After Thanksgiving Sales

We hit the sales on Friday morning. I have never done it before, but I finally felt that it was time to be a part of the insanity. We woke up at 3:00 and arrivd at the IHOP by 3:30. We thought this would be a perfect place to start the day. Well lit, friendly, smoke free, and open 24 hours.



The only problem was this sign on the other door...
Closed from 1pm to 6am.

So, we quickly regrouped. We had to be in line at Goody's by 4:30 for the 5:00 opening. The reason being that the first 300 people received 10 gift cards. We didn't want to miss that. Luckily, just across the street was a place that would never let us down like IHOP did....The WAFFLE HOUSE. Smoky, cramped, bright yellow but still quite dingy at the same time. To make it even better, a Celine Dion fan had apparantly pumped about $5 worth of quarters into the jukebox. Boy, was Liana glad to hear that!

We called our shopping pals CK and Gaby and told them IHOP was off and to meet us at the WH. They were a little sluggish, but they finally made it.

Here I am with my friend Gabi at about 3:55am

At around 4:00 in the morning, everyone is feeling a little crazy.


We left Waffle House and made it to Goody's by 4:30. There was only one other person there, so we were all set. We got in, got the card, got the stuff, got in line, and got out. We were done by 5:20, and despite some technical difficulties at the register, none of us paid over $3 total.

Then we headed toward the other side of town and Shoe Carnival, where the first 100 people got $10 gift cards. We made it in time for the cards, and met some people in line who had just come from braving the crowds at Wal-Mart. We shared our tales of derring-do as we jumped around in the cold, trying to stay warm. We ran in at 6:00, got the card and started looking for shoes. I am proud to say that the pair of Vans that I had my eye on started at 50 bucks, but with my gift card, my coupon, and a temporary Shoe Carnival "10 minute only" mark down (that was lucky), I got them for $16.

Then it was off to Belk for some gift shopping, Office Depot for a super cheap 1 GB flash drive, and then to Hastings for the super-duper "All Used CDs $3.99 Sale". Among other amazing used CDs (My Spanish Heart, Return to Forever Retrospective, Rufus Wainsright-Want Two, etc.) I picked up the much needed Paul Simon Concert in Central Park. Yes, even the two disc sets were $3.99.

By that time we had had enough. Back to the house for "lunch". It felt late and I was starving. It was only 9:30.

Fake Meat

While in China we went to a restaurant that specializes in recreating vegetarian and vegan versions of traditional Chinese dishes. The fake Peking Duck looked amazing, but seemed to cost more than a real duck, so instead, we went for the roasted "ham" in a pumpkin shell. On the left side of the table are imitation pork rinds made from tofu. And while the "Spiced Cucumber Salad" may sound exotic, it's really just Bread and Butter Pickles. We also had some delicious lemon apple juice.

By the way, the service was incredible.

"Self Portraits" from China

Here we are at the Forbidden City. The earpiece is an audio tour device. OUr guidebook said that the audio tour was narrated by Roger Moore (James Bond). I thought it would be funny to be guided through the Forbidden City by 007. Much to m disappointment, it has been recently revised and is now narrated by a nice Chinese woman who obviously has no License to Kill.


Here we are at the Temple of Heaven. ou can see it in the background. The view was not as spectacular as hoped because it is undergoing restoration for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.


Here I am backstage with Halim


Me and my friend Tuyen Tonnu. She is an incredible pianist.


Me with my friend David Badagnani. He is Halim's archivist.

They Might Be Giants

Here's a pic of us at the Forbidden City. It's not posed, I swear. The little boy ran up to us just as the picture was being taken. Funny!
Click to enlarge.

and the posts begin to flow

OK,
Over the next few days I will try to get caught up on the events of the past month or so. China, PASIC, Tennessee, etc...

I just got back from Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. I played Cloud Forest and Anubis with the percussion ensemble there and had a lot of fun working with the students. I also played a little derabucca on the concert.

Before that we did our second percussion ensemble concert of the semester here at UCA on Thursday night. Music for Pieces of Wood, Stained Glass, Cloud Forest, Run! Pandas, and a few other things. Then on Friday, Will Rapp gave a great clinic about the cymbal techniques of Benjamin Podemski (of the Philadelphia Orchestra). Very interesting stuff!

More to come soon, including more China pics (and a few from PASIC)

Coming Soon

For those of you that are getting worried...thanks for the concern. I'm fine, just busy. I promise a new post or two soon about PASIC and China and so forth...

