Save Your Ass, And The Rest Will Follow

   Time for the bitchin'..

   Things aren't happening!!  I'm not perfect yet!  I don't have a professional touring band!  It's hard finding a place to practice drum set in Brooklyn!  My coffers are not overflowing with Music Money!

   /bitchin

   Harder than the long trudge toward good-ness is dealing with the fact, on bad days, that there is a long walk ahead and that I'm doing OK.  On good days the walk is nice - the trees are green and the birds are chirping.  I can take steps between sunrise and sunset, resting with another satisfying day of work under my belt.
   Good days require little impedance to to practice.  A handful of free time, few enough distractions and tools of trade easily accessible.  I make a little progress here, a little progress there - some active listening, some rudiment and speed practice and some rocking out time.

   Bad days are like all that, but as if encased in a suit of loosely mixed cement.

   I sometimes start my day poking around the interwebz on practice techniques or styles, where I sometimes find great drummers, slowed-down chops, and inspiration:

Getting Inspiration for Playing the Drums -- powered by eHow.com

   Setting goals seems to be an important part of organizing one's life.  Here we go.
Short Term

• Attain pair of matching sticks.  Somehow my set of VicFirth HD4s were lost in a shuffle of some sort.
• Attain comfy throne.  What is a drummer not on a throne but an uncomfortable stick-slapping foot flappin' doofcabibble?  I mean, I hate being uncomfortable!  I do have a thing for this bad boy:

Pork Pie Big Boy Bike Throne

• Cycle in more whole drum kit practice.  I've been extra rudiment-oriented, focusing on single practice pad, sometimes to metronome, sometimes to music, but linear.

Long Term

• Survive more comfortably with combined incomes from drum lessons and bar work.  
• Travel to locales that allows for new music discovery.  I would also accept an opportunity to play music that would allow me to travel.  

   OK, I have to get to work at Breukelen.  I will now utilize my time to actively listen to the funky funky music I'll be piping through the speaker system.  Good luck to all in future endeavors.

FUNKY DRUMMER : JIM PAYNE

FUNKY DRUMMER : JIM PAYNE: "GIVE THE DRUMMER SOME!

In July 2009, funk drumming legend, Clyde Stubblefield, whose sampled beats from his innovative recordings with James Brown have shaped the sound of hip-hop and drum & bass music, suffered kidney failure and began weekly dialysis treatment. In July 2010, The Coalition for Clyde Stubblefield - an artist & industry association of Clyde's supporters - was founded by drummers Stanton Moore, Johnny Rabb and David Stanoch to spread word of Clyde's situation and new avenues being created expressly for donating financial support directly to him. Clyde continues to work and perform regularly while dealing with the stress his kidney dialysis treatments demand. We thank you for helping Clyde and his family find some relief as he braves this journey so they may feel some of YOUR soulfulness as we come together to help out a brother, an inspiration, our friend.

Remember, no contribution is too small and every penny makes a difference. JOIN THE COALITION & SPREAD THE WORD!"

Best wishes to the legend Clyde Stubblefield.

check it: saying a little prayer for you....

check it: saying a little prayer for you....: "starring me, Jesse Reyes and Matt Bartekdirected by Christopher Stout filmed in Jesse's living room, on 24th and York St. January..."

Chetta's buddy Malwina is full of suprises!

Don't Tell Them It's Hot Outside, Make 'Em Pray for A/C.

   “Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader—not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.“  -E.L. Doctorow

   I read this at Get Published page at Wordpress - I'm doing some late night pokin' around on the interwebzorz for research. Like, real research and not "research kept open in a background window just in case mom walks in" research. Don't act ignorant.

   I respect music that doesn't scream to make its point heard. I suppose this is why classical music is held in high regards in ivory tower thought-ista barracks - is it not the most subtle genres of music? Soft, lilting oboes are mammoth migrating animals, piccolos a flitting, fleeting birdling and a single drum the inexorable march of some terrible army.  Not heard are trumpets, birdcalls or gunfire - the rest of the scene is filled in by the listener's brain.

