This is America

This is America, and it is both our birthright to spend money we don't have on whatever we deem fit, and to make money off other people spending the money they don't have...it's our birthright to look at Bill Gates and see that the most remarkable thing about the man was that he dropped out of college, and look at ourselves and see that we too can drop out college, even if we're dropping out as a result of drinking too much and waking up every day wondering if the sun is coming up or going down.

A strange twist of fate.

What seems like my first memory of Mike Skutt is him being called upon to do a dramatic reading of a call and response prayer from Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle in my high school Modern Novel class.

Sometime ago he filmed a magic DVD. Actually, I think he's filmed a few.



A few months back I asked Mike about the person behind the videography and editing, hoping to maybe talk them into shooting a music video for me. When Mike said they owned a production company, I backed off, I didn't really have a budget, and I'm not comfortable asking a person to perform their profession for free, I was hoping that they were a film student.

A few weeks ago I came across an advertisement by someone looking to shoot a music video for free. Ryan owns a production company and teaches in the film department of a local college, and was looking for a project that he would enjoy, versus the usual work of filming weddings and corporate training videos.

A few days after meeting at an Arabica, Facebook suggested Ryan to me, and our common friends were Mike Skutt and his wife, and it turns out that he had done the video that I had asked about.

We had our shoot yesterday.

Danielle, Bob Willey, Bob's girlfriend Mika, and I had our first show, so to speak.

These are pictures, not stills.

All things go, all things go.

Drove to Chicago.

We finished tracking guitars with Chris Bober at Chicago Sound Lab on Saturday. I have a song that I need to add a little bit of piano to, one to change the lyrics on, and maybe a few vocal overdubs to do, but first I have to sort though the original vocal takes and see if there is enough to work with (cut up) from attempts that didn't make the cut as a whole.

Our friend Matt Schulz, one of my favorite drummers in the world (and my boy-crush), put us on the list (for the second time in three nights, thanks Matt!) for the sold out Holy Fuck show at the Empty Bottle. They really have me thinking about music in completely new ways, releasing tension at times with a heavy groove instead of just a consonant chord. The music I'm making right now might be too straightforward to incorporate it, but I'm taking on a new project soon, and I think there's a place for it. More to come on this soon, I hope.

Here's Sufjan on the Morning Becomes Eclectic:

I was born during a Memorial Day parade.

Danielle was born the next day.

The Cleveland Botanical Gardens were open without charge this past holiday weekend.

Sweep away your worries...

I had really hoped our friends Joe and Carolina could cast our first video for us. They're one of the best looking couples in Cleveland, and they met at the now defunct 80's night. All we needed was a single dancer.

Putting out some sort of casting call made me nervous, I didn't want to have to reject people on a couple photographs, or even worse, after some sort of dancing audition, not that I needed great dancing, the concept was based on a Mommartz short, of a mod-ish girl dancing by herself.

Joe and Carolina couldn't come up with anyone, but everything worked out.

Our friend Lauren (her band Chief Bromide just released a new album) did the videography. Stacy Candow shot still photography. Gina Mirto danced.

Oh it's such a perfect day, I'm glad I spent it with you.

We didn't drink sangria in the park, but we did have peanut butter milkshakes from Swensons afterward.

Most of our trips to the Cuyahoga Valley coincide with fall foliage, or snowfall. Until today, we've overlooked some of the more lasting beauty of the park for the fleeting splendors.

My poetry was lousy, you said.

My parents kept the record player in the dining room of the house I grew up in. Most of the time the room was purely utilitarian, and all but a couple of the memories I have of it involve Christmas dinners, that record player and listening to Donovan in particular, as well as once deciding I was recovered enough from the flu to play ping pong and discovering I wasn't, are about all I can come up with.

My love of Dylan came from my dad, The Beatles too, but by the time I was digging through his record collection, it had spent too much time in an attic in Ohio, and most of it had warped.

My mom on the other hand has at times questionable taste. A fair number of Christmas dinners were eaten with new age versions of carols in the background, but she has moments of clarity too. Tim Buckley, Leonard Cohen. We saw Joan Baez with her on Saturday.

Joan was great. Besides Dylan, she covered John Lennon, The Carter Family, Elvis Costello, and Donovan. I would have left happy having only heard Diamonds and Rust.

My favorite YouTube videos are usually taken from live television performances in Europe. I can't quite embrace home movies made at concerts. I searched and searched, and before finding the right version to post, I also found that Judas Priest covered my favorite Joan song. I've never really listened to JP, and even knowing they took their name from a Dylan song, it surprised me. I wonder if the shred bands that covered JP's version and posted their clips knew where the song originally came from.