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Showing posts from March 31, 2011

Magical Moment 426, "Progress"

One of the last and most challenging things in recording my album with Modern Vintage Recordings, is the vocal tracking. It's difficult to explain the complexity that goes into singing each word, each  consonant , each vowel, drawing a breath a certain way, creating a certain tone, a certain vibrato, all while trying to make the song sound fluid and cohesive. It's a lot to think about and has certainly been an eye opening experience for me. That microphone is more like a micro scope , that magnifies every flaw inaudible to the naked ear. It's quite exhausting. So it's taken me longer than expected to find my groove in the process. But I'm happy to say that we've completed 2 of the 10 tracks now.  This is a rough audio of the completed " Mary's Lullaby ." There is no mixing, no auto-tuning, and no re-verb on my lead and background vocals. But this is it. After the producers work their magic, I think this is going to be an amazing track. I am espec

Magical Moment 425, "A Hard Moment of Clarity"

Some of my readers may know that I've been struggling with the decision whether or not  to go to law school . For the last decade or so of my life, I began noticing a pattern when it comes to my decision making. Some how, my logic always defaults to, "the harder choice is the correct one."  I suppose it began in college with simply choosing to go and graduate. Then I chose the military. And between officer or enlisted, I chose to be an officer. When choosing where to be stationed, I  had  to go to the 82nd Airborne. When getting out of the military and choosing a location to start a new career, I chose to be a musician of all things, in New York City of all places. It's the same even in the small, day to day decisions: I can't just go for a run. It has to be 4 miles minimum on an uphill incline. I can't just do a load of laundry then relax, I have to clean the entire house. I can't just write a blog occasionally, I have to do it every day consecutively fo

Magical Moment 424, "National Poetry Month"

In honor of April being  National Poetry Month , I thought I would post 2 short poems by my 2  favoritest  poets.  The first was written by my  Grandma Valencia . I have pages and pages, and e-mails and e-mails of her poems. She is musically inclined, an amazing artist, and a thoughtful writer. If you visit her home, you'll find her work displayed on her hallway walls, like a miniature art gallery. She belongs to a writer's group and recently, they worked their way through the alphabet. This poem, from the letter "T" is about her 2 great-grandsons. I think the image of a teddy bear tucking in 2 little boys is so creative and sweet. I'll be posting more of her work throughout the month. "Tommy Teddy Bear" Great Grandmother Valencia, February 16, 2011 Lovely hues surround the setting sun Twilight of the quiet night has begun Twinkling stars of shapes arrange their line Amazing black sky, stars, moon, create a picturesque time Restful sleep, my two

Magical Moment 423, "Be a Believer"

I never sold Girl Scout Cookies. I usually failed miserably at school fundraisers when I had to sell candy bars or magazine subscriptions. It just seemed weird asking people to buy things I knew they didn't really want. That's why I'll never make a very good politician or car salesman. But perhaps it's different when the idea you want to impress upon other people is something you actually  believe  in. For me, that is music. My music. So here goes. Here's my best shot. Just call me "Big Al" from exit 40 off the interstate.  There is a website called  Sellaband  that helps unknown, undiscovered, broke artists fund their ultimate dream: recording their album. The artist creates a profile with samples of their music and a plan of how they intend to record their project, and people can scroll through the thousands of artists and choose to contribute to their cause. They can contribute anywhere from $10 to $30,000. And for each amount, there are certain ince

Magical Moment 422, "'Texan' is a Foreign Language"

When we got our dog,  Joy , I spent a great deal of time house-breaking and training her to be a well-behaved, obedient dog. I'm happy to say, I think she turned out pretty well. She travels with Eddie and I all over creation anytime we go on vacations or to visit family. The first time we took her to Texas to see Eddie's family, we left her at my mother-in-law, Debbie's house for a while. I told her, "Joy will do pretty much whatever you tell her, so you shouldn't have any trouble. Just give her a command and she'll obey." Later when Eddie and I returned to pick up Joy, Debbie said, "For the life of me, I couldn't get her to sit!" I thought that was odd considering "sit" was doggy 101. Debbie went on to demonstrate, "Joy, SI-YET!" I laughed out loud and explained, "Joy thinks 'sit' is a  one -syllable word!" We completely forgot to take in account that very thick, Texas drawl! Poor Joy had no idea what

Magical Moment 421, "Fly Me to the Moon"

This video was taken at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn during the Play Me, I'm Yours project last summer. I had a music box that played the melody of "Fly Me to the Moon," when I was little. There was a ceramic girl watching a little bird that spun in circles. I remember the first time I heard a recording of Frank Sinatra singing this song and I thought, how did Frank Sinatra know that my music box played that tune? :)

Magical Moment 420, "The Critter Awards"

I'm nearly 28 and I still love to go to the zoo - even with no nieces or nephews to use as an excuse. I went to the Turtle Back Zoo in NJ with Eddie today. It was cold and rainy, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to have fun snapping photos of my favorite critters. The Happiest Critter award goes to : Cassie the Sea Otter This is Cassie's first nomination as she is a new addition to the zoo. She thanks her parents for making her so cute, and the zoo keepers for feeding her and keeping her energy up to entertain the guests. The Most Hypnotizing Critter award goes to : The Sea Horse The Sea Horse was also nominated for Brightest Critter. The Brightest Critter award goes to : The Blue Fish The Blue Fish and the Sea Horse are considered rivals in many aspects, but personally maintain a good friendship. "We work together in our goal to inspire awe in our spectators," said the Blue Fish. The Best Dressed Critter award goes to : The Peacock The Peacock has won t