Falu

'Had the chance to see and meet the lovely, talented and radiant Falu and her crew this past week at their show at the National Geographic.

I've loved her singing and her music after discovering her on myspace a few months ago. But they were even better live!

The rhythm section was rock solid and more forward than on the CD and that was a very very good thing. I was in awe at the masterful musicianship. Absolute control, and supreme tightness. What a show.

They have a perfect blend of "Indie Hindi Rock". Much like we're trying to achieve with Iritis and Middle Eastern music. Except we have a long way to go.....

Here's a glimpse of Falu live!

Beer Can-dle

With Dremo gone we hit up some of the other ol' haunts. I hadn't been to Galaxy Hut in years, the initial manifestation of the essence of Bardo. I bumped into one of the bartenders from Dremo while there.
Tap selection was as great ever. Pictured here is Stoudt's Fat Dog Oatmeal Stout and Rogue's Charlie 1981, a pretty potent American Strong Ale.
Gotta love the aluminium can candles they had all over the place.

Peace Symbol Turns 50

"...the peace sign turns 50 years old today. Over the past five decades the peace sign has become one of the world’s enduring icons. The original peace sign was developed in1958 by a British textile designer and conscientious objector named Gerald Holtom."


"He created the symbol by combining the semaphore letters N and D, for nuclear disarmament. [...] The symbol soon began to be used in anti-nuclear protests across Britain and then spread across the globe." (DN!)


The image of a peasant before a firing squad in Francisco Goya's "The Third of May 1808" is also cited as one of his inspirations.
"The white of the victim's shirt represents innocence and purity [...] He alone looks straight at the faceless enemy. Though on his knees he is a giant who towers above all at the very moment before his death."

Memories of Dr Dremo's

It's gone, it's really gone.
My favorite bar is no more.
Here are some great shots for posterity.

These pix ripped with gratitude from here.

Rats!

Happy Chinese New Year of the Rat

My nieces:
This is one ol' pix..... Paris, 1996

Miller Pong

Miller Lite is currently market testing its Miller Lite Brewers Collection – "a triumvirate of craft-style light beers": an Amber, a Wheat and a Blonde Ale.

A review on BeerAdvocate predictably describes the beers as "inoffensive and bland". Quite appropriate as Michael Jackson used to joke "Let me grab a sip of my Miller Lite" when he drank some good ol' H2O.

My bud DP had this to say:
"If nothing else, this will address the long standing need for craft beer to play beer pong with."

"Czech Room Service"

Czech Pub Mural snagged by a fellow BURPer.

Iritis @ Dr Dremo's

After all the tremendous build-up to our very first gig,
the day finally came and went.

It was an absolute blast, we had a turnout of at least 50
kind supporters despite the NFL conference finals.

The owner Bill Sr. just gave us complete free reign over the back room and we held fort all night. Our friend Marc came through and helped us out with the sound set-up. We blasted through our set twice.

All the feedback has been enthusiastic and positive. The most glowing endorsement probably came from my father who said "you are much better than I expected".

Thank you all friends, old and new, from close and far,
for showing up and supporting us in our tribute to Bardo/Dr Dremo's,
a mere week before they shut their doors.

Dr Dremo is Dead
Long Live Dr Dremo's

Click below to browse the pictures or check out the slideshow:

Iritis @ Dr Dremo's

Sand Dunes, The Dalles, Oregon

From the National Geographic Picture Of The Day

"In a curious juncture, a wrinkled span of desert dunes pours into the Columbia River Gorge in The Dalles, Oregon. Eons of erosion by the mighty Columbia River carved this dramatic 80-mile-long (130-kilometer-long) gorge into the Cascade Range. Declared the nation's first National Scenic Area in 1986, the area is known for its 4,000-foot (1,220-meter) canyon walls, lush rain forest, and dozens of waterfalls."

