Sam Goldsmith

Last Post From Portland: Wreck of the Peter Iredale

2013-08-18T13:55:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow I fly out to Washington, D.C., to start my new life back in school. This time I suspect it will be more work than music school was. To celebrate, I have but one more photo gallery to share with everyone, this from a recent excursion to Astoria and Fort Stevens, both or which, I must say, were pretty boring and not particularly beautiful. I can't recommend going there. But the Wreck of the Peter Iredale was a fun photo subject. In its presence it looked like trash someone didn't bother cleaning up and decided to call "historical" to avoid responsibility for picking up after it. I wanted to capture its insignificance and smallness in comparison to the water, sky, and sand around it. A lot of photos I've seen of it online make it look big and bizarre, but I thought it was puny and funny in a pathetic sort of way. Anyway, enjoy the photos, and I'll be writing next time from the nation's capitol!

Waded into the cold Pacific Ocean for shots like this. Totally worth it.

This is a more standard composition of the wreck. Looks bigger than it really is, right?

This is a little closer to what it actually looked like.

There were a number of rusted posts like this just under water, and probably others I didn't see. Seems a little dangerous considering all the little kids playing around, but what do I know?

This is probably my favorite shot of the day.

Revamped MySpace Page

2013-08-08T13:25:00.000-04:00

MySpace is looking to try and make a comeback. Who knows whether it will work or not. The important thing is my recorded music has a new home there.

Actually, the important thing is that I've recently made a breakthrough in recording technique and have been remixing the entire First Regrets catalog in the hopes of finishing the CD for once and for all before law school. And two of those nearly-completed songs, the two singles, can be found on that brand-new-old MySpace page.

Presenting for your listening pleasure:

Trillium Lake Again

2013-08-05T11:44:00.003-04:00

The other day I made it back out to Trillium Lake, beautifully situated at the foot of Mount Hood. This time I nailed it on the photography front. One of the photo shoots I'm most proud of. Check out this sunset I watched:

Hiking Mount Hood Meadows

2013-07-30T13:15:00.001-04:00

My friend Jay and I took a trip up to Mount Hood Meadows, which is a ski resort during the winter but now is covered with a beautiful array of wildflowers. Here's some photographic evidence of our excursion, although be warned: most of it's in black and white due to poor lighting.

Jay, as you may know, is the lead guitarist in our band, One Moment. Right now we're working on a CD (a Sam send-off before I head out to Washington DC for law school), and some of the tracks are online and available for listening, including my original City Love. Check it out here!

Mount Hood sunset

The Meadows and the Moon

The extra payoff: Umbrella Falls

Umbrella Falls

If I Were Chief Justice Roberts...

2013-06-26T13:31:00.001-04:00

Don't get me wrong, today was a wonderful day for marriage equality. DOMA was rightly struck down as unconstitutional, and we got perhaps the best ruling on Prop 8 we could expect from a conservative court such as this (the 5-4 majority on Prop 8 was the oddest combination of justices, too).

Now people are celebrating, and for good cause, but there's something unsettling about the people out there who are celebrating Anthony Kennedy's role in the DOMA decision. Yes, he was key vote in overturning DOMA. He was also the key vote in yesterday's ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act, a disappointing ruling to say the least.

If I were Chief Justice Roberts and wanted to help out the Republican Party as much as I could this court session, a session taking place not long after an election landslide victory for my opponents, I would prioritize my major issues. The major docket issues this June, or at least the ones that proved to attract the most public attention, were: affirmative action, voting rights, and marriage equality. If Chief Justice Roberts could chose just one of these issues to claim as a victory, on behalf of the Republican Party, which would it be?

Voting rights, without a doubt. It would grant the Republican Party a great deal of lasting political power. The other two issues could be sacrificed without the loss of Republican power. And let's not forget that Prop 8 and affirmative action were decided on very narrow grounds that don't change much at all. Only DOMA and the Voting Rights Act were irrevocably changed.

And, with a stroke of political genius, if I were the Chief Justice I would release the decision on marriage equality last, knowing it would eclipse the Voting Rights Act decision's public importance (save the best for last) and wipe it from many memories.

After the Voting Rights Act was hobbled yesterday, many people pointed out that the decision left room for Congress to enact similar legislation using modern-day statistics. Indeed, the Supreme Court gave Congress clear instructions on how to refashion the law in a manner in harmony with the Constitution. Yesterday there was a sizable amount of support for this sort of solution and it looked as if an effort might be made in Congress to follow these instructions and create a new Voting Rights Act. However, even if the Voting Rights Act was a top priority for Congress it would be hard to imagine that it would make it through to Obama's desk without a herculean effort. After today's DOMA ruling, I doubt even the traces of that effort exist anymore.

Yosemite Photos (Part II)

2013-06-20T18:00:00.001-04:00

Many of the photos from the second full day at Yosemite are from the Mist Trail, one of the most popular hiking trails in Yosemite National Park if not the entire country, which takes you up the roaring Vernal Falls as it sprays you all over. If you so desire, which I did, you can continue on to Nevada Falls upriver. It is a trail that everyone who visits Yosemite should look into, even if the elevation gain is significant. The views are worth it. There's nothing like it in the world.

Now, I only mention this because this popular trail is the site of many deaths each year, usually due to people taking a dip in the Emerald Pool after the climb up Vernal Falls. It looks like a calm swimming hole just a hundred feet from the top of 360-foot Vernal Falls, and it sure looks enticing to cool off after that tough climb. But people die every year swimming in it and being pulled over the nearby waterfall.

I was disappointed in the lack of prominent signs near the area, especially since last year was such a particularly bad year for Vernal Falls deaths. In fact, we already have a death this year of a 19-year-old who was swept over Nevada Falls while swimming in what looked like a calm area.

Now I wonder: are people getting most of their hiking information from the internet? Sites like mine? And are those internet resources giving hikers fair warning about the dangers of swimming in the river above huge waterfalls, even if the river looks calm? Perhaps this is the reason last year was particularly tragic. So here goes, my duty as an oft-ignored blogger writing about the Mist Trail: Never ever swim above a waterfall! If you plan to go on this amazing hike - and you really should - plan on not swimming. Seriously, no matter how calm it is, no swimming in the Emerald Pool or anywhere close to the waterfall's edge.

Thank you, and now on to photos!

Half Dome sunrise

Vernal Falls: one of the world's most stunning falls, plus rainbow.

Vernal Falls detail

On the trail above Vernal Falls, just past the deadly Emerald Pool

From left to right: Half Dome from the back, Liberty Cap, and 597-foot tall Nevada Falls

Classic Vernal Falls view

View from the top of 360-foot tall Vernal Falls, plus double rainbow.

Half Dome lit up with sunset

Only the tip touched the sun

Merced River

Merced River reflection

Where the sidewalk ends: Mirror Lake is slowly becoming a meadow.

Our group that made it to the top of Nevada Falls: Enrique, Mona, Alison and Joel, Rebecca, Dad, Courtney, and Me

Courtney watches Vernal Falls

Us at Vernal Falls

Yosemite Photos (Part 1)

2013-06-09T22:25:00.001-04:00

All right, if I don't put up these photos of Yosemite soon I'll be desperately far behind the times. I have finally sorted through all of them time and again, and even after all this effort the photos are too numerous to condense into a single blog post. In short, Yosemite is amazing.

So here are some of the best shots I got in the first half-day aEnd the first full day. Enjoy!

El Capitan, the sentinel of Yosemite Valley. Sadly, already two people have died trying to climb to the top this year.

The granite walls make us look small.

Yosemite Falls

My friends think this shot of friends playing Frisbee under North Dome and the Royal Arches is great. I think it's nothing special. What do you think?

How many of my favorite photos featured Half Dome at either sunset (as this one is) or sunrise? It was very hard to narrow them down to just the ones you see here, and there are plenty more coming in Part II!

Another sunset

Sunrise, co-starring North Dome and a log

We trekked to Mariposa Grove of the Giant Sequoias on the first day. Here my little brother looks little indeed!

My favorite tree in the grove is called the Clothespin Tree because it was hollowed out during a forest fire. And yet it lives on.