   Youthful pop music is dripping with straightforward, linear storytelling, where the listener can easily inject themselves into the "you" or "me" personae scattered throughout the tune.  Not that straightforward simplicity doesn't have its proper time, place and enjoyment, but art is in leaving the right details out...purposeful ambiguity, people!

A dyptich by JM Rizzi (photo Steven P. Harrington)

   Found at Brooklyn Street Art, a killer blog for, you guessed it, Brooklyn street art.  More JM Rizzi stuff may be found at his blog - holler.

   It may be a cliche, but as Lisa Simpson says, you have to appreciate the notes a great musician isn't playing.  

Catch You On The Calm Down

   I'm partaking in the sacred act of Decompression.

   My first job was in a coffee shop.  At 15 1/2 I learned I couldn't come home from a high-energy, activity-filled job and fall to sleep immediately, no matter how hard I tried.

   I am now returned home from a coffee shop shift, laundry day, musical brainstorming session, and rehearsal for an upcoming show with a band I'd never played with before.  I know that's not the hardest day had by anyone but my brain is drained, nonetheless.
   Yet I couldn't fall asleep if I wanted.

   Processing the events of the night, riding the very end of that buzz, I sit on the couch fresh from a shower, listening to the world shimmy and shake outside my window.  A rough night is behind me - it did not go as smoothly as I had hoped it would, but I'm usually put out when things don't go just so, which in some instances (such as playing new tunes with a new band) is just not conceivable.
   So suck it up suck it up and move on.  You have to have the rough times to appreciate the good ones.  Don't let turkeys bring you down, build a bridge and keep on truckin'.  In a word, hang in there, and other assorted positive affirmations as well!

Put Down The Knitting, The Book and The Broom

   For your weekly dose of cultcha', get your passport in order and head to Thirteenth Street Repertory Theater to see the lovely and talented Ana Holly in Israel Horovitz' Line:

   

   Five people wait in line for an event drenched in ambiguity - not enough that the characters won't stretch the limits of their wily imaginations to be the first in.
   Translated into over 35 languages, performed in over 25 countries; well over 100,000 theatergoers have laughed at this outrageous comedy!

   See the premier of the newest cast of Line through January, Saturdays and Sundays at 9:30 PM:

Liam Alexander, Ross Buckley, Ana Holly, Alex Mahgoub, Armando Merlo, 

   Line is the longest running (now 38 years!) off-off Broadway show in New York.  The 13th St. Repertory Theater is at 50 W13th St. between 5th and 6th Avenues in New York City.  Tickets may be purchased online here at the very affordable price of $20, $15 for students and seniors.

   So dress yourself up with dignity, take a special friend out on the town, sit quietly still for an hour and let the young talent of New York City entertain you - you'll have a real good time.

Are You Pickin' Up What I'm Laying Down?

   I'm just asking for good vibes.

Link to my Project: "Operation D.R.U.M."

   Kickstarter is a great resource I discovered through Gordon Voidwell, when he was attempting (since succeeded!) to finance his first album.

   I figure, I could go through the rigmarole of working up from the bottom, making a name for myself in the right circles to be on a short list of on-call drummers for studio work.. .. .. Or I could just start my own.

   I'm submitting a project to Kickstarter for the possibility of funding from dedicated friends and believers to start my own Drum Recording Unit of Mobilitude, or D.R.U.M.

   "I'd like to offer a mobile drum track recording studio to supply high-quality drum tracks to independent and local musicians in the New York area. Armed with a 1966 Ludwig 3 piece drum kit and equipped with industry-standard microphones, studio hardware and software, I want to bring a one-stop-shop for live drum recordings to bands between drummers or solo artists looking to fill out their recordings."
   
   What do you think?  Good idea / Bad idea?  I'm giving it a shot - Starting my own mobile drum studio.  With Candice's Audio Tech guidance and a long woodshedding session to cram Protools into my brain (which I have ABSOLUTE FAITH can be done) in my future, I'm going to throw my line and see who bites.

The Earnestness of Being Important

   I've discovered in myself and in the outside world, a certain level of relaxation with appointments among peers in general and musicians specifically.

