grey ghost hungry brain 12-19-2004

when it's this cold, you don't expect anyone to come to see you play, but then people do come, and it is good. it was 5 degrees when i woke up in the morning - it didn't seem that bad when i went outside at first, but it actually was that bad. trust me.
anyhow, grey ghost played for the first time in a wee bit in town. we've been able to get together alot to work on new things, and we're starting to make some headway - i think our goal right now is to have a good chunk of material ready so that when we play, we can be loose with our forms and bring things in when they feel right. i'm still using max/msp mainly for live sampling and manipulation, but am using reason more for synthesized sounds and sequences - the great thing about reason is the fact you can layer the hell out of a piece and remove parts & re-add them as you wish pretty simply. lots of possibilities - the dark side of reason is the ease with which you can make really bad music. ...
i liked how we played - a long set with a few breaks, couldn't tell how well it was received - some folks were talking up front - but most were listening - a good time.

second citizens hideout 12-15-2004

a good time and good night at the hideout. the second citizens returned to the hideout for a wednesday night double bill with michael columbia. there was a good crowd in the abr when we got there, we played a nice long set and the folks listened. playing with this band is fun- we all know the music so well that we can really let our instincts take over. afterwards someone asked me about the more open improvised sections, he said that he didn't really know what our goal was in them. i tried to explain to him that what we are doing by improvising is constantly trying to change the music to make it better. the great thing about improvising is that you can find new ways to play music - though of course some othings turn out better than others. but, if we played the same thing all the time, we'd be a jam band. michael columbia played kind of a short set - it's dave mcdonnell on saxophone, bass and electronics and dylan ryan on drums & electronics. a similar instrumentation to grey ghost, but an entirely different way of making music. i would say they are alot more rocking than grey ghost, with more emphasis on rhythm than looseness. all of us finished the night drinking beers that somehow became free after midnight - not bad...

mcbride / lonberg-holm / rosaly / shelton empty bottle 12-14-2004

it's finally cold here in chicago - who'd of thunk? nate mcbride recently moved into town from boston and he asked me to try to work on a group with him, fred lonberg-holm & frank rosaly. i said yes of course - nate is a great bass player and a top notch fellow, so playing with him is a good time, as well as challenging. the tunes he writes has so much looseness in their form that it truly is a challenge to remember where you are & what can possibly happen next. luckily we had two long rehearsals for this date - though we still were too loose for some of those forms. it was two sets at the empty bottle on a tuesday night - i had my work holiday dinner earlier in the night, but thankfully i didn't eat too much - almost, but not quite - a couple cups of coffee and i was ready to play. the first set we came out with alot of energy, i felt really good playing, it seemed like the first time in awhile that i got to play some music that was really wide open. nate's music tends to have alot of energy in it - which i like, and don't get to do so often.
we took a short break, some guys from the air force band were there - in town for some conference - pretty strange that guys in the air force band are into free jazz... vandermark was there - he's going to back in town for several months now - we talked about graduate schools; i've been thinking of applying to some, but am really torn as to where a program is that would really suit what i want to do. deadlines are fast approaching and i need to make some sort of decision.
the second set was good as well - it was a little hard for me to hear fred at times, but there was alot of good improvising going on - nate and i had a nice bass & clarinet duo; hope fully we'll be able to play some more and record some of the music.

dragons 1976 Impetus 12-5-2004

Dragons 1976 played for the first time since our tour and show at the Phrenology Fest. These fellows Raiichiro Iijima & Brad Loving put on a concert series called Impetus, which matches up good music from different genres onto the same bill. The concert was at 3030, and the other groups were Matt Leer, a singer/guitarist from Texas and Bear in Heaven, a group from NYC. This goes to prove once again that the best wayto have a good show is to have people dedicated to getting the word out and promoting it, while also including good music. The show started around 8:30, and there was a good crowd - Matt Leer started things out, he played solo, making good use of a variety of pedals and looping devices to create a big sound. We played the middle set and I felt really good about it - we had the chance to have a few rehearsals before the date, and it really helps - I also had the chance to make a little adjustment to my horn, so the low notes were coming out much easier. We played four songs, with lots of improvsing throughout to bridge the spaces in between. It felt good and we had a good response from the other musicians and people in the crowd. Bear in Heaven played last - they're normally a six piece band, but only two of their members could make it out to Chicago for the show - they used samples and triggers to flesh out the sound - but even with the stripped down performance, I really liked the music - lots of interesting rhythms, good textures - melodic songs. Not trying to be too much - a good thing.

quartet at charleston 12-3-2004

tonight i played at a bar called the charleston in bucktown with anton hatwich on bass, nori tanaka on drums and matt schneider on guitar - i played alto. we played tunes - mainly by thelonious monk, but some standards and one orenette tune - turnaround, not really my most facvorite ornette tune, mainly because it's basically a blues - not an open tune like most of his. i don't mind playing blues, but i love ornette's music so much, i'd rather just play it open. the monk tunes are great to play - they all have his particular characteristics stamped on them - good feels, & simple melodic statements that leave lots of room for interpretation. we played two sets - playing at the charleston is a good time - it's a small bar, and people are just hanging out, it's friday night, you play in the middle of the room with people only a few feet away - people have their choice of listening intently or not, everybody gives you some money if they want to, you play with no pressure, have a few drinks and spend the night enjoying yourself...

broste quintet 3030 12-2-2004

so it was a thursday night at 3030, and i was to play with nick broste's quintet - unfortunately, only four of us showed up - frank rosaly forgot about the gig, even though he was playing in two groups that were scheduled for the night. it was a quiet night, but relaxing - jim baker, anton hatwich and paul hartsaw did some trio improvisations - baker's work on the arp synthesizer is so right on right now - i really like watching him play that instrument - the interface is great - lots of knobs and controls - signal routing and all of that - here's a picture:



our set went well - nick on trombone, myself on alto and bass clarinet, anton on bass and kevin davis on cello. actually with frank not being there it was nice to be playing with all harmonic instruments - we concentrated on the tones and had a nice feeling throughout. one of these days broste's quintet will have a gig where everything works out -one time nick couldn't show up because he got stranded in another town with a wrong plane flight....

