Dr. Whatsit

My sister and wife have gotten hooked on a silly British show about a hipster who travels through time in a phone booth.  Now, the opening theme features a theremin, which I can appreciate, but the show itself is an odd mix of sci fi and humor.  I watch it with them sometimes, just to make fun of it, of course...I don't actually like it...I've got far more important things to do with my time....you didn't really think I liked it, did you?

Well, at Sarah's request, I've played around with the Dr. Who theme a bit tonight.  theremin and synthesized strings have been replaced with Hammond organ and lapsteel.  Enjoy:

Dr Whatsit by are.kay.more

Turtle Power

In the beginning of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, he recounts the story of a scientist who gave a public lecture on astronomy.  He described the basic orbits of the heavenly bodies in our solar system.  After he finished lecture, an old woman disputed the truthfulness of his presentation, noting that the world rides, in actuality, on the back of a giant turtle.  In response the scientist asked, "What is the tortoise standing on?"  The old woman said, "You're very clever, young man, very clever, but it's turtles all the way down!"

And, here is the above-mentioned picture of me playing steel guitar today:

Turtles all the way down by are.kay.more

Cute and fuzzy and flat, for easy shipping

So, this is the word part.

This is a blog, so there's really no getting out of the word part.

As much as I would like to skip the word part altogether tonight, it is necessary for context.  With the wordishly presented context, the listener can be prepared for the musical moment to come.  Without the words, and the context they give, there could be some amount of mental or emotional jarring if one were to jump right into the musical piece unprepared.  

That said, I wanted to improvise a bit on the piano tonight.  Early in college one of my favorite things was to sit in a practice room for a couple of hours and play through branches of ideas on the piano.  I improvised a bit with piano and synth, and then added a couple more layers, including percussion on a guitar body.  Don't be fooled by the name, this is original, even though there's a Mozart aria from the Magic Flute by the same name ("Klage des derjenige Kätzchen zerquetscht").

Lament of the kitty crusher by are.kay.more

it's Wednesday night, the conditions are perfect...

This week my family is gone to Memphis while I'm staying home to work.  The prospect of free time is usually exciting, but I always end up missing them as soon as they leave.  It's working out, though, and Sarah and the kids are getting some good grand parent time while I try to get some work projects wrapped up before the baby comes. 

This piece has strange instrumentation: two bass guitars, a ukulele, piano, drum samples (electronic drums), and a pencil scraped against a pen.   It reminds me a bit of my family, though.  It starts out with a single instrument alone and others join one by one as time passes.  It's short, but pleasant.  Enjoy:

Family Tree by are.kay.more