Listening to...

Listening to: Beck: Sea Change
Mood: Tired and unmotivated
Comments: I intended to write the BRB fans this evening and let them know how important their support has been and continues to be this December but the mood changed after a long workout and late dinner
Link: Here's the blog of someone really special to me: Please check out just in élan and maybe I'll get them to write start plugging the Billy Riggs Band.

Better to have loved and lost...

There's lots to say about lost love... Unrequited, unresponsive, etc etc etc.. The possibilities are endless and fascinating. Personally, I just had someone dump me who I wasn't really dating - pretty amazing! Quite an existential experience especially if I've really reserved my heart for someone else... So I think I'll poor salt on any wounds that might exist with some lines from Tennyson... Rumor is, that he was borrowing from Saint Augustine, might have been quoting him from 1,500 years before, but only in the most proper Queen's English of course:

Lord Alfred Tennyson
In Memoriam A.H.H. - XXVII

I envy not in any moods
The captive void of noble rage,
The linnet born within the cage,
That never knew the summer woods:

I envy not the beast that takes
His license in the field of time,
Unfetter'd by the sense of crime,
To whom a conscience never wakes;

Nor, what may count itself as blest,
The heart that never plighted troth
But stagnates in the weeds of sloth;
Nor any want-begotten rest.

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

Doughnut Hole Downtowns in the Midwest

I'm going to jump up on my soapbox and talk really quickly about something that has been bothering the heck out me - the value (or lack there of in some places)as land as a commodity. The past few days I have been discovering the insane amount of suburban development that has been occurring around my hometown in the Louisville, KY metro the past year and a half since I moved to San Francisco.

New homes are being built at an astonishing rate and developing is pushing further and further away from the old city center's I knew in my youth. There are highways being built to facilitate traffic flow and make the suburban commute even easier. Strip malls and theaters are going up where cornfields and forests one stood, only miles away from where they used to be located. Although there has been much emphasis on creating a downtown that is a commercial, cultural and creative hub especially in the City of Louisville, many smaller towns in the metro, are finding residential flight and little redevelopment in their commercial central business districts (CBDs), thus they are becoming doughnut-hole-like satellite cities, surrounding a central hub such as the city of Louisville.

Educated urban planners call this phenominon"Sprawl". Commercial development happens complete separate to residential planning. There is little visable regard to providing for infrastructure development, conservation or long-term planning. Yes, maybe commercial should have been developed alongside residential all this time, but is it right for commercial to follow new residential further and further outside the bounds of what use to define a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). I attribute this sprawling development trend to the following factors:

1. Land especially in rural areas in the Midwest is significantly undervalued. While prices are high elsewhere in the country for land, in the midwest they are unreasonably low. High cost of urban redevelopment on brownfields regardless of contamination or a lack thereof is probably a large contributor to this. Because of the relative high development cost people are forced outward. Vast quantities of undeveloped land and carefully conserved "greenbelts" all over the place. In the midwest, these rings around cities were probably conserved more out of rural poverty than intentioned advocacy for the land. Still these "green-belts" are diminishing. In places such as California they have been preserved through things such as land trusts, but this is not the case in places such as rural Indiana and Kentucky where they are beginning to become suburbs as the inner cities become vacated and the city form takes the shape of the traditional doughnut.

2. Struggling farming industry and globalization of mass-produced food sources, has been a factor as well. Small-scale farmers have struggled to make ends meet for years while sitting on a gold mine of land to speculate with. Urban land is much more realistically valued in the Midwest but in rural areas land is plentiful and these days developing a sub-division on former farm-land as housing is much more profitable than struggling to sell crops.

3. The cheapness and simplicity of driving in this area of the country is unparalleled. The state of Indiana just widened the highway (I-65) by an additional two lanes and really with TARC as the only transit alternative, there is no viable transit alternative in which the community is willing to sink significant capital development dollars other than highways. People drive everywhere yet do not pay for the negative externalities of increased pollution, congestion, urban blight, loss to the landscape etc... It is an example of the tragedy of the commons and one of the failures of capitalistic, laissez fare economics where we fail to account for the negative actions created as everyone looks out for themselves, and no-one looks out for the whole. Simply implementing new policy written about conservation for the good of the community, could go a long way to solve this.

