Finally have a pruned down a first draft list of 48 songs that I think are fairly representative of pop/rock/alternative and sometimes folk influences.  It’s difficult to determine a fair criteria that would cover everyone’s needs.  For my own, these are a good representation of lyrics and hooky materials that I think can be used [...]

Continue reading " The List "

photo credit: Blu_walkingshadow
I get annoyed at reading some  of my more conservative musician friends posts recently.  Specifically how they tend to marginalize the commercial music these days – dismissing it as contrived and career-calculated – where each aspect is controlled by an imaginary hierarchy of marketing teams.  Where music has no meaning outside of a holy [...]

Continue reading " On My Mind "

photo credit: Stepheye
It’s been a while since I’ve been motivated to write anything here regarding music.  Part of this sleep has been the transition and imbalance in my mind on what I want to do with music in general – which I believe I have indicated well enough with my most recent rants and regurgitations.  Another [...]

Continue reading " A Long Sleep "

A busy day yesterday didn’t leave me as much time for twiddling at the piano, but yet I did have time to listen to my pile of RV Williams Symphonies, of which I find #3 the best to listen to, although I like them all.  I seems to gravitate to #2, #3 and #5, with [...]

Continue reading " Midweek Squeaks "

Quite an adventure yesterday to the Optometrist, and a number of tests I never took before.  The most surprising thing that I discovered was a form of eye muscle problems that results in my inability to read very well and for very long without stress or distortion.  This stems back to my late pre-teens.  What [...]

Continue reading " I me see "

In a mixed weekend, I wondered how people get the chance to stay focused.  Although I had plenty of time to compose, the majority of it was spent performing monthly bills, a large Saturday reading through the voting proposals for Tuesday, and driving to visit a distant table tennis club about 50 miles away from [...]

Continue reading " Movin’ and a Shakin’ "

Once George W. Bush had seized the moment, standing on the pile of rubble at Ground Zero and mouthing into his bullhorn a John Wayne oath of vengeance, the country as a whole began to buckle, yielding up decades of hard-won civil rights and allowing itself to be manipulated by cynical appeals to patriotism, xenophobia, and [...]

Continue reading " Delusional Self Centered Composer "

photo credit: Craig Loftus
Delighted by some progress this week, and it’s becoming more clear that my intellectual pursuits should be expanded by more cognitive approaches.  It’s always been a panacea to place so much emphasis on performance and improvisation skills – the main reason is that very little actual work comes from it directly that [...]

Continue reading " Composing Status Update #48 "