@th3j35t3r
I no longer remember when I joined. I also don't really care. This is home now.

Thanks Jester. This is my kind of place - more than any other place has been.

Suddenly I have a music career again. One of my old songs is used as the closing credits of a German TV show.

I get royalty checks for the first time since the 1990s. They're not big, but they exist.

Now I'm as busy as I've ever been.

How the fuck did that happen?

Need more sake.

I'm done. Gonna watch some anime now. Thanks for indulging me.

Moved to San Francisco, started a family. Kept recording, but mostly for myself.

Years pass. And then a fucking pandemic. I was invited by an old friend to constribute a song to a charity album. While I didn't know it at the time, it was mostly christian music. I wrote a song about a stalker. Recorded it on the cheap in my living room. They put it on the album anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeN-JsaTKNw&list=OLAK5uy_nIEYfqNWNqCtevQRieKCVgyBG7L7Fy_EA&index=21

Record label wanted me to be MIchale Penn at a moment when even he wasn;t interested in being that anymore. They shelved the album. It's still shelved to this day.

@Skafish and I have similar story arcs, and like him there is a light at the end of the tunnel - I finally recovered the masters a couple of years ago. He's well ahead of me and has a larger following, and deserves it. ^_^

Put out an album on a minor label after getting out of my original deal. No promotion. Welp, that's that.

I learned the genius of not only the classical composers but Coltrane, Elfman, Rundgren... I went to every concert I could sneak into.

Put together my first rock band, ASK. Played the LA circuit, opened for a few people you may have heard of. Took over on lead guitar.

After Koz beat me out for the Richard Marx gig I decided to concentrate on guitar. Band broke up. On a whim I recorded a dance tune on 12-string acoustic guitar, which some of the clubs in LA started playing. I got signed.

It might be the sake talking but I feel a need to put this all down right now. ^_^

4 years later I was at UCLA, studying composition and playing second fiddle to Dave Koz, who was a year ahead of me. By that point I played Sax, Piano, Flute, Guitar, and was about to tear into synthesizers in the huge patchbays - the school had a MOOG.

I wanted to soak in everything. I grew up in a small town with not much culture despite what my parents could provide and everything was new to me. The first time I heard Oingo Boingo I was in my car and I had to pull over. I was astonished.

At first I wanted to do jazz and musical theater. Learned to work the saxophone (thank you Steely Dan) and auditioned for the role of Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, because that's where the meat of the musical is.

Wound up playing Herod. I played him as a snarling beast threatened by the events of the day.

Then my mother saved for months and bought me a piano. A used upright she certainly couldn't afford.

Everything changed at that moment. I needed to LEARN - to PLAY...

...EVERYTHING.

The Cello was played by Catherine Lehr Ramos, who is such a treat. She is currently Principal Cellist for Metropolitan Orchestra of St. Louis, and is on the faculty for the National Conservatory of Music, Mexico City, Mexico

https://www.catherinelehrramos.com/

To music for a bit.

I come from a very musical family on my mother's side. My grandfather was a dixie/jazz musician on Capitol Records. My Great-Grandmother ran a musical theater in Wichita, KS.

I grew up listening to Hendrix, Beatles, Brubeck, MJQ, America (the band) because my parents were into them.

But my own musical awakening I believe was this song. I was into Chuck Mangione before almost everyone.

I wanted to WRITE stuff like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_miVStOXwM

@Coffee_and_Salt Um, pasta, cheeses and sauce?

😆

I just use a store bought maranara, but I add wine and garlic and water and cook it on low for an hour or so. Ad a touch of sugar as well.

Cook the past until about 2 minutes shy of done (I don't have a kitchen big enough for me to make pasta - yet)

Shredded Mozz (I shredded it) and ricotta. Layer it all up and cover and fridge for at least 18 hours.

Cook in the oven tomorrow until done, top with parm and then broil for a couple minutes. Eat

@Coffee_and_Salt Tanking notes.

I've been prepping a Lasagna for tomorrow.

Welp, it's cold and rainy and the food's almost here.

Time to break out the SAKE.

@singlemaltgirl Probably not, but it needs to be said, to his face, and I'm not on twitter and he hasn't shown up in San Francisco for a while now. Closest I'm going to get, most likely.

Don't be a Cnut, Leon.

#CoSoPolitics #politics #Crimewatch

Well thanks Todd in the Shadows. Now I've had that song stuck in my head for three days...

#TarzanBoy #CoSoMusic #Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRhpwOCJBrc

@gshevlin I'd say it's more likely that he asks for the stimulus money back.

It will be buried somewhere in the tax code.

Got a look this evening at the first video for the stuff that's I produced that's coming out in January.

Super simple, super complex.

Did I mention before that this is the single strangest music project I've even been involved in during my 4 decades plus as a professional?

In oh so many ways...

https://fmam.band/

@Kenneth_Leonard_Kirk I am now, as always, the Animeraider.

@animeraider.bsky.social

But I'm here much more often.

So instead of a child molesting trafficker as Attorney General we're going to have...

...um...

Vanna White 40 years ago?