rollercoaster

what a bizarre week. it kicked off monday morning with an email requesting corporate use of one of my soundscapes -- awesome! -- only to be dashed the next day for various bureaucratic reasons. it happens. what's nice, though, is having those kinds of requests for things that i produce anyway, rather than having to develop stuff on spec that is nothing like what i would try to write on my own only to have it not get used. rather bolstering finding corporate interest in my ambient pieces.

speaking of which, i've a new one just completed called "Batata Wata." really hypnotic and organic considering it's all careful sound design/ synthesis. got a couple of more brewing in the old noggin, too.

this past wednesday had funf doing its premiere performance at the abbey lounge. the night kicked off with carlene barous (formerly of Din) doing some solo vocal/ piano music and then magician alexander constantine did a few very impressive card tricks, the last one of which involved him holding the deck in his mouth, extracting a card with his teeth and folding it in his mouth into quarters and then pulling it out to show that it was in fact the card that the audience participant wrote her name on. quite cool, especially since she seemed to have an eye on sabotaging his performance.

then funf got set up on the little pub stage and started twisting sound around. two guitars, v-drums, glockenspiel, organ, trumpet, and david sedaris' voice being warped around through a synth, mostly unrecognizable. we played for about 40 minutes or so, but it went by like a couple of seconds. we'll be doing more in the future. plus we've got a cd in production and there's talk of other means of recording stuff, too.

it's a grey friday here in boston as i look out over the charles river, and i'm looking forward to getting home this evening, firing up the studio, putting on some headphones and losing myself in sound. i've been listening a bit more lately to some lygeti and also angelo badalamenti and drawing some inspiration from both. it'll be fun to combine that stuff with the electronic/ synth stuff that i've already got reverberating within my skull.

stay tuned...

so the stuntman comes in just as i'm taking a bite of a granola bar. "NO! spit that out! spit that out! it's schwarma day! come on!!"

cafe jaffa's got a schwarma lunch special on wednesdays, and so there we went!

tonight is the premiere performance of funf. we've got very little idea what's going to happen, as it's all improvisational. and not improvisational like playing with gato malo, either, in that with gato we've got leadsheets to go on (for most songs, anyway). this will be a likely longform piece of experimental stuff influenced by faust, godspeed you black emperor, etc. i might throw some spoken word stuff on my ipod to process through my synth. hmmm.

here's the logo i just threw together for funf:



i'm listening now to eno's new cd, Another Day On Earth. really lovely stuff.

"wanna get away?"

have you seen these southwest airlines commercials? one of the latest features a couple hosting another couple for dinner, awaiting the setup of the host couple inflicting a sales spiel upon the guests to deliver the punchline "wanna get away?" absolutely brilliant campaign, each spot as funny as and memorable as the last.

a new favourite of mine is the one where a statuesque black woman pulling a black bag behind her is suddenly besieged with a contact lens issue. her eyes roll back a bit as she fumbles to get the contact back in place before staggering blind into the bathroom. after a moment with the mirror, she corrects the issue. and then a toilet flushes. a man slowly eases toward the next sink from her, all the while staring at her. she aghastedly and embarassedly looks around to find herself surrounded by men in, of course, the men's room. "wanna get away?"

awesome.

then it struck me. she's pulling a bag behind her, one of those sleek, flight attendant looking suitcases, through what looks strikingly like, well, an airport when her contact freaked out. "wanna get away?"

seems to me she's either already going 'away,' or she's returning from 'away,' so she might just 'wanna get home, like, now.'

in other news, the red sox are now down 4-0 to the twins going to the bottom of the 2nd. i've given up on visions of postseason glory, but it's still fun watching them play for the most part. not as fun as watching them in 1st place, but it's a beautiful game to watch anyway. plus i still gotta love these guys.

we went to a pre-release party for fluttr effect last night, celebrating the release of their new cd, "Marking Time." they've a loft nearby, and we had a lovely evening on their patio. i spent most of my time talking to jim collins (bassist/ singer of The Buckners) about astronomy, the arctic circle and general international travel.

earlier in the day, we had a little brunch and then hit the local music store. i was in need of a new bass amp and was hoping to find something with enough pop to gig with but also with less heft to make for easier transport. picked up a behringer 1x15, and i'll be giving it the official test drive this weekend for the cathy show. sounding good, though, in the apartment. didn't move it past 1 on the master volume, and it was already shaking the place. also picked up a cheap acoustic guitar for banging around at home.

my red sox took 3 of 4 in yankee stadium this past weekend, though it very likely means little at this point. kind of a bummer. had much higher hopes for them this season, but what can you do when injuries pick your team apart? starting pitching was hollow, relievers had problems and then your starting catcher, the team captain, goes down with an injured knee. devastating. but it's still fun to watch baseball, and it's nice to win the series against the yankees.

this week should be busy. rehearsal tonight with cathy, more writing and recording for onlyone, plus a bowling adventure. the show saturday will be great. also found out that alex skolnick of Testament is on the bill with his jazz trio. pretty wild! i'm expecting to break out the 8-string bass for this show, which will be the first time in about 3 years that i gig with it.

happy birthday to the noise!

