1. Signing Off

This is it, I'm done. I've decided that I have an "unhealthy interest" in blogs and forums of late and that it's time to retire, at least for a while. I want to focus more on faith, family, music, philosophy and reading and less on the internet. I'll still check email, google some things once in a while, get some diections but that's about it. Oh yeah, and streaming radio.

I plan to still keep up my odeo podcast, in fact I've got several songs going that I'm really excited about. When they're finished, you can access them at http://odeo.com/channel/125941/view, or check back here at this post:




Well, it's been fun. Adieu.

2. Man Without an Ideology

I've been thinking a lot lately about how devisive ideology is, and where exactly I stand in it all. Of course the first thing that comes to mind is politics and religion. You could also add the word philosophy if you want to sound sophisticated. Also, these days a major line in the sand seems to be science, in particular evolution and the origins of the universe. I've been trying to analyze just what camp(s) I might fall in, and it turns out my answer is: none.

Politically, I can't say I like conservatives or liberals very much. Conservatives are too war-mongering and pro capital punishment. Liberals are pro abortion, socialist, and just plain nutty. I have a passive interest in current events, but that's about it these days. I just don't care, there are more important things in life than politics. Maybe I'm starting to become a Christain anarchist, I don't know. Kierkegaard said the claims culture and state make on an individual lie in opposition to the claim God makes on all people. He advocated perfect obedience to God even if that conflicted with the bourgeois customs, secular law and government.

I am thankful almost everyday for what a great life I have here in this country, and if it was all taken away tomorrow I'd say that I'd had a good run of it. Not that I'm a pacifist - I would fight for freedom if I had to as a last resort only, and there are other means to accomplish things other than violence without being completely passive.

Spiritually, I am what many call a "Christian". I've been trying to think of something else to call it due to all of the negative connotations with that word, maybe "follower of Christ", or "disciple". How about Jesusito...hey that's got a nice ring to it. Say you're a Christian these days and you have baggage like Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggart, molesting priests, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquistion associated with you by default despite all of the positive aspects throughout history. I've been distancing myself from the evangelicals, too much show and political rhetoric. With evangelicals you get simplified "feel good" messages, big buildings and budgets, and devisive judging. That and the music just sucks. :-)

Redemption through Christ is not about organized religion or politics. Christendom as it exists today has radically departed from its more genuine, relational, and loving origins and has become a political institution. As a Christian existentialist, I think we are the result of our individual choices and that the universe is paradoxical. Individuals are a synthesis of finite and infinite. Relationship to God is subjective in nature and faith in Christ is the only alternative to a world filled with misery and despair. This relationship is subjective and personal, a result of an individual's choices. It cannot be coerced - it is one's own journey. The individual is responsible before God, not a religion or faction. Your priest/pastor can't do this for you no matter how much money you give to his club.

As a theist of course I believe that God created the universe, but this need not be contrary to science. Scientific principles and reason have their place, and denying observable evidence would be foolish. Biblical literalism is a simplistic view, and many Christians (such as Augustine centuries ago) reject this. However, many of the theoretical and speculative claims of science require a bit of faith as well. Ultimately this is apples and oranges - spirituality and philosophy are in an entirely different realm than the objective nature of sciences.

The arguments you hear about science and ID are funny because people don't seem to fully understand the opposing side. The argument often gets reduced to a childish "God versus Darwin" level, pitting religion against science (can you say "straw man"?). That's where the word fundamentalist starts getting hurled about. The word is said much the same way as "child molester". I posted before how Plantinga says that by calling someone a fundamentalist you are really saying "stupid sumbitch, whose views are to the right of mine". I love that.

I probably fall more in the ID camp. The observable aspects of micro-evolution are largely undisputed, such as a limited common descent and a limited descent with modification to explain minor variations in groups of organisms. Scientists claiming a universal common descent have substituted God with "unguided, purposeless, material mechanisms" and as a theist I cannot accept a naturalist or materialist worldview. The IDers are mostly saying that evolution in not sufficient as an explanation for the origin of the major morphological innovations in the history of life and that design can be inferred from biology. Much like scientists infer macro-evolution from micro-evolution. There is much more to this like the cambrian explosion and the appearance of species radically different from previous ones. All of this makes sense, but I don't know if it's true for sure, and who does? But say ID or doubt evolution in any way and you're an instant fundy idiot.

