I was writing
Thinking with my long hand
Put pen to paper
Everything was sinking
Then you start to wonder
How you gonna handle me?
When I’m under
Swimming in the dark sea

Everybody wants you to make it
Its all yours
Everybody wants to take it
Its all yours
Everybody wants you to make it
Its all yours
Everybody wants to T-t-t-take it

Can you feel all the love
Can you feel all the love?
Can you feel all the love
Can you feel all the love?
Like it was made for you
Like it was made for you…

Tell me something
Something that can move me
Dont tell me lies
Or I swear you’re gonna lose me
Guilty? like an ocean
Jealous of the fish it feeds
Your devotion
Swimming inside of me

Everybody wants you to make
Its all yours
Everybody wants to take
Its all yours
Everybody wants you to make
Its all yours
Everybody wants to T-t-t-take it
[Can you feel all the love
Can you feel all the love?
Can you feel all the love
Can you feel all the love?]

Like it was made for you
Like it was made for you…

Can you feel
Can you feel?
Can you feeeel?

All the right friends in all the right places
All the right moves and all the right faces
All the right friends in all the right places
All the right moves and all the right faces
[Can you feel all the love]
All the right friends in all the right places
All the right moves and all the right faces
[Can you feel all the love]
All the right friends in all the right places
All the right moves and all the right faces

Charity.

Mostly. Hahaha… So yesterday was RubberBand’s performance for the President Charity Youth Talent Challenge (or smth with a similarly impressive sounding name). Very very very eventful event (duh, events are eventful. hurhur.) but yah… really eventful. Even the rehearsals we had were eventful not just the performance itself.

So the performance itself was full of surprises. The first was that the keyboard I was supposed to play just wouldn’t turn on. For the longest time we were just standing there whilst the emcee tried to stall for time and the stage crew desperately tried to figure out what was wrong with the damn thing. Finally came to the conclusion that the keyboard was broken because the power wire leading out of it was broken. So instead we just decided to whack onwards with the performance whilst substituting a keyboard with a guitar instead. So that was me… playing what I was supposed to play on piano, on the guitar instead, at a last minute’s notice. HAHAHA. exciting.

Then the collaboration with Ai Jia was also surprising. Mostly because she pulled a big surprise when she suddenly said “停一下“ and tried to work the audience. Miraculously I instinctively responded to her shout and stopped. Lol. It was a big clumsy trying to get back into the song again after that but all in all I think not many people noticed that.

Overall, I think we benefited from this performance in terms of exposure. Definitely more people know about us now. So we’ve started a facebook fan page and a twitter account too. People please start becoming our fans and following us on twitter. I promise once the exams are over there’ll be loads and loads of updates from us.

Our facebook fan page

and our

twitter page

So keep watching out for us. x)

I love music!!! I love music since I was a baby. But since I went to Aus, I stopped playing/singing. Thanks to Brio, I pick up this passion again.

My guitar skill is not articulate yet. But I’m working hard. One day I wish to express my emotion thru music. One day, I wish to play music with tension, with emotion, with texture.

For now, I’d use my voice.

Aaaaaaaaaagnuuuss deeeeiiii.

“…From the blazing tempos of bluegrass and bebop to the lightning-quick flourishes inherent in Gypsy jazz and flamenco, many acoustic styles require guitarists to play single-note lines with speed and conviction. While most musicians are captivated by the ability to play fast, the guitar is a difficult instrument to play quickly… Keeping in mind that speedy lines sound best when played with clarity and good tone, the best way to start building your chops is to combine a regular practice routine that improves your technique with different approaches to picking and fretting…” From here, “Acoustic Guitar Magazine”.

[Click on the image to see a full-size version]

Here’s a thing that could use some words alongside it.

The story goes: I listen to music like everyone else, and some of that music is from a long time ago. I’m interested in the history of American music, of blues and folk and country, the rural stuff from before the 1950’s, before everything went electric.

