Click on the Sound Icons to the right to hear some of my music.
Recording credits:
Backup vocals: Carol and Bill Gardner, Maggie Wing
Drums: Chris Nesbet, Jimmy Fox, Steve Battelle
Bass: Michael Manring (Windham Hill), Murray Officer, Dirk Andrews
Guitar: Luke Barrington, Grant Maher
Keyboards: Mitch Schrift
Horns: Steve Abrams, Gary Regina, Stan Soroken, Elaine Beggelman
Strings: Linley Young, Andy Montiero, Anne-Marie McNerney
The Current State of Planet Earth in a Few Lines
A polar bear was drifting on an ice floe
Sun beating down from the sky
Politicians gathered for a summit
And came away with nothing to decide.
-- Neil Young from Peaceful Valley Boulevard
Same as it ever was.
-- David Byrne from Once in a Lifetime
We're never gonna win the world
We're never gonna stop the war
We're never gonna beat this
If belief is what we're fighting for.
- John Mayer from Belief
My Take
Do you see what I see,
And wonder how the world goes on?
Seems so crazy, must be madness,
Is there order far below?
Green forests burning, blue oceans turning,
Black oil floating, we're not learning.
We've got Wall Street crooks and corporate gangsters,
Calling on Superman, no one answers.
-- from Do You See?
Why this Website
I am hoping this Website will:
What is a Roadside Dog?
A Roadside Dog is a mythical dog that stands by the side of the road,
barking at people passing by. Sometimes people pay attention, and
sometimes they just move on and ignore him. The Roadside Dog
especially doesn’t like politicians. He has no direct power, he only barks.
But sometimes barking can lead to action and change.
Roadside Dog is also a book by Polish author Czeslaw Milosz.
Milosz won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980.
Next Performance Project
I would like to put together another performance project in San Diego.
The last band I was in, the Railheads, lasted about 10 years,
but we are in limbo now since several Railheads have moved out of town.
So I am jamming with local San Diego musicians and hoping to
put something together that resembles Gorillaz.
Trying to find a way to put on a good show,
while being informal and allowing different players to come and go.
Hope to combine sets of live music with sets of DJ music:
Part of the idea of adding DJ "Dance till You Drop" (Occupy the Dance Floor)
is to somehow blur the boundary between the performers and the audience.
Not really sure about this idea yet,
but it's something I've been thinking about for a while.
Current Projects
I have developed a TED Talk about Music and Artificial Intelligence.
Presented at a couple of venues and I am looking for more venues,
especially local high schools.
Mostly I am jamming informally with people and looking for that right mix.
I played keyboard for a few gigs with the Quality Snake Oil Blues Band.
Also played a few gigs with the "Pay It Forward Band" organization.
They put together multiple bands, mostly playing gigs in California.
The bands play one-hour shows in nursing homes featuring jazz and rock.
If you're interested in hooking up with this good cause, here's a link:
Recent News
Did a "Listen Local Radio" camp out set up by Cathryn Beeks.
Heard a lot of good singer/songwriters and lot of good
original songs. The campground was Woods Valley Kampground,
close enough to San Diego, but far enough away to be peaceful.
Went on a whirlwind tour of Europe recently.
Didn't play any gigs, just revisited some places that inspired
some of my music (Paris and London) and visited some new places in Italy
(Palermo, Reggio Calabria, Rome, Florence, the Cinque Terre and Venice).
We also have a new Roadside Dog named Ginger.
You can see pictures of Ginger and some of the places we visited in Italy
on the About 1 page.
Video and Animation Experiments
Started experimenting with video and animation to create some
YouTube videos. This is slow going because this project involves a
huge learning curve. Going to have to spend a lot of time shooting video,
editing and playing with animation tools. Probably also need to take
a few film classes.
One offshoot of getting into video is that I have recently become
a "Golden Age of Hollywood" history nut. Over the past few years
I've been on 6 Hollywood tours (Universal, Paramount, Sony, Stars Homes,
TCM LA Locations and Warner Brothers)
and have been watching every TV documentary
on the history of Hollywood that I run across; examples: the 3-part
TCM When the Lion Roars and TCM 1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year.
Also have been surfing film history Websites like crazy. Here are two
Websites that have a lot of great info on the "Golden Age of Hollywood":
Wanted: Video Artists to Create YouTube Viral Videos ($1000 prize)
I will always be more of a musician than a visual artist, so I'm trying
to find some video artists to collaborate with. If you would like to help me
create a video, please feel free to use any of the songs on this Website.
I am offering three $1000 prizes to the first three people or groups
to make videos using any of my songs as a soundtrack that go viral
on YouTube (1,000,000 hits or more).
Contact me if you have any questions or would like to get together
(click on Contact link on left side of this page).
