Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Volume II - The Ultimate Music & Art Exchange

Volume II

This Site serves as a venue for expressing, sharing and discussing Music and Art. There will be Articles on the state of the Music Business as it pertains to Artists and Musicians. As Artists we must create ways to express, share and expose our Vision and our Voices to feel whole
Check out the Art Lounge for a peak at our Featured Artist, Kevin Johnson's, work! The Art Lounge is a showcase for Artists, with relevant articles and observations, but you can go straight to the Mini-Exhibit of this Artist's work.








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Sparkle and Flow

I was minding my own business, heading to Wholefoods for freshly pressed kale and carrot juice, when my eyes caught a glimpse of the sparkling wonder. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and yet shamelessly gaudy. This sparkling instrument is a piece of history left behind by the late Liberace. His bedazzled grand piano is quite luxurious looking in print, but an amazing spectacle to witness in person. It was on display at Columbus Circle in New York, as part of the "Behind The Candelabra" exhibition in the Time Warner Center.
Liberace left a legacy of spectacular performances amid wildly extravagant spending and grandiose behavior. Underneath the glitter was a virtuoso pianist, who played as passionately and extravagantly as he lead his life.
Scott Thorson, his ex-lover of many years has written a scandalous book about his life with Liberace (Published 1998). In it, he claims that he was taken advantage of. From the outside looking in, it appeared to be the classic May/December dichotomy (which is often dysfunctional)- but alas, who am I to judge. Whatever the case, Thorson was clearly out to get 15 more minutes of fame, if not revenge. A made-for-TV movie about his life aired last month, starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. I am sorry I missed it.

doARTorDIE

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Game Changer:
Music Production

I recently ran into an old band mate-club partner of mine. Tom and I met back in the early eighties in a funk rock band. We became fast friends and began to hang out during band down time, although most down time was spent chasing the members of the female persuasion. Tom had a home recording Set-up, and was doing some import-export of music instruments from Japan. Bought my first synth from Tom, a Roland Juno 60. His roughly 8X10 bed room was packed with recording and video Equipment. Stuff like the DX7, Linn drum, the now classic Roland 808, we recorded on the ¼” Fostex Reel to reel. This was right before the explosion of the 4 track cassette decks.
I remember those early Sequencers linked via a scuzzy connection, before midi and multi timbral revolutionized music production, which was in my view the game changer. You could for the first time in pop music history, write and produce a track from that faint bass line or vocal part that loops over and over in the back of your mind, to finished polished representation of that idea in minutes. Tom will always be linked to this time for me, as he seemed poised and ready for this transition.

I recall walking into a music store back then and asking if they had a sequencer that could play multiple parts, early sequencers could not record separate tracks. The store clerk replied “no we’re Not there yet”........Continued

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doARTorDIE

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The Art of Relaxation
Living in any big city pushes habitants over the edge where manic and panic is concerned. New York is among the most crowded cities in the US, so, inner city dwellers have to establish turbo-style resources both internal and external to de-stress and recapture serenity.
The ability to just "stop and smell the roses" is an important skill to develop. Coping with stress in our every day lives is challenge we must contend with, in the City or the Suburbs. We've heard it year, after year from Dr. Phil to Dr. Oz, but it isn't easy. Although we're urged to exercise, meditate, or find creative ways to express ourselves, it appears that food is what most Americans are flocking to instead.
For many of us the simple practice of hitting the pause button to "chill" is not as easy as it should be. For this guy, pausing for a relaxing moment in time is evidently not a problem.


doARTorDIE