Context is everything. In music and art. The context of this music is pretty fascinating stuff, and I try to read what I can on the subject. Over the last few years it’s created this landscape in my head, this semi-fictional place full of imagery, full of scenery and characters and stories.

Drawing can be very interesting if you look at it in a stream-of-consciousness. All imaginative practice is, I suppose, instinctive by nature.

You draw what feels right where it feels right.

I don’t like approaching a composition that’s carved in stone. I like to start with a vague idea and just let it sort of unfold at it’s own pace.  It’s the same with collage art. The process is a bit like playing with a Ouija board: you gather all the pieces and just push them around the page until something happens.

I was once lucky enough to hear a lecture by German illustrator Thomas Fuchs (www.thomasfuchs.com) who said a number of things that got under my fingernails, particularly about the suggestive nature of the visual image. He said that most of the time you don’t even need to think of an idea: if you know where to look, and how to look, those ideas suggest themselves to you. They impose upon you.

And I think that’s about right. Some ideas really do give themselves to you. The shape of something, the texture, the colour, the size; in context, they tell you what to think. These things suggest ideas that are guilty by association. And then it’s so obvious you can’t believe you didn’t see it before.

The context of this image is: the music of the rural South, and what I associate with that environment. Not just from the music. But from the culture, and history. Especially prevalent is the religious association –  the rural American South of the 1920’s and 30’s lies in the shadow of church steeples and burning crosses.

Gospel music and blues music are brother and sister, one sacred and the other profane.  

The Lord’s music versus the Devil’s.

We are Holy, they are Pagan.  

In this context, the blues musicians are atavistic mutants from the ancient Greek woodlands, a physical perversion of carnal sin. Their songs were about lust, about genitals and intercourse and adultery. Make no mistake: half of these songs, these songs from the age of our grandfathers, these songs from an age we are always told was more innocent, these songs are about pussy.

So the players become satyrs, and the juke-joint dances they played become Dionysian frat parties in some Hellenistic myth.

From there it becomes a call and response thing. You look at the pagan religions of the ancients and the associations flow freely: the landscape becomes Mesopotamia, the Mississippi River becomes the Jordan, the Euphrates; the biblical inundation becomes the great flood of 1927 that crushed the levees; the death cults and slavery of Pharaonic Egypt become the mortality rate and servitude of post-Reconstruction existence.

Eventually you end up with this semi-mythological place, a surreal landscape where Hieronymus Bosch meets the cotton gin culture. 

Here’s some detail…

Selling merchandise has long been associated with any kind of music/artist marketing effort.
Make something with their image on it, someone will buy it.
Simple right?
Even back when they were marketing the first “Rock and Roll Icon” of all time, Elvis Presley, you could buy
Teddy Bear perfume, hankies, guitars, record players, hound dog stuffed animals, you name it.

The Colonel made it, and made sure it sold.

It was then a precedent was set that has carried through till today.

No shortage of Hannah Montana dolls, guitars, wigs, or games on the shelves these days heh?

The selling of the Rolling Stones, “The Not So Lovable Mop Tops,” presented its own set of problems and challenges for Andrew Loog Oldham and his team.
What do we create and manufacture that fits their image?
And more importantly, will anybody buy it?
The primary audience for this kind of merchandise was usually young girls, the majority of the fan base.
And although the Stones had their fair share of female fans, The Beatles were probably easier to sell anyone and everyone.

The Rolling Stones were the first band of their time where you
could actually find boys screaming at their shows.

Though The Fab Four had it all.
Dolls, wigs, hairspray, combs, notebooks, pencils, ice cream bars, gum cards, record players, guitars, drums, candy, games, you name it.
Literally thousands of items.

The Rolling Stones ended up with but a handful.
I guess Andrew found that their “bad boy” image in the end wasn’t all that marketable.

Hell, I would bought the stuff.
And fans and collectors are still buying it now.

Only it’s a tad more expensive these days.

Here’s a few of the items from the 60’s.
These are the rarest of all Stones collectibles.
And believe it or not, would command in the thousands if sold today.