So here I am. I don't fully believe in politics, religions, or science. I suppose you could say Christian existentialism is an ideology, but it's not like there's existentialist uniforms with churches and political rallies (hey, there's an idea...) - it's all about faith on a personal level. Man's political, religious, and scientific ideologies are devisive, destructive and will probably be the end of us all. I have hope that this can be overcome, that humanity can get past ideologies. Doubtful this side of Heaven, though.

3. The Rudest Buddhist

"Criticism is prejudice made plausible."
- HL Mencken

I got into it again with my pal over at the Non Prophet blog. The author claims to be a Buddhist and yet has a webite devoted to mocking organized religion, in particular the evangelicals. My question to him lately has been this: how is being cynical and bitter towards opposing views by a Buddhist any different than his hated evangelicals judging people or being hypocritical?

He got mad and went off when I asked if he was a "Hollywood Buddhist", someone who says they're into eastern religions just to sound sophisticated and chic. I'm no expert on Buddhism, but isn't it about peaceful co-existence and freeing yourself from your desires, eliminating the ego and so on? How does being a devisive and cynical liberal preaching politics fit with the Noble Eightfold Path?

I'm not saying I'm perfect but if someone's life's passion is to point out hypocrisy in other religions, one might want to think about how their own actions fit with their beliefs.

The Paradox of Truth

"...with truth confronting the individual as a paradox, gripping in the anguish of pain and sin, facing the tremendous risk of objective insecurity, the individual believes...for the absurd is the object of faith, and the only object that can be believed...the object of faith is thus God's reality in existence as a particular individual, the fact that God has existed as an individual human being."

"Without risk there is no faith. Faith is precisely the correlation between the infinite passion of the individual's inwardness and the subjective uncertainty. If I am capable of of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe."

Søren Kierkegaard
From Concluding Unscientific Postscript

Another World

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[Revised 1.01.2007 - Added bass and guitar, enhanced mix]

Here's a new tune I put together using my virtual studio. I've added the Native Instruments Battery 3 drum sampler to my arsenal, a pretty amazing tool. Thanks, Santa Suzanne!

This is not a political statement condemning Iraq, how we should leave, Bush is an idiot etc., it is more about the horrors of violence and war in general. Enjoy. Or not.

• DAW - Apple Logic Express 7.2
• Drums, FX - Native Instruments Battery 3
• Synth - Native Instruments Massive (Demo)
• Bass - Logic EXSP24
• Guitar - Ibanez Hollow Body
  
• Samples - The Thin Red Line

You can download the .mp3 here.

Plantinga on Fundamentalism

I ripped this off from another blog, but I think this Plantinga quote is really funny:


"But isn't this just endorsing a wholly outmoded and discredited fundamentalism, that condition than which, according to many academics, none lesser can be conceived? I fully realize that the dreaded f-word will be trotted out to stigmatize any model of this kind. Before responding, however, we must first look into the use of this term 'fundamentalist'. On the most common contemporary academic use of the term, it is a term of abuse or disapprobation, rather like 'son of a bitch', more exactly 'sonovabitch', or perhaps still more exactly (at least according to those authorities who look to the Old West as normative on matters of pronunciation) 'sumbitch.' When the term is used in this way, no definition, no definition of it is ordinarily given. (If you called someone a sumbitch, would you fell obligated first to define the term?) Still, there is a bit more to the meaning of 'fundamentalist' (in this widely current use); it isn't simply a term of abuse. In addition to its emotive force, it does have some cognitive content, and ordinarily denotes relatively conservative theological views. That makes it more like 'stupid sumbitch' (or maybe 'fascist sumbitch'?) than 'sumbitch' simpliciter. It isn't exactly like that term either, however, because its cognitive content can expand and contract on demand; its content seems to depend on who is using it. In the mouths of certain liberal theologians, for example, it tends to denote any who accept traditional Christianity, including Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, and Barth; in the mouths of devout secularists like Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett, it tends to denote anyone who believes there is such a person as God. The explanation that the term has a certain indexical element: its cognitive content is given by the phrase 'considerably to the right, theologically speaking, of me and my enlightened friends.' The full meaning of the term, therefore (in this use), can be given by something like 'stupid sumbitch whose theological opinions are considerably to the right of mine'" (Warranted Christian Belief, pp. 244-245).

