Things I happen to be looking at. Breathing. Blood flow. Fluid intake. Walking in the neighborhood (What's up Westwood/Fauntleroy/West Seattle/White Center?!) The obvious. Yoga, playing "horse" with Dana, skating down hills, playing the piano, the bassoon, the suckas for fools, etc..., poesy, reading things, making things, family drama!! (not so much), eschatology??. Ridiculing fundamentalist religiosity. New York Times crossword puzzles edited by Will Shortz.
I'd like to meet:
Lao Tse. Jesus. Judas Iscariot. (I'm sure they were friends) My great, great, great, great grandmothers. All 32 of them. You too, probably.
What Famous Leader Are You?
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If I were a Dead Russian Composer, I would be Sergei Rakhmaninov.
I lived in the early Twentieth Century and was well known for my compositional, conducting, and piano skills, yet I am melancholy despite this talent. My famous works include my nearly-impossible piano concerti.
Who would you be? Dead Russian Composer Personality Test
Peace
Music:
"Gyorgy Ligeti is the greatest composer in the world, and I'll stand on Pierre Boulez's coffee table in my skate shoes and say that."As far as the quote goes, all apologies due to Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, and Steve Earle. (original quote by Steve Earle:"Townes Van Zandt is the greatest songwriter in the world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that."To which, the always clever Van Zandt replied,"I've met Bob Dylan and his bodyguards, and I don't think Steve [Earle] could get anywhere near his coffee table.")RIP TVZ.Where are all of my heroes going?! I mean, besides heaven and/or that hot, cool place? Maybe outer space? That's my guess, and I'll meet you there, someday. Until then...Gyorgy Ligeti. Mike Dumovich. Townes Van Zandt, The Vomiting Unicorns. The Beltholes and their side projects. The Cops. Pocket-Bilt Cannon. Bob Marley. Public Enemy. J.S.Bach. Beethoven. Kultur Shock. Zappa. Shizuo. The requiems of Mozart, Brahms, and Faure. Greg Pattillo. Lest I forget Scott Joplin, and his "Grateful Ghost," William Bolcolm. Bob Dylan, Ken Benshoof (a mentor). Stuart Dempster (teaches people how to circular breathe). My first university music theory teacher; guitarist, composer, author: Tom Baker.If you're still reading and you're interested in symphonic orchestration and the subtle difference between a Bb, C, and D trumpet, or what the lowest note on an english horn is, or how to write for four french horns, we seriously need to talk. That s&*# consumes me these days.
If I were a Dead Russian Composer, I would be Modest Mussorgsky.
I am a Romantic period psycho who's drunk more often than not. I died of this affliction, not surprisingly. My famous works include "Night on Bald Mountain" and "Pictures at an Exhibition."
Who would you be? Dead Russian Composer Personality Test
Thoughts on composing, with the Maestro
"I thought to myself, what about composing a piece that would be a paradoxically continuous sound, something like Atmospheres, but that would have to consist of innumerable thin slices of salami? A harpsichord has an easy touch; it can be played very fast, almost fast enough to reach the level of continuum, but not quite (it takes about eighteen separate sounds per second to reach the threshold where you can no longer make out individual notes and the limit set by the mechanism of the harpsichord is about fifteen to sixteen notes a second). As the string is plucked by the plectrum, apart from the tone you also hear quite a loud noise. The entire process is a series of sound impulses in rapid succession which create the impression of continuous sound."
Gyorgy Sandor Ligeti (RIP)Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullabySomewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true
Movies:
Bruce Lee. Hitchcock. Fight Club. (I've been told that this is a violent movie. I'm not sure I agree. I think it's a movie.) "2001: A Space Odyssey" (Has Gyorgy Ligeti on its soundtrack and, originally, Kubrik didn't even ask Ligeti if he could use it. What a crook!) Lemming was an interesting European movie from 2006. Check it out: it was released the year in which Ligeti passed, and it had Ligeti's Continuum playing (on a piano?!) during the climax. Action, kung-fu, adventure: they're all good.
Television:
This kid is hilarious.WTF?!?!?!? (Good s^&*)The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, The Simpsons, The Chappelle Show WAS good. I'm sorry. I'm outta ideas here people. I mean-- I have one... I just don't look at it all that much.I plan on recycling my tv soon. Youtoo can do that at Total Reclaim in the Seattle area. They're on 6th Ave S just north of Lander St. on the right if you're heading north. Just do it! They will take all of your old electronic crap and recycle it the right way. i.e. they won't ship it to some Chinese or Indian watershed. If you want more info on recycling your tv or electronics in a responsible manner, so your kids, nieces, nephews and assorted progeny (or anyone else's) never have to eat or drink it, please look me up. Peace.
Books:
Tao te ching: Lao Tse. I Ching: Ancient Chinese text. Infinite jest: David Foster Wallace. Letters from the Earth: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), 1984, Burmese Days: George Orwell (Eric Blair). Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. The Anarchic Revolution: Terrence McKenna. The Souls of Black Folks: W.E.B. Dubois. Guns, Germs and Steel: Jarred Diamond. Bartlelby the Scribner: Herman Melville. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, all the stories of: Edgar Allen Poe. Love in the Time of Cholera: Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Ficciones: Jorge Luis Borges. They Shall Know Our Velocity!: Dave Eggers. Candide: Voltaire. The Red and the Black, The Charterhouse of Parma: Stendhal. Kidnapped!: Robert Louis Stevenson. Jane Eyre: Bronte. Jay Gould's stuff. On the Origin of Species: Charles Darwin. Light on Yoga: B.K.S. Iyengar. Persepolis I/II: Marjane Sartrapi. The Cairo Trilogy: Naguib Mahfouz.
Heroes:
My friends. Karma. Ancestors. Chief Sealth. Malcolm X. Martin Luther. Martin Luther King, Jr. Frederick Douglas. William James. Gyorgy Ligeti. Sojourner Truth. Ghandi. Abraham Lincoln. John Brown. Henry James. "Wild Bill" Hickock. Burlesque performers! And, last, but essentialy, not least, the rodent-style mammals that made it through the last meteor attack! F'REAL! Y'all EVOLVEd 'n' S#!T Y'all made US possible. Peace. Josh Ayala ;)
If I were a Dead Russian Composer, I would be Igor Stravinsky.
Known as a true son of the new 20th Century, my music started out melodic and folky but slowly got more dissonant and bizzare as I aged. I am a traveler and a neat freak, and very much hated those rotten eggs thrown at me after the premiere of "The Rite of Spring."
Who would you be? Dead Russian Composer Personality Test
