ABA/Nashville Roadtrip/Anniversary

Today I head to Little Rock with the UCA Steel Drum Combo to perform at the ABA convention. Tomorrow I head back down to do a clinic. My friend Andy Harnsberger will be in town tomorrow night playing with the Jack Daniels Silver Cornet Band. I'm looking forward to hanging out with him after the show.

This weekend Liana and I head out to Nashville to see James Taylor. We are excited not only to see James Taylor, but also Steve Gadd. The first time I remember hearing Steve Gadd was on AM radio in my Dad's old Plymouth. I didn't know it was Gadd at the time, but I have a very clear memory of hearing Paul Simon's 50 Ways. It was years before I knew who the drummer on that track was, and even longer before I understood the true significance of the groove.

The first time I saw Gadd play live was in a small room at the Eastman School of Music. Gadd lives in Rochester and he and John Beck are good friends, so he comes in and does a clinic at least once a year. Seeing him play from about 7 feet away was really a life changing experience. Since then I've seen him a few more times in clinics and at the American Drummer Achievement Awards in Boston, but I've never seen him play a full length concert (except on video).

So, is it worth a six and a half hour drive to Nashville to see him play?
Six and a half hours is a bargain!
I will, of course, post a full length report upon my return.


In other news, I am still working on finishing my percussion quartet (which is becoming more of a marimba solo with percussion trio). I plan to have it finished by August 17th. Why? Because my tenth anniversary is August 18th. I want to be done before then so I don't have it running through my brain anymore. Since Liana and I got married close the anniversary of our first date, it is not only our tenth wedding anniversary, but also our seventeenth year together.

By the way, the 10th anniversary is the "aluminum" anniversary. Anyone have any gift ideas?

And, while things are generally good, I am a little depressed. It seems my name was left off the list AGAIN!

Downloading the Classics

Looks like LvB has still got it. Good news, but the article finally gets to what I think may be classical music's biggest problem. It is not as accessible online as other genres. Finding decent recordings (particularly complete ones) of the masterworks on Napster, Rhapsody or Yahoo! Unlimited is difficult and most contemporary works aren't available at all. Also, the search engines on those sites are set up to deal with pop music, which can make finding specific classical recordings almost impossilble. The closest we can come is a $19.95 per year subscription to Naxos.com where you can stream over 5000 CD's worth of recordings. A great resource, but most people have never even heard of it.

You can sell anything to anyone with even an average marketing campaign (have you seen the stuff they unload by the thousands over at QVC and HSN?). I guess this is proven by the junk music labeled "classical" that is pushed down people's throats (Il Divo for example). If they marketed Steve Mackey, Steve Reich or Michael Torke with the intenisity that they market Il Divo, they would be very popular as well. Contemporary music is the only hope. I have at least 3 recordings of every symphony by Beethoven and Brahms, from Toscanni to Bernstein to Norrington. It is going to take some kind of great recording to get me to part with $15 or $20 for another "Eroica". But, new music is a different story. It's exciting and vibrant and not just being written by guys who are good at math anymore. Unfortunately, recordings of new music are hard to find unless you are really, really looking for them. No one is going to stumble across it the same way they'll stuble across a new CD by Gwen Stefani. I'm not saying we need more women in short skirts (we have plenty of that already), just more accessibility.

A few things

I woke up way too early this morning. I worked on my presentation for the ABA convention in Little Rock this week, did a little reading, and watched most of Sunday Morning on CBS. Sunday Morning isn't what it used to be, but today's show was a pretty good one. They did a story on the artist John Currin. His art will probably look familiar to you, because if you pick up a newspaper, magazine, or just watch TV every now and then you have probably seen it in passing.

They also did a story on Carole King. Her songs are so omnipresent in our lives and our collective history that they become like the air around us. It is easy to forget, but every now and then it is a good idea to think about what an amazing thing the air around us is. And, it is good to be reminded of the enourmous talent of Carole King and the influence her work has had on the music of our time.