   Yeah, I said it.  Take a mo' to reset your pacemaker, I know the above was probably a shock.  Get used to it, I spit the ugly truth.

   But seriously folks, what is so hard about arriving on time?  Nay, arriving at all?!  OK, OK, I'll be the first to admit that I have been as offensive in this area as the very bodies to which I refer.  Even during my time in San Francisco I was comfortably late to some meetings, spot on time to others.  Since moving to the East, where time is short and patience shorter, I have developed an as of yet undiscovered sensitivity to Time Respect.

   The City East is a snake devouring its own tail.  Bodily and monetary survival are priority one.  We work double-digit hour days in exchange for access to monumental talent vibrating in every neighborhood, the inspiration and life-breath therein.  "Free Time" quickly becomes a distant memory, "Alone Time" seems to belong to a long-ago age - there's no time to worry that you're never alone.

   So "Time" has become a luxury with which I have been momentarily blessed.  That I choose to share my time with you for is a subtle sign and indicative test of respect, the outcome of which dictates whether the gift of my time will ever again be extended.

   To clarify, I do not expect anything resembling punctuality with a capital "p" when I am meeting a friend for a bourbon and a beer on a Tuesday night.  However, if I plan to share my skills creatively collaborating via a meeting of minds, agreed to start at X pm, I'll be there at fifteen minutes to X.  I feel my time is valuable - it's not a momentous leap of logic to assume that an other party considers their time valuable, so if I happen to show the disrespect of tardiness plus noncommunication, I certainly can't expect that person to readily do business with me again.

   "It's not 'business'," you say? "It's just music, man, don't be such a square."  A sharing of cultivated goods and skills for the agreed upon growth and profit of both parties sure as dirt sounds like business to me, say I.  Sure, maybe it doesn't have the look, smell or sound of an economic business, but of a creative business it seems to fit the mold neatly.

   Long story short, leave earlier than you think you should.  Better to be too early than too late, and if you know you're going to be late, communicate.  Life happens, you can't plan for everything, but a little foresight goes a long way, and I would bet ten to one that there are far more influential people who are sensitive to Time Respect.

Patience is Everything!

"I learn it daily, learn it with pain to which I am grateful: patience is everything!” - Rainer Rilke


   I'm not sure what instilled in me an abundant respect for the value of patience, but somewhere between the "millions of years" talk of science, and the evidence of slow, inexorable processes that give rise to the wonders of our world, I have to to believe that almost anything is possible with patience.  


   Armed with a grasp (and acceptance of) musical theory as well as Alfred's "Teach yourself Chords and Progressions":

   I am in the market for a cheapie keyboard to begin the piano-playing portion of my musical life - I'm lookin' at you, craigslist.  While I respect the value of patience for self-teaching, I know learning is much more efficient with a guide, so I am also in the market for a piano player willing to trade piano lessons for drum lessons.

   In the drum world, I've been working up speed, strength, and endurance by practicing on a pillow along to an aforementioned mix of thirty-six songs I have learned to play since I started drums and which best represent the upper boundaries of my skills.  I started working on feet paradiddles, playing RLRR LRLL on my feet with assorted hand rhythms on top of that.  I love finding something new to tackle, that I can slowly whittle away at until it fits in my pocket and I can pull it out when the inspiration demands.

   Also brimming with patient energy and self-taught passion is my Candice Chetta, who recently finished the seventh and last in a series of Chakra paintings.  For a person who never went to an art class, I am more proud than I can describe of my pretty lady.  Amazing samples of the series:

Sing Out

   Also seen at her blog are some great photos of last week's Blizzageddon from our apartment window.  Three feet of snow never looked so good!

   More to come, stay posted!

Woodshedding

   The snow pelts the outside world and I am one of the few blessed enough not forced to brave the bitter cold right away.  The white-branched trees and grey sky are the perfect backdrop to talk about Woodshedding.
   Woodshedding is sometimes defined simply as "practice", but a more accurate definition would involve the "locking away" of a musician for the purposes of growing his or her skills in solitude and without distraction.

