Animated Lennon Interview

WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It)

WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It) from Yoko Ono on Vimeo.

Sensitive Chaos Holiday Music 2008

Hi Folks!

I performed my first 3-hour-plus set at the Academe of the Oaks Sparkle "N" Splurge Benefit Auction yesterday.

If you enjoy chillout, downtempo, holiday-tinged electronic music and would like a copy of the live recording I made or would like to share it with friends, you can download an mp3 copy here:

http://www.sensitivechaos.com/secretpage.html

Scroll to the bottom of the list and you'll see three links; Academe Holiday 120608 Pt1 - Pt3, each links to an approximately hour long segment of the performance. Right Click or Option Click to download the mp3s to your computer.

A short word about what you'll hear (or what you heard). All the music was composed spontaneously, on the fly, emerging as I was sitting there over in the corner of the room. Nothing was prerecorded.

As I was supporting a holiday event, the music uses alot of sounds associated with the holidays, namely bells, strings, organs, pianos, and drums, with some synth sounds and a kalimba thrown into the mix. I was playing off the energy in the room, so tempos, volumes, and dynamics were created to complement the vibe during the event. The music is intended to be ambient, so playing quietly in the background is recommended. Think "a slightly less cheesy Fresh Aire holiday" album.

There's no charge for these downloads, Happy Holidays!

My Dad, The Master Pilot

My dad, a lifelong pilot (private, Air Force, American Airlines, corporate), was awarded a Master Pilot Award by the Federal Aviation Agency.

"I am convinced that human flight is both possible and practical." Wilbur Wright, 1899

The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award recognizes pilots who have demonstrated professionalism, skill and aviation expertise by maintaining safe operations for 50 or more years. Recipients are awarded a certificate and a lapel pin and are recognized in our Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award - Role of Honor located online, here, at FAASafety.gov!

Here's my dad, on the right, receiving his award on November 26, 2008.

Jeff Beck - Blue Wind

Danny Yarbrough, RIP

In the course of my social networking today, I was shocked to run across the news that my boss and mentor from 30 years ago at CBS Records, Danny Yarbrough, had passed away in Savannah, GA, on November 3rd.

Danny was the branch manager at the CBS Records Dallas branch when I was a College Marketing Manager (college rep) and when I was promoted to Single Records Coordinator. We spent alot of time together visiting accounts, hanging with stars, and philosophizing on the state of the world. If there is anyone who could take credit for teaching me how to drink, it would be Danny.

When I was a college rep out in the hinterlands of Norman, Oklahoma, Danny made sure I got my fair share of recognition, promo bling, and exposure to the nuts and bolts of the record "bidness", as Danny would call it. When Pink Floyd toured The Wall and only played at two venues in the US (Nassau Coliseum and The Forum in LA), Danny got me two fantastic tickets and an airplane ticket to New York. When I graduated, he was instrumental in getting me the Single Records Coordinator gig.

Danny is third from right in this photo and I'm on the right. We're backstage at a John Schneider concert.

Danny was a teenager at heart, a complex man, and the epitome of a real record person when that meant something, for better or worse. I'm sorry I missed his funeral.

Here is the obit.

Danny Yarbrough, 64, former head of Sony Music Distribution, died in his sleep Monday night (11/3), in Savannah, GA. Yarbrough was named president of that company in May 1994 and became chairman in 1998, replacing Paul Smith. Yarbrough joined CBS Records in 1965 as a sales representative in the company’s Southeast branch in Atlanta. In 1975, he was named field sales manager for the New York branch and a year later became branch manager. In 1979, he was appointed branch manager of the company’s Southwest office in Dallas and then moved back to New York in 1987 as VP of sales for Columbia Records. In 1989, he moved back into distribution in 1989 as SVP Sales and Distribution. After leaving Sony in 2003, he joined Musicland, staying there for a year, then became an industry consultant.

World's Tallest Mohawk

City Skies 08 Richard Devine - Joshua Kay Video

Richard Devine & Josh Kay from surachai on Vimeo.

And a landslide brought it down

This pollster predicts a landslide.

Happy Halloween

Sarah Palin Jazz Piano Duet

A Look At A Real Economic Crisis

And another way to put things into perspective is here.

Enceladus up close

One way to put things into perspective is here.

Wassup 2008

Remember the Wassup Bud commercial of 2000? Original cast, eight years later.

Sitcoms For Obama

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

My Escape (Doing My Best)

source: MTV's SoundTrack

My friend Giles Reaves is one of the best electronic musicians in the world. But many folks do not know that he is a fabulous drummer and percussionist, too. Here is his current drum spot, the band Junior Giant, from Salt Lake City, who just won a spot on the Oct 17 MTV’s Choose or Lose Presents: Locksley Tour with JUNIOR GIANT @ The Avalon Theater.

