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

Work day

Working day in the small room, inspired in part by the tweaking Will did on my rig 2 weeks ago, adding more compression to my sound and adjusting settings. More adjustments soon hopefully, but the new "sound" inspired me to run through the set-list and re-learn "Women Cars Bars", "Invisible Man" and "Sanity" (more or less). "Good Times" (Chic) is going to take some more doing, but progress is being made.

Family Portraits

(Photo Credit: Alan Van Dyke)

JM and Jonny Post-Mod

Austin (January 7 2012)

More Rocking Rompus in the Small Room

Tiny Desk Concert? No, just a night in South Texas with Johnny Love and friends...

Rocking out in the Small Room

Thursday night romp through the Paul is Dead/entropics/pulsating love flower set-lists with Will and Scott

These are the days

So here we are 4 days into 2012, and although already un-fashion-ably late, my "aim", my goal-for-the-new-yar (as-it-were) is to (at least try) to post here with a greater regularity than 2011. This should be easy. Or not. At any rate, here we are and we have survived the bump-bump-bump of emotional-careening-down-the-relativistic-stairs-of-familial-holiday-visitations (more or less) in one piece and that is fine, and more than that, some good has come out of it even while there was also a great deal of anguishing and frustration. For my part, I resolved to savour the holidays and that I did, the warmth, the lights, the smells, the tastes. Even if things were a bit bumpy towards the end, the better portion was enjoyment (emphasis on "joy") and just taking the time to remember the little ones will never be this little again and the preciousness of these moments spent together, doing nothing, just being with each other for another Christmas...

re-cover

Recovery continues and I continue to take it s-l-o-w;have been spending some time in the spirit, lost in prayerfulness and at work, walking-prayer. A deep surrendering to Christ. This while even at odds with my wife's family over "religion" and the holidays and a widening rift that threatens any future relationship. Until compassion replaces condemnation, there can be no healing here.

Small Room

Went out to the small room to look for a few books to read during my recovery from gallbladder surgery (something of a life altering event for me, I must say) and am enjoying the peaceful quality of the room and it's quiet aesthetic in the late afternoon. Revisiting older Paul is Dead material for a rocking little retro-revue three-piece Will has in mind ("groovy trio") and I'm certainly game, so rehearsals to begin in earnest this weekend in conjunction with my recovery weekend.

man up

Excited about the prospect of possible recording project at Walk on Water studio with co-producers Will and Ken B (currently in the "discussion" phase); brought this up in talks with Scott today and he seems game. Looking forward to hanging with friends, having man-time/fellowship with some brothers and laying down some compelling tunes; to that end I aim to put on my tune-smith hat and attempt to pen a few songs, skelatal ideas with enough space for Will, Ken and Scott to fill-in the empty spaces with whatever is required as far as arrangements go and create something that is truely original, haunting and beautiful. Like the music I hear in my head. A few ideas are already formulating and I am keen to try them out this weekend.

sound design

A profitable afternoon spent in the small room working on sound design, loop study, guitar craft and repertoire; while the signature sound continues to elude me, a step closer to an integrated cohesion begins to emerge. Playing against arpegiated lines layed down on the Line 6 brings a great deal of clarity in my approach to possible future "live" performance. What I'm really after is consistency and "repeatability". Some successes with this today. More tomorrow.

Read yesterday from Sara Elliot that her mother Vivien had passed, that she had lived well and lived wise. Pierre and Vivien were both teachers and practioners in the 4th Way tradition under the J.G. Bennett as well as one of the last still living having worked directly under Gurdjieff . Cannot read this without thinking of the tune "Tea with Vivien" which Tony Garza and I created one evening in the small room, discussing the work, Camp Caravan, Fripp and playing guitars.

Tea with Vivien Somehow fitting then that tonight's work in the small room consisted of the type of "solo" guitar and loops that comprised "Solus" and a sense of groundedness in this work.