Mick's Maraccas. WTF?!!!!

This guitar has and will sell for $2500 in auction is very good condition.

So, when I woke up this morning afternoon I read through the blog post that I put up last night this morning, and it’s come to my attention that I appear quite the emo kid. I’m not, don’t worry, I just suffer from all of the things that a nerd might, and when I was writing that post, those feelings were at more of an extreme than usual.

In other news, I’m attempting to learn “Pick Me Up” by Dinosaur Jr., a band that I’ve only recently discovered. The problem is, tabs are scarce and I haven’t found any solo tabs at all, so this may turn out to be one of the few songs that I learn by ear! I’ve already started on the solo and am sinking my teeth in slowly but surely. Who knows, I might put a video up on Youtube when/if I finish learning.

Speaking of youtube, I have an account, with some videos of me playing guitar! Click here to go to my channel =)

That’s all for now I think, folks. I’ll update with something more interesting tomorrow or something!

Relevant song lyric of the post: Dinosaur Jr. – Pick Me Up

“I’ve been wasting all these years
Still you haven’t disappeared”

Closing KoLd Quote:

“Emo? A useless stereotype that one may attribute with me based on one post on a blog. It’s unlikely, but most of my life is held on the prescedance of improbability.”

No this has nothing to do with cats.  I got an email from photobucket that was promoting a website called “Skin It” 

It seems that with everyone but me owning an iphone there can be some confusion as to which one an individual owns during any iphone melee.  Skin it provides many different adhesive designs that you can use to customize your iphone, bender guitar, computer etc etc.   The problem I guess is when every sixteen year old girl has the Twilight skin on their phone so we are back to the original problem of identification.

However they let you customize your skins as well.  I played around with the customization for a while and found it to be a little lacking in its ease of use when trying to adjust an image or add multiple images to a design.  But I am sure George Ford will have fun putting Hanks face  on a ultrasound device (yes they have those too.)

This classic guitar strumming scene from the eighties seems to, er, produce mixed resluts.

The other day, driving out to Wheaton for a hearing in a murder case, I slid this CD—None But The Righteous: Chess Gospel Greats (fresh from the library)—into the dashboard player. The Norfleet Brothers, the Bells of Joy, the Original Five Blind Boys of Mississippi: they keep me company as I thread my way through the rush-hour traffic. Then this jumps out of the speakers.

Rev. Utah Smith, “Two Wings” (Chicago, 1953)

**********

lagniappe

You ought to have seen the Rev. ‘Utah’ Smith come to your town with his circus tent. Opening up the program with his theme song ‘I’ve Got Two Wings,’ with the sleeves of his robe practically touching the floor, this 250-pound man would run down the center aisle, arms spread-out, and jump 10 feet in the air, backed-up by a 100-voice choir.—quoted in Lynn Abbott, I Got Two Wings (2008)

i heard this song on  Pandora (a smart online radio station. check it out) and its by a group called Williamson. Its all instrumental with guitars and a synthesizer of some kind. it just sounds cool. it reminded me of Sparks by Coldplay.

This weekend I have so many events to go to. I am looking forward to them, but you know how they’re going to eat away at my writing time? That’s my only problem. If this was December, I wouldn’t mind. But right now, with the nano clock ticking away, I’m in a state of worry and fear of not finishing. I know in my mind that I must and that I can, I probably will, it’s just getting there that is akin to climbing a mountain. No matter how much you plan, or how well you started out, eventually the avalanches threaten your climb, the treacherous weather, wind, snow, etc. That’s whats happening this weekend.

On a happy note, I already bought some holiday presents, couldn’t resist! The mall was packed with people who looked generally very happy and hopefully willing to part with some of their cash. I can honestly say that I can’t wait for the first snowfall. I want to go outside and make snow angels and go sledding. Last night I parked my car in a lot and I looked up at the sky. Luckily it was clear and I could see many, many stars. It was breathtaking. Another fun weather-related thing. On Friday as I left work, it was quite cloudy, but I saw the sun trying to peek through the clouds. You know when it’s kind of dark and gloomy and you see those few rays of sunshine streaming through? Well, that’s exactly what it was. The picture I took with my phone will come tomorrow.

