Despite years of practice. Despite years of playing.
How can it come so naturally behind closed doors. It WAS magic.
It was divine. But upon observation, collectively it was sparse. The frequency lost its charm.
I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to solve for the differential. But I do know how to solve for the frequency.
In other words, short of a quantum explanation a la ‘the double split experiment’ that path shall remain sparse. But upon repeated attempts, a building block can be placed one by one, or as one. And ‘tada, a frequency waveform.
Translation: don’t try to make sense of the divine. Become the divine. Become the divine by emulating the experience of being ‘alone’ but not “alone.”
Becoming is the act of being the thing. Be the sound. Envelop the sound. Inhabit the space. Whether it’s bedroom or stage.
An album of loud purple sounds. Someone popped their eggnog on a fruitcicle and created a new dessert.
When you go looking for an album of magnificence in groove and the possibility of a meow style, you pick downtown for the bass line and uptown for the tempo.
All the guitars work together like a saddle fits on a horse. Everybody finds their way.
Of course the drums do all the talking when they say n”sp “sp “sp “tat “tat and that bass is walking like it don’t care none except right here.
When people say things about me, I’m the baddest mountain. Like a thunder rolled in and said “hey!” Where all my dancers at?
Track One starts out clean and keeps riding till it’s over, no stops, just a belly up slouching cruise with a clear wind carrying the salty coastal air.
Track Two begins calm, but then finds an off ramp and gets subdued when it seems to find a clearing toward the beach.
Track Three is like a reflection of your grandmother’s memoirs that jot down everything from cookies to coastal swims. Beach days are fun, and everyone gets along just fine.
Track Four is a little more calm except when it tends to escalate for a minute as if to say, “hey, I’m here.”
Track Five continues onward like a boat on an anchor, swaying in the sea. The world can’t help but to bring rain. It’s just life.
Track Six reminds us of our mothers and fathers of the world. Those who lift us up.
Track Seven reads like “a Day in the Life,” and sings like “Bitches Brew.”
Track Eight tells us when to be happy and it’s all the time. “Could you be loved?”
Track Nine has more to say. And it’s that “we want more wine, and whiskey, and a good night’s sleep as much as possible. Someone needs to remind us of this more often, and that’s what this song is all about. Funk layered with harmonies and horns and a laid back approach to life in general. Just finding connection and being willing to embrace it for what it is and to do good wherever possible.
Track Ten someone told me to write them a song and here it is. I’m here for you.
Track Eleven slow grooves and a soft voice with some percussive style, congas and hand drums. Where a groove gets locked in. We are here.
Track Twelve bring rain and birds. In no particular order, someone lights a fire in the sky. With no warning, a siren calls and tempts.
Track Thirteen there is always morning to freshen the mood. The warm sun brings a calm. It feels good to soak it in and feel whole. Cosmic guitars bring a groovy vibe.
Track Fourteen we live in a musical space. Sound is our friend. We know it when we heart it. Soothing, vibey, a tip of the hat. A step in my walk. It’s all the same. Just groove with it.
The Road Ahead envisions the world as a better place. This better place, like all human constructs, is only as real as you make it.
The song, Long Couple of Days, is about finding your groove. This, and other new songs, will be released as the Cosmic Cowboys.
The Road Ahead is like finding your way home. Coming Home.
See tags
The past is future
Positivity in motion
Cosmic cowboys ?
I can feel it in my teeth. The tingles gives one a feeling of both numbness and pressure. The rolling waves crushed me to the bones, but I was not afraid. From hammer to stone, it is my only feeling.
“Where will we go?” she asked as the canyons echoed.
My 10-minute timer is ringing as I sit at my desk writing this blog post. I hop over my Robot Vacuum (RV) that has been cleaning my home today, and I have to pause:
RV can be stowed in its home base charging station under the couch. Normally, RV will cannibalize its own equipment that prevents a return to home base for charging. But now the life-giving extension cord is protected behind a make-shift ramp made of two long and skinny plastic covers (I will later find that this is not sufficient, and simply tape the cord to the floor like a pro).
These plastic covers were designed for its original use to hide the insides of my TV mount, like the armor of a brazen knight, that I recently removed from its nearly 9th year on my wall. It was stuck and audibly grumbled as I yank’d the 20lb mount.
As I make my way into the kitchen I can see the water has come to a rolling boil. I add the eggs as I have become accustomed to doing using a silver ladle spoon that cups the eggs perfectly for control and placement.
After the eggs are safely in their home I turn to my very tasty detox tea.
I read the label as the tea cools:
“Detox Tea, with cardamom, fennel, aniseed and licorice root. Here’s to new beginnings, shrug off old and embrace the new.”
Something tingled inside and I remembered the fortune cookie:
“Next month new beginnings…”
Moments later I realize I had not set a timer to help cook the boiling eggs. Normally I set a timer for 8 minutes using my Echo. I do some quick math and have difficulty arriving at the remaining time for boiling, so I set a 5 minute timer and a 4 minute timer. The question is have the eggs been boiling for 3 or 4 minutes so far?
I return to my freshly brewed Detox Tea and take a sip. “Aaahhhhh.”
I should stay here, but instead pontificate further:
In conclusion, I felt it was best to pull the eggs after 4 more minutes (mainly, to write this blog). This allows for a slower cooling method (insurance) so the eggs can continue cooking before adding cold water.