Akróstichon

Oh, I've mastered the mysteries of the universe
Pointing an accusing finger at the lesser evolved forms
I curse your simple ways!
No need to wonder WHY the laws of nature exist,
I have faith
Only in...
Nothing

For the Sake of Consistency

After reading some reviews of Gibson's Apocalypto, I've decided to stick to my guns about violence in film and not contribute to Hollywood this time. It is amazing though how the critics are going on and on about how horrible the violence in the movie is and yet rave about the gratuitously violent Kill Bill, Fight Club, and Scorsese mobster snuff films. I generally can tolerate the violence if it's for historical accuracy or seems to be a part of the story somehow, but I'm so sick of the blood splattering and bone crunching just for effect. I suppose the ancient Mayans were prone to violence, but this is a purely fictional movie.

Speaking of Hollwood-related hypocrisy, another thing that gets me is how anti-big business many movies are. Corporations are evil heartless empires that must be brought to justice, or in the case of the ridiculously stupid Fight Club, must all be blown up. Give me a break, Hollywood corporations are probably the biggest zillion-dollar monsters I can think of.

The one thing I'll never give up however are my beloved cheesy Hong Kong action and Wuxia Kung Fu movies. The amazing acrobatic wire work, choreographed one against 25 fight scenes, Chinese dialog with English dubs and pointless plots (if there even is a plot) are just awesome. I mean, how can you not love it when a guy in a robe jumps 30 feet in the air to punch someone (instead of just simply punching them). Most of the violence is a fake kick and a guy goes flying through a cardboard set (then said guy shows up a couple of scenes later in a different costume). I love it! Call me a hypocrite I don't care.



[Could I insert any more parenthetical comments (like this one) into that last paragraph? I should really learn how to write.]

Rhipidon

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VALIS

Here's an ambient/experimental tune I put together with the demo of a SWEET new software synth by Native Instruments called Massive. The demo expires every thirty minutes and you loose all of your settings, so towards the end it was re-setting up everything for 15 minutes so I could work another 15, then do it all over. I can definitely see how this tactic of annoying the hell out of the end user could get me frustrated enough to buy the stuff.

There's a bit more I want to do with it, but I went ahead and bounced the track before the demo expired (after all it is 2:00 a.m.). I called it VALIS because that's the Phillip K. Dick book I'm reading right now.


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[Revised 11.27.2006]

World Waits

Stop whatever you're doing right now and go buy Jeremy Enigk's World Waits. Brilliant, that's all I can say. Still soaking it all in. Once my mind is a little less blown away I'll update with some critical analysis. Listen for free on his MySpace Site. I can really hear the atmospheric Sigur Rós influence.

Here's a cool article I found about JE's faith:


Joy, and the Music of Jeremy Enigk
by Christopher Stratton

We see a great many things and can remember a great many things, but that is different. We get very few of the true images in our heads of the kind I'm talking about, the kind that become more and more vivid for us as if the passage of the years did not obscure their reality, but, year by year, drew off another veil to expose a meaning which we had only dimly surmised at first. Very probably the last veil will not be removed, for there are not enough years, but the brightness of the image increases and our conviction increases that the brightness is meaning, or the legend of meaning, and without the image our lives would be nothing except an old piece of film rolled on a spool and thrown into a desk drawer among the unanswered letters.

--Robert Penn Warren
from All The King’s Men

When I first heard Jeremy Enigk (pronounced “ee-nihk”) sing in the summer of 1994, I wasn’t adequately prepared. Like everyone else in the early 90’s, I was so caught up in Nirvana’s grunge revolution that Enigk’s band, Sunny Day Real Estate, failed to register on my musical radar. Thankfully I had a few friends that pressed the issue. When I finally listened, I realized what I’d been missing. Enigk’s voice was unlike anything I’d ever heard, and the music was so unique and emotionally powerful that it moved me deeply.

I’m not talking about “Jerry Maguire” singing “Freefalling” in his car after writing his manifesto—I’m talking about a deep movement of the spirit. Hearing that music was more than just an experience of happiness, it was a sort of epiphany, and its meaning has grown with time, rather than diminishing.

