sanctuary

I have always been fascinated with combining music and images on the web but have been unimpressed with the quality of images and sound on YouTube.  A direct upload to Vox offers better sound quality in stereo rather than mono, but the images are still not very good.  A new video option on Flickr puts a constraint on video length of 90 seconds maximum but with file size up to 150MB seems to provide decent audio in stereo and an improvement in image quality beyond what YouTube or Vox offer, judging from other Flickr postings. 

It took some trial and error to arrive at an acceptable combination of file type and specs since Flickr guidance seems pretty limited at this point, but the results were interesting enough to give me some incentive to try again.