Blues Notes #1

Hello, 

I did another livestream today. We're going to make it a weekly performance. We'll continue to do standards and improv. Enjoy the music. Don't forget to like and subscribe to my YouTube channel. 

Thanks, enjoy 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ikzDWiTXHc 

Breaking the Chains

Hello, ladies and gents. I haven't written in quite a while. This summer has been very intense. Mostly because of the coronavirus. I'm actually not even that busy and should've been reading and writing a lot more, but hey, sometimes it's hard to get in everything that you want to do in life. This is one of those times even though ironically most people are unemployed and sitting at home due to the virus. Meanwhile, the rest of us poor saps are working because we're essential workers. 

I've met a lot of new friends recently. They're all good chaps and they've really inspired me in a lot of ways. Through them, I've gained a lot more confidence in myself and have been pushing myself to be more outgoing socially. Through them, I realized that in a lot of ways I haven't seen myself in the way that I should, and that other friends, coworkers, and people sometimes drag me down for their own purposes. It was quite a realization. 

It made me see myself in a different light, a better light. I realize the need to stay humble in life but I also see the realization that sometimes you have to act like you're better simply because you are. It's difficult to explain in words. Famous people would get it. Successful people would get it. Well, now I get it. Took a long time to get through but I made it. Now, what do to with it? Only time will tell. 

Saying all that, I've also sort of unlocked new parts of myself within. This is where I go all metaphysical. In the past couple of weeks, maybe the last month or two, I've reached a sort of meta plane realization. I've gone back to my teenage roots even though I thought I've surpassed it and will never revisit it. I started playing guitar a lot more, started listening to only classic rock, and have been more outgoing socially with everybody I come in contact with. Because I read all the time, my conversation skills are the highest they've ever been, making me a hit pretty much anywhere I go. Although I'm half deaf and it's hard to listen to people I've learned to do it with extreme efficiency. My voice sounds cool and it's not as loud and overbearing as in the past, where I used to have trouble hearing myself. Life is good. 

Because I listen to so much music and really listen and focus hard on the music and lyrics, I've become a man of a thousand songs, literally. I plan on studying all my favorite classic rock music, really getting a feel for the songs, and writing my own songs in a somewhat similar vein in terms of harmony. I plan on getting back to recording music again soon. I'm still doing my jazz jam with the saxophone player Jason but I'm sort of losing interest in jazz. Mostly because I'm not really a jazz guitarist, but I'm talented enough to play it and fake it. But I'm no Wes Montgomery or Jim Hall, that's for sure. But I sure as hell will try. 

Finding yourself in the time of COVID feels different. Who am I really? It's a hard question that most people end up asking themselves their whole lives. I see myself as a painted bird, I have to choose my surroundings wisely or things will just not work out the way I'd like them to. 

That being said, the virus is still going strong, the protests are surging, and we have a Trump Gestapo in Portland but there is a silent majority working against Trump. I'm a big news junkie and read it every day, I recommend you all do the same. 
  
"I'm the last of the good old fashion steam train." 

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse Virus pt. 6

Greetings noble readers of my blog. How's the quarantine life treating you all? I figured I would continue my series about life during the coronavirus. If you haven't seen any of the previous posts about this up to this point, I recommend you click on the 'plague journal' at the top of my blog page and review some of the earlier posts. Or you can find it here. I explain the working conditions at my job and stuff, it's quite an overview. 

Anyways, we're somewhere in the middle of this virus. Not contained by any means but it has not taken over California like it did in New York, Italy, China, or Spain. 23,000 people have died in the US. But that's considered low numbers. For the time being. But it's still a crippling reminder that this virus has ravaged our country. It's very sad. 

We're all very lucky to have good leadership in California under Gavin Newsom and under the Los Angeles mayor Garcetti. They called for stay at home orders long before other states followed suit. Smart guys who listen to their advisers. 

I didn't catch the virus from work but the threat of continuing to work in the front end at a grocery store greatly expanded my chance of catching the virus, exponentially. Naturally, I took a leave of absence from my job, as other coworkers did as well. The number one reason was fear that I could catch the virus, bring it home, and give it to my elderly father, whom I love very much. The other being unsafe working conditions.

Now I'm on somewhat of a respite. The threat of the virus is still there if I go out in public like another grocery store but as long as I stay in lockdown I am now much safer. Thankfully! Eventually, I'll have to return to work but hopefully, by then the stay at home order will be lifted and perhaps businesses will open up again. I doubt it but anything's possible, right?

