August 24th, 2011
One of the finest early engravers was an anonymous artist known as the Housebook Master because scholars have linked his work with drawings in the same style in a manuscript called the Hausbuch. Here is an excerpt from an online encyclopedia;
Master of the Housebook (Meister des Hausbuchs), fl. 1475–1500, German graphic artist. The master is named for a series of vigorous and sophisticated drawings of everyday life found in the Hausbuch at Castle Wolfegg. Many of his engravings are in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. His work is thought to have influenced Bosch, Bruegel, and Dürer.
Personally I love what little of his work I have seen…especially the informality, and I have included 3 pieces of his work here for your enjoyment; Death and Youth, A Dog Scratching Itself and The Holy Family. You can click each image to enlarge it.
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August 17th, 2011
moon beams down on Bombay Beach
this is a little bit electro…some big beat…and a dash of breakbeat. I messed quite a bit with drums – ran a signal through a supermarket speaker effectively for the low-fi effect. The synthesizer solo is actually a sampled electricish zap…which I quite liked. There is vinyl being scratched – you know – basic songwriting stuff. I probably got away with too many effects on this… The story is one of beauty and betrayel…shoulda known better, are we gettin down now Download
lyrics below
are we gettin down now
shes sliding into me so tall
whoah no go boom and get boomed tee
she said now baby you can have it all
i say i am into you and trouble free
i said now baby you come hard and tall
sharing moon going good in Bombay toe the line
she said now are we gettin down now
oh be kissin and go chit chitlin love
ahhh are we gettin down town
no i’m a gettin i’m a gettin i’m a gettin goin down
and so we walked along the beach and that was fine
she looked around and said baby you’re mine
she pulled a knife and held it to my neck
give your money she said, and off she went
and as i watched her walking down the beach
should i call her i beseeched no
she said now are we gettin down now
oh be kissin and go chit chitlin love
ahhh are we gettin down town
no i’m a gettin i’m a gettin i’m a gettin goin down (2x)
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August 1st, 2011
The place for the comforter is not that of one who preaches, but of the comrade who says nothing, but prays to God about the matter. The biggest thing you can do for those who are suffering is not to talk platitudes, not to ask questions, but to get into contact with God, and the “greater works” will be done by prayer (see John 14:12-13). Job’s friends never once prayed for him; all they did was to try and make coin for the enrichment of their own creed out of his sufferings. We are not intended to understand Life. Life makes us what we are, but Life belongs to God. If I can understand a thing and can define it, I am its master. I cannot understand or define Life; I cannot understand or define God; consequently I am master of neither. Logic and reason are always on the hunt for definition, and anything that cannot be defined is apt to be defied, Rationalism usually defies God and defies life; it will not have anything that cannot be defined on a rational basis, forgetting that the things that make up elemental human life cannot be defined. There are teachers to-day who play the fool on these elemental lines; they declare that they can give guidance, but they only succeed in doing a fathomless amount of harm. A man is a criminal for knowing some things, he has no right to know them. The primal curse of God was on Adam when he ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam was intended to know good and evil, but not by eating of the fruit of the tree; God wanted him to know good and evil in the way Jesus Christ knew it, viz., by simple obedience to His Father. None of us by nature knows good and evil in this way, and when we are born from above we have to take care that we deal with reverence with the elemental things underlying life.
Chambers, O c. 1931
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July 27th, 2011
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sorry babe – this is a first crack at having real actors / actresses sort of act out a song I wrote. We basically got together on short notice and improvised everything. We ended up at a local dance and had a hard time finding a stranger to dance – but fortunately there were 2 brave souls that volunteered (m. Lopez and another)…to Umar and Denise (actor / actress) – you both did a great job…and dancers too, I wish I had your names to put here 
, thank you so much for your patience! I posted 4 versions – one regular small, one “glow”small, one “paint”small (because I always like to play with effects), one big fat higher definition Quick Time movie, and one small QT….this project took longer than I planned to finish – and even now – there are things I see needing work – but I must let it go. I apologize to all of you who were wondering why it was taking so long to finish – but hopefully you are pleased with the final result.
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glo
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paint
Quicktime big 225MB
Quicktime small 45MB
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July 25th, 2011
And soft along the veins of will doth flow,
Seeking God’s arteries from which it came.
Or does the etherial, creative flame
Turn back upon itself, and latent grow?–
It matters not what figure or what name,
If thou art in me, and I am not to blame.