If you want to see something impressive, go the the "songs" listing on her website. It will take you a while to get through them and you'll probably wind up saying "Wow, I didn't know she wrote that!" at least 15 times (probably more). If you need a faster path to amazement, you can check out this over at Wikipedia.

And then there was this story. We seem to have a problem. Maybe the old line "Clean your plate, there are children starving in China" (which never made much sense to me) should be replaced with "Don't clean your plate, there are kids starving in China" (I know, that doesn't make sense either). But seriously...we need to collectivly try and do a little better, don't we?

Also this morning in the New York Times is an op-ed piece on why we shouldn't be afraid of the things that we seem to fear the most. AFter you read that, you might want to follow it up with a viewing of a Daily Show clip which really drives home the point. For that, click on the link below and scroll down to the July 12th entry entitled Over There
onegoodmove: Daily Show Video Archives


Enjoy your day!

How's Your Geography

People from the United States have a reputation for not really knowing much about the rest of that big old world out there. That stereotpe may not be completely fair, but there is no denying that most of us could use a little help in the geography department. Go to this website and have some fun with all of the geography quizzes. Start off with level 1 of each region if you need a refresher. By the time you get through the levels, you'll know where every country in the world is.

Want a quick sample? Try this one.

Remember...Learning is Fun.

Sheppard Software - We Make Learning Fun!

NYPL Digital Gallery

Even if you don't live in New York, you can still take advantage of the New York Public Library's collection. Part of it, at least. This website is full of fascinating images from both the recent and the distant past. Check it out.
NYPL Digital Gallery

Moving on to that great starship in the sky (???)

Scotty has joined his old friend Bones in an alternate reality. Here's a nice obit for James Doohan in the Guardian.

Best Fake Spam Name EVER!

We all get the spam emails, but I must say that so far my gmail account has been great at filtering them out. I was just going through the spam folder, and while the messages are the usual fare (mostly about low price/high quality? drugs for enhancing performance in this area or that) one stood out. Of all the fake names that I have received spam from, I think that this one is the best.
The name...Bibliophile G. Pepper!

Well, I thought it was hilarious.

Anyone out there have any better spam names? (one's you've actually received). If so, email them to me or just put them in the comments.But keep it clean,,,this is a family show.

Wired News

A very interesting book is out called Darknet. It deals with one of my "favorite" issues: The entertainment industry's abuse of copyright law. The author makes a great point in comparing multimedia information of the 21st century to the literar media of the past. We should have the same rights with digital multimedia formats as we have (had) with the written word.

For example, I can reference a small excerpt of the article in this post. I give full credit to Wired magazine and in the end, more people will read the article, click on ads, and subscribe to Wired.

Like so...
"We are moving from a text-based culture -- where people have been allowed to borrow and take snippets from books and magazines and journals -- into a visual culture," Lasica said. "Those same kind of rights, to quote from a movie or TV show and annotate it or comment on it, have been stripped away."

Darknet outlines Hollywood's multi-pronged strategy for locking down content. The tactics include using technological advances (DVD encryption is one example) and strong-arming or co-opting tech companies.

Lasica finds that Hollywood also wields huge influence in Congress. In the book, he describes the 1998 passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, which makes cracking encryption a federal offense. The DMCA, Lasica argues, overwrites fair-use laws, which protect scholars and artists who appropriate materials for purposes of education and political expression.

"That's a good example of how the public doesn't realize how their rights are being whittled away," Lasica said. "I'm pretty sure that even members of Congress aren't fully aware of what they were passing." from Darknet Casts Hollywood as Heavy -Wired.com

Easy, right? The article/interview even links to an excerpt of the book. After you read that you might zip on over to Amazon.com and buy yourself a copy. Everybody wins. Wired, the author, the publisher, Amazon.com (or your local bookstore if you can tear yourself away from the computer), and their employees. You have less money, but at least you have a subscription to Wired and a great new book.

