Labels: Ignition, insomnia, music, Obama

Labels: computers, Ignition, music, sick

Labels: basketball, house, Ignition, life, party, photography

Labels: homepage, Ignition, painting

Labels: demo, Ignition, Impulse Nine, mp3, music

Labels: Ignition, lyrics, music, Suns

I decided recently that I'm still a pretty big slacker. So I'm trying an experiment. I'm letting myself slack to an extent, but I'm limiting my options to "acceptable" ways of slacking. I've decided that all of these things are ways I can allow my self to slack off:

• Post a MySpace blog.
• Play guitar and work on Ignition (my new album).
• Dream up new Art class assignments.
• Consider and note new ideas for my car.
• Update my homepage.

I'm hoping that by doing this, I'll either stop slacking or at least, have a good blog, finished album, an interesting Art class, an awesome car, and a cool homepage by the time I learn not to slack.

To clean the apartment to help prepare to move; I've already fixed a toilet and am about 7/8ths of the way through re-organizing and going through all of our files (W2's, reciepts, titles, etc.).

This also has other, cooler things I can do with a week of time on my hands. I inherited a pile of about 300 CD's from Maloney's when they went with an all-Mp3 based system. A lot of them are crap, and a lot of them are scratched, but I figure this is as good as any an opportunity to add to my Mp3 collection.

I can attempt to give Rachel a functioning computer (again). I even have a legit copy of XP to use now, too, so that'll save some headache.

And to plan for the rest of the semester at school. I really jumped into the semester but had a lot of problems with organization. Now that I'm more or less caught up with that part (heh, though I still have a huge pile o' grading to do yet), I can start planning lessons a bit better, maybe through the whole year (I hope).

Currently reading : Silverlock By John Myers Myers

Labels: BASIS, blog, cars, Ignition, Maloney's, mp3, MySpace, school, taxes, teaching

Labels: anecdote, demo, Ignition, Impulse Nine, jazz, music, true

My wife was giving me an example of a person who is (1) completely certain of themselves and (2) dead wrong when she said a co-worker adamantly proclaimed that the Blues came from Jazz.

No. That's like saying that Sumi-e came from Japanese landscapes - yeah, they were done at the same time, and they had some similar ideas, kind-of, but ... no. You're wrong.

However ...

They do tag along together sometimes, and the best example I can think of is the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack(s). There's a lot of versions, and I happen to have all of them. Ranging from Pop to Jazz to Blues to the positively quirky, it's really completely brilliant - not unlike the show, really.

In working on my own music, I've been toying with this sort of cosmo approach to genres, shoving in whatever works for whatever reason, and I'm back to having a good time with music.

Today, I had a bad migraine and so sat down to play guitar ('cos I can do it with my eyes closed and sitting up and closing my eyes is the least painful position to be in, for me, when a migraine strikes). Came up with a song that I'll share here with Myspace's new Podcast ability. I'm hoping that with this particular song I will actually meld a bit of Blues and Jazz. Though in its current state, it's much more Blues than Jazz. I'm hoping that with some unusually Jazzy bass guitar, and a more complex rhythm track, I'll have that. (Even though it's already pretty much polyrhythmic; the three instruments are all playing different rhythms - but it works).

The song is named Mars' Dirt. Fair warning - it's (exactly) 10 minutes long and 12 MB. Aaand it's mostly noodling. But I'm happy enough with it to post here. It will be replaced, eventually, with the finished version.

I guess my investigation into Romanian and Eastern European folk songs (i.e., from The Historian, mentioned in a previous entry) will have to wait few more days...

Impulse Nine - Mars' Dirt

Currently listening : Cowboy Bebop By Yoko Kanno

Labels: demo, idiots, Ignition, Impulse Nine, jazz, migraine, music, stories, true

My wife was giving me an example of a person who is (1) completely certain of themselves and (2) dead wrong when she said a co-worker adamantly proclaimed that the Blues came from Jazz.

No. That's like saying that Sumi-e came from Japanese landscapes - yeah, they were done at the same time, and they had some similar ideas, kind-of, but ... no. You're wrong.

