BLOG BEST - 2004

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the old bloggerino. In tribute to writing far too much that was far too self-indulgent, I thought I would toast the entries of 2004 with a veritable cornucopia of links to old posts -- enjoy, and feel free to wish the blog a happy birthday!

(JANUARY was before electronic recorded history had begun...)

FEBRUARY and MARCH contained retroactive posts, but was some of my best blogging thus far -- it's always a great sign when you've peaked before you've even gotten started... I told the tale of our trip to Ohio Wesleyan University (part 1, part 2, part 3)...

APRIL had me floating at SpaceTime Tanks, followed by totaling my car, and ended with my desperate attempt to start a letter-writing campaign to the makers of The Sopranos...

In MAY I had my first Brazilian food, flew out to Colorado (part 1, part 2, part 3), I got a phone call from Milt Allen, and had a rehearsal at St. Charles...

JUNE delared my website only 37% evil... and I got to see Paradise Lost, Courage & Compassion, and Hanson!

JULY was when I finished the wind ensemble piece for Nicki, had to come up with a name for it... I also went kayaking, barked like a dog, and talked about buffalo wings.

In AUGUST I cleaned my apartment. Oh, and I responded to some flak about putting an electric guitar in an acoustic ensemble.

SEPTEMBER was my trip to Alpharetta, Georgia to see Randall Coleman and his gang (part.1) (part.2) (part.3)... we also figured out a name for the BCM CD... and I decided to take matters into my own hands with the premiere of TranZendental Danse of Joi...

OCTOBER witnessed the birth of WIND ENSEMBLE X. It was also INSANE with travel -- I was in 7 different cities in 4 weeks! I started the month with a trip to Las Vegas... did a reading of TranZendental Danse of Joi in St. Charles, IL... then a few days later we recorded TranZendental Danse of Joi in Columbus, OH... all 4 BCM'ers met up in New York City for interviews with NewMusicBox and The Instrumentalist... then Newman, Steve, and I headed down to Texas to record with Tarleton University... and the three of us found ourselves in Duluth, MN for Halloween...

NOVEMBER was full-tilt, high energy -- the last big push to the end of the year. We finished the BCM CD... and there were some days that were so fast-paced and jam-packed that I thought they would never end...

DECEMBER -- wow, I was very outspoken in December. That was the month that the BCM video interview was published on NewMusicBox.org... then there was also my rant against the Trans-Siberian Orchestra... and my take on a controversial BCM forum post entitled, "Variety Pack".

hacked off

Don't have enough to worry about in your life? Create something on the internet. It doesn't really matter what it is, other people will find a way to make their mark upon it. And the best part? The internet is open 24/7 -- anyone can do anything, any time they feel like it.

The truth is, I've been lucky. My email account has been hijacked a half-dozen times by spammers, but aside from that, I consider myself quite lucky. One of the other BCM composers had their domain name snatched up by a claim-jumping pornographer -- one day you log onto an aspiring musician's website, the next day, it's all bootylicious. Fortunately, the smut-peddler-in-question didn't want to risk any kind of legal action, so he sold the URL back to the BCM'er after little more than a polite phone call. But this should give you some sense of the risk you take when you set up your own little lemonade stand next to the internet superhighway.

A while back BCM set up a forum -- a little oasis on the net where people could come together and talk about music, and share their insights, experiences, and opinions. It's been an interesting social experiment to say the least, and on occasion, there have been some great exchanges of thoughts and ideas. But even in this tiny little burger shack off of interstate 10110011, there's a need for constant surveillance. Fortunately we have the help of the Kevins -- two trusted members of the forum who can help us keep watch for the odd cyber-graffitti, or masquerading malcontent. Even within it's short life, this forum has had some interesting visitors:

- a "grandmother" with an accusatory tone and pointed questions, laden with passive/aggressive hostility, who turned out to be a college student with an enormous chip on his shoulder.
- the "beauty pageant winner/lawyer" who was a HUGE fan of our's... yeah, right.
- the dude who was curious to see if any members of the forum were interested in Russian mail-order brides. Evidently, he had the hook-up.
- a guy who made a controversial statement, and then started logging in as other people to come to his own defense.
- the guys (yes, there have been more than one) who have just HAD to share their intoxicated exploits with us, and could think of no better place than a music forum.