shelton ajemian tanaka rodan 11-25-2004

thanksgiving 2004 - we got a little snow here in chicago the day before, so it was a nice wintry start to the holiday season. i'd rather it snow than rain when it's 32 degrees outside....
i had a good dinner at johnathan, giselle and brandy's place on milwaukee avenue - had my fair share of food and wine, hung out for a bit and then headed up the street to rodan to play with jason ajemian and nori tanaka. we hadn't played as a trio before, so it was a good time to do some playing. we played two sets that had no breaks in between the songs - which is a challenge - if you feel like the music is headed somewhere you don't want to go, you can't just simply stop and start anew. you have to figure a way to slowly change the music and move it into a new direction. we went from repetitive drone-type musings to section swith nori and jason clearly defined as the rhythm section and me blowing over the top. i enjoy playing solos over a rhythm section, but always feel that i want to be truly part of the group. finding a way to make what i do both soloistic and ensemble orientated at the same time is always a challenge - sometimes with more success than other times. obviously.. we played late and finished the night - it was good to play with those guys.

second citizens hideout 11-22-2004

So the second citizens returned to the hideout to play our last monday night there. We thought that we were done with the mondays with the close of October and hadn't shown up two weeks ago, but got a message saying "where were you guys" from our guy Ryan Hembrey who helped us out in booking the shows....a bit of a mis-call. The good thing about not playing on mondays anymore is that we are going to get a wednesday night show there in december - it is a better night and i'm looking forward to it.
Fred was not in town for this night, and Frank had other engagements, so the group was me, Keefe, Josh & Anton with Mike Reed sitting in on the drums. We had a good time playing - I think we've played the music so much now that we can do alot of things to the music very comfortably. Dave Rempis and Tim Daisy played a duo set up front - they play very well together - Dave sounds great on the baritone saxophone.

solo laptop then duo AC 11-21-2004

i was asked to make some music at an installment of vadim sprikut's house series called AC. i've been working on a piece for 2 clarinets, bass clarinet and piano and computer; so decided to try it out at this concert. i've been working on the piece for about a week now; i've recorded in all the parts to protools and made a patch in MSP to work with the audio - rearranging the parts and attempting to turn it into something else. i feel there are alot of possibilities to explore, but this all takes time. i had some success earlier in the week, but felt like i kind of hurried myself along at the performance - which isn't all that unexpected i suppose. it was a good environment to work on the piece - i need to experiment more with the piece and write things down which work better in order to finalize it as a composition.
brian labycz also performed - he first did a kind of tape piece - though it was on a computer. we all listened to the piece through headphones, which was especially nice as brian used the possibilities of the spatial environemtn to good effect. he used what soudned like field recordings - but indoor ones. at one point vadim had to go answer the door - i almost thought that brian had pre-recorded such an encounter and put it into the piece - but i was wrong.
we played together after our solo pieces - we both worked with samples - and i think brian was taking a feed from me, which was a bit tricky to deal with - i felt the need to stay ahead of him so we wouldn't be working with the same material too much. it was a good challenge and a good night.

grey ghost iowa city 11-13-2004

so johnathan and i headed out west for one night - a saturday night. it wasn't our firt trip to iowa city - we played there a few years ago when we had first started playing together as grey ghost - johnathan went to school out there and knows plenty of folk - it's kind of funny as we walk through the streets because he sees people he knows driving by cars or going into a bar - and it's never a huge deal that they haven't seen each other in awhile, it's just kind of like he'd been gone a week or so. we played at a place called the glass lodge which had a killer ceiling:



the glass lodge makes it money selling glass pipes, they make their own pipes, so they have very few costs, and instead of having a real dorky looking headshop with tye-dye and other hippie shit, they keep most of the room open to hang artwork and have crafts made by local artists - it's a good place i'd say. the funy thing to happen early on was the big guy with a shaved head who came in wearing a duster and started asking about if any of us knew anybody that he could smoke with - huh? was he the most dim-witted undercover cop of all time? or can someone really be so desperate......

so, to the music - the night was a gallery opening as well as a show - so the place was filled up for all the music - some friend's of johnthan's played - tim who sang & played guitar, his guitars had some nice attachments on them which made interesting feedback style sounds; ed gray played with johnathan and this guy peter sat in on a wild saxophone solo for the last song whil keeping his young son on his shoulder (i'll have a picture up soon) - never thought i'd see a sax solo with a kid in tow.... we played a short set that went well - got alot of good compliments afterwards.... the show was over by ten, so we went out after dropping our equipment off at tim's place. first by this place gabe's, where a terrible band played - i had to leave, so headed to the sanctuary, a bar where they have the jazz music, to see anton hatwich, frank rosaly and nate lepine play - a nice coincidence that they were in town the same night.

so a good night in iowa city - and another grey ghost sighting....

flockterkit 3030 11-11-2004

another quiet night at the 3030. flockterkit had booked this date awhile ago, and i really though that by this time we would have had plenty of time to get together to rehearse, but unfortunately with everyone being busy we didn't. so we played a set without running through any of the written material. the thing is - the pieces aren't all that difficult, and we do alot of improvising, but a lack of rehearsal is always missed. and whenever mistakes happen within the pieces, it automatically triggers in the brain - we should have practiced. i also didn't feel like we had much of a communication going on in our improvisation - which really has more influence over whether the music works or not. if mistakes are made and you improvise well around it, then that pulls the whole night into the good column. (i'm not trying to be dark about it, just honest) nights like these make me want to have less performances and more time to just get together with the musicians. some might say, "well, it's basically a rehearsal", but it's really not - in a rehearsal if a mistake is made you can stop, work on the part & correct it. in front of people, you've got to just plow through the material. something not worked on in rehearsal enough is actually going through an entire piece, and so people will say, at least you got to go through the whole piece, and i somewhat agree...but in an ideal situation the rehearsal would provide for most major mistakes being weeded out and letting everyone think about the music being made at the time of rehearsal, and not be subject to mental mistakes.....an exciting entry here, right? i think i need to start a party blog....

speaking of getting together with other musicians, last night i got together with toby summerfield and jamie levinson for the second time. i think it will be fun to keep playing with them - jamie's good with the drums, i'm concentrating more on computer, using synthesizers and doing effects. this winter is the time to work consistently on groups that are collaborative - but also hopefully getting recordings together of compositions.....

vibraphone meets Max/MSP 11-7-2004

A return to the Hungry Brain for me after the Phrenology Festival a few weeks ago. This night was devoted to duets, and I was asked to bring one. I did a computer / vibraphone duet with jason adasiewicz. He improvised, I used him as a sound source for improvising, which he could then react to to continue th improvising. The largest challenge a computer based (especially sampling based - synthesis is different) improviser has when playing with "real" instruments, is that the live instruments can switch up what they're doing so very quickly. Unless you have a good interface set up for using your computer, it tends to be very loop based, and slow changing. I think I had a pretty good interface last night and was pretty active in terms of being able to move from one part to another, but there's more work to be done. I liked our setup - jason played on the stage and i sat in front, facing the stage so i could hear the mix of the vibraphone and the speakers which were outputting my sound. I was happy with the performance - instruments with clean sounds are best for manipulating, as when you do something to the sound, it actually makes it sound like a completely different thing. And the vibraphone has a great clean sound.

