How are you doing?

Time for a vlog style blog post, spring 2019 style. I like to write these every now and then, talk about real life, as opposed to sharing memes, tweets, and Facebook posts via social media. That stuff is so blah.

First off, I quit soda and energy drinks cold turkey. I've noticed a big difference in my stamina and stress levels. In addition, I'm starting to lose weight again, albeit very slowly, about a pound or two a day. At this rate, I'll lose twenty pounds in twenty days. This might be the way I lose weight and keep it off forever, in shallah. [as the Muslims say] 

I really needed to do something drastic because I don't want to get diabetes. I was drinking soda and energy drinks every day at work. I'm glad I'm not buying and drinking that crap anymore. 

My body is detoxing. My stress levels are down and my stamina is up. I still get tired after one am shifts at the job, however, without the sugar chemicals messing with my system, I don't get as tired as I used to. It's quite a change. 

Speaking of changes, I've been taking things slower with my reading. I'm spending more time reading the news during the day before work and reading physical books at night before bed. I'm letting all the readings ruminate more. Rather than say, reading a book in three days and then starting another one on the same day. I'm guilty of that. 

I'm also guilty of being completely obsessed with classical music. I've always liked it but now its pretty much my favorite thing to listen to. Saying since most modern straight-ahead jazz is pretty clean cut, not many interesting things going on, I mostly listen to classical music, usually while reading. 

My favorites lately have been baroque composers within the last couple months-Bach in particular right now. Coincidentally it was his birthday the other day. I'm getting into piano prodigy Glen Gould's Bach interpretations. I've also been listening to Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi, Mozart, Chopin, Corelli, Marcello, there are tons of composers from 1600-1700s that display beautiful music, composed of functional harmony. I've become a huge fan of harpsichord and clavichord. So much to the point that I'm planning on playing keyboard more seriously and possibly having my dad put together our harpsichord one day [yes I have a harpsichord]. I have the time, I just need to put in the effort. "Or so it goes."

Work is work and I'm glad to get the hours. My jazz trio is coming along nicely, although I need a bass player asap to complete the sound I want, a chamber jazz sort of sound, with bass playing the role of percussion. The plan is still to record at a studio [and release an album on bandcamp], and apparently, the saxophonist can get us free recording time at the studio because he's done session work for the studio, ie they owe him. I'm still working on my memoir, and I've got thirty-four pages to work with so far. I'm at a crossroads with the text at this point, but I'm getting ideas on how to make it flow more thematically now that I've covered all the facts, exposition and lots of dialogue between characters. Lastly, I've been doing well making new friends, of the female variety. As that Ramones song goes, "I don't wanna be a pinhead no more, I just met a nurse that I can go for." 

April will bring hot temperatures and soon summer will be among us Californians. Bring on the one-hundred-degree heat. I love it when its over one-hundred degrees in the Valley.

Not! 

April Fools     :D 

The Classics

So after going through a lot of new music, avant-garde classical music I found myself listening to the "classics", the warhorses of classical music. I am of course speaking about composers like Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Mahler, and Stravinsky, who I could lump in as a classical composer and a new music composer. He's someone who's influenced many and is important in the development of new music as well as being apart of the "old guard" of classical music.

The interesting thing about all of this is that I've listened to all this music a lot when I was about eighteen years old. In fact, I would turn on the classical music station at all times in my dorm room in college and I always had Wagner's Ring Cycle on various CD's as well as Mahler's symphonies, both of which at the time I thought of as being very heavy and dark music, like heavy metal which I was also interested in at the time.

Coming back to the music now at twenty-eight is a lot more engrossing. I'm a lot smarter, I can hear more of the harmonies and rhythms, and my musical experience has increased so I can understand the music more. That's not to say that I understand how Bach used counterpoint. I have a long way to go to understand that sort of stuff. But the aural ear training is much more on point now than its ever been.

After going through so much new music and going back to the classics I find myself more appreciative of the past, European art, history, and music. I can see why the Romantic, Baroque, Classical, and Renaissance eras were important in the development of twentieth century music. Sure, the teachers in predominantly white schools (and some black educational facilities) will tell you its high art but if you don't understand why its high art then you can't truly understand the music.

There is a lot of references to classical music in other art mediums, namely film and television. But for me the work must be found from the source and studied, otherwise its just a tune you hear and probably forget about. Miles Davis would say, "So what."

-Stravinsky pictured above

What's in your earbuds? 12/2 Edition

Lately, I've been listening to a lot of new music. For a while I was really into black metal, particularly from Sweden. Sweden is one of my favorite countries because of their black metal scene in general but also because I really dig Abba. Bands like Opeth (not black metal but still great band), Tribulation, and Ghost were played nonstop for a long time while I played Heroes of the Storm.