And loads more weirdness that isn't worth going into now... but the ever-lovin' loo-loo came last night, when the entire forum got hacked. Happy happy joy joy. Again, we were very lucky -- the hacker just wanted to show us he/she "could" do it -- they didn't really do anything serious. Yet. So our security has been breached, and until one of us has the time to fortify our defenses, we're at the mercy of at least one hacker whose got us all by the short hairs/in his crosshairs, and he could pull that trigger at any time. Sounds a little overdramatic? Well, I'm just trying to keep you entertained...

As a proprietor on the web, you're responsible for everyone else's irresponsibility.

We just wanted to write some music.

I'm Dumbstruck!

Nic and I have been spending more and more time with two new friends named Mandy and Chuck. Mandy is an extremely talented and creative artist, and Chuck is an actor and illustrator -- both fresh on the Chicago scene. Chuck also operates an online comic website called Grabbag Comics, where Mandy publishes her quirky and clever "Mandibles", and Chuck draws a regular comic called "Dumbstruck". "Dumbstruck" is totally autobiographical, which makes it that much more humorous.

They're both very fun people, and we really enjoy hanging out with them -- and there's always the added kicker that if things get wacky enough, we could end up in Chuck's comic strip!

The Green Mill

Nic and I went to The Green Mill jazz club on Saturday night to see my co-worker and friend, Jim Trompeter, play with his quintet. The Green Mill is one of the premiere jazz clubs in Chicago and has some SERIOUS heavyweight jazz talent coming through on a weekly basis. The Green Mill is also famous for being formerly owned by the legendary mobster Al Capone -- there are still bullets lodged in the walls! And die-hard blog-readers from way back will remember that I've written about Jim Trompeter before (henceforth, I will refer to him as JT). I was impressed and intimidated by JT's work right from the get-go. But up to now, I had only CD recordings, I'd never seen him play live.

We arrived around 10 PM -- the club was filled to capacity, and there was a line to get in (JT's reputation clearly preceeds him!). Once we finally got in and shimmied our way back through the noisy, boisterous crowd, we spotted Eric Pryzby -- another friend, and JT's and my supervisor at work. Eric has played on literally all of my jazz charts. He had been invited to sit in, and later in the evening, when he got his chance, he played his *ss off.

The third set ended, and JT bounded off the stage and came straight over to us. He brought us all up to a table at the front of the stage -- Nicki could've easily reached over and plunked out a few tunes on the keyboard from where she was sitting. It was extremely gracious of him, and we were grateful not to have to watch the rest of the show from the SRO back of the bar!

The last set started up with Eric sitting in, and like I said before, he sounded really great. I think he's going to put together his own group and start playing out soon... The following tune was a duet between JT and the trumpet player (who'd flown in from NYC to make the date). It was a ballad called "You Don't Know What Love Is". By the end of the tune -- the ENTIRE BAR was dead silent -- no one was speaking, no one was moving, EVERYONE was listening. The patrons, the bartenders, the waitresses. The first dates that didn't want to be there in the first place. The poseurs who'd just stopped in for a few drinks at a hip club. Dead silent. I have never heard a jazz club so quiet in my life. It was truly amazing, and a testimony to the level of artistry onstage.

Good musicians can play good notes. Truly great musical artists can create MOMENTS -- astounding, inspiring, and truly magical.

Carnegie Hall Debut

Tonight, Anthony Bailey and the Hart Regiment will perform "Reflections in a Tidal Pool" at Carnegie Hall in New York City. I am humbled and honored that they've chosen to play one of my pieces on such an auspicious occasion. I wish them the very best for this performance, and will be thinking of them often today.

oh jeez!

Here's a loo-loo of a nightmare for ya, kiddies... CLICK HERE if you don't know what I'm talking about!

GIANT STEPS

Many thanks to Greg "SingCal" Simon for the link to this clip -- http://michalevy.com/gs_download.html

don't worry -- it's more entertaining than just watching some old dude noodling on the saxophone... TRUST ME.

feeding the addiction

It started out simply enough -- innocently enough. I'd mention it, Nicki would say no. I'd tell her I really thought she'd like it; she'd make a sour face and shake her head in disapproval.