The other duets of the night were kevin davis on cello, electronics & radio with jake elliott on computer - which was good, but short - they did a drone piece, and then were done - james falzone witha drummer from boston, johnathan crawford with steve hess doing a solid drum duet, it made me think more about how i would really like to be in a band with two drummers. a nice night at the brain, but kind of a slow one, not too many folk, but still smoky....

no music only election bulls**t 11-3-2004

ah, so it has come to this. i definitely do not feel good about the "results" of yesterdays general election determining if or not W would be able to push the rightwing agenda for another 4 years. but the american people have "spoken" and have decided that:

it's ok that there wasn't any threat from Iraq.
it's allright to fight to protect those sacred oilfields.
it's ok that our leader is an incompetent, poorly tongued faker who is from new hampshire but puts his ranch in texas on his sleeve.
it's allright that the companies that the rpesident's friends & family work for are benefitting greatly from no bid contracts
it's ok that the christian conservative movement is hijacking the representative democracy
it's allright to be a divider, not a uniter

there's so much more that i'm not thinking clearly enough to put into words.....

as David Corn from the Nation says "there will be no good-bye to reckless preemptive war, an economic policy based on tax breaks tilted toward the wealthy, a war on environmental regulations, a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, excessive secrecy in government, unilateral machismo, the neocon theology of hubris and arrogance, a ban on effective stem cell research, no-bid Halliburton contracts, John Ashcroft, Donald Rumsfeld, and much more. Did I mention Dick Cheney?"

So what now? I have no idea. I had trouble sleeping last night. Jen & I stayed up for awhile wathching the returns come in after making some good stir fry with a sweet & sour & spicy sauce; i was getting optimistic for a bit there especially after pennsylvania went kerry's way - but florida seemed to fall to easy & then the ohio numbers started leaning bush's way. i turned off the tv right after peter jennings said, we're going to put ohio in the bush column. i knew i wasn't ready for bed - but also knew that continuing to watch wouldn't get anything done. that was the worst thing - feeling utterly powerless about something which has the power to affect my daily mood for a long time to come. it would be nice to be able to block out politics, but the bush gang are so opposite to my convictions on almost every issue that it just angers me to hear their voices or see their faces and expressions - their superiority complex is amazing - that's why they won this election - their smugness rubs off on the obvious majority of this nation who are undereducated, live sheltered lives and pampered in an american way of life whose greates hardship is a car break down or a bad haircut.

it really boils down to the fact that there are so many people in this coutnry that get spoon fed from the time they are born on a steady diet of consumerism, sensationalism, sports, and the great faith that american's, no matter what they do, how many people they kill, no matter how much oil they suck up, no matter how much nepotism, cronyism & racism is shown to be present in our society - we're still the best country in the world and our people are the most moral & best.

but thankfully, about 52 million other people hate george w like i do. well, maybe not hate him, but don't like him or his policies.

maybe another 4 years of this guys is best for the country - i've felt for a long time that's it's got to get a lot worse before it can get better - things are just too easy in this country - people forget how many things there are in this coutnry that are taken for granted.

someone said to me a few days ago - the best thing about w winning again is that he'd have to clean up his own messes. well, he pobably won't clean them up, but at least he won't be able to push off the blame.

kessler quartet 10-28-2004

a quiet night at the 3030. played with kent kessler's quartet - he plays the bass, fred lonberg hom plays cello, jeb bishop plays trombone and i play alto and clarinet. it's a nice group. the only time we had played before was at the empty bottle festival of improvised music back in the spring - i think the best thing about the group is the improvising - though i also think that sometimes the improvising was a bit hurried, trying to get to another spot quickly instead of lingering in certain places. but maybe it's good to do that in a group. most groups i play in i strive for the improvising to develop over time, maybe in this group i should be content with staying active and changing things up almost constantly, make it a real workout. we'll see. the concert had to start early because there is some neihgbor on the block who has been complaining alot about the noise coming from the church. i think it's pretty ridiculous, the music is never that loud - it's not like it's a rock club or anything. some people just love to complain - what can you do about it?
today it's really warm - which is strange for this late in october in chicago - i'm ready for it to cool down so i can bundle up in some layers.... election is on tuesday - i'm a getting a nervous feeling....

second citizens hideout 10-25-2004

monday night rolls around, you're tired from getting up early and going into work from 9 to 5 where you don't move around so much so you're body is sluggish. you've got a gig to play, but only after you go and see some folk play music at myopic books... this happens to me on mondays when i play the hideout - but it kind of feels like every monday i get no rest - but that's not really that bad as it's the only real hectic day of my week & most of the hecticness comes from playing music, which really isn't that bad at all. anyway....
played at the hideout with the second citizens this night - it was the first time i'd play with the citizens for about a month as i was out of twon when they played last. it might be the last time we play at the hideout for a good long while, but we will see... we had a very low turnout, which is frustrating, but it is a monday night, and if i have a hard time getting motivated to go play on monday night, i can definitely understand why other folk don't want to go out to see music (it's after the weekend, you've gone out a bunch, spent you're money, and now you're expected to go out again?) keefe has been asking folk to do an opening set - he asked paul hartsaw to do something, he ended up playing with frank and matt bauder who was in town for 2 days - but i really don't think the night needs another group. i think 2 sets of a sextet is enough for people to handle.
we played our set and had a fine time playing, but decided to do just one set as it felt like a rehearsal. funnny thing was right when we finished all these folks start coming through the door - about 20 people - turns out it was the entourage of two members of REM, who had played earlier that night in town. if they'd been asked to donate money as they came in, i guess we would have played more, but they weren't asked, so we packed up and left. just the luck of the draw i suppose....

