i’m scaredyou think you’ve concealed the way that you feelbut i wouldn’t be here if i didn’t shareevery beat of your heartevery dream in your eyesevery wish in your starsand all the love behind your disguisei know the beat of your heart i know the beat of your hearti know the beat of your hearti know the beat of your hearti know the beat of your heart i know i know i know i know(c) chris gerolmo 2011(for those of you who are curious enough to get all the way down here to the bottom of this column, g.o.d. stands for 'group of drunks' or 'group of derelicts', or 'good old boys'', or 'girl of your dreams', or pretty much anything you want it to stand for.
Prey
certain prey
chris gerolmo wrote and directed the tv movie of john sandford's certain prey, starring mark harmon, lola glaudini, tatiana maslany & athena karkanis. the show debuts on usa network on sunday november 6th at 9pm eastern. john sandford himself calls the movie, "pretty good," which, according to his son roswell camp, is high praise indeed from the minnesotan.if you want to read more about the experience of directing the movie, scroll down here in this column. but there's more to this page than that.not only did chris write and direct the movie but- as he's an emmy-nominated singer-songwriter, as well- he put two of his own original songs into it, too. the first is monsters everywhere, which is the song mark and tatiana dance to in tatiana's bar, the rink. if you consider yourelf a fan of the movie, and you want to download this song, click on the picture of chris to the right.(by the way, who do you think that big guy is who's playing and singing the song on stage in the show?)If you really consider yourself a fan, then you'll want to watch the video of chris & his band, g.o.d., performing his other song that's in the movie, as the background music when mark and the two fbi agents walk into that same scene in clara's bar, the rink, calledi know the beat of your heart.if so, click on the youtube link below. directing the show"our whole time in toronto was a joy. mark harmon was a gentleman and a consummate professional on the set. the rest of the actors, most notably lola glaudini, tatiana maslany and athena karkanis, were gracious, easy to work with, and absolutely gorgeous. steve cosens is one of the best young directors of photography in canada, and aidan leroux is a production designer par excellence. it was an altogether great shoot.""in fact, making this movie reminded me how much fun it can be to direct," says chris. "i want to make directing a regular part of my working life again."by way of trying to do that, chris has written a script based on the true story of jimi hendrix and linda keith called the cry of love. watch for it. in the coming year.
Death
death for beginners
death for beginners is a book chris wrote about his wife and himself and the terrible time they had when she was mortally ill. it’s laid out like a children’s book, like a primer, from a to z, but it’s very much written for grownups, and for grownups with a high tolerance for sorrow, at that.here are some reactions from people who read advance copies:"chris gerolmo manages to record his thoughts and feelings with heroic honesty. the result is not only transcendent, but surprisingly funny. you won't forget a single entry, I promise." - steven soderbergh, director - "chris gerolmo's death for beginners is a heart-wrenching, brutally honest, and ultimately cathartic book about losing his wife to cancer. there are lessons for all of us in his pain, the way he coped, and the desperate love he showed for his wife and their children in the face of an incurable disease. the book makes you stop and think-- and even occasionally laugh - about the things we take for granted in our lives, and in the lives and departures of our loved ones. from a to z, it's a soul-searching chronicle of a death foretold that offers hope, and sustenance, with a remarkable absence of empty platitudes, for all of us." - bruce feirstein, contributing editor, vanity fair -"this is a small book with a huge heart. the writing is raw, with a depth, intelligence and wit that makes the reader forget the brutal sadness of its subject. tt's a beautiful love letter to a dead wife. a cathartic, brutal, honest, infuriating love story." - christopher kennedy lawford, author of new york times bestselling memoir symptoms of withdrawal -"i loved death for beginners. i love it for its beauty and horror and power and wisdom. there is nothing else quite like this book, in my humble opinion." - bruce eric kaplan, the artist bek, the new yorker -“it is a pleasure to recommend death for beginners for any family member struggling to recover from the loss of a loved one. in writing this book, chris gerolmo has combined wit, wisdom and creativity into an admixture that makes a very serious subject manageable, palatable , and even enjoyable to read. i view this a rare and unique feat in dealing with death and the resolution of loss and grief.” - david wellisch, ph.dprofessor-in-residence, chief psychologist, adult division, department of psychiatry, david geffen school of medicine at ucla-"brave, beautifully-wrought, and heart-breaking."- alexandra styron, author of all the finest girls & the upcomingreading my father: a memoir -if you'd like to buy and download the ebook, click on the picture to the right. if you’d like to read the first five of the 26 entries, click here.