What is life like now? Well, it's calm. I have a regular routine per usual. 

I started running in the mornings to try to lose weight. Been working on zen breathing and the art of running. I do afternoon jazz guitar concert sets on my balcony for all the passersby walking down my busy street. I love to play solo guitar jazz standards. I stream video games on twitch, which you can find here. I read a lot, mostly science fiction at the moment. I've also got a new Kant book to read as well; Moral on Metaphysics, my cup of tea. I plan on writing a zombie virus series which you can find the beginning of here. 

I have no social life because some of my friends have existing conditions and some of their parents are against us meeting up during this time of crisis. A fair assessment of the situation I would say. As a result, we've banded together online, text chat on phone, direct messaging on Facebook, voice coms on Discord, hanging out in each other's twitch streams, gaming together online, and such. In such dire straights, you would think the infrastructure of the internet would collapse, lol. But it's fun to talk to and chill with my friends online. I miss them very much and perhaps that's the greatest loss during this pandemic. The fact that we can't gather round in person, chill together, find solace in human solidarity together. 

If there's one thing I'll remember with all this shit going on [a popular California way of talking about the virus], other than 'social distancing,' it's the fact that "we're all in this together."

Classical Music at DePaul

I've been in Chicago the last couple days and I've been checking out as much music as I can. Last night on the 25th I attended a free classical music concert at DePaul University, a Catholic institution in Lincoln Park. Amazingly it was free and all I had to do was rsvp online and pick up my "ticket" at their box office. Not bad! 

The actual performance was quite elegant. Here's the setlist:

Mozart 

String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465 (1785) 

Beethoven 

Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 1, No. 3 (1795)

Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1 "Ghost" (1809)

String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 4 (1801)

Debussy 

String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10 (1893)

Jean Cras (1879-1932)

Trio for Violin, Viola, and Cello (1926)

Schubert 

String Quintet in C Major, Op. 163, D. 956 (1828) 

As you can see it was quite a standard string quartet 'showcase I' as they called it on their program. The Mozart piece opened things up nicely with that characteristic 'classical' sound. The Beethoven pieces were the main showpieces. The Debussy piece was unusual, mainly because I think its the only string quartet piece that he wrote. 

I've never heard of Jean Cras, and when I asked my music mentor, a new music composer named Frank Abbinanti (find his work on YouTube), he said he had never heard of the guy either. However, his composition was quite good. There was definitely a middle eastern sound here. It was refreshing because it was the only modern piece, written in 1926. 

The Beethoven piano pieces were grand. The most virtuosity and musicianship was displayed when the pianists got onstage and woo'd the crowd with their dazzling gymnastic pyrotechnics. I tend to think that most pianists are virtuosos, due to the fact that its a solo instrument. Most guitarists aren't virutosos because its mostly an instrument of accompaniment. Anyways, these piano trio tunes were the real highlight for me. 

The other high light for me was watching the cellists bow and play emotive low notes. Cello is quite an expressive instrument and I've been interested in playing it, but I've been unable to because the instrument is too damn expensive. Maybe one day when I get a better job. Cello would be a great instrument for me to get into, and become a new music musician, one of my goals as a musician; to move from rock and jazz into the new music, modern music scene. 

Lastly, they ended the program with Schubert, classic quartet stuff. I've actually heard a lot of Franz Schubert's quartet music, thanks to YouTube, my main source for music of all kinds. It was a good note to end it on. 

Chicago is known as a blues town but I spent my first night here going to a classical concert. Its good to know that Universities put on free shows for the public, not just for those affiliated with Uni. In the words of Ice Cube, "Yeah today was a good day." 

The Library, The Relentless Resource

Here's a sort of personal blog post or vlog post for you. So ever since I started reading more books I've been using the library as an unending resource for everything I'm interested in. This isn't a new idea and most people that read go to the library often. There are many opportunities available to the public through city libraries. Its quite grand. In the future I hope libraries become bigger and better. This is what I usually do with my card.

Order things online. This is the primary use of my card. I go on the online catalogue and just search for anything I'm interested in. I've been getting jazz cds, classical & new music (avant garde classical) cds, science fiction novels, jazz biographies & defining the genre style books, scores (I've got a copy of John Adams' Doctor Atomic, the full score), and I'm always in a cycle of returning and getting more. Its an unending black hole of content. I'll eventually start using it to find old Hollywood and European films as well. I'm interested in silent films as well as old European art films. Right now I'm waiting to get the Thelonious Monk autobiography. That should be a good read.