Courtney hugs a tree.

Courtney and I at the Tunnel Tree

Another one of Yosemite Falls. This is probably my favorite shot I got on the whole trip. Click on the image to see it larger!

Courtney and I at the famous Tunnel View. It was too bright when Dad snapped this shot.

What's Happening in Turkey Right Now

2013-06-03T13:43:00.003-04:00

There's a chance you haven't heard about it yet, which is astounding considering that a city with a population of 18 million is more or less in chaos. My friends have been keeping me updated on what's happening, so let me give a run-down for those who are new to this situation:

This is how I understand it. The Turkish government plans to take down a park (Gezi Park) near Taksim Square, more or less the center of Istanbul, and transform it into a mall with an Ottoman-style architecture. To offer some form of comparison, imagine if New York City were going to tear down Union Square to build high rises. But this particular park in Istanbul has some historical significance, especially regarding the act of protesting. So now imagine a park as centrally located as New York's Union Square with the historical meaning of People's Park in Berkeley, California. Naturally, there were protests.

The protests were nonviolent. There is no indication that the protestors provoked the police officers, even in the information given by the government. But the police reaction to this first small demonstration was over the top. They raided the park, beat people, and sprayed tear gas.

So the protests grew the next day, taking on a new feeling of speaking out against the police brutality, which continued as the police flew in helicopters (yes, helicopters) into Taksim to spray tear gas, which could be felt across the Golden Horn (that would be like gassing Union Square from helicopters and people in Brooklyn feeling their eyes sting).

Thing is, the police didn't legally have this power a 5 years ago. In the past few years the ruling Turkish party has expanded the powers of the police significantly while edging away power from the other branches of government. For example, when I was teaching in Istanbul there was a special vote that amended the country's constitution to drastically cut back the power of the military - the main secularizing force in modern Turkish history - and the courts (later that year the immensely popular Prime Minister Erdoğan became just the third Turkish prime minister ever to receive an absolute majority of the vote). So all these police actions are completely legal, no matter how despicable.

So now the protests have spread throughout the country and beyond (I've seen photos of people protesting in Canada) taking on the form of a broad outrage against the practices of Erdoğan's government over the past decade, ranging from his power grabs to his arresting of journalists who speak against him to his pushing the Turkish legal code closer to an Islamic code with moral laws, such as the regulations against alcohol and the prohibition of street seating at cafés.

Here are some articles about it in the American press, which is a little reserved about the whole thing: NPR, NYTimes, CNN. Erdoğan is an important ally, after all: a secular Muslim! (although barely) And this is only the first time he has been publicly humiliated on the word front like this. And here's a Turkish blog about the protests that's quite a bit more sensationalist.

Here's a quote from the NYTimes article that reveals the attitudes of Prime Minister Erdoğan and his aims for control over culture as well as government:

In his remarks, Mr. Erdogan criticized Twitter, which became an important conduit of news — and unfounded rumors — about the demonstrations, which were not covered aggressively in the Turkish news media.

“Now we have a menace that is called Twitter,” he said. “The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society.”

And here's a poem I threw together ion solidarity for the cause:

"Fear Not! (Korkma)"

Fear not!

O!

Drag me from Gezi Park

I dare you!

Pull me by my feet

While my fingernails scratch rows into the soil

And watch as sunflowers spring forth

So tall and thick that your machetes dull felling them

See my friends and I sitting cross-legged in the field that results

Laughing together and eating sunflower seeds.

Spray chemicals into my watery eyes

Burn the sight from them

And watch as anguished tears spill from my face

Onto your deserted concrete streets

Boring into the ground like acid

And watch the magnificent junipers

Jump eagerly from the holes

Their roots tearing up your barricades

Their branches smashing through your malls.

Pummel me with your rods

And watch your weapons sprout a thousand hands

That reach down to help me to my feet once more.

Declare me a liar, a spreader of false rumors

And watch all the skeptical heads turn your way instead.

Afix a blindfold to my eyes

A gag to my mouth

And watch as the world hears me speak

In a language you cannot comprehend

With the volume of a cannon.

Fear not!

O!

Drag me from Gezi Park

I dare you!

Start of the Yosemite Photo Onslaught

2013-05-28T15:04:00.003-04:00

Yosemite Falls, because.

Yes, it's been over a week since I've come back from Yosemite, and yes, I did take over 500 photos there (and let the record show my camera card can't fit more than 508 photos of any reputable quality). And yes, I am still tirelessly sifting through them, organizing them, and reorganizing them. Actually, it's not tireless: I'm quite tired of it. There are, like, 10 nearly identical photos of Nevada Falls that are each slightly different and wrong in slightly unique ways. How can I choose?

One way is by asking for my faithful readership's opinions. So here are four versions of the same shot of Half Dome in the sunrise. Please comment and let me know which of the four are the very best. Thanks folks!

Black and white

Black and white crop

Original

Sepia

Poem: Crater Lake

2013-05-12T20:46:00.001-04:00

-->

Crater Lake,

You purest expression of water

Your most vivid blue statement

Your clarity less obstructed than the water in my own eyes

You frighten me.

You rip the meaning from my life

And dangle me over the checker square farms

Higher

High enough that Mount Everest looks like a pimple

Storm clouds look like plum blossoms floating to earth

The Pacific Ocean looks like a waveless bowl.

I shuffle down your volcanic slopes

Lusted after by gravity

Choking on the dust

My resisting stomps kick up.

I see the wake of a boat

Ghastly white

Slice through your windless, still surface

Carving grooves that roll outwards, softly.

I remove my sweat-moistened clothes

And then I contaminate you

By jumping in.

I peer at your depths

With goggles strapped across my forehead.

I can see everything

Every boulder frozen under the weight of your shores

As if I could reach out and take then between my fingers

Like a child holding a coin to the moon

To judge its size.

I crawl along the top of your water

Towards your center.

The boulders shrink below me

Until they can fit in a spice jar

But their grainy multitude is still evident

Because your purity is cleaner than air

There is no haze on your horizon.

One stroke further

Before the giant boulders dissolve into each other

Below my feet

And all that remains under me is a slab

The size of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

I am higher than a fighter jet.

Roadways would be too small to see distinctly

But their presence felt

Like wrinkles in an ancient face

Seen from across the street.

The slab grows to mountainous proportions

With another two strokes.

The Great Pyramid is a pimple on this desert

Splayed below my feet

Sinking like a continent

Deeper and deeper.

And then:

Nothing.

I am smaller than a pebble

Examined in the calloused hand

Of a hill giant

Wedged in the fold of his love line.

I hang over the pure blue my eyes cannot pierce

Too light to sink

Too small to be spotted

By gravity.

Nothing!

Crater Lake

You rob me of my substance.

You roll me into myself

Smaller and denser

A ball of dough

Until I am too small to see

A crumb

Unnoticeable

Unimportant

No matter what it thinks of itself.

And what lies beyond?

I am too afraid to swim farther

But I might guess:

More nothing.

All the clarity in the world

Can only illuminate a fraction of what I don’t know.

I need but ten strokes to return to shore.

A Couple Music Videos

2013-04-30T16:36:00.000-04:00

Have you ever wondered what To Your Soul I sounds like without the huge orchestral sound? I recorded a video of myself playing it on solo acoustic guitar so give an impression of what it sounded like when I first wrote it. Here goes:

I also made a music video of another song, although the quality is much worse than it is for the To Your Soul I song. A couple friends from high school are in a band, called the Thrstbusters, that is just on the verge of getting big - they've been on TV a couple of times and are looking pretty solid for the future. I decided to help out in my own little way by making a video of myself playing their newest hit, Bad Bad Girl, and throwing it up on YouTube. Nothing is more official than having a bunch of random folks playing acoustic covers in their basement when a fan searches for their favorite pop songs on YouTube. At least so I think. So I'll share that with you too, because, well, why not?

And here's the original:

Poem: Constellations

2013-04-22T14:28:00.000-04:00

How can I misplace the meaning of
the existence of other lives,
    other’s doubts and starlit regrets
    other’s triumphant moonlit wisps of cloud
    other’s brisk, dark lusts and howling urges
    other’s daybreak nocturnal loves
with my personal sunlit world
    in its shiniest season?