Corrected Cheese Post

It seems that I forgot to include the link for the previous post. Here it is.

Cheese Drumset

It's made of cheese.

I wish I could find a recording. But the pictures should keep you amazed for now.
It's made of cheese. - a photoset on Flickr

And back again

I'm back from the Payton MacDonald Ensemble concert in New Jersey. The concert was quite a success. We have started doing ensemble versions of Payton's SuperMarimba pieces, complete with looping pedals for the flute, violin and viola. We also made some demo recordings to help publicize the ensemble a little better. I'm lucky to be playing with such an amazing ensemble. Payton, John, Courtney and Jessica are incredibly talented and creative musicians, and playing with them always inspires me.

Still suffering from a little jetlag. It's a little after 2:00 in the morning and I am wide awake. I'm going to go watch a really boring infomercial and try to fall asleep.

I'll be busy this week teaching makeup lessons and practicing for the PASIC performance, but I'll try to get some China pictures up in the next day or two. Here's a self portrait of me at the Forbidden City to hold you over until then. Click to enlarge.


Looks like they're getting ready for a softball game. Yellow team vs. the Red and Blue team. I must have left before it started.

Back in the US

I'm back from Beijing and I leave again in a few hours for New Jersey. If you are close to William Patterson University on Saturday night, stop in for a little Payton MacDonald Ensemble magic.

Beijing was great. I'll post pics soon.

Blake

Beijing

I'm in Beijing. So far everything has been wonderful. The weather is perfect and the people are great. WE went to the Forbidden City on Sunday morning. I never realized just how big it was. The concert is tonight adn then tomorrow I am heading out for some shopping and a visit to the Temple of Heaven. Maybe some other things as well.

Back in the States on Thursday night. Then to New Jersey for a PME concert.

Blake

The Conway Symphony concert went well last night. The soloists all sounded wonderful and everone loved Pictures at an Exhibition. I just wish we had had an even bigger gong.

I play the Frank Sinatra, Jr. concert on Thursday night and then it's off to Beijing on Friday morning. Our visas arrived yesterday (finally) so we will actually be able to get into the country.

Only about 12,000 things to do before then.

Blake

Another week

Another busy week! The Percussion Ensemble concert on Thursday night went very well. There was a good crowd and the students did a great job. We premiered a new work by Andrew R. Stout and the crowd loved it. We'll do it one more time on our November 10th concert. I also did a preview performance of the piece I wrote for Spindrift Percussion. I was really happy with how it turned out. A few final touches and I think that it will be ready for the premiere.

The Conway Symphony is sounding great and the concert on Tuesday night should be excellent. Mozart and Pictures at an Exhibition.

I've also been trying to get ready for the China trip and the Payton MacDonald Ensemble concert the following weekend. It seems like there's always plenty of new (and old) music to practice.

I watched The Office "reunion special" last night. Like the original two seasons of the BBC episodes, it was amazing. Ricky Gervais is brilliant. Rent or buy both seasons and the special and watch them. Part II of the reunion is probably the best series finale I've ever seen (well, Newhart was great, but in a different way). Don't miss the special features on the reunion disc. Hilarious stuff.

Shining

Here's a link to a clip that should teach you to never trust a movie trailer again. It's The Shining being sold as a romantic comedy. Brilliant work!

The Shining trailer

Back in Business

After school started back I just wasn't able to keep things going on a regular basis with the blog. I think that I should be back to more regular postings at this point. Let's catch up.

Most recently, Liana and I gave a recital at UCA. We did four pieces together (Big Tooth Aspen by Halim El-Dabh, Hot Water Burn Baby by Roshanne Etezady, Kembang Suling by Gareth Farr and Intimacy by Halim El-Dabh) and we each did a solo piece (Liana did Air by Toru Takemitsu and I did Sonic No. 7 by Halim El-Dabh). We had a good crowd and as far as we could tell, things went well. A lot of people liked Intimacy. Many said it was their favorite piece. We were glad to hear that because it is such a difficult piece to pull off. Technically it is not that difficult, but the pacing of the work and the interaction between flute and marimba presented us with quite a musical challenge.We rehearsed that piece far more than any other piece on the concert.

We programmed more El-Dabh than we might usually play becuase we leave for China in about two weeks to perform an entire concert of his music at the Central Conservatory in Beijing. It is part of a symposium called "Asia Meets Africa". The entire website for the event is in chinese, but I'll find the link and post it soon.

