I was sitting outside a Barnes & Noble in Roanoke, VA today. It was 91F, with some mad humidity. Then it started to rain. Just enough so that I didn’t even notice it on my skin, but instead I could smell the hot asphalt being struck by the drops.

That smell — the musty, hot, electric smell — it just does something for me. I love that smell so much! It always takes me back to vacations with my father. When I was younger we’d fly to North Carolina during the summer to visit my grandparents. I remember being utterly fascinated with rain that wasn’t extremely cold, and would spend hours outside as it rained, just walking through the lawn bare foot.

So this entry doesn’t have some deep meaning other than the links between memories and smells, but in that regard, I am hardly an expert, nor a pioneer!

Still, the rain totally made my day today. I thought that was worth sharing :)

I recently flew a Delta airlines flight where I was both pleasantly surprised and horribly annoyed.

The surprise was the safety video. I know, it’s hardly exciting, but when 90% of the videos look like they were created back in the early 80s, it’s extremely refreshing. With all the effort that airlines put into marketing and identity, it’s never made sense to me why things are so disjointed and broken. From the interior of the plane to things like the safety video, they’re all little pieces that I see as “tacked on” because of the inconsistency.  At any rate, the video was very well done: modern, well produced, and acted more skillfully than an 8th grade drama-club production (for once). Happy Aaron!

The terrible annoyance took place shortly after take off, as I was trying to sleep. Crackle goes the intercom, and through the speakers comes the shrill voice of an all-too-bubbly flight attendant. She is sharing her obvious excitement for the Delta SkyMiles credit card. For ten minutes. Repeating the same thing time and time again. I felt like I was inside an infomercial. By the end of her preaching I was freaking disgusted. I am spending far too much money as it is to fly economy flights, and instead of being allowed to sleep - or at least relax - I am forced to listen to an advertisement for a credit card I neither want or need.

The tactful way to handle it would have been to quickly announce that brochures for the Delta SkyMiles credit card were available, and to press your call button if you were interested in further information. Flight attendants could have then distributed said brochures without disturbing others.

The worst part? I know I have another Delta flight at the end of the week. Save meeee!

When separated from my means of creating music, I grow desperate and full of excitement for what could be. Over the course of days it builds and builds, and eventually peaks. It is then that I feel as though I haven’t a single obstacle between my imagination, sequencer and keyboard.

And therein lies the power of deprivation. I forget that things are not so easy to translate from a formless medium like my imagination to a cold, hard, digital existence within Logic, Live, or FL Studio. But there is something wrong with that.

Does my “block” lie in my process? The way I coax the melody from my head? I feel as though I shouldn’t need to coax at all! It should be easy and flowing. Like it used to be. Of course, it is not always easy, and I recognize that. However, should it be this hard?

So the power of deprivation becomes a wild card. Is it my block dissolving when not concerned with MIDI quantization, compression thresholds, and latency compensation? Or is it just me ignorantly forgetting the reality and gravity of my situation? My status as a tortured artist? I hate that term, but there it is. It suits me, and that in and of itself is pretty terrible for me, personally.

As The Animals so eloquently put it, “We’ve got to get out of this place, if it’s the last thing we do.”

I have been dealing with a thought for a little over 4 months now. Seeing as “dealing with a thought” is a vague and formless statement, I will elaborate — much to your pleasure, I’m sure :)

My last relationship ended on somewhat bad terms. Things certainly weren’t as terrible as they could have been, but they weren’t optimal. Heh, what is an optimal break up, anyhow? Never the less, both parties felt unfairly treated, and our parting of ways wasn’t the most graceful.

Today, I am OK, consciously at least. I recognize why things happened the way they did and see that — truly — I didn’t lose anything, but instead gained insight. I am not bitter nor am I wistful of “better times”. However, whenever I sit down to write lyrics or try my hand at a poem, I find myself manifesting those aforementioned resentments in the words that I write.

This is truly puzzling to me, as I am not bothered by the whole situation anymore — again, I specify: consciously. It doesn’t “haunt me” or pop into my head as a form of brooding material from which I pull hate and anger. It’s really part of past.

My only answer to this is that what comes forth when creating something is obviously not comprised of 100% conscious thoughts. I believe there is a real link between creativity, your subconscious, and perhaps even another parallel of one’s self. Thus, this still bothers me on some level. Either I’ve either learned to cope with it, or have justified it as logical so that I can function normally.

Seeing as I have just recently rekindled my friendship with the young woman this posting refers to, I do not want this to be destructive. I don’t want to create this piece of art that — to me — misrepresents how I feel. Perhaps I need to, though. It’s only healthy. Part of the process, as they say.

I guess when you’ve held your breath for so long, the only thing left to do is exhale. I can only hope that these paper ties aren’t destroyed once more.

So I’ve gone and bought a whole bunch of gear.

I picked myself up a pair of brand new JBL LSR432P’s for $1050 — nearly $500 under list. They sound freaking phenomenal. To make matters better, they come with the whole room treatment mic deal, so I can quickly eliminate hugely biased mix issues.

Secondly, I got myself a nice cardioid condenser mic, a stand, pop filter, shock mount (EVAN CABALES TEW!). That has led to a few test recordings with some jazzy 5th chords on the piano, and… Jesus Christ, it feels so amazing to finally be able to listen to what I actually HEAR as I sing, and not the tinny, dynamic mic version of my voice. I swear, 90% of my insecurities just disappeared, and the ideas are flowing in like a raging river.

Lastly, I grubbed up a new TC Electronic Studio Konnekt 48 as part of a package deal for $1200 on eBay. I got myself the aforementioned mic in this deal, as well as a 250GB external drive, which is JUST what I needed. Freaking rad.

So, I am swimming in gear; both the music I listen to and create has never sounded better, and I may just be able to finally pull off the productions I’ve always wanted.

Oh, and I want to learn the violin, too.

I love music beyond words right now. There’s got to be some way to express that ;)

So I’ve gone and updated my site. I grew pretty tired of the Ruby on Rails & Typo installation I had due to lack of updates. It was great while it lasted, though.

Here I am, starting anew, with the stock WordPress theme. Ugly, I know, but I’ll be working on it as soon as I find time. I promise :)

As far as today goes, though, I’m excited! My friend Jessica is coming up from Kirkland and we’re going to go be all touristy over in Port Townsend. Follow that up with this evening, seeing a show at the Department of Safety here in Anacortes. One two punch! *punches sky wildly*

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