Do You Know This Man?

John Swartz? Do you know him? He plays the cello along to Gravity in our band. I don't know him well at all. He seems to like to keep it that way. What I do know about him is very little: I know he is an amazing cellist who, when given the opportunity, will play every cello in a room full of cellos. Just ask the two shops we've rented cellos from! Both shops were so intrigued and intoxicated by his playing that they just kept providing him with more and more instruments to play...usually resulting in us being late to sound check or Drew napping in the van for amounts of time exceeding what is known as a nap and turning into a straight up length of sleep. I also know that he went to Sarah Lawrence college. While there he was a science person, after years of interest in the subject and even a job at the local planetarium as a teenager, but somehow he managed to find himself engulfed in the arts. I guess this explains why his deep, vast array of knowledge puts most others to shame! I once heard him try to describe what plasma was. He is also bitingly funny.

John played in the orchestra for the live version of Guy Maddin's Brand Upon the Brain too. I know John Swartz is from San Diego and lives in Brooklyn now. I know he takes stunning photographs. He even took the self portraits on this blog post. I know he produces/sound engineers albums. I know he occasionally makes electronic music. I also know that when John played the first screening of Gravity with live musical accompaniment at the Hammer Museum in L.A. he took a train across the country which resulted in him being delayed by flooding in Oklahoma which made him have to hop on a plane in New Mexico to reach California by sunrise. Then, after the show, he went to Disneyland. I assume he likes playing with us and we definitely love the beauty and intelligence not only his cello playing brings to the shows but that his very being brings as well! O, yeah, and this just in: he makes really good pancakes! Okay, I think that exhausts most of my knowledge about John Swartz, please send leads on John to donna@nervousfilms.com! Thanks and I look forward to hearing what YOU know about John! This just in, correction: A source says John did not take science in college. He was corrupted into the arts prior to his college experience.