But with the exception of one techno album I listened to yesterday (which was ultimately forgettable because I can't even remember the name of the album or band) I've been listening to classical music. Mostly baroque stuff. I've been turning on YouTube playlists of Vivaldi, Chopin, Mozart, Liszt, Bach, and Beethoven. It really calms me down after long tiring days and I love the harmonic complexity. Although I can't explain what the composers are doing I understand the sound, the intervals, the scales, the harmony, and rhythm. It comes with being a musician for a long time and listening to music a lot. You expect certain cadences and resolves within the harmonies and it happens. The music is beautiful too.

One thing to realize is that classical music can be really heavy and brutal like metal too. There's a lot of shredding in classical music. There's a lot to it other than just pretty violins, timpani, and horns. The more I listen to it the more I get drawn in to listen more and learn more about music theory in the future so I can understand how these brilliant composers came up with this stuff.

As Frank Zappa said,"All the good music has already been written by dudes with wigs and stuff." I couldn't agree more. Even John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy studied classical etudes and classical music and harmony. They studied all the old dudes with wigs and stuff and expanded upon the musical foundation. It's quite a tradition, this thing we call music.

My friends listen to a lot of metalcore, rap, and rave music but honestly I get tired of that stuff. I've heard it all before and the new stuff all sounds like the old. I wish jazz could develop and do more interesting things but you'll only find the innovative jazz musicians in the free jazz scene. Until then I'll be kickin' it old school in the Baroque era with my homies Beethoven and Vivaldi.

Ah, you kids today with your techno music. You should enjoy the classics like Hasselhoff. 

Music I've been listening to lately 11/10/16

Lately, I've been listening to a ton of music. A lot of metal, black metal. It all started when I got really into the band Ghost. I've heard all their songs a couple times over now and I'm a little tired of them but I still think they're a great band. I can't wait to see what kind of material they put out for their next album.

Since Ghost I've picked up the newest Opeth album, Sorceress. It's a really great progressive rock album with a very heavy feel. It's so heavy in a progressive way but it sounds metal in some aspects. Interesting how they do that without it sounding death metal like their old records.

I've been getting back into actual albums. Usually I'm a big live rock concert guy. I know rock bands aren't the best when it comes to live performances but I prefer to experience the music live as opposed to studio albums. I like to hear mistakes live. In the studio everything can be touched up with computers and nowadays music can sound very fake and processed. But sometimes you gotta listen to both studio and live performances to really understand the bands. And that's what I've been doing.

A great album I heard today was Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Tragedy. Freaking fantastic metal record. Probably in the top ten best metal records of all time. Recorded in 1976, it gives you a feel of the proto-metal sound and what was to come during the 80s. It's cool to think about all this stuff now and look back in time not only as a listener and fan but also as a seasoned musician with plenty of chops.

I've also been getting really into this band my co-worker told me about. They're also from Sweden, just like Ghost and Opeth. Have you noticed all my favorite metal bands are from Sweden? Something about Sweden is just dark, heavy, and slightly satanic. Probably the fact that they spend most of their winters in darkness.

Anyways, Tribulation is from Sweden too. They have a strong black metal vibe but I also get a very punk feeling from them as well. They have no guitar solos and no intricate or progressive parts (similar to Ghost in that aspect) but their music still intrigues me. They have this metal hooks that are so catchy that its almost like pop music, except in a black metal way. Almost like Ghost but totally not like Ghost at the same time. They're similar in the sense that they're both catchy bands with a black metal influence. The vocals are a little harsh but not like those extreme black metal bands. I can still understand what they're singing. I also like how one of their guitar players uses a semi-hollow body guitar. In a black metal band it sounds really heavy and distorted. Bad ass! Really good band.

Then there's all the classical music. I've been listening to a lot of Lizst, Chopin, Vivaldi, and Bach. That music connects to me in a different way than the rock stuff does. In some ways I can compare metal with classical music in the sense that they both convey a lot of emotions through sound. Classical music has given me a different form of musical entertainment than my usual jazz stuff does.

I can't remember the last time I listened to any new or interesting free jazz stuff. A friend from Poland (all these Europeans!) told me about all these great European free jazz musicians but I haven't gone through and listened yet, mostly due to a lack of time and the fact that I'm going through a big black metal phase. Most of the famous black metal bands I actually don't like because the vocals are too harsh, like they've smoked ten packs of cigarettes and recorded their vocals right after.

It's pretty inspiring stuff. I don't take the lyrics seriously and I don't think these bands believe in the lyrics they sing. It's just a gimmick like how Slayer's been singing about satan since the 80s. A lot of this stuff is European and I gotta say that they do a great job with music there. They take music very seriously. Even their pop music is great.

My dad's told me that a lot of Taylor Swift's most popular tunes are written by two European guys. They take metal, jazz, and classical music seriously. It would be cool to become a big musician and play there one day. Or even play with these bands I like.

One can dream right? 

That's a band picture of Tribulation, the guy with the stash seems to be the funniest