HAHA.

I love this video... as a transplanted midwesterner, this is just too much. Portland drives and all that... Eugene's a little better, but man oh man it's ridiculous. After the icy Indiana winters and four years of living in Michigan, I can say I have never seen so many snow chains on cars than I have just in this week. Poor bike people though... they'll have to wait. Snow's almost melted by now.

The Arctic Blast has Passed.

Merry!

Snow has devastated the entire state of Oregon, it seems, and Lisa's schooling has been cancelled two days in a row. The following picture depicts Santa (the Spirit of Christmas) o'ertaking the tree (representing the natural world and the northwestern way of life) a la King Kong (which represents awesome).

The car on the bottom right is not really Santa, but a messenger sent to warn the nations of impending societal collapse. The lights over the window are just for show.

Ice Caverns

It's amazing how warm it is this time of year in Oregon... I rarely wear a coat during the daytime and there is no practical need for a scarf. We have to make our own ice and glinting spectral light, so the other day we headed out to Goodwill and bought some wine glasses for musical purposes. And bless her heart, on Saturday Lisa let me take home a glockenspiel from the elementary school where she teaches. With the aid of her back-up violin bow, the icy caves are almost complete...

A Fondness of Winter

Last night I wrote a little dittle that I'm calling "A Fondness of Winter". It had a familiar smell to the likes of Grizzly Bear and/or Laurie Anderson, I think.

Somebody's seeing angels, aren't ya
Some weaving through the raindrops, aren't ya
These wooden walls are crying for dust

When hair gets long
Happy homes sing happy songs
Changing faces
Happy homes will sing along

Its easy to for get a phone call, angel
They sleeping in the morning/evening shadows, angel
The winter's feeling warmer, aren't ya

When snow won't fall
Happy homes keep happy walls
No ice keeping frozen memories
Happy homes won't cry at all

I am wary to post these lyrics up immediately because A) they are due to change and B) some noonan might come around and pretend that HE'S the poeter. Screw him, folks.


Lisa and I went walking today down the long and legendary 'Leventh Avenue, dishing out resumes for any job - saltwater fish emporiums, incense-hazed CD barns, and local banks. Pray for success!

Thursday night at 9 I am playing some jazz with Dave O'Toole, and Chris Orsinger (el al) at Jo Fed's. The rumors are going around that this place is on the brink of closing, which would be sad for Eugene's fledgling (but dazzling) jazz scene. Come on down for an overpriced drink and some great atmosphere and better jazz! You are reading my BLOG!

Look! I'm trying to start a band through Craig's List!
Look! I'm trying to sell my piano through Craig's List!

Red Dots

There's a diddly little song that's been nudging me for a while, I've been calling it "Little Bird". It's clangy and full of twists and turns, and I am proud to hear some Deerhoof influence crop up a bit in my musical language. It is an actual rock song, something that is few and far between in my adventures - it will be a JOY to dismantle it into the jazz-folk bizz that I tend to tuttle around with. I've already begun to voice some Rhodes parts, and I have a few metallic pat-a-pans in mind for my colander... if only I had a disposable violin bow.

In the shower this fine morning, I saw in my mind's eye the radio towers that jut up on every other horizon and glow red at night. I started to riff a little about it, and wrote something on the shower wall in the steam. I forgot what I wrote, but I'm going too keep on riffing about it in my mind until it poops out something grand. I started to consider more dramatic and noisy possibilities on my daily résumé drop, as I was listening to Todd's A Wizard, A True Star on my eePud.

I went back to feel alone there
I went back to wipe it clean
I took the lights and radio towers out of my dreams

I will, however, openly acknowledge that it will be a chore not to recycle the image à la Microphones. AWWW shucks.

Halloween + 4 dayz = Happy - 4 dayz?


Belated happy Halloween?

Happy Election!

Dishes

I found my camera's USB connector. Now I can connect to YOU!

Today I voted absentee.