Blending the lo-fi production and hard-driving guitar of punk rock with multi-layered arrangements, beautiful melodies, byzantine bass lines and plenty of raw emotion, Sunny Day Real Estate (henceforth “SDRE”) quickly became the darling of college radio and live shows like MTV’s now defunct 120 Minutes. Its sound launched myriad copycats in the years to follow, and the band is widely recognized today as pioneers of the popular music genre known as “emo-core” (“emo” for its emotional pop sensibilities and “core” for its hardcore edge).

Bands like Thursday, At The Drive In, Jimmy Eat World, Alkaline Trio, NewFound Glory and Saves The Day all owe a large debt to the seminal work of SDRE.
But sadly, like many other musical pioneers before it, SDRE fell apart about as quickly as it rose to prominence. In 1995, after only two albums, the original line-up called it quits. Two of the members, Will Goldsmith and Nate Mendel, went on to work with Dave Grohl on the first Foo Fighters release (Mendel is still a member), and Enigk cast about trying to figure out his next step musically.

It was during this time that Enigk made a much-publicized statement of faith in Christ. In a response to a fan question on a SubPop chatboard, he confessed that he had “given his life to Christ” and “wanted to sing about it.” Not only that, but he wanted to redefine his music in the context of his newfound faith-—not an easy task in an otherwise hostile industry. “Jesus isn't anything that I want to compromise with,” he said, “for he is far more important then [sic] this music, financial security or popularity could ever be."

It was in the wake of this break up, and very public conversion, that Enigk began work on his first solo album, Return of the Frog Queen. The album was a stark departure from the in-your-face hardcore fire that characterized SDRE. Flowing like a tapestry of rich orchestrations with acoustic guitar and Prufrockian lyricism, ROTFQ was anything but what fans expected. Electric guitars were virtually non-existent on the album, and the arrangements were quite literally crowded with instruments, many of them of the brass or string variety.

Judged against Enigk’s previous work, ROTFQ was a watershed. It was emo-meets-the-Beatles in an ecstatic carnival waltz, yet still inscrutably punk rock despite the 21-piece orchestra, or perhaps because of it. This wasn’t “emo-core,” it was an entirely new musical course: a highly complex work, full of swelling highs and lows with lyrics that had no apparently discernible meaning. And perhaps more notably, given his conversion and statements about SDRE, there was no mention of Jesus or God or anything overtly spiritual.

The move was downright heroic for two reasons: 1) he didn’t cash in on the popularity of his previous band’s sound 2) he didn’t write praise songs. In the hands of a lesser artist,the project would have been an abject failure. But with ROTFQ, Enigk defined himself as a musician with singular talents who is clearly passionate about life, and art for art’s sake.

His talent lies in the fact that he rarely communicates his ideas directly; they are nearly always mediated indirectly through his art. The music does the bulk of the communication. His lyrics often don’t make sense, or if they do, they only do so poetically, and even then only in a way that paints mental images. There is very little exposition in his work, and he doesn’t share knowledge so much as he imparts an experience. The tool he uses most effectively to accomplish this task is his voice.

Enigk’s voice has an alien quality to it. No one else sounds quite like him. He probably has a 3-4-octave range in full voice, and can move effortlessly into falsetto and back again. This is no small feat for most vocalists. The character of his voice at normal pitch has a reedy timbre that’s dynamic like a choir, and when he sings you get the impression that there is more than one voice singing at a time.

Then there’s a whole different voice that comes out—inordinately high, sharp and piercing—like vocal cord overdrive when he wants to bring a moment home. It hits you with the force of an electrical shock and all the urgency of a prophecy. An imploring howl unlike anything I’ve ever heard.

In its best moments, the music Enigk makes quite literally becomes an invitation to partake in all the joys and sorrows of life, while at the same time pushing us on toward something much larger, and outside ourselves. In this sense, Enigk, as a Christian artist, is like Auden and C.S. Lewis before him; he stands in the mythopoetic Christian tradition, creating worlds with his music that cause us to attend to something beyond the givens of reality.

