Other One Kit

This is my other kit (actually my first kit). It's a four piece 1967 Ludwig. The tom is 14" (rail consolette mount), 16" floor tom, 22 x 18" bass drum, and 14" metal concert snare (13" picolo pictured here). Good stuff.

Gig Kit

Folks have asked so I thought I'd post. This is my main gig kit. The brand is Po' Boy Drums (I'm an endorser). It's a natural finish, birch and maple hybrid. The toms are 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16". The bass is 20 x 18", and the snare is 14 x 5.5". I use a double kick pedal and I typically add a 13 x 3" picolo snare on the left as well as a second foot pedal with a jam block. The cymbals are Zildjian, Paiste, and Po' Boy.

Contradictions

You know, I was thinking about my favorites and I realized that I'm a mass of contradictions! Check it out:

My favorite composers are J. S. Bach and Frank Zappa.
My favorite painters are Francisco Goya and Max Beckmann.
My favorite writers are Stephen King and William Faulkner.
My favorite playwrites are William Shakespeare and David Mamet.
My favorite sculptors are Michellangelo and Claes Oldenberg.
My favorite film directors are Alfred Hitchcok and Quentin Tarentino.
My favorite drummers are Ringo Starr and Terry Bozzio.
My favorite printmakers are Albrecht Durer and . E. L. Kirchener
My favorite illustrators are Gustav Dore and Robert Crumb.

I'm sure I could continue but it's 1;30 AM. I'm tired, good night.

Demons

To those who have followed my blog I apologize. I have not posted for quite sometime for the simple reason that I have been in a crisis of a personal nature that I am not ready to share publically. Those who know me intimately know my crisis and sympathize; thank you. The print I've posted is, of course, Goya's famous "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters". It, I think, is profoundly appropriate to my current situation. At present I am in fact, suffering a similar fate to that of the individual depicted in this astonishing etching. That said, I will now segue to the promotion of a brilliant documentary that I just finished watching. Goya: Crazy Like a Genius is one of the latest works by art historian Robert Hughes and it is brilliant. If you have netflix you can rent it right away. I have always loved Goya's "3rd of May", "Sleep of Reason", and "Saturn Devouring His Children" but I have never truly appreciated Goya until now. The guy was freaking brilliant. I hope you will bear with me through this difficult time, I'm certain I will come out the better for it. In the meantime I hope you'll enjoy learning about a troubled genius who understood and suffered as you and I do. Goya rocks.

Whiteboard Drawing

Another whiteboard/dry erase drawing. 6' x 3.5'. Here's a hint: el bano.

Whiteboard Drawing

I've decided to start a new type of blog entry: Whiteboard Art. For most of the projects I assign my art classes I end up doing a large drawing on my dry erase white board (approx. 6' x 3.5'). I did this drawing to get the students thinking about texture, value, and blending.

Anima Update

Wow, cool stuff is beginning to take shape with Anima Obscura. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Frank and I have decided to reduce the band to a duo comprising me on drumset, percussion, and Chapman Stick and Frank on midi guitar and 7 string. We are both using loopers. We've never seen an act like that (but we know it's possible because we've been performing one song that way for some time). It was a little rough going at first though. It is very difficult to time two loopers and to make seamless changes from one groove/instrument to another. Today however, we had quite a breakthrough. We're worked on a piece that begins with a bass loop on the stick, then I enter with a darbuka solo. Frank builds a slow ambient sound scape on midi, then switches to seven string and waits. I stop the bass and percussion and allow the soundscape to play solo, then on cue, I start the bass loop and Frank and I come full on with heavy guitar and full drum set. The soundscape and bass are rolling underneath us. We improv and solo over it for a long time, then I fade the bass out and Frank starts to play a gamelan(!) rhythm in 5/4 on the synth and I switch to two handed tapping on the stick. So far it's a very interesting piece.