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Turn Off “The News”.2: Rania Khalek goes where the New York Times won’t
Korea has been on my mind recently as I was working on a song based on The Blowback Trilogy by Chalmers Johnson, who I have written about before on this blog. As I reread the trilogy looking for bits to use, I decided to try and use a teachable moment Johnson wrote about. He recounted…
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Listening to.2: While Whirling by Frantz Loriot
The viola is a beautiful instrument but not often a surprising one. Not so here. I know very little about this record, but I do know that it explores the viola in ways that are unusual but aesthetically successful and fully developed. It reminds me of textures from electronic music, which it may be influenced…
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The Core Is Getting Soft.19: Good Kit
It’s been a few years since I’ve done a post in this series about music production software. I’ve been more interested in learning to use a few pieces of recording hardware I’ve acquired from Overstayer in LA and studying Persian classical music of late. But – there are still some software tools that catch my…
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Top 40 Over 40.33: Blemish
I think I’ve found my personal record of the year. It’s Roberta Flack’s First Take. There’s a song on it called I Told Jesus that joins Jesus is Waiting by Al Green as the only songs that give me a feel for what it is about Christianity that moves people. (I was raised in a…
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Show on 7/24 in Durham
I have been on long hiatus from performing due to COVID’s lingering and working but on Sunday, July 24th I will have the distinct pleasure of opening for my friend and sometime collaborator Simon Joyner here in Durham NC. If you are local please consider coming on out with a friend, or telling a friend.…
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Listening to.1: Brandon Lopez
Today I’m beginning a new series of posts on the spring chickens. If you’ve followed this blog for awhile, you know I’ve done a series of posts called Top 40 Over 40 about musical artists who have done work after the big four oh that to my ears is as good if not better than…
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Feel It If You Feel It
A few days ago, the first post – reunion Folk Implosion release came out on Bandcamp. It’s got two new songs – like a double A sided single – with two additional tracks, remixes of those two songs by Scott Solter. It came out on limited edition vinyl, cassette, and unlimited edition CD. The vinyl…
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Minimal Resource Manipulation…
…is the name of a label out of London UK. I’m not quite sure how I found out about them, but I ended up liking the soundscape offerings they have going so much that I bought their whole digital catalogue – 71 releases! – for something like 48 bucks on Bandcamp. It’s my new favorite…
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Remembering Thich That Hanh
Today I would like to pay respects to Thay. His books had a big impact on me when my mom started having them around the house in the mid 80’s, which was how I started to get interested in Buddhism. Thay gave me the Dharma name Great Patience of the Heart during a 3 week…