My world is of my solitary perception.
My father does not conduct my eyes
nor does my mother whisper the sounds I hear daily
into the ears my brother pries open.
My friends do not scrape my palms
across the surfaces I feel
nor do they firmly grasp the door handle
and instruct me on its cool firmness
before opening.
My lover does not deliver the vaporous tendrils
of perfume and stink
to the depths of my nostrils
nor does she place them past my lips and onto the tip of my tongue.
No:
Perception is a lonely affair.
My body absorbs the physical to create my idea of it
and I can only live in, and barely imagine,
a world bound by those ideas.
I could conclude that I make the world,
    even that I own it.

But I do not make my world alone.
I own not its deed
    I rule not its politics.
My night sky, like smoke,
    belongs to no one.

When my eyes show me an orange
I see not a plump citric encased in its soft shell
but only its gently grooved sunset skin.
My ears announce a prickly hissing
but do not grasp the spatula that cusps the half-seared salmon
an inch above the skillet
and flips it to its backside.
My skin sizzles after brushing against a stovetop cast iron pot
but does not leap to retrieve the ice,
shepherd it into a newspaper bag
and hold it to the reddening, wrinkling spot.
My nose delivers the toasty scent of cinnamon
but does not realize the time has come
to extract the cookies from the oven’s mouth.
When my tongue brings me fresh tomatoes
    acid and sunlight sweet
I taste not the method with which they were prepared.

I do not make my world alone.
Rather
I assemble it as the night assembles stars,
as the year assembles days.
My kitchen is not one unseen by mortal eyes before.
It houses the same tools
    spatulas, tablespoons,
recipes books, cutting boards,
a palm-sized dish in the shape of a cat drowned in salt
as my neighbors’.
My night is dark like all nights.
My stars shy away from glowing cities like all stars.
Even the way in which I greet the night
    with loose-fitting clothes and toothpaste,
    perhaps a shower
is far from unique.
Even the way in which I greet my cutting board
    with soaped and toweled hands
    bearing ingredients
is far from unique.

My mother educated me on the majestic friendship of the onion,
the assurance of the measuring cup,
the slender balance of the sharp knife,
and my father instructed me to steam my first
undersalted vegetables.
My brother left me his star chart
    and I studied its constellations before sleep
    each night while it hung over me
    glued to the ceiling.
My friends and I gazed upon the Perseid Meteor Shower
    from Crater Lake,
    what felt like North America’s eardrum,
    lying with my back on a blanket,
    staring above the forest fire haze.
My lover stole me to farmer’s markets
    and found the deepest, juiciest oranges
    dropped them in our canvass totes
    with muscular black kale
    and the bulbous eggplant we planned to devour that evening.
We jump on each other like stanzas
we link arms like words
we breed doubt like commas
we quickly die after short lives like periods
but not until after we have shaped worlds together!
Solar systems, galaxies
gravitating in and out
towards and apart
constellations that change shape
    from Orion to the Little Dipper
with bouts of cosmic inspiration.

New Story: A Short Folk Tale

2013-03-18T16:28:00.002-04:00

-->

I've been hard at work on a fantasy novel lately, which I why I haven't been sharing shorts stories much lately. I hope to be finished (with the 2nd draft at least) by the time I'm in law school this fall. But I also decided that I have written enough folk tales within that fantasy world that they merit a fleshed out compilation, so I have a new short folk tale to share with you all. I hope to write a large number of these in the future (currently I have three) so be on the lookout for more! This one comes from the Eastern Islands, an archipelago of small islands in the southeast with a mild climate.

Rogar and the Wind Spirit

The young girl Rogar had loved since they were children reached an age suitable to wed. Her father, a wealthy baron, declared that the winner of a grand tournament of strength would earn her hand because he wished his grandchildren to be warriors of legendary might.

The tournament drew fine warriors from across many islands, for the young girl was lovely and fair and attracted many suitors. But Rogar was skinny and short, and he could never hope to succeed in a contest of strength.

Rogar was distraught. He walked along the ocean side, kicking sand and weeping. There he came upon a Wind Spirit who sat on the water’s edge contemplating death.

“What is it you think on, Spirit?” asked Rogar.

“I think on death,” the Spirit replied. “I wonder why the lives of men must end while mine endures. Since the Beginning everything of this world rots and decays but I, for I am wind, and when I am powerful the world’s creations bend at my whims and when I am soft as a whisper my embrace warms the living and calms the seas. What it feels like to die and feel no more is unknown to me. What is it you think on, human?”

“I think on strength,” Rogar replied. “The woman I love is being auctioned to the strongest of men, but look on me! The skin on my flabby arms sag and my knobby knees tremble supporting my small girth. I can hardly lift a sword nor cast a line to sea. What it feels like to be strong enough to fight for the one I love is unknown to me.”

“I possess the strength you desire,” said the Spirit. “I will give you the strength of ten thousand men in return for the promise that you return to me at this spot in the throes of death so I might observe its purpose.”

Rogar accepted at once. The Spirit fed Rogar a fragment of the Eternal Wind and bade him farewell. Rogar gave the Spirit profound thanks and entered the tournament. The crowd laughed at his scrawny figure standing next to giants of men, but Rogar smiled, knowing his secret.

None compared to Rogar’s strength. He dispatched of the other suitors with hardly a care and stunned all when he stood alone at the end. The young girl’s father proudly proclaimed Rogar suitable to wed his daughter.

Rogar and the young girl rushed into an embrace, but in his passion Rogar crushed her body and squeezed the life out of her. Overcome with grief, he returned to the sands where he found the Wind Spirit in the same spot, contemplating death.

“My beloved has perished,” Rogar cried. “I come to you in the throes of death. You may now observe my demise as you requested, Spirit.”

Thus Rogar threw himself into the ocean and drowned himself. The Wind Spirit ceased contemplating death, for it had learned that men are cursed with death in return for the blessing of love.

Bonus: Here's the action-packed 30-second movie trailer for the home movie of my 7-year-old roommate Kalmia I'm working on. Hold onto your seats!

Games and Activities for Young Music Learners

2013-03-02T13:32:00.002-05:00

Recently I went to the internet in search for some ideas for games and activities that would help an 8-year-old student learn tablature (a method for writing music for guitar or other stringed instrument players). I was surprised to find nothing useful for a kid, so I decided to do something that I thought I'd never do which is to post some of my ideas for music learning games online so other teachers can take advantage of them. I figured if there isn't much online with regards to teaching tablature, then the music teaching methods I've recently developed largely on my own based on some teaching philosophy I learned while teaching throughout college, studying for my TESOL, and teaching in Istanbul might be beneficial for some teachers out there. And once I come up with some ideas about tablature I'll try and remember to pass those along as well.

Also, just a word to clarify: I don't believe music should be taught from the page. We absorb music mostly through the ear and we create it mostly by a combination of listening and feeling. Written music is largely a way to a) communicate efficiently with other musicians, and b) preserve information that might be lost or forgotten. I wouldn't teach written music except when the student has reached a point where he or she has learned more than I feel is beneficial to have completely memorized.

Anyway, onto some of the teaching methods!

--------------------------

1) Spin is one of my favorite games to play with a group of students, although it doesn't work very well one-on-one. You need a lot of space to play this one, but, as you'll see, I often try and utilize the entire room as often as I can with these exercises.

I have my students, who at this point know two or three guitar chords, strum one chord while sitting in their chairs. Then I name another chord and yell, "Spin!" Everyone (including the teacher of course) stands up with the guitar and runs around his or her chair. After sitting down again, the first student to correctly play the chord I named earns a point.

The point of the physical action of "spinning" is to encourage students to forget the shape of the first chord - indeed, the shape of any chord - and start completely from scratch when sitting down, forcing them to reconstruct the chord shape without any finger positions from previous chords as references. Also, and more importantly in my mind, the spinning enhances the student's physical connection with guitar chords as well as the mental connection. And of course this game can be played with musical forms other than chords and with instruments other than the guitar. Later the students can take turns being the leader, which allows the teacher to make "mistakes" and "get caught" by an alert student leader, further reinforcing relationships with the chords.