this month marks the 25th anniversary of the noise! a quarter-century of coverage of the local boston music scene. awesome! many, many congratulations to my friend t max, the founder and publisher of the noise!

on a side note, within the pages of this month's noise is my first published photograph, which has elicited numerous compliments to my subject, the very lovely lexi!

this past weekend we were at t's for the noise's birthday party. very crowded and loud, with t darting around with a guitar (small amp duct-taped right to it) and in a DEVO costume -- one of two sported over the evening -- singing various DEVO tunes and directing backup vocals from partygoers. lots of fun. saw some friends from fluttr effect and muck and the mires plus many more.

obviously today is 9/11, the somber anniversary of that terrible day. best wishes to all of the family and friends of anyone lost on that day. i couldn't then and still can't imagine the horror. we all lost something then, but they bore the brunt of the loss for the rest of us.

Nuestro Himno

i got this email forwarded me this morning:

I am sorry but after hearing they want to sing the National Anthem in Spanish --
enough is enough. Nowhere did they sing it in Italian, Polish, Irish (Celtic,)
German or any other language because of immigration. It was written by Francis Scott
Key and should be sung word for word the way it was written. The news broadcasts
even gave the translation -- not even close. Sorry if this offends anyone but this
is MY COUNTRY - IF IT IS YOUR COUNTRY SPEAK UP ---- please pass this along~
?
I am not against immigration -- just come through like everyone else. Get a sponsor;
have a place to lay your head; have a job; pay your taxes, live by the rules AND
LEARN THE LANGUAGE as all other immigrants have in the past -- and GOD BLESS
AMERICA!

PART OF THE PROBLEM

Think about this: If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending
someone-----YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM !!!!

first, if they're singing the national anthem, they're doing so to honour this country, so who cares if they choose to do it in swahili or mandarin or whatever? we've got Freedom of Speech to cover what people say, Freedom of Religion to protect differing faiths; i'd say Freedom to Sing Patriotic Songs in Whatever Freakin' Language You Like is implied.

next, it's NOT "your country." it's "OUR country." we all share it, and not every citizen follows your narrow conception of how things need to be, and i'm not aware of any indication that says that the people who are singing the star spangled banner in spanish are NOT proper citizens.

full assimilation into 'our culture' shouldn't be a prerequisite for citizenship. if it was, why does little italy exist? why does most every major city have a chinatown? the differences in our people, the traditions and customs brought here from other shores, are what makes our country so great. i LOVE that in my neighborhood there are russians, haitians, brazilians, chinese, koreans, and almost everything else. i love more that i can hear snippets of conversation in all of those languages and can pop into any of the number of russian, brazilian, spanish, or other convenience stores that are within walking distance. it is distinctly american to have such a breadth of diversity in such a small region, and i don't know what it serves to try to squash this.

anyway, i wonder if anyone complaining most vehemently about the national anthem know the very interesting history of it. many know that it was written by lawyer and amateur poet francis scott key during the battle of 1812 in response to witnessing the bombardment of baltimore's fort mchenry, but did you know its melody (in scott's mind as he composed the poem) is lifted from a british drinking song? that's right, a drinking song from great britain. i find that fascinating, especially considering that the british were the ones that war was fought against.

but i guess that ultimately makes sense. to be american is to bring in elements of other cultures and to weave it into something new. the american dream is woven in colours of all of its citizens.

there are pleny -- plenty -- of other, very real concerns people should be getting worked up about rather than bitching about what language the national anthem should be sung in.

global warming, anyone?

time passes quickly, no?

wow -- new blog and already i've allowed about a week to go by without updating.

i'm presently anxiously awaiting the delivery of a new toy, native instruments' FM7. very exciting. at my good friend empathy's suggestion, i recently got absynth, and it's pretty much blowing my mind. between that and getting a better handle on using motu's stellar MX4, i'm having a lot of fun in the studio lately.

started working recently on a new project called FUNF with a couple of friends and a couple of brand new friends. essentially a blindfolded studio improv thing focused on electronic experimentalism, we're each starting a track and firing it over to the next guy in the queue. no one knows what they're getting, and no one knows what the others will add. so this will be great fun. there's talk of us doing a live improv thing toward the end of the month, so stay tuned! more details of the recording should surface soon, too.

last week and earlier this week i was also composing a couple of bits of music for some placements. cd got sent out yesterday. fingers crossed!

anyone been watching project runway? saw the latest last night. lexi got me sucked into it, and i could not believe that vincent was knocked off in the coutere gown challenge. i got a big kick out of him; good energy, fun, and with some definite talent. his gown didn't come out that great, but hell -- a few others didn't come out great either. tough challenge.

i also have more knowledge about making coutere gowns than i ever thought i'd be in possession of. and to think that before 10pm last night i had no idea what a coutere gown was.

RIP steve irwin, speaking of great energy and enthusiasm. a death simultaneously unbelievable and wholly expected. i mean, you just knew he wasn't going to stop doing what he loved until he died, and you had to expect that it'd happen on the job at some point, given his propensity to place himself seemingly directly in harm's way daily. best wishes to his family and friends in dealing with this tragedy.