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "A River Dammed," April 2001, National Geographic magazine)

Photograph by Jim Richardson

Why Do I Give Away Some of My Music by Steve Coleman

Steve Coleman is an avant-garde composer and saxophone player. He has played with the likes of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band, the Sam Rivers Big Band, Cecil Taylor's Big Band, David Murray, Doug Hammond, Dave Holland, Mike Brecker, Cassandra Wilson and Abbey Lincoln. full bio here.

"Steve Coleman is a renaissance man for the left wing of jazz" - Thom Jurek, All-Music

This was originally posted here.

Many people have asked me what are my reasons for giving away music for free. Well, why not? Why should everything always cost something? For me music is organized sound that can be used as sonic symbols to communicate ideas. Since my main goal is the communication of these ideas to the people, then why not provide this music for free and thereby facilitating the distribution of this music to the people. However the distribution of music in this way is not in the best interest of commercial music companies, i.e. record companies, music distributors, retail stores etc.

My reasons for providing free music comes from my belief that musical ideas should not be owned by anyone. I believe that ideas should be free for anyone to use (but not to necessarily sell to others or make others pay for the use of these ideas). The concept of a commons area where ideas can be used for the benefit of all but for the profit of no one may seem like an unrealizable concept in the world today. Basically greed runs the world today and it is because of this that the concept of ownership exits.

There would be no need to own something exclusively unless the use of it was restricted to the owner for reasons of conservation, or the owner wishes to rent out the use of the item to others for a fee. The concept of wealth also stems from ownership and control of resources.

I believe that ideas should be an area that is common to all people. It has been proven that real progress is made when ideas are shared and developed collectively. The ancient Egyptian society is one example of this and the development of the Internet is an example in modern times. The growth of the Internet is definitely due to the concept of open-source software, freeware and shareware. For the most part commercial development has inhibited growth by introducing concepts of ownership, exclusive or restrictive ideas, and the concept of paying for information which in many cases is available for free elsewhere.

Although it is not practical in the present society to have a situation where all ideas and information are available for the use of all, there should be areas where ideas and information are free for the use of everyone. This is especially true of creative ideas and inspired thought.

However people have asked me "if you are going to give away music then how will you survive and make a living?" It does cost money to make recordings, engineers and musicians have to be paid and materials needs to be purchased. However it is not necessary to have the mentality that we need to make a profit from all that we produce. If a person has a strong conviction and a reason for what they are doing, that alone should be enough motivation for the action to be consummated.

Money is not real in the first place, it is an agreed upon concept, in fact just another idea. This particular idea has no value unless everyone agrees on its worth. And generally speaking the desire for, striving for and acquisition of money almost always has a negative effect on the mind. The quest for money, and material acquisition in general, is a barrier to spiritual development.

Giving some ideas and music away does not mean that all needs to be given away for free. But there are some people who either cannot pay for the music or would never even listen to it in the first place if they had to pay for it. For this group of people, and for all the others who have purchased and supported the music in the past, there should be an area where they can go to listen to the music at no charge. I envision a situation where maybe one third to one half of the music that I create and make available to the public will be free of charge. The same would apply to other ideas about the music, general information, music theory, philosophy, etc.

There are still live performances that people can come to and these cannot be free as I need, at a minimum, to pay band members and my management team. Sometimes I personally make a profit on performances that my group does, sometimes I break even, other times I actually lose money. Overall I manage to make a living. When we go out on the road there are no big road crews, sound people and equipment. It is not a big operation and no one is becoming wealthy. Any extra money that I do make goes back into research, development of ideas and trips to places that have infrastructures that make it nearly impossible to make money. As a group we have made several trips to countries like Cuba, Senegal, India etc. and in almost all of these cases the expenses have been paid by myself.

There should be some ideas and concepts that are available for all to use, to contribute to the advancement of all.

Dr Dremo's Farewell Night of 101 Elvises

A grand fun ol' time was had by all at this local signature event.

Here are pix from On Tap Magazine. Full gallery here

Eastern Europe Trip

Our fun little jaunt through Munich, Budapest,
Bratislava and Praha in early december.
Cheaper prices, less crowds, it was a perfect
time of year to visit. Browse the pix:

Iritis @ Dr Dremo's

On Sunday, January 20th, my band Iritis will
be performing its very first public show at Dr Dremo's.

