beacon moon 3

to light the brightest beacon

untitled

By Kind Request

I am floored by the kind comments of friends who liked the post I did about local wrestling. There has been some difficulty in locating the post, so....
Here is the link.
Forget about Satan,

DFZ
is
watching
you

File This Under: "Dude?!"

March 26, 2007

By The Associated Press
A motorist drove a car through West Virginia’s open-air, pedestrians-only Veterans Memorial early Sunday morning, damaging at least one black granite panel that lists the state’s war dead, authorities said.

Seriously...my favorite part:

"Capitol Complex surveillance cameras show that Gentry's car entered the area at the Greenbrier/Washington street entrance at about 1:30 a.m., came through the Cultural Center parking lot, then drove to - but was unable to climb - the steps of Cultural Center."

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/200703275
http://wowktv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=21752

...causing an estimated $200,000 damage.

Just whip out the ol' checkbook, Howie?

Justice served: He then drove through the Capitol grounds and out the Greenbrier Street entrance. At that point, the car had sustained extensive damage, including having one tire shredded, according to Thornton.

Gentry was stopped by Charleston police at the Westmoreland Road exit of Interstate 77, about three miles away.

The guy's car broke down because of the damage.

Dude?!

He's at it again

This is George Romero. He's making another zombie film.

How I enjoy when TV makes references to the zombie movie genre. It makes me feel like there are other fans out there. I don't feel so alone and so crazy.

George is already filming away in Toronto. George filmed his last film there. Makes you wonder why his hometown of Pittsburgh didn't snag these two films. Politics and money, no doubt.

untitled

i like texture
in everything
especially music and photos
i like photos that make me want to touch them
thick textures
from the window screen
to the hospital's monstrosities
to a shadow on the back porch

but today is not about these
but bees
these bees return every spring
to claim the carport's beams
as their home
i worked very hard to get my little buddy to pose

he sensed me

and got close enough to feel the wings graze my arm hairs

call me a nature nut
but there was a communion
he kept returning
but never attacked
and could have a thousand times

that's the best shot of the day

the band

i finally got the photos from the gig.

we look:

elderly
relieved
like eggheads
motley
and in desperate need of some fashion consulting.

Just kidding, guys. It was a good start.

Thanks to the photographer!

Borat is a scream

I was in Blockbuster last night, using my rain-check coupon for a free rental of Borat. That whole "guaranteed to be in stock" is quite useful. The gal checking me out said to her co-worker, "It's hard to explain to people. He's a foreigner, but he's not. Some people don't get the joke."

Sure. But then, I think Americans tend to be very literal most of the time. We tend to be outrightly dense when it comes to this kind of humor.

Sasha Baron Cohen plays a dangerous game with this mockumentary, gonzo style humor. Borat is a funny, funny character, but what's funnier is what people reveal to him. They are just being themselves and the moments are priceless. Whether it be rodeo rednecks, Southern belles, drunken frat boys or the guy who works at the grocers, Borat will out you.

Borat, who becomes like a homeless person and ends up sleeping outside of a church, is first ignored by the faithful, but once inside, becomes "saved." It is a view inside the world of the fundamental believers-a freakin' freak show unto itself, but his conversion is screamingly funny.


That being out of the way, this movie made me howl with laughter. There are moments that are so funny you think that your head is going to explode. I literally laughed so hard, I saw stars.

I was a huge Ali G fan before this-another of Cohen's characters that just stick in your brain.

This guy is an original and a comic genius.

Warning: no kids for this one. The naked wrestling scene is quite gross.

Vista Frippery

It's funny I was talking about Fripp. Discovered this link about RF doing the music for Microsoft's new Vista.

Talk about Bobby's propensity for the dark though. You can hardly see anything! But, I have mixed feelings about this stuff. Soundscapes can be quite snoozy and not as effective as the whole Eno approach to ambient. I thought maybe Eno and Fripp's last reunion, Equatorial Stars, would have brought these two ideas together in a new way, but I was disappointed.

Maybe, in the end, it's all about the cowbell.

waiting...

the gig is done

Well, in the end, the gig comes and goes. You play as well as you do and before you can count a 4-4 bar, it's over.

[Left: church gigs are full of post concert socializing.]

We were escorted to the basement for refreshments and to say hello. We were greeted by some really nice people. The feeling for me is happiness brought on by the relief of the pressure being off, and though this may sound disingenuous and as much as I appreciate the compliments, I never feel worthy of them. But, I try not to think about it all too much as this is best for me.

We were a bit thin on material, due to our hectic and full schedules making rehearsal time limited, but with some "show and tell" talking about instruments, we were able to fill the 40 minute requirement.

[Mad scientist Dave setting up. That's his EVI in his hand. Note keyboard, laptop and satellite to the Mothership.]

Being part of a Lenten church series, it was a decent audience in terms of numbers and was comprised mainly of church members, family and friends. They were quiet and really attentive. You could feel them really listening-their presence, so to speak, was encouraging, alert and responsive. Overall, a casual gig and a good one to launch this ensemble.

Regrets always come with the territory. I don't think I've ever played a perfect gig; one that just made me overjoyed. I've been happy, but never satisfied or sure that everything went as planned, but that may just be natural. Usually, you accept the "gain and loss" aspect of playing live. I'm just glad it's over and all the stress is done. There is a sense of accomplishment and mostly relief that no disasters happened.