dragons 1976 ann arbor 10-22-2004

house late
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

so dragons hit the road for the last time for a little bit. we headed about four hours out of town to ann arbor, a place dominated by a university, but with a good music scene. our drive out there was fine, when we got to the canterbury house, where there is a concert series, we loaded up our things and then grabbed some falafel for dinner. big falafel sandwich from jerusalem garden, it was good, but i could've used some spice.
matt bauder was in town and he & ajemian played a duo set first. they used their concept of recording long tones into minidisc recorders and then having the minidiscs played back in a random shuffle to create accompaniment.
after a real short break dragons played a set - it was pretty good, i think we played better than earlier in the week at the brain. i feel more comfortable playing in front of new audiences than ones where i know folks in the crowd. i like something about them not having heard me before...
afterwards we went to a martini bar with bauder to see some folks playing jazz. we ended up sitting in on some tunes - i played matt's tenor for a solo - it was a good time.
we spent the next day hanging out in ann arbor, played some football, got some veggie dogs and saw our friend stewart bogie play with antibalas at a club called the blind pig which had bathrooms in a basement that smelled like vomit. ah, wonderful.

dragons 1976 hungry brain 10-18-2004

the second night of the phrenology fest and dragons were to play the second set. we hadn't played at the brain since about february, so it was nice to be back.. the first set was played by On Fillmore, a duet with Glen Kotche, who is the drummer in Wilco, and Darrin Gray, a bass player who is from St Louis that plays alot fo different music, he is also in the band Grand Ulena, i think.. they played an improvised set using a wide arrange of small objects amplified to make lots of different sounds, but generally on the low, dark side of the spectrum. not too much harmony or consonant sounds were being coaxed out of the drums by the contact mics nor out of the electric bass that Darrin put bells and mallets on...i thought the set was interesting, but a bit long winded. sometimes a typical thing in improvised music.
after the tear down of their things and the set up of daisy's drums, we were ready to play in front of a pretty full house. we strung our first two songs together - the first getting into some free felt rhythmic acticivty, ending with the dry ballad passage. i've been much happier playing sets without any break in between songs lately, but we took a break after the ballad and before going into brand new. after that we got into an intense cyclical/drone improvisation that finally died down into nothingness. we finished the set with drifting, which i felt we could have done without.
the third set was fred lonberg-hom's lightbox (lite-bach?) orchestra, he had the 2nd citizens take part, along with michael zerang, sture erickson, dave rempis, and a trumpet player named jamie, that i will get the last name for ....she sounded good, just moved here from boston. that set got pretty loud and rambunctuos, but was good & fun. the way the lightbox work is that fred shows instructions and then turns on lights which correspond to different players - if you're lights on, then you are.
it was another good night at the brain, afterwards i got some eats with berman, reed and shevitz at the golden apple over on belmont and lincoln. two egg breakfast followed by a sundae - perfect 2 am eating....

rolldown hungry brain 10-17-2004

rolldown 1.JPG
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

tonight was the first of three nights where the phrenology fest takes over the hungry brain. there's music on every sunday night at the brain, and though the crowd can be hit or miss, and sometimes quite challenging, it is usually a good time to play, the audience takes a large interest in the music, and you leave feeling allright about music. this year is the fourth time that they've had a three day festival with 3 groups a night. i've been asked to play multiple times this time around, the first group being jason adasiewicz's rolldown - a quintet with him on vibraphone, me on alto & bass clarinet, josh berman on cornet, frank rosaly drums and jason roebke bass. (and if people say the incestuous musical relationship continues - it's not our fault that each of us has separate ideas of how to use similar parts to create music). The music shevitz has wrote for this group tends to be really rooted in jazz, especially reminiscent to me of some hutcherson/dolphy pieces but with a leaning towards the softer side of the spectrum. the set felt good and was well received.

the second group of the night was to be ron perillo's trio. i've never heard the fellow, but he is a respected local pianist who plays the straight ahead jazz music. berman & reed had asked his trio to play to give them a chance to play a concert in front of a listening audience, not just another restaurant gig. unfortunately ron didn't really think the piano was up to snuff. apparently something was funky with the sustain pedal and after about 45 minutes of set break decided that his group wasn't go to play at all. kind of a strange decision, especially after what happened next....

craig taborn is a great piano player. i'd never heard him before sunday night. he played a duo set with gerald cleaver, a drummer who lives in detroit that knows what he's doing. they were orignally to play a trio with lotte anker, a reed player, but lotte got stopped at the canadian-american border without work papers and was not allowed into the country. terrorist. craig and gerald played an improvised set that showed their musicianship and talent while also showing how to deal with some equipment which may not be perfect. drummer's pretty often use other folks sets and pianist always have to deal with the whatever's at the club, but these guys really showed that music transcends the physical limitations. craig made the piano, rejected by perillo, sound great. the fact that the pa it was played through was crackling a bit just added some individuality to the night. after their set everyone seemed happy, especially whoever it was that yelled out "who's ron perillo anyway"....

flockterkit candlestickmaker 10-16-2004

ernst candle
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

Flockterkit is a quintet, using the acoustic and electronic sounds. Ernst Karel on trumpet & analog electronics; Jason Roebke bass; Fred Lonberg-holm cello; Frank Rosaly drums; Aram Shelton on alto, bass clarinet and computer.
The group is composition based, with a fair amount of improvising. the electronics come in from time to time - the goal isn't to fill in as much space as possible with different sounds, but more to use all these different sounds at our disposal to create interesting music. We played tonight at the Candlestick Maker, a space kept going by Michael Zerang up on Kedzie and north of Montrose. It's a samll room that can fit up to about 20 - we filled up the stage with our instruments pretty easily. It was the third time that this group has performed and it felt very good, there was alot of looseness and some great improvising.

pilsner saxophone quartet jazz record mart 10-16-2004

mejer jrm
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

this afternoon i played with the pilsner saxophone quartet at the jazz record mart, dowtown on wabash ave in river north. the quartet is me on alto, guillermo gregorio on alto, keefe jackson on tenor and thomas mejer (in the picture) on contrabass saxophone, or as the maker horn calls it, the tubax. we all met mejer when he was living here for four months - the swiss government keeps sending us these great guys that play great music - anyhow, we he had lived here we put together the quartet - each of us brought in a piece and we played a few times at the 3030 and at the HotHouse. Thomas came for a short visit so we put together another performance. It was a good day to do it - blustery and chilly for october - perfect for coffee and playing music indoors. The pieces are varied; guillermo's is more chamber, keefe's is more jazz; mine's real repetetive; and mejer's works with the extended technique. playing at the mart is real loose, so in some ways it feels like an open rehearsal. afterwards guillermo, thomas and i got lentil soup and falafel at sultan's market in wicker park. those guys are class acts - guillermo being from argentina originally, older and has lots of interesting things to talk about with his experiences. thomas is a sweetheart i'd say - has a great outlook on things and really enjoys whatever it is he's doing. hopefully will see him sometime overseas.

