About Me
I TEACH GUITAR LESSONS in the BOSTON AREA. If you are interested, send me a message. and we'll take it from there.
I am an experienced SOUNDTRACK COMPOSER. This is my soundtrack site.
The frottage drawings in my "pictures folders" are for sale. If interested, send me a message.
Music (recent):
YOUSSOU N'DOUR: outside at night at the Telluride Film Festival:
I'd seen him before, and his voice is amazing, one of the most amazing currently in action. This time there were only 3 musicians: a drummer who played 3 different hand drums (one was a djembe, the other two I'm not sure), a guitarist and a keyboard player, plus Youssou on vocals. The guitarist and keyboardist (who played almost entirely Balafon samples - i.e., African marimba-type sounds) played hpynotic interlocking patterns. Whenever there was a solo, it was always the drummer's, and he was fantastic. Youssou himself seemed in top form: despite going from Senegal to 8,500+ feet in the Colorado mountains he kept the long high notes going with total ease. They started off in a traditional Senegalese style, with drone grooves and Youssou laying over that. As they went on, they incorporated more current styles, building to post-European chord progressions. But this Afro-pop element was never marred by excessive production or orchestration. The 3-piece band churned out their grooves and variations, and Youssou sang so purely and effortlessly, that everyone in the park was totally blown away. So what if alot of his lyrics were in praise of organized religion (in this case Islam) - I couldn't understand one word and I was happy as a lark.
Richard Leo Johnson: THE LEGEND OF VERNON McALISTER (Cuneiform Records).
A truly beautiful guitar record. This gentleman was given one of those metal acoustic guitars and fell in love with it. Ostensibly, this is a "country blues" CD - he starts off in the John Fahey realm, played very well and comfortably. But by the end his playing has become so evocative that you forget you're hearing acoustic guitars (he overdubs at times). He incorporates some "avant-garde" techniques as the album goes on, but they are worked so smoothly into the sequence that they are not important in and of themselves - it's more how they make the music feel. This disc is at times achingly beautiful, at times relaxedly comfortable, and at times mysterious and otherworldy. There was a type of music that guitarists tried to get at some years ago when they worked the John Fahey/ Leo Kotke realm, but they never quite got. This is actually it (to my ears.). And it was recorded in his attic.
Movies (recent):
SECONDS, by the same director as the original Manchurian Candidate.
I saw it at the Chuck Jones Theatre at the Telluride Film Festival - they always bring important rarely seen films (including Alloy Orchestra Silent Films) to the festival as well as the brand new. SECONDS struck me as being somewhere between The Manchurian Candidate and The Swimmer, both films that I love. All the deluded paranoia and misplaced dreams are here in full swing. Brilliant performance by Rock Hudson. Best film I saw at the festival.
ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, Herzog.
If you're looking for "action", this is a slow film. I like slow films, though, and I liked this one alot. It all takes place in Antarctica, seen through Herzog's peculiar eyes. Some astoundingly beautiful footage (a blend of documentary, historical over-view, and mystic research), and his attempted psycho-analysis of penguins is quite charming. OK, so he's a misfit. I'm comfortable with that.
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY.
I missed it at the Coolidge Corner Theater (seeing movies is not a high priority for me), but wasn't gonna miss it this time at the MFA. It's an amazingly unique film on a number of levels. As a work of art, it completely stands on its own: the unique audio, visual, and perspective hooks create its own atmosphere and all-encompassing world. The opening 3 or 4 minutes were so extreme that I thought it was gonna be an experimental art flick - but that cleared up and what I thought was "experimental" was, in actuality, purely the most natural, literal way to present the information. And as a window into an interesting perspective on what it is to be human, it can't be beat (poignant it is).
Actually I don't watch that many movies. I've considered this possibility as to why: I remember, and often write down, my dreams. The plots are generally more interesting than most movies, and since I am usually the main character, I find them easy to relate to (for example, recently I was driving an illegal oil truck that overturned and threatened to catch on fire). I certainly consider TV to be vastly inferior to dreaming, although when I'm on tour I always enjoy the sardonic surrealism of Aqua Teen Hunger Force or South Park.
Books (recent):
DR. STRANGE, Marvel Comics (volume III). Color edition, 1968/1969 issues.
I recently recalled that these Dr. Strange comics had a strong impact on my drawings at that time (1969/1970), what I refer to as my "Ozonic" period. The Dimension Warps that Dr. Strange found himself in were a model for my drawings inside "The Ozone" (Sproton Layer actually played a song called "The Ozonic Temple"). Geometric forms melt and reform, with bridges of proto-plasm connecting semi-solid areas. Great stuff. Very realistic. From the issue whence Dr. Strange fights "The Dread Dormamu": "Now he hurls the molecules of the air against me....in shimmering stell-hard pellets!"
I just finished Dante's "Inferno". Enjoyable, I think. But I'm not that into medieval Christian thought, and his re-use of earlier myths (Greek, Roman, etc). was more of a letdown than a revelation. But I did finish it.
When I read Cervante's "Don Quixote" a couple years back, the effect was quite different: it was totally fun to read and felt "normal" to a 21st Century reader. The "Inferno" was a bit of a plod, though do I think the English translation (it's a poem, after all) was pretty good. Then again, how would I know?
I avoided the classics like the plague when I was in High School (and mercifully placed out of English when I was in college). But over the last 15 years or so I've tried to catch up on some of it, from Ulysses to Gilgamesh. I think it's better to read these things as merely an interested reader than be forced to read them in class. But then, I never did that, so how would i know?
I am contemplating Tolstoi's "War and Peace" soon - I'll see how it goes....
THE HANDMAID'S TALE, by Margaret Atwood.
Delivered in a "dry, unemotional voice" totally appropriate to the bizarre setting of the story. Great projection of society if the Christian Right took over. Excellent and gripping story, and even a charming epilogue. This feminist tract is easy to absorb because it is totally natural. Wish it went on for another 300 pages.