A word of advice...if you are going to China apply for that visa early. I'm not sure why some countries have to make it so difficult to get in. Chinese visas have to be applied for in person at one of three locations in the country. If you can't go in person you have to hire someone to go for you. We had to send off visa applications, order forms, consulate and service fees and our passports to a company in Houston who will walk everything through and then express mail them back to us later this week. A real pain (and expensive). In China's defense, I think that in many countries it is much harder to get a US visa.

Things at UCA have been busy. I have 11 majors (including 3 grad students) and I'm teaching 6 non-majors as well. Plus 5 hours of percussion ensemble a week and Pedagogy and Rep classes. Add the practicing, composing and travel to the mix and things get pretty crazy. I did finish the new work for solo marimba/percussion and percussion trio. It still needs some minor adjustments, but I'll be doing a "preview performance" on October 6th. I also found out that two students at Rutgers University will be doing my piece Vertical River on their percussion ensemble concert on the 6th. Always exciting to hear in advance that someone is performing your piece. There have been a lot of performances of the work, but I usually don't find out about them until after they have happened.

Today I have a rehearsal all afternoon on Cloud Forest and Bob Becker's Prisoners of the Image Factory. I really like Bob's music a lot. Prisoners is great but I think that my favorite in Turning Point. I will probably program that one or Mudra for one of the spring concerts.

Also on the concert we'll be doing the world premiere of a new work by Andrew R. Stout caled The Lost. If you are close by UCA, come on out at 7:30 this Thursday and check it out.

Later,
Blake

Euphonium???

So Liana and I gave a recital tonight at UCA. We had a good crowd and it went really well. That's all beside the point because what I really wanted to get on the blog was this little gem...

Before the recital started, two guys walked past the open recital hall door. My 5-octave Malletech marimba was on stage. The first one looked in and said "Look, dude, it's a euphonium!" The other guy said "No, dude, it's a xylophone."

A euphonium???

Funny, but the second guy was technically correct. Remember...a marimba is a xylophone, but a xylophone is not a marimba.

Goodnight

Blake

James Brown...James Brown...James Brown...James Brown

I saw and heard James Brown in concert last night here at UCA. He's still got it. The moves, the voice, the super-tight band, it's all there. It was so exciting just to see him walk out on stage, but even more exciting to hear that he still sounded great. And while I was hoping for one "cape moment", there were actually three. The photo above shows the Godfather in a green cape.
Blake

South Africa Pics

Finally some pictures from the South Africa trip. For those of you hoping to see Lions, Elephants and the like, sorry. I never left Johannesburg. The pictures below are without comment right now. I'll organize and annotate VERY soon. Click the pics for a larger view.

Almost

It's been a while. I've been swamped with composing, rehearsing and teaching (and being a little sick). It looks like my new piece, Cloud Forest, is finally in good enough shape for a few test runs. The Percussion Ensemble concert on the 6th is coming tohether and the duo recital for next Tuesday is shaping up nicely as well. So, the next post will be a few pics from the South Africa trip.

Back

I'm back from South Africa. It was a great trip. I had to hit the ground running when I returned, but I'll put up a detailed post with plenty of pics this weekend.

Blake

Live from South Africa

I am here in Johannesburg at the University of Witwatersrand. It is a beautiful place and the Unyazi Festival is spectacular. I did a clinic/performance for the percussion and composition students here and had a blast. They have a traditional marimba ensemble that played for me. It was amazing. I was able to get a little video with my digicam so that I can share it with my friends back home. I gave a presentation on both derabucca and marimba. I am happy to report that they have a Malletech here so I felt right at home.

This morning we did a soundcheck for our concert tonight. It looks as if everything is set. The sound engineers are great and the equipment is top notch.

There is quite a lot to be amazed by at the festival, but I will have to save the details for my return. I am at an internet cafe right now and there are others waiting to use the computers.

Have a great day,
Blake

Press Release from HalimElDabh.com

If you happen to be in Cleveland this week you can check out the performance in South Africa from the street. Details below.

Internationally recognized composer, educator and
ethnomusicologist Halim El-Dabh will be featured at
Africa's first-ever electronic music festival in
Johannesburg, South Africa, and residents of Northeast
Ohio will have the opportunity to view his
performance. The performance, billed as an "almost
simulcast," will be broadcast at the McCrory
Department Store space on East 4th Street 6 p.m. on
September 3, 2005, as part of the Ingenuity Festival
in Cleveland, Ohio. The broadcast of El-Dabh's
performance will be free and open to the public.