dragons 1976 pittsburgh, pa 10-10-2004

garfield
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

the final date of the tour. we had a nice drive from virginia to pittsburgh, though we did get held up in a small town which was having some festival right on the main drag, causing all the passerbys to slow down, backing up the traffic on the two lane road. but, the weather was fine and we got into pittsburgh in the early evening.
we played at the garfield artworks, there were these great large scale pieces on the walls. created from old billboard parts - it really highlighted the length of the room. we played one longer set with alot of improvisation after ben opie (reeds) and eden mcnutt (voice) did an improvised set. once we were done, i ran into an old friend that new me from back in gainesville mainly through the usuals.
we relaxed that night, tim and i went to some diner for food, in the morning got to see a bit of pittsburgh. i like pittsburgh, it's got all these amazing large, old houses that look abandoned - it's in the mountains and there are large bridges over the rivers - it's visually striking. i've heard it's cheap too.

dragons 1976 charlottesville, va 10-9-2004

lighted shelves
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

it seems that every time we go on the road we go by charlottesville, and every time i go i like the town more. jason's friend patrick set up a show for us at the twisted branch, which is a tea house on the second floor of a building in the downtown walking mall area. it's a cool place - lots of tea of course, and they serve it in nice tea pots, different types depending on the tea you get. we played two sets - the first one we kept pretty straight up, playing our songs one at a time, focusing more on ones that stay in time. why so? there were alot of little kids - children of jason's family & friends - and we wanted to give them something to dance to as last time we were here the kids really liked it (or they listened to some recordings or something). it was nice in between the sets because the kids were real curious about the instruments - i showed them how a saxophone works as they were especially interested in it.
the second set we stretched out more and got into more improvisational sections where we got into musical moments. the audience seemed to be even more into this, which is pretty surprising. it's pretty cool when people really get something out of the music you wouldn't expect them to. the fact that you can play some music people have never heard before and they respond favorably towards it gives you hope about if your music is relative to the greater musical tradition. the tradition of music as a cultural activity which can affect people emotionally, not just a subjective art form where people respect your musicianship but are ambivalent towards the music.

dragons 1976 takoma park, md 10-8-2004

this night we played at the sangha cafe in takoma park, which is just outside of washington dc. after way too much driving the day before, we were treated to only a 45 minute drive from baltimore. i actually got to spend the whole day with my brother nate, sister theresa, brother-in-law jeremiah and niece deva at there place in catonnsville, md. it was great seeing them as i haven't really seen them in more than a year. that's one great aspect of touring, you get to see old friends and family and have mini-visits you wouldn't otherwise have a chance to do.
nate drove me down to takoma park around 8 o'clock and i met up with the dragons. our show didn't start until ten, so we waited in the van and listened to the second presidential debate. george w bush needs to get voted out of office in a few weeks. that's all i'm going to say.
the sangha cafe is a nice performance space and the series put on by transparent productions is a good one - all the money goes to the performers, and they get some upper talent playing there. we played two sets and weren't super on, the audience was really good - talked to some folk in between sets that were very complimentary. we decided not to stay the night in town so drove the two hours to charlottesville, virginia. it's nice to do a shorter drive like that at night cause you get the whole next day in the place you're headed to.

dragons 1976 baltimore, md 10-7-2004

charm lights
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

a monster drive day - left montreal at 9 AM and didn't get to baltimore until 8:30 - that's alot of driving - it was much longer than we were expecting - the internet directions (which you can't really completely trust) said the drive would be 8 1/2 hours - way wrong.
the place we played at was An Die Musik Live in downtown baltimore - charm city as some call it - it seems like the place usually has classical music concerts, but i guess the manager who is doing the booking, Sang Cho, is trying to get more jazz and free music happening there. the room is a nice one with high ceilings and comfortable chairs for the audience. we played two sets along with this other group, Trockeneis, which was put together by audrey chen, another dragon who we had met last winter while on tour in the south. she is a vocalist and cellist, really active in european style improvisation - little sounds, lots of different timbres, very abstract. we've been playing pretty consistently well - this night we got to dig a little deeper into longer improvisational sections where we get into an almost drone-thing, but more just long form improvising with out any rhythms. to me when we get to these spots it feels more like time as stopped entirely, which i think is very interesting. it makes the music more of a moment, and less performance. we've been using these sections to move from one song to the next.
afterwards henry, the owner, and sang took us out to eat a large chinese family style dinner along with the other group and doc manning, who interviewed me on the radio earlier in the week to promote the show. the dinner was amazing, the huge plates of food kept coming out of the kitchen even though it was after midnight when we got there. unfortunately for me most of the dishes had meat in them (i don't eat the flesh) but i still had my fair share of vegetable, tofu and other sides.

dragons 1976 montreal, quebec 10-5-2004

into the french speaking part of this continent! getting to montreal was a fine drive, the rolling hills of eastern ontario are nice scenery in the late afternoon sun. we got into montreal after dark and after meeting up with jason's friend monica, we went to a small cafe for some food. i had some veggie chili with fromage which was very good, but a cup of coffee which was not. we played at a space called the electric tractor - it's a multi-use space where they have shows and do screen printing and i'm sure other things. seems similar to buddy (but with a proper stage) or the truckstop building in chicago.
we played the best music of our tour so far. we arranged our sets differently than before - we played our songs, but with improvising in between each one to create a continuous piece. it worked well for us. the thing is is that we are used to played more minimal style improvisations together as we worked on that kind of music together when we were doing unclocked a few years ago. we had alot of good moments, quiet ones & loud ones, and it felt good when we would go back into time after being without time for extended periods. a good show.
afterwards we went back to monica's place to drop our things off, then tim & i went over to the casa del popolo for a drink. it was a rock crowd in montreal. this city has a wonderful feel, it's an old city too - founded by the french long before the states were the states.

