Last month I wrote on Twitter / @ottmarliebert:
photoeye.com/Gallery/forms/(((saw this Chinese photographer’s prints at Photo Eye Gallery in Santa Fe – beautiful)))
Then I discovered that Amazon carries a 2012 wall calendar with photos by Don Hong Oai.
Amazon.com: The Spirit of China 2012
The Spirit of China 2012 Wall Calendar by Don Hong Oai
We have never toured with an opening act, but there is a first time for everything.
We are excited to announce that next Summer we will tour with Round Mountain. Robby will also play percussion with Jon and I, which will mean long evenings for him. You may recall that Robby was in the 2004 edition of Luna Negra, which was one of the best groups we’ve had in our twenty plus years of touring. Jon, Robby and I played as a Luna Negra trio with the New Mexico Philharmonic this past July and it was magic!
Since Jon plays bass on the Round Mountain albums he might even join them for a song or two now and then, and I would like Char to play on a few of my pieces, since I will ask him to play on the 2012 release “Dune”. And who knows what we’ll come up with for the encore!
Jon and I have the highest respect for the brothers and this should really be a fun tour. I hope that we can find a set up for everyone on the stage at once, so that nothing will need to be moved between Round Mountain and Luna Negra. Round Mountain will perform for about 40 minutes, and then Luna Negra will play for 90 minutes.
The Sounds of Santa Fe!
Here is a little sample of me playing the electric guitar, plugged straight into the Mesa Boogie amp. I use only my fingers, mostly the thumb actually, to play, as I find the sounds thus created much more expressive than using a pick. This is the second third of the piece with the working title “Nu Tangos/Rumba”, a repeat of the first third, which will later be followed by a faster Rumba – the third part.
I was looking for a new sound in this section, picked up the V-Strat and this was the result. Keep in mind that this is completely unfinished, no bass yet, no percussion (there is, however, a cajon loop from “Up Close” to indicate what I might want to get from a real percussionist next month…), no keyboards, no real mixing, and so on.
Tomorrow I will go see Keith, who will adjust the Strat he made for me (when? 2003?) to suit a slightly heavier gauge of strings. I am switching from a set starting with 0.09 to the D’Addario set called EXL110 which starts with 0.10 and the truss rod and the springs of the whammy bar have to be adjusted.
Haven’t seen any hummingbirds since yesterday. Bon voyage, see you next year.
PS: saw a solitary hummingbird at one of my feeders today, Tuesday. Straggler, individualist, diseased?
The Blog : The Future of the Book : Sam Harris
Writers, artists, and public intellectuals are nearing some sort of precipice: Their audiences increasingly expect digital content to be free. Jaron Lanier has written and spoken about this issue with great sagacity. You can purchase his book here, which most of you will not do, or you can watch him discuss these matters for free. The problem is thus revealed even in the act of stating it. How can a person like Lanier get paid for being brilliant? This has become an increasingly difficult question to answer.