His last project, a classic rock offering known as The Fire Theft, carried these themes further than any of his previous work. In the song “Summertime,” he employed the concept of joy, and its corresponding longing, to show how Creation can be viewed as a veil (however thick) through which glimpses of ultimate reality may be revealed. In the song he implores,

Lift back the veil that hides you and me
I can run bearing rumors all traced in the past
Painted mirrors all aging with cracks
Which way and how far
I will try to reach the landscape of where you begin
Not the reflection of what I pretend
Summertime

Lyrically this is a far cry from anything on ROTFQ, and spiritually and musically the song hints at a maturity and confidence that wasn’t present in Enigk’s earlier work (or most of his copycats for that matter). It will be interesting to watch how he progresses as an artist over the next few years.

The last time I saw Jeremy Enigk play was a Fire Theft gig in Los Angeles. The guys that went with me weren’t Christians, in fact, one was an agnostic and the other a Hindu. During the course of the show I felt myself caught up by the music into this larger emotional context that I can only call Joy. After the show, I kept this to myself out of sheer embarrassment, until my Hindu friend turned to me when we were walking out and said, after a long silence, “that was a religious experience man!” I could only laugh. “Yes it was,” I said, smiling.

I’d spent a long time wondering what it meant that Jeremy Enigk converted to Christianity but didn’t sing overtly about God. After I saw that show, I started thinking, maybe it was my lack of vision that kept me from seeing it; maybe Jeremy had found a way to put God in his music after all.

I'll Stick With What Works

The following are some modified comments I posted at a forum in response to the often predictable comments that Christianity is intolerant, hateful, and responsible for heineous actrocity. Therefore it is bad and this archaic mindset must be eliminated (well, at least mocked).

The problem I have is when people start projecting [the Haggard situation] onto Christians as a whole (not accusing anyone here, just stating what I encounter frequently). This is not a valid way to argue. It's like with the whole catholic priest child molesting thing. Some people think there are millions of heinous child molesting priests out there just waiting to get their hands on an altar boy. But in fact there are more cases of sexual abuse by teachers in the public schools than than by catholic priests.

So now I have to constantly hear how Christians are child-molesting hypocritical repressed gay amphetamine abusers. Oh yeah and the Crusades, the Inquisition, blah blah blah. These things have more to do with organized religion than Christianity (believe it or not they are two completely different things). I've said here before that pointing to abuses and misinterpretations of something does not invalidate it.

Believe it or not there are intelligent and genuinely good loving Christians out there who are not sheep. But hey, believe what you want.

.............................................................................................................................



Considering [Jesus] died to get the message out, I'd say He must have thought it worthwhile. And I'm quite sure that hate, wars, prejudice and genocide would still exist if He hadn't succeeded, it's just human nature. Stalin did a pretty good job of butchering millions of people without religion as an excuse.

I'm sure things should have turned out better as far as organized religion goes, but my point is the message is still there and is still good even though it gets bastardized (human nature too I guess).

Okay say a scientist formulates a cure for a lethal viral disease. He sends out his assistants to disperse the cure for free. Well some of them do as their instructed, some charge a huge fee for the vaccination, rip people off by selling fake stuff in vials, then forget about what they were sent to do. Some let the power go to their head and proceed to rape and pillage.

Now by [some people's] logic you can claim that the cure is bogus and has just caused fraud and carnage. You can also say holding belief that only the vaccine works is intolerant to the beliefs in other things like herbal medicine or pharmaceuticals. I guess you could also say my belief that I only want to breathe a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen is intolerant to views of wanting to breathe carbon monoxide or hydrogen sulfide. That's okay, I'll stick with what works.

Toasting Marshmallows

Oh yeah, everyone's enjoying Ted Haggard going down in flames (so much scandal brought to light conveniently at election time). I've never been a big fan of his, in fact the one sermon of his I witnessed was ironically about integrity.

I just think it's lame to be celebrating the shameful demise of somebody. I posted this over at a blog almost soley devoted to ripping on 'ole Teddy:

I thought I'd check in to confirm my suspicions of major gloating over the fall of your evil nemesis.

I'm wondering now what the point of this blog will be when Haggard's gone. I guess ripping on evangelicals in general will have to do, a pretty easy target really, and not very original. Everyone hates hypocrites, where's the challenge in that?

I guess you'll have to fall back on filler nature photgraphs, buddhist quotes, and wipe-your-ass-with-the-flag hippy events. Of course you'll always have the fascist war-mongering neocon oil vampires.