Luv, Sam.

Delicious

Today I had two failed attempts at songwriting... which was pretty good! I wrote a verse (later rejected) for a chord diddly I've been putzing around on since mid-August. The result ended up being... meh. I can do better - it's difficult to envision how the rest of the song would go, as that verse would end up being in the middle of the tune, most likely.

Next I diddled around with a deep alternate tuning, with repetitive chords, and hushed vocal. It was unremarkable, but I really should have recorded it. I ended up putting my guitar down, and forgot it later. The habit will develop if I do this day after day... and why not, while I still have time without a jobule!

I made Lisa and me a delicious Southwestern Corn Chowder thing... oh yeah! I couldn't remember if my cereal spoon was a table or tea, so I just approximated most of it. Turned out splendiferous, and we topped it off with some EXCELLENT Umpqua Valley Pinot Gris from the Wild Rose vinyard. OH YEAH!!! We drank from plastic goblets. Then: ice cream.

No TV

Shoes and then

I've been finding it very hard to get myself dressed in the morning... there's something about being without a job and out of school that sucks the identity out of us! I'd like to think I was my own person and have my own identity, but it is remarkable on how much we prepare our identities at the beginning of each day with others in mind. Should I dress professionally? I've been avoiding uncollared t-shirts. Do I wear my patterned pants? I've been less adventurous with color clashing in Oregon than I was in college.

I have no idea when I might meet someone who will open the gates and let me live my life. I long for this independence, but how independent will I be working under someone else's preconceptions? The need for steady money is crippling me right now, and I'm under no immediate risk of starvation. Pow! Sucks.

Music today:
David Bowie - Black Ties White Noise
Lindstrøm - Where You Go I Go Too
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
Air - Talkie Walkie

So... mildly sterile, but mildly soulful... I'm ready to be taken out of line and put back in. I hate my resume.

Heartbreak

We found the father...

This blog now belongs to a parent!! IT'S MY WEBSITE HOLY CRASP!!!!

http://www.samadamsmusic.net !!

This website has been an exciting adventure for yours truly for a number of weeks now (that number is a bit less than two, it turns out), and is full of kinks yet to be ironed out. But you can help! Just tell me what works, doesn't work, or just doesn't look good in your opinion.

My own mother already said I could have done "better" and that it "looks kind of thrown together"! You can't disappoint me folks! Be honest! Be unforgiving! Kill me with your terrible criteek! And if you have any shred of knowledge of HOW to actually make it better, chuck it my way as well. All chucks are appreciated. All.

This blog is probably terribly boring for all to read. My friend Bryan's blog is far more interesting to read. This blog at its best has been a personal internet dumping grounds - and sporadically updated to boot! I am going to try my bestest to fill it with volumies of insightful windows of mindfulness. I'm going to try not to be too clever while doing it either. We'll see how this all pans out, yah?

Brel

Check it out!!

Blogs are difficult for me to run, because I typically tend to forget all about the little profound observations I make by the time dinner rolls around. Here are some things that I can muster up as I get ready for bed on an entirely uneventful Friday night:

• I really wish these Aspen concerts were programmed in a way that the music seemed relevent to itself, replacing night after night of complete hodgepodge Frankenstein concerts that feature sub-par Dvorak filler and early Beethoven concerti with turn-of-the-(20th)-century late Romantic chestnuts. The best concerts have been shorter and simpler - two piece maximum. The best concert (Neruda Songs and Prokofiev 3rd Concerto) has been unified further by the common thread of a solo performer. Scattered, and long concerts might offer the most variety, but offer very little in terms of a coherent artistic interest that gains momentum through the course of the evening. This is why jazz and rock concerts are more exciting, engaging, and memorable than most classical extravaganzas.
• The mountains here are real nice.

Hmm... I guess that's it.

~Departánt!~

Goodbye, Lisa

Hello Lisa

I clean because I want to be a better man. Just look at that sparkle!

Love to all!