James Gregory profile picture

James Gregory

jamesgregorymusic

About Me

This is the part where I am asked to write my bio. Biography. "Bio-", from the Greek "bios", meaning "life"; "-graphy", originating from the Greek "graphein": "to write". To write about life--my life. Biography. Life writing. Biography. Life graph.If my life was put on a graph it would probably not have the look of the smooth, upward-headed trajectory charted for a businessman's optimistic sales pitch. Instead, it might more often resemble the magnified close-up of sound stored in silicon--each peak followed by the inevitable valley. But as in the case of sound waves, the peaks and valleys of life do not necessarily cancel out; instead, they build towards something larger than what the mildly myopic sound editor sees when staring a little too closely into his flickering computer screen. And someone else gets the final move of the fader in this mix--and its not a committee making bland taste for a season, a record-pressed suit dry-cleaned to hide its trampled dreams, or even one who falls, stumbles, yet continues to rumble the floorboards of cars and clubs, apartments and arenas.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 6/3/2005
Band Members:

This profile was edited with Thomas' Myspace Editor V3

Influences: Spinning the dial of Gotham City and Garden State radio, I would hear anything from the rap attack on the ones and twos, skittering Afro-beat, ambient new age, to underground pirate radio metal. The first record I went out and bought on my own was the Beastie Boys’ "License to Ill", but I was soon drawn to the guitar-based classic British rock bands like Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Kinks, and Cream, as well as to eighties’ post-punk bands like The Police, R.E.M., and U2. Pepper it all with a bit of progressive rock and British and American metal. In halls of higher learning I was (re-)birthed in a blue kind of cool, stirred by an inner mounting flame, and guided by word of mouth. The soul godfather tightened up the groove—rubber bands snapped and the funk continued. I was taken into a chic family and I explored a new wonderland. I heard the street-call braggadocio of New York patchwork peddlers on wheels and microphones of steel—stealing from the dusty and giving back to the sweaty. I was soon hit with the ricochet shantytown slapback of island dubplates, and my head was massively attacked by the new sounds and new forms coming from another island on the other side of the water—an empire whose sun continues not to set. Along the way, antique Russian and Russian-American dolls open further, revealing worlds and romance not previously seen, and I still listen for impressions made into French ivory and parchment. And how can I forget those sons of Abraham turned sons of the Jazz age? Their forefather scattered a staff into a snake, while they scattered notes into staffs—rhapsodizing in more than one primary color, setting the spring mist of the Appalachia as well as the big western sky to sound, putting the shimmer in the silver screen, and giving a feeling of vertigo to those Technicolor dreams.
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Window Treatments / Dust

Almost two years ago, a friend of mine gave me a copy of Thomas Merton's book "Seeds", a collection of his excerpted writings. Right away, I could tell that it was a very good book, full of powerful ...
Posted by James Gregory on Sat, 27 Jan 2007 08:03:00 PST

Recent Listenings, Readings, and Viewings

some recent listenings:various Bach (mostly instrumental keyboard music and cantatas)Villa-Lobos "Bachianas Brasilieras" (complete version by the Nashville Symphony)Midlake "The Trials of Van Occupant...
Posted by James Gregory on Thu, 21 Sep 2006 09:30:00 PST

Lunch at Any Time

"I went to a restaurant that serves 'lunch at any time' . . . so I ordered bean soup during the Renaissance." - Steven Wright
Posted by James Gregory on Thu, 21 Sep 2006 09:17:00 PST

sesame and poppy seeds

I woke up and nothing meant anything. All of a sudden I was in the wrong world. Everything was blank; or rather, everything wasn't blank--I was just blank to everything. Nothing meant anything, and...
Posted by James Gregory on Thu, 20 Apr 2006 08:49:00 PST

BNA to LAV

a junkyard for Cracker Jack jewelrydime store trinketsdiscarded tinselgolden tombstoneselectric powered vigilsa misplaced constellationamber fading starlighta runway strip to nowherea circuitboard to ...
Posted by James Gregory on Thu, 13 Apr 2006 06:38:00 PST

past/future perfect

2006-04-12When using the past tense, everything seems more important, more WRITTEN DOWN. Everything should be written in the past tense. Some philosophers don't believe in the present tense anyway. ...
Posted by James Gregory on Thu, 20 Apr 2006 09:47:00 PST

The Story of Progress

(taken from "Great American Prose Poems: from Poe to the Present"; edited by David Lehman)The Story of Progress by David Ignatow (1914 - 1997)The apple I held and bit into was for me. The friend who ...
Posted by James Gregory on Fri, 07 Apr 2006 10:50:00 PST

Parables of Kierkegaard

(The following are taken from the book "Parables of Kierkegaard", edited by Thomas C. Oden)The Lifelong SchoolingHow much time may we justifiably spend on the education of the human spirit?The lowest ...
Posted by James Gregory on Fri, 07 Apr 2006 10:44:00 PST

Climbing Back

These prose poems are taken from Dionisio D. Martinez's book, "Climbing Back":The Prodigal Son pulls an all-nighterDo you wear a crumpled white suit? I do. Makes it easy to find myself in the dark. ...
Posted by James Gregory on Wed, 05 Apr 2006 10:17:00 PST

ink on paper

(recent readings):"Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll"Letters Between a Catholic and an Evangelical" by J.McCarthy/J.Waiss"Great American Prose Poems: from Poe to the Present" edited by David Lehma...
Posted by James Gregory on Tue, 07 Mar 2006 08:28:00 PST