GM
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July 12th, 2011
This song has some points that bear mentioning;
1) it’s the second song I have written with harmonica, and I actually feature it pretty heavily.
2) I made my own glass “slide” for the guitar part – and broke several in the process…I finally ended up dumpster diving a local restaurant for spare wine bottles for the one I used on this song.
3) banjo is provided by Matt and his virtual collaboration is much appreciated. He gave me quite the buffet of good musical options to use in the song!
Fallen is a short tale around paradise lost, and the reality of our current predicament. You can stream / download fallen here Download
lyrics below
Fallen
fallen
my worlds fallen
fallen (2X)
yeah
paradise in the rear view mirror
serpent said don’t you fear
old eve made adam believe the pretty fruit would give good cheer
well they both went and ate it
on the Lord they never waited
yeahhhh this worlds fallen
fallen
our worlds fallen
(2X)
yeah
that was then this now you know
we still got a lot to do
that old devils still trickin folks tryin to make a lie a truth
with the Lord we’ll stand and fight him
Holy Spirit so delighted
Yeahhh
Lets play some harp now….
hamonica solo
banjo solo
out
Posted in new songs ! | 4 Comments »
July 2nd, 2011
Strange creatures, half tamed only yet, are pent—
Dragons, lop-winged birds, and large-eyed snakes!
Hark! through the storm the saddest howling breaks!
Or are they loose, roaming about the bent,
The darkness dire deepening with moan and scream?—
My Morning, rise, and all shall be a dream.
GM
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June 30th, 2011
1. Knowledge trumps ignorance.
2. Experience trumps knowledge.
3. What you hear that day in the control room trumps experience.
4. How it fits in the arrangement trumps what you hear that day.
5. What the whole thing makes you feel in your heart trumps all.
The “Fatman” makes a case for priorities, that I can see applying to a lot of situations in life…
Read the rest of the article here
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June 26th, 2011
(click to enlarge)
This is another image I have up in my studio, and it is part of a series of 3 large prints known as his Meisterstiche (master engravings). The print embodies the state of moral virtue. We see death with his hourglass reminding us of the brevity of life…and a devil with a pig snout, somewhat cross-eyed trying to distract. The knight seems unfazed and rides on in comfort of his faith as armor. There are references to Erasmus given in studies of this print, and I quote from Metmuseum;
The artist may have based his depiction of the “Christian Knight” on an address from Erasmus’s Instructions for the Christian Soldier (Enchiridion militis Christiani), published in 1504: “In order that you may not be deterred from the path of virtue because it seems rough and dreary … and because you must constantly fight three unfair enemies—the flesh, the devil, and the world—this third rule shall be proposed to you: all of those spooks and phantoms which come upon you as if you were in the very gorges of Hades must be deemed for naught after the example of Virgil’s Aeneas … Look not behind thee.”
The knight also has his trusty dog joining him, in confidence and focus.
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June 6th, 2011
Well, here it is… the post I have been putting off for some time. Why? Because it marks a new venture. No – I am not necessarily going to write a song a week for another year. The truth is, this is MUCH more ambitious / intimidating… and I hesitate to say much more specifically about it now – because of the trepidation with which I will hold myself responsible. Not making sense? OK, don’t worry – you will notice that this song, “sorry babe” starts a new song table. The new project is going to be called (for now) The M Initiative. I have a bit of a vision, and plan – inspired by specific events which I will explain at a later date. Right now let’s just say “man makes his plans and God guides his path” regarding the M Initiative.
Now on another note – the song “sorry babe” was actually started years ago when my wife and I were in a very big seemingly insurmountable fight. The opening line “she went out to get the mail, never came back and I never could tell…” kind of stood in the front of my mind demanding attention. I sketched a basic idea and moved on. Last week I had a new lyric about “the last coal flicker in the firelight” come to me while I was mowing the lawn…then I started hearing harmonicas and here we are. A good friend, (thanks Jim!) loaned me his harmonica set – and I stumbled my way through learning and recording for this song. For the record this song is not completely autobiographical – but I would be remiss to say I understand the inner workings of the muse, and how we are inspired, influenced and ultimately just plain hammer and tape things together for a result…. Today my wife and I are stronger than ever – but if you would have told me that then – I would have laughed in your face. Click the arrow or download as you prefer. Download
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