Sunday, July 26, 2009







Another collaborative effort sent three wild and crazy guys out to Rancho Sherman S. Sherman. Sherm is kind enough to let me
abuse his property and sometimes his friendship when I've concocted dubious plans in the guise of art. This time Daniel McGrath proposed the audio/video project that set the course for action.

I come at it through the ideas of John Cage, namely related to his "small sounds" lexicon. It's not that the sounds of this project were microscopic but that Cage made it possible for the most "insignificant" of sounds (namely silence) to be placed amongst the most rigid and time tested structures of western audio composition. By making 'all sound' a viable and thus potent carrier of meaning, Cage brings everything we hear and think we hear to the forefront of conceptual materials. So the question that interests me is: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" The question is then about perception and Cage was perhaps the first artist to point out the nature of perception as it is linked to memory.

For this project we set out to make sure that our memory serves us correct...that a tree does indeed make a sound.



Now in the words of Daniel McGrath:

Basically it's about teh philosophical absence of sound if it is not pecieved. It's connected (in this context) to the idea that if there's an opening at a gallery and no one goes to see it, does it exist a a show? What then is an exhibition?

There was a sex pistols concert in Manchester that 30 people saw, most of them went on to form new bands. Was that a tree falling? I think Da Vinci said something like this: "Music annihilates itself as soon as it comes into existence." It's the representation of the invisible.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

song sketch



Tonight I was testing out some gear for a project this weekend and I worked out some words and chords. It's been several weeks of not playing much so I was feeling a little rusty. The picture reflects some of the lyrical ideas in the song. The fat cat nor the picture of the cat is mine. I found it while I was looking for pictures of the morbidly obese.

The song combines several personal instances that needed an outlet. I think my time in jury duty slipped some idealistic phrases into the mix where a few curse words would have been used. It's just as simple as you can get. I repeat the entire song in the second verse and chorus but I throw in a G to disrupt the progression at the end. It looks like my gear works..I'm ready for the weekend.

DIN OF THE DEN

Sunday, July 12, 2009

laziness of the day, of the week and possibly the year.



One thing I'm reminded of when viewing this video is the laurels some rest on. Note to self: there is always going to be someone more capable and you are not irreplaceable. With this in mind, go forth with well intentions.