June 5, 2008

The year has gone by so quickly! I recently completed a large section of my graduate work, and now I have a little free time to finish some new songs, and hopefully play some new concerts.

The recording studio is finally under construction. It uses a number of free software audio applications on a Linux platform. I'm anticipating a steep learning curve, but it should be a lot of fun! I'm hoping to have a number of new tunes posted by late August.

The last several years have seen an enormous amount of discussion regarding DRM (digital rights management), music copyright, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and efforts by the RIAA and other industry agents to protect their "intellectual property rights" through the control of peer-to-peer music sharing and other forms of digital data exchange, including books. These issues are actually even more prevalent and critical in the software world, where programs like Windows Vista have been written ostensibly to protect media copyright, but actually simply grant Microsoft the ability to control what you can and cannot do with your computer. While I very much agree that musicians and other artists should be able to receive financial compensation for their work, the current fiasco of means and methods to control digital exchange has very little to do with artist compensation and everything to do with the expansion of power by these industries. The methods used by the RIAA to cite sharers are often absurd, Windows Vista is simply bad software, and the ability to freely access and exchange information is critical to the existence of an informed and free electorate. I'm not sure what the best approach is to simultaneously encourage free exchange while compensating artists for their hard work, but this is certainly not it. I've circumvented the entire issue by giving away my music without charge, but that carries a financial consequence that not all musicians are able to embrace. It will be very interesting to see how things play out in both the legal and social arenas over the next few years.

Joseph Cambell exhorted his readers to "follow your bliss". Calvin told his tiger Hobbes "I must follow the inscrutable exhortations of my soul". The Roman poet Horace (and Robin Williams) advised his listener to harvest the day (carpe diem), and Tennyson sailed an aged Ulysses out from Ithaca once again with the words "...my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset...to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." All of this is a roundabout way of encouraging myself to trust history and myth, even when the practicalities of everyday life might suggest exactly the opposite. I recently quit working for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, in order to concentrate more on being a parent and finishing the PhD. While that gives me more time, it also means I'm living on graduate research funding and student loans. Combined with current fuel prices and the attendant rise in airfares, it might not seem the best time to travel overseas. But life is generally more interesting when it includes a few risks, and Ireland has long been in my heart, so I'm going to be booking some concerts in Ireland, Wales, and wherever else I can in Great Britain, scheduled for sometime in late 2009 or early 2010. If by some chance you live in any of those places and would be interested in seeing a concert, drop me an email and I'll see what I can do.

Of course, maybe I should get myself a stuffed tiger too.

June 2, 2007

The current project is to get a recording studio in the house up and running! I've got a number of new pieces to record and post, but the local recording engineer is usually gone for most of the summer. It's frustrating to move so slowly, especially as I don't play a lot of shows these days, so doing everything in-house would help. It will be a new experience, that's for sure! Until then, I'll keep adding to the Download page slowly but surely.