friday

wonderful, uplifting day completing most of my billing project at work, a morning dash for coffee and a re-imagining of my musical trajectory for 2013. A much clearer sense of my direction in the new year and excitement about the future. After work Will stopped by and dropped off a mini-bike for repairs; out in the backyard, the barn and office glowed warmly in the chilly night air and I felt happy and content just being alive

Happy Birthday, TG

Oh and by the way, happy birthday, Tony Garza (wherever you are!)

( Note to self: Need to get together with TG for some armagnac tasting over the holidays...)

Coco Lounge

Hot date at Coco Lounge; relaxing and restorative date night... Definitely preferred the donut martini to the Old Fashioned

Sunday morning

Arising abnormally early to take the dog out on a chilly later November morning. Last night Scott and Kurt came by and we sat in the man cave and drank some stout and had some great conversation and sharing. Powerful feeling of peace and blessedness; I needed something life-affirming this night.

May all beings find enlightenment!

soundscapes

Visit with Dan Tellez and talks of musicking continues; he brought me a lovely three-CD collection of Fripp Soundscapes, as well! We went out to the little music shed and he played around on the Yamaha rig to try and help get Ethan dialed-in a distortion sound for his guitar practice. Very proud of Ethan who has a second coffeehouse gig coming up in December. Ethan plays out more than I do now. This is as it should be (but I am still holding out hope of performing a few more gigs myself)!

Chris with Chrysta Bell

Had to share this concerning Chris Smart (who I had planned to visit this weekend to discuss an Acoustic Guitar for Ethan...) "Heading across the pond for another euro tour with the fab Chrysta Bell. First stop the Camerimage Festival in Bydgoszcz, Poland on the 24th as part of the events planned to honor David Lynch with a lifetime achievement award. And then..."

So my guitar will have to wait for the time being, but congrats to Chris, David and all involved!

Prayers and Hymns

Applied for a grant re Prayers and Hymns; only after I applied did I notice my estimate far exceeded the grant award. Well, first time at applying for a grant: next time I'll know better. Meanwhile, the other evening whilst sipping a Guiness I went back and listened to some individual tracks from a tune called "Cheesecake" and was greatly impressed. I am still trying to "do something" where it concerns live performance. Perhaps this is the way to go. Giving me another sense of direction is Steve Ball's "Airport Exercise" which never fails to inspire and uplift...on my list of things to do is to call up Tony Garza for some GC ruminations...

Rome & BonBon

Wednesday night I got Gerald Benesch's latest recording "Orchesterwerke" in the mail; wonderful, uplifting and life affirming project!

Adrian

Meetup with Adrian at the Esquire Tavern Monday evening; great, relaxing time catching up and sharing about life and musicality, plans current and future.Told him (again) how much I love his album. He is touring with Daughtry and told me some incredible war stories about his work.

Turner & Turner: Mission-critical translations for Scandinavian cor...

Turner & Turner: Mission-critical translations for Scandinavian cor...: We translate, edit and write mission-critical documentation. Our client base consists of corporations and financial institutions, mainly...

Lion & Rose

Lunch at the Lion & Rose; very restorative having a Black and Tan. Heard some music from a band called "Yacht"... man, it took me back to the 80s british music we grew up loving. I wonder why I am such an anglophile.... all of a sudden I was craving a good dose of Cherry Red sampler tunes and/or Lung Overcoat!

Thursday

Wonderful evening at home with the family; chores, homework, bathtime... all part of the blessing of being! Each moment another opportunity to be in the unitive state and collected; a quality, no matter how fleeting, momentary and impermanent. Slowly it is sinking in: just-is-ness. Why take it personal? Nothing is personal if there is no-person to be attacked. So we continue, moving from one transient moment to the next, "surprised by joy" as C.S. Lewis put it!

Ideology

Today I glimpsed a possibility of a life beyond any ideology (idolotry) and it was good; confirmed something I'd sensed before and written about but had forgotten. Thus a sense of validation that perhaps (just perhaps) I am on the right path.

Today I also worked really hard to be a nurturing and loving father and husband (hint: if you're having to work that hard for it, its not working). That's ok. I give myself permission to make mistakes and don't hold it against me. Tomorrow after all is another day to begin again.

Finally this evening we noticed our neighbor with all the giant Romney signs in his front yard and the sign that says "anyone who steals these signs will be shot" no longer has any signs in his yard.

Revised and revisited

Wow. Just did I little sprucing-up on the blog, deleting old broken links and adding some historical ancient pre-blog diaries of mine buried somewhere within this Integral Music site. Been really digging going back and listening to the Gilliam Section material; just great, great stuff. Inspires me to write some new stuff, which I will commence to do this very evening, time and energy permitting. I have an idea... we will see where it goes (if anywhere)... and if not, that's ok, too. It's all about the dance of life!

