Web Log Archive January 23rd through February 5th, 2005

Saturday, February 5, 2005

Posted a new mix of "To Lose" last night...still working to tighten up the three-part vocal.

I have a (let's call it) maudlin habit of reading obituaries. Not only of famous/important people but of walk-arounds from both here in the SF Bay Area and from back around the New Jersey shore, where I should have grown up. Today I came across one that is certainly weird. This is the "moving story"! Whew! There are old people and there are bold people...but are there any bold old people?

Friday, February 4, 2005  Thirty one years ago today, Patricia Hearst was kidnapped from her Berkeley apartment.

One of my favorite lyrical stanzas occurs in a song (OK, it's corny) by Don Williams:

"I know with all my certainty
What's goin' on with you and me
Is a good thing.
It's true: I believe in you."

Thursday, February 3, 2005

Dunno how true this is...but check it out: http://costofwar.com/. (Thanks, Kirsten.) Prepare to bite your nails!

"Praise is more obtrusive than blame." (Thanks,  Freddy.)

But how 'bout this story? Say what? Ah don't get it!

Wednesday, February 2, 2005 Yup! Groundhog Day!

I had a curmudgeonly anthropology teacher who liked to say that Pope John Paul II (John Paul I, you may remember, was murdered within thirty-three days of taking office) "could be stupid in twenty-one languages". But I know we're all gonna miss 'im. Pretty soon it just won't make any sense to say, "Is the Pope Polish" and, "Are geese Catholic?"

OK...here goes: I DO hate to be an &*(%^$#, but how is this dweeb entitled to 15 mil? I mean, a couple a hundred thou...OK...a new set a tires fer his Jeep...a case a chocolate...but he asked for eight and a half million and the jury gave him almost twice that!?! What!?! I mean...how was he harmed? Ya mean, he didn't f'n notice that his mug had been on that jug for sixteen GD years? Maybe he shoulda been drinking something to wake him up! Was that Nestle's fault, fergodsake?  [Although, at least, he has demonstrated that he doesn't drink creekwater! :-)] Give us this day our daily break!
And that reminds me of several chickadees who, some years back at the BHC where I was confined, were paid gobs a dough because they had to look at some dirty pitchers which some terminally-bored half-wit had sent to their workstations! What!?! Lots of us poor bastards have had to pay to get to look at dirty pitchers! Why I oughta!

Tuesday, February 1, 2005  Two years ago today, the orbiter Columbia broke up over Texas.

I posted my second Pro Tools production last night. Give a listen...please.

Ya know...I never expected that I would ever learn (for "have-to sake" or otherwise) about drums. I mean, it's not like I really do know, yet, very much. It's just that I know tons more now than I did at this time last year. The other subject I never started out to learn is/are all the issues of sound recording. So far, I have learned just enough to produce a piece without distortion...at a healthy listening volume, without excessive noise and with reasonable tonal balance and clarity. But oh...that's just the beginning! So far, the one so-called "plug-in" of Pro Tools which I find to be nearly unusable is the reverb. It never seems to do anything but make things sound mushy. Other member-users of the online List that I monitor have made a similar observation. Instead of the reverb, I make good use, I think, of the compressor and the delay plug-ins.