2) Up and Down Game is a quick game that works well when the student leads, designed to familiarize a student with the difference in the sounds of an up strum and a down strum on guitar. It can also be used with ultimate beginners to introduce the concept of low notes and high notes.

It's very simple: if the leader strums up, the followers go up (usually they sit down at the start). If the leader strums down, they go down. If the leader strums up and the followers are already on their tiptoes (I try to discourage standing on chairs and tables), then the followers have no choice but to jump up, which can be very fun for a student who wants to repeatedly strum up and force their teacher to bounce up and down - even more fun if the teacher pretends it's torture! If the leader strums down and everyone's already lying on the ground, they have to press their cheeks into the ground. And - best of all! - if the leader strums up and down and up and down as fast as they can, then the followers look like bunnies, crouched and hopping in place.

This game can't keep a student's attention for too long, but it accomplishes one of my favorite things: pairing a concept with a physical action. This game is based somewhat on a great method called Total Physical Response (TPR), which essentially attempts to create connections in students' minds between certain ideas (be they vocabulary words, names of the guitar strings, letters of the alphabet, or what have you) and specific physical actions they either performed or witnessed. This game is a very simplified extraction of that method.

3) String Stations is a way to help a student become acquainted with the names of the guitar strings, although it could be applied to just about any particular concept.

First the students create 6 full page drawings - one for each string - with a large name of each string in the middle, EADGBE (the two Es can be Etop and Ebottom or whatever nomenclature works best for the student). If there are multiple students, divide the work between them. The students use the letter to draw a picture of a word that starts with that letter: E is for elephant, A is for apple, and so on. The students should make each of their 6 pictures very distinct from each of the others.

Then tape these pictures to surfaces all around the room. Use as much space as there is! Make sure the students know where these "stations" are, or even let them make the stations themselves. Then the teacher plays an open string, and the students race to the corresponding picture. This can be a lot of trial and error for students who are new to string names, but it's amazing how fast they catch on. And as they get the hang of it I can play the next string as they're arriving at a station, making them run nonstop throughout the room.

I've found this game works great for a couple different reasons. First, by utilizing the wide room, it provides a nice contrast to focused sit-and-play. Likewise, this game can wear students out (or rile them up depending on who they are) and prepare their minds for a coming focused exercise. This game also includes art, which facilitates even another connection for students between the music concept and something of their own design. It's very important to me that my students make their own unique meaningful connections with the concepts at hand, and this use of artistic creativity as associated with a musical idea creates that kind of meaningful connection. And, once again, this game is quasi-TPR, forcing the learners to associate a string's name with a physical area of the room.

4) Hidden Chord Stations uses the same kind of stations idea as the String Stations, but in a hide-and-seek context. Again, it isn't limited to teaching chords, although that is where I have used it most often.

The student can prepare papers with the names of chords on them, designed to mean something particular for the students as in the above exercise. Then, while the students are out of the room or with eyes closed, the teacher or another student hides the papers throughout the room. When the students search for the papers, each time they find a paper they play the appropriate chord before searching for the others.

Alternatively, using some origami folding skills, the teacher can have the students (or prepare beforehand) fold the chord papers into unique shapes. Here I find it important to use multiples of the same chord, using the same origami and pen colors for each page, further creating a connection in the students' minds between the exercise and the specific chords. I also like to put the chord name somewhere hidden so students have to search for it. Eventually, after enough times through this game, students know which origami shape corresponds to which chord without needing to search.

This activity has many of the same merits as the String Stations game does, although there are some important differences. Unlike with String Stations, this game requires more calm focus from students and less running around, even though the hiding places utilize the entire space. Hidden Chord Stations is often best followed by a game that uses more of a direct TPR focus, or just something that helps students get their yah yahs out. Finally, this game flows directly into songs very well if you have enough chord papers to cover each of the song's sections. Like a puzzle, the students can arrange the origami chords, once found, into the correct order for the song, creating what's basically arrangeable written music. (I plan on using a similar technique to tackle my tablature problem.)

---------------------

That's enough for now. I hope someone finds some of these ideas to be useful, and if so I might decide to post some more, perhaps directed at instruments other than the guitar or different age groups that aren't so proficient with pen and paper. In the meantime, enjoy these activities!

Vancouver, BC

2013-02-20T20:05:00.003-05:00

A couple days ago I made it back from my first trip to British Columbia, visiting Vancouver for the weekend with Courtney and our friend Rebecca, who did all the driving (thank goodness!). We were lucky enough to see the Chinese New Year parade, which we hadn't planned on. It just happened to be on President's Day Weekend (ironic that we spend a very American holiday in Canada celebrating something Chinese).

I think I'll tell the story in the captions of my photos, since there are so many. A lot of the photos aren't my best, really meant just for the memories, so stick with me!

Our first stop was the Downtown Vancouver Public Library, a bizarre building that looks like a cross between the Roman Coliseum and a hermit crab shell. We also took a gander inside and checked out (no pun intended) the inside architecture. We could have spent hours watching the automatic conveyor belt sort returns.

Entering the library

After the library, we headed to David Lam Park to catch a ferry to Granville Island. There were some gorgeous views from the pier.

The ferry was a tiny affair, seating no more than maybe 10 people and almost too short for me to stand up in. And our boat driver looked a lot like a friend of ours, making it even more fun. But for those prone to sea sickness, this is not recommended. While the ride was smooth, stepping into the boat rocked it uncomfortably.

I didn't get many good shots of the famous Granville Island Public Market since it was very crowded on that Saturday morning and I was being claustrophobic. I didn't really like this part of the day. It was too cramped with too many people, the food wasn't nearly as good as it was pricey, and it wasn't any better than any other public market I'd been to (see: Pazar in Bahçeşehir, or any other pazar in Istanbul).

The view from Granville Island

After lunch at the market, we took the ferry back across False Creek and started walking along the Sea Wall, a 9-km trail that encircles a large portion of the downtown city, leading to and around Stanley Park. Here is Sunset Beach, a place where we returned for an actual sunset the next day.

We walked along what I believe to be the northeastern side of Stanley Park and saw the city from the perspective of the harbor. That's when the sunset started to kick in, the lighting got amazing, and I shot some of the best photos of trip. I almost didn't notice Rebecca feeling sick to her stomach. We also stopped to see some old totem poles, but I didn't get any photos of those that I liked in particular.

The Wild Goose and her young captain

Across the way we saw a rainbow! And at its base sat a building that we figured must be the "pot of gold." According to the plaque placed at our lookout point, that spot is used for sulfur or oil processing. Gold isn't what it used to be. It is worth mentioning, speaking of plaques, that Vancouver was very tourist-friendly, with ample signs explaining everything in the city, from historic buildings to just about every bench we came across. It was easy to navigate and learn my way through the city.

The next morning we saw the Chinese New Year Parade, my favorite part of our trip which bore my least favorite photos. It was well organized, not too crowded, and a very fun spectacle. Here's a dragon! Also we got to shake hands with the Premier of British Columbia. At the time we just knew she was important, but we didn't know why, or even what a Premier is. Even after some research I'm still not sure I do, but it seems to be a little like a parliamentary government version of a governor.

Look, another dragon!

Some companies took part in the ceremony too, like this bank. That's when you got some stranger things.

These little two-person dragons were the best! They looked like four-legged beasts, and the head would sometimes swing violently towards children sitting on the curb, nostrils flaring and eyebrows flexing. Other times the person controlling the head would leap into the air, sometimes onto their partner's shoulders, making the dragon look dazzlingly terrifying. It was so cool! The people walking behind the dragons are the replacements for people who get tired.

Next was Lynn Canyon Park, a wooded park with a few trails a short drive into North Vancouver. We had heard about the Capilano Suspension Bridge, but Lynn Canyon had a smaller but still cool suspension bridge where we could forgo the $32 entry fee. Plus there were waterfalls! But otherwise it was just a normal regional park, one where locals would take their dogs for regular walks, and mostly it looked a lot like this picture.

Here we are on the suspension bridge

This is how high up we were. That's one of the waterfalls we saw.