These days I try to approach live performance with the intention of simplicity. As a young man, I would try to get every musical idea I could think of out of my mind and into my fingers. The results could be rhapsodic, border on chaos, or sound like confused doo doo. I hate listening to tapes-tapes are always devoid of the accompanying emotions and just mechanically preserve the results. You think you did something great, but then the tape says otherwise. That's tough. But, when you approach everything with a sense of calm (hopefully) and fully intending to stay within your technical grasp, with nothing to prove, there tends to be a much better, more satisfying performance for all concerned. Just relax and play. As Fripp instructs his students, "We do nothing." He often begins lessons with nothing but sitting. This acts as a centering.


[Poor Li-li had to open with a piano accompaniment that kept her fingers busy. Here's the four page score of "Sergie's Tune."]

That rare moment of a glimpse into that other level of being, what you could call "out of the body" musical experiences, happened only once during this gig. I was taking a solo on the classic Miles tune "All Blues"- a very common tune, deceptively simple, but easy to mess up. I found myself enjoying my solo-so rare. To designate where the sections begin and end, in our group, the guitar seemed to be the natural choice. I hit the beginning of the solo with a G9 chord like "bah-BAH". It left this huge hole in the sound for a moment. Instead of rushing to fill that space, I let it linger for a moment and in turn, it created a "moment."

I always question everybody a few days after the gig to see how they felt things went. Dave, as of this writing, is the only one I've spoken to and he felt that it went ok. He has a tape.

OH boy! Burn it! Burn it! Destroy all record of it.

Nah. We'll listen. Mostly for our own mistakes....

The group is ready (...seriously...)

If ye remember, I told you that a few friends and me agreed to play a gig as part of a Lenten church music series.

[Left: the sanctuary and the mad scientist of the group, Dave]

Well the day is upon us. Our natural musicians' tendency to procrastinate and take the gig seriously only when we get closer to the actual concert date has hit the emergency alert level.

[Below-Lisa's rig for her flute. She doesn't need a huge amp like that, but she needed one for her keyboard at home and that's what she uses. The foot pedal on top is reverb/echo. The flute run straight is a bit dry, even in a room like this. It adds an almost indistinct fullness to the sound as the effect is buried in the mix.]

When I said yes to this gig back in the fall, March seemed a million miles away. Li-Li herself said she would walk by her calendar, see the date and think, "I've got to get that gig together." When she finally got a hold of me in January, I said, "Are we still playing that gig?" That quote is a source of amusement now, but it exemplifies a typical attitude.

We have played here as a trio four or five years ago, so it feels familiar and new at the same time.

This is a pretty church. I feel instantly comfortable here. That is not always the case. These people are also very nice and generous with the rehearsal time. That is not always the case.

Practicing at Li-Li's safe and comfortable rehearsal room is sweet, and it's easy to get used to those same acoustics. Acoustics are always to be checked out (if possible) before a gig, especially for an electro-acoustic ensemble like us. This room is pretty live, as you might guess from these photos.
I think we call ourselves Icarus, from the Ralph Towner tune we play of the same name, but the paper listed us as Wind and Guitar Trio. We did not submit a name because we did not have one. In fact, we probably didn't have a set list yet-at least not a definitive one yet. We are a quartet- another late-breaking development.

Google images for Icarus and you get some great ones. Icarus is a good metaphor for us because we never know what is going to happen with the technology we use, or rather what Dave uses.

Basically he uses an EVI-a synth you can control with your fingers and breath. Add miles of cables, connectors, amp, and a laptop-it adds up to something far, far more tricky to use "live" than a guitar. We even use a pre-recorded segment on the laptop to transition from one song to another. I wouldn't dare say we are progressive, cutting-edge or any other term to imply that what we do is important in any way, it's just that we are open to more sounds than can be provided by acoustic instruments. Best not to overthink anything, the direction for the music will happen and I trust that.

[Al is the percussionist who is an excellent trombonist. Here he's warming up the African djembe. Yes, that's a bodhran as well.]

My rig is simple. My one addition: a tuner. I use a bass amp because the sound is perfect for a classic guitar. Any smaller speaker and it sounds like a cigar box with rubber bands. Use the best cable as possible-that yields the best tone as well. Gone are the days of cheap cables.

If we get desperate because our setlist is a bit thin right now, we can always resort to this: "Ladies and gentlemen, please turn to Hymn number 213, Amazing Grace. We will sing all twelve verses...just to kill some time."

One For Keith

"Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you."
- T.S. Eliot, "The Waste Land", IV


[Keith, back in the day, was a handsome devil.]

People contemplate the great mysteries of life. Some meditate on the name of God for a lifetime to reach "samadhi"-the total union with the Divine. Some bend their bodies into pretzel-like shapes to find a perfect union between mind and body.
Me? I ask deeper questions. Like" Why is Keith Richards still alive?" Not that I want him dead. No, that would be terrible, but old Keef Riff Hard has laughed in the face of death for sixty four years. He is a medical miracle, a pirate, a rock'n'roll legend, sweet ass rock guitarist and seems like a humble guy.
So, here's one for you, mate. Thanks Keith for the inspiration. By the way, the official web site is a total hoot. Especially, the Ask Keith part. My God, it's gold.