Creativity Is Dead In The Mainstream. R.I.P.

Creativity is becoming something to be mocked and I don't like it. There's some sort of iPad application that let's one create music without an ounce of skill aside from a move of some fingers. What the Hell? Also, there was a story on Yahoo! News today about the man who wrote that blasted song "Friday" that's sung by Rebecca Black. First off, my opinion of the song is that it's a ridiculously lame and uninventive thing that for some reason has been given a chance on the airwaves. It's great to make fun of, as Stephen Colbert and Conan O'Brien can attest, but why is it out there to begin with? Patrice Wilson, writer of the "song", is the founder of a company called The Ark Music Factory. How TAMF works is that the parents of a young teenager can pay $2,000-$4,000 to sign a contract in which their child will be given a chance to sing a song that's been written by Patrice, studio time, a photo shoot, image consulting, and promotion. Now that's one hell of a package deal, but how did "making it" in this industry all of a sudden become synonymous with your parents having a fat wallet? I'm so sick of all of these kids who lack talent, lack skill, are all breaking into the airwaves and strutting about like they own them. Meanwhile, there's actual talent and hard working musicians that aren't getting the attention that's being thrown away on the trash that's on T.V. and on the radio. WHAT THE HELL?! I needed to get that out. I'll probably yell it all out to someone soon as well. I'm going to go play guitar angrily and maybe write a punk song, we'll see. Later.

MAH MIDTERM! and stuff

This is my midterm! I finished all the touching up today and posted it on youtube earlier. Today was a day of catching up on all the homework I was putting off in my college and online classes, I am pooped. And now a friend of mine and I are planning a road trip to New Orleans!! Couldn't get enough of that city! So hopefully all works out for that. Started learning some of a swing song today, and still trying to come up with a good chord progression for a song I started writing in New Orleans. I want to make it sound like an old swing song, but a drinking one. In my head I hear a dobro guitar part, an upright bass, wash board percussion, stomping, and yelling vocals. Wish me luck.

Ketchup

The past week that I haven't blogged was super packed with stuff that was mostly non-music related. It was the last week in town for my friends and my date, who work with the renaissance festival. They stayed two weeks after the fair, but left yesterday morning :( So most of my week was spent with them, mostly of course with my date, Michael. He's a northerner, so we made it a point to spend a lot of time at the beach, where we both got very strange burn lines and spots. But the not-so-good news is that last saturday morning, I got a call from my grandma telling me that my cousin, Caitlin, was put in to the ICU the night before. Her blood pressure got to be about 40/35 and we had almost lost her. Found out a few days later that she had strep bacteria and another kind of bacteria in her blood stream that was causing her to be so sick. She underwent a few surgeries and lots antibiotics. Yesterday was her first day fully conscious and with food. Tonight I visited her again and she was speaking clearly for the first time. She's on the road to recovery, and we're so glad to see it. But we probably won't let her go back away to college haha. In other news, I did not get in to NYU, as I expected. The odds were way against me in that they accept 2,400 into the school and 42,000 applied. I don't feel so bad. Just polishing up my MI application and I will be sending that in by next week. With that, I am off to bed after a long day. Good night!

NOLA

My New Orleans trip was SO MUCH FUN!!! The hotel we stayed in during the few days we were there was right off of Bourbon street, so we were in the heart of a lot of the craziness. The city is a creative hub for artists, musicians, and other street performers. It's got a perpetual groove goin' on and I really enjoyed it. The first day, we watched a jazz band play on the street called The Smoking Time Jazz Band. The music was so fun to listen to and they had a swing dancing couple. So I bought myself a CD of their music, asked where we could go see them play, and the guitar player invited me to their show that night at a jazz club called The Spotted Cat. So that night I heard more great music and watched the dancers go while I danced a bit myself :D The next day, we walked through many art galleries, saw more street performers, and ate some delicious food! The seafood there is fantastic and delicious and addicting and I really want to go back to NOLA. I also tried Absinthe for the first time which I thought was quite delicious, having a strong licorice flavor. That night, we went to listen to music at a small place called Fritzle's. The music was old swing, lighting was low, a very intimate setting. I met a man from Finland, named Ville, and we talked for some time while enjoying the music. It was definitely a nice night that ended around 2 AM. On the third day, we rose again and it was friday! Made it a point to get beignets at Cafe Du Monde as well as a voodoo doll. But when I walked into the voodoo shop, my finger started bleeding...felt like something from the Twilight Zone. Needless to say, I did not stay inside very long at all. That night was the big concert night for me...DOWN!! Down is, if not the best, one of the best bands I've ever seen live. The venue was very intimate and I got right up to the stage. Both Pepper Keenan and Phil Ansemlo actually fist bumped me! That's how close I was! Everything sounded flawless, heavy, and loud. The band was very animated, talking to the crowd between nearly every song. The crowd itself was a monster though. As soon as Down came on stage after the openers, I became a sardine...couldn't even reach to get my camera from my pocket at all during the show. It was a collective head banging fest, which was absolutely incredible. I left the show drenched in sweat, completely exhausted, hair all awry, shirt stretched out, sore throat, and a ringing in my ears. Now that's the sign of a great concert. Then we left early saturday morning, and I had a full day of band practice, brewing, and the renaissance festival. Was a great spring break :)

Feed Me Some Soul

It's 1:30 a.m., I leave my house today at 8:30 a.m. for the airplane to whisk me away to the land of New Orleans. I'm so very excited :D The music of New Orleans has got so much history and soul, it's positively delicious. Whether it be the jazz, the sad bayou music, or some heavy rock, you can bet it's going to be good. While I'm there, I'm going to be going to at least one jazz club per night, and I will also see the band, Down. Down is heavy, not screamo, but what I would describe as blues for metalheads. NOLA rock bands have a heaviness about them that's very deep and sad, but have a monstrous power and ability to make you bang your head. ANd if you're a Pantera fan, you may recognize Phil Anselmo (Lead singer of Pantera, and also Down). Here are some of my favorite Down songs.

