03 27 05 12:18 |No comments yet Happy Easter!
Happy holidays to all those celebrating the resurection. I’d like to share a quote from Bill Hicks:
It’s funny how we celebrate the death and resurection of our savior by telling our young people that a giant bunny comes in the night and leaves candy for them. No wonder we’re fucked as a species. Who makes this shit up? Why not a goldfish crawls across your floor dragging a licoln log and leaves it in your sock drawer? At leat that has a miraculous connotation. I can hear a kid now on Easter morning “Mummy, there’s a lincoln log in me sock drawer!” And the mom, “That’s the story of Jesus”
We went to see The Animation Show last night at the Detroit Film Theatre. Amazing collection of animated shorts. I was especially moved by “Pan with us“ by David Russo. Incredible. After the show one of its founders Don Hertzfeldt had a Q + A session. He’s not much of a speaker, but it was nice to see a humble guy making a living off of animation merchandising. Their web site is over there —> the show is on tour around the country. I highly recommend seeing it. It was very powerful.
03 25 05 5:36 |No comments yet In ecstasy of surrender
I uploaded a new mix of my track ‘Opting Out’, and a new odd loop to my music page today. Spent some time in the Kyma. Working on some new percussive things. Right as rain. Had a good chat with Connie McKendrick yesterday. Thinking about heading home to cut a mix tape with some of the Versatile Music artists. Would be nice to be in Philly for a few days.
03 22 05 11:11 |Only one comment Out there where the morning
So Time Warner is paying out 300 million USD to make allegations that they fudged the numbers on AOL just go away. Without an admission of guilt or a declaration of innocence. These charges by the SEC will just never had happened for 300 million dollars. It’s insane. I hope the shareholders, who have their own lawsuits filed against the company, do very well. Huge business is running the show. Unchecked and unbalanced. I added more sounds to the samples and patches section of my music page. Enjoy. Fore!!!
03 21 05 10:43 |Only one comment How much can it hurt?
Went to the Detroit Aquarium on Belle Isle yesterday. Very disappointing. I’ve been in pet stores with a cleaner, better labeled selection of fish. They are closing the facility on the 3rd of April. Not suprised. No bathrooms. And to my Detroit family…What’s up with Belle Isle? Abandoned Yacht clubs? Random deer sanctuaries? Destroyed tennis courts? There is a driving range there, it’s right near the water so I’ll have to check that out. really a messed up and depressed part of the city. Shame too, you could tell that it was a happening spot at one time. Hopefully they repaint everything every year when it gets warm and bus in some smiling faces from the suburbs. I’ve uploaded some d+b bass sounds I made this morning. Enjoy. I’m off to the driving range…
03 19 05 4:18 |No comments yet Angels of Detroit
The driving range was too busy. No golf today. I’ve uploaded a new track. Some house music for you. I’ve also created a section of the music page for samples and patches. I’ll be putting little things up there weekly. Click the music link to check it all out. Today is the two year anniversary of the start of the war in iraq. I paid $2.15/gal today. I was under the impression that the US would be using oil profits to pay for the war, and we’d have all the benefits of a really good friend with lots of petroleum. Hasn’t worked out that way so far. There are many Americas.
03 17 05 9:35 |No comments yet Roy Haynes @ 80!
Had a near life experience at the Detroit Zoo today. I’ve been to many zoos. But for some reason I felt like I was seeing these animals for the very first time. There is an incredible butterfly room at the zoo. Not a temporary tent setup like I’ve seen elsewhere, but a real garden, full of fluttering life. Blew me away to sit there and watch. There’s also a great Chimp room. There were three adult chimps in the room. Two were fighting over a scrap of burlap which they were wearing over their heads and lying on like a pad to the concrete floors. Something about being at the zoo today really got to me. Right time and place I guess. Felt good. Planning on taking a studio day tomorrow. P.S my folks were in D.C. for the weekend and got to see Christian McBride, Kenny Garret, and Roy Haynes play together at the Kennedy Center. Yeah, oh my god. Wish we were there. Missing home…
03 16 05 11:02 |No comments yet repeat anything more than twice, and it's music
It’s amazing how memories can bubble up. Yesterday, a student was playing ‘Blackbird’, which brought me right back to High School and Eric Higbee playing in on the back porch of my parent’s house. Amazing. He could really play that song. Today a student told me he was planning on going to the Philmont Scout reservation in New Mexico this summer. I was there 13 years ago. Time flies. Had a bit of writer’s block the last few days. I’ve been staying out of the studio. The teaching has been good. It’s nice to have the guitar in my hands everyday.
