Good Grief

February 8, 2012
It wasn't a moment, but it happened fast Before the final seconds passed When the truth became the past Eternal facts will always last This can't be real so I deny it A cosmic joke A real riot To myself I'd rather lie Than know the pain I'd rather die And then I seethe in exploding rage The Beast is screaming in his cage My body clenches and thrashes inside Nothing stings like wounded pride I make a plea for simple perspective Seeking solace in the nice life I live A happy past and a hopeful future But the present…

Buster Keaton and Guitars

January 18, 2012
Buster Keaton films are the very definition of classic; they are time machines to an era of simplicity and authenticity, and I am always struck by how real it all seems, despite the obvious ridiculousness of the plots and slapstick. This was filmmaking in its purest magic, before special effects became the attraction. It is the characters and the core of their actions, be they brutal physical comedy or tender facial expressions, that hold our attention and connect with an audience a century later. Thia week I attended two evenings of the New York Guitar Festival featuring seven Buster Keaton…

Berkshire East: The Beast

January 18, 2012
After a dismal start to the Northeast ski season, a storm blew in on Thursday and Friday to drastically improve the situation. Knowing that I was headed to Foxborough for the Patriots-Broncos playoff game on Saturday night, I sacrificed sleep for snow and awoke in 5am darkness to head North and find the fluff. Scouring weather reports and triangulating distances between Brooklyn and Foxborough, I settled on an area I knew little about, but that seemed intriguing: Berkshire East in Charlemont, Mass. was reporting 12-14" of freshies, so I hopped in the car and rolled into the lot at 9:30am,…

Fun Is Love

January 6, 2012
Supergood New Year! I just returned from sweet vacation time in New England that included but was not limited to family and friends dining drinking dancing skiing chilling hottubbing laughing. And a Pats game. This is what it's all about. I am fortunate to have such wonderful people and places in my life and the free time to spend with them. I love them all and my life is good. Thank Goodness. May 2012 be the best calendar year ever experienced by you and all you love.

Guilty Pleasures

December 21, 2011
It's always frustrating to check in the the blog and see that I have completely ignored it for over a month. In this case, I am almost surely breaking my own record of days between posts. Not cool. And not that it's any real excuse but my laptop stopped working a few weeks ago and took me back to pre-digital age for a second. It was frightening. My music and video production was crippled and even though I still had the Internet in my pocket, I realized just how much I use that machine. So when I was told that…

Open Your Eyes

October 26, 2011
Godot is an artist who creates some amazing stop-action videos with all sorts of different media. He is an innovator and an activist who craves social justice, using art to promote Supergoodness in all aspects of life. He is also my brother-in-law and I have been lucky to work with him, producing soundtracks for a number of his videos. Here is one that I recently collaborated on, with video shot in the art jungle of Berlin. Enjoy! Open Your Eyes

DJ

October 26, 2011
One of my favorite activities is playing DJ for a group of people interested in listening and maybe even dancing to the music I play. I love finding songs appropriate for any situation and sharing them with friends or strangers, who in turn provide feedback and requests, creating a playlist I could never have made on my own. It is as much about discovering music as it is about listening. Tonight I was asked to curate the sounds for Ars Nova, an amazing little theatre that always throws great parties. They are committed to stimulating new work and recognize the…

Music Alive

October 26, 2011
It has been a couple weeks of great musical entertainment for me. Wilco at Central Park Summerstage, Jon Brion at Le Poisson Rouge, and Deadmau5 at Roseland; all of them wonderfully different and uniquely fun. Wilco rocks as hard as any band with a rare restraint that pulls you forward as a listener. Jon Brion is the best musician I have ever seen, playing solo and recording drum, piano, glockenspiel, guitar and bass loops, building his songs with sweet harmony and jaw-dropping skill into some absolutely beautiful sonic collages. Deadmau5 is one of the biggest DJs in the world now…

Backtowork

September 20, 2011
The last two weeks have been a gentle ease-in to a precisely scheduled life as classes at various workplaces are starting on a rolling timetable. I expect my teaching capacities to be fully engaged and operational within the next week and look forward to a "rigorous" fall semester... But in the meantime I've had some free time which is almost completely monopolized by creative music production. Since spending a month without my studio, I have had a stream of rhythms and melodies pouring into my laptop and have condensed them into few songs which I offer here. Supergood music is…

India: Soundtrack

August 31, 2011
I brought my laptop to India. I debated it for months, and decided to lug it for a few reasons: the most practical was as a storage device for all my videos. I had two 4 GB cards that were obviously insufficient video time, so I needed to fill and dump them. While unnecessary, the ability to record music and blog is a treasured joy and the weight and space sacrifice in my tiny backpack seemed inconsequential. Travel tends to throw some tricks at you and after 6 days, the power adapter was fried by a generator on our houseboat…