Other people would talk about it, and she'd still show no interest... but I could tell her defenses were gradually being broken down, and eventually, I'd be able to convince her to try it. And last Sunday night, after a long weekend filled with running errands and getting organized, I suggested it one more time -- I told her if she didn't like it, we could stop and do something else. She finally caved.

She finally agreed to watch "The Fellowship of the Ring".

And I was right -- she DID like it. At the end of the movie, she shook my shoulder (it was late and having seen it several times, I fell asleep), and with a slightly crazed look in her eye, she said:

"When can we see the next one? Tomorrow night?!?"

I smiled. Mission accomplished. Another fan of Peter Jackson's masterworks. I closed my eyes and said, "sure, no problem."

The following night I brought over "The Two Towers" -- I'd borrowed it from a friend at work. We had dinner and watched it, and she was totally hooked. Half the time I watched her instead of the movie, because her reactions to the drama were so... dramatic. It was all very entertaining. By 11 o'clock, the film was over, and before the credits even started to roll, Nic bolted up, spun around, and with a TOTALLY crazed look in her eye, stated that we MUST find this third movie and watch it NOW. She'd already pulled on her jacket and stood waiting, her car keys in hand, as I try to explain that it's another 3 hours long and maybe we should watch it another night-

She was having none of this -- she needed her fix and she needed it NOW.

So off to Tower Records we go, since they're open till midnight. On the drive there, I teased her about developing a fixation on Hobbits -- she corrected me, stating that she likes the Elves.

Oh boy, I'd gone and turned my beautiful, street-wise-cosmo-cool fiancee into the UBER-GEEK...

We bought the extended version of "Return of the King". 50 extra minutes of footage. Nicki was rapturous with joy. We didn't have a DVD player in the car, so she was forced to wait 12 minutes until we're back on the couch. She'd totally come uncorked on the ride home:

"I'm just sorry that there's only one movie left. I just want it to go on and on and on..."

Y'know, she really does scare me sometimes.

egg sandwich

Pervasive topic on my mind right now? An egg sandwich.

Here's the deal -- if time is tight on the way to work in the morning, I'll grab something from the cafeteria at work. I typically snag whatever food I can stick in my face the fastest, and this morning there were these egg sandwiches they'vd just whipped up and stuck in the warmer. Now I don't know if any of you have noticed this phenomenon, but if you put ANYTHING under a warming light, in return it'll radiate this wonderfully appetizing glow. Even a cardboard box under a warming light will send the same warm, glowing message: "EAT ME!".

Needless to say, I was seduced by an egg sandwich under the warming light. Snag one, pay for it, go back to my writing room, peel back the plastic wrap (hmmm... doesn't look nearly as tempting as it did under the warming light...), and bite in-

Some joker put a fully loaded, sunny-side up egg in this sandwich, and it spews hot day-glo yellow goo out about a foot in every direction. Seriously.

There's egg goo all down the length of my right arm from shoulder to wrist, all over the front of my sweatshirt, and down the right side of my pants. I didn't know a chicken could pack so much goo into one shell! There are even stray drops on my computer keyboard. It probably managed to hit a guitar or two, and the guy next door in the process.

Grrr...

Ode to the Couch

So I'm moving at the end of the month into a new apartment. It's in the same building that Nicki lives in (NOTE: we are not living together -- she's a very nice Catholic girl, thank you very much). But the idea is that I can save some money for the wedding, and it'll be easier for Nic and I to spend time together. The only catch is that this apartment is significantly smaller than anything I've lived in since my sophomore college dorm.

(Actually, that's not totally true: there was the first place I got out of college, where I was rooming with my buddy Jerod in a single room that was so small, it could only fit our two beds and his desk, which he couldn't sit at because the beds were wedged up against it. Seriously -- you had to walk across the beds to move around the room. But that only lasted about 3 weeks until I was evicted. And THAT -- is another story...)

This new place is what's known as an "efficiency". In most major American cities, that means that everything except the bathroom is contained in one room. Evidently, landlords consider that very "efficient". The exception to this rule is New York City, where the bathroom IS in the same room, there's no kitchen, and your friends are jealous because you were sooooooo lucky to find such a great place. But I digress...

What this move means is that it's time to purge -- time to get rid of alot of my bachelor furniture, because it just ain't gonna fit in this new apartment, and it definitely ain't worth paying for storage! What do I mean by "bachelor furniture"?