Keep dancing and laughing!

Selah!

Natur Klang Wanderung, geführte Touren

Natur Klang Wanderung, geführte Touren

Friday morning

Zen like morning allowing myself to relax and be totally open to this moment; indulging at Starbucks. Shared some laughs last night with the family; as I mentioned to Dan Garcia recently: laughter really is the BEST medicine! Coffee is a close second! Now off to start my day! Blessings to you and yours; remember to cherish each other!

Faith in Worthwhile albums

Great write up (review of Lee Fletcher's new album "Faith in Worthless Things" featuring Lisa Fletcher, Markus Reuter, Robert Fripp and many other outstanding players!)

This album has been playing repeatedly for the past week in my (various) devices/formats!

Faith in Worthless Things review by Vince Font

Stroll

Today on our customary stroll, Scott and I saw some ducks...

Scott was impressed...

So we had espresso at Cafe Punta del Cielo

Today Scott and I saw some ducks...

This corresponds to a powerful dream I had (although in the dream there was more water and it was raining); a tiny road cut into the cliffs spiraled down into the chasm and reaching the bottom after barely making it in a tiny vehicle of some sort I was transported back in time to a domestic house in the mid-1960s, complete with antique tv and rotary phones. I wanted to stay in that safe and protected space and while that may have been an option, I instinctively knew I had to leave it and return to the present, but it brought me a sadness.

Another morning

Beginning the day....

Morning Coffee at Starbucks

A series of morning reflections

Stick Grooves

Out in the studio working on some stick recordings:

Getting good sounds, but lacking drum parts...

Getting a bit better with tremolo...

I called this pic "Tracking Stick" on FB... the following comments ensued:

• 
  
• • 

    Markus Reuter Stacking trick.

    August 12 at 1:44pm ·  · 2
  • 

    Erik Emil Eskildsen Tricking stack.

    August 12 at 1:49pm ·  · 1
  • 

    Marco Chiappini Trucking stock.

    August 12 at 2:53pm 

New Arising

Went out to the studio two weeks ago to try a bit of recording; first attempt frustrating with no monitor playback during tracking of additional bits. Quickly found the right box to tick to enable the monitors and ran through some test pieces for Will which actually turned into petite audioscapes finding their way onto Bandcamp as a little mini-album or aural goodness. Very pleased with how the pieces panned-out, which you can listen to here:

New Arising

This sampler represents the very best of my guitar playing to date in terms of overall composition and sound; I was definitely "feeling it", in other words and hitting all the notes and tones. Each tune has about 4 or 5 overdubs, and I edited/recorded very quickly using the line 6 for added color and stereo/delay effects in the Magix program.

I should also mention I installed new exterior/interior curtains in the studio to block the sun that has been scorching the office all summer long; this new enhancement was the catalyst to actually attempt a recording. Up until now it has simply been too hot!

Isaac came out to check the progress...

Recording complete, now a beer...

Birthday present to myself @Starbucks

After the Show

Wonderful to see the songs performed one last time, even sans dear old uncle Bobby (and in a great venue so close to home!)

I think we were all fairly blown-away. Alan and I took off after the Crim set; Scott and John stayed for a bit of Dream Theater. Forgot to mention, I wore the vintage "Discipline" tour t-shirt from 1981:

Headed home and waited to hear from Markus. The hotel for the night had changed to from the Airport Hilton to the Eilan Hotel Spa and Resort at La Cantera:

We got to the hotel and met up with Markus and tried to buy him a drink in the bar:

Unfortunately it was already last call and we couldn't get service. We did however get a table thanks to T Lev, who Markus introduced us to, and Alan and I did our best not to geek out but it was really incredible to get to meet him and talk briefly and to share some (really outstanding)  vodka!

Tony said goodnight and headed up to his room and Alan, Markus and I talked for about an hour about all things musical, our heroes, our aspirations, hopes and disappointments. It was an uplifting and relaxing visit and I am grateful to have had the chance to enjoy such a wonderful and Crimson-filled evening. Big thank you to my friend, Markus, for taking the time to meet and hang-out with us! It was incredible to be around real working professional musicians who happen to be just real nice guys to boot!

Crimson ProjeKct

Show started PROMPTLY at 7:25 with a trio... Markus, Pat and Tobias doing "B'Boom"; Scott and I both agreed later that this was one of the highpoints of the whole show. Markus did a stomping, menacing soundscape of terror while Pat and Tobias laid down thunderous grooves!