At some point one has to suggest other solutions thought to address the economics of the issues and I can see one in working to artificially augment the value of land as a non-renewable resource. (meaning land that is not the "built-environment") Through private or public land trusts one could change the value of this precious resource. In the meantime, I think it would behoove me to go and finish a book I began in graduate school Suburban Nation.

U2: An atomic bomb or balm?

In my mind U2 has always been a band unafraid to explore the fine line between explosive and a bomb, and it appears they've continued that trend with the their new album released November 23, 2004. The album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which I spent the better part of the day thinking about HOW and WHEN I would obtain, has 11 tracks runs 49 minutes and 10 seconds. Although I bought the simple, Best Buy $9.99, it also comes in a "special edition" format with a DVD and pre-loaded on a "special edition" i-pod both of which I felt were not cost-effective for my purposes.

So, my first impression is... pretty good. This is an album that I just HAD to have because, YEAH, I'm a HUGE fan. That said, I'd read in a few reviews that the Edge steals the show and let me confirm that, YES, he pretty much does. He does some wickedly creative stuff and even has a solo on one of the most "rocked up" U2 tracks I've ever heard (Track 6 - All Because of You) He carries the album from one creative moment to another. The guitars on Track 9, One Step Closer, remind me vaguely of The Joshua Tree, although I feel the lyrics are more ethereal and less innocent. Still, Bono is emotive as ever.



Maybe too much so. I have to admit I found myself agreeing with my sister on a few of the tracks when she proclaimed, "He is just so whiny sometimes!" Bono does drip and drone pathetically sometimes, but he is bearable here. I've had a lot of conversations lately about the band having "sold out" with their i-pod adds, but honestly the album doesn't warrant the criticism. (Plus I heard they didn't get any money from the commercials; they just believe online music exchange IS the future.)

Vertigo starts things off very strong, and the second track Miracle Drug is also impressive. I think track 5 City of Blinding Lights (with the Edge's signature delay) and track 10 - Original of the Species have particular promise. With a title like that (...Species) followed by a song called Yahweh, it makes you wonder if Bono has been supplementing his Bible reading with a little bit of Darwin on the side.

Overall, the band seems to fuse influences ranging from their War and Achtung Baby days to current musical trends and formulate 11 fresh new songs that really seem to work. I'm not sure that the album has the commercial viability that some critics are saying, nor that the band will win many new fans with the album, but they'll go a long way to please their faithful - and with a faithful audience as large as their's, well let's just say you're guaranteed to make a few hundred million off of album sales. Regardless, I respect the band, and am sure that like all of their albums that I have purchased, it will grow on me with each subsequent listen.

Mining Creativity

I remember a quote from Billy Corgan (formerly of the Smashing Pumpkins) in an interview with Guitar World that, "Moments of clairvoyance and inspiration are few and far between..." Most of the time you have to "mine your creativity" and really nature it in a more structured sense. (This is definitely a paraphrase so don't get all bent out of shape if I didn't get the damn thing exactly right.)

Anyway, today is one of those days for me. I had the goal of really being creative today, but honestly creativity doesn't come on demand. I'm trying to finish a follow-up album to my initial release by New Years. I have a lot of songs I need finish up with the writing on; a lot of lyrics I want to have profound meaning. I want the next record to be catchy and mainstream but to also to really have something to say, in a unique way.

I sat in a coffee shop this morning for a few hours waiting for a "muse" but I found none. Usually creativity abounds when I am back here in Indiana "hillbilly country" but I found none in the people I was with, nor the tea I was sipping. Reminds me of a Better than Ezra tune about being "overweight and uninspired"... So I'm stuck here mining creativity, waiting for "God to walk through the room" as U2 always professes. And I feel like I'm close to a breakthrough; close to something really great. I just need to have patience and keep on working at it, whether patience is a virtue or a vice I am not sure, but it is still something I am learning. So all I can say is ~ peace my friends. Thanks for your support.

Listening to:

Vertical Horizon: Go

Listening to...

Listening to:
Eve6: It's All in Your Head
Mood: Apathetic
Comments: Hell, I don't care... I'm pretty tired. Why don't you give me something to think about???
Link: Here's a cool blog for Pixar Animation

Over the river(s) and through the wood(s)...