El-Dabh, who is one of the pioneers of electronic
music internationally, and the father of electronic
music in Africa, will be attending the UNYAZI festival
and symposium in Johannesburg September 1-4, 2005. He
will perform his works live, and will also be actively
involved in the paper sessions, workshops and in
creating an awareness of electronic and
electroacoustic music among young composers.

El-Dabh's performance (which will take place in
Johannesburg on September 2 and be broadcast in
Cleveland on September 3), will consist of old and new
works for various electronic and electroacoustic
combinations, some involving live performers. El-Dabh
will collaborate with U.S. electronic music virtuoso
and trombonist George Lewis, South African traditional
instrument expert and composer Pops Mohamed, Egyptian
drum soloist Blake Tyson, and University of
Witwatersrand gymnastics/trampoline professor Tshepo
Mfebe.

UNYAZI, the Zulu word for "lightning," also
means "electricity." In addition to his concert, on
Septembe 1 El-Dabh will also present a paper, entitled
"Unyazi Born Within," which explores the sensitivity
toward sound inherent in the African village, which
El-Dabh experienced during his many research trips
throughout Africa.

The Ingenuity festival runs Sept. 1-4 and will feature
nearly 200 events showcasing Cleveland arts and
technology. The performances and displays, which range
from cutting-edge computer-based creations and
multimedia events to classical works and family fare,
will take place at venues in and around the Public
Square and lower Euclid Avenue areas. A one-day pass
to selected outdoor events is free; a one-day,
unlimited-access pass to all Ingenuity events is $10;
and an unlimited-access weekend pass is $25. Go to
http://www.IngenuityCleveland.org/ for more festival
information.

Ready to go...almost

A crazy day! I just got home and I am still getting ready for the trip to South Africa. I am so excited about meeting so many great musicians from all over Africa and the world. I wish I had time to tell you about some of them, but that will have to wait until my return. Just follow the link a few posts below to see the festival website with all of the details.

To my students...I will be in Tuesday (tomorrow) morning, but I will be out all day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Keep on practicing! All the info you need about rehearsals and makle up lessons will be on my door. I'll see you again on the day after Labor Day. Have a good holiday! I know the steel band gig on Thursday will be great. Be sure to be ready for the Stained Glass rehearsal on Friday!

Maybe I can post from South Africa, but if not I'll be back to the blog next week.

Blake

Berio is Full of Surprises

Check out this NYT review of a new CD that features transcriptions by Luciano Berio. I had never heard of these before. It has a couple of mp3 files to listen to. I love the way he chose to end the Contrapuntus XIX.

John's Blog

I am proud to announce a new arrival at the Blogspot. My great friend John Parks is now blogging. I'm sure it will be incredible and much more interesting than my blog, so bookmark it now and watch it grow into an unstoppable force.
Heres' the link
John's Blog

Switched ON

It's been a while since any substantial posting has happened here. That is largely because of the beginning of the semester at UCA. Things are busy. I have more students than I have ever had and I've been trying to help get the drumline off to a running start. I've also been getting the music ready for our two percussion ensemble concerts this semester. Oh, and I leave for South Africa on Tuesday morning to perform at the Unyazi Electronic Music Festival. Missing most of the first full week of class isn't ideal, so I have been trying to get a plan together to keep things running smoothly. And...I'm still putting the new piece I've written for solo marimba and 3 percussion into the computer.

Robert Moog died last Sunday. It's hard to listen to the radio without hearing his influence, and I still remember the first time I heard Switched on Bach. I hit the used record stores immediatley in search of my own copy. Someday I hope to have my own Moog, but for now it's just a dream. The NYT has a few features about him and his work. Jump on these links fast becuase the NYT will put them in an archive and charge you money for them in the near future. They are free for now.

An Appreciation
Switched On and Ready to Rumble - New York Times
Just under the picture of Moog on the left is a link to a great multimedia story with sound clips.

The Obit
Robert Moog, Music Synthesizer Creator, Dies - New York Times


There is also an interesting story about a Ward Marston, who restores old recordings of everthing from jazz to classical to presidential speeches.
A Master of Making Old Tunes New Again - New York Times

Now it's time for a little chai latte. More later.

From a Studio in Arkansas, a Portrait of America - New York Times

The NYT has an article this morning about a photographer from Arkansas who has finally made it big. Too bad he died in 1959. His name was Mike Disfarmer. The few details of his life given in the story make me want to know more about him. He sounds like quite an interesting fellow. The article includes a slide show of some of his photographs.