I wonder if they'd enjoy someone toasting marshmallows over them while they writhed in a fire. Even if they did set themselves alight.

West Indian Girl

I just love discovering great music. I'm diggin' on West Indian Girl . I guess they're way in to LSD, so it makes me wonder how long the creative brain cells will last before the possible onset of Sid Barrett syndrome.

Definite candidate for OGBITEHOF. From their site:

"The power to transcend common themes of fear, hope and love using only phrasing and imagery is a rare gift, second only to one's ability to render out the proper combination of notes and chords with which to propel those words into our hearts. As listeners, we gravitate to both the familiar and the unattainable; we are moved by what's accessible, what's evocative and what heightens our perception. West Indian Girl's self-titled debut touches all these points with equal effectiveness. Informed by the triumphant empathy of British rock and roll and the soul-seeking ethos of Sixties psychedelia and modern day jam bands, Robert James and Francis Ten build opulent compositions that revolve around texture, mood and lyrical romanticism-songs that are inspired by ideals and motivated by feeling.."

Latest Additions to the OGBITEHOF

The Latest Additions to the

Official Greatest Bands in the Entire Hisory of Forever :

Neko Case

Reverby retro-rock vibe with haunting Patsy Cline vocals. I love every milisecond of it.

Death Cab For Cutie

Brilliantly poetic and geeky vocals by Ben Gibbard. Terrific arrangements and sonic engineering.

Del Rey

Completely and utterly AWESOME instrumental rock. Not your everyday 4/4.

Test Shot Starfish

Talented IDM purveyors.

Ty Tabor

I've already mentioned TT before, but because of the new album Rock Garden I have to say it again.

IRON BLINKING MAIDEN!!!

Wait they're already number one on my list. Anyway, I'm just joking. Or am I??!!

Okay, That's It...

David Byrne is officially an asshole in my book. Of course I already know he's a flaming liberal joke, but his latest insulting journal entry just did me in.

Oh yeah, "hi." I've been gone for a while studying for my stupid Colorado Land Surveying exam. It was a piece of cake like the other licensure exams, but I always freak out and think I need to study like mad or God forbid I'll fail like an idiot. I've been meaning to write something about how bloody lame the whole land surveying scene is, I'll have to delve into that later.

Anyway, back to my ever-so-important whining session. I'm so blinking sick of pretentious dickheads who just simply say anyone who's a theist is automatically a drooling idiot, and then say this without any justification! "Of course you're an archaic automiton and I'm an enlightened modern genious, it just goes without saying."

I've decided I'm going to write DB a letter. It would just be to make myself feel better, I wish he had comment fields on his journal. I do think he's a good writer and artistically brilliant but his whole liberal-ass elitist bullshit has finally driven me off. Some main points I want to bring to his attention (hopefully without sounding like a whacko zealot) will be:

Alvin Plantinga's philosophic writings demonstrating faith in a supreme being is completely rational.

Richard Swinburne's philosophic writings demonstrating that the existence of God is more likely than not.

Many great thinkers thoughout history were theists.

Soren Kierkegaard. 'Nuff said.

You're a geek and a total ass clown. (Okay, I'm not really going to say that as much as I want to).

Peace out.

Don't Get Too Close

I went on an evening walk, a crisp night here in Vernal, Utah. As I walked down the extra long blocks I came to a huge LDS church building. You can see it for blocks. It is a brilliantly lit brick building with a neatly trimmed grass lawn and a golden trumpeting angel atop a tall white spire. A colorful stained glass Jesus overlooks the asphalt parking lot. What really struck me was the 7 foot wrought iron fence and brick pillars surrounding the place. While standing on the sidewalk I just felt like an outsider. Here is this beautiful building that beckons you to look at it but is surrounded by a forboding barrier.

This really speaks of how churches (of all denominations) seem to me in general. An exclusive bunch who are really all about themselves, their building, their programs, their compatibility with their own niche, and how good they look from the outside. But don't get too close...this is OUR thing. If you can get in it's on OUR terms. If you want to change things (or do things like the Book of Acts), go get your own building.

