It’s not often that someone online has both touched me and inspired me, but that happened with Carla Zilbersmith.  I started reading her blog a little while after she was diagnosed with ALS, and she kept me alternately in stitches and in tears.  People who have had the opportunity to have met her were very lucky.  I wish I were one of them who had the pleasure.

Carla, your spirit has awed me.  RIP Carla, and best wishes for your family and friends in this terrible time for them.

First, I’ll update you on the RPM Challenge CD from this year.  It’s another warrenpeece CD.  I’m thinking of “desert icing” as the title right now.  Maybe once you hear the music it will make sense… or not!  I just finished mastering all the songs, so I’ll be posting them soon.

I also finished mastering the Aquamarines latest CD, “Off The Radar,” which really sounded fantastic.  It’s a terrific CD, worth the price!

Along For The Ride’s next CD is next up.  This is a jamband I play guitar with, kinda of a bluesier Grateful Dead, mostly originals.  We went into the studio a couple of months ago and recorded a full 12 tracks over a long day… we were prepared!  Still work to do, including vocal recordings and instrumental overdubs, but really looking forward to doing some more work on it.

I’m also working on the beginnings of a new original project… I did some on this over six months ago and put it aside, but it’s time to revisit it.  I have a feeling this will be a long project… over the course of years maybe.  That’s what happens when you have a day job…

Thanks for checking in.  I’ll keep you updated on these now projects.

I’m also working on a pseudo radio feed for my web site.  I have a lot of music available, and I’m thinking it would be good to let people hear a lot more of it.  I’m not sure if I’m going to do a jukebox style thing, or more of a radio station style feed.  We’ll see what I come up with.

Thanks for reading, catch you next time.

In other news… The Aquamarines CD is done… I just finished mastering it last week.  I guess the band could come back with additional fixes, but I think it’s golden.  Great piece of work, it should be available soon at your local and online retailer of choice.

Along For The Ride went into Whiskey Hill Studios in Woodside last month to record tracks for our upcoming CD (still to be named).  There is still lots of work to do to get this CD going, but it’s going to be a joy to work on.  I’ll do the mixing in the Noom Room, overdubs, etc.  This will be fun… I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do with these cool songs.

It looks like this year it will be a combination of John Rose and another musical friend, Charles Culbreth.  Charles is an old friend and musical master of melody, so the hope is he will provide John and I with enough melodies to get us started (or better yet, to take us all the way to Feb 28).  It’s a tall order, but we shall see… whatever Charles will come up with will be great.  It will be a different style of working then how we’ve worked before.  That is one of the best things… doing things differently each time we take on this project.
I’m still working on mastering the Aquamarines upcoming CD.  This CD is really, really great work… quite a sonic feast.  I think there are just a couple more songs left… not sure if there is a specific release date up ahead, but keep your ears open for this.

I need to post some more music for you to hear… I have some things in the works, and will post something soon.

Oh, and there’s another entamoeba show coming up, this one is scheduled for March 6.  Watch this space for more info, but this promises to be a multi media experience with visual art, music, and maybe even dance.

Second, one from the last RPM Challenge, titled Black Tuesday from the band “Warrenpeece” with John Rose:

I wrote the chord progression and initial melody (which Jennifer greatly improved on) while on a camping trip at the end of summer, watching my daughter in a particularly joyful and innocent place.  I was struck by similarities of the end of summer, and the end of innocence that happens as a child grows.  Hopefully the song captures that… I think it does.  Growing up in the midwest, the end of summer meant not only the beginning of school, but the beginning of fall/winter, which brought snow and cold… and for me, as an outdoor child, melancholy.  I think it’s something people who grow up on the west coast haven’t experienced.

Today, it’s different.  With the end of summer comes the beginning of a new period of productivity for me.  The dormant entamoeba has been reborn, with a new cello player.  More on that as time goes by.  In the meantime, feel free to listen to this from the EP we put out earlier this year:

Today, I had a conversation with Kevin Keller, an old friend and musician who I performed with in his Kevin Keller Trio.  He was waiting for the delivery today of his new CD, to be called “In Absentia.”  I’ve heard a bit of it, and it sounds really great!

Also today, I received a batch of files from my friend Rick Escobar that will comprise part of the next Aquamarines CD.  Rick has asked me to master them, so tomorrow I’m going to be in the studio getting one track ready for a pre-halloween release.  Again, I hate to repeat myself, but this stuff is VERY cool.  If you like surf music combined with old TV themes and classic Japanese pop blended with world music, you’re gonna like this CD.  I’ll see if they’ll let me post one here… if so, I will!

Cheers… and on to next time…

Performance starts at 8pm.  Climate Theater, 285 9th Street @ Folsom, San Francisco, 94109.  Google Map.

Hope you can make it… if you can let me know, I can probably get a couple of guest passes.

What is different:  They don’t serve espresso drinks, so if you want that double half decaf soy caramel latte, they can’t help you.

What else is different:  The only serve drip coffee… and they make their coffee fresh to order.

What is perfect:   There is no question they make an excellent cup of coffee, made fresh to order, but the best thing is the temperature… honestly, it’s served at the perfect drinking temperature.  I had one the other day, made into my thermal “to go” mug, and I was able to enjoy it right away on my drive to work, and it kept warm enough to enjoy courtesy of my mug for the next half hour.

Give them a try… good stuff.

RPM died an agonizing death this year, I’m afraid.  I ended up needing to fly back to Michigan, where I grew up, because of some family health issues.  It was a good trip, but it meant RPM was impossible.  That’s OK, priorities are priorities.

The music John and I had started to create for RPM ‘09 will see the light of day at some point… probably that long either.  There are several songs that are fairly far along.  I’ll see if I can whip ‘em into shape and post them as demos just so you can hear them.

Jennifer and I have been approached by someone who wants to get our music placed in TV/Movies/etc.  We’re looking over all the paperwork right now and reviewing it, but we’ll probably go for it.  Much of our music is VERY suited for that kind of playback… at least I think so.

Oh, and before I forget, I’ll be playing with entamoeba again, this time it’s Wed April 8.  It’ll be at the “Climate Theater,” 285 9th street at Folsom… I’ve never been there, but it should be fun.  Love to see you there.