How do I ignore the obvious, and how did I get so good at it?

I am massively inspired by videogame music. Nobuo Uematsu, Koji Kondo... the way they bring series like Final Fantasy and Zelda to life... the intense nostalgia that returns anytime I hear their songs...

In high school, I spent hours crafting my own music electronically in Cakewalk. Each is its own journal entry. Each is its own small bubble of personal history. Each was carefully considered and followed some sense of musical intuition; I could barely write fast enough to keep up with the ideas as they came.

I hate that I like it, because I live at odds with technology. I don't like this culture or this lifestyle that's so heavily reliant on technology, primarily because of a care for the planet and a sense that technology removes me from that planet. How can a love of electronic music trump something much more organic like songwriting with pen and paper and guitar?

These questions don't change the fact that when I'm composing electronically, I completely lose myself in the joy of the chase.

Sigh.

Soundcloud

Jumped on the soundcloud bandwagon so's to start uploading electronic compositions:

Refurbished MIDIs by EmKeev

Did you know that I'm a geek?

It's true, I am.

I've been coding my own website. I coulda done something, I dunno, easy, such as gett'n a wordpress or something like that.

But I didn't wanna.

So, today I mastered CSS stylesheets. This is a real basic affair - it's gonna be really simple HTML, maybe a little javascript, maybe. I just can't hop on the bandwagon with this wordpress stuff. I prefer clean and simple, plus I don't need a giant website that takes forever to load. A website for me is going to be a cross between a brochure and a place where I can link all my social media together.

Right now, I'm going for functionality. I know it looks a little basic, which is, again, the intent, but I have a few ideas for decoratin' once it's formatted the way I want. Plus, I think Bets is still working on some things as far as design - she got the visual arts genes in the family, true story.



In all honesty, this is REALLY fun! I can just sit here and code for hours and all of a sudden it's 9:15 PM and I didn't eat any dinner. I love it.

Here, have a gander... I'll be updating this link as I go. (I should mention this is obviously hosted on my comcast space... I WILL purchase real webspace as soon as I figure out what my URL should probably be... I can't decide between emkeevmusic, emkeev, emmckeever, etc.)

My objective was to have this finished by the end of October, and I could have a rough rough sketch of it done by then, BUT. I need to brush up on my Halloween stories for Friday at Lums Pond, practice, all that good stuff - I'm essentially planning on not having personal time between now and October 31, when I will curl up in a ball in my room. Not because it's Halloween. Because I will be tired from pulling off the Hoot again. Oh, anyway. Just go look at the website already and give me some critiques, yo.

Album. Title. Theme. Something.

It's becoming more apparent that the album has to do with feathers/wings/birds/flight. I can't pin it down, though. I'm supposed to figure out what's tying these things together so that my sis can start thinking about what the album art's gonna be.

Well, I know what ties them together, I just can't figure out how to express it in just a few words. It bothers me a bit that I can't get it because I love poetry and poetry is all about cramming words full of meaning.

I wanted to call it "Peregrine," but several other musical entities have already done it and... this also really bothers me.

So I'm back to... at least a generic idea.

It'll come to me.

I hope.

Where did my goals go? Oh yeah, recording.

Things got nebulous for a second. They always do that when I don’t bother to set goals. The only thing that’s been keeping me focused is this recording thing. I sat down last night, though, and came up with 8 main goals to accomplish by the end of December. Then I taped them to my fridge so I can cross them off when I accomplish them. ^^

And, yes, recording is one of them. 4 tracks pretty well stabbed at, now. “Half-Decent” is hard to record because I alternately yell, then don’t. >.< That’s the price of having a personality.

Another main one is this website. I was investigating everything... thinking about how I could just do wordpress, like everyone else... but, you know, I hate doing what everyone else does. So I might just try to make my own site and learn some CSS, XML, and javascript as I go (I already have HTML skilllllz, yes, beyond the b, i, and u tags, thankyaverymuch).

It’ll probably take a bunch of time to learn, but honestly, any time you can invest in bolstering your computa skills is time well spent, if every job I’ve held has taught me anything...

Christmas in October

There are always, always, always, excuses. Mary Oliver probably puts it best in her poem, Kookaburras: "In every heart there is a coward and a procrastinator." She goes on to say, though, "In every heart there is a god of flowers, just waiting / to stride out of a cloud and lift its wings."

Her poem has a strong and stern message: Do not choose the former of the two, if you can possibly avoid it.

See, there are things in life, balances to be struck, bargains to be made. People answer this question - what's more important today? - while ignoring this question - what's more important for my life?

Yesterday, a group of us (incl. Battleshy Youths, Paper Janes, and various folks) chose to answer the second question in complete and utter defiance of the first.

And it was rockin'.

A lot of what's real and good in life makes no sense on the surface. Looking from the outside, you'd have seen a group of young people who have homework and school and jobs and obligations; you'd have seen them temporarily discard most of their obligations, including the forfeit of sleep; one of them has a recording studio in the basement, for some reason; his folks are somehow okay with about 20 people making use of all but a few rooms in the house for practicing, collaborating, eating, and hanging out; the house, by midnight, is littered with coffee mugs and bowls of chili; musicians climb in and out of the studio with a menagerie of instruments, some loud and obnoxious; and the last few stragglers finally leave the house at 3 AM to dodge herds of deer as they navigate through rural Pennsylvania to capture a few precious hours of sleep.

I know a number of people who would NOT be okay with this happening in or around their house.

So what's under the surface that makes it all worth it?

Friends, new ones and old ones. The practicing of creativity and generosity. Giving help, accepting help, asking for help. Encouragement to make full use of the special and unique gifts given to each of us.

Also, we possibly recorded some sweet tunes somewhere in there.

What a day.