Mu new Akai APC20. I dig this! It is a dedicated Ableton Live controller. I literally Unboxed it, Plugged it in, and hit record on the video. This is warts and all as it is the first time I ever used it.

HEre are pics of the studio with the APC20 in place

I had some free time so I came up with this. This next election will be horrifying as we are stuck with “super bad” and “worse” as our choices. At least Newt Gingrich is out, but still. I am so tired of the politicians being the problem instead of a solution, or at least an attempt at a solution.

I hope you find what you are looking for Newt.

Pepper looking up
from a place of pure comfort
watching the world
and contemplating

And that is a lot.

Pepper

In the rain one can sense the impending arrival of bad fortune

the darkness under the stairways!

Boys sobbing in armies!

Old men weeping in the goldhorn shadow of dungarees

and the blast of colossal steam whistles,

watch or Birmingham jazz incarnation,

who drove crosscountry seventytwo hours to find out the Time,

& now Denver is lonesome

for her heroes, who fell on their knees in hopeless cathedrals

praying who crashed through their minds in jail waiting

for impossible criminals with golden fortunes

It is in their lot we are cast.

***Done in the Borough’s cut-up style 

Crying.. (Photo credit: Anders Ljungbertheir lot we are now cast

What the Hell?

Frozen Hell (Photo credit: greenfday69)

What the hell are people thinking?
The state of the world today.

Freedoms are now currency
And not in the favor of the populace

Given away freely by those without
Just to take a chunk out of those who have

Hard work and effort?
Just dumb luck and undeserved

Freedom is now a casualty
of envy and convenience

and laziness and ignorance
Did you catch big Brother?

Who is your congressman?
Who got voted off?

Voting is now done by text
and choice is decided by privilege

Minority is the new majority
Happily accepting the box it is placed

PC damages the very person it is meant to help
the prison it becomes is overwhelming

Expression?
damaged

Thoughts?
controlled and criminalized

Freedom?
Gone in place of false warm and fuzzy

Is this our future?

Can we survive?

What time is Dancing with the Stars Tonight?

Hola!

On today’s show I talk about the first week back producing the Indie Music Blast full time. Hint: I am having a blast! I also slip out the news on the guerrilla street team I am assembling. Hint: Got QR codes?

I talk lasers an DJ’ing. And yes I am talking about performing! Hint: Riff-Cast!

I try out a new segment which does not go all that well. I go through my Google reader. The problem is that most stuff I bring up is picture focused. That does not work well in audio.

Ya know?

Sites mentioned include The Verge, Lifehacker, and Punk Strategy. Enjoy the show!

Cheers!

Oy matey, what is going on?

Lot’s of stuff  happening today at the command center of the R.F. Lucidity. That is for sure.

Lot’s of stuff  happening around the web today as well. If you have not heard, there has been a pretty big purchase in the web-world today as shown in this article at Lifehacker. Facebook bought Instagram for a bazilliogilliotrillion dollars, or something like that.

Now, I could do like everyone else and write a whole post on that topic as if it means anything, but I am too busy being awesome to care.

It freaks me out when all these techie types jump all over themselves to regurgitate the same story over and over as long as it is tech related. Then they act as if they are contributing to the collection of web media. Baloney!

Putting a link to something that everyone else is linking to and then saying “me too” or “I don’t get it” does not equal contributing to anything. Plus, none of this even matters in the slightest unless you own one of the companies involved, you are an investor, or you are employed by the companies. Other than those scenarios, it does not freakin matter.

Here at Reaching for Lucidity, we are all about contributing to the collection of web media. Just to prove it to you, episode 429 of the Indie Music Blast is out, and it is chock full of great blues for your enjoyment. By the way, listening to RfL Indie Music Blast means you are too busy being awesome as well.

You guys and gals are the best!

Seriously.

Cheers!

Oy, what is happening in your zone?

Here at the R.F. Lucidity Command Center, also known as the bridge, we have been celebrating Easter and being a bit productive. That is how it goes on this ship of steam-powered goodness.

I said, OY!

We got some grilling done earlier. We applied charcoal  heat to burgers, sausages, hot dogs, peppers, squash, flank steak, and an apple with cinnamon for desert. We had a feast fit for steam pirates. We had so much of a feast that we have yet another feast awaiting us in the form of leftovers.

Oy, indeed!

We hope your Easter went well also.

If not, there is always tomorrow.

Cheers!

P.S. I wonder if you noticed…

It is just after 7 am. I have been up for three hours, longer if you count the time spent trying to act like I was not fully awake laying in bed. Had a burst of creativity that woke me up and the muse would not stop screaming. So here I am.

Just finished marinating the skirt steak for grilling later, my cold seems to have finally released me from it’s dire depths, I have Adagio in G minor playing, and I’m enjoying the first cup of coffee of the day.

Oh yeah. This is how mornings should be. Screw Folgers, this is the best part of waking up. If Effie would get up, everything would be perfect.

What woke me up in the first place, the screaming muse, was some new ideas for the Riff-Cast. I was right on target when I labelled the Riff-Cast the experimental lab for my words, beats, and live performances. I don’t want to give too much away here, but I had some kick ass ideas.

So today will be part fun, part relaxing, and part productive work, for both Effie and myself.

Happy Easter everyone. I hope you have a great day!

