The Autumn House

Catching up on my Ludwig

This is a notoriously slow time for musicians in my area (the dead zone of the Midwest). But, I usually use it to fix gear and write music(or rewrite bad charts, which takes me awhile). This time I've been using it to get inspired to play piano and write music again. I'm study(note: I did not say "playing") the Beethoven piano sonatas. The reason I write "studying" and not "playing" is because there is no way I could conceivably learn to play these, for the most part, virtuosic piano sonatas. I don't have the technique. I certainly don't have the time. I AM trying to learn a couple of them. An easy one(op. 49 No. 2 – a sonatina really) and a huge mace-like blow to my ego(op. 2, no. 2-Not even one of the most difficult). The cool part is all the composing devices and effects Beethoven uses on one single instrument.

SOLO.

For 15-40 minutes at a time.

I can't write a decent 3 minute song.

So, I'm really using them to study composition and what is possible on the simple piano. I finally bought the two volumes of the 32 sonatas late last year and have been using books by Rosen, Taub(see sidebar) and most importantly a video lecture series from Great Courses(Teaching Company) taught by Robert Greenburg. Greenburg covers all the sonatas in 24 45-minute lectures. They are designed for non-musicians, but they are a great introduction from a composition stand point. From a slightly more technical standpoint, I've been listening to pianist Andras Schiff give lectures on how he interprets the sonatas (he recently recorded all 32). He gave these interviews at a few British concerts of the sonatas that he performed. They can be found(and downloaded) here:

http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/page/0,,1943867,00.html.

It's really easy to hear how amazing all the sonatas are 200 years after the fact, especially if you actually play piano. But, the mileage Ludwig gets out of a single instrument with compositional techniques is beyond amazing. I expect my kids will either absolutely love or hate them by the year's end. I play them on my IPod way, way too much.

Also, I get the feeling they are beginning to realize what hack Dear-Old-Dad is……

“Off the Record” Video Interview

Jack Helsley, Harry Goodloe and I spent some quality time with Dave Lindquist last Friday. We played a few tunes and he had some interesting questions. When we could stop laughing and when he had the Camcorder actually turned on, some good stuff was videotaped. Doris, from the Jazz Kitchen, said I should've worn a suit or nice shirt. Looking at the video now, I guess she was right. But, the effect would've been marginal. Dave Lindquist was kind enough to put up with all of our crap and Dave Allee was kind enough to let us use the Jazz Kitchen. So, thanks be to the Daves.

The result is located here: http://www.indy.com/videos/show/76 and here: http://www.indy.com/posts/3346

All this is leading up to our big return to the Jazz Kitchen this Saturday, January 5 from 9:00pm to 12:00am. Hopefully, other people will be there also.

Your mom is MY sugar-mama. Go find your own.

DOES NOT LIKE

Today, I worked on my new computer trying to get a Microsoft cordless mouse to work with the Microsoft screensaver in Vista (it doesn't, but there is a special fix – make sure the HARDWARE works with the SOFTWARE).

But, as I am working my two-year-old son clambers up on to the piano bench in front of my keyboards. He then proceeds to put on the headphones and hammer away on the Kurzweil PC1X (which is turned off). While he is doing this, he starts singing at the top of his lungs. It was a tune he made up. He does that a lot. After he is finished with his little mini-concert, he applauds himself and yells, "Yeeaaahh". My friend Jack told me that I should tell him that people don't applaud for jazz musicians. But, I figure, why ruin his fantasy. Eventually, he'll go to enough concerts with me to see the bitter, surreal truth. Then, he'll go to medical school.

Daddy, I do NOT want that Batmobile for Christmas

You have to give the guy credit for creativity. I wonder if you can fit two child seats in there?

I found this via http://blog.newsarama.com/ who found it via http://www.neatorama.com/2007/09/03/ghetto-batmobile/.

In other words, no originality here, just a weird sense of awe.

Another Way of Mind Melding

I heard this the other day on an NPR podcast. Another "This I Believe" essay which I makes incredible sense. In some ways, I guess this would border on "I'd like to give the world a coke" touchy-feely-ness. But, I would sum it up this way: Everytime a good soloist plays, he's trying to mind meld with the entire audience. Every time I play a solo, I'm more like Johnny Carson's Karnak the magician.