From a Studio in Arkansas, a Portrait of America

Finally, more about the concert

We left Sunday morning on a four hour drive to Tulsa. Our pal Disco came along for the ride. We were very excited about the concert, but because it was outside we were a little worried about the predicted thunderstorms. We arrived at the park a little after 3:00 and were very happy to learn that the concert had been moved to an indoor venue. And not just any theatre, but the Brady theatre. It is said to be the last place that Enrico Caruso sang before he died. His ghost haunts the theatre to this day. It seems he "caught his death" during a carriage ride in Tulsa. I didn't notice him lurking about, but check out the piectures below. Maybe he snuck into one of them.

Here I am with LT waiting in line for the doors to open. We had a pretty good spot in line thanks to our early arrival. That was important due to the general admission seating.


Here's our view of the stage from our seats. The theatre only seats about 2,600 and it is very well designed. There really are no bad seats as far as I could tell. I had to use my cellphone cam for these pics. I didn't bring my good camera because I thought we were going to be outside in the rain.



Here's Ben Folds conducting the audience in a little three part harmony at the end of Not the Same. We also got to sing along on a tune by Dr. Dre (whose title I dare not mention here). This pic is from the Rufus Wainwright message board. Thanks to whoever got all hot and sweaty in the pit to take the photo.


And here's Rufus at the piano. It's also from the RW message board. I was absolutely amazed by Rufus. I think that he has to be one of the greatest musicians I have ever seen in performance. His phrasing, his timing, his songs...everything is incredible.


It's always great to see performers who are actually better in concert than on their recordings. These guys can't seem to write a bad song, which means they can't do all of their great songs on every concert. That means a few of the favorites have to be left out. Still, I'm sure no one was disappointed. If nothing else, everyone got to hear Ben and Rufus do a duet version of Careless Whisper. I hope that someone got it on tape. You won't believe how good it was until you hear it for yourself.

Ben Lee played a short (but wonderful) set to open the concert. I was only familiar with him through his collaboration with Ben Folds, but I'll be checking out some of his solo work now.

I was so pumped up after the concert that the drive home was no problem at all. We had about fifteen minutes of incredibly hard rain but after that things were mostly clear. We pulled in to Conway around 3:20 AM. I got a few hours sleep before getting up and going to work on the piece I've been writing, which, by the way, I finished today.

Blake

The Office/Fog of War/My Architect

I just finished watching two episodes of The Office (BBC version), the last half of The Fog of War, and the entire My Architect. All amazing pieces of work. Watching The Office makes me uncomfortable. Its ability to make the uncomfortable so funny is where the genius lies. The Fog of War made me uncomfortable becuase it shows that even the brightest most intelligent people continue to make the same mistakes that have been made so many times before. It seems that the saying that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it isn't completely true. It seems that those who know history will repeat it anyway. There is a recording in the movie where President Johnson says to Robert McNamara "My answer is yes...but my judgement is no." He was talking about sending massive numbers of troops to Vietnam.

My Architect, on the other hand, offers great comfort. It is a documentary full of uncomfortable people who are brought together to find answers, heal their wounds and to show us all the incredible things that human beings are capable of. One of the most inspirational movies I have ever seen.

I promise to finally get around to the road trip to Tulsa and the Lee/Folds/Wainwright concert tomorrow. There will be full color pictures of show, so don't miss it.

More on the way

For those of you waiting to read all about the Ben Lee/Ben Folds/Rufus Wainwright concert experience, I'll take care of that tonight. In the meantime you can find my brief mobile blogging reports from the concert a few posts down. They really bring the excitement of being there live and in the moment to your screen, don't you think?

Have You Heard?

Good news for those of you who love to gossip. You're making the world a better place. Read the very interesting article (linked below) for more information. And, if you haven't already, now's your chance to register for the New York Times.
Have You Heard? Gossip Turns Out to Serve a Purpose - New York Times

Ben & Ben were awesome. Rufus is next. BF&RW already did Careless Whisper. Best Duet Ever!

--

Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

At Ben Folds/Rufus concert in line. Rain, so moved inside to haunted theatre. Hooray! We will be dry

--

Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Good advice from Hans Zimmer

I can't say I'm a huge fan of his music, but I love the quote. It's from a speech at the TCM Young Film Composers Award Ceremony.