   One Summer in Sacramento, after I had been playing drums for a few years I asked my mom and brother, both of whom had learned guitar earlier in life, to show me some chords.  Mom showed me the shapes of G, E minor, C, and D chords on the fretboard.  My brother showed me how to read tabs, a simplified guitar music, and with these tools I effectively locked myself into the room of where our internet lived, not leaving save for food, bathroom and sleep.

   Sadly, it didn't last the whole Summer but the experience of working hard alone - patiently, calmly, grabbing every small gain - and to walk out of that room with a completely new set of cemented skills I won't soon forget.  Nor will I forget the joy of showing off my new skills.  These were skills I had worked for; These were skills for the first time worth sacrificing for, and I realized the payoff is only proportional to the sacrifice.

   I imagine that for most, finding something worth sacrificing for would be the hardest part.  Though I also have a feeling that a good number of people know deep down what is worth sacrificing for but lack the self-esteem to try it out, even just once.  I would call on people everywhere to give themselves a chance to do one creative thing "they've always wanted to do", just once.  For a gold star.  Take a beginner's dance class.  Try your hand at watercolor, writing, singing, just for the experience of trying.  You might find something worth woodshedding.

   For more info on info, check out eHow.com, just in case you were curious about how to do or learn ANYTHING.

Happy New Years, you Millennium Tween, you.

Boy, Vincent D'Onofrio sure does look like Vince Vaughn.  That's confusing.  Sorry, Criminal Intent is on.
Hey, it's the New Year!  Go Gregorian Number Change!  Time for new beginnings and projects!  And I'm feeling it this year.


In the pipeline:
   A very talented group of guys with which to play music.  I spent the five-hour flights to and from California building a playlist of music that originally inspired me to play music, music that I actively practice to, and music that represents a sound I would be proud to make.  I am constraining myself to one song per band, straining my active listening skills for the aspects that speak to me.  
   The guys and I are planning a listening party to share our respective mix CDs, just like the old days.  I remember my mother (sorry, Mom) telling me stories about she and her friends getting together to sit around to listen to the newly dropped White Album as a shared experience.  I suppose the "sharing" of music, facilitated by the intarwebz has become an easier, but isolated experience.  Bringin' it back.
   Also brought back has been my interest in the piano.  Lucky enough to have an upright piano in my childhood house, I can remember plinking along, about seven or eight years old, mystified that certain combinatons of keys just sounded  better. 
   At this past trip to California I looked through my brother's Complete Beatles Songbook, calling on dusty music theory and logic to slowly piece together "Oh Darling!" and "Let It Be", run scales and attempt to coordinate my fingers (I'm in fact typing like Mavis Beacon taught me.  Again with the back-bringing).  So I'm Looking for an ivory tickler who would trade piano lessons for drum lessons.  If you know anybody, pass it on.  Theenks.


In the present:
   Call me a sucker, I can't help make a resolution for the New Year.  I know, I know, the true meaning of the New Year has been marred by the resolutionifying of the season - thanks, big Greeting Cards - but whataya gon'do?
   I'm staring inefficient time management, one of my nagging weaknesses down the barrel, and I want it "taken 
care of", if you know what I mean.  My work schedule for now allows for an early rise and early nights  except for possible shows, so I'm shooting for a blog per day, practice at least five days per week, eventually three meetings with The Guys per week.  


So them's the plans for the next few.  As for everything else:
   The kitties are great, as can be seen on display and for sale at Candice Chetta's Etsy:

Lokian Judas

Curious Benny

 

Also seen at The Candice Chetta is the growing "Chakra" series:

Grounded

Embraced Sensuality

Currently raising the property value of our walls - until they sell, that is - this beautiful series has been Chetta's work since the layoff, which I'm counting as a blessing in disguise.  I am very proud of all the hard work and long hours my lady has been putting in, in spite of the emotional tumult of losing a job that caused so much emotional tumult.

   

   Life has happened hard this past year.  We've survived so far and I'm ready to get my hands on the wheel and push the gas down.  I just hope the same for everybody else.