Happy Halloween (almost)

Bury that Love

Well... I am trying to make due with minimal technology. What you will see below is a power point combined with a low-end Kodak digital camera I have yet to return to my mom. With these tools I have composed a visual song. This is hopefully part of a music swap program with my friend Heather. But for now I want to share it with here her.

High School Universe

It always comes back to space. I think this is because it is an unknown that is real. Unlike the unknown that is fake. Like heaven.

Today in high school while student teaching, a student asked me where I went to college. I told him NYU and now Brooklyn College. Then he asked me if I finished high school. This is not a way humans phrase questions. High school for me has been very much the unknown.

I also float between the world of respectable adult and kid. I float like people float in space because there is no gravity. I am not a real teacher. So they tell me things that don't tell the teacher. But also don't listen that much either. One thing they told me today is that there is a hallway where kids from "other schools, not their school" perform quick sexual acts between classes.

This place is unreal. To represent how high school and space are both unreal. Look at this mural they painted of outer space (notice how the real sun made an appearance). I wonder how outer space would paint a mural of high school?

Parisian Music Exchange Program

Ana is in Paris. We are starting a weekly exchange of small projects back and forth to stay in touch while she is away.

Assignment number one: A song about subway travel.

I have no means to record music except a digital camera with a sound recorder. The image can't focus while it is recording which makes things blurry.

The people in the song are all real characters from a particular car of the G train I was on this week.

Outer Space as a Screensaver

A Message from Outer Space. A place where pillars of rock are phallic reminders of W. Alan's wisdom. Or maybe just a coincidence. If this was a video and not a still photograph you could see the image moving kind of like this...my re-creation at home.

Weather & Iowa (The Middle)

Someone once told me a joke when I complained about it being too hot outside. They said they turned on the air conditioning on but it will take three months to kick in. Today the air conditioning kicked in. With this comes my one complaint about the colder months. I miss the light. I guess a similar joke could be made that the dimmer switch is being turned up but it will take four months to kick in.

Jump cut.

On the road this summer there was a lot of great weather. Notice the random picture of Iowa from out the window. Looks great. Feels great. What a great random day in the middle of America. Iowa a nice host state. There was a university with a food coop in the town. And there was a lot of road that led to Nebraska. I am glad that I have been to these places. They are all colder now too.

Extracurricular Activities

When I am not playing in the hit band Old Hat or travelling across country, you can find me on the soccer fields of Brooklyn.

I play every Friday night. We mostly lose. In this picture some of my teammates are stretching and probably talking about how "we are going to win this time, really". But really, if they only knew the future they would know we were going to lose. And we did, 5-1.

The way this team works is at the end of a game we have a meeting and talk about what we did wrong. And then we make up something to make ourselves feel better. After losing this game we decided that we actually won the game if you count the second half only. Because in the second half we scored and they didn't. I think we will probably win tonight.

Conceptual Art Camp meets Road Rules

My time in the car on the drive across country involved a lot of figuring out how to sleep comfortably while sitting. I did a lot of leaning forward and gathering soft things to shove under my head... from spare sleeping bags to loose pieces of clothing. While not sleeping in the van there was a lot of scenery out the window. I saw landscapes that are boring to the people who drive through on their daily commutes. But to me America, is beautiful and ever since I returned to New York I've felt this sense of patriotism that really surprises me.

But beyond the plains, craggily rocks, and deserts. And beyond the rows of corn and bunches of soybean-- I saw a bunch of conceptual art. Specifically in Utah. Before my trip I imagined Utah as a place where ladies wore long denim skirts and blouses and men wore wool underwear to honor Joseph Smith. Where sprite sprouted out of everyone public fountain. But this was not quite my experience. Instead I found art. Weird art. Big, beautiful, absurd art. Maybe the same spirit that inspired the following pieces is what inspired J. Smith go all crazy with the religion thing.

1.) Spiral Jetty. Great Salt Lake

2.) Victory Arch, Zaqistan (formerly Utah)

3.) Tree of Life. Off the side of the road. On the salt flats.

These pictures prove I saw these things.

The Silly Putty of Bands

Old Hat practiced yesterday for tonight's show.

Sangria.

Pretzels.

A Cat.

A Pot as a drum.

All in a days work.