Farolitos

It's almost that time again ...

Classic New Mexican Christmas Eve: luminarias, adobe walls, bare trees, chimney smoke, and a slice of moonlight. Aka heaven.

Welcome Back ...

... to that same old place that you laughed about.

Blogging, eh? I remember I used to do that a lot. Boy, what a different world that was. I remember just blathering on and on about everything from health problems to drinking to politics to religion as if I vehemently believed every single thought that ever flew through my head. Which perhaps I did, at the time. But you know, times change. My opinions on a lot of things have changed, too. Maybe that's what was so hard about keeping up blogging, or maintaining the existing blog: the idea that how I felt a year ago is not how I feel now. I think it's important to remain flexible. This is an imperfect analogy, but try this: You dislike cats because you think all cats are snooty. But then one day a super friendly, happy-go-lucky cat (a dog-like cat, if you will) shows up on your doorstep looking hungry. Are you going to shoo it away because you don't like cats? Or will you perhaps look at him and see that, wow, he's not snooty like all the other cats you've ever known. He's actually kind of a cool cat. Maybe you could give him something to eat....

Like I said, it's imperfect. But that's sort of the way I view my opinions: I hope that if I accumulate evidence to disprove my previous opinions, I will alter my current opinion. And so having all my opinions out there in a permanent-state searchable blog felt counter-productive. How do you grow when your entire mental and emotional development is just sitting there online, staring at you, reminding you of its existence every time someone tries to comment on some stupid thing you wrote fifteen years ago?

And so here I am, blogging about not blogging anymore. I wonder what will become of this post when I grow again.

Vinyl

I'm beginning the process of rebuilding my record collection. I am surprised by the noticeable difference in quality between digital and analog. I realize this has never been 'news' necessarily, but I recently had the opportunity to compare the two for myself and was surprised. I can't believe I've put up with digital music for as long as I have. It would seem the only advantage to digital music is its convenience, which is hardly advantageous if sound quality is sacrificed.

Here are some of the albums I am hoping to add or return to my collection:

(in no particular order)
purchased
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Rush - Moving Pictures
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Rainbow - Long Live Rock 'n' Roll
Electric Light Orchestra - Xanadu Soundtrack
Electric Light Orchestra - Eldorado
Paul McCartney & Wings - Band on the Run
Beatles - Rubber Soul
Moody Blues - On the Threshold of a Dream
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Wilco - Being There
Wilco - Summerteeth
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Tweedy - Sukierae
The Handsome Family - Through the Trees
Centro-matic - Candidate Waltz
Andrew Bird - Break it Yourself
Andrew Bird - The Swimming Hour (ever on vinyl?)
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Beck - Morning Phase
KC & the Sunshine Band - self-titled
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
Bee Gees - Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack
Jungle - debut
Digable Planets - Blowout Comb
Bill Evans - Portraits in Jazz
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (feat. Bill Evans)
Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene

Et puis ...

il y avait la mauvaise saison.

Para colmo ...
el mal tiempo.

Then ...
there was the bad weather.

                    --Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

At Home Away From Home

Track listing:

01. Up to the Sky
02. Honeybee
03. A Series of Near Misses
04. Someday
05. Surface of the Sun
06. Push
07. Corner Store
08. Lost
09. Rock n Roll
10. Montmartre

April 29, 2011

At Home Away From Home is now available at End of an Ear and Waterloo Records in Austin. You can also find it on iTunes and Zune, and will hopefully be available on Amazon, eMusic, and a handful of others very soon.

Still working on reviews. Hopefully those'll come soon as well. Over and out for now.

March 23, 2011

After a couple months off, I am slowly getting back into the swing of things. I have made a handful of inquiries and hope to have some official reviews of the record in the coming weeks. Also, on February 5, 2011, I performed live for the first time in over ten years at a house concert/CD release party here in Austin.

(Photo by Alex Moore.)

I was terribly nervous, but the audience was fantastic and reminded me just how fun live shows can be. You can see more pictures from the show at Flickr.

My next task is to actually get the record into stores. *gulp* Wish me luck ...

December 20, 2010

Well, the record is done. However, the holidays have hit and release of the record has taken a backseat. I am hoping that January brings enough peace and quiet to sort through the details and get this thing released. In the meantime, I wish you all a safe and relaxing holiday.

November 22, 2010

The official release date for At Home Away From Home has been set for on or around December 12, 2010; more details soon. In the meantime, and for a limited time only, I am offering the record for free download at bandcamp. Please visit my bandcamp page very soon if you want to grab a free copy of it. Starting tomorrow, the downloads will cost a minimum of $5 for the whole album or $.50 per song.

However, I am far more excited about the actual CD, and I do hope that if you download the record now you will consider purchasing the CD when it becomes available.

Thanks for sticking with me, my friends! Now go forth and download; offer ends soon.

November 10, 2010

Lyrics for At Home Away From Home will not be included in the liner notes. Instead, you can find them here.