The End
the end of the world for beginners
the end of the world for beginners is another little book chris wrote, also as a kind of a primer, or children’s book for grownups. this one is a series of brief descriptions of the most significant threats to the planet and the race that are out there right now, and how we’re doing in our efforts to contain them, insofar as we’re making any efforts at all.chris's friend and colleague steven soderbergh has offered to help him with plans to shoot a low-buget video version of this book for the internet, in an effort to get some of this important information out to the public. if you'd like to read the first five entries in the book, click on the picture to the right. if you're willing to consider making a financial contribution to the video project, it'll be up on kickstart.com in a few days. chris & steven have already raised about 2/3rds of the money they'll need to start,
Live
chris gerolmo & step one
live on brave new radio
chris gerolmo & step one have finally released a live album. it's been a long wait, but worth it. chris gerolmo & step one is an acoustic trio featuring chris on guitar and lead vocals, dr. david baron on piano and vocals, and randy gordon on percussion and vocals. they were invited into the studio in 2008 by brave new radio to record 4 songs and an interview for packaging to college radio stations. but because bnr had booked an entire afternoon of studio time, and chris julian, the recording engineer, was so knowledgable and fast, and finally because the band was so well-rehearsed at that time, having done more than 50 live shows togther by then, they were able to record 10 songs, instead. when chris was finally able to get new york producer and bass player tony conniff involved in the project, it started to become a record. tony added bass tracks to what the band had recorded live, and the sound of the live studio audience as well, and so live on brave new radio was born. the 10 tracks are some of chris's favorites of all the songs he's written. they start with "i lied", which chris likes to think of as the autobiography of george w. bush, and they end with the last song he ever wrote for his wife joan before she died, "everything whispers". if you want to dowload any of the tracks, or even whole album, click on the picture to the right.
About01
live
August 13th
September 17th
October 22nd
December 10th
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Listen
listen
if you’d like to listen to any of the other songs chris has recorded, either on his own, with the band step one, or with the band g.o.d., click on the picture to the right. that will take you to a site where you can listen to all his recordings in their entirety, and then buy them and download them, too. if you’d like to read the lyrics to the songs, click here. if you’ve already listened to the songs or read the lyrics & would like to react, please click “complain”. we’d love to know what you think, even if you love them and don't wish to complain. gushing praise is okay, too.
Steal
steal this
if you're basically larcenous at heart, and you don’t mind taking the small risk that fox television will one day come after you for the 99 cents they wish they had put themselves in a position to make from legal downloads of the song- they never once made it available on itunes or amazon.com or cdbaby or anywhere else- you can download the original recording of over there, produced by the great mike post, and featuring some of the best studio musicians in la, including john “j.r.” robinson on drums, george doering on guitar, and the backup singers from phil collins’s touring band, for free, by clicking on the picture to the right.once you're there, you can also download any or all of the 8 demos chris recorded years ago with the band the promise, also for free. and that's perfectly legal.
Complain
a personal note from chris gerolmo
blogs are for whiners. that said, if you’ve watched my tv movie certain prey, listened to my songs- 'monsters everywhere" or anything else, watched the video of me and the band rehearsing "i know the beat of your heart', or even read my book, death for beginners, and you have something to say about any of it, this is the place to do so. just click on the picture to the right. i promise to check in & read the blog it will take you to- or as much of it as i can stand to anyway- every week or so. and about spending so much time here on the website trying to sell you my songs, well, i have to say i’d like to know who you think is supposed to support the local musicians you find interesting if not you. seriously, how do you expect independent musicians to record their material if you’re not willing to blow 99 cents downloading it? if you're like me, you’ve spent most of your adult life complaining about the stunning myopia of the music business. well, now it’s on its knees, begging you to tell it which way it should go by putting your money where your mouth is, so stop playing angry birds for one minute and buy a f**king song, will you? there. i hope i’ve set an appropriate tone for the start of my first and only blog.thanks,chris gerolmo
About
my movie about me
my movie about me is the title of chris gerolmo’s original screenplay about himself and his wife in a much happier time than the one chronicled in death for beginners. it's a romantic comedy, with a slightly loopy structure, as befits the subject of love.it’s about a guy who's been trying to start a directing career in hollywood for 20 years, who's finally given up waiting for a studio to approve him and decided to make a no-budget independent feature instead. and if he's going to have to make a movie for nothing- a movie that will actually cost him money to make- he's damn sure not going to make it to the aggrandizement of anyone else's career than his own. he's going to make it about himself, and all the fascinating things he's done in show business. the only problem is, his wife's in the movie too, sitting next to him as he talks to the camera- she's next to him all the time for that matter; they're inseparable- and she thinks it should be about them, the both of them, and the family, too. She thinks it should be about love. Which precipitates a struggle that continues throughout the show for control of the movie and what it's about, and of course, his wife wins. the movie turns out to be about love. it ends, in the grand tradition of loopy romantic comedies, with their wedding.if you want to download and read this screenplay, currently being cast by bonnie timmermann and executive-produced by steven soderbergh, click here.if you have $3.5M you’d like to invest in an independent feature by a multi-talented award-winning filmmaker, call me at home. now.
