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Piano and Drums Improvisation

Tuesday, Apr 21, 2009 6:48AM / Standard Entry

I recently found myself getting back into improvisation on piano. If you like Olivier Messiaen or Cecil Taylor, you might like these. I'll be doing a lot more of this, especially with drums.

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Blocking Thought... the second attempt

Wednesday, Apr 15, 2009 7:09AM / Standard Entry

What is she thinking, or not thinking?

So now I guess I am convinced that I have some abilities for drawing. This is my second attempt which I almost gave up on but something forced me to continue to get it to this point. Here's the first attempt. I'm not sure where this is leading but I might be taking it seriously if I can make the time.

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The Hong Kong Garden

Wednesday, Apr 8, 2009 7:42AM / Standard Entry

The song was released in 1978 and named after "The Hong Kong Garden" Chinese takeout in South East London. Siouxsie is quoted as explaining the lyrics with reference to the racist activities of skinheads visiting the takeout:

"I'll never forget, there was a Chinese restaurant in Chislehurst called 'The Hong Kong Garden'. Me and my friend were really upset that we used to go there and like, occasionally when the skinheads would turn up it would really turn really ugly. These gits would just go in on mass and just terrorise these Chinese people who were working there. We'd try and say 'Leave them alone', you know. It was a kind of tribute."

"I remember wishing that I could be like Emma Peel from The Avengers and kick all the skinheads' heads in, because they used to mercilessly torment these people for being foreigners. It made me feel so helpless, hopeless and ill."

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF0OjrFIVWY

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First attempt...

Sunday, Mar 22, 2009 8:06AM / Standard Entry

Look at what AnimationNation and AnD has made me do. I drew a naked woman.

After being a part of the 3 man team that built AnimationNation, and after constantly seeing the huge variety of great art on AnD and knowing talented artists here, I was suddenly inspired and wanted to draw. A long time ago I used to draw abstract stuff but I totally sucked at drawing real life.

I didn't know where to start at this point but I decided to use a photo as a reference and for the first time, try as hard as I could to draw what I see. I feel like it is still unfinished but I want to move on to something else. I don't know what to think because I have no idea what I am doing yet.

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How many ways do I make coffee?

Sunday, Mar 15, 2009 11:15AM / Standard Entry

With a little help from my friend Marvin the Martian, here are the 4 ways that I make coffee.

French Press

Italian Espresso

Porcelain Drip

Aeropress

Aeropress: set up and ready to use

More views.
Top left: Italian Espresso
Top right: Aeropress ready to use
Bottom left: French Press
Bottom right: Porcelain Drip in action with the French Press

A bag of Kona from Hawaii, was gift from MissScarlet, was very good and disappeared fast. I still owe her a bag so I'm going to roast some of my new stash.

If you missed my previous post about coffee roasting you might want to check that out. First I roast the beans, and then I brew.

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Slippery Sky's Music

Slippery Sky

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Music is the oxygen ...
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Music is the oxygen
Without it breathing is not possible

My life with music first started on piano, playing Bach, Bartok, Beethoven, Ravel, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and many others, but after a while I got tired of playing other composers music. The easiest way out of that was to play anything, so I started improvising. Sometimes it was abstract, other times simple and tonal, but improvising was what changed the way I approached music. After that I was introduced to keyboards, midi and audio. I started playing in bands, and programming and recording music. I like to create different kinds of music. Any sound possible is part of music, and I prefer not to define it because like a great writer who I don't remember once said "Definitions are usually like a ﬁsherman's net: too small to encompass Leviathan, but with a mesh too large to hold many of the denizens of the deep" so there is no reason to place anything in a category and leave it there. In the end you either like it or you wont. It doesn't matter what you call it. I prefer to just use adjectives like heavy, groovin, mellow, blistering, solid, calm, dense, elaborate, simple, supersonic, downtempo, or whatever it makes you feel.

I studied composition for 4 years at the SF Conservatory of Music and while I was there I wrote a lot of music for piano, cello and piano, wind quintet with marimba, voice and piano, percussion and piano, 2 electric guitars and piano, and more. At the same time I was also writing music and performing in bands with a sound as diverse as goth, experimental, punk, manchester, electronic, and progressive. I started picking up some of my band mate's electric guitars and eventually that made me decide to start seriously playing guitar as a second instrument. I also did sound fx and scores for short films with one film winning an award for composition in the SF International Film Festival.
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Occupation: Composer , Music Producer , Web/Multimedia Designer
Gender: Male
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