Four Defiant Days(demo)
Hello all, time for another Long Con preview. I’m really enjoying the process for this EP, and I like sharing these songs with you. Hope you enjoy!
Right Foot
A song from the forthcoming “Long Con” EP. Hope you like it.
What’s Left
I was hoping to post a few songs from the recording I’m working on, but they just aren’t where I need them to be. So here is a rough cut of a song that’s likely to be on The Long Con when all is said and done.
Music Monday (Not a thing)
I’ve been working on some web projects for school, so I’ve been a bit absent here. BUT I thought I would at least share that which I am listening to while I work.
The Doves- The Places Between: The Best of the Doves
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford OST
Daft Punk- TRON OST
Bjork- Vespertine (One of my top 5 albums of all time)
Spoon- Gimme Fiction
Takenobu- Introduction
Zoe Keating- Into the Trees
Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Show Your Bones
SHEL- When the Dragon Came Down EP (A Ft. Collins, CO based band I think is likely on the upswing)
If you haven’t listened to any of the above I suggest using your music provider of choice to do so.
The Tin Foil Hat
Right now there are innumerable signals and waves passing through our bodies. That’s not a sexy come-on. I’m bathing in wi-fi. That’s not one, either. The point is, sometimes I wonder what it would be like if it all switched off at once. Would it feel noticeably different? Maybe I would be smarter.
Anyway, in a week I will be relatively unplugged for a few days. I have noticed in the past my thoughts seem much more linear when I get away from computers for awhile. It’s one of the reasons I still use a beat up flip phone from 2007. I keep thinking about an i-phone but I’m afraid I would be tempted to check it all the time.
I’m looking forward to a 10 hour drive across the Great American Desert. Just me and my thoughts.*
*Just kidding. I’ll have my ipod.
The Fence
As I approach the age of 30 I have an inclination to be less ambiguous. Living with my head in the future created an idleness, rather a paralysis of over-analyization, and along with it a grey cloud through which I may have appeared dispassionate. That I can mostly explain away as a lack of confidence. Fear. I’ve been in the process of letting go of that for some time, and I want that to be evident. I want definition in the present. It’s important, even if I later realize I am wrong. The point of me writing this now is to foreshadow what will likely be more personal pieces than I typically post.
Burning Lungs
An older recording from my college band Flame-Hand Robot:
If you wanted to be there you’d be there.
Once there was a prince who lived quietly and comfortably in his father’s castle. Word came to town that they were giving out free…toys…no…plague immunizations in the forest but the prince passed, even though plague was serious, because he had grown up reading that dragons liked to trick people with the promise of plague immunizations. Also, highwaymen were a thing. But man, the other kids went, and really had a good day, and didn’t die of plague.
“If you really wanted to be there, you’d be there.”
I have a difficult time prioritizing major life movements. I’ve always wanted to live in or near mountains, most specifically Colorado. So why do I still live in Kansas City? (more…)
From the Archive: Definitions in Morality
As I sat down to watch “Life Boat,” Alfred Hitchcock’s 1944 movie based on a John Steinbeck story about the survivors of a Nazi U-Boat incursion forced into a tiny…well…life boat, I expected a few good ethical questions to arise out of the human drama. Whatever the film’s drawbacks, at the end of the evening it had me thinking.
We tend to value human life above all other forms. Viewing human history and our various violent situations currently suffered, it might be dryly commented that this value isn’t high. Maybe it isn’t sometimes, but it’s always higher on the list than say…squirrels and trees. (more…)
So What Now?
The last convoy transporting U.S. soldiers left Iraq this morning. As I perused the news headlines, this story was third on a major news outlet, which warrants a whole essay in itself, but some other time. I reflected on what the Iraq War’s end means both to me personally and in a larger sense.
I’m not able to come up with much. It feels momentous, because the Iraq War defined a major part of the first decade in this century. Countless articles, documentaries, political sound bites, and debates ran in the background everyday for eight years. A particularly formative and influential eight years of my youth. Now it is over. But it doesn’t feel over.
We did not have concrete victory conditions for this war, so it is difficult for me to gauge. No Dark Crystal to heal nor ring to throw in a volcano. No classic and definitive moment of achievement. Media coverage has waned over the last year or two, and I as an average citizen have little grasp on the situation in Iraq. Is it stable? Can it stand on its own or will the Iraqi government quickly become a thorn in the side of the U.S.? I’m relatively uninformed, and I have to assume the people in charge have considered many options.
We left one area, but tensions seem just as high because we are still at war elsewhere. Afghanistan in particular, and the escalating hostility between Iran and the West. I don’t get the sense that Iraq is back up on its feet and prospering, rather there is simply not much left for us to do there. The national identity of Iraq isn’t strong enough for us to work with, and fragments are hard to put together. The suffering and confusion of that region didn’t start recently. They won’t end imminently.
Running into an election year, I’m hoping to see more of these decisive moments, cynical reasoning or not. Historians will have to sort out all of the echoes and ripples. For now, with little foresight, I will just be glad there are Americans coming home.
Stained Glass and Distractions
An older song I wrote. Please excuse the audio clip-outs.
From the Archive: Our Modern (Whiny) Crisis
After everyone goes to bed and I allow myself to enter existential crisis, I sometimes wonder what kind of person I would have been in any other time in history. Stories I read about past societies, and the number of ways by which it was socially acceptable to brutally ruin someone else’s day, scare the crap out of me when I place myself there. Then I remember that I would probably be whatever I was born into, and the game is much less fun. Maybe these are just my modern sensibilities.
Up until even 20 years ago or so, if you had mentioned a major problem for future generations would be “soul crushing boredom and/or indecision paralysis,” I imagine you would receive a kick in the pants while simultaneously being handed a mop to “get your shit together.”
(more…)
Sunday Productivity Mix
Of course, it could be argued making a list of music you are listening to while trying to be productive is actually counter-productive, but…I have nothing. That’s probably true.
Radiohead-Kid A
Zoe Keating-Into the Trees
Ryan Adams-Ashes and Fire
The Black Keys-Brothers
The White Stripes-Get Behind Me Satan
12/03/11
A friend of mine passed away earlier this week after a long battle with cancer. My thoughts and prayers go to her husband and family.
Acceptance of finitude, of seasons, has lead to clarity and enrichment in my life.
11/28/11
Now posted on the music page, “Winter Warmer” is a small collection of Christmas songs. Each song will be posted as they are completed throughout the season. They are downloadable and free, so enjoy!
Hello
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In the mean time, if you’d like to hear some music or see a few comics, please embark on an adventure using the navigation menu on the right side of the page. Good luck, buddy.