And if you are still not convinced the copyright law is out of control in the US, read this (also from Wired). If it's this hard to record Happy Birthday, just imagine what you have to go through for an entire CD's worth of songs.

Jellybeans and Pipes

I spent a lot of time yesterday working with the Flash interactive music "game" that I linked to yesterday. I call it "Jellybeans and Pipes". It takes a little while to really figure it out. Drag new pipes from the conveyor belt at the bottom. For each pipe piece you can change the octave or sound and you can use special pipes that vary the direction of each "bean" as it passes through. You can use the switches on either side to vary the number of notes used, and there is even one switch that will destroy your whole contraption. Find that one before you get in too deep to avoid a feeling of great disappointment when you accidentally hit it and your beautiful creation tumbles to the ground.

Warning-it may occasionally freeze up. Usually just waiting for a few seconds will let everything get back to normal. If your computer is not three years old and cheap like mine, everything will probably be fine. Give it a try.

Matthew Herbert ~ Plat Du Jour

Check out this very interesting recording project. You can read about it here in the Guardian. The composer has created a fantastic website that explains the project. Be sure to check out the samples of the music on the downloads page. One track, called Sugar, was performed almost entirely on one Coke can. The composer also finds inspiration in sewage and the crunch of apples. Try it, you'll like it. Don't miss "the making of" page, and have a look at the gallery.

Music thing

Over at Music thing there is a link to
this. A cross between a video game and a Rube Goldberg music making contraption. Hard to explain, but you may become obsessed. (High speed internet may be necessary, but I'm not sure. Click on title page to start)

New Wallet

As some of you know, it has been almost a year since I have had a wallet. I've just been stuffing everything in my front pockets. But a few days ago, I found a reason to have a wallet again. Over at poketo.com they have some amazing wallets designed by a number of great artists. It was a hard choice, but I decided to go with a design by Damon Soule. The pics are below (both inside and outside). Check out the sites. Poketo also has some cool t-shirts.
Click pics to make them bigger.

Outside


Inside (plus bonus button)

South Africa is a GO

I just booked my ticket and I am very excited to report that I will be performing at the NewMusicSA - Unyazi 2005 Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa. I'll be performing with Halim El-Dabh, doing some live versions of his early electronic works. We've done them a few times before, both here and in Egpypt, and I can't wait to play with him again in South Africa.

Liana and I have both been invited to Beijing in October to perform an entire concert of Halim's music. That one should be confirmed in the next couple of weeks. That will be followed by my performance of one of Halim's derabucca solos at PASIC in Columbus, Ohio. I am really excited to have these opportunities and I'm really happy that Halim's music is being studied and performed more and more all over the world.

More later,
Blake

More on the Idaho Trip

If you've been keeping up, you know I went to Idaho recently. I lost my digital camera at some point, so all I had with me was my cellphone cam.

Side note: Don't worry too much about the camera. It was growing old. It had been dropped enough that the case wouldn't fit together like it should, sometimes it would quit working for no apparent reason (until you dropped it, them it was ok again), it was HUGE, and at about 2 megapixels its pics were not too much better than the cell phone. Don't get me wrong, we had some good times together. I hope that wherever the old boy is, he's OK. By the way, whoever found him got some free flash memory cards to go along with the camera. I wouldn't mind having those back so that I could get the last few pictures I took at bandcamp transferred over to the computer. Oh, well. Maybe they're all just hiding under a seat in my car.

I finally got some more pictures off of the phone so here we go. Cellcam doesn't give you the best quality, but it's better than nothing. As always, click the pics for a bigger image.

Here's another view from our friend's place where we stayed.

Jesus enjoys a "meatstick"

Close up of Little J

Here's a pic of me and little Jesus (Hay-Soose).

Trillian...another cute cat in residence at the mountain hideaway.

Also in residence...Andy the Donkey (being kissed by Tara) and Patches


Enough for now...stay tuned for more. Don't worry...the next posts may have some animals, but not nearly as many.

Sign of the Apocalypse?

What the...?!?!?