So we’re going to drill for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. Amazing. Billions of dollars spent on a war in Iraq(I wonder how that’s going by the way, seems to have fallen off the 11 o’clock news radar), and we get $2.08/gal gas and a wildlife refuge turned oil pipeline. As Herbie Hancock said, “greed and malice”. Amazing.
03 12 05 07:13 |No comments yet of the thrid heaven...
Went to the Detroit Film Theatre last night with Chrissy, Emily Keown, and Mikel Dimmick to see Born into Brothels. Really enjoyed the picture. I was skeptical for the first 20 mins or so as it seemed like the film maker gave the camera to these children to do the dirty work of getting photo's that she herself may not have been able to take. Then the tale settles into the film maker using the photography as a way to get these kids out of the brothels and into schools, which I thought was brilliant. The film looked and felt very good. It was a DV cam production. Great editing. The music was a little heavy, but perhaps all traditional Indian music sounds heavy to western ears. Mikel is a musician with the ensemble Pelt which is an improvisation group. I've not heard them yet but will report back when I get their stuff. He plays the gong and the tibetan singing bowls. He is a professor of writing and English at a state college in Blacksburg, VA. Odd, but he's also a huge Haruki Murakami fan, as is Rebecca Brown. Mikel went so far as to write down a recommended order in which to read his books. Looking forward to diving in after I fight my way through Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. I've got about 2000 pages to go. Whoo. No new music yesterday. I had writer's block adn accidentally started something new. Damn. PS. New photos on my photos page.
03 10 05 8:42 |No comments yet Fruit from the sonic orchard
Just got back from follow up meeting with Jon and Eric @ Sonic Orchard studios. Their facility looks really nice. Spacious control room. Live room feels good. They have a Trident 80B console on its way in, and a Studer A80 tape machine ready to go. It'll be a very nice place to make some music. Spoke to them about tape recording and how it's a dying art. Jon suggested stock piling tape as its manufacturers are slowly stopping production of 2" media. Also found out today that as an infant I never crawled. I went from rolling around right to the walker thingy. My first word was cookie. Very interesting. New track tomorrow. Stay warm...
03 09 05 9:40 |No comments yet Tags ahoy!
Wow pivot is such an amazing thing. I just upgraded and added Marco's tag generating extension. Thanks to him for all the work he put into it. And thanks to everyone who helped out on the forums. Blogs have been making the news recently. Legal issues, popularity, journalistic responsibility, who has an audience?, is anyone with an audience a media outlet? It's making me take my blog more seriously. In the future I'll endeavor to post more frequently and more effectively. Cheers.
03 08 05 9:07 |No comments yet New track et al
Uploaded a new track "well, I mean...". Check the music page. Also upgraded my Pivot blog software today. Big time security updates to fight the spammers that leave comments on blog pages. Grrrrr. I'll be finishing another track on Thursday, stay tuned... also I uploaded new versions of the songs from my "Threads EP". Re-Edits. Re-Tweaks.
03 06 05 7:32 |No comments yet A lot of news
Great weekend. I met Rebecca Brown, author and educator, this weekend. Really amazing human being. Look up her books on Amazon. Check out "Woman in an ill fitting wig" a collection of short works based around paintings. Dark, introspective, characters with a sense of humor. Very rhythmic prose.I have a few students @ the Axis Music Academy this week. And another meeting with Sonic Orchard Studios. I finalized a deal with {tt:Studio Logic Pro Audio]] to do some sales with them in the Detroit Metro Area. George runs a great business. Let me know if you need anything. We can offer great prices. Check out the web site over there ------>>. I've also decided not start any new music for a while. I've got so many little ideas on my drives. I'll have two new/old tracks up at the end of the week. Away we go....
03 01 05 12:05 |No comments yet When it rains .....
Wowza. Just got off the phone with Itamar Meiri! Live from Tel Aviv! He's in the studio freshening up a project he was working on last year. He's also working on his solo stuff, this time in hebrew! I'll keep you posted. Also had a little chat with Zuri Edwards @ Edwards Ent. about getting back to Philly to cut Kindred's next LP. Hopefully that'll work out. Also had a terrific meeting with Tim Antone @ The Axis Music Academy out here in MoTown. They are a really cool music school. I'll be getting involved with teaching for them in the coming weeks. Check the website over there --->>> In other news: Saw the film 'Control Room' on Sunday followed by a lecture by one of its producers. It's a documentary about the Arab perspective on the Iraq war through the eyes of Al Jezeera. Very interesting film. Worth watching. It's amazing how perspectives and opinions are created by news media. Wild. It's been snowing for days here in Detroit. not accumulating much but snowing snowing snowing snowing...