..to grandmothers house we go. The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh, in the white and drifty snow.

Ah, yes, the lyrics from a childhood song... Seems like such a wandering, aimless song.so fitting after a trip across the country to be picked up by my grandparents today. I spent the day with them talking about life, politics and the future. We had a nice dinner of roast beef made in the crockpot - such comfort that made me rosy-cheeked, nostalgic and quite pensive.

It is fascinating to learn from those older than you; those who have seen music go from vinyl, to eight track, to cassette, to CD, to digital i-pods and streaming (my grandfather had this debate tonight over whether the whole ipod phenomenon is just a passing craze or a fad that apple is making a whole lotta money on...) It is also a little scary to hear their fears, and how they are afraid for the dismal world that awaits me in the future.

My grandfather repeatedly spoke of his dismay with the direction our country was going; with elected officials; war for no reason; lying and deceitful politicians; rising inflation and lowering pension benefits... he says he's glad he's on his way out and won't have to deal with the "criminal" problems that my (our) generation is gong to have to deal with.

It's true... I read portions of "America" by John Stewart yesterday, and we really are like one of the nations in the diagrams of his book: hovering somewhere between middle and old age, having an identity crisis that we are not the great super-power we once were (or thought we were) in that second pax romana we refer to as the 1950's. We are on the decline in terms of participation and services... and the population is fragmented, that I am unconfident that any ONE politician can make a difference and effect change.

I guess what this makes me want to do is find a niche; and go for. Educate myself in all the ways I can to be a major player and contribute to assistance. If politics doesn't work, then maybe it is ART that will. Maybe this is where the Billy Riggs Band fits in. I don't know. If art doesn't work then maybe radical action is - although I feel this that I have the apathy of someone who has grown up in a mature, peaceful society... and lack the aggressive nature and somewhat hateful spirit to be truly "radical."

Ahhh!!!! so, all this conversation reminds me of a song by Elvis that I love "a little less conversation, a little more action please..." It does nothing to help to alleviate the fears of my current direction in life any less. I am longing for a strategic direction, to get the places I want to go and "make a difference" but the lack of direction I feel is just disturbing.... thus I sleep tonight with the same pensive feeling of a wandering spirit that I started out my day with...

sleepless in the heartland of middle America....

Eyes inspecting lids

Up late and dying...
Got to wait on the girl who's flying...

Into the Hobbit Hole

Last night rather than stay stuck in my current writing and recording quagmire I stumbled into the most beautiful and quaint little hobbit-hole-like houses on the invite of my friend Zach Weiss. I swear someone had lived eleventy-eleven years there collecting stuff like Bilbo Baggins. It was so cozy and nice, there was food and beer, attractive/yet petite women - I swear I must have stumbled into some middle-earth portal. Unfortunately, I didn't stay as long as I wanted but hopefully I will make it back to that surreal place someday.

New Review from TAXI

“Adult Album Alternative, Americana singer-songwriter with a Dylan influence.” The music, “reminds me of early Dylan… with nice melody in the chorus.” The Billy Riggs Band has an, “…appealing style” that is both “lyrically adventurous and poetic… I really like the line “She’s everything in fleece and tweed, instead of an evening gown.”

– TAXI, The World’s Leading Independent A&R Company

Listen to Billy Riggs Band and buy the CD at CD Baby.com

Mmmm Brownies

I've been recording a lot lately... only problem is that nothing is coming to completion. I have practically another 2 albums done, and I keep getting more and more awesome ideas, but I am having a lot of trouble making introductory, partial ideas into fully developed songs. Honestly I've been struggling with lyrics lately and feeling anti-creative.

Ad for not so apparent reasons I've been craving chocolate.. Which brings me to an interesting tidbit of information. I would like to put in a plug for my old boy from Ball State University who has come up with the coolest invention - a pan that cooks your brownies like the crispy & good edge ones.... yep, I know what you're thinking "only in rural Indiana" but seriously, don't knock it until you've heard him tell his side of the story at:

http://ideashappen.msn.com/Entries/Default.aspx?id=3880&cat=3

Best of luck Matt!!!