the radio

it is grey this morning, which somehow seems fitting after the sunny thanksgiving weekend. for a number of reasons (which i won't go into at the moment), i must say that i felt more grateful for my life this thanksgiving than i ever have before. it is a rather amazing feeling to find yourself aware throughout your day, that you are alive and have so much to be wildly excited about. on that note, i awoke this morning both excited and mildly concerned about the fact that i will be playing live on the radio today. excited because, well, it's exciting to float out into the world into people's homes. mildly concerned, as i have been focusing for so long on just playing guitar, (in an avant-garde fashion) that singing some folk songs seems a bit dauting to my confidence. that said, it has felt quite good to feel the vibrating wood of my acoustic guitar against my chest these last days. you can go here and look for the link in the top right corner to listen to me today at 11:30 est.

a quote from Ian Murray on radio (from Alan Licht's book titled sound art: environment and landscapes") : "radio happens in the place that it is heard and not the production studio."

Pitchfork Review (and the pumpkin ritual)

it is likely predictable at this time of year, to place a photo of a pumpkin on one's website. while i generally attempt to avoid the predictable gestures (something i imagine i am rather unsuccessful with) i sometimes find them comforting and impossible to resist. THIS pumpkin has a particular signifigance, as it rests on a ledge at the start of the route i (and keri as she's feeling engergetic enough) walk three times daily with the dog. each time we pass, seemingly as a ritual of sorts, the dog smells this pumpkin. i'm not sure why he feels the need to smell it EVERY time we pass, but such is the life of a dog i suppose.

in other, perhaps less predictable and more exciting news, there is another fine review of To All Dead Sailors, this time at the highly respected website, pitchfork media! i do feel compelled to make sure to note (at least to my readers) that the reviewer seemed to think that christian wrote and sang all of the tunes, that i simply provided guitar and other sounds. perhaps that was our fault for being rather vague in the liner notes, but it is mildly frustrating to have your name in lights at long last, only to discover that some of your contributions were credited to the other guy. at least i love the other guy. ahhhh, you see the ego rears its head. i shouldn't complain, and should revel in the glory that while the reviewer thought it was only christian writing and singing, he reported that i "sound like Rufus Wainwright when he sings low, with a subtle vibrato..." and compares christian's voice to ben gibbard of death cab for cutie. if mildly confused, these are words of great praise in my book, and the rest of the review is quite to my liking. indeed a wonderful thing. i am honored.

in other news, (without going into great technical detail) i've been performing and doing research with pauline oliveros for some time now. we have a "telematic" performance tonight, which in short means that we will be making music and sound over internet 2, with people located in various places throughout the country.

the simple explanation is that it is basically liked super kick-ass ichat without any latency (milliseconds to be honest) wherein people play music together. the audio is crystal clear and the video growing closer to that as the months pass. while i'm not sure how well you folks out there in computer land will be able to see and hear the different locations, we will perform tonight with a group of us here in upstate new york at RPI, a group at Stanford University, and a group at UC San Diego. i'm not sure how clear my quick explanation is, but it will be stremaing online tonight at 8:30 pm EST. click here to watch.

benjamin and the dump

so the other night during dinner i had this silly idea, which somehow seemed sublime to me in some way. so utterly simple, completely absurd, mildly disgusting (or perhaps just gross), quite funny, immature, and ripe for waxing philosophical. i was considering doing this myself, (seriously) but then of course contemplating if i REALLY wanted to put so much effort into the actual writing and the endurance needed.

so i walked the dog and thought about it. i giggled to myself a bit, for it somehow seemed to embody to me some great metaphor about the internet itself, regarding what it CAN be and how it CAN function. it made me think of Walter Benjamin's writings on "aura" and "objects," and how the internet and its staggering myriad of information could effectively be an object rather than a mode of communication, entertainment, commerce, and porn. (i should include art, community, and activism, though those come last for sure as they occupy MUCH less space here than the four previously mentioned activities. though there is hope.)

so then keri called me from another room and we spent a fair amount of time at this website:

brilliant i say, just brilliant.

Earrings, Blogs (privacy?), and Recorded Things

so i concluded a while back that i should write here more often (again), if for no other reason than to clear the dust from my brain, and get my mind working in the mornings. of course that idea didn't last long, for i have been remiss about pulling forth words.

i've long been engaged in a battle with the entire range of emotions that lie behind the facade of a blog, and have for some time felt rather self-conscious about the inherent ego that flaunts itself on these things. (blogs) but then ego is a rather complex subject, for isn't it ego that makes us do much of what we do in life? at the very least, a healthy ego is needed for me to make music, and though i often lack the confidence i would like to have with my work, there is indeed enough there to make things and share them with the world. whether or not the world listens, is in some ways up to me, and in many ways not at all. anyway, all of this has been on my mind lately for a plethora of reasons:

1. i should likely be sharing more news of my recently released (and forthcoming) records with whomever may be reading. (see above and below)

2. i find myself often pondering the concept of what is and what is not private: my wife is pregnant and i've begun questioning whether or not i want to write about that aspect of my life here; especially in regards to my forthcoming child. isn't that somehow too private for me to share? do i want to write about someone who doesn't know i'm writing about them? (in that context) sometimes, i feel exposed enough as it is in the world without this damn blog. i guess in some ways, i feel protective of that part of my life, and especially so as the belly grows.

3. i have considered turning this into some sort of music/culture blog. one where i write about all things musical and their reflexive relationship with north american culture. review things i've heard or seen, and write about my general world of music. gear and such. (people would read it then!)

but rather than carry on about my internal questions, i leave you with answers of a sort. so in chronological fashion.

1: there have indeed been a gathering of fine reviews about the new record i did with christian kiefer. links to a few of them here:, and here:, (scroll down) and as you surely noticed above, one from the Melbourne Sunday Herald (Australia) which was a rather odd discovery, as it is read by 750,000 people. now if some of them would just feel overwhelmed with the need to hear these "briny" sounds. good news these things.

the record (cd) is also available for digital download now at itunes (here), though you would miss out on a rather beautiful booklet if i say so myself, designed by my lovely, big-bellied wife.

in other such (related news) the older record of mine titled "i am not in spain" is now available at itunes (here) as well, for your digital pleasure. oh how i lament the death of the artifact. (you can still order this record from me directly, or cdbaby)

2. my wife is indeed pregnant, and we are both super excited about this most enormous change in our lives. but to write of it (for the time being) feels rather silly and reductive to me. i didn't even want to tell any of my friends this news via email, as it seemed so detached and impersonal. more on this later i presume.

3. music and gear. oh the pages i could write. next time.

oddly, or perhaps not at all, one of the sentiments i have about the blog is similar to one of the sentiments i have about earrings. i sometimes wonder if i'll still be wearing earrings in fifty years. it seems like such a small thing, but can this simple, and seemingly meaningless experience i had at the age of fifteen in the late 80's (piercing my ears) last the course of my life? through all of its twists and changes, it's myriad of unpredictable seasons, can the choice to put a small (relatively speaking) hole in each ear really last a lifetime? can a blog? will i really still be writing here in fifty years? big questions about small things, which in the end just make me fear my mortailty. all this talk of fifty years from now.