Freezepop @ Masquerade Oct 14, 2008

A cellphone photo of the Freezepop show at Masquerade last night. I had never heard them before and was there to support my friend Raquel's band Indigovox. But I walked away impressed with all three bands (including Boy In Static). Freezepop's encore songs were "Final Destination" and then "Don't Stop Believin'". Awesome.

City Skies 08 Electronic Music Event on Nov. 8, 2008

City Skies 08 Electronic Music Event Nov 8, 2008

The next City Skies 08 event will be held on Saturday, November 8, 2008, with an afternoon Master class workshop with Richard Lainhart (Multi-Dimensional Control for Realtime Analog Synthesis Performance using Buchla 200e and Haken Continuum Fingerboard controller) from 2pm-4pm and performances starting at 8pm. We showcase the region's best electronic musicians at our favorite venue, Kavarna.

Confirmed performers on November 8 include Richard Lainhart (from New York), Collaboration with Sounds (from South Carolina), and Bribing The Buddha (from Atlanta). Shows kick off at 8pm.

The Richard Lainhart workshop for the November show promises to be quite amazing. Please tell your friends about it. Attendance will be limited:

Multi-Dimensional Control for Realtime Analog Synthesis Performance

The promise of electronic music has been, from the beginning, to provide the composer with the means to create his or her own unique sounds and musics without the need for intermediaries like performers and technicians. And the problem with electronic music has been, from the beginning, to endow synthesized sound with the same organic expressivity found in acoustic instruments and natural sound while making synthesizers viable performance instruments in their own right.

The first electronic instruments intended for performance, such as the Theremin and the Ondes Martenot, while providing the performer with highly nuanced pitch control, had limited sound-shaping control and could only play one note at a time. The first modular analog synthesizers, while offering polyphony - the ability to play multiple notes simultaneously - and unlimited sonic control, had limited expressive performance control and were completely impractical for live use.

There have been many attempts since then to integrate the unlimited potential of modular analog synthesis with practical performance capabilities, and to provide the electronic music composer/performer with the kind of expressive musical control available in advanced acoustic instruments. Among of the most successful and creative of these efforts are the Buchla 200e analog modular synthesizer and the Haken Continuum Fingerboard.

Buchla's 200e is the first modular analog synth with patch memory and the ability to re-route patchcords on the fly, making it an ideal instrument for performance, capable of both the highest and lowest levels of control. The Continuum is a unique multidimensional controller keyboard that senses direct finger movement in three dimensions (X, Y, and pressure) for each of up to 16 fingers, making it one of the most advanced performance controllers available today. Together, the 200e and the Continuum make for an electronic music performance system of unparalleled expressivity and sensitivity.

In his workshop, Richard will demonstrate the synthesis and control functions of the Buchla 200e with an emphasis on patch programming for maximum expressivity under Continuum control. The workshop will include a live performance focusing on the Continuum/Buchla 200e system's expressive control capabilities. Time permitting, workshop attendees will also have the opportunity to play the system themselves.

WORKSHOP BIO

Richard Lainhart is a composer, performer, and filmmaker based in New York. He studied composition and electronic music techniques with Joel Chadabe, a pioneer of electronic music and the designer of the Coordinated Electronic Music System (http://emfinstitute.emf.org/exhibits/cems.html and http://www.otownmedia.com/chadabe.jpg), at one time the largest integrated Moog synthesizer system in the world. From 1987-1990, Lainhart was the Technical Director for Intelligent Music, developers of innovative computer music software like M, Jam Factory, and UpBeat.

His compositions have been performed in the US, England, Sweden, Germany, Australia, and Japan. Recordings of his music have appeared on the Periodic Music, Vacant Lot, XI Records, ExOvo and Airglow Music labels and are distributed online via MusicZeit. As an active performer, Lainhart has appeared in public approximately 2000 times. Besides performing his own work, he has worked and performed with John Cage, David Tudor, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Phill Niblock, David Berhman, and Jordan Rudess, among many others. He has composed over 100 electronic and acoustic works, and has been making music for forty years.

Lainhart's animations and short films have been shown in festivals in the US, Canada, Germany, and Korea, and online at ResFest, The New Venue, The Bitscreen, and Streaming Cinema 2.0. His film "A Haiku Setting" won awards in several categories at the 2002 International Festival of Cinema and Technology in Toronto. In 2008, he was awarded a Film & Media grant by the New York State Council on the Arts for "No Other Time", full-length intermedia performance designed for a large reverberant space, combining live analog electronics with four-channel playback, and high-definition computer-animated film projection.

Richard Lainhart
http://www.otownmedia.com
http://www.downloadplatform.com/richard_lainhart
http://www.vimeo.com/rlainhart
http://www.airglowmusic.com

City Skies
http://www.cityskies.com
http://www.myspace.com/cityskiesfestival

Workshop tickets: $15
Performance tickets: $10

Rick Wakeman At Lincoln Cathedral

Hocus Pocus by Focus