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Apoc

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9 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

Wow there is so much to do in SoCal 10-12 days is not enough. Disneyland, SF Magic Mountain, Universal Studios, my goodness.

I'm glad you are so focused on the best that SoCal has to offer, and since you are, I thought that you might enjoy this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3ED_E-dtZI

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Throw in the Six Flags water park, 2 days in San Fran to see Alcatraz and the city itself and the entire trip is packed out. Gonna have to make quite a few trips stateside it seems 'cause I'm big on thrill rides and y'all got a crazy number of theme parks with coasters and the like that frankly dwarf anything we have here.

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Been quiet the past few days. We're on our way back from NC now. It was great to see family, and some great old friends. I'm itching to get back to work on some music.

I've already cut back on beer a good bit, but I think I may have to cut it out entirely except for special occasions - it seems to mess with my digestion now, for a while afterwards. Having said that, I did have a couple of great beers down there and a couple more that are coming back up with me, so this moratorium will have to wait just a little bit. :D 

I'm reading Philip Glass's new memoir, a gift from my mom. It's great so far. Makes me think about art, what differentiates art from entertainment, the role of beauty and the unfamiliar in creating an artistic experience, the importance of technique and education at the service of some kind of genuine expression, and (for me) how to find the time to cultivate the discipline to make the work I want to make. I feel like I have dim glimpses of something beyond the work I've already made and the skills I've already acquired, and I need to be able to see that and retain it with clarity. Anybody else here find that the internet is making them dumber?

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10 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Been quiet the past few days. We're on our way back from NC now. It was great to see family, and some great old friends. I'm itching to get back to work on some music.

I've already cut back on beer a good bit, but I think I may have to cut it out entirely except for special occasions - it seems to mess with my digestion now, for a while afterwards. Having said that, I did have a couple of great beers down there and a couple more that are coming back up with me, so this moratorium will have to wait just a little bit. :D 

I'm reading Philip Glass's new memoir, a gift from my mom. It's great so far. Makes me think about art, what differentiates art from entertainment, the role of beauty and the unfamiliar in creating an artistic experience, the importance of technique and education at the service of some kind of genuine expression, and (for me) how to find the time to cultivate the discipline to make the work I want to make. I feel like I have dim glimpses of something beyond the work I've already made and the skills I've already acquired, and I need to be able to see that and retain it with clarity. Anybody else here find that the internet is making them dumber?

Interesting. It is neither here nor there, but I don't care for Glass, except that the film score he did for a movie about the Dalai Lama as a kid called Kundun added a lot to the movie. Oh right, I forgot to mention beer is gross, and makes me feel bloated. So apart from that... on the subject of Art vs. Entertainment, well let me say this about that.

Art looks to me like a thing that the artist does for their own sake and the world gets to see it and consider it, where as entertainment puts the audience first. either could be both of course and technique and education can be put to good use in both arenas. Any pop song that you look down at for being a vulgar money grubbing enterprise has had a colossal amount of technique and education applied to it.

If you know what kind of thing you want to express, that is a great blessing Alabaster, and I'm psyched for you. Of course I look forward to seeing what you make, and for my part I'll try to be disciplined about my appreciation of your art.

Maybe we all need to spend some time digesting what we see on the internet and not careen through a bunch of content without taking pause to consider it.

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Happy New Year all.  Predicting to be well asleep by midnight - I start Dryathlon tomorrow which involves me being booze free for an entire month in support of Cancer Research UK but I may take a longer break altogether from the booze as I really need to get back to the gym or at least take better care of myself.  

Also I have a job offer to consider which would involve less time on the road certainly but not necessarily big enough a concern infrastructure wise to appeal to me at this stage.  Finally the new year will bring house hunting - hopefully for a place to buy but not averse to renting again whilst we wait for the right place to come up to purchase. 

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Happy new year everyone, don't get too drunk tonight. I myself am going to abstain from drinking I think.

As for Lemmy, he had a good run, but he himself knew he was nearing the end. He has gone to a better place now. I for one am not sad, do you really think that is what the big man would have wanted? Instead, we celebrated him the only way that seemed appropriate, we all got together, got nice and tipsy on Jack and coke, and blasted the Marshalls well into the night.

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Happy new year to all of my friends here. New Year's Eve used to be my favorite holiday, and maybe it will be again soon. A really good friend of mine, a best friend from high school, was murdered sixteen years ago tonight. This might sound like old news, but I can see ramifications of the trauma spreading out through my entire adult life. It's the loss that taught me how to process loss, not necessarily in a healthy way, and there are echoes of it in most of my painting and music. I've been far too upset about it to share in years past, but I feel like I'm finally starting to wake up from the haze I plunged into when I found out. It's taken long enough... 

I don't know whether I'll drink tonight. I'm tempted to go to sleep early and wake up with a smile on my face. In any case, this year and every year, that's what is on my mind on December 31st. Here's to Michael Gregory Crosby. Wish you were here. 

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Happy new year to all of my friends here. New Year's Eve used to be my favorite holiday, and maybe it will be again soon. A really good friend of mine, a best friend from high school, was murdered sixteen years ago tonight. This might sound like old news, but I can see ramifications of the trauma spreading out through my entire adult life. It's the loss that taught me how to process loss, not necessarily in a healthy way, and there are echoes of it in most of my painting and music. I've been far too upset about it to share in years past, but I feel like I'm finally starting to wake up from the haze I plunged into when I found out. It's taken long enough... 

I don't know whether I'll drink tonight. I'm tempted to go to sleep early and wake up with a smile on my face. In any case, this year and every year, that's what is on my mind on December 31st. Here's to Michael Gregory Crosby. Wish you were here. 

Damn dude, that's heavy. I hope you your night goes well, whatever you end up doing. Feel free to share, I know I'm not the only one here who would be happy to listen.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

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2 minutes ago, BlutAusNerd said:

Damn dude, that's heavy. I hope you your night goes well, whatever you end up doing. Feel free to share, I know I'm not the only one here who would be happy to listen.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

Thanks, man. It's a good sign that I'm getting to the point where I can talk about it this way. I wish you and I could grab a pint, in any case, and talk about whatever. Happy new year, best wishes to you and your family. 

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2 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Happy new year to all of my friends here. New Year's Eve used to be my favorite holiday, and maybe it will be again soon. A really good friend of mine, a best friend from high school, was murdered sixteen years ago tonight. This might sound like old news, but I can see ramifications of the trauma spreading out through my entire adult life. It's the loss that taught me how to process loss, not necessarily in a healthy way, and there are echoes of it in most of my painting and music. I've been far too upset about it to share in years past, but I feel like I'm finally starting to wake up from the haze I plunged into when I found out. It's taken long enough... 

I don't know whether I'll drink tonight. I'm tempted to go to sleep early and wake up with a smile on my face. In any case, this year and every year, that's what is on my mind on December 31st. Here's to Michael Gregory Crosby. Wish you were here. 

Heavy stuff, it's never easy losing someone you care about, I still get down from time to time over losing my childhood best friend in a hit and run nearly 20 years ago so I know how rough things can get.

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2 minutes ago, BlutAusNerd said: Damn dude, that's heavy. I hope you your night goes well, whatever you end up doing. Feel free to share, I know I'm not the only one here who would be happy to listen.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

Thanks, man. It's a good sign that I'm getting to the point where I can talk about it this way. I wish you and I could grab a pint, in any case, and talk about whatever. Happy new year, best wishes to you and your family. 

That would be rad, and at some point, we WILL make it happen! I'll only allow you to drink Belgians and listen to Morbid Angel though... [emoji39]

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

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