- The coffee table that I rescued before a buddy threw it in the dumpster (it looks like his high school shop class project).
- The "computer table" I made out of a cracked tabletop and 2 sawhorses.
- The two gear racks I scavenged from my first job with the record company (back when I was living with Jerod in Trampoline Hell).
- The ugly blue dresser I bought from Ikea (yes, I did buy some furniture!) that refuses to die the oh-so-common "Swedish-chipboard" death that I expected to occur at least three moves ago.
- The bookshelves that I got from another buddy's fiancee when she was doing her pre-matrimonial purge... hmmm... that marriage only lasted 2 years... maybe it's a good thing I'm getting rid of those...
- And, of course, it's time to get rid of the bachelor couch. The couch I got for 50 bucks when I first moved to Chicago. The couch that many a good man has cursed while attempting to force it up (or down) a narrow three-story walk-up stairway. (FYI: free pizza and beer are a meager reward when you're the guy who's gotta help with the f&^%ing couch...)

I've watched many a DVD from that couch -- played many a video game. I've passed out on that couch at the end of many a too-tired-to-get-up-and-go-to-bed night, and there have been many out-of-town guests who've crash out on that couch. I've wooed many a young female on that couch, and I've struck out with even more. I've laughed on that couch, I've cried on that couch... well actually, I've never really cried on that couch... BUT THAT DOESN'T MATTER -- purging that couch is a significant event.

"In God's name, WHY?!?" you ask?

I'll tell you.

Because chances are, when I move out of this "efficiency", and I have space in my new place for less-efficient furniture (like say, a couch), it won't be MY couch -- it will be OUR couch. And it definitely won't be the spaghetti-stained, don't-turn-over-that-cushion kinda couch that typifies THAT couch. Mark my words -- this is a line in the sand that is being crossed -- a threshold that is being passed over. This couch is a symbol of my independence. A historical relic of my too-few hours of leisure. It's an icon to bachelors everywhere.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's the end of an era.

If anybody wants to carry it down the two flights of the back fire escape from my old place -- it is all your's.


a dramatic reinactment of the forementioned couch. My couch actually looks nothing like this...

Toon that guitar!

The brother of a friend of mine painted this guitar. He was the lead guitarist with a successful blues band called "Howard and the White Boys", and as you can see, he's also quite an accomplished illustrator! Underneath this wacked-out paint job is a vintage Gibson SG -- this is a custom collector's dream, to be sure. I was so knocked out, I had to take some pictures of it:

the front of the body...

the back of the body...

the front of the headstock...

he even painted the back of the headstock!

the back of the neck... OK kids, name all those cartoon characters (answers below)

close up of the body... the detail is really extraordinary...

close up of the Howdy Doody knobs and the Beavis (or is it Butthead?) pickup selector...

(answers to the back-of-the-neck question, top to bottom: Scooby Doo, Porky Pig, Yogi Bear, Super Chicken, Daffy Duck, and Fat Albert... how many of you actually got Super Chicken?!?!?)

to do list

- track acoustic guitars and banjo at 10 AM
- email Mike Reilly back re: indy film score... compensation differed till distribution, but let's take a look at it anyway...
- call apartment manager AGAIN re: new apartment for April
- contact Ian... share moving van expenses?
- fix levels and mix on game A and B
- fix and implement new musical stingers in game C (attempt # 22, 23, and 24!)
- check out new game D... whew!?!
- read Mackey's blog...
- lunch with Vince?
- email dude at Indiana Purdue about Chaos Theory performance (have to be Feb. 2006)
- comfort Nic after dreaded dentist appointment
- come up with SOMETHING to blog!

Latest spins

Latest CD's I've been listening to:

Pat Metheny "The Way Up" - so brilliant I still don't understand it...
Mahavishnu Orchestra "The Inner Mounting Flame" - where rock fusion began...
Slipknot "Vol.3 The Subliminal Verses" - some fairly cool stuff, but it's amazing how 9 guys can sound like only 4...
Meshuggah "Chaosphere" - still intrigued, ears still bleeding...
Empire Brass "Class Brass" - some really beautiful playing on this disc...
Steve Vai "Real Illusions:Reflections" - hate to say it, but NOT a good album...
Metheny, Bailey, Wertico, Bendian "The Sign of 4" - difficult to find, even more difficult to listen to...