Monday, January 31, 2005

I finished reading Bob Dylan's autobiography, "Chronicles, Volume One". Much of the book was fascinating to me because I am familiar with many of the people and places described therein and I share the author's enthusiasm for our country's folk music heritage. So many of Bob's heroes are my heroes. When he gushes about Robert Johnson (the great but short-lived-and-elusive Mississippi blues man) I gush right along with him! I mean, just to read about and recall the tracks from Johnson's never-to-be-equaled album(s) on Columbia ("Crossroads", "Come On In My Kitchen", "When You Got A Good Friend", "Hellhound On My Trail", "Ramblin' On My Mind") causes my eyes to well up, my spine to tingle and my pulse to quicken! [Incidentally, Johnson traveled for a time (~1936) with a man by the name of "Johnny Shines".] But most people I've known and worked with in the everyday world (and many in the music world...even rabid Bob Dylan fans) have never even heard of Robert Johnson...OR Blind Lemon Jefferson...OR Leadbelly! And I expect that most of these people would not be enthralled even if they did get to hear him...OR them. So what I'm saying is, for all MY gushing, I strain to imagine how Dylan's free-form recollections can be of general interest. For those in search of biographical timelines or salacious gossip: search elsewhere! There are, in fact, almost no dates cited and nary a confidence breached!
Although four or five times during the narrative, he seems about to reveal "how he did it"...he never does. He claims, in fact, that he did not even set out out to BE a songwriter! Perhaps most surprisingly, he claims to have had no particular interest in politics or world affairs! So...Robert Zimmerman does not know how he came to be Bob Dylan: the standalone greatest folk-pop (or pop-folk) songwriter of my generation! He seems to say that if he could do it all over again (not only couldn't he do it all over you)...he maybe couldn't do it at all! He describes a sequence of events (in New York City in the early 60's)...fortuitous and serendipitous. His analysis is sober...solid. He gives well-deserved credit to John Hammond, the pre-eminent folklorist and A&R man at Columbia, for betting on him while lesser executives at lesser labels wouldn't even ante up. [Elton John has said that had he (Elton) not gotten some breaks and been successful early on, he's not sure he could have held on!] Bob was willing, in the face of scant encouragement from friends and family, to not have his own place to live and not, in fact, have any of the comfort or security which is sine qua non for most of us. In voicing some insight in this regard, Bob has given the lie to any (call them) "rumors" about his megalomania. No. He "simply" was and is a man with considerable talent and a single-minded devotion to his craft. And, like most people possessed of such talent and devotion, he cannot tell you how or why he does it. He just can, or could...and does, or did.
For a while in the late '60's, I taught lots of guitar lessons and many people came to me for the sole purpose of learning to play Bob Dylan songs. One kid, in particular, stands out in my memory these thirty-five years later. Nicknamed "The Heavy Cat" by my first love, this dude wanted to be SURE that he did not EVER learn anything that Bob Dylan didn't know! (Presumably, in the belief that any such knowledge might defeat his plan to, someday, BECOME Bob Dylan!) So deep ran his adulation! But this book ought to dispel any notion that Dylan was ever a musical pygmy or an idiot savant. Columbia PR did not attempt to disabuse the public of the widespread misapprehension that he was some mystical, poetical drug-ee who also happened to flail away on a guitar. But that WAS a misapprehension. Bob's musical knowledge is broad and deep and he has always known his own "comfort zone".
For lengthy stretches of the book, I struggled to pay attention. Protracted descriptions of his recording partnership with one Danny Lanois  in New Orleans in the late 80's come off as an "apology" (NOT in the commonest sense of that word, like "I'm sorry", but rather in the near-opposite sense: 'a formal justification or defense'.) It was as if he were explaining to a small group of people why he did what he did and why he felt as he did at a particular time. But most of us, of course, were not in attendance at any of these (literally and figuratively) stormy recording sessions and so can't possibly give a rat's rear end about any of it! Throughout the book, Bob seems acutely aware that his words will be read by the very people about whom he is writing...and he takes pains to insult not even one of them! Quite understandable, to be sure, but this lack of candor also makes for not-riveting reading! 
At times, the book regresses to a "pay-by-the-word" style, wherein he stretches out sentences and descriptions quite unnecessarily. For example, when he recounts his visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (with short-term girlfriend Suze Rotolo), he actually lists the painters whose works were on display! Hello? Bob? Wake me up when you get to the verb!
Still in all, I came away from this book liking Bob Dylan more than I liked him before! There is a compelling guilelessness about him. And there's even humility: for while you sense how very intelligent he is and you already know that he's written some great songs (like "Dear Landlord" and "Pity The Poor Immigrant")...in this autobiography you also get to see that he's fallible...and mortal. He's "one of us"!  

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Oh, those freedom-loving Iraqis!
I've been up all night watching the men's tennis finals from Australia...NOT! Oh goody! I see that Bolshevik playwright Marat Safin defeated criminal descendant Lleyton Hewitt! Proof! There is a God!

Saturday, January 29, 2005

So what if it's shopworn? Desiderata is still a gripper!

Can you imagine if you were a wealthy man who had just struck and killed someone with your luxury car...and then fled the scene...because you had been drinking (although, of course, you weren't drunk)? Here's a tragic local story with just such a theme. Imagine having to conceal your $70,000.00 car in one of the garages of your big, beautiful "towering" home! Would you try to disassemble the vehicle to the point that, if and when it was examined by the police, it could no longer be linked to the accident? And, because it would make it harder on investigators working from pieces of your car left at the crash scene, would you wish you had been driving a Ford Taurus instead of a Jaguar Vanden Plus? 

"Humbled by the loss of control and fearful of the future, many older people complain incessantly..."

Friday, January 28, 2005

This is the 19th anniversary of the Challenger Disaster. We had just bought our first VCR...yes, a VHS (not a Beta) model (made by Mitsubishi). I pause as I recall the price: with tax it was about $450.00! After serious and mysterious whirring noises (as loud as an electric can opener)...a movie appeared! My son was just 18 months old and this turned out to be a VERY good way for me to spend "quality time"...with another adult! Within a few weeks, the kid could load and unload the tapes and play and pause and rewind and fast forward and...on and off. God bless you, Mary Poppins! The kid had the whole movie etched in memory...and so did I (and so DO I). [All these humorless notions about limiting the time these little stinkers get to watch TV! Later for that! We be talkin' survival here, folks! Funny thing, as a grownup, this kid eschews TV.]

In the "it was bound to happen" department: Master Musician Bing Nathan has launched his own Web site and it looks great! Very exciting!