Later on I realize that I think I may have overdone it, and actually I forgot to set a timer for cooling as I’m once again prioritizing Our Story.
Priorities are fine, but this seems like a sign of what I need to watch out for: mindfulness.
Okay, it’s both, and: Scratch the timer issue as I did have a timer going and turns out I was a mere 10 seconds early.
Mindfulness. Relying so much on technology can be troubling, and it is I that does the doubling. Here and now, far and wide, my cells will not relent as they divide. What was there is now once more, a version of me within a Cosmic Score.
I swear I also made this same blog entry last year. Lesson learned, or was it? Swearing is fine, but I know for sure I wrote this post in 2019, and THIS here, now, THIS actual post NOW.
When I dubbed this gig “Unplugged” I did not know that I would actually need to be completely “Unplugged.” I should’ve sensed that something was up when my home PA malfunctioned by making a repeating, alarming, sweeping, ascending tonal sound… like what you might hear during an apocalyptic scenario. What the fuck?
I’ve been singing about going High or Low in a yet-to-be-released track, and as I’m writing this paragraph I am laughing out loud at the idea of a malfunctioning low to high ascending tone.
Okay, whatever. We all find parallels in daily life if we are willing to look, and pay attention. Mindfulness helps, and even when we’re not paying attention shit tends to slap you in the face when you least expect it. Of course, even though I search for good and pleasant inspirational parallels, I don’t always pay attention, mindfully, because of the nature of 21st Century life and the human condition in general. Technological distractions, malfunctions, ramming, prodding, vying for space. I just glanced at my phone and read another scary, nearly apocalyptic, headline involving a “brain eating amoeba” What the…
Apart from scary headlines, fear-based news in general, and other distractions, what else is up with mindfulness and better ways to delve into creative communication, sort of the point of this blog, Perspective In Sound?
I heard my song “Maybelline” on the radio earlier. Fuck yeah!
Broadcasting Live from Shannon’s Corner on Pine. KLBP 99.1 FM Long Beach, CA!
Also, I heard Alyssa Nighswonger, friend and multi-talented artist, on KLBP 99.1 FM Long Beach, CA while writing… She asked, “What’s the point?” which is what drew me to say what the point of this blog was above.
This is how my brain works. Don’t eat me, amoebas! Please preserve my twisting, interconnected, multiple-outcome reality as blood pumps through my trillions of synapses to form growing positive connections!
What else? Well, making sense of all this in 2019 requires a high-speed broadband Internet connection and well-functioning CPU. My 2012 iMac has not been cutting it lately, but it’s not Mac’s fault… It is I, the master of my CPU, that is holding on to too much content. Lately, I’ve been sorting through old content since I started taking pictures of mostly nonsense from about 2000 (y2k, baby!) up until I moved to Barcelona, Spain in 2007 where I got a chance to photograph more creatively. Just before I left for Spain, I bought the re-popularized Holga toy camera made out of cheap components to give the user a flawed photographic experience that over-accentuates the natural beauty of the Universe. Colors, light leaks, overexposure, etc. all adds to what has now been replaced by your Instagram filter, or countless other ways in which you can manipulate the world around you to suit your liking.
When I was much younger, barely a teenager, I made a few time-lapse videos using legos, fire, a Santa Claus doll, whatever I could conveniently get my hands on. Later on, my sisters and I made a film, Killer In the House, Part 1 and Part 2…
The goal is to make it entertaining. For better or for worse, at the moment…
So as I’m cleaning up my Hard Drive, thereby improving my CPU, I am working on how to stay centered, mindful and patient…
Back to the gig on Saturday, the 14th after our Friday the 13th Full Harvest Moon Adventure into the Wasteland. I started noticing the pull of this rare full moon the night beforehand on Thursday the 12th as my PA was malfunctioning… then during our Wasteland Adventure, and up until the gig on Saturday I was still feeling as prickly as a Night Blooming Cactus. Of course, as I got on stage my guitar pickup malfunctioned… so we mic’d my acoustic guitar, Unplugged. It’s weird how the Universe does that to you.
Saturday the 14th @ Dipiazzas
Keeping It Honest is all about the stuff that is out of your control and you shall not fight, it is embracing the chaos around you so much so that you become the chaos, figuratively speaking, just so that you can see things from a different perspective, also known as Empathy. Courage helps…
It’s been a ‘fun’ summer, learning these lessons, and I’m ready for Fall, falling into my next release series, including new music later this month, Live One!
Update 1 of 2: it turns out that the reason my guitar didn’t work at the gig was because the backup battery I had on hand was indeed also dead like the one in my guitar when I first found out the pickup wasn’t working. So either there are powers conspiring against me (and also for me in terms of the creative potential that it creates through its resistance) OR I did this to myself. Both can be true, but also just one of these options can be true, alternatively. I love alternative music, too.
Update 2 of 2: Live One was eventually released on March 10, 2020, just days before the world shut down due to COVID-19. Again, either there are powers conspiring against me (and also for me in terms of the creative potential that it creates through its resistance) OR I did this to myself (I did in fact have a clairvoyant moment the week before ‘the shutdown’). Both can be true, but also just one of these options can be true, alternatively. I love alternative music, too. But not death metal typically.
Perspective In Sound 