Hang out there. Sometimes when I hang out with my friends I figure there's no point in going home after I hang out if I have work later in the day. So if they have work before me I always ask them to drop my off at the library. When I'm there I'll usually have brought a book so sometimes I'll read. Other times I'll go on their computers and listen to music while reading articles on websites like Wired, Downbeat, and PcGamer. Once you get used to going to the library you'll start to see a trend, its always the same people there using free WiFi mostly.

Pick up things in person. Sometimes when I'm there I'll find things that weren't there before. I've noticed their science fiction section at the Tarzana branch has some new stuff. Nothing out of the ordinary but its good to see that their collection is being recycled throughout different branches. Lately I've been borrowing classical albums that I find there. The most interesting ones so far have been Leonard Bernstein's last performance and Copeland Conducts Copeland, Max Roach's Bitter Sweet (on Impluse!), and an Aaron Copeland album I just got and listened to today. Not bad.

Get out of the house. Sometimes I have nothing to do before work other than the usual grind of waking up, checking email, reading articles/books, and playing guitar or keyboard. After all that I always want to leave the building. The walk to the library is only about a mile but that's good enough for me. I want to have something to do that won't cost me tons of money. This is it. Even seeing the building when you get there is cool. It has a unique architectural shape that gives Tarzana a good look. Proud to live here for sure.

Libraries are often seen as archaic for the memesters of today but if you use it your education and room for intellectual growth is unparalleled. See you at the library.  

They're giving away 500 free codes for Malthael in Heroes of the Storm

The good folks over at pc gamer are giving away 500 free codes for Malthael in Heroes of the Storm! Malth just came out in Heroes and he's a pretty cool dps character. I've been trying to earn him the good 'ol fashion way (doing dailies and earning gold) but I'm still sitting at about 8,000 out of 15,000. I hope I win! Malth is a melee assassin that excels in damage over time (like bleed effect from warrior class in World of Warcraft). He has a passive that deals damage based on a percentage of his target's max health, which means he's a perfect tank killer but he won't be great against heroes of smaller health pools like Valeera or Valla. Send 'em your email at http://www.pcgamer.com/were-giving-away-500-codes-for-malthael-in-heroes-of-the-storm/ and see if you win, never hurts to try to win something for free, especially for one of the coolest Blizzard games.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon Is Free

Starting on November 9th and for the next month after, Ubisoft is giving away free copies of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. This game seems a lot different from the other Far Cry's, at least the ones I've played. It has a strong retro art style for the dialogue and has enough neon pink to remind me what the 80s was like even though I wasn't born until '89.

It's part of Microsoft's free games with Gold (Gold membership) starting on November 15.

I've actually played a little bit of this game once and it was pretty good. The actual graphics of the game and gameplay is top notch for an old game. From what I remembered it had a strong science fiction sorta theme.

Pick up this freebie for your pc gaming collection.

Overwatch Free Weekend for PS4 and XBOX ONE

So Blizzard is having an Overwatch free weekend right now from 9/9-912. Xbox One owners with an Xbox Live Gold and PS4 owners will be able to download and play the game during this time. "The free period will begin on September 9 at 11:00 a.m. PT (18:00 UTC) and end on September 12 at 4:00 p.m. PT (23:00 UTC) in all gameplay regions." (PlayOverwatch)

Instructions to download the game on each console

          For PS4:

Step 1: Turn on your PlayStation 4 and log in to your preferred local user.   
Step 2: Go to PlayStation Store and select "Search" from the top menu.   
Step 3: In the search field, type in "Overwatch."  
Step 4: Select "Overwatch Free Weekend" from the search results and then click "Download."   
Step 5: Once the download and installation process is complete, click "Start" to begin!

FOR XBOX ONE: 
Step 1: Turn on your Xbox One and log in to your Xbox Live account.   

Step 2: Go to the Xbox One Store, then select "Search."  
Step 3: In the search field, type in "Overwatch."  
Step 4: Select "Overwatch: Origins Edition Free Weekend" from the search results and then click "Free Trial."  
Step 5: Once the download and installation process is complete, click "Launch" to begin! 

This is pretty cool news. I feel like a big portion of Overwatch players are console players, although I myself would only want to play the game on pc. I just prefer aiming with a mouse and keyboard. This will bring in more players who just haven't found the time or need to try out the game. This will give those people the opportunity to try it out and if they like it they might buy it and get into it. If your a console user you should definitely give it a whirl!