Plodding along every day with my programs and my gadgets (only thirty years behind Daryl Dragon), I feel as though I have taken apart a large vehicle in my driveway...with only some hope of ever getting it started again...but knowing that if and when I do...it'll be a screamer!  

No matter how far you have gone down the wrong road...turn back! (Thanks, Jay!) 

Go for it, Jesse! [Meanwhile, we be stuck with Arnold!]

Thursday, January 27, 2005

If you like depressing news days (and who doesn't?), then yesterday was for you. Even without the LA train disaster...it's hard not to draw the inference that Bush's rare and  impromptu news conference was a tactic to divert the news machines from spending TOO much time on the worst day yet for our kids in Iraq, where a war is being fought BY poor people FOR rich people (and paid for by those in-between).

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

"If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong. I do not say "give them up," for they may be all you have; but conceal them like a vice, lest they should spoil the lives of better and simpler people."  This sure sounds like something that Nietzsche might have tossed off but, in fact, it was written by Fred's contemporary, Robert Louis Stevenson who, sickly by turns throughout his life, died quite suddenly (and most unexpectedly) of a brain aneurysm on the evening of December 3, 1894. The story goes that he was helping his wife, Fanny, with dinner. She (a wealthy American divorcee, some ten years his senior) and he were in Samoa somewhere when he was heard only to remark, "I don't feel well" before dropping to the floor at age 44...ruining dinner.
Many in my generation were introduced to RLS by  Treasure Island, the Disney movie. Not until I was well past voting age did I realize that he was quite a remarkable man...iconoclastic and overflowing with talent and insight. The following quotation makes me feel that the Scotsman would have been easy to talk to today: "We all know what Parliament is, and we are all ashamed of it."

Tuesday, January 25th, 2005

Lotsa  coverage of the death of Johnny Carson. Frankly, I was not a fan. But it's not like I hated him, either. It just made me feel uncomfortable to watch him. He seemed on edge...phony...and had one especially distracting nervous habit of repeatedly reaching up (with his right hand) to adjust his necktie. Once this habit was pointed out to me, I could never watch him again without fairly fixating on that tic. Few people would describe Ed Sullivan as "smooth" or graceful, but he seemed relaxed in (and with) his own awkwardness...at ease with himself, I mean. It did not make me feel uncomfortable to watch him. Ed wasn't ever trying not to be "square". Square was OK.
I know it's stupid and not-a-bit fair for me to contrast these two guys. Sullivan was strictly a host and never a participant in any featured entertainment...but Carson had to seem a modern Everyman. [Imagine having to avoid the word "pregnant"...or even "toilet".] Because the boundaries of network television entertainment have always been drawn by (impersonal) market forces, there's "too expensive", "too cheap" and "just right". Carson was never permitted to be too good and he could not have survived if he were ever too bad! He had to stay "just right"! Well then, no wonder he was so uptight: friend to everyone...lover (or enemy) to no one. 

Monday, January 24th, 2005

This morning marks the one week interval since I've had the fishwrap delivered and I'm near-to-shocked at how much I don't miss it (after at least twelve uninterrupted years)! Retrieving and reading it every morning had become a mere habit: something making about as much sense as cigarette smoking. I suppose what I really don't miss is getting mad about so many things over which I am powerless. I mean, I got plenny-a-things that I can do something about (to get mad about).

Ever since I started blogging (more than two months ago) I've been planning to blog about blogging. It's early (today) and I'm not (yet) in a real windy mood but there is a timely article in today's cyber-wrap which merits examination and discussion. Now...although I'm not so solipsistic as to think that very many people are interested in the quarters & dimes of my life, I am mindful that somebody might read these variegated pages and so I endeavor to be prudent and respectful of whomever else I may reference. [Well, OK...exceptions are made in the case of you-know-who and his band of evil-doers.] Also, I am fastidious about not editing (for content) anything I affix (after it is more than one day old). Again...not that anyone would notice or care, but a blog needs to be kept with integrity! The writings must be from the date that appears above them or they no longer make up a 'Web Log'...as I understand the term. Some days I find myself with nothing to blog about, but other days (like these last few, especially since I discontinued the paper) I find myself with, perhaps, too much!
I am working up to six hours per day on MIDI and Pro Tools. [Incidentally, this has done nothing to soothe my hemorrhoids.] I'm realizing that I must buy a synthesizer (just a cheap one, at first, until I'm more confident in my understanding). Another program I'm studying and learning is called "Print Music". But more on that later. I gotta see if I'm feeling good enough, this morning, to go running! ;-)

Sunday, January 23rd, 2005

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the
paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou
art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the
presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my
head with oil; my cup runneth over.  Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life and I will dwell in the house of 
the Lord forever.

I felt honored yesterday morning to get to listen to a gorgeous recording of one of my older songs. Thanks, Chuck!

In more bright news, I learned that the wise and venerable Charlie Hickox has felicitously launched CharlieHickox.com and posted a startup collection of his tunes. Give a listen, especially, to "Can't Make You Love Me". 

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