The forest was generally very young, with some big trees like these as well as groves of small, young trees. It was very lush.

Twin Falls, the second falls we saw. I'm not sure of the name of that first falls. On that bridge spanning over Twin Falls you can see in this shot, we saw a group of young men measuring the waterfall's flow.

I also got to try some light painting in the forest.

On the way up the canyon walls at the end of our loop we got to see the suspension bridge from another angle.

At the bottom of the trail was a beach, perfect for summer swimming, where a young man serenaded a young woman on the guitar. I whipped out the wide angle lens so they wouldn't suspect they were in the frame and shot this 15-second exposure. The water is amazingly pure. Most of this shot's foreground is actually underwater. You can see the water line on the two large rocks on the left.

Finally we returned to Sunset Beach for the sunset. The sky didn't light up, but this bird did alight moments after I snapped this photo. A nice way to end the trip.

New Song: Breathe Over And Done

2013-02-15T12:37:00.000-05:00

As promised the other day, I have a new song to share with everyone! This song, "Breathe Over and Done," has been about a month in the making, partly because the vocal lines were too hard to sing as I was recovering from strep throat. Enjoy the multiple genres mashed together in my Cuisinart by clicking on the button below:
Breathe Over And Done (MP3).mp3

Portland Sunset

2013-02-13T17:13:00.001-05:00

The other day I made it out to the banks of the Willamette River and got some shots of the sunset over Portland. And now I present to you the evidence!

Also I'm just letting you know that I'm almost finished with a new song, which I expect to be sharing on this site within a few days. Keep your ears open!

Those two took a number of photos from that pier, making great subjects for my shots as they did so.

Best Music of 2012: Tracks and CDs

2013-01-28T01:15:00.000-05:00

I figured I should get out my finalized (maybe?) top music of 2012 before the Grammys get a say. provide a short list of 50 CDs and 100 tracks (actually 101) ranked in order, the first ten of each getting reviews so and a link so you can preview if you want to check out these artists.

Some things to keep in mind before we start: I ranked 50 records, but that doesn't mean they were all good. By the time we get into the mid 40s, I don't actually recommend those records anymore. However, they're better than most of the records on this list. I think everything in my top 25 is worth a listen. Every single one of the 100 tracks are good, though. And if there's anything you think I missed, please feel free to let me know in the comments box. 2012 was a great year for music and I surely missed some things.

Here we go:

Top CDs of 2012

1) Spiritualized – Sweet Heart, Sweet Light

While 2012 was an excellent year for music, choosing a top CD for the year was a no-brainer. “Sweet Heart, Sweet Light” is rooted in rock and roll with masterful call-and-response melodies in perfectly crafted rhythms sung by the charismatic and emotional Jason Pierce. There is an orchestral gigantism as well, with hooks repeating over and over as instruments seep in, such as a brass section or a string section or a choir, until songs last perhaps 9:00 long. This compositional repeating is not repetitive – the music builds slowly and assuredly until it the sound can’t possibly get bigger, which it then somehow does anyway.

Link for "Mary"

2) Girlyman – Supernova

If “Sweet Heart, Sweet Light” is a clear #1, “Supernova” is a clear #2. It’s a record you won’t see on many end-of-year lists, and a real shame too, seeing as it is one of the most hauntingly beautiful and emotional records I’ve heard in a long time. Most CDs don’t have a single song that has brought me to tears. “Supernova” has two: “Nothing Left” and “Long Time Gone. This acoustic folk group sings with the purest voices I want to sing with in the stunning harmonies I wish I had written. Much of “Supernova” confronts death as the band processes Doris Muramatsu, their female lead, being diagnosed with leukemia. This record is deep, beautiful, and underappreciated.

Link for "Nothing Left"

3) Alt-J – An Awesome Wave

From what I’ve read about this record, you’ll either hate it or love it. I love it to the point of addiction. This mostly soft rock group painstakingly arranges their songs, creating unique musical forms and giving the listener new twists and turns right when they expect to settle in. For me, this means rhythm. Alt-J takes full advantage of double time, the entire drum set, and occasionally the other instruments’ percussive qualities, such as the guitar in “Fitzpleasure” or the upper register of the piano in “Tessellate.” However, sometimes this painstaking compositional style hurts the overall flow of the songs, most notably in “Fitzpleasure.” In addition, “An Awesome Wave” lacks the emotional power that sustains “Sweet Heart, Sweet Light” and “Supernova.” Still, the innovative rhythms and forms give Alt-J staying power. P.S. It’s also very difficult to hear what the lyrics are, and I’ve heard they’re weird. I’ve been able to decode “Do not spray into eyes, I have sprayed you into my eyes” and “She may contain the urge to run away, so hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks.”

Link for "Tessellate"

4) KiloWatts – Acceptitude

Another record you won’t see on many end-of-year lists, a record introduced to me by my roommate and thereafter playing on my computer whenever I worked on law school applications. This electronic record is soothing and entrancing, perfect background music, although a closer listen doesn’t hurt either. There are some cool harmonies and tonal subtleties that reward focused listening.

Link for "Meanwhile in the Cerebellum Hotel"

5) Debo Band – Debo Band

Debo Band is one of the most exciting groups I learned about this year. The 11-piece band based out of Boston has a close relationship with 1960s Ethiopian funk, although that is not what attracts me most to Debo Band. Nor is it the band’s innovations from the tradition, such as its inclusion of an accordion and strings that make the first song, “Akale Wube,” sound almost Irish. Two things set this album apart in my mind: 1) The lead singer, Bruck Tesfaye, is dynamite. Talk about emotion! I only wish he were featured on more tracks. 2) At its best, Debo Band sounds a lot like Peter Apfelbaum’s Hieroglyphics, the best band ever to be assembled. The grooves, while simpler, come from the same place, as do the harmonies. In fact, I can hear that both Peter Apfelbaum and Debo Band draw heavily from the same influences.

Link for "Tenesh Kelbe Lay"

Link to stream the whole record on YouTube!

6) Chick Corea and Gary Burton – Hot House

Here’s a pair of artists whose work I gobble up without hesitation. My favorite vibraphonist, Gary Burton, teams up with pianist Chick Corea again to do what they have done best for decades: play duets. Now, it’s nearly impossible for a record to measure up to 1972’s “Crystal Silences,” but “Hot House” does justice to the classic’s tradition. This CD gives each master jazz artist as much room to stretch as they need, and at times lets each take an extended solo without backup, taking even fuller advantage of the stripped down instrumentation. As a treat, the last song, “Mozart Goes Dancing,” features strings to juice up the arranging.

Link for "Mozart Goes Dancing"

7) Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – The Heist

I may just have a weakness for white rappers; if I were more into traditional rap, Homeboy Sandman’s “First of a Living Breed” would have taken this spot on my list. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis create exciting pop rap, but they have infused values in their songs that hip hop would benefit from: a passionate appeal for gay rights, a little more respect for women, or a glorification of thrift shopping (seriously, I think it’s great that “Thrift Shop” has over 68 million views on YouTube). As the album progresses the writing gets deeper and more thought-provoking. And the poppy beats are good too.

Link for "Same Love"

8) Killer Mike – R.A.P. Music

I find it funny that, of El-P’s two releases of 2012, the one I like the most by far is the one under someone else’s name, with El-P guest rapping on just one track (a track that sounds a lot like the mediocre tracks from his own record from this year, “Cancer for Cure”). But El-P’s production on “R.A.P. Music” is what makes the project excellent, partly because of El-P’s individual musical genius – the melodic grittiness and grimy synthesizers banging out funky rhythms – and partly because of how well he fits in with Killer Mike’s character – defeatist, angry, and often hopelessly pessimistic. The result is rap that sounds great with depressing lyrics that I find myself trying to overlook.