Alan brought Godzilla along, who seemed to enjoy the show:

The rest of the band came out and the 45-minute set began in earnest. The band played the following tunes and sounded great despite a muddy mix from the balcony where we were sitting:

2.         THRAK                      

3.         Dinosaur                      

4.         Elephant Talk             

5.         Red                            

6.         Frame by Frame          

7.         Thela Hun Ginjeet      

8.         Indiscipline            

Moses Rose

Meet-up at Moses Rose with Alan, Scott and John Suk for dinner and a couple of beers before the show; texts from Markus about meeting afterwards and from Chris Smart already at the Majestic. They were backstage checking out the Dream Theater set up... we wrapped it up and headed down for the show as we'd been warned "it starts 5 minutes early..."

Crimson ProjeKct

Crimson ProjeKct

Looking forward to seeing the Crimson ProjeKct at the Majestic Theater on Friday and possible meeting with Markus. Also looking forward to rocking out with Will and Scott on Thursday. Been listening to the WMT all week and rocking out to "Food for the Moon", "Tuesday 13", "Om Shanti Om" and "Making of Americans". Really think we should work on Americans as a live tune.

But today burgers, movies and the pool! Happy 4th of July!

Last week

Last week's adventures in rehearsals  confirms:

1. We are getting better;

2. The music is tighter (when it isn't falling apart); and

3. We (collective "we") all need to practice more.

That said, we're moving deeper into a cohesiveness and band thinking mode and had some definitive breakthrough moments, including a new live looping solo madness in "World"; revisiting "Another Way of Loving You" (Need to re-write lyric) and working out parts during "Veldt" and Willard's "Grand Melodic Futuristic Bombasta" fretless solo!

Thursday Night Recap

Great practice Thursday night with Will and Scott. Suggested we use the African xylophone on the Veldt; Scott reckons its an excellent idea.

Overall sounding soooo good; Will has been tweaking my rig and I'm really digging the stereo amp placement; been listening to Entropics to try and figure out the un-named tune Will sent around the other week. Landscape was Huge and Will's new fretless parts have really changed that tune for the better!

Sat down and figured out how to play track 5 which actually be named Dreams of Rage"? and also the Veldt which Scott can play African inst on; after verse, chorus, verse, chorus Veldt can go into Fripp Summers break (new tune Scott forget) for a spell, then back to chorus, with full on drums during that section

Also figured out a bit of three of a perfect pair which I think could be a song we could modify for a trio; doing more research in that now!

Drums and bass are there, the guitarist is a bit feebly but the stool keeps me steady; enjoyed working on my Guitar Craft picking technique last session. It brought an insight and seeing to my playing and kept me present

Thursday Night is Rock Out Night

Band rehearsal last night: man, it really all came together and we were cooking. The current was on! So many good moments, hard-pressed to pick and choose. From Will's fretless contributions to Scott's super-charged drumming and the vocals, it was all pretty hot. Huge leap forward on the guitar for me; free form "solos", note mangling and wrangling... really had a good night in terms of performing the tunes and injecting new life. Don't know if it was the stereo amp placement or using a stool; something changed for me last night. I think I was just real relaxed and felt free and confident to experiment and add a bit of skronk. Whatever it was, it was working. Pretty much covered the entire set-list, with the exception of Specific Gravity; still need to re-learn and incorporate "Human Beings" and "Ocean's Apart". Wish we'd recorded it. Will's new fretless bass is really adding a new dimension as is the chance to work on vocal harmonies; a good time was had by all!

Thursday night is Rock Out night

A good night with the new sound-rig! Those vocal harmonies are where it's at! Now to tighten it up!

Rock Out

Rock-out Thursdays resumed without skipping too many beats (maybe one or two on my end) with the newly-envisioned break for World becoming a new song on its own! The fretless Weasletone (tm) sounded indeed wonderful and Percy Jones-ish (Busta Jones, by the way also plays bass and has worked with Fripp and Talking Heads according to Google) we did some really jazzy renditions of Here and Now and Ciao Brasil. Kuddos to Will for reminding us (re-teaching me) "Specific Gravity" which I'd forgotten to return to! A great night, all and all; looking forward to hitting it again next week. Progress is definitely being made!

Guitar

Some guitar antics last night; really got to going on "Advance Mask" ultra strummy thing happening... heavier attack/strum and cross-picking and music took notice. Hummed along on that one for awhile; picked up the NST-tuned Ibanez and immediately broke a string. We all know what Robert says about that...

Also did "Landscape" in the new more aggressive strum/cross-picking mode. Think I'm on to something here with this more "heavy" approach. Something akin to a breakthrough, although time will tell if I'm right. Also did "Moon" but one chord is just not right. Will keep after it.

