Thanks for the links to photos! I was clicking before I even read that you added the link for me! Thanks!

I agree.

I agree with your assessments of the Bern book. He wrote a much larger volume on a similar subject. Also, a UC publication.

Ah yes. In my undergrad conducting class, we conducted THAXTED (AKA, “I Vow to the My Country”, which appears in the middle of Holst’s “Jupiter.” Naturally, after playing it twenty-something times, it was cemented in my head for about a week.

Also, in reference to American music, we cannot forget Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber. I am not saying that Ives doesn’t sound American, but that these guys do too.

The wood looks like mahogany, but maybe oak. Do you know the wood? I may have some wood in my possession the could be duplicated for your jack rail.

I suppose that the only reason for responding is that a lot of people dream of the ones that they love in the same way. I have that now with Bret. I am a little disturbed by the dark ending of your journal. I believe that you are seen by many people and that you have great impact upon them (you understand this, I’m sure) It is a condition of reacting to criticism. As a play or any presentation,it takes many parts to make it whole. As a Tech. director in a play they are invisible to the audience, but they are essential to the perception of the presentation by the audience member. Should they be visible?

I was trying not to use the idea of “invisible” in the classic theatrical sense of directing attention elsewhere (e.g. puppeteers who dress in black but are on stage). Instead I was trying for Ellison’s nuance in his book. People who looked at but not seen. In our society it seems to happen all the time: the black cook, the hispanic landscaper, and so on. That’s how Ellison uses it. It’s another form of lack of awareness. That’s all. No biggie.

[…] august 5th Lemonjellos gig […]

Is that Mary Hatch in the photos?

Say hey to Mary. It is nice to see her. Did I understand that she is now living in Florida? Did she remarry?

Oh yeah! The picture is a picture saying “did I really do that” or “Man, what a day that was” !!

Well, I think everything is set for recording. No worries as the Aussies say.

Yes, well, live mixing requires a musician in the mixing role who is a technician as well. Everyone assumes that this person actually knows what the music is doing, but in most cases, not so much. It is an awful thing to let ones music not be properly heard by the audience. Otherwise, why do it!!!! It is also, amazing that many musicians themselves are ignorant of this process. There is a reason to analyze the role of mixing and the balance of instruments within the context of the music. Many times amplification actually causes more problems than it solves. I believe that the approach in most cases is “less is more”

I am prompted to respond because of the comment about Jazz. How does RAP enter into this equation. Is it music? Many whom I have asked this question respond, yes. But I have often said that Iambic pentameter rhyme has been around since Shakespeare, but is it Music? In fact most people, don’t understand why I ask the question. I assume that it is my age and education that interferes with my understanding of this great intellectual question. I have a fairly large Jazz library, but I own no RAP music. However, I do own the complete plays and poems of Shakespeare. I guess I am behind my times.

John Cage convinced me that all sound is music and that there is actually no such thing as silence (I used to tell my music app students the story about how Cage wanted to hear pure silence. He goes into a sound chamber where all sound vibration is removed. He hears two sounds, one high, one low. The high one is his nervous system, the low, his circulatory.)

Having said that, there is no question in my mind that “Rap” is music. I’m not really that conversant with the history, but I think of it as the granddaddy of Hip-hop. I also think there are other musical idioms out there that rely pretty much on collages of sounds, “Mixes.”

Sampling fascinates me. Also, the idea that anybody can take software and premade music and come up with their own music (a la Moby) interests me.

The group, Outkast, interested me when they chose to appear on stage with instruments doing the loops instead of recordings.

Rhythm is an essential part of music for me these days. It’s not hard for me get interested rhythmically in a lot of what is happening in the Hip Hop scene. I own a few recordings of Hip hop groups.

I wouldn’t say you are necessarily behind the times. You just have tastes.

FWIW

Nothing doesn’t seem to fit as a descriptive word. Is the translation correct? After all, words in describing nothing has a lot of interpretations. Does it mean “it doesn’t matter”? It seems to me that the finality of the end or death leads to nothing in an one interpretative sense, but to what end?

The original Spanish word is indeed “nada.”

Here’s a link to a Spanish web site with some of the original poems and a copy of the original drawing:
http://tradicionesdesabiduria.blogspot.com/2009/07/de-la-nada-al-todo-juan-de-la-cruz.html

Apparently San Juan de la Cruz made many of them.

Like I say in my blog, this is not nihilism. More of a mystical understanding of letting go of everything. (My interp)

Steve, Good Luck & Good Tunes for your performance tonight!

I prefer the real Mr. Natural, but this cartoon you have posted here is “Right Arm!” You would enjoy him. He has been known to play church music, sort of, on occasion.

http://www.mrnatural.net

Aloha from the non-haole who is in Hawaii right now

Aloha Franis! Thanks for stopping by and commenting. And thanks for the link!