The Apocalypse Orchestra
I'm pleased to announce the beginning of two
exciting new projects-- A) much to the delight of
my family, I'm finally going to get my degrees:
an MM in piano and composition, and a DMA in
film composition. I'll also be teaching one class
at the University of Texas in practical film
composition as part of my DMA requirement.B) There is a new ensemble growing, called the
Apocalypse Orchestra. I'm not entirely clear on
the lineup, but it will be an Austin-only group, as
it is a 15-piece, and much too expensive to
travel with. A very quiet four-piece NFU, plus
cello, viola, 2 violins, ableton, 2 trombones,
trumpet, and saxophone and me, an expanded
and more rigorously arranged version of our last
Steamboat band. We'll be doing one date a
month, starting on Halloween. We'll be playing
many unheard songs, and I am quite excited by
this. Jeff Wells is supplying the art for our
posters. Sorry for non-locals, but hey,
you know how it is. This aint about the money,
and without the money, there aint no plane
tickets. But if youre here, I bet you'll like it.Also, on the 26th, 27th, and 28th of September,
I'll be recording a solo, and I mean solo solo
acoustic album in LA of some new songs and
some old, for an unspecified release,
at Cello Studios, my favorite studio in the whole
wide world, including the Palindrome, Conway
and Abbey Road.The Lost Highway thing is a whatever, for
reasons you may have already surmised. Ah
well, it looked good on paper. There's just no
money in this kind of music, and that may be as
it should be. This was never about that, anyway.I am daily overwhelmed with contestants for the
Travesty of The Day, between US chemical
weapons shipments to Saddam Hussein to
replace the stores he expended on the
slaughter of our erstwhile allies the Kurds, to
Ashcroft's latest Himmlerian rantings, to yet
more information leading one to the conclusion
that Bush and Co. knew exactly what to expect
about a year ago, and certainly knew exactly how
to benefit from it, in their seemingly
unquenchable desire for more more more, at
the obvious cost of millions if not billions of lives
to be lost in the next decade or so. So
overwhelmed, in fact, that
I will merely suggest you read this NYT OpEd
piece that at least puts our nation's and
civilisation's imminent demise into some
perspective, though that will surely be of hollow
comfort in the years to come, especially to those
of us who are parents of young and not so
young children.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/15/weekinrevie
w/15SCHA.html But the writing is surely on the
wall, and God help us. In the meantime, it's
music, love, and the company of one's fellows.
We've had a good run, people, and no culture
has ever been immune to the forces of history.
A populist uprising could potentially save us
from ourselves, if we still had a populace,
instead of this belligerent, willfully ignorant mob
of consumers who call themselves, shamefully,
patriots. But we dont have that, and we dont
have FDR, and we dont have an educational
system, and we do have a narrow-minded and
genocidal group of square-jawed hypocrites to
chew the meat off our corpses when theyre
done with everybody else. But, like I said before, the wind still sings, and
the children laugh, and the music plays, and
until that stops, life is long, so I intend to enjoy
myself, and learn the nuts and bolts of writing
symphonies, and pass on whatever is useful of
my life's learnings to those who are interested. Also, an upcoming book recommended for
between-the-lines readers: "No Fool to the
Game", the Sheryl Crow story, by the
inestimable Richard Buskin, due next month.Peace, David
B
Baerwald
(view)
I'm pleased to announce the beginning of two
exciting new projects-- A) much to the delight of
my family, I'm finally going to get my degrees:
an MM in piano and composition, and a DMA in
film composition. I'll also be teaching one class
at the University of Texas in practical film
composition as part of my DMA requirement.B) There is a new ensemble growing, called the
Apocalypse Orchestra. I'm not entirely clear on
the lineup, but it will be an Austin-only group, as
it is a 15-piece, and much too expensive to
travel with. A very quiet four-piece NFU, plus
cello, viola, 2 violins, ableton, 2 trombones,
trumpet, and saxophone and me, an expanded
and more rigorously arranged version of our last
Steamboat band. We'll be doing one date a
month, starting on Halloween. We'll be playing
many unheard songs, and I am quite excited by
this. Jeff Wells is supplying the art for our
posters. Sorry for non-locals, but hey,
you know how it is. This aint about the money,
and without the money, there aint no plane
tickets. But if youre here, I bet you'll like it.Also, on the 26th, 27th, and 28th of September,
I'll be recording a solo, and I mean solo solo
acoustic album in LA of some new songs and
some old, for an unspecified release,
at Cello Studios, my favorite studio in the whole
wide world, including the Palindrome, Conway
and Abbey Road.The Lost Highway thing is a whatever, for
reasons you may have already surmised. Ah
well, it looked good on paper. There's just no
money in this kind of music, and that may be as
it should be. This was never about that, anyway.I am daily overwhelmed with contestants for the
Travesty of The Day, between US chemical
weapons shipments to Saddam Hussein to
replace the stores he expended on the
slaughter of our erstwhile allies the Kurds, to
Ashcroft's latest Himmlerian rantings, to yet
more information leading one to the conclusion
that Bush and Co. knew exactly what to expect
about a year ago, and certainly knew exactly how
to benefit from it, in their seemingly
unquenchable desire for more more more, at
the obvious cost of millions if not billions of lives
to be lost in the next decade or so. So
overwhelmed, in fact, that
I will merely suggest you read this NYT OpEd
piece that at least puts our nation's and
civilisation's imminent demise into some
perspective, though that will surely be of hollow
comfort in the years to come, especially to those
of us who are parents of young and not so
young children.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/15/weekinrevie
w/15SCHA.html But the writing is surely on the
wall, and God help us. In the meantime, it's
music, love, and the company of one's fellows.
We've had a good run, people, and no culture
has ever been immune to the forces of history.
A populist uprising could potentially save us
from ourselves, if we still had a populace,
instead of this belligerent, willfully ignorant mob
of consumers who call themselves, shamefully,
patriots. But we dont have that, and we dont
have FDR, and we dont have an educational
system, and we do have a narrow-minded and
genocidal group of square-jawed hypocrites to
chew the meat off our corpses when theyre
done with everybody else. But, like I said before, the wind still sings, and
the children laugh, and the music plays, and
until that stops, life is long, so I intend to enjoy
myself, and learn the nuts and bolts of writing
symphonies, and pass on whatever is useful of
my life's learnings to those who are interested. Also, an upcoming book recommended for
between-the-lines readers: "No Fool to the
Game", the Sheryl Crow story, by the
inestimable Richard Buskin, due next month.Peace, David
