Summer and Starlight

there’s a bajillion different things i could say about this guy since Tom from the CMC turned me on to him a couple years ago, but i think anybody with even a hobby interest in music/recording/art in general should give this guy some attention and respect.

here’s his acceptance speech from his induction into the Hall of Fame at the TEC awards:

if you have the patience for this to load, he also says some wonderful things on Charlie Rose (he comes in around 22:20):

Also he had some really great things to say as a guest DJ on “All Songs Considered” this past summer.

i will never understand samantha crain.  (if you want the full effect you have to read the summary on the youtube page)

Today I had a featured album on amiestreet.com.

-i work too much and create too little.

-2nd shift was invented by Satan himself.

-i love/hate my studio apartment.  living completely independently is great/terrible.  i think the thing that really gets me is that i sleep in the same room as a refrigerator.  it can’t be good for your ears.  and it sucks to have to wait until the fridge is idling in order to record something.

-i like the new aimee mann record a lot.  who says you can’t have soul and synths at the same time?  who produced that anyway?

-instead of doing ‘hey rube II’ i’m going to release a single/two singles – one you’ve heard already called ‘all over the place’ and the other is called ‘it snows in april.’  the other songs i was working on for that e.p. will go on the backburner for now because i’m excited about some newer sounds i’ve been messing around with.  not to give anything away but i’ve been listening to a lot of hip-hop and am considering purchasing an alesis sr-18 or something similar when i can afford it.

-currently reading:

“bonk: the curious coupling of science and sex” by mary roach

“clapton” by eric clapton

and “misquoting jesus” by bart d. ehrman

art is hard.

the “Hey, Rube” EP is now available on the iTunes store! (in iTunes plus so no DRM…)

Here’s a direct link (it will open iTunes on your computer if its not already open):

I’m also excited to finish mixing the “Hey, Rube II” EP.  It will be six more songs that were written and recorded in the past couple of months.

over the past few months the importance of defining your own reality has been hitting me over and over again.  you can look to people around you, far and near, for someone to define what your reality should be and chances are it will depress you.  

i’m cursed with having a generally dim view of human nature which makes me generally reluctant to think of myself highly or take my art seriously after its created.  the actual creation process is a weird sacred thing for me and then when something’s complete i have this weird ability to shy away from it almost like i’m a pet that crapped on the rug and doesn’t want anybody to find out. 

that being said, i completed ‘hey, rube’ and i’m almost done mixing what will be ‘hey, rube II.”  i have some other musicians who contributed tracks to this one.  

i also got a job at a place called brilliance audio, inc. which is a publisher of independent audiobooks.  they are wholly owned by amazon.com, and due to the whole conflict of interest/noncompete thing, that might be the last i ever say about it.  

well, i’m home.  sometimes i enjoy road trips immensely; this was one of those times.  exhausting as it was, there is no substitute for forced quality time with yourself.  also i read “the audacity of hope” and “slaughterhouse five” via audiobook on the way.  

one true mark of a genius is the ability to break down relatively ‘complicated’ concepts into simple terms.  example:  people have written entire books about how to use an analog synthesizer – and while this is by no means comprehensive, bob moog does more in this video than some ’scholars’ have done in entire master’s theses:

as great as that was, the best part of that video is the awkward pause/smile right after the narrator introduces him.

amen, brother.  RIP.

“We have no reason to mistrust our world, for it is not against us.  Has it terrors, they are our terrors; has it abysses, those abysses belong to us; are dangers at hand, we must try to love them.  And if only we arrange our life according to that principle which counsels us that we must always hold to the difficult, then that which now still seems to us the most alien will become what we most trust and find most faithful.  How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave.  Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.”  

-From “Letters To A Young Poet,” chapter 8