Purple point five

For those of you who don't know I've been studying the martial arts for a couple of years now. It started with me becoming an Uke for my friend Earl for a self defense class. An Uke is essentially the person that gets beat up in order to demonstrate a technique (it is also one of the best ways to learn). We would get together informally in the wee hours of the morning (between 1-4am) and work on things. After about a year of doing that inconsistently, he was telling me about a martial arts camp that he holds every year where a bunch of the members of our system show up and train for 3-4 days. Last year I went to the camp as a white belt, and after getting heat stroke (didn't drink enough water) and attempting to rehydrate I managed to make it through the camp and rank up to my yellow belt. Since then I've gone to orange, and again to my purple belt. After moving away I was no longer able to train so my progression in rank came to a standstill. I knew that there would be a camp again this year, and I would do my best to make it. While traveling 3 hours for 2 hours of class isn't really do-able, driving 3 hours for 4 days of training is much more worth it. Unfortunately the time I put in at camp wasn't enough time to let me reach my next rank, but I did go up half a rank. I look forward to being closer to my teachers and being able to train more so that I can get that rank. The next post will be about one of my experiences at camp....

6 down about 12 to go!

All I have left of my 6th class (Security Essentials) is my final exam. This class has been interesting, but the teacher doesn't seem to do much lecturing like some of the other teachers have. For those of you who didn't know, after receiving my B.A. in Music and taking a road trip around the country with my partner Auri, I was planning on going to the local community college to get a second bachelors or an associates in Network Administration. A friend of ours in Texas suggest the University of Advancing Technology (Online). This traditional University started an online program that is more specific than network administration; the program is a B.S. in network security. After this program I'll go for a number of networking and other related certifications.
While my first love is and always will be playing music, it doesn't exactly 'bring home the bacon'. Those of you that know me, also know that I am a computer geek as well. I figure I might as well have a day job that can pay the bills, and that most gigs don't happen during the daytime hours anyways. I am looking forward to where this path will take me!

The Town of Bellows Falls

The economic hardships of the recession have echoed across the state of Vermont. While some towns seem to become downtrodden and/or roll over waiting to die, other towns grab ahold of their community and chose to keep going. Bellows Falls was the first town I lived in, in Vermont. (I was born in Kankakee, Illinois). I lived in Bellows Falls from when I was 2 years old until the middle of 3rd grade. After we moved to Springfield I still thought fondly of the town of Bellows Falls. Over the past 10 years it seems that Bellows Falls began to renovate and revitalize their downtown area. Relatively recently though a fire took the building that housed the restaurant known as Oona's. I don't know if the Happy Cat cafe went out of business or not, but it was in the same building as Oona's. It was sad to see it go, but Bellows Falls had a way of bouncing back. For a while there was a musical venue in the old Windham Hotel. It was an intimate setting where people came to listen, not to socialize (an environment that musicians love to play in). While it is all well in good to have people socializing, it is great when people are focused and attentive.

Tonight I am going to Bellows Falls to one of it's new establishments called the Downstreet Cafe.

.......

The "........" signifies that I was away from the computer and actually went there. My sister and I ate dinner at the wurst place in Bellows falls. No I spelled wurst right. It's a little joint called Fat Franks. They specialize in delicious dogs, but as I am on a local-meat-only diet, I opted for their reputably delicious home made veggie burger. I was thoroughly satisfied, especially with their hand cut fries. Afterwards she had to head to a meeting so I grabbed my guitar and started walking towards the cafe.
I'd never been there before but I knew where it was. It was a little place, and when I first came in I asked myself "where do the performers perform?" The lady behind the counter said "our host isn't here tonight so it'll be an acoustic night." To which I replied " sounds good to me my guitar doesn't even have a pickup anyways!"
I saw a familiar face right away. Guitar virtuoso Julie Waters. She was playing a 6-string banjo that was tuned like a guitar, i'd never seen one like that before.
Someone named John was supposed to play first, but he wasn't there so Julie played a couple songs. John showed up and took over playing some original songs that were really really good I thought. Simple, but they had heart. There was a man with his son due to go after John and the son was extremely enthusiastic and eager to sing the Beatles. They had some fun, and we all smiled at how into it the boy (named Mikey) was. I was due to go after them but I decided to wait a few minutes and see if anyone else would show up. I chugged a glass of water and then started playing. Then I asked John "you know, there aren't any listeners really besides the staff, why don't we just go song for song?" So thats what we did. A photographer came in and started shooting us. Must be interesting to go somewhere where there is live music, and no audience. We'll see if we end up in a paper or something. I always say "a bird does not sing so that others will applaud". I don't know where I heard it first but that holds true to this day. It was a good time sharing our songs and listening. Towards the end of the night I saw a familar face come in. Kenneth Wright, a poet. He used to come to the open mic that I attended regularly at the (now closed) Morning Star Cafe. It was good to hear him read again. He's a hard-workin' new englander who shared some new works about everything from "hobos" and "sugarin' "
Overall it was good fun.
I have some academic work to attend to

Inspiration comes from lots of places

I've been feeling a bit discouraged lately living at my girlfriend's parents house for the summer. They are good hardworking people, but it is a challenge to live with another couple after having lived the past two years just Auri and I. Auri is working at a camp for the week and I am staying at my parents for the week. It is a week off from any sort of manual labor, but I am anticipating my martial arts camp that is fast approaching (next week). Anyways the title of this post is about inspiration so I will get to it.

Auri's brother Eli told me about a website a while ago that has a myriad of things to keep you busy but I saw a headline for a new website that had launched called YouPhonics. The main idea behind this website is that anyone can post audio in the from of music, poetry, speaking, really the sky is the limit. Once posted other musicians from around the world can then post a new 'stem' off of what you've posted and then others can build off of that! There are some excellent musicians on the site already (even though it is still in the testing phases) and I am exciting to see if the potential for this site is realized.

I worked on a number of things over the past couple days on YouPhonics. I posted a riff that was part clean electric guitar, part distorted electric, and a distorted melody. For those of you that have heard my music I generally don't use distortion, but I used to use it.....a lot. It will be fun to test my 'chops' as I've had experience playing a large variety of genres.

One thing led to another and with my 'The Weepies' pandora station going I was surfing around facebook looking at pictures that I could use for an album for my blog, and I went over to a friends page that I've lost touch with. Then I started thinking about all the great people I have met over the years and while I was in college. I miss the nights of hanging out, going to bars, having good food (I really want some good sushi right now), localized road trips that turned into day-long trips. Good times.....

For years now I've been working on writing music, and a few times I thought I would create an album but really I've just amassed a collection of songs I've recorded and played some shows around northern Vermont. Lately, I've been into writing instrumentals, and I know from some of my shows in the past people can lose patience when listening to instrumentals. Many listeners want to hear a catchy hook that they will be singing later that night. I want to record ME. I've let my thoughts of what other people might think get in the way, when really I should be recording my music. I have been coming up with some really great things, and people may never hear it or appreciate it if I don't record it. If I don't record it or play it out, I am not even giving people a chance to not like it.

So that is one of new side projects; to use Auri's Mac and the wonderful program "Garage Band", try and get my hands on a good microphone, and get some of my tunes recorded. Meanwhile I will try to use "Latest Chapter of the Dilly" as a production blog. To keep all of my 4 followers and random readers aware of what is going on. For now, I am going to watch a movie I think. I hope all of you reading this are in good health and spirits!