GWS Tracks

Here's one of my favorite tracks from a GWS album I worked on back in 1998 called HypercriteP (that's Hypercrit E-P) through Flaming Fish Music. The whole album is actually still available on the iTunes music store (search Globalwavesystem). I was just listening to this and it brought back a flood of memories. The opening marching sound is actually a sampled guitar tone mangled beyond recognition. That's me on the distorted bassy repititious synth riff. All the rest of the arrangement and vox by Christian Erickson.


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This one's called Fountain, it's actually part 2 of a song called Life and Works. It's based on C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce. I wrote the lyrics (well, most of them) and guitar parts, as well as co-arranged. Arrangement, synths, vox by Christian Erickson and digital drums by Kevin J. Moore. Lewis quotes through a telephone provided by Jeffrey B. Hamric.


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The whole project was a great learning experience. In some ways I'm not very happy with the end result, I find a lot of it unlistenable. But anyway, here it is.

x

With a little help from Apple Loops (okay, a lot), here is an original composition I put together this afternoon. The song is simply named 'x' for the creative input by 8 year old Xavier Bower. The airplane takeoff & landing, brontosaurus wails and various sci-fi efffects were all his idea. Regretably, the dog bark ended up on the digital cutting room floor (sorry, Xav).

Best experienced with a good pair of headphones.





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[Edit 9.26.2006 : Improved mix and output levels]

We're the Same

Ever notice how motorcylclists give that cool wave to each other as they pass? They kind of release the handlebar with their left arm and slowly extend it when they pass another biker as if to say "I'm on a bike. You're on a bike...we're the same!"


This kindredship also exists among boaters only they seem more into it. Their brotherhood wave extends all the way over the head and even moves back and forth in exitement. "You're in a boat. I'm in a boat. We're brothers in the aqua-vehicular family!"


I took the fam on our annual apple picking trip yesterday and we were behind a motorcyclist noting the universal biker brotherhood wave. Suzanne and I thought, why not acknowledge our fellow mini-van consanguinity? At every passing minivan we started frantically smiling and waving, reaching out in love for others who have replaced hipness with practicality. By their puzzled reactions we could only conclude that our common choice of automobile is really a source of shame, more like an alcoholic ex-con uncle than a dearly loved sibling. We decided to return to traveling incognito, trying not to call attention to the fact that we've long since sacrificed stylish for kiddie seats and lots of room for groceries.

Clickhop

I've getting majorly into electronica lately. Electronica, indietronic, glitch, clickhop, trip-hop, avant-pop electronic, IDM, techno, dance, trance, or whatever. Artists like Lali Puna, Notwist, Thom Yorke's solo album, The Postal Service, r_garcia, Donato Wharton, Matthew Rozeik & Ylid, Test Shot Starfish. Just can't get enough of it.

Check out:

http://somafm.com/cliqhop.pls
http://www.lalipuna.com/
http://www.nophi.net/phitunes/phiclips/rgarcia_rockythecat.mp3
http://www.myspace.com/testshotstarfish

a5k ft.renata penezic (Dimitris):


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It's funny these days how musical styles have so many names. It seemed like it started out by adding a 'core' to the end. Hardcore, gorecore, slocore, emocore, etc, etc. It's also cool to add the prefix 'post-'. I guess this means you're influeced by that particular style but taking it to new levels. I sound super cool when I say I played on a post-industrial project. "Yeah, I was so bound by the industrial genre I felt limited and had to move on." Man, I'm really something.

How far can I take this? "I want to start a post-rock glitch clickhop dream-core project, but I'm way too cool to be limited by this label."

Sagebrush and Cowpies

Did some surveying in the Yampa Valley in Colorado, a stunningly beautiful area. I was tripping over a lot of sagebrush and cowpies, but loving the scenic vistas.

How Dare They?

Hannah Pillinger, 24, said while waiting at the Manchester airport "Eight hours without an iPod, that's the most inconvenient thing."


This terrorist plot has gone too far! Now no drinks or tunes??!! How dare they disrupt our constant flow of personal music! I can almost imagine the excruciating lack of jams, while having to listen to others thanking their lucky stars that they, and hundreds of others are still alive.

The Visigoths are Coming

Eric Bibb

You MUST check out Eric Bibb!


He draws you in with that amazing blues voice and guitar, then smacks your soul with that old negro spiritual message. Love it.




Can you still say "negro spiritual"? Or is that taboo these days?