* Last Chance *

Here's another recent tune I did -- called LAST CHANCE. This is another electronica tune, and my goal was to show off alot of MIDI manipulation, as well as synth programming and filter techniques. I also wanted it to sound retro-cool, with kind of a John Carpenter "Escape From New York" vibe... this was for a demo montage, so like RAZORCHASE, I just needed to create a mood, and then I'd let it trail off.

OK Tech-addicts, here's the juice: The synth ostinato and lead bass sounds were created with a Nord Lead 3, which I ran through an Electrix Filter Factory. I did all the manipulation on the Filter Factory by hand, so I could shape the sound however I wanted. I recorded the MIDI data of my perameter tweaks, and then played the MIDI data back into the Filter Factory -- instant MIDI automation. There were multiple passes, so when I finished a layer, I'd bounce the filtered synth tracks and then reset the Nord and Filter Factory to new settings that I came up with. The drum loop is a combination of a Korg Triton loop called "Last Chance to See", some sounds from a Rave Drum Set in a Roland XV-5080, and some really hip stuff that Steve Bryant created and "loaned me" (Thanks SB -- I owe you one, dude!). Most of the wacky percussion sounds were created by running them through the Filter Factory as well. There are also two transitional sound effects from the "Transfusion" sample series. And the "slowed down voice" is actually me, speaking slowly, and then pitch-shifted and altered using the stock spectral effects in Digital Performer.

(I can't say enough good things about the Filter Factory -- in my opinion, it's really the last piece of outboard hardware that any electronic musician needs)

* The Cyclone *

Here's another aural concoction I recently cooked up with my bionic orchestra... I call it THE CYCLONE. It's not the most original (it's a blatant rip-off of Katchaturian's "Sabre Dance") or most inspired (it's ripped-off of the last rip-off I had to do of this same piece!) or most well-orchestrated (it's supposed to be a kooky-circus band, so the orchestration is pretty ham-handed) -- BUT it was what the client wanted, it made the client happy, and as a commercial music composer, that's what the gig is all about. And there is a challenge (however petty and insignificant) in getting as close as you can to a recognized piece of music as you possibly can, without impinging on another's intellectual property rights... Shameless? Yes. Plagiarism? No.

For the techies: the woodwinds are Miroslav Vitous samples, the brass and orchestral percussion are Roland Orchestral samples. I programmed the drums myself, using a standard "XV Jazz Kit" from a Roland 5080 synth. The xylophone is from an Akai sampler CD (it's still the best sounding xylo samples I've found so far!). The bass is John Patitucci's upright from the "Bass Legends" collection. The only "real-live" elements are the guitar glisses, which I played on a DeArmond X-155. All of it was sequenced into Digital Performer.

idiot of the week

The idiot of the week award goes to Tori McWilliams. Tori is married to Carey McWilliams, the man in the picture holding the semiautomatic assault rifle. To his right is a paper target shot full of holes, and seated underneath is the grinning idiot -- thus far, totally unperforated. If you don't see what's wrong with this picture yet, check out this little factoid: Carey is legally blind, but was able to pass his weapons test last Friday afternoon. Yes folks, this legally blind man is legally allowed to live in his own home with his legally-purchased semi-automatic assault rifle and his illegally stupid wife.

Why am I so hard on Mrs. McWilliams? Well, let's assume that Tori was simply not able to talk Carey out of this gun idea; and let's further assume that Carey's sense of hearing and sense of smell was keen enough to recognize he wasn't on a firing range when Tori drove him to a supermarket, put a loaf of french bread in his hands, pointed him towards the deli counter, and told him to it his best shot. And let's even further assume that Tori loves Carey so much that she's willing to risk her LIFE to be with him, even if she could be shot some morning coming down to breakfast when her husband mistakes her for a 4-point buck. I'm a very understanding person -- I don't blame her for any of this.

But I ask you: who was the idiot who decided to hang the prize target on the wall, when her husband can't even see it?!?

change of pace

I had written this looooong blog about a new piece I'd ripped off of a dead composer, and included an mp3, when my computer crashed. I was very upset at the time, but I've decided it was a sign...