Poor Keanu. But, at least he's not Dr. Manhattan

There seems to be a remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" in the works....with Keanu Reeves playing the lead. No, I'm not kidding. I have the feeling the new movie will do poorly (if it ever gets off the ground), because its tentative release date was the same time Indiana Jones 4 and Iron Man is coming out. But, maybe the studio is already trying to sink it.

In COOL movie news, the Wachowski Bros live action "Speed Racer" movie is using a specially developed camera(one in which nothing is out of focus, and that they have to "colorize" film)that will give the movie a very unique look. But, that's not the amazing part. This is: they're trying for a "G" rating. My 2-year-old could see a Wachowski Bros flick. Can 'lil' Matrix be far behind?

Meanwhile, I'm stuck waiting to buy a video card for my new computer in order to use footage I already have of the band and make it look good. Maybe, I could use that special camera the Wachowski Bros have.

Seek the Man of Iron

Just a real quick post to say that if you didn't see the Zapruder-like film from the Iron Man sneak peak at Comicon a few weeks back, well you're almost out of luck. But, its looks awesome, and there are still some sites who haven't received a cease and desist e-mail yet. No, I'm not going to post a link here. That would be wrong. But, I'm counting on the fact that few people actually read this blog to actually keep me under Agent Smith's notice.

Beware Poets on My IPod

I've been spending time filling my IPod with poetry, mainly with poets from the Romantic Period. Some of them with actors interpreting the poetry, some of them with the poets themselves give the reading. I seem to prefer the reading given by the actors. Nicol Williamson reading William Blake's "The Tyger" sounds like an incantation read by his character Merlin in "Excalibur". While, Ogden Nash reading his own poetry sounds a lot like John Kennedy reading a speech, except not as motivating. But, one of the quotes Nash is known for goes something like," I'd rather be a good bad poet, than a bad good poet." As a matter of fact, I've known Ogden Nash poems since the third grade. My favorite was:

EDOUARD

A bugler named Dougal MacDougal

Found ingenious ways to be frugal

He learned how to sneeze

in various keys

Thus saving the price of a bugle

 

No, he's no Robert Frost, but a lot of the poetry I was exposed to then was a bit limerick-y. Hey, c'mon, YOU recite Coleridge's "Kubla Khan". The first few lines don't count since they are in "Citizen Kane". Anyway, "The Romantic Poets" is filled with British actors reciting Shelley, Keats, Byron, Blake and Wordsworth. It's definitely something I would recommend. The other series of CDs that I've picked up featuring poets reading their own work, I would recommend only if you're interested in hearing how the poet read his own work, but don't be surprised if you're a bit disappointed. I'll let you know how James Mason sounds reading "Rime of the Ancient Mariner".

Welcome to the 1990s

I finally replaced my computer this week. I thought it necessary after finding myself whack the monitor with the palm of my hand to correct the sepia toned picture for the past two days. After my third reboot of the day, I traveled to my local discount electronics megastore and purchased a new slick black light-speed machine. My old paperweight was a Pentium II(400mhz) Compaq running(on rainy days only) Windows 98SE. When I told my friend Adam about the purchase he said "Welcome to the 1990s!"

I'm still transferring stuff over, but my widescreen monitor already helps with music scoring in Finale. Plus, the computer is fast enough that I can play Peter Gabriel's concert videos with no problem.
Running Windows Vista, I had to click on "Classic" mode to get things organized. (I've run Windows 98 for almost 10 years, and I hate how new versions hide, er, organize things). But, soon I'll have M-Powered Pro-tools running and other VSynths and music programs that I somehow made work on the old machine. Hopefully, I'll have a new demo of music stuff out by early next year. That's the plan anyway. But, then again, I planned on posting every week, too. At, least I'll save time by not playing "whack-a-monitor" every 5 minutes.

Any of these would work for Christmas...

Any of these would work as gifts for me for Christmas. Just don't forget the plutonium rods, rocket fuel or extra parachutes. And, I have to have a plug-in for my Ipod.