The Mothership
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About Me
I am, principally, an artist. I've been a guitarist for seven years, studying a variety of forms including classical, rock, blues, and jazz. I've been writing fiction since I can remember, and I am currently studying film as an undergraduate at Berry College. As such, I have a great love and appreciate of art. With this comes also a bitterness and angst about art done badly. This is, essentially, an outlet for both manifestations.
Blogs I follow:
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This has been playing on my computer a lot as of late, guiding me through a number of final exams. I’ll let the quality of the music speak for itself, but I’ll take a moment to give some brief notes on each of the performers here.
Bela Fleck, banjo, has been nominated for Grammy awards in about ten different categories, more than any other musician. He’s widely known for being one of the most innovative banjo players out there.
Victory Wooten, bass, might be the funkiest man alive. He started learning bass at the age of two, and was playing in front of crowds at five. He’s mastered every technique on the bass, and invented some of his own. There’s a recording out there somewhere of him mimicking the sounds his baby daughter makes on his bass; these are not all diatonic notes. The man’s ear is incredible.
Jeff Coffin is the one-man horn section. He just plays sax in this video (tenor and alto) but also plays clarinet and flute. If you watch around 3:08, he actually plays both tenor and alto saxophones at the same time (those have different fingerings, mind you).
Roy Wooten, known as Future Man, plays percussion. He often plays a vaguely guitar-shaped drum machine he calls the Drumitar, his own creation. He sometimes plays this with one hand and part of a trap set with his other hand. More recently, he built an instrument he calls the RoyEl: a sort of piano-shaped thing that has 19 half-steps per octave. It’s based on the golden ratio and the periodic table of elements.
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Charlemagne: by the Sword and the Cross
Some of you, I imagine, lie awake at night searching for meaning like I do. Perhaps some of you have the distant glimmers of a dream that might make life everything you ever hoped it could be, and everything you knew it could be. For those of you, who like me, have been waiting, I have good news. Glory has arrived; civilization has come to its zenith.
I can hear your voices now: what miraculous thing has come to save us? What could this epitome of glory be? Brace yourselves. The answer is Christopher Lee’s new symphonic metal album entitled Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross. I will say this again: Saruman the Wise, the White Wizard, Master of Isengard, has taken his rightful place at the head of a metal band. That means that this is now a reality:
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Launch
I have just joined the ranks of bloggers. I thought I’d use this first post to give any and all who may wander across this page some notion as to the direction, as well as due warning. Primarily, I imagine this blog will address art, namely music, writing, and film. These are the things that I know and I feel the need to share. There are plenty of rants I have stored up that could be unleashed immediately, and we have a constant intake of new media that is begging to be either praised or complained about. Both will occur here. I have an appreciation of art well-done, of a truly well-crafted film or an album with real passion behind it. Contrarily, I hold deep bitterness about these things done poorly or lazily. However, there is an equal chance that this blog will serve as a forum for any of the random things that might cross my mind.