Stone The Crow -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBLbrJxGtro

On March The Saints -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FduXYJc9VA&feature=related

Learn From This Mistake (a real bluesy one) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFT6TFw7e_w&feature=related



To give you more taste of the NOLA rock scene, I give you another one of my favorite artists, Dax Riggs. This music is particularly dark and haunting :] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdkX8vzRzEc

Foooood.

Today, I was more in the mood to make food rather than music. I woke up around 11 and went to practice with my band, then came home and made egg drop soup while listening to the Electric Ladyland album by Jimi Hendrix. What a great way to start the day off. My soup was pretty tasty, must say. After I ate, I spent some time doing research on the drink, absinthe. I was reading about absinthe connoisseur, Ted Breaux and his quest to prove that absinthe is not some kind of ridiculous poison that it has come to be known as. Breaux was born, raised, and continues to live in New Orleans, LA, which I happen to be going to this coming week. There, on Bourbon street is a place called The Old Absinthe House, which I will most definitely be going to to enjoy some of New Orleans' tastiest foods and sample some very good absinthe. 'The Green Fairy' does not look like what the general public has known it to look like, a glowing green liquid. It is actually a pale, translucent, olive color to begin with until it is diluted and prepared to drink. Absinthe is poured into a glass and then a slotted spoon is placed over it with a lump of sugar. Cold water is very slowly dripped over the sugar in the slotted spoon and into the absinthe. This makes the drink easy to taste and dilutes the strength of the 140 proof alcohol. After cold water is added, the absinthe becomes a cloudy, whitish color, and then it is ready to drink. I should mention that I, as a beer brewer and as a connoisseur in the making, my interest in alcohol is very much an academic interest. The tastes of different alcohols, mostly beer, and how the different styles are made intrigues me and I enjoy studying and tasting them.

After my little absinthe study, I made lavender cranberry cookies with lemon lavender icing and served them with warm lavender honey milk. Then for dinner, I made a variation on egg drop soup, also putting seaweed, a small onion, orzo, and a few other spices in it. Then I stole another one or two cookies ;) Needless to say, today was a very tasty day in my house.

APOCALYPTICA APOCALYPSE

My trip to Key West was a ton of fun. While there, I got to play a few songs for my friends which they all really enjoyed. Wednesday night, we went to Mallory Square at sunset to see the street performers do their thing. My friends who I was with work in the Renaissance Festival as swordsmen and an acrobat, so they were judging the shows with a more critical eye but they really enjoyed what was going on. Then I drove back REALLY early thursday morning to make it to BC in time for my music history test, which I think I did really well on. And after a nap, I went to see Apocalyptica at The Culture Room last night. Apocalyptica is a band of four cello players (but one of them, Mikko, plays drums most of the time instead of cello) and they play music ranging from beautiful classical compositions to heavy metal! The band is from Finland and they started off playing Metallica covers on four cellos and they got a big sized following for that. Then, they started writing their own music in this style, often featuring different singers from rock bands. They're a unique band and they were very entertaining live. Here are some links for their music :)

Nothing Else Matters -- Metallica Cover

At The Gates of Manala (Live) -- Original

I'm Not Jesus -- Original Feat. Corey Taylor

Dude...My Hands

Have you ever experienced a magical journey that can only explained by weightlessness, euphoria, detachment from the physical and drifting into the metaphysical. You know what I'm talkin' 'bout. That's right, gettin' high. High on music of course, totally not drug related. *Ahem*.

When I get the chance to, I go in my room, shut off all the lights and doors, close my eyes and turn on my music. More often than not, I crave the blues or a slow, sexy rock groove when I'm in this mood. I'll make a little playlist beforehand, and the last time I did this, the songs in my playlist were as follows: 1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) - Pink Floyd.  2. Alchemy (Live at Rockpalast) - Philip Sayce.  3. Beautifully Broken/When Doves Cry - Gov't Mule.  4. Since I've Been Loving You - Led Zeppelin.  and 5. Porcelain - Red Hot Chili Peppers.  I usually start off with Shine On You Crazy Diamond because it starts off slow and spacey, to get me in the right state of mind, and then everything else kicks in and it's this wonderful, and huge song until it calms back down at the end of the sax solo and gets all spacey again. Alchemy is one of the greatest instrumentals I've ever heard. The first time I heard this was live at their concert and I'm really happy I was sitting down. As soon as the first note hit, my eyes instinctively shut in the dark room. My body began to sway with each passing note and I was seeing deep tones of blue and swirls of black; pretty much my ideal colors to see in a song. When the song reached its climax, my eyes released their woeful hostages and I felt as if the music was all around me and running through my veins. This was one of the best musical highs I've ever had. I got a chance to talk with the trio after the show was over and got to express what that song made me feel. They were so happy that I got that feeling from the music, such down to earth guys. Beautifully Broken offers me almost the same escape. Warren Haynes on guitar is like my Buddha. He knows exactly what to play and when, with extremely melodic solos that could rock anybody. Same with Since I've Been Loving You. The guitar tones soar through my being and force me to move and groove and form that tender unity with the music. Sometimes I loop these songs and when I'm ready to come back to reality, I break with Porcelain. Soft and soothing, it brings me back and I'm calm. And that is really how I meditate. I've tried meditating in silence, and sometimes I can reach the state of actual meditation, but I so much more prefer my way of doing it.