02011-03-03 | Uncategorized
The Cove released in Japanese for free online
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Startup Claims It Can Sell Your Used MP3s Legally
(((I doubt it, but it might be fun to watch ’em try…)))
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Lost at sea: On the trail of Moby-Duck
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Photographs from Google Street View: art, journalism or something else altogether?
Related: The Nine Eyes of Google Street View
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LetterMPress Kickstarter Project
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Melting Smiley
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Cotton prices at an alltime high:
Why Are Cotton Prices Increasing And Affecting Prices Of Denim Jeans And Other Apparel ?
This week, cotton futures prices topped $2.00 per pound. A year or so ago, the big debate in the cotton world was whether cotton could reach the history-setting level of a $1.00 per pound.
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Communication:
swissmiss | Communication Crisis
I have reached a personal communication crisis. Too many channels. Too many messages. Too much noise. Too much guilt.
Guilt? Not me, I simply delete most email I receive. Sometimes I leave email in my inbox for a few weeks… and then delete it.
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Note from a friend:
I like to encourage my students to have a practice of some type. Many of them will say, “I meditate in the bath” or “I meditate while I clean the house.” It’s not that I don’t feel one can make these activities meditative; I’m just not sure that they’re appropriate substitutions for sitting meditation. I asked a Buddhist about this & the reply was that sitting meditation teaches you to be meditative in other activities. Just curious what your take is.
My reply:
Meditation is not thinking, it is also not not-thinking. Meditation is not sleeping, is not drowsing, is not relaxing. Meditation is not a passive state, it is active.
In my opinion one might increase one’s awareness while doing things such as cleaning the house, doing the dishes, taking a walk and so on, but it is categorically NOT meditation. Meditation is a single activity, not an overlay one can add to other activities.
Of course it is great when people increase their awareness – especially while handling sharp objects, cars or powertools! – but increasing awareness is not meditation. One does not make activities meditative… but one can bring more awareness to these activities. Sitting meditation teaches a person to be more aware in other activities, but one does not become more meditative in other activities.
02011-03-02 | Uncategorized
Using a new method to embed video. This video should not auto-start and should be viewable on Flash-enabled browsers as well as non-Flash browsers, e.g. iOS mobile devices. We are making changes to the embedded audio files as well and the music in this post should now play in mobile devices also.
02011-03-02 | Uncategorized
Mark Says: March 1st, 2011 at 09:56:
I was just wondering about any new OL music to come out?
I thought I read something about putting a cd together but havent heard any updates.
I am eager to hear new music. Unlike some bands that yes the first album was great anything else after is just okay, your music has a different feel on every cd. I always look ahead for new music from you. Maybe even a book with your photos and a cd :)
Thank you for all you do
Mark
Thank you, Mark. The album I just finished is a partially re-recorded, completely re-mixed and newly re-mastered version of The Santa Fe Sessions. The album will be called “Santa Fe” and the cover might look something like this:
Many of the songs have new electric bass guitar parts from Jon, and he recorded a lot of new keyboards (old analog beauties like Fender Rhodes as well as some synthesizer) as well. There are new cajon and djembe parts by Robby Rothschild and cajon and dumbek by Houman Orei. The sequence will look like this:
01 Barcelona Nights
02 Isla del Sol
03 2 the Night
04 Dancing Under the Moon
05 Heart Still/Beating
06 Reaching Out 2 U
07 Santa Fe
08 Borrasca
09 Turkish Night
10 La Rosa Negra
11 Havana Club
12 Snakecharmer
13 Morning Arrival in Goa
The album is a little over 70 minutes long. Everyone who has heard this new album agrees that it sounds much better than The Santa Fe Sessions. That album was solid, but I always thought that it sounded, well, less exciting than others. I am happy that I had the chance to revisit it and improve it greatly. I feel that this is the ultimate collection of music from my Nineties.
The album will be released by the Summer, and will perhaps even be ready for the May tour. But, that depends on how the office is progressing with the licenses. I am the writer of all of the music, but the publishing is controlled by R2M (formerly Higher Octave Publishing) or Sony and so licenses have to be obtained for every track.
The album will most likely released by Sommerset, who released the Spanish Sun CD a couple of years ago, or we could release it through SSRI. If Sommerset releases the album, we will not sell the CD or downloads through our website, but we will be able to sell the CD on tour. If SSRI releases the album, I have decided that the CD will contain all 13 tracks as above, but the download album will only contain 12, minus Mornng Arrival in Goa (((which turned out to be a gorgeous piece!!))) – which still amounts to over 63 minutes of music.
I hope to know more within a couple of weeks, before we leave for Europe. The production master is done and is awaiting shipping to the CD manufacturer.
This month I started working on new music for two albums, a new Luna Negra album and a new solo guitar album. I doubt that either of them will be ready in 2011. The band album will most likely be released in Spring of 2012 and the solo guitar album might be ready for Fall 2012 or Spring 2013. The solo guitar album will be avaiable in two flavors. A regular CD and download album, perhaps called One Guitar Two, and a double CD in a Metal Box that might have the sub-title Organic and Processed, or something like that. CD#1 will contain the same music as the regular CD release, and CD#2 will contain Jon Gagan’s processed, re-worked, take-it-apart-and-put-it-back-together version of CD#1. Allowed: stretch, shorten, sample, loop, filter and so on. Not allowed: adding any other instrument…
A book of photos would be nice, but makes no sense. Very few photographers make any money from books, in fact many have to pay to have their books published since the cost of quality printing is so high. Those books are vanity projects or calling cards. Since I am not a professional photographer I am not interested in spending money I can’t recover. I considered using Kickstarter to finance a self-published book of photos, but don’t believe there would be enough interest to make that work… I think the slideshows that accompany my solo concerts are a very nice showcase of my photography and allow me to do things I could not do in a book, like mixing video with still images. Perhaps I can film a solo concert one day and put together a live DVD (((ideally the disc would contain two or three visual layers that the viewer could switch between: my guitar performance, the slideshow and perhaps a version of both side by side))). Or perhaps it would make sense to add a DVD to the One Guitar Two metal box, that contains a slideshow in addition to the album music.
