I like making music from the ground up. I like learning cover songs as well as composing and arranging. Rehearsing can be fun, but the biggest kick is performing for a crowd. I also like the recording process where I can really make artistic statements.
I like to hike in the woods and mountains. I go to the Blue Ridge Parkway almost yearly.
Lately, travel has become a big interest with me. However, I tend to combine it with musical activities. Attending the Ricochet Gathering as a musician has taken me to the Okefenokee Swamp in southern Georgia, the Mojave Desert in California, Germany, Poland, Spain's Canary Islands off the Moroccan coast (NW Africa), and Italy. I have made the most fantastic international friends. The electro-music festival , though local, draws more international friends into my life. Attending Different Skies as a musician takes me to Arcosanti in Arizona, including a side trip to the Grand Canyon. I've also been to the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France to go to concerts, be with friends, or just visit somewhere I've never been before.
When I was growing up, I lived near a University that had a radio station. It was WUJC in those days but is now WJCU . When I was in high school, I used to hang out there whenever possible. Although that interest lay dormant for many years, I finally became active in radio in 1995 at WDIY . In 1997, I started a weekly radio show that is now called Galactic Travels TM which I still do. Since 2002, I've been doing two shows at WMUH ; Afterglow and The AM/FM Show.
Important Links
My Current Bands
Pinnacle - Original Progressive Rock trio
Pulse - Classic and Progressive Rock cover band
Malarky - The first Celtic band I joined and the only one that will still have me!
Xeroid Entity - Electronic Music Chamber Ensemble
The Municipal Band of Allentown - A community concert band
Some of My Past Bands
It's Them! - Duo with Victoria Parks doing originals and covers
ShadowPlay - Progressive Rock and Progressive Jazz predecessor of Pulse.
The Critters - Variety of covers by the largest "duo" in the world.
My Radio Shows
Galactic Travels TM - Hour-long soundscapes of Electronic, Ambient, and Spacemusic
Afterglow - Progressive Rock
The AM/FM Show - EM and Prog Rock
Bill's Galactic Travels - Playlists for all three of the above programs
My Photography
Photobucket - My photos at Photobucket
I'd like to meet:
I'd like to meet interesting people, musicians, fans of adventurous music like Progressive Rock and Electronic Music. I'd like to meet talented people. You don't have to be a musician. ANY talent will do. We all have them. Let your talent show!I'd like to meet all of you who read this at
Music:
I have very eclectic and wide ranging tastes in music from classical to pop to rock, to Celtic, to electronic and beyond. Perhaps this is due to my being a musician who is exposed to many types of music. My deepest interests currently are in Progressive Rock and Electronic music. Adventurous music that you typically don't hear on commercial radio is what floats my boat.
Pop music just doesn't do it for me the way it did in the past. Perhaps that's because the pop market has become so corporate driven that it really isn't about music or musicianship or interesting ideas. Drivel that is mass produced as a commodity solely to contribute to the corporate bottom line has ruined pop music for the most part and is, I believe, a major contributor to why sales have plummeted and file sharing has run rampant. Don't get me wrong. I have no problem with making a fair profit. But if it isn't about the music and if the customer can't get what they want at a fair and reasonable price, then something is wrong. Luckily, thousands of independent bands and artists are providing lots of interesting music and I hope that I am contributing in that area.
By the way, I love a well crafted pop song, especially from the Beatles , Klaatu , Toy Matinee , and the Vinyl Kings .
Television:
I'm addicted... especially to great shows like Commander in Chief and 24. I live on the History and SciFi channels.
Books:
My mom was a voracious reader and I try to follow her example but there just isn't enough time. But I enjoy reading whenever possible... even if it isn't great literature. I gravitate to sci-fi and fantasy, although I'm currently reading a John Adams biography.