Danger
chris gerolmo is a writer/director/producer/singer /songwriter.when steven soderbergh won his academy award for traffic & dedicated it to everyone out there who spends part of every day making things up, chris danced in his living room & cackled: i do that!he wrote mississippi burning & miles from home. he wrote and directed the witness & citizen x. with steven bochco, he executive produced the fx series about the war in iraq, over there, wrote & directed the pilot & the last episode & wrote much of the rest of the show. he also wrote & sang the title song & with the money fox gave him for it, made his first record that year, i’m your daddy. since then, he’s released a live album called chris gerolmo & step one live on brave new radio, a rock ep called man on fire, and a kind of an alt. folk ep dedicated to the memory of his wife called a record for joan. he also has a new rock band called chris gerolmo & g.o.d. they go into the studio this winter to make their first album, g.o.d. loves you. he’s inordinately proud that his song, over there, was nominated for an emmy, although his tv and movie work has been nominated for & won all kinds of awards, including oscars, emmys, cable aces, baftas, edgar allen poes, golden globes & silver bears. in the last few years, he’s also started writing a series of children’s books for grownups about difficult subjects, including death for beginners, about the death of his wife joan & the end of the world for beginners, about all the most serious threats to the planet and the race that are out there right now.if you’ve gotten this far into his website, he assumes that you have a sense of adventure & some native intelligence, so if you want to make yourself useful, go the page on the left called complain and tell him what you think of what he's doing.thanks.
contact chris
burning
mississippi burning
chris gerolmo wrotemississippi burning on spec in 1987. when it was done, his agents offered it exclusively for 24 hours to orion pictures, makers of 10 best picture oscar winners over the course of the previous 30 years. they bought it on the spot. It was made into a feature film later that year, garnered 7 academy award nominations, including best picture, won various other national and international filmmaking awards, and was on the cover of time magazine. the film has had an enormous impact on audiences all over the world since then, and continues to be seen on television. of the many kudos and acknowledgements the film has received all over the world, chris is probably most proud of this one; that in a documentary called long night's journey into day on the truth and reconciliation hearings in south africa, one of the white secret policemen who admitted assassinating black leaders under the rule of apartheid, when asked why he came forward and testified in public to the commission, answered that it was because he had seen an american movie called mississippi burning.
x
citizen x
chris gerolmo wrote and directed citizen x for hbo films in 1995. it's the true story of russian serial killer andrei chickatillo and the two men, played by stephen rea and donald sutherland, who pursued him for 10 years. it was nominated for 7 emmys, 6 cable ace awards (it won best picture), two golden globes (donald sutherland won the first acting award of his stellar career), and various other international filmmaking, screenwriting, and writing awards. although it was gerolmo's debut as a director of feature length material, it was so widely admired and so well reviewed that it precipitated a conversation about hbo movies being better than many independent features so ubiquitous and so enduring that siskel & ebert finally did a show about the question, and included citizen x as an example of tv movies at their very very best. it is still, 16 years later, widely considered to be the best movie hbo has ever made.
there
over there
chris gerolmo created and executive produced with the great steven bochco the critically acclaimed series about the war in iraq on fx network called over there. he wrote and directed the pilot and the last episode of the only season it was on the air, as well as writing about half the rest of the season's shows. he also wrote and sang the title song, for which he was nominated for an emmy for best main title theme. that puts him in a very small group of people who've been nominated for major national awards in those three categories, writing, directing, and music. in his mother's opinion, the only other two members of the group are clint eastwood and babra steisand. if you'd like to download the song, over there, click on the picture to your right. if you'd like to learn how to play chris's acoustic guitar introduction, there is tablature on the internet.
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monsters everywhere
and then it's gone
i-80
man on fire
