I finally got my recording setup sorted out. It was the stupid webcam. The control panels all said that my soundcard was selected as the input, but guess what — when I unplugged it, the issues went away.

Anyway, I wrote a weird little instrumental thing this morning, which didn’t really go anywhere. But I kept noodling with it first on the acoustic, then on the electric when my fingers got sore. Then I went back to the acoustic and started to build this up in layers. I called it “Midsummer” because I didn’t have any clever ideas for a title.

This is played in standard tuning with a partial capo at strings 3-4-5 on the second fret. There’s two acoustics and two electrics on there.

• Number of users in Habbo Hotel worldwide: 20,000,000
• “Hottest” book in the US last year according to Time Magazine: 1,500,000+. (A Thousand Splendid Suns)
• Best-selling graphic novel in the US last year: 80,000. (Naruto)
• Digital sales of a hit song: 2,100,000 (Leona Lewis, “Bleeding Love”)
• Average downloads of a downloadable Rock Band track: 100,000
• Viewers of the #1 show on US TV (including DVR): 28,800,000 (American Idol)
• Viewers of the #150 show on US TV: 2,400,000 (Gossip Girl)
• Users of World of Warcraft in North America: 2,500,000
• Monthly uniques for Gaia Online: 2,000,000+
• Total number of movie tickets sold in the US in one year: 1,400,000,000
• Estimated tickets sold to the new Indiana Jones movie in five weeks: 42,290,849 (using 2007 average US ticket price and grosses to date).

Just some figures that caught my eye while browsing a few different publications…

It’s been a while since I called out any music that has caught my attention — so I wanted to mention Crooked Still.

The press is labelling them as bluegrass. I suppose — though to me they sound like Alison Krauss’ voice melded with some of the classical/newgrass crossover of Appalachian Journey, though less angular. And in many ways more in the folk tradition than “normal” bluegrass (if such a thing exists anymore). The songs are arranged for double bass, cello, banjo, fiddle, and voice — and they’re all traditional songs taken to the point of unrecognizability at times. Really dark deep tones and really hypnotic.

The first two albums are Shaken by a Low Sound and Hop High. You can hear what they sound like on their MySpace page.

Bo Diddley, dead at 79.

A basic heartbeat of rock ‘n’ roll.

What makes this so interesting is that music like thought always intends to get someplace specific. That place happens to be the end of the thought or the cadence. What makes this even more interesting is that just as we walk, to get someplace specific, at 116, most people also speak with the normal accents in their speech occurring at a rate of 116 beats per minute. But we only do this when we have something specific to say. People who by temperament, by personality, by persuasion, or by habit speak either faster or slower than that speed are perceived to be intolerably dull or slow witted, if they speak much slower than 116, or untrustworthy, if they speak much faster than 116. The affect of being slower is of slothfulness or of painful self consciousness. The affect of being faster is that of a shyster who is always trying to fast talk people into doing things they don’t want to do.

I thought this was fascinating, and it made me wonder whether it was applicable to pacing in other areas of creativity as well. Games? Blogging? Web site interactivity?

The whole block, excerpted from The Craft of Musical Communication - Part One: Read the rest of this entry »

Maybe someday the Polliwog will grow up to be a frog prince, but for now it’s still mostly a jam. This version is, I think, less of a trainwreck than the last one. The piano’s gone, but it’s all still at 200bpm!

Yes, of course I watch it.

Idol has always rewarded performers who built an emotional connection over good singers; that’s why people like Syesha Mercado are doomed to exit earlier than they should. But this year is downright strange, with not one but two folkies among the finalists. I don’t think that Brooke White or Jason Castro will win (one of the Davids will) but the fact that they are doing so well is interesting in what is says about pop culture. Along with the rise of new female singer-songwriters, this makes me wonder if we’re due for another shift away from glossy pop.

Another ‘Idol’ finalist booted from competition - CNN.com

As music goes, so goes quite a lot of pop culture. Movies also seem to be caught in the grip of an intent towards honest emotion lately, even in raunch comedies. Wonder what that means for games.

OK, I lied. It’s not a song. It’s more of a jam session. Since it wasn’t fully grown and looked likely to have warts even upon attaining adulthood, I named it “Polliwog.” Drum tracks, bass, acoustic, two electrics, and the piano all piled onto a standard blues progression played really fast.

Basically, I slammed together three different blues riffs I like to jam with, two for guitar and one for piano. They were originally all in different keys, but I piled ‘em all into one. If you want to add to the cacophony, it’s in E.

Today was my daughter’s 11th birthday. I wrote this song for her, back when she was born. It’s on After the Flood.

Right before Christmas, I posted the lyrics to something called “Let Us Just Be.” Well, here’s some noodling around the music for it — you should be able to mostly follow right along the lyrics even though there’s no singing.

This is using my new toy, a Yamaha P70, for controlling both the cello and the piano, which are VSTs. My hands and forearms ache in ways they haven’t in years, because I am so very very rusty on piano. I am totally loving the P70 though.