The 6th and final installment of the narrative radio drama. This time featuring Jim Owens ("Victor") and Claire Naber Matalqa ("Tina"). One last, well-deserved thanks and praise to Michael Gunn for fashioning these scripts.
Gentle waves of ideas, passing over one another. Focus drifts from one to the next. Music is the one art which is completely dependent on the passage of time. I can never decide if this is a hindrance or the key to its potency ...
Part 5 brings us Rick Gomez and Amanda Detmer playing "Harry" and "Moana," respectively. Thanks again to Michael Gunn, particularly in this case where we went, giggling, slightly off-script.
King Henry VIII was the consummate Renaissance man. He was well-versed in mathematics, science, politics (certainly!), religious philosophy (doubly certainly!), and surprisingly a quite talented musician. In addition to regularly performing, he was a decent composer and today we remember him, almost 500 years later, for his glorious drinking song "Pastyme with Good Company."
Continuing the cross-pollination of eras, today we hear one of Bach's children performing at a restaurant in San Diego ...
Andy
The Metropolitan. A car I knew nothing about prior to seeing four together. Manufactured in the late 50s it carried that atomic age charm in a significantly smaller body than its American cousins.
Andy At 8:32 PM I was taking a photo of myself taking a photo of myself. The evening is by far my least structured time of day. I'm not tied down at work and I'm not too tired to think clearly. The possibilities seem almost limitless. At 8:32 on any given night there is finally freedom to decide what I will be doing.
Austin
8:32 PM. The day is winding down to the beautiful simplicity of night. Calm, like the morning on its way. Beneath the surface dwells the residual of the day's many tensions and anxieties, though softening and gradually loosening their hold.
Andy 7:04 AM. It is a struggle for me to wake up this early. I have a habit of checking the weather in the morning, even at this time of the year when it's almost guaranteed to just be hot. Now and for the next hour or so I am in a state of groggy introversion. Words don't typically escape my mouth until I arrive at work or wherever I'm going. It is during this time that I realize who I am going to be today, what mood I start in, how alert I am, and what daily goals I want to set.
Austin
7:04 AM. A calm exterior, and the serenity of morning harshly interrupted by the most loathsome of all sounds. Nonetheless, the scene is beautiful, but within lies a blend of apprehension for the day ahead, and numbed calm.
Part 4; a look at "Charli" (Heidi McNeil) and "Philipe" (Waleed Zuaiter). I know it's become tiring, but another thank you to Michael Gunn for creating these scripts.
One of the glories of Bach, and a huge reason he endures today in the 260 years since his death, his the incredible malleability of his writing. Few composers wrote such complicated and utterly beautiful music that is also so easily transformable. Today's particular transformation features Tom Strahle on electric guitar.
Andy Does this technically count? Did potted meat ever have a time and place?
Gentle waves of ideas, passing over one another. Focus drifts from one to the next. Music is the one art which is completely dependent on the passage of time. I can never decide if this is a hindrance or the key to its potency ...
New series beginning which explores the interaction of various different historical periods. Today kicks it off with a dance arrangement of a 15th century dance tune, "La Spagna," set gloriously by Heinrich Isaac in about 1500.
Gentle waves of ideas, passing over one another. Focus drifts from one to the next. Music is the one art which is completely dependent on the passage of time. I can never decide if this is a hindrance or the key to its potency ...
Today is the 128th birthday of one of the most revolutionary composers of all time, and undoubtedly, despite having never met him, among my greatest teachers. Igor set 'Happy Birthday' as part of the "Greeting Prelude," so it seemed truly irresistible to pay homage in kind.
Part 3 brings us into the life of "Bob" (played by Trevor Boelter) and "Dana" (played by Carla Pauley). One more thanks to Michael Gunn for crafting these very fun scripts and then proceeding to let me have my way with them.
There is something mystical about imagining a journey inside just a single instance of music, even a single chord. An entire hidden universe. Pull it apart and see what lies at the subatomic level.
It occurred to me recently that a handful of my married friends were also both musicians, and so it seemed inevitable that a recurring series must begin based around these (sometimes peculiar) duets. The first of these is today and tomorrow, featuring the wonderful violin / clarinet duo of Larry and Lisa Kohorn.
Andy
I am not married. I have never been married. Accordingly, I leave this completely open to interpretation.
Part 2 at our graduation party features the twins, "Libby" and "Killian" (played by Nicci Claspell and Adam Trent, respectively). Again my thank you to Michael Gunn for collaborating on these scripts.