dragons 1976 toronto, ontario 10-4-2004

shelton toronto
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

after a nice day off in syracuse we headed over the border to toronoto, ontario. the drive was fine, we stopped at niagara falls after getting over the border with no problems. i've been to the falls twice before, but have never seen them from the candaian side - the view is much better. took alot of pictures, but we didn't stay too long. it always seems strange to me to go to a place which is just amazing and awe-inspiring for an hour and then turn around and go away.
got into toronto around 6, and loaded our things into the new works studio which is run by mike hansen. ajemian and i grabbed a bite to eat - some asian food with mock meat which was pretty good and returned to the studio.
the show, which was arranged pretty last minute, turned out allright. we played two sets and met alot of good people. i would say that we weren't super on that night, the highlight seemed to be "last night" which we played at the end of the first set.
afterwards we went out to some bars open late with robin & rebecca, two folk who helped ron gaskin run the show. the funniest things that happened at the bar was the drunk woman letting everyone know how drunk she was - & us making fun of her...

dragons 1976 syracuse, ny 10-2-2004

spark
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

second date of the tour and a good one to boot. we drove the five hours to cleveland under cloudy skies with rain hitting the windshield. fall is here along with cold fronts. we got into syracuse around 6 o'clock and went to the spark gallery. where our show was set up for. the spark is near the center of town, kind of in a quieter neghborhood. we met ryan tebo at spark, he helped us by putting together the show and by being a tremendously nice fellow. he had us over to his house where his fiance, sajel, had made us a really top-notch dinner of indian food. we were also joined by heath hamlin, a professor at syracuse university who was to join us that night by doing live video to one of our sets. we had a good conversation and got off on the right foot.
we went back to the gallery around 9 and set up for the show, people were already in the gallery checking out the photographic and video art, it was a good scene. we played two sets, the first alone and our regular thing. the audience was great, everyone listened, the applause was extended. after a break we played another set, this one almost completely improvised - heath manipulated video of whales diving in the ocean. he had gotten footage from national geographic. the dragons improvised a long form piece, eventually moving into the piece drifting - it was a cohesive set and again the audience was great.
talked to alot of follk afterward who really enjoyed the music. the audience seemed to be either students or teachers at SU. we came back to ryan and sajel's house, drank wine and talked late into the night. can't wait to come back.

dragons 1976 cleveland, ohio 10-1-2004

two dragons
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

tonight dragons 1976 played at the asterisk gallery in cleveland, ohio. the drive from chicago was a long one - we ran into some bad traffic - i think there were two accidents we had to wait in traffic for. we ended up getting to the gallery around 8 o'clock, which wasn't really that bad, but meant that we spent at least 7 hours in the van, when it should of been 6. we loaded in our things and then got some food at the next door deli, a better experience for em than the last time when grey ghost got the slices.
the time passed and 10, 1030 came, not so many people showed up. we dragons decided to play first, we played a solid five song set, we kind of peaked during the fourth song - brand new. luckily we recorded the show, so even though there wasn't much monetary reward, at least we documented it.
last chance for the loneliest kitten played a set after us. last chance is joshua smith on saxophone and electronics and kurt kotheimer on bass and electronics. they play real loose style improvisation while manipulating pre-recorded cassette tapes; lots of layers, lots of different sounds.
i've seen alot of clevelanders lately, especially josh, but that will change as he & kurt are moving out west in just a few days here.

last chance at the asterisk 10-1-2004

last chance
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

this is last chance playing at the asterisk gallery

radio : drums : max/msp 9-28-2004

did a show at the hotti biscotti. this is a small bar/cafe on fullerton avenue in logan square run by the syska brothers ken and richard. the series is booked by rotten milk, who also does a weekly at the buddy gallery. amanda guttierez, steve hess and i decided to play together again. amanda on the radio, steve on a few drums and myself doing some work on soundfiles and live samples of steve with max/msp. we had a played a few weeks back at the myopic bookstore and i felt that this set went a bit better. by using just the computer it's much easier to be part of a sound environment & i felt more part of the group. i had a bit of trouble getting a good signal on my mic from steve as he was playing very quietly, so it was dificult at times to get a nice build going, but overall we were listening to each other and some good music happened. at one point my cell phone started ringing - i thought i'd turned it off - luckily i recently changed my ring to a more normal tone (before it was the robo nx-1) so it wasn't too intrusive. it was jen calling, and the funny thing was the first thing she said on her message was "i hope you remembered to turn off your ringer if you're playing a set right now".
the other set of the night was jake elliott, brian labycz and vadim sprikut. they each played laptop, and the music was good - some crisp sound environment sound mixed with minimal synthesized sounds.
before i left to catch the bus, rotten milk was talking about how it woul dbe great to have chicago laptop musician action figures. he suggested todd carter with special pot smoking action, aram shelton with signature wisecrack phrases, and others. but the main stipulation on all the action figures is that they be hunched over a laptop - ah, signs of the times -

on friday dragons 1976 hit the road for about 10 days...

nick broste quintet at hungry brain 9-26-2004

Ah, it was Sunday night and that means time to play at the Hungry Brain, a cozy bar near the intersection of Western Ave and Belmont on the north side of Chicago. The group I played with this night was the Nick Broste Quintet, which includes me on alto, Kevin Davis on cello, Frank Rosaly on drums and Anton Hatwich on bass. Broste plays the trombone and has written the music which we play in the group. We played the first set of the night, the second played by the quintet Herculaneum. The thing with the Broste Quintete is that it never seems that we can get together to practice, and many gigs feel like the first.
However, we had a fine night, there was a good turnout, though what was strange was the fact that there was a small crowd of goth folk there - this one girl looked liked an evil pixie. That's one trait of the Brain, you never really know what the crowd will be like - there's pretty much always a steady crowd of people who are really into the music being played and one night there will be lots of listeneres, but then another night you could get all talkers. Last night there were a few talkers, but most were listeners and some were shush-ers. The best thing about the Brain is that it can be a real nice hang - there's always someone to talk to about what you've been up to, as lots of musicians go there.