Link for "Anywhere But Here"

Link for "Reagan"

9) Brother Ali – Mourning in America Dreaming in Color

Brother Ali could put just about anything on a record and it would place in my top ten. No matter how good the beats behind him are, everything he says is painfully true. That is certainly true with “Mourning in America Dreaming in Color,” which features the best writing from the worlds of my other favorite records of his rolled into one: his anger at inequality and injustice combined with his endless love and compassion (how many rappers rap so much about love?). This record deals with his love-hate relationship with the United States, finding reasons to be either proud or ashamed of it (or both at the same time) depending on the song. However, unlike 2009’s “Us,” I didn’t fall in love with the sound of this record. While the title track might be one of Brother Ali’s best yet, the others, such as the brilliant “Work Everyday,” get by on astounding lyrics and adequate music.

Link for "Mourning in America"

10) Frank Ocean – Channel Orange

You’ve probably heard a lot about “Channel Orange,” as it was probably the most successful release of 2012. The R&B record (If I had to choose a genre) a favorite of critics writing in any genre and has made just about every note able top 10 CD list for 2012. “Channel Orange” is considered one of the year’s most groundbreaking records, which is true for four, maybe five songs. In fact, “Bad Religion” is one of the deepest, most passionate songs I have ever heard. And the lyrics throughout are well crafted and thought provoking. But most of the record is just filler for the superior tracks, and Ocean’s lovely restraint on the best songs loses me on the others. Then there are songs that include a dog-whistle pitched buzzing that drives me nuts, and “Pyramids” is an annoyingly corny exploration into trite pop melodies. And the instruments are too low in the mix throughout the record, most notably on the celebrated “Thinkin Bout You.” Still, my four favorite songs are good enough to pull the rest of the record into my top 10 (those are “Bad Religion,” “Lost,” “Super Rich Kids,” and “Sweet Life”).

Link for "Bad Religion"

11) Brooklyn Rider – Seven Steps

12) Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel…

13) Patrick Watson – Adventures in Your Own Backyard

14) Martha Redbone – The Garden of Love: Songs of William Blake

15) Janka Nabay – En Yay Sah

16) Homeboy Sandman – First of a Living Breed

17) The Tallest Man On Earth – There’s No Leaving Now

18) Grizzly Bear – Shields

19) Hot Chip – In Our Heads

20) How to Dress Well – Total Loss

21) Dafnis Prieto – Proverb Trio

22) Café Tabuca – El Objecto Antes Llamado Disco

23) Bombas Estéro – Elegancia Tropical

24) Spoonshine – Song of the Sockeye

25) Metric - Synthetica

26) Amadou and Mariam – Folila

27) Gotye – Making Mirrors

28) Alisa Weilerstein – Elgar and Carter Cello Concertos

29) JD MacPherson – Signs and Signifiers

30) Lionel Loueke - Heritage

31) Sam Sparro – Return to Paradise

32) Tame Impala – Lonerism

33) The XX – Coexist

34) Bat for Lashes – The Haunted Man

35) El-P – Cancer for the Cure

36) Julia Holter – Ekstasis

37) Sharon Van Etten – Tramp

38) Perfume Genius – Put Your Back N 2 It

39) Rick Springfield – Songs for the End of the World

40) Chilly Gonzales – Solo Piano II

41) Bonnie Raitt – Slipstream

42) Jack White – Blunderbuss

43) Mumford and Sons – Babel

44) The Helio Sequence – Negotiations

45) White Rabbits – Milk Famous

46) Sufjan Stevens – Silver and Gold: Songs for Christmas Volumes 6-10

47) Alabama Shakes – Boys and Girls

48) Lana Del Rey – Born to Die

49) Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid M.A.A.D City

50) Baroness – Yellow and Green

Top Tracks of 2012

1) Frank Ocean – Bad Religion

The line “If it brings me to my knees” is deep, tormented, and unexpectedly gorgeous enough to make this song my number 1 for this year. Add to that the curt delivery of the verses, barely sounding like a melody at all while hanging around the tonal for tension. A masterfully done track.

2) Girlyman – Nothing Left

The staggered rhythms between the guitar, drums, and melody, creating entrapping suspensions, made me think this song was in odd meter at first. No, just 4/4. And those suspensions plus their harmonies made the chords seem rich and complex. No, just standard folk/blues chords. And finally after listening to “Nothing Left” left a good ten times I realized the band was singing about their female vocalist Doris Muramatsu’s recent leukemia diagnosis, and the devastating build to the third verse brought me to tears.

3) Hot Chip – Flutes

This song’s seven minutes passes before you know it. The hypnotic dotted quarter sub-rhythm that does not line up neatly with the overall meter, coupled with the lengthy chord structure, makes this dance track sound at the same time repetitive and new at every second

4) Debo Band – Tenesh Kelbe Lay

This is Debo Band at its best. A very groovy triplet feel with a strong backbeat, and a fantastic feature for vocalist Bruck Tesfaye, who nails the anguish the love song is meant to portray. Plus there’s a fun jam at the end where a number of the instruments, including Tesfaye, get to improvise at once.

5) Brother Ali – Mourning in America

Ironically I can’t distinguish the lyrics very well in my favorite track from “Mourning in America Dreaming in Color,” even though Brother Ali’s poetry is my favorite quality of his. It doesn’t matter so much on this song since Ant’s production is out of this world and Brother Ali shouts out his rhymes with such intense ferocity I can’t bother to remember to listen for the words themselves. And then, what’s that? A little vocal harmony with himself on the chorus? That’s what I think of in music as a magic moment, something fleeting but is worth listening again and again for.

6) Alt-J – Tessellate

“Tessellate” is probably Alt-J’s most accessible song, and also the song that benefits best from their thorough compositional style and overall emotional restraint. I particularly like the effect of the breakdowns on the overall form, the use of entire spectrum of tonal sound (from bass to treble), and the space the band gives the main groove to breathe.

7) Spiritualized – Mary

“Sweet Heart, Sweet Light” is filled with delicious hooks, humungous arrangements, and long jams. “Mary” just happens to be my favorite of those. I appreciate the rhythm plodding forward and I love the chaos of the main jam, with Jason Pierce screaming “Mary!” in unison with a dirty tenor sax. And when it winds down, he sounds like he’s sobbing.

8) El-P – For My Upstairs Neighbor (Mum’s The Word)

This song is my favorite type of beat making from El-P, where his very electronic keyboards produce funky chord progressions (plus it does that rare thing where the chords never fully resolve, which thrills me). Still, the words are weird at first: the chorus repeats, “If you kill him I won’t tell.” It makes sense with the verses. The first verse is EL-P rapping to the police that he has no information that will help them solve a crime. In the second, he is all too aware of the abusive relationship going on between his neighbors, and once as he passes the woman in the hallway he says, “Do the thing you have to and I swear I’ll tell them nothing.” Actually, the song is a testament to the weird way in which New Yorkers look out for each other.

9) Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – Same Love

I am a fan of patient rap songs with soulful feels, and for that reason the music as well as the subject matter makes “Same Love” one of the best tracks of the year in my mind. The piano accompaniment is melodic and compelling, yet fits in well with the chorus and the fuller band that comes with it. And, of course, the lyrics are a heartwarming and powerful statement in support of gay rights.

10) Kilowatts – Hammerstrings/Meanwhile at the Cerebellum Hotel

Two tracks from “Acceptitude” find their way to my list because of how seamlessly they flow into each other. If I had to choose one it would be “Cerebellum Hotel,” because it hits a little harder and has a bluesier melody, but it feels like a second movement of the subtler “Hammerstrings,” with same key and tempo. The soft synthesizers jam well over this electronic take on a triplet swing feel.

11) Julia Holter – Goddess Eyes II

In general “Ekstasis” was too over-the-top weird for me to warm up to, but a couple tracks were fantastic, such as “Goddess Eyes II.” It features unobtrusive electronics to back her largely indistinctive vocals (I think the choir of Holters sings “I can see you but my eyes are not allowed to cry” for most of the song). The song makes a nice groove and her unique sound makes it a worthwhile listen.

12) Killer Mike – Anywhere But Here

Not “Reagan?” Yes, I did like the most popular song from “R.A.P. Music” a lot, but “Anywhere But Here” has a couple things going for it. Once again, it’s my favorite style of beat making from El-P (whose fingerprints are all over the entire record): very accessible with great rhythm in the bass and a sweet, dirty overall sound. In addition, Killer Mike uses an unusual yet tasty rhythmic scheme to express his clever and cynical rhymes.