Personal Charisma

"So if a person is charismatic, if we would say they possess the charisma,  better they have a personal discipline; and if they're not personally charismatic, better they have a personal discipline."
   ~ Robert Fripp

http://www.fripp.com/mp3s/rf_charisma_final.mp3

Pop Ambient

And this from Will W today:

"eBow & Fretless sound insanely good and ambient together with a bit of delay and reverb..."


This represents for me the penultimate direction for the Willard Marcell Trio going forward!

John Carter of Mars Concept Art

John Carter of Mars Concept

John Carter, Ukes and the great company of +Alan Van Dyke +Shelly Van Dyke 
Brunch is on! Marion Berry Pancakes? 


Having a relaxing spring-break visit; more uke playing today. House concert anyone?

Wake Up

“
The world is an illusion, but it is an illusion, which we must take seriously, because it is real as far as it goes, and in those aspects of the reality, which we are capable of apprehending. Our business is to wake up. We have to find ways in which to detect the whole of reality in the one illusory parts which our self-centered consciousness permit us to see. We must not live thoughtlessly, taking our illusion for the complete reality, but at the same time we must not live too thoughtfully in the sense of trying to escape from the dream state. We must continually be on the watch for ways in which we may enlarge our consciousness, we must not attempt to live outside the world, which is given us, but we must somehow learn how to transform it and transfigure it. Too much ‘wisdom’ is as bad as too little wisdom, and there must be no magic tricks. We must learn to come to reality without the enchanter’s wand and his book of the words. One must find a way of being in this world while not being of it. A way of living in time without being completely swallowed up in time.”

―Aldous Huxley “Shakespeare and His Religion.” An essay, the last Huxley wrote (it was actually dictated on his death bed), was published in Show Magazine in 1964 soon after his death. It was reprinted in Huxley and God: Essays, 1992 by Harper Collins.
”

The Wine of Silence

http://a21.video4.blip.tv/2560001449809/Dgmlive-TheWineOfSilence780.m4v

Regret

“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

—Mary Oliver

Office

Today is a good day for working out in the music room; adding ambient lighting, and perhaps work on a tune or two (or three). The urge to write is there. Inspired after listening to blld and Kick Karn CDs over the past few days.

 Melissa got the boys a new computer, dual core sound-card, so for the first time it just might be possible to get some real recording done. I am installing Magix Music 10 studio program on it today but not sure it will work on a Windows 7 machine.

Also really need to register J love tunes to BMI and upload "Lost in the Valley" to bandcamp; this will be possible if Magix works! More later.

Spingere

Here's the tune I played on from Will Cruttenden's (aka Spingere) awesome EP Celestial Spirits in Bondage, released 29 February 2012 

That's Not my Penguin

Present Moment

Morning coffee
Outside 
rain and cold
Surrendered to this present moment
I am one with all sentient beings

Morning

At Starbucks on a Wednesday morning; music resonating in my head. So many little fragments, ideas, bits. There is an album there I'd like to record if I had that luxury! No matter, it's fine here whistling through my head. Makes me happy! That and this latte I'm sipping.

RPM

Recorded bits for the Spingere RPM Challenge track; uploading now. Although my recording program is acting a bit wonky all of a sudden. If I lose these tracks I’ll have to re-cut in a proper studio next week. C’est la vie.


Files delivered; WC tweets: "Thanks to the wonders of the internet, a guitar part for my RPM challenge has just arrived from Texas"!


I have to say that since I recorded this contribution I cannot stop playing this song over and over and over!


Also, ran through the Johnny Love setlist this morning; love playing these tunes! May run through them again tonight! Missing WW and SP...

Worked on "Specific Gravity" with Will and Scott last night... apparently its in 7/4 and 5/8 (or sub-divided 6/8, 6/8 2/4). Who knew?

New Gilliam Section video via Alan Van Dyke

Possibilities of Hippy Posse-ness

Rock-out session last night; good vibes, sharing my feelings of (at times)inadequacy and comforted and validated by my friends and their support and kindness. It was a rough week for all of us I guess. Sometimes you get your feelings hurt, sometimes you just gotta vent and sometimes you just have to push through, especially those pesky intervals when things seemingly fall-apart. The advantage of age, we can learn from our mistakes and inadequacies. Hearing a clearer vision of what our music could be with a new fragment Will summoned-up; that little fragment, along with Specific Gravity and the entropics material has a quirky cohesiveness that is one direction vs. the Johnny Love Hippy direction we started out in. Essentially there are two bands emerging here. Lo-fi lounge and prickly art music. Both good. Both different. It all works together somehow. I've sent Will and Scott the Daniel Schell & Karo tune that seems closest to the prickly art music idea I like.

Mighty Men

Rock rock