Flow

Driving on the BQE with my family yesterday, I heard the end of a TED Radio hour on NPR and some quotes from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which I found very intriguing. He is a psychologist who has written extensively on a concept he refers to as "Flow"; describing it as losing oneself in an activity through complete focus and intrinsic motivation. I found it fascinating because I know exactly what he means and I feel it regularly when I compose music. Whenever I am able to fully concentrate on creating music, I have no other cares or desires; it is everything…

Podcast

Over the past year, my music production has evolved from my typical process of recording, editing and arranging to spontaneous compositions, completely improvised and recorded live. Several factors have contributed to this shift: First, my family now consumes most of my free time, and my potential window for music creation has been reduced significantly. Not that I am complaining: as I've said before their presence in my life is the greatest joy that I could ever imagine, but it is amazing to think about the abundant time I spent making music in the evenings before they arrived. Spontaneous compositions offer…

Bernie

I remember exactly where I was when I read a tweet stating that Bernie Sanders was entering the presidential election; I was actually so overwhelmed with political pride and hope that I cried. Bernie has been my favorite politician for years: an independent renegade who actually takes principled stands on issues that matter to me.  His honesty and integrity in the House and Senate have always been inspiring and he is clearly guided by values that reflect my own. In short, he is a hero of mine and by announcing his candidacy, he instantly changed my outlook on the possibilities…

Miles Acadia Taylor

My son is born! In LDR 4 at Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn on December 8, 2015 at 10:03, Alaina brought Miles into life. Through an act of courage, strength and love, she nurtured him into existence. There is nothing mankind has ever created or accomplished that can equal the beautiful and heroic act of creating, growing and birthing a baby, performed by every mother on the planet for every single person. The dads have a small part in the beginning (which I thoroughly enjoyed!), and hopefully more once the umbilical cord is cut (which I had the honor of doing!), but…

Brooklyn Museum Fountain

I am lucky to have Brooklyn Museum as my local art collection. It is classical and cutting edge with interesting and eclectic permanent collections as well as a fascinating and evolving mix of current exhibitions; it is a wonderful space to revere and contemplate art. And when they announced an open-call for submissions to score the fountain, I was inspired to make music! My compostion was chosen as one of ten pieces to be played in a program on August 14 and I watched the fountain dance to my work. I spent many fun hours in the pursuit and truly…

Music Alive

It has been a couple weeks of great musical entertainment for me. Wilco at Central Park Summerstage, Jon Brion at Le Poisson Rouge, and Deadmau5 at Roseland; all of them wonderfully different and uniquely fun. Wilco rocks as hard as any band with a rare restraint that pulls you forward as a listener. Jon Brion is the best musician I have ever seen, playing solo and recording drum, piano, glockenspiel, guitar and bass loops, building his songs with sweet harmony and jaw-dropping skill into some absolutely beautiful sonic collages. Deadmau5 is one of the biggest DJs in the world now…

Knot theory

No matter how neatly I try to wrap them, my earphones always become the most tangled clump of wires they possibly could. In searching for an explanation for this maddening phenomenon, I researched knot theory and learned a bit about Topology. There was also pretty pictures. Inspired by the more than 6 billion tabulated knots that can be constructed from an unbroken circle, I composed some rhythmic knots in 5/4 and 7/4 time... Restlessness Pure

Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

To look at my last post, written two weeks ago at the cabin in Maine and consider describing all that has happened since then is too daunting a task, so we are going to the abridged and illustrated notes instead: Caitlin/Sam engagement party -camping and partying at beautiful Reiche property in Freeport, Me Tuna Boat with Andrew and Will -Many tuna seen, but none that wanted any piece of our deadly trap... Land Party -camping and partying at beautiful Buckland property in Warwick, NY The weekend of my year has begun and it has been an incredible vacation so far.…