Seven Advices

Seven advices from Pierre Elliot: 1. Presume that you do not know as much as you imagine you do 2. Forsake your self image and all posturing about who you think you are 3. Observe yourself in all things as objectively as possible 4. Give up pretending that you are awake and behold the depth of your sleep 5. Notice how many of your daily activities keep you from your lifetime goals 6. See many relationships fall away when you stop maintaining them 7. Do things differently and do different things

Consciousness

"For consciousness, collection of attention is necessary. Attention is as oil in the lamp. Consciousness is the light. Where there is consciousness things are illuminated." ~ Mme Ouspensky

Continue to study, contemplate and meditate upon the wisdom sayings of Jesus and the Way; talking through associatively some of my ideas on the "unknowablity of the God-head" with Michael this past week coalesced some of my thinking and showed me some of the areas in which I "missed the mark." Such insights serve to teach and therefor are to be regarded thankfully. Also, discerned a crucial pattern in my dreaming, a recurring theme that has come to me to tell me something about where I need to seek help. Pressing life-concerns have pre-empted any efforts at music or a creative life, but I found great resonance in some paintings Vasken Kalayjian recently posted. I have a desire to paint, but lacking materials I do nothing. I feel this is an area where I can do the most useful (inner) work at the moment, where I can delve deeper into meanings. I need to acquire the time and the tools. Mulling book idea of the wisdom sayings, a "collection" with commentary from an inner point of view. More and more I am convinced, however, that Jesus' coming to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Jubilee) has very little to do with any esoteric inner work per se, and more about true jubilee as expressed by the living desire of YHVH (יְהֹוָה) for his people; a restoration of justice and a return of 2nd Acts mentality (sell your "property" and share all things in common so that no one wants) which is playing out in the Occupy movement worldwide (an intuitive prophetic spontaneous arising from the spirit); which takes us back to the idea of the unknowability of God and the surprising ways He speaks to us.

Guitar with Dan Tellez

Got together with Dan Tellez last Saturday and played some guitars; had a great visit, Dan has a whole bunch of nice tunes and a great guitar tone on his amped-up acoustic guitar. Great playing with him again (looking forward to more soonage!)

Some of today's readings/insights...inspirations: From Joan Halifax... moderated mind and life meeting today. very intense atmosphere. went well. dalai lama very engaged. karmapa gave a powerful talk in the late afternoon. getting ready for tomorrow's session, which i also will moderate. dekila chungyalpa..... and this (also from Joan): Compassion is due to those of us—and there are many of us—who are so dependent on our devices that we cannot sit still for a funeral service or a lecture or a play. We now know that our brains are rewired every time we use a phone to search or surf or multitask. As we try to reclaim our concentration, we are literally at war with ourselves. Yet, no matter how difficult, it is time to look again to...ward the virtues of solitude, deliberateness, and living fully in the moment. We have agreed to an experiment in which we are the human subjects. Actually, we have agreed to a series of experiments: robots for children and the elderly, technologies that denigrate and deny privacy, seductive simulations that propose themselves as places to live. We deserve better. When we remind ourselves that it is we who decide how to keep technology busy, we shall have better. --Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (Basic Books, 2011), Kindle Edition, 296 Finally, a little Tao: Eighty The world is full of half-enlightened masters. Overly clever, too "sensitive" to live in the real world, they surround themselves with selfish pleasures and bestow their grandiose teachings upon the unwary. Prematurely publicizing themselves, intent upon reaching some spiritual climax, they constantly sacrifice the truth and deviate from the Tao. What they really offer the world is their o...wn confusion. The true master understands that enlightenment is not the end, but the means. Realizing that virtue is her goal, she accepts the long and often arduous cultivation that is necessary to attain it. She doesn't scheme to become a leader, but quietly shoulders whatever responsibilities fall to her. Unattached to her accomplishments, taking credit for nothing at all, she guides the whole world by guiding the individuals who come to her. She shares her divine energy with her students, encouraging them, creating trials to strengthen them, scolding them to awaken them, directing the streams of their lives toward the infinite ocean of the Tao. If you aspire to this sort of mastery, then root yourself in the Tao. Relinquish your negative habits and attitudes. Strengthen your sincerity. Live in the real world, and extend your virtue to it without discrimination in the daily round. Be the truest father or mother, the truest brother or sister, the truest friend, and the truest disciple. Humbly respect and serve your teacher, and dedicate your entire being unwaveringly to self-cultivation. Then you will surely achieve self-mastery and he able to help others in doing the same. From The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu - Hua Hu Ching by Brian Walker