It's bad enough already, and then you notice that it's "on a stick".

(spotted at my local Wal-Mart)

On Hold with Halim

My friend Halim El-Dabh has composed a brief electronic work as part of a commissioning project of the American Music Center. They asked five composers to write pieces to be played over the phone. You can stream it (and possible download it) by clicking here. It also gives you the number to call in if you want to hear it over the phone. All five pieces are on the page. Halim's is the first one, just below the description of the project.

WANTED

From the "something I thought I would never see again" department comes this exciting find. When I was around 8 years old, me and my Dad went to Six Flags Over Georgia. For some reason we had to get this thing made. We stepped up behind the wardrobe hung on the wooden cutouts and gave it our best. We were both aware of how ridiculous the whole thing was. That was what made it so great. I especially like that it's a color photo on distressed parchment.

It hung on the wall at my dad's house for years and then went from place to place as I moved. Then, in one move or another, it vanished. This morning, Liana was going through a box of old books. Folded inside one of the books was the poster. HOORAY!

I scanned it in two parts and linked it together so that you could get the full effect. Below is a close up of the photo. I think that there is no doubt that I win Best Actor hands down. And my dad...Best Supporting Actress.

Percussion Freaks

Has anyone seen or played this game called Percussion Freaks? I haven't. I need more information. Anyone?

Who is Esteban?

Been staying up late? Seen this guy and want to know more? Here's your chance. This page from Musicthing gives you links to all of the info you could ever want. For example, who knew that Esteban is not just a guitarist, but a fragrance as well (two actually). Be sure to read the lengthy article. Quite interesting.

Air Band

If you think you are good at playing "air drums" you might want to check this guy out. CAUTION: Slightly Risque Ending. Nothing worse than what you would see on FOX Network Primetime any day of the week. Proceed at the risk of your delicate sensibilities. You have been warned!

Are 150 people killed each year by falling coconuts?

Looks like you're not safe on the water or on the beach. I heard this a few days ago during the usual summer shark attack coverage. Now, thanks to the magic of the internet, I have an answer (sort of). The article points out that 150 may be a little (or a lot) high. Still, I wouldn't advise taking a nap under a coconut tree. There's a funny pic with the article showing how the whole falling coconut thing could work to your advantage.

The Straight Dope: Are 150 people killed each year by falling coconuts?

I'm performing a Halim El-Dabh derabucca solo this November at PASIC and I had to send in a photo for the program. I didn't want to send in my usual marimba shots (since I'm not playing marimba) so I decided to go with this. What do you think?

Remember that ebay item I mentioned before the Boise trip?...it's finally here. This is a picture of it and I hope to post some video soon. It comes with lots of little pegs that you can insert into the wheels underneath the keyboard. When you turn the crank you can hear your creation. Liana thinks it's supercool and so do I. I've already created a few ringtones with it for those special people in my life.

Back home

We made it! The storm got pretty rough and there was a lot of wind damage when we woke up. The hotel's cable and internet went down, but they must have had a generator because we never lost power. Pretty much everything else around us did, though. In addition to the wind damage there was A LOT of standing water. The weather for yesterday's drive was beautiful, but seemed very hot while we were unloading the trailer around 5:30.

We still have more unloading to do. I will put up some more pictures of the trip soon.

Blake

Oklahoma storm

We had an exciting drive today. In Kansas we were less than a half hour ahead of a bad storm with big hail, lightning and TORNADOS. We made it to our stop in Blackwell, OK and thought we were clear, but the storm kept up the pressure. You can see the very front of the storm over our van here




Liana looks back toward Wichita at the approaching storm




Just a few minutes later the wind had pick up so much that I couldn't hold the camera/phone still




Just a few minutes ago the storm changed directions and headed back the other way. It looks like that we won't get the worst of it here in Blackwell, but it could be a windy night.

So, I'll enjoy some free HBO while I'm here, but don't worry, I'll be flipping back to the local radar often. All is well.

Blake