13) Fiona Apple – Hot Knife

14) Girlyman – Long Time Gone

15) Tame Impala – It Feels Like We Only Go Backwards

16) Café Tabuca – De Este Lado Del Camino

17) Killer Mike – Reagan

18) Brother Ali – Work Everyday

19) Frank Ocean – Super Rich Kids

20) Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know

21) Sufjan Stevens – Justice Delivers Its Death (Silver and Gold)

22) Patrick Watson – Morning Sheets

23) Spoonshine – Robin

24) White Rabbits – Hold It To The Fire

25) Bat for Lashes – All My Gold

26) Alt-J – Breezeblocks

27) Chick Corea and Gary Burton – My Ship

28) Spiritualized – Too Late

29) Gotye – I Feel Better

30) Jack White – Love Interruption

31) Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – Thrift Store

32) Homeboy Sandman – Illuminati

33) Frank Ocean – Sweet Life

34) Julia Holter – Moni Mon Amie

35) Frank Ocean – Lost

36) Rick Springfield - Depravity

37) Homeboy Sandman – Eclipsed

38) Girlyman – Supernova

39) Killer Mike – Southern Fried

40) Fiona Apple – Every Single Night

41) Brooklyn Rider – Together Into This Unknowable Night

42) Bat for Lashes – Laura

43) Janka Nabay – Somebody

44) Spoonshine – Bound Away

45) Grizzly Bear – A Simple Answer

46) How To Dress Well – Cold Nites

47) Spiritualized – So Long You Pretty Thing

48) Amadou and Mariam – Metemya

49) Dafnis Prieto Proverb Trio – Dirty Us

50) Tame Impala – Elephant

51) Homeboy Sandman – Mine All Mine

52) Patrick Watson – Lighthouse

53) Debo Band – Not Just A Song

54) Spiritualized – Headed For The Top Now

55) Alt-J – Taro

56) Lionel Loueke – Freedom Dance

57) Alt-J – Blood Flood

58) Debo Band – And Lay

59) Fiona Apple – Valentine

60) Sharon Van Etten – Serpents

61) Bomba Estero – Bailar Conmigo

62) Alt-J – Fitzpleasure

63) Homeboy Sandman – Not Really

64) Bomba Estero – Caribbean Power

65) Spiritualized – Hey Jane

66) Patrick Watson – The Quiet Crowd

67) Martha Redbone – On Another’s Sorrow

68) Grizzly Bear – Gun-Shy

69) Debo Band – DC Flower

70) Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – Can’t Hold Us

71) Janka Nabay – Feba

72) Metric – The Void

73) Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – A Wake

74) Sharon Van Etten – We Are Fine

75) Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – Starting Over

76) Dafnis Prieto Proverb Trio – Into The Light Love

77) Debo Band – Akale Wube

78) Café Tacuba – Pájaros

79) Martha Redbone – Poison Tree

80) Spiritualized – Life Is A Problem

81) Jack White – I’m Shakin’

82) Bomba Estero – Pájaros

83) Rick Springfield – I Hate Myself

84) Lana Del Rey – Blue Jeans

85) Dafnis Prieto Proverb Trio – In War

86) Sharon Van Etten – Warsaw

87) Brooklyn Rider – Seven Steps

88) Killer Mike – Ghetto Gospel

89) Homeboy Sandman – For The Kids

90) Killowatts – Windsong

91) Rick Springfield – Love Screws Me Up

92) Metric – Artificial Nocturne

93) Bomba Estero – El Alma Y El Cuerpo

94) Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – Wing$

95) Martha Redbone – The Garden of Love

96) Café Tabuca – Aprovéchate

97) Spiritualized – Get What You Deserve

98) Patrick Watson – Adventures in Your Own Backyard

99) Fiona Apple – Anything We Want

100) Sam Sparro – Yellow Orange Rays

Snowshoeing!

2013-01-24T15:14:00.001-05:00

Last weekend I got my first ever taste of the strange and wonderful sport of snowshoeing. Courtney and I and a couple friends went on a guided hike through the Mount St. Helens wilderness on the way to a couple gorgeous views of the mountain and eventually to June Lake and the 74-foot waterfall that feeds it.

A couple of things about snowshoeing before I show the photos:

Snowshoes are not hard to walk in. They are long, wide, and flat, but in the snow they are the best for walking on lots of feet of snow. It feels like walking with your normal shoes. And there's quite a bit of agility when climbing or descending hills.
In the mountains, we encountered something called "the inversion," which means it was warmer while hiking in the snow than it was in the Portland parking lot where we met our guide in the morning. In other words, while my friends in Portland were huddled under blankets and drinking tea in the fog, I was in my T-shirt snapping photos of a partially frozen lake while standing on who knows how many feet of snow. Breezes were as warm as summer. Wild, huh?
We had great snowshoeing conditions. Not much slippery ice as we may have expected, and a lot of the snow had been packed down by hikers before us making the trail easy to follow. Plus skies were as clear as could be.
Thanks to the high reflectivity of snow, photos were hard to come by. June Lake is tucked into the rocks just out of view of Mount St. Helens, and June Lake Falls was completely shaded when we stopped there for lunch. The contrast between the shade and direct sunshine on the snow is my excuse for not getting great shots. Compounding all this was my surprise at there being a waterfall at all - I hadn't come prepared with a tripod.
But who cares about the lack of great shots? It was a blast!

So I hope you don't mind the double post day and enjoy double the photos for one day:

Courtney and I with Mount St. Helens behind us

Mount St. Helens view. If we kept going on the June Lake trail, eventually we'd make it to the top of the mountain. In fact, in the parking lot we met someone who had hiked that morning to the top of the mountain and skied down.

More Mount St. Helens. It's mountains.

On the trail to June Lake

Courtney's having fun

The shoes were easy to use, but only once we figured out how to put them on. We all needed some amount of help. That's our friend Rebecca in the front not needing any help.

June Lake and June Lake Falls. I didn't dare walk on the ice, though judging by those footprints there are those who did

Our group sits down for lunch. Now that I look, I guess I was the only one actually wearing nothing over my T-shirt. You can also see my shadow in this one.

A little bit of waterfall reflection. This is as close as I managed to get to the lake.

Our group eating lunch by the lake. From left to right: Rebecca, Emma, and Courtney.

More Photos: Elowah and Ponytail Falls

2013-01-24T14:32:00.002-05:00

Elowah Falls

I took a trip out to the Columbia River Gorge with a photographer buddy of mine so we could catch optimal waterfall photography conditions, which typically occur hours before my friends are awake, let alone ready to drive out to the Gorge with me. Also it was cold enough to drive most people away, although just about all the ice from my last shoot had melted. All spelled out a good time for some waterfalling!

Our first stop was Dalton Point for the sunrise. The sky didn't light up as much as we thought it would, but I still had fun shooting westward.

Then we went to Elowah Falls, which is troublesome for photography. Climbing around here is one of the only ways to get a decent view. Still, the water is a little whitewashed here.

The trail to Ponytail Falls continues by curling around behind it. This time of year it was raging and there was no avoiding lens mist. Still, I've never taken a behind-the-waterfall shot I like nearly as much as this one.

Ponytail Falls (Upper Horsetail Falls) from the stream below.

The end of our excursion took us to a lookout just beyond Ponytail Falls. The contrast made a hard time of getting the hole Gorge in one shot, but this mountainous reflection shows a little of how majestic the view was.

One more of Ponytail Falls for the road

The Frosty Falls

2013-01-10T15:59:00.001-05:00

Thanks to an impromptu call from a friend, I got a bonus trip to Multnomah Falls for a couple hours. Little did I know I was heading into winter wonderland, the waterfall surrounded by an amphitheater of white ice formations and plants encased in translucent sheathes. Besides the meteors in Crater Lake, this was probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in Oregon.

Still, it was not without danger. The trek to the Benson Bridge spanning above the lower tier of Multnomah Falls was slippery and slow going - in fact, access to the falls was restricted in general, although people had no qualms about stepping over the caution tape blocking the way. On the path past the bridge and heading to the top of the falls, we saw some people walking in the opposite direction who had passed us earlier on the way up. They said they had seen someone farther on the trail take a slip, and if he hadn't grabbed hold of a tree at the last moment he would have fallen off the face of the cliff. That's when we decided to head back.

