School is incessant. Essays pile up. Standardized tests becloud the horizon. My feet are unfailingly wet. Either my children have hydrokinesis and practice on my socks, or they are careless around water. Despite the times, Friday saw the release of Jasper Lee’s Mirror of Wind LP. Jasper’s most well-known music is on the score for … Continue reading That Time of Year You May In Me Behold
Since we’ve had threats of snow this week, the kids and I watched The Snowy Day adaptation on Netflix. Ezra Jack Keats’s little book is one of my favorite children’s stories, and, to be expected, gets much altered in an extended animated version. It does capture Keats’s art and the atmosphere of his story, though … Continue reading The First of Possible Weekly Updates That No One Asked For. You’re Welcome and Happy New Year!
Last night, I was thinking about the blog and how I’ve ignored the blog. I sketched out something like the old monthly updates that Quinn and I used to do. He updated today after a long silence, so I took it as some synchronicity not to ignore. Reading I ordered The Horror Hall of Fame … Continue reading Just like the ones I used to know…
A friend of mine gave me the impossible challenge of picking the five “Greatest Love Songs.” He’s working on a lesson plan for his students and we’ve always had the practice of doing every activity we ask students to do. Of course, I didn’t quite follow directions and I came up with various criteria so … Continue reading Laughable. Unphotographable.
The idea for this came about when a quartet of musicians came together for a week of recording. Rather than simply firing away at each other all week, we started putting together ideas for structure. This was mine. Four musicians and four suits. With that, I only offer the following as general rules to be … Continue reading The Red and The Black: a card game for improvising musicians
For the last few years, I’ve found myself listening to Thai music around the New Year. I don’t know why and I just noticed it when was searching for something new to hear. I discovered Christopher Adler, who I intended to write about in this post. His music is influenced by American minimalism, which I … Continue reading Happy New Ears
I’ve been so busy I almost forgot to mention that the first wave of Ghoulanoids madness is available for pre-order! This has been a blast to work on and it was nice to be in contact with the inimitable Ballard Bros. again. (You can read more about their work in a previous post.) This is … Continue reading Ghoulanoids: Available for Pre-Order!
A highlight of my week was having Abraham Smith jump-start the visiting writers series I’m developing for my school. On the day he spoke his new book came out and we got to hear him read from his own work and from greats like Dylan Thomas. I hope my students enjoyed interacting with him as … Continue reading a new denomination ain’t a thing but a name
http://vimeo.com/channels/noisypeople An interesting documentary about the Bay Area free improv scene. I’ve been listening to recordings by the composers and improvisors of the Bay Area since the mid-90s. Every now and then I’ve been lucky enough to hear a few of these folks in person. Continue reading Noisy People
Stephen McClurg 