However ...

They do tag along together sometimes, and the best example I can think of is the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack(s). There's a lot of versions, and I happen to have all of them. Ranging from Pop to Jazz to Blues to the positively quirky, it's really completely brilliant - not unlike the show, really.

In working on my own music, I've been toying with this sort of cosmo approach to genres, shoving in whatever works for whatever reason, and I'm back to having a good time with music.

Today, I had a bad migraine and so sat down to play guitar ('cos I can do it with my eyes closed and sitting up and closing my eyes is the least painful position to be in, for me, when a migraine strikes). Came up with a song that I'll share here with Myspace's new Podcast ability. I'm hoping that with this particular song I will actually meld a bit of Blues and Jazz. Though in its current state, it's much more Blues than Jazz. I'm hoping that with some unusually Jazzy bass guitar, and a more complex rhythm track, I'll have that. (Even though it's already pretty much polyrhythmic; the three instruments are all playing different rhythms - but it works).

The song is named Mars' Dirt. Fair warning - it's (exactly) 10 minutes long and 12 MB. Aaand it's mostly noodling. But I'm happy enough with it to post here. It will be replaced, eventually, with the finished version.

I guess my investigation into Romanian and Eastern European folk songs (i.e., from The Historian, mentioned in a previous entry) will have to wait few more days...

Impulse Nine - Mars' Dirt

Currently listening : Cowboy Bebop By Yoko Kanno

Labels: idiots, Ignition, Impulse Nine, jazz, migraine, music, stories, true

Labels: anecdote, demo, Ignition, Impulse Nine, mp3, music

Labels: anecdote, demo, Ignition, Impulse Nine, mp3, music

Also - why are they called 'speed bumps' -- shouldn't it be 'slowing bumps' or 'destroy your suspension bumps'?

Finally, I am going to be posting a rotating set of song snippets and ideas from my next (4th) album, called Ignition. For all five of you that read this. If anybody who reads these are disposed to critique music, I'll post a link probably tomorrow to a place over on impulsenine.com and you can tell me how good or how shit they are.

Currently listening : Pop By U2

Labels: cats, demo, Ignition, Impulse Nine, mp3, random, women

This is a boring blog entry. Fair warning. I'm also experimenting with making highlights and such so that my blogs can be read more quickly, just getting the high points. I'm debating whether or not to attempt to actively find friends on MySpace, so to make my little blog a bit more public.

On the plus side, I would like to have feedback for all of these little ideas and stories I have. In particular, it occured to me to start posting songs that I've been writing for feedback. I have about seventy song ideas and demos recorded already for the next album, not including the songs I have written out but aren't recorded yet (that's another dozen or so). It would be nice to be able to say, 'you know what, this idea isn't working' and just ditch it before I waste too much time on it. Also, having an active readership and feedback encourages me to keep writing.

On the downside, it takes time. And I really don't need any more excuses than I already have to not work on my at-home job, being graphic design. Also, when you've got little numbers like 'views', 'kudos', and comments and such, it's easy to qualify your work based soley on those numbers and comments. This is not good. Public be damned, I do what I do. No offense.

Labels: blog, demo, Ignition, Impulse Nine, music, MySpace

I'm working on two albums at the moment - seems to be the way I work best musically. The first to be done will be Ignition, which is Exhaust's sister album (link). The other is Black Action Soul, a harder rocking and darker album. It also has a lot of lyrics that are based on other peoples' lyrics. The thing is that they're all lyrics that I misheard as something else that I think is better. For example, I misheard "Black as your soul" (from Head Like A Hole) as "Black Action Soul" ... which is so much cooler.

Incidentally, I already know the next album concept after Black Action Soul .. I'd like to do an entire album of songs that work on their own but also could be played over and harmonize with other peoples' songs. Wouldn't that be wild? And don't steal my idea.

You can't do that in heaven / You can't get your head in
You should know that well / You can't do that here.

Ever wonder why they kill the weak ones / Baby

Currently listening : London Calling By The Clash

Labels: anecdote, Black Action Soul, Exhaust, Ignition, Impulse Nine, music