Wednesday, December 22, 2004
My band, Dirty Sixty, rehearsed last night for the first time in a while. We had fun, as we usually do. It's kind of strange, though; I don't really know where this band is going. I kind of want it to be a cutting-edge indy sort of band, but Jake seems to be more influenced by jam bands, and I think Danny is more influenced by classic 70s rock. Plus, I don't think anybody's really sure just how seriously everyone else takes it, so nobody really criticizes anybody else. Doing original songs is difficult. I write these songs and usually make simple demos of them on my computer, and then when I take them to the band and we play them they wind up sounding not at all what I expected. I usually end up preferring the demos. I think I have an antisocial complex that prevents me from having good collaborative relationships with other people. Um, make that good relationships period. But anyway, I think it can be said that I have a lot to learn about this "rock" music.
On a related note, my friend Chris was in town today, and took the time to come over to my apartment and discuss the clarinet & piano piece I wrote for him this fall. Earlier I worried that he just didn't like the piece at all, but fortunately this turned out to be wrong (damn my tendency to automatically assume people disapprove of what I do!). The piece needs a lot of revision, and Chris, a pretty talented composer himself, gave me a lot of great criticism and tons of ideas toward fixing it. It's so important to have friends who can give your work a frank dressing-down, because little else can give you that creative charge to accomplish.
The past two days I've been listening to Yusef Lateef's album Eastern Sounds over and over and over. All of the songs are just so incredibly pure and mellow. I can't really describe how amazing this music is, because it's the sort of music that you don't want to think about, you just want to listen to it. A lot.
I'm very interested in buying a domain name and some hosting. I came very close to doing it today, but I want to make sure it's something I actually want, rather than some impulse that I got because I'm overcompensating for not having an internet connection for two months. Nevertheless, I do feel that it would be good for me to get involved on the internet again, and having a web page would probably make me want to do art to justify its presence (which can only be good, right?) so yeah. Probably gonna happen. Note: yes, I do have a web page at ATT, but they're not letting me access it and I can't update it or anything, which is a pity because I'd like very much for it to be gone.
On a related note, my friend Chris was in town today, and took the time to come over to my apartment and discuss the clarinet & piano piece I wrote for him this fall. Earlier I worried that he just didn't like the piece at all, but fortunately this turned out to be wrong (damn my tendency to automatically assume people disapprove of what I do!). The piece needs a lot of revision, and Chris, a pretty talented composer himself, gave me a lot of great criticism and tons of ideas toward fixing it. It's so important to have friends who can give your work a frank dressing-down, because little else can give you that creative charge to accomplish.
The past two days I've been listening to Yusef Lateef's album Eastern Sounds over and over and over. All of the songs are just so incredibly pure and mellow. I can't really describe how amazing this music is, because it's the sort of music that you don't want to think about, you just want to listen to it. A lot.
I'm very interested in buying a domain name and some hosting. I came very close to doing it today, but I want to make sure it's something I actually want, rather than some impulse that I got because I'm overcompensating for not having an internet connection for two months. Nevertheless, I do feel that it would be good for me to get involved on the internet again, and having a web page would probably make me want to do art to justify its presence (which can only be good, right?) so yeah. Probably gonna happen. Note: yes, I do have a web page at ATT, but they're not letting me access it and I can't update it or anything, which is a pity because I'd like very much for it to be gone.