Cheers,

Eban

I lurch forward, productively, at everything I do, especially procrastination.

I am sitting on the couch today nursing a pretty bad sore throat and cough and sinus situation today. In other words, I have a cold. I am attempting to get some writing done on my upcoming shows as well as the next Riff-Cast. To say the cold is making this a bit more of a chore than it should be is a understetment.

I have resigned myself to a less than 100% productive day. I am plugging away, but the bug is fighting me all the way.

If you are asking what any of this has to do with the title of this post, be patient.

The necessary but disingenuous disclaimer

You see, I have never been a fan of country music. I guess this comes from growing up in an area that was so steeped in the love of country music and my natural tendency to rebel at anything thrown my way. I know it is cliché to say I like all types of music except one particular type. Actually that is a lot like, “Only the Sith deal in absolutes,” but I digress, the statement is mostly true in my case.

I have always used another overused turn of phrase, “But I do like (insert Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, or any other of the old school country folks that it is hipster to like). They are cool.” If I do this in front of you now, you have me cold. Admissions suck.

What the hell happened?

So, back to the story at hand. I am here on my couch typing away in a less than effective manner and I have Palladia on in the background. It just so happens today is country day, or so it would seem. Since it is background, I have left it on all day.

I saw a bit of a show with Brad Paisley. I also caught several videos shown between shows. Right now it is Crossroads with John Mayer and Keith Urban. Watching this, I have come to a conclusion of sorts. True country fans must be a bit upset these days.

In all these years of completely ignoring country music something strange has happened. It appears that country music has turned into rock and pop with steel guitars and violins added to make it country. The overdriven guitars are there. The dance rhythms are there. I don’t hear Johnny, or Willie, or Waylon, or Hank, or Patsy, or Dolly. I hear Nickelback and Britney with the aforementioned violins and steel guitars.

Even the look is very much alternative rock with cowboy boots and hats added.

I have no horse in this race as I am not a country music fan. True fans, however, must be a bit upset. This mashup that is calling itself country must make them sad. This stuff I am hearing today owes more to Zeppelin, Bad Company, and bad dance tunes, or worse yet, Nickelback and Creed, than the  legends of the country genre mentioned before.

Go figure.

Any thoughts from actual country fans out there? I am really curious about this.

By the way, John Mayer can play the guitar like a maestro. He is good.

Although not country in the truest sense, I do love Graham Parsons. Pic by Reading Tom

Check out this spork from Triple Aught Design. The spork is made of titanium thus is durable and functional.

The game on this is the graphics. The skull design puts this over the top compared to similar, but better priced titanium sporks on the market. The price on these nice looking bits of cutlery is, ready for it, $49.

Similar, but less adorned titanium sporks are available from $9 to $23. (Star Trek Baby) Still, being made of titanium means these utensils will last. The design will also make them a theft magnet. If you are so inclined and can pull the price, check them out HERE.

True "Death By Food."

Check it out HERE.

It looks like Alistair failed his drug test. Dana’s reaction is classic Dana.

He is right about one thing. How freaking brain dead do you have to be? Seriously.

Riffell, the RfL Pirate Owl

The main Reaching for Lucidity site, the home of the Indie Music Blast, goes live at 8:00 EST this evening, but to build up to the re-launch, here is a sneak preview of the new look for RfL.

Here are some of the main changes.

• The Indie Music Blast goes back to five days a week starting on Monday, April 9th
• This blog is now my personal blog again
• The RfL Behind the Scenes and RfL News will now be located at RfL NEWS.
• We have the sites in place for the new RfL KIDS and RfL MUSIC, which will be rolling out soon
• The RfL Animated Adventures are back soon
• Our client services are back focused on delivering high level media to our clients

This is an exciting time. RfL is going to blast off again!

The new schedule for the Indie Music Blast is:

• Monday : Rotating eclectic mix
• Tuesday : Attitude (Punk, Garage, Electronic, and other high energy stuff)
• Wednesday : The Coffee House (Smooth tunes from many genres to get over hump day)
• Thursday : Rock! Need more be said?
• Friday : The Juggernaut, Hard Rock and Metal

That is the news for now. I hope you like the new look of the site. All the sites are now uniform. Please help to spread the word. You can subscribe by Rss to  any of the shows or sites in the sidebar. Also, you can join our email list. We will only send out one email a week, so don’t worry about a lot of inbox traffic.

We also have a Facebook fan page now. You can check it out and “like” the page at http://facebook.com/reachingforlucidityproductions

Thanks for checking this out. I hope you enjoy where RfL is about to take you.

Cheers!

Hey everyone. Here is another episode of Reaching for Lucidity Behind the Scenes. This is episode 5 and we have some big news coming at you from the Command Center here in the heart of the R.f. Lucidity.

First off though, we talk a bit about the movie John Carter. This movie had a botched promotional launch and was ravaged by critics. This I say to you, don’t listen to these critics. Hollywood has become a grinder. Don’t play the game of the grinder.

John Carter is a fun movie. It is a great way to spend an afternoon. If we can get the support for this movie up, we can change it from a flop to a success and get the sequels made.

Please, give John Carter a chance.

After talking John Carter, we have to big announcement about what happens with RfL com  April 4th. You will have to listen for the news, Let’s just say that sometimes you can go back. That is all I am typing here.

Enjoy the episode.

Cheers!