I’m going knitting crazy. I went to Michael’s (an arts and crafts store) and bought three more rolls of yarn. I also bought a pack of US size 10 needles. They are shiny purple, very pretty, yet very thick. They’re extra long so I can make things like sweaters or throws or blankets. My knitting bag is actually full to the top. I wonder if I need to buy a new one or stop buying supplies! I hope to make some good headway on my knitting inventory in December and in the holiday break.

Something exciting! I just signed up for guitar lessons for January. I have yet to buy a guitar, but I have a few choices I’ve been toying with. In order for it to be my 2010 goal, I decided to sign up for the class now. It will be a roller coaster ride. I’m so excited about the day when I can play a song that I love, yet I’m so nervous and wracked with fear about the process of learning how to play, having callouses, and having cramps in my  hand. I mean, what if I hate it? What if in the beginners’ class, I’m the only real beginner? I don’t know how to read musical notes, although I did learn the harmonium when I was younger, played trombone in elementary school and can sing. It will be such an incredible experience that I just have to do it. A friend of mine has suggested buying a guitar with nylon strings, as they are said to hurt less. I think the price may be a bit higher, so I am still considering all options. 2010 will be a musical year! Everyone cover their ears!

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.  ~Victor Hugo

Pretty good week i might add while it still is here, of course in only 2 hours it will be sunday of next week, so really this is pretty accurate. On thursday november 19th i went to go see the guitar ensemble which when i finish guitar one and then pass guitar two, will hopefully get in. They were pretty awesome, they played classical stuff and they played arabian knights and a song by the beatles, i think it was julia or juliet or something like that, i can’t remember. Then the second half the violin, and chello part of the string orchestra came up and did some stuff. My guitar teacher was the stage director and he was sweating like a dog, and he said before one of the songs, “Hey there’s a basketball game going on tonight,” that was pretty funny. Then friday my little brother got his new electric drumset which he is pounding on, and he has to steal my amp for the time being for it to work. Today we were going to go see this new movie about a tall quiet black guy being adopted by this white mother, and its one of those really lovey-dovey but profound movies that you see in the theatres nowadays less and less. But of course there was a huge accident near the theater and it was so big they had like 10 police cars 5 ambulences and 3 or 4 firetrucks. When i saw it i was like, “Apparently somebody tripped,” which made me laugh for like 10 minutes. We found out it was sold out then went to another theater to find out the same thing, so we just came home and made a gingerbread house, after which im sick of sugar. Right now im writing this blog post as my family watches the new show white collar downstairs. All in all an awesome week.

-Calebrentex out-

PS: i added way too many tags this time.

Sorry for not updating the blog for a while, my life has been pretty hectic!

Firstly, my final year at school came and went. I finished in June, got my results in August. I got a B in Media Studies, a C in Physics and a C in Graphics. This is at A level so I’m happy with that, although I think I was about two marks off of an A in Media Studies which is annoying. However I did get 100% in my exam part of Graphics, it’s just because my coursework was worth over 60% of the whole mark (and it wasn’t very good) that I only got a C.

It’s such a strange feeling to be launched into the world now, I had no idea that I would have to seek employment until half-way through the summer holidays when I realised there was no way that I or my family could afford my university payments. In October, I managed, after a long time of searching and applying, to get a job at a local computer and technology shop, however I discovered that:

1. Retail work is definitely not for me
2. I need a job that has gives me motivation, money isn’t enough of a motivation to keep me happy/sane
3. Life is cruel and everything they tell you, in school, about life, people, work etc is a rose-tinted vision of ignorance

So, needless to say, after the trial, I quit. A bold move in todays economic climate, but one that my family have been supportive of, and one that I don’t regret one iota. I just wish I could find some sort of finance/office job where I don’t have to deal with people quite so much.