Out in the studio the other night, working on some ambient soundscapes for Will's Buddha Mash-up project I am reminded of the joy involved in just creating, and the great gift I have here in my small, little out-building, having my own space in which to create. Looking forward to fall and cooler days so that I can spend more time out here... in the meantime, appreciating the joy in the simple things

Worked on a sound project to assist a friend last week but the lag in the studio became finally so horrible I simply had to abandon it; I downloaded an app and used my iPhone as an alternative. Attempted to restore the comp, but the lag was so bad I couldn't even get to the restore wizard. So tonight, determined (and with coffee in hand), I went to work and was finally able to restore back to June 2011; success! Studio program seems to be working with no difficulty. Test tracks recorded, monitors working, issues now resolved. Kurt is working on my Dell. If he can get it up and running again I will have two machines to record with! This is good news. Continue to follow the exploits of the Two of a Perfect Trio Tour with great enjoyment via tweets, Facebook posts and pics and youtube videos. I'm like a virtual groupie! Rockin'!

Dr Who

Saturday night and Dr. Who with my sweetie; nice one!

Untitled

An awesome ambient album released today from friend Markus Reuter ; highly recommended soundscapes! 

http://iapetus-store.com/album/0000

Personal favorite tracks: 0099 and 0101

Ah, working on my "petit musiques" this morning, at least in my head. I keep most of my notes and scribbles (sound ideas) in my head. I feel like I finally have a clearer vision of a way back into music, after floundering a bit there for the past month. Now to test the idee in real time. Meanwhile, coffee.

Johnny Love Band - Oceans Apart

Hot box

Wow. An hour and 1/2 practice in the hot box this afternoon yields nothing. I am stuck. I need a sound-architect; spent an hour dialing in different combos, settings, amps, effects. Nothing is sounding. Half of my inspiration is getting the sound. Today, no bueno. I'm at a true impasse. Want to ring up Bill Frisell and find out how he does it. Maybe what I truly need are some guitar lessons. Today its just not happening. Pfffft!

Stuff of a Musical Nature

Posting this mainly for WW, who may be the only person that ever reads this blog.... Possible meet-up/get-together with Dan Tellez on Saturday, a final last-ditch effort to pull together a show for the 23rd at GIG; if there is something there, the show will go on. Otherwise not. Meanwhile, in my walk of faith, recognizing my passion for God and also my passion for music, I am making an effort at "putting myself out there" and meeting tonight with the band at RiverCity Church to see if I might sit in amongst the rotation of players. If I have a passion for music and a degree of some kind of talent, I should be using my gift to further the Kingdom. My heart says this is the right move and this line may ultimately trump the first line. The main thing is, I'm trusting God and making myself available... a leap of faith as it were. These are a talented pool of players and what I offer might tend towards the quirky. I don't imagine myself as a session player any longer. My talents and skills are unique, sometimes inspired; I leave the rest in God's capable hands. Finally, I'll conclude with this thought that hit me yesterday... How incredible that God loves EVERY BODY... if I keep this thought, nothing else really matters. The debates, the schisms, the heaven vs hell vs no-hell vs bell... none of it really matters because God love everyone and, as the saying goes, He will sort it all out. My purpose is to be in awe and aspire to that kind of God-love, too

Great rehearsal with Daryl and Scott today in the music room of coziness. "Landscape" continues to be a killer song to play around with; today we added "Specific Gravity" to the set list and a challenging Guitar Craft inspired piece I wrote in 1992 (which has never been named); Scott, Daryl and I discussed ideas, Gavin Harrison exercises for shifting time, and boo bams (too expensive). We also played around with a new vocal tune idea reminiscent of Gary Davenport and discussed some Stick-duet possibilities (per Will Willard's suggestion). Exciting times indeed! I think it is safe to say we all got a work-out today. GIG is six weeks away...