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Sunday, 21 January 2007 |
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A few years back, when I was hiding out in Hollywood, I got to a point where it seemed as if the jig was up. I was staying in a friend's place.
I was in a near-suicidal state of depression. Nothing was going
according to plan. All the Hollywood bullshit (promised investors,
etc.) had become painfully apparent. I was broke, living off a few sales of HoneyBun kits to distributors, and borrowed money.
I had convinced the company that made HoneyBun Spanking Kits to put out a massage kit, with the idea of breaking out of the adult novelty industry and onto the shelf next to Dirty Girl Soap, where the money was.
They wanted to make a soft-core massage video to go with the oil. I said that was too tacky for HoneyBun. I proposed a relaxation cd. They agreed.
So I did what I have done so many times: I went down below to where the music is. Whatever storms rage above the surface cannot touch me down there.
I can only assume other artists know of which I speak, or anyone who has perhaps submerged him/herself in meditation, or prayer, or focused labor, which, now that I think about it, seem to be the main components of my creative process.
In the time that followed, about three weeks, I composed four songs. When I came out, these are the songs that had flowed through, each about fifteen minutes long:
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Summer of '68
- Autumnal Sun
- Winter Blue
- Isle of Islay Revisited
Isle of Islay Revisited is the only song I have ever done composed entirely from samples: gongs, chimes, birds, water, guitar, and so on. The title refers to an incredibly sweet and sad ballad by Donovan, on his album Gift From a Flower To A Garden, released in 1968.
I have since reworked the first three songs, taking them from the pastels of the original versions into more technicolor realms. The label I am discussing releasing the cd with insists I redo Isle of Islay Revisited as well. I am in the process of composing a very different piece, although I hope it will have the same placid flow as the original. The label insisted I not have any of the original pieces available on the web (you can hear an excerpt of Winter Blue at my myspace page, however), but since there are issues with samples,etc., on this piece, I think it safe to offer to you for download.
Download Isle of Islay Revisited
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Saturday, 20 January 2007 |
The (song)Device
SunPopBlue salutes the visionary behind the (song)Device, embodying, as it does, our bizarro world Zeitgeist: the hyper-capitalist fundamental, planned-obsolescence, the Microsoft approach to digital rights management, and the eBay path to easy money via selling cheapo gizmos from China. "Bid with utter confidence" rather sums it up, doesn't it?
In the Artist's own words:
Disposable Pop Songs
"After carefully studying the works of Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Stephin Merrit and
others (in case the business of writing pop songs is outsourced). The Artist has carefully and
finely handcrafted this song.
The wooden frame encloses a chip, on
turning a knob it dispenses an original pop song. Enclosed along with the song are (in no particular order): bills (paid and
unpaid), flowers from sidewalks, post-its, sketches, blue prints for
big plans, etc. These may or may not have
anything to do with the song being played.
After about four plays
the song degenerates into noise, thus rendering the (song)Device useless.
You can then use the (song)Device, as either:
- (song)Device for churning out Stockhausen like symphonies or
- Dispose the
(song)device, thus symbolically rejecting materialism and
therefore turning into some kind of Neo-Buddhist.
The (song)Device,thus functions as
some kind of swiss army knife of cool, the one
stone that kills many birds...etc. wholesome and educational
entertainment for the whole family-the perfect gift for
Christmas.
Bid with utter confidence.
[similar] items [from all eBay sellers] on the flip-flop
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Saturday, 20 January 2007 |
- Wash dishes
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Finish setting up music studio, power supply from Mike, sample disks for emu sampler
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Get vacuum-forming machine for chess pieces
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Get supply of materials for new series (A Love Supreme wall hangings) of artwork
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Make Tangerine Sky business cards for the big do up in wine country this week
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Make list of people I owe money to, will be able to clear up soon.
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Get a wife, or 2 or 3 girlfriends, or a bunch of groupies
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Stop eating alone so much. Have dinner parties or dates. Need new place settings and silverware.
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Make some pasta to go with braised short-ribs & veggies
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Finish four or five half-finished pieces for Sun Pop Blue before starting new ones. but post every day.
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Decide what to do about fourth piece of "seasons" cd ... record new bird sounds ...
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Find a DAT machine to transfer old music tapes to hard-drive
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Hit gym 4 times a week
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Set up G3 mac and go thru all old floppies & zip disks ... old music files to export to gen midi, & hopefully, Flapping in pagemaker to import into InDesign to make pdf ...
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Look into finding illustrator to make graphic novel of Flapping.
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Finish Last Unforetold Man vocal cd: backing vocals, harmonies, string part for Take Me Down & Maia, get Angie into studio for Pop Down the Years, get some help arranging that one, also.
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Silk-screened covers for Flapping. Mini-cd with "lost" songs ...
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Shoot "Serge" modular synth videos - put up on YouTube, send to synth blogs. Post "flight of the atom bee," Flapping edit
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Begin intense targetted promotion of limited edition Flapping
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Do Year-in-the-Life-of-a-Winery & vintage spanking postcards book proposals
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Pick up new cologne - Dolce & Gabbana this time
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Help Nate develop new products for www.myhoneybun.com ... find real marketing person.
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Wash dishes right now.
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Steam-clean carpets.
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Get a house-cleaning service.
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Take care of free-lance clients.
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Raise rates.
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Focus on living life in the slow lane
- Develope multi-level marketing scheme for the Ché brand ...
- Wash dishes immediately
- Continue research regarding this wrong dimension thing we seem to be caught up in.
- Book some live shows or, failing that, do some open mic's
- Wash dishes.
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Thursday, 18 January 2007 |
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I have a bunch of pieces in the works. Final installment of the Coming of the Great Darkness series. Modular synth stuff. More on Flapping limited release with the "lost" songs of the original Flight of the Atom Bee cd, including a new music video ... all kinds of stuff. The Ultimate Disposable Pop Music For Sale On eBay. A piece on Jorma Kaukonen's solo acoustic guitar piece on the Jefferson Airplane's album Surrealistic Pillow embodied, in two-and-a-half minutes, with no lyrics, all the optimism and hope of the West Coast for the future of America, before drugs, war, riots, and, as always, the assassins, took their toll on our dreams.
But nothing ready to post tonight. So, to keep the home fires burning ... here is a video I uncovered ... it seems like people, regular people, everyday people, not tongue-in-cheek people, not ironic people, in India pay to sit in a tiny theater and watch the Boney M Lip-Sync Revue.
This is not a drag revue, nor is it a joke.
This is serious family entertainment. You can tell because the choir members lipsyncing the humming parts with their lips closed are really concentrating hard.
This is the kind of video in which one can immerse oneself, gleefully absorbing the subtle touches that emerge on repeated viewings. The girl doing the Swim. The guy lip-syncing "She was crazy like a fool. {But what about Daddy Cool?}" All of it.
It's happy time! 
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Tuesday, 16 January 2007 |
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the assassins strike again
Love is real , real is love
Love is feeling , feeling love
Love is wanting to be loved
Love is touch, touch is love
Love is reaching, reaching love
Love is asking to be loved
Love is you
You and me
Love is knowing
we can be
Love is free, free is love
Love is living, living love
Love is needing to be loved
John Lennon, Love
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