…PS: I’m sorry if I sounded pessimistic before, but I never felt so demoralised in my life after a few weeks there, I would come home and just lay on my bed, not talking to anyone, just wanting to sleep, my often abundant sense of humour was non-existant… It was not easy to cope for several reasons that I won’t go fully into. The problem is, with future employers, they will ask why I only stayed at that job for a small amount of time, and any reason I give will sound negative to them, despite them being perfectly valid reasons. For example, if I said that some of the members of staff treated me badly, then I would seem like someone who can’t get along with others easily, which is quite the converse of what is true.

Anyway, rant about jobs over, I’ll keep you posted as to what happens. Hopefully before Christmas I’ll have another job.

…Especially since I’m going to LONDON in a weeks time! I’m looking forward to it immensely. Me and a friend are going for 4 nights, visiting another friend who is at University there. It should be a great trip! I have a new phone, a Toshiba Portege G910, so hopefully I can find a blogging app that works decently on it. I tried a few but they all had several bugs.

Hmm, what else is happening in my life… Me and a friend of mine made an album a while ago. Our band is called “Constant Guzzle”, and it’s meant as a joke, the entire album. Well, it starts off alright, with a badly recorded “The Sound of Silence” cover, but the rest of the album gets progressively worse. The album is called “Fight Fire With Silence”, and you can listen to it at http://www.unsigned.com/constantguzzle . Also, we have a Facebook group which has a new cover of Mr Crowley uploaded, join the group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=167262456277&ref=ts

We had so much fun doing this album (very quickly, I might add), and it’s full of in-jokes that many people won’t understand. We are in the process of writing a “good” album (or good by our standards), and I’m really, really looking forward to that. We’ve spent a lot of time so far (Probably since July or August we’ve been working on it), and it’s a really meticulous process. We’ve written lyrics for about four songs, and I’ve written Guitar, Bass and Drums for about six-seven songs (but many of these are only half completed, but the basis is there). All in all we’re probably about 35-40% complete of the writing process, realistically, although we’d like to pretend it was more! I can’t say much about the album, other than that it is a metal, concept album based on true events, and I’m very proud of a lot of it.

Love wise, I broke up with my now-ex-girlfriend in early August. It was on my terms and honestly it had been long overdue, perhaps that sounds harsh but it’s true, the whole relationship shouldn’t have happened in the first place, it was based on lies on her part and insecurity and low self-esteem on mine. Sorry that I sound so bitter and pessimistic at the moment, I guess it’s partly my mood, and partly my real and blunt way of putting things!

There is a girl who I’m very interested in and have been for some time now, I get the occasional sign that she might be thinking similar things, but this is usually discounted as ignorance on my part, just wishful thinking. Anyway, unfortunately I think she’s well out of my league and I don’t think I’m close enough to her to do anything, besides the fact that I’m physically unattractive, my personality is shit, I’m a nerd and my self-confidence is nil. But a man can dream… A man can truly dream, as it is his dreams, only, that keep him sane and wanting to live.

Finally, I’m planning on getting an Xbox 360. That would complete my “collection” as it were (I already game on a beast of a PC that I enjoy tinkering with, and also own a PS3, Wii, PSP and DS), and a lot of my friends have 360’s, so I could game with them online, it might take my mind off the more negative aspects of life in my world, currently.

tl;dr: So yeah, me in a nutshell right now:

• I’m going to update more soon
• Going to London next week
• Writing music
• Unemployed
• Single
• Less happy than I could be, but not totally depressed

…That said I doubt anyone actually will read this, but if you do, please comment in some way… Although writing this is somewhat therapeutic for me to.

Relevant song lyric of the post: Muse – Falling Away With You

“I can’t remember when it was good,
moments of happiness elude…”

Closing KoLd Quote:

“Fuck ‘leagues’, why do those who are ignorant, lazy and unintelligent, but born with skin-deep beauty, achieve what they believe as ‘happiness’, but those who work their ass off, are intelligent and aware of their situation, but may be inherently ‘ugly’, live their lives in misery or in regret that the life they are living is not as good as they want it to be?”