"Never let your wife prevent you from buying equipment. A house will not buy a synthesizer, but a synthesizer can buy a house." - Hans Zimmer

Here's the link to the post on boingboing.net
Music thing: Hans Zimmer on synth shopping etiquette

A lot of the post's comments disagree with Hans, but they have apparantly not heard of the housing bubble.

Let me clarify that you need to actually do something productive with that synthesizer or else it won't buy you a house. If you are just going to sit around all day making helicopter sounds and playing the opening measures of Jump by Van Halen over and over again, you should probably buy the house instead.

Cool Hunting: Toilet Bowl Restaurant

Well, this looks delicious. Click on the link and then click on the tiny pictures for the full-sized details. And, yes, it's SFW.

Star Wars (sort of)

I read a review for this one man star wars trilogy in the New York Times. Not the most flattering review, but the thing that really bothered me was that the reviewer decided to try his hand at comedy.

For example
"After curtain call Mr. Ross tells his audience - composed largely of very intense-looking overgrown boys wearing Coke-bottle glasses and Darth Vader jerseys - to follow their dreams. I suspect their mothers might disagree."

Cheap shots. It's just not funny on so many levels, and...it makes me think that he may be lying. The word "largely" means "most". I doubt that "most" of the people in the audience were wearing coke bottle glasses and Darth Vader jerseys. "Overgrown boys" is probably a nice way of saying "fat". And, come on...don't tell me that the mothers want to crush the dreams of their overweight, fashion-challenged, legally blind sons. I'll bet that they just want them to be happy.

Despite his constant need to belittle something he doesn't understand, I can't disgree with his review completely. I watched the video on the website, and while I thought the actual delivery of the dialogue was funny, other things need some work. His imitations of the musical score are quite weak in comparison to his dialogue delivery (tune it up...and don't rush!). I think that lack of attention to detail detracts from the overall effect. And, when he inserts his own words to move the plot ahead, that doesn't work very well either. Could be a timing problem. Timing...is.....everything (or so they tell me)

Still, it's still worth a look. Head on over to the website and click on the video link.

Here's the website link again

JT, Gadd, UCA Steel, etc...

Ok, I'm back. I promised a full report on the James Taylor concert, but I don't really know what to say except HOLY COW! It was great. I won't bore you with too many details, but here are a few. First of all, Gadd was incredible. I don't know how much James Taylor is paying him, but it's not enough. We had great seats. I don't think that there was a better view of Gadd in the whole place. We were about 80 feet from the stage and positioned so that the only thing between us and Gadd was his hi-hat (and occasionally the bass player when he stepped forward). Our view was assisted by a dedicated "GaddCam" and a number of large video screens. As a bonus, Luis Conte is on tour with James Taylor playing percussion.


And of course, let's not forget James Taylor. After all these years he still sounds great. He put on an incredible show with an incredible band. We got our money's worth, too. He started playing about 8:10 and finished up around 10:50. If he's coming to your town, you better get some tickets.

Here's a pic taken from my seat.



By the way, because we were running a little behind schedule we had to eat at the Starwood Amphitheatre where the concert was held. How bad could it be? Pretty bad! Have you ever gone to your local grocery store and bought the 89 cent store brand cheese pizza? OK, now imagine that you cooked it in your microwave and then let it sit uncovered on your countertop for about 17 hours. Then you reheated it and then another 2 hours later reheated it again. Sound good? It sure does to me after eating what they serve at Starwood. And, it's 4 dollars and 11 cents more expensive. But, it gave us enough fuel to rock out with Gadd and JT all night, so it was worth it (sort of).

Before the Nashville trip I did a performance with the UCA Steel Drum Combo at the ABA convention in Little Rock on Thursday and then a clinic there on Friday. The clinic went pretty well and I had a good crowd. I got a lot of positive responses afterwards and I hope that most people found it helpful.

Here's a shot of the combo sporting our now and very colorful t-shirts.



Then, Friday night my friend Andy Harnsberger was in town playing with the Jack Daniels Original Silver Cornet Band. After the show we had a chance to go out to the Flying Saucer and Willy D's piano bar. It was 80's night at Willy D's, so we got to hear a lot of our childhood favorites (Journey, Loverboy, Whitesnake, Hall and Oates, etc...) performed on dueling pianos.

Yesterday I did a lot of work on the new piece I'm writing. I am really pushing to get it finished by this weekend. Things are really starting to move on it, so I am hopeful.

More later,
Blake

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