Gentle waves of ideas, passing over one another. Focus drifts from one to the next. Music is the one art which is completely dependent on the passage of time. I can never decide if this is a hindrance or the key to its potency ...
Andy This is a great spot to sit and forget about anything really. Whether with a good book or just a breeze, it can be sublime. But nature doesn't really care for time, your time, my time, anyone's. Rain comes when the conditions are right for rain, not when you want water. Maybe that's the lesson.
It would be impossible to truly summarize the influence Sonja Eisenberg has had on my life, both as a person and as an artist. I simply can not imagine who I'd be or how I could write music without having been in her constant presence at a key time in my life. So, rather than go on and on, I'll merely use today to salute her on her 84th birthday. All are highly encouraged to explore her website and its seemingly infinite treasures: http://www.sonjaeisenberg.net
Andy
I have never met who today's post is dedicated to, so I decided to take sort of a bow of reverence in admission that I am far from great, but rather a fledgling photographer. So I photographed a simple subject as if I was learning to paint.
The simultaneous ticking away of many supposedly accurate clocks instantly reveals just how subjective the perspective of time is. Much can be said of that, but instead I'd rather leave it with the question: where is it all leading?
Andy Sometimes you can't ignore an opportunity to make your friends pose.
Gentle waves of ideas, passing over one another. Focus drifts from one to the next. Music is the one art which is completely dependent on the passage of time. I can never decide if this is a hindrance or the key to its potency ...
Andy Midnight isn't coming just for Cinderella. The same time counts down (or up) for everybody. Regardless. So the moments when we can let go of the count and just enjoy a moment are, well... beautiful.
Part 1 of 6. A narrative which places us in the middle of a graduation party for two high school twins, picking up on various conversations throughout. Immense thanks to my co-conspirator Michael Gunn for both composing the original scripts, and then letting me manipulate them as I pleased. This particular pair features Shelly Gant (as "Andrea") and Laith Zuaiter (as her son "Jake").
Finally, an adult. Summers bear a strange resemblance to your single-digit former self. June, July, August, September ... pretty much just those months between May and October. But the fun isn't gone. Nor the nostalgia. In fact, it seems to be the true amalgamation of all your prior summer associations.
Andy Adult summer days seem to be all close toed shoes and pants and computer screens. Lots of looking out the window at that tree that would be perfect to read under... But not for too long. Back to work! At least there's always the weekends and no amount of work could ever tarnish the the wonder that is a Colorado summer night.
Skip a few more years and now you're in college. Summer still has that celebratory taste that it did in high school, but something's changed. Where before it was reckless abandon, now there is a tint of nostalgia. All those old high school friends you lost touch with re-enter your lives. Old pets still remember you and that old porch swing seems suddenly so comfy and relaxing.
Andy Oh boy... uhhh... college summers get a little... blurry. You say they have a keg?? Okay we're on our way... I was a server. I know I met some of the best people I know... Was I in love at the end there?? I think so... was I? Oh boy...
Flash forward to high school. Suddenly summer has an entirely new and ultra-sacred meaning. What was before once just any normal season, is now the crowning jewel of the year. Every moment not in summer represented a countdown towards it. And, of course, it is gone in an instant the countdown begins again ...
Andy The joys of summer definitely found new depth with the freedom of an automobile and the instant access to friends via mobile phones. They were made all the better by the negligible responisibilies of teenagedom. Also at this time, Ultimate Frisbee became the star that ushered spring into summer.
When you're really young (as in elementary school and earlier), the summer is not really all that different from the rest of the year. It plods along with the same pace and reliability as its corollary season. If anything, it is tinged with a touch of sadness as you leave your friends who, as a function of your age, you really only see during the school year.
Andy If there is sadness in the beginning of summer, it has, year after year, escaped me. For me the memories are all romanticized. Days stretching on forever, new energy that was nowhere to be found during winter, every color brighter than it has any right being and the freedom to pursue the adventures that school never allowed. Oh, and flip-flops.
Ten glorious years ago I started dating my soul mate. I had a hunch but at the same time would have been utterly shocked to discover that, precisely ten years later, she would mean more to me than she did then. A short while into our relationship, I wrote a little tune which came to represent her. It was, for all practical purposes, her 'theme.' Well as the years have passed that theme has become so nauseatingly saccharine feeling that it seemed time to replace it.
Andy I more than admire 10 years together and I congratulate both of you. I also dedicate the photo to another couple that is much newer, but I have no doubt they will match that milestone too. This to me is an idyllic, lazy Memorial Day image. It was taken at such a barbecue.