1. Ask The Ages
2. Guitar
3. Köln (Last Exit)
4. Headfirst Into The Flames (Last Exit)
5. No Material (w/ Ginger Baker, Peter Brötzmann, Nicky Skopelitis & Jan Kazda)
6. Cassette Recordings (Last Exit)
7. Seize The Rainbow
8. Black Woman
9. Fragments (Sharrock & Brötzmann)
10. Paradise

NP: Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band - Between My Head And The Sky

I know I have just started, but I think blogging may not be the thing for me.

I have hit the 40,000 word bench mark for my nanowrimo novel, so I don’t think it’s a lack of words. I just think, well, I miss my guitar. And I have a son who is turning four in a month. I don’t really even have the time (or is it the desire?) to figure out exactly how this site works. If I did I’d have a bunch of mp3s up!

Soooooo . . . inhalation, exhalation. I think I may just put the blog on pause as my son would say. Yes. I think I will just put this little project on hold for another time.

See you soon? Good question.

xoMimi

PS for those mp3s http://www.mimicross.com

He brings his guitar to class every Friday. It’s slung over his shoulders in a padded carrying case, dusty black, the strap frayed along the edges. He is here to impress us with his amazing guitar skills. I can tell from the sudden strum of expert fingers on waiting strings, he wants us to notice. As though we sit in anticipation for his next chord. He plays a G and looks around expectantly, waiting for our sudden burst of applause. I cast my eyes downward, not wanting to rouse his interest. I see him walking toward me. Shit. He quickly plays A, G, E, E, G, A. He is the only one who can walk around with his guitar, the only one with a multicolored guitar strap. He jaunts over to where I am sitting, my cheap teacher-provided guitar settled awkwardly in my lap. I stare intensely at my misplaced fingers on the frets of the instrument, hoping that if I don’t meet his gaze he might move on. A strong and loud A erupts from the man standing in front of me, demanding my attention. Move on, move on, move on, move on, move on, move on….I chant in my head, refusing to look up. I know he is staring at my fingers, judging them, wanting to move them himself. Instinctively I release my grasp, give them a short wiggle, and pretend to look at the chord chart on the seat behind me. Move on, move on, move on, move on… I don’t know how long I’ve been looking at the G chord when he finally leaves. He’s spotted someone else, a woman suffering from inept fingering and chord movement. She is an unwitting martyr, smiling as he approaches…she’ll learn soon enough.

My rhythm guitar poster!

I lowered the price on these bad boys for the holiday season. If you’ve learned a bunch of chords and want to figure out what to do with them THIS is the teacher that should be on your wall. Got a student in college who strums a bit between midterms? The perfect stocking stuffer! Funk, rock, reggae, fingerstyle, odd time signature lessons and more crammed into artistic coolness!

I also have a small line of cool guitar shirts, some of them with lessons on the sleeves.

I’m gonna start posting again

Hey guys, I had a recital last night.  It was for my voice classes with Mr. Duff Rowden.  It was my first recital with contacts.  And even my neighbor, Betty, came to hear me sing and play the guitar.  I was the seventh person to perform.  There were several other vocalists, some guitar players, pianists and even a pair of flutists.  The song I did was “Amazed”.  My mom and dad said I did an excellent job.  It was fun.  I like it when the people applaud.  It makes me feel good. One of the best parts about having a recital is the cookies.  I ate about five.  The thin mints were my favorite!   Oh, I almost forgot, about a couple weeks ago I ditched the glasses and got contacts.  And I can put them in by myself.  Guess what, I’m turning 10!!!  My birthday is this Wednesday.  And it’s the day before Thanksgiving!  See yah 4 now!!!    =)

Boston Gobe reporter Sarah Rodman in the article “Their persistance and pluck pays off” writes that Nils Lofgren had mind-bogglingly agreed to give her an in-person lesson to demonstrate how his burgeoning online guitar school works.