This venerable and quirky Arlington institution
formerly known as Bardo nurtured my love for adventurous
delicious craft beers and has been my favorite watering hole
for more than 10 years.

It will be shutting its door for good and the building
torn down at the end of the month.

Merry Xmas

Mmm... beer...
Mmm... 1050 beers!

Cheers

A special thought for JB and Oscar Peterson.

M-Audio Firewire 410 For Sale - $199

add posted on Craiglist:

M-Audio Firewire 410
4-in/10-out Mobile Recording Interface

Extremely Portable and Professional Sound Quality

Like New, Factory Refurbished and
Fully Bench Tested by M-Audio Labs, Irwindale, CA on 12/10/2007

Use the same rig as guitar legend John McLaughlin!

----------------
Top Features:

- 2 x 8 24-bit/96kHz analog I/O; 192kHz stereo out
- 2 mic/line ins w/ preamps and phantom power
- 8 line outs to mixer or direct surround output
- S/PDIF digital I/O w/ PCM, AC-3, and DTS support
- 1 x 1 MIDI I/O
- includes Ableton Live Lite music production software

FireWire 410 is a FireWire-compatible audio/MIDI interface that has it all—power, flexibility, compact size and low price. FireWire 410’s 4-in/10-out configuration complete with preamps is perfect for personal recording, routing discrete outputs to a mixer, or directly driving a surround sound system. The on-board ASIO 2-compliant mixer and software control panel provide total routing flexibility—including monitoring with external effects. You also get ultra-low latency software monitoring and near-zero latency hardware direct monitoring—and two headphone outs with independent level controls let you collaborate with a partner anywhere, anytime. FireWire 410 can even be completely bus-powered for total mobile operation (6-pin FireWire port required)

Link to Official Product Presentation, Manual/Driver Downloads

Happy Holidays from Iritis

Wishing you rockin' holidays and a fantastic New Year.
We'll be hosting a tiny little World Premiere private show next week.
If you mention this posting and manage to get in touch with me directly I'll try to bribe the bouncer into letting you in.

Iritis means business

We gots business cards now!
ya dig?

Things are shaping up nicely with the band,
i'm finally ditching my capricious M-Audio Firewire 410
recording hardware. It might be good enough for John McLaughlin
but it has been a serious headache in our set-up.

So i went out and got meself a Line6 TonePort UX8.
This baby is rock solid and it's just a whole new dimension
to have 8 real inputs instead of the misleadingly advertized 4 inputs
on the firewire that turned out to only be 2.

It's going to be fun playing with this new toy.
Even if it seems that more gear beget$$$ even more gear....
The quality of our recordings should vastly improve.

As to the quality of our playing... well we're getting there.
There are quite a few news song sketches I recently posted on myspace. And watch out! You might just get invited to some
private house party soon for our maiden live show...

Quote of the Day: Wendell Wisdom

"This whole technology and computer thing is a fad. It won't last."

-My zymurgy sensei Wendell after sending his first cell
phone text message, it was blank. He is now an seasoned pro
at sending picture messages.

zy·mur·gy:
the branch of applied chemistry dealing with fermentation,
as in winemaking, brewing, the preparation of yeast, etc.
syn: zy-mo-lo-gy

2007 Arctic Sea Ice - January through September

"The 2007 Arctic summer sea ice has reached the lowest extent of perennial ice cover on record - nearly 25% less than the previous low set in 2005. The area of the perennial ice has been steadily decreasing since the satellite record began in 1979, at a rate of about 10% per decade. But the 2007 minimum, reached on September 14, is far below the previous record made in 2005 and is about 38% lower than the climatological average." Original Nasa Webpage



I have to throw in this other NASA video too.
It's a riotously geeky a cappella ode to Noctilucent Clouds...


Ok, here's another naughty extra. This was one of the recommended videos
after watching "Noctilucent Clouds". Go figure. I'm just speechless.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6aXAvUj2Kk

Transformers