But it was still so beautiful! Enjoy the photographic evidence below. And as far as top music of 2012 lists go (because I know none of you can wait), I'm still working on them. Be patient if you can!

Upper tier of the falls. I couldn't get too many pictures from this spot because of all the mist swirling around my lens. Here's a link to a photo taken a few days after this shot by someone who was able to keep his lens clear.

Classic view of the icy falls

With my new wide angle lens, I can easily fit the plaque and the top of the waterfall in the same shot.

Individually wrapped pine needles

The frozen log at the base of the lower tier

Twigs dripping with ice at the upper falls

A wide view of classic Multnomah

Walking from the parking lot to the falls

Close up on the upper tier

The base of the upper tier. That boulder on the right fell off the cliff in the 1970s, causing cold water and stones to rain on a wedding photo taking place on the bridge at the time. No one was seriously injured.

On the trail to the Benson Bridge

A 620-foor waterfall casually looks on

First 2012 Top Music List

2013-01-06T14:36:00.000-05:00

I've got a few top music lists for 2012, but I'm still working through all the music I want to hear from the year, so I'll introduce them one post at a time. The first list, true to my pessimistic nature, is my 12 most overrated records from '12. In general 2012 was a great year for music, but, like any year, there are some artists who received a lot of attention for reasons I can't understand. Here are the records you may have been told to check out but I am warning you to avoid. This list should also explain why some records don't appear on my top records of 2012, coming out later this month.

1) Lana Del Rey – Born to Die

There’s an okay song and another that doesn’t suck (“Blue Jeans” and “Born to Die”). Do people like this record just because you can see her bra through her shirt on the album art?

2) Mumford and Sons – Babel

The band plays with great energy and harmony, but in two records it still feels like they have only written one song and just love to play it over and over.

3) Jack White – Blunderbuss

“Love Interruption” was a good song, and the rest of the record was either uninspired (“16 Saltines”) or cute (“Shaking”). Certainly nothing special.

4) Andy Stott – Luxury Problems

I’m not sure what’s so amazing about removing all musical elements from a song and replacing them with boring rhythms and aimless, uninspired vocals. (I had the same problem the “Swans” new acclaimed record.)

5) Flying Lotus – Until the Quiet Comes

It feels like he isn’t even trying. Such boring music.

6) Passion Pit – Gossamer

Any more trebly synth patches and dogs will start to cry.

7) Tame Impala – Lonerism

There are good songs, like “It Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” and “Elephant” (sure, add “Keep Lying”). That’s not enough to make up for the rest of the album and its terrible production quality: annoying at best, angering at worst. It might actually have been a good record if I didn’t have to strain my ears to hear anything but noise for most tracks.

8) Robert Glasper Experiment – Black Radio

Robert Glasper is okay, and his writing is okay. That’s all. No need to ogle over the Experiment that hasn’t yet produced results.

9) Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid M.A.A.D. City

His voice is annoying, his lyrics are often so ridiculous they might as well be jokes, and the beats behind him are only occasionally good.

10) Beach House – Bloom

Every indie rock stereotype lives! In no way does Beach House distinguish itself from any other band.

11) Alabama Shakes – Boys and Girls

If they work hard, they might sound as good as the BellRays someday.

12) Baroness – Yellow and Green

A double record avoiding the band’s best qualities in order to showcase their mediocre singing? I’d have rather listened to them play two discs of instrumental metal.

Cummins Falls Photos

2012-12-31T21:23:00.002-05:00

Yes, this is the last post I'll be making before we go over the fiscal cliff! Exciting, isn't it?

I've been recovering from a nasty case of strep throat followed by tonsillitis, so I wasn't able to get out waterfalling, or doing anything, as much as I would have liked to in Tennessee for this holidays. But the day before falling ill I made it out to Tennessee's newest state park, Cummins Falls State Park, to see the formerly privately owned 75-foot falls and tested out my new wide angle landscape photography lens. Here are some of the spoils I wanted to share with you.

On top of Cummins Falls: the 10-15 foot cascade before the big drop

On the trail

Cummins Falls Overlook. In the summertime that's probably a great swimming hole.

Courtney and her mother Susan taking pictures on top of the limestone of Cummins Falls

Ice on the waterfall

Looking out from the top of the falls

Photos From the 2012 Beach Vacation/For the Victims of the Clackamas Mall Shooting

2012-12-12T23:57:00.001-05:00

These North Carolina photos have been a long time coming, I know, and most of my readers have already seen these shots, having been there when I took them. But I would like to share anyway because there are some photos in the group I am particularly proud of, and now that I've fixed my photo problem from earlier I can flaunt my artist's ego a bit.

But these photos are especially pertinent for today because of the recent tragedy that took place yesterday here in Portland. While I have never been to the mall where the shooting took place, apparently it's not far from where I live and Courtney and our roommates go there from time to time. It's times like this when something horrible happens close to home like this when I think of how precious my family is to me and how devastating it would be to lose someone I love in such a gruesome manner. It was emotions like this that inspired me to write "Unraveling" and even though the song is old it's still relevant. So let's enjoy the photos of a group of precious people, listen to the song of mourning, and keep the victims in our minds as we celebrate how lucky we are that our loves ones are safe.

Unraveling

Austin, the newest member of our family!

Little Sophia playing with my brother

Mad Antz: Aunt Marsha and Aunt Jan

The ocean outside the house where we stayed in North Carolina

Nana, the star of the show!

Four generations: Shira holding Sophia, Aunt Marsha, and Nana

Another sunset beach shot

Another adorable shot of Austin

Throwback Photos: Crater Lake for the Perseid Meteor Shower

2012-12-04T20:34:00.001-05:00

It seems that the photo experiment in the last post went off with a smash, so now there's nothing holding me back from posting my photos on the blog anymore (for those of you who don't remember, I ran out of space on Blogger to upload new photos, as described here). So I'm going to go back in time to this summer when Courtney, Rebecca, and I all headed down to Crater Lake for a weekend to watch the dazzling Perseid Meteor Shower at its peak.

I'd like to get started by sharing an article, though. Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, is taking what's called a SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge, which asks people to try eating as much (or little) food as someone can get with food stamps. In New Jersey it's $30 a week, or about $4 a day. The idea is to raise awareness about the struggles of the poor who rely on food stamps and demonstrate the argument that food stamps should provide a greater benefit. I don't think I'd have a chance to stick to this challenge, but kudos to Booker for his efforts (remember, this is the guy who rescued a neighbor from a burning house, too). And it only took a couple additional clicks of research to learn that Barbara Lee has also taken the challenge. As if I needed another reason to like her. Sweet!

Anyway, onwards to photos and memories!

Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States. It was once a volcano, but the crater filled up with water (hence the name). Geologically speaking, this happened rather recently, only a few thousand years ago. This makes it one of the most pristine and haunting bodies of water I've ever seen.

The soil is also apparently very fertile.

This is called the "Phantom Ship." You can just make out the other end of the shore. Often Crater Lake is clear as can be and you can see everything, but when we visited forest fire season was in high gear. A lot of the sediment was trapped in the crater and made viewing difficult. But when we made it to the shore, we could see under all the haze. The water cleaned up the air just above it and we could see clearly across to the other side. Remarkable.

This is where we swam. Yes, we swam in a volcano. You're allowed to be jealous.

The walls of the crater. They keep dropping like this even in the water. Swim out about the length of a pool and you can't even see the bottom anymore, even though the water is crystal clear. It was the smallest and weakest I've ever felt. It was like I was a tiny hovering speck above an abyss, especially since I could see the gigantic rock walls shoot down and down farther than vision. A highly recommended experience!

I didn't get any photos of the meteors themselves - my nighttime super long exposure photography isn't quite up to par yet - but I did get this shot of Watchman Point, where we watched from, as we waited for the sky to blacken. The stars shot across the entire sky throughout the night in all sorts of colors: blue, orange, red, white, and green. Just dazzling! My buddy Kirk took a shot of the shower you can see here.