NewMusicBox.com is doing a feature this month on composer Stephen Scott (they say never to trust a man with two first names...). He has a 10-minute video clip for a piece he wrote called ENTRADA. Go there. Watch it. Be inspired by somebody who sees the world differently, who has travelled a different path, and has brought some music back for us.

* RazorChase *

I've been writing and recording a LOT of music lately. The styles have been going back and so forth from various extremes, so I've been blowing out and reloading my synths and samplers on a daily basis. This was part of a demo that needed a little more aggro/electronic music in it, and I wanted to show off some audio editing technique. I call this tune RazorChase, and since it was going to be used in a musical montage demo (and I was crunched for time!), I just created enough to give people a taste, and figured I'd fade it out later. This is the unfaded version -- you'll hear the tracks gradually peeling off at the end.

For the tech-heads out there: there is a couple loops from a collection called "Fields of Motion" that dumped to an audio file and then slashed and hacked down to the 16th-32nd-64th-note to give them a more "updated" feel (my thanks to Eric Whitacre for that suggestion!). I also supplimented breakbeats with processed drums from a Korg Triton. Everything else is real -- the main instrument is an Ibanez Ergodyne 5-string bass that I tuned down a half step so it'd sound "flappier", and patched in directly to Digital Performer with a D.I. box. There's some added guitar textures that I layered in with my EMG-loaded Schecter 7-string guitar. Most of the effects were created with Digital Performer plug-ins, although I did use an Electrix Filter Factory for one spot... The opening sound effect is just my fingernail scraped on a low guitar string.

how DO you get to Carnegie Hall?

I don't know, but Carnegie Hall -- here I come! The Hart Regiment is going to perform my "Reflections in a Tidal Pool" in that very hallowed hall on March 25th!

dreamtime

I had a dream last night that Richard Branson made me an ice cream sundae with whatever I wanted on it. Other people kept critizing what I was asking for and making "better suggestions", but Mr. Branson just smiled and told them he was making it the way I wanted it.

The symbolism here is absolutely staggering...

CIRCUS MAXIMUS

OK, everyone is talking about last weekend's Carnegie Hall premiere of John Corigliano's Third Symphony, Circus Maximus. Supposedly, it's not the coolest thing to happen to the concert band, it's the coolest thing to happen in the concert world. Period.

The BCM boards are abuzz, with Newman and Steve talking about it.

John Mackey is talking about it.

Daniel Montoya is talking about it.

Jualiah is even talking about it!

And you know, I had this gut feeling -- this instinct, that this was going to be an event that should not be missed. And I stood at the precipice of Travelocity, ready to buy that plane ticket to New York City, ready to beg, bribe, or steal a ticket to witness Circus Maximus in all it's predicted splendor... and I paused...

Your feeble attempts to persuade me that it wasn't that good are useless, my overenthusiastic comrades. I missed it. And I regret it.

Damn.

* sound effects demo *

I've been asked to submit a sound effects demo for a prospective project -- I put this together last night. These are all sound effects I've made for games. The first third are tweaked-out sound effects, the second third are vocal/dialogue effects, and the last third are all sound effects I made from scratch.

Except the toilet.

Andreas Kapsalis

Forget Kaki King, and move over Michael Hedges... my sincerest apologies for not enlightening you all sooner with the name Andreas Kapsalis. I was introduced to Andreas through his cousin Jeremy -- a very talented graphic artist and friend. He kept insisting I come with him to check out his cousin, so we went to see Andreas playing with his trio at a club in Chicago called The Hot House -- and I was totally blown away. This guy plays guitar like a maniac -- much of the time with all 8 fingers on the fretboard. He's got great technique, a great touch on the instrument, and he's got BRAINS -- his compositions are not just showcases for his technique -- they are actually really GOOD. You can hear examples on his website, or for a limited time, you can download Andreas' version of Pink Floyd's "Money". Remember, this is ONE GUITAR -- no overdubs. Totally mind-blowing.

We hung out one afternoon last summer, drinking beers and shooting the breeze while Andreas chain-smoked filterless cigarettes. A very cool, very funny guy.

Scoreboard

wastebasket = 14
Jim Bonney = 0

That's right folks, FOURTEEN versions of the same application for a tune... and counting. I will learn to read this producer's mind, or I will die trying...