Tag: audio
Been A Long Time
It’s been over a month since I posted anything, but I’m home sick with a soar throat today, so I’ve got the first free hour in a while. My buddy Mark made my day several times recently by sending me reminders to blog. That’s the beauty of a blog, it’s for yourself, and the ones that care about you. So nice to know someone misses you. Godin says, what people really want is to be missed when they’re not there.
At work, we finally launched two new sites that we’ve been working on for over a year. It’s a relief, but it brings a whole new set of problems now that they’re live and being handed off to me. At home, Maile’s working more, Anais is more of a handful (of the best kind) every day, and all of my little side projects add up to a lot of work sometimes.
My rule of three has been breaking down because I’ve been so busy, at work and at home. Not sure how to re-apply my rule except to remind myself not to care too much about 4, 5, 6, and beyond.
Here are a few things I’ve been up to.
1) My kid’s band Family Time Rocks! released our first album as a free download.
Checkout Bananas, a song I sing that Sara and I wrote together.
2) We dressed Anais up as a ladybug for her first Holloween.
3) My mom was in town for my Grandma KK’s 90th bday. She picked out some old photos, I scanned them and made a slideshow we projected at the party.
With my remaining 3 hours (while the nanny has Anais) it’s back to #3, music. I’ll get ready for my gig this Sat night at Flipnotics and work on my album, FOK DUB. (It’s mired in file management issues at the moment, so I’ve got to consolidate two hard drives worth of sessions. Not the fun part.).
FOK DUB at Jovita’s
Me and the FOK dUb All stars played Jovita’s last Friday. Here are a few clips of the righteous horns and some pics of the celebrants.
Vera Smiles
Maile knows a wonderful Russian woman named Vera who studied drama and taught it to kids. So when we were looking for someone to speak Russian for a kid’s album I’m working on, Vera immediately came to mind. Tonight she came over, preformed and translated this poem.
Улыбка
От улыбки хмурый день Ñветлей!
От улыбки в небе радуга проÑнетÑÑ.
ПоделиÑÑŒ улыбкою Ñвоей
И она к тебе не раз еще вернетÑÑ!
И тогда навернÑка вдруг заплÑшут облака,
И кузнечик запиликает на Ñкрипке!
С голубого ручейка начинаетÑÑ Ñ€ÐµÐºÐ°,
Ðу а дружба начинаетÑÑ Ñ ÑƒÐ»Ñ‹Ð±ÐºÐ¸!
Smile
With a smile a cloudy day brightens!
With a smile the world is colored like a rainbow.
Share your smile with a friend
And your smile will return to yo!
And suddenly clouds will be dancing
And the cricket will play the violin!
With a blue stream the river begins,
So friendship starts with a smile!
Beginner's Mind
My last job was teaching guitar, mostly to kids. There was this magic cul-de-sac full of wonderful kids where I worked with almost every kid on the block, nine students on one street. The neighborhood called The Overlook, so they were Overlookers.
We’d frequently write songs using the old I-write-a-line you-write-a-line method. That’s how Beginner’s Mind was written, me and Kyle, Ian, or Abby, picking some chords, making up a progression, taking turns writing lines.
Eight-year-old Ian and I wrote some crazy songs. Check out the sci-fi thriller Flea-Bee about getting sucked into the TV and landing in a future where men look like cockroaches or flea-bees. Or the redneck narrative of Hillbilly,
I’m a hillbilly
No really?
Yes silly!
I’m a hillbilly
I recorded these songs in 2006, as an album of the best songs written with students, but have never released it till now. I just discovered Bandcamp and the simplicity and ease of the interface for showing off music inspired me to dust off the old .wav files and share.
The other inspiration is Family Time Rocks!, the kids band I’m in with Sara Hickman and Gray Parsons, where these songs have new ears. Thanks to Susan Sermoneta for the cover photo.