duo: shelton & shevitz at 3030 9-23-2004

Fred at 3030
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

tonight i played with shevitz at the 3030. we were kind of asked last minute to fill in a set to go along with the duo of bruce lamont (who plays in yakuza) and fred lonberg-holm (in the picture). shevitz brought his vibes and some cymbals and a snare drum, while i brought my alto and computer. we played an all improvised set, and i used the computer to record bits of the vibraphone. the gain on the mic i used had to be cranked, so it was also picking up some of my sound and the drums. we played about an hour, i was most happy with the last bit of improvising we did - i recorded something shevitz was playing into 8 different short files of different length and played them back at different speeds, thus making the harmonies a bit more complex. i also threw some of the files into reverse to create a nice loopy atmosphere which shevitz and i found ways to improvise over.
bruce and fred played next - Bruce also plays saxophone, he plays it through an effects rig, lots of delay and controlled feedback. Fred was using at least 6 pedals with his cello, getting some really great layers of sound over time.
it was a nice night, and made me want to do more experimenting with using the vibraphone as a sound source for computer manipulation.

rolldown at empty bottle 9-21-2004

Another night, another show - this one at the Empty Bottle with the group Rolldown, led by jason adasiewicz on vibraphone. The rest of the group is me on alto and bass clarinet, josh berman on cornet, jason roebke on bass and frank rosaly on drums. I wasn't originally in this group, keefe jackson was, but keefe decided he didn't want to do it, so shevitz asked me to fill in the reed role. it was tuesday night, part of the jazz series they have there, mostly on tuesday nights, but wednesdays as well. unfortunately, there wasn't much of a crowd to speak of, though this has kind of been a problem many times that i've played the bottle recently. i'm starting to think that people don't want to go to the bottle cause they don't want to pay a cover charge, other places where this music is happening in town, the hungry brain, hideout, myopic, etc...there is never a cover, as the places can only ask for donations due to city licensing. why pay a cover when you can go see people for a less amount of money on a different night of the week?
regardless, we played two sets and the music was good in both, though personally i was struggling with the bass clarinet which i have had on loan from someone for more than six months now (the thing is is that it is a student model horn in serious need of some repair, but i know that as soon as i get it fixed, someone's going to want it back. by the way - thank you to dan saylers for letting me use this thing for so long.) the music is of the slow burning energy kind, with alot of improvisation which can move the written music -which is nicely rooted in jazz with chord structures and harmonies - to all kinds of spaces.
after we played, we all hung out for a bit, i talked to berman about trying to figure out places to have some special events. i think a thursday night series at a bar would be really great, but we will have to find a place.

grey ghost & birth at rodan 9-20-2004

so, back in chicago after the long drive, i spent the day with birth, we got some good chips & salsa, tacos & margaritas at el cid; then eventually got some coffee from filter and hung out in wicker park for a bit. it was a nice day - a bit warm in the sun, but perfect in the shade. later in the evening we went down to millenium park to see tortoise play a free show at the new pritzker pavillion. that place is pretty awesome - it's a very large auditorium designed by frank gehry. unfortunately though we thought tortoise would play at 6:30, giving us plenty of time to watch them and then go set up for our show later in the night, there were the most broing dj's i've ever seen perform live. some guys from switzerland. really lame house/jazz music. it was dissappointing.
but hanging out at the pavillion was allright, good for people watching. the best sight was the chicago police officer cruising around on one of those new segway personal human transporter. he looked totally like a robocop, gliding around, looking down at people imperiously. it was both slightly scary and completely hilarious...he had a bike helmet on (one of the fast looking ones) with rearview mirror attached. if only i had a picture... we got to see the first few songs of tortoise's set - it sounded really good as they came out with alot of energy - it must be nice to play big concert venues and have ltos of nice gear to pull off some of the stuff they pull off. hard work too.
the show at rodan was kind of strange. it was really crowded, but more with people that were just at the bar than people there for the show. birth played first and the crowd was really talking, and at one point when birth got quiet some people had to sing happy birthday. birth did sound really good by the end of there set - they played some high energy sonic stuff that worked well with blocking out the room sound. the crowd kind of thinned out for the grey ghost, which was for the best i think, but i didn't feel like we were clicking as well as the previous two nights. i appreciate rodan because the owners (adam & dave) are nice guys and supportive of the music, but the crowd can be truly annoying.
we all stayed till the bar closed and later, hanging outside in the perfect temperature night air which we've been enjoying every night of these last three shows.

grey ghost & birth in grand rapids 9-19-2004

after the late night cookie session we all slept in. when i woke up i heard joshua and his parents talking with their nephew, who is about two years old i think. we had a nice breakfast of blueberry muffins and eggs; which is actually something that my mom usually makes when i visit her in florida. it took us longer than expected to get out of town as we were waiting for joe tomino and jeremy bleich form birth to get to josh's house with the van they were riding in. in the meantime josh, johnathan & i all worked on reason for a bit , it's a new program for us all - we spent a little time learning how to use the sequencers & the synths. we finally got on the road to grand rapids, and it was a nice drive - but it was longer than i thought it would be originally, took us about 5 hours or so. by the time we got to the DAAC (where we played) there was already a full house, which was a good surprise. grey ghost got our set going pretty quickly after the van with joe & jeremy got there (we had put some of our things in their van so josh could ride with us as there weren't any chairs in the back of their van) and our set felt really good. the audience was also good - the space was set up with chairs and the folks really paid attention to us. afterwards alot of people were complimentary and we sold some cds, hopefully we'll be able to go back sometime relatively soon.
johnathan & i left pretty quickly after birth finished their set - the drive back to chicago was about 3 hours, not so bad. about halfway i took over the wheel and didn't have to much trouble staying awake but every now and then felt a little eye closing happen. we got into chicago around 2:30. the boys from birth didn't get in until around 5, that's pretty rough.

grey ghost & birth in cleveland 9-18-2004

this weekend grey ghost hit the road - who is grey ghost? it is me playing saxophone and using a computer for live sampling, manipulation and other things along with johnathan crawford playing drums and the kawai analog synth.
we left on saturday afternoon from chicago and drove to cleveland ohio. it took us longer than expected as coming out of chicago we took some strange route through the southeast side because there were signs telling us that the skyway was congested. that route was allright, we got to see parts of the city we'd never seen before - we travelled underneath the green line el tracks and saw strange buildings and churches, there's lots of poverty down there.
on the road to cleveland we made the mistake of stopping at the woodwind and brasswind - it was hard to get to there from the highway. inside, the place seemed like guitar center - lots of salesman, but things not really laid out in a way conducive to running in and picking up something little. and me there to get some reeds...no salesman was available to help me get those, which seemed ridiculous, so after about 10 minutes we split.
we got to the asterisk gallery around 9 o'clock, the show was supposed to start around ten, but unfortunately the turnout was low, and while waiting for people to show up, we delayed the start until about 1030 or so. we played a good set - almost all improvised, with some snippets of songs we've done before. the set was a continuous flow, and we had a good amount of variation in dynamics & timbres. kind of a clinical evaluation, but basically the set felt very good, but unfortunatley we didn't get to record it.
there was a long break before birth played - johnathan and i got a slice at this little deli nearby, the people that work there have attitude, the style that happens when you really hate your job and have to deal with people all the time. but the pizza was pretty good,
birth played there set, they seemed to get more into it as the set progressed, afterwards we all listened to some records and drank pbr. we stayed at joshua smith's parents' house - there were chocolate chips and oatmeal cookies for a snack, i think we went to bed a bit after 4.....

second citizens at hideout 9-13

so last night the second citizens returned to the Hideout.who are the second citizens? keefe jackson on a variety of reeded instruments, normally tenor saxophone, but sometime bass clarinet or baritone saxophone; josh berman on cornet; fred lonberg-holm on cello; anton hatwich on bass and frank rosaly on drums. I play alto saxophone in the group. we've been playing at the hideout somewhat regularly the last few months, the idea is that we'll play two mondays a month, but it's been a bit spotty as sometimes some of us are out of town & other times another event has been already booked by a the owner of the place. but, hopefully we'll be able to steady thinds up and make it a routine.
the music is free jazz with rhythm & melody and no rules on the improvisations. last night wasn't the best crowd we've had but was a good time. i invited people to come help me celebrate my birthday (which is on the 14th), and had johnathan crawford and rotten milk do some djing in between the sets.
the evening started pretty mellow with just a few people trickling in before we played the first set around 10:30. the set started out well, but it seemed that maybe we played on too many songs without any rhythm involved as the energy waned as we got past the 45 minute mark. by the time we finished that set more people had showed up and it felt more like a birthday party - rotten milk played the dance music & the hiphop, people had drinks & ate the brownies that jen brought (no, they weren't pot brownies - but everyone kept asking).
we played a late second set and kept it on the shorter side, but that didn't keep people from trickling out - it's definitely tough to have people stay out for two sets on a monday night, the weekend is long dead and people have to work in the morning.
anton and i closed out the bar with the folk who work there and that was the end of the night - not a bad one at all.

day two

the fury of hurricane frances

tomorrow i go to florida for the weekend. I'll be visiting my folks in palm city, where they just got hit by a hurricane, hurricane frances. It was the first time in a long time that a hurricane hit our part of the state, which is surprising as we live on the eastern seaboard, right in the middle of the state. i've always felt that Florida is unusually lucky when it comes to hurricanes, it's right in the middle of the bowling pins of the carribean islands, but i guess it's tough for a hurricane to hit a strike. Frances wasn't really that powerfull, but it was really big. It started hitting my folks place early saturday and was still hitting it late sunday. the eye passed over our home town, but the news media kept their focus on west palm beach and vero beach, two places each 40 miles away. the killer picture of the Z-28 up above is something i found that got messed up by the hurricane.... now that really shows the fury of a hurricane. If my ride got messed up like that, i'd definitely leave that state. Now, it's not that I have a ride. And, I already left that state. Actually a main reason why I moved to chicago was so I could not worry about needing a car. And here I am 5 years later, still with no car and feeling fine about it...

vesuvio bar, san fran

vesuvio bar, san fran
Originally uploaded by dragonseventysix.

this one is taken from a trip out to the western states during the summer - my girl jen and i stopped for a few days in san francisco in between two weeks of camping in washington, oregon and california...

back from lunch

Back at the desk. So it's a beautiful day outside here in Chicago, the temperature is in the low 70s - perfect by my standards. So i'm debating wether I should give alot of back up information or just write what happens. I suppose anybody can just skip ahead if they get bored.

So, moved up to Chicago from Florida right before the turn of the century, in 1999. Came up here for the music scene. I live in a two bedroom apartment south of Chicago avenue with a bass player - Jason Roebke - our roommate situation is pretty decent, we give each other space and are both pretty clean. It's a third floor and has a little view from the back porch - faces an alley so you can see the sky that goes over the great south side of Chicago and to the east you can see the Sears Tower.

Most recent thing to happen is last night - played some improvised music at the Myopic Bookstore, a place on Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park that has been having improvised music on monday nights for a long time. I played saxophone and was joined with Amanda Gutierrez receiving radio transmissions on her shortwave & manipulating them and steve hess playing some minimal & soft drums & cymbals. It was the first time we have played together - we played two long improvisations, the first was very quiet and a bit tentative - the radio was coming in very quietly and it was a challenge to match the volume with my loud-ass saxophone. The second improvisation felt better - and everything was heard better. The Myopic space has gone through alot of changes over the years and right now the performance space is pretty tiny - maybe 8' square. It definitely makes things intimate.

After that I went with my girlriend Jen to the Empty bottle for a free show - our friend Jaime plays drums in a band called Stag Party with his brother and some other folk. They're a fun band to watch. Sometimes when I watch bands that are having a good time playing it makes me think about how I need to play in a group which is more fun than serious. I enjoy the music I make, but sometimes I feel that too much of it takes itself way too seriously. Jen & I didn't stay too late as we both had to work today, but it was a good time - ran into a bunch of folk not seen in a long time.

Time to end this one, will probably write way too much in the first few days and then let things drop off, or maybe I'll always write too much.

First and Fresh

Hello all,

We will see how long this keeps up. I've been keeping a journal on and off for many years, so maybe I'll be able to stick to my guns on this one.

Just about to turn 28 next monday and I'm thinking of the things I need to do next. Maybe this'll help me work out those ideas, or maybe just document whats going on with it.

The basics. I'm a musician living in Chicago. I like this town alot. I've been here for 5 years and have learned alot and grown in ways that I didn't think I would. Sound like a self help forum yet? Well, I can't help that can I. Thinking about and playing music is what I spend most of my days doing. I also happen to work half time at a lighting fixture store called New Metal Crafts. It's a decent job with it's problems, but the most important thing is that it allows me the freedom to play music when I want to and the use of it's internet & printing capabilities. Benfits for sure.

So the music, I play music which lacks the easy categorical names. Oh well. I play saxophone, and have since I was ten years old, but lately I've been increasingly pulled by the desire to make the music with a computer. Luckily, as computers get better, it makes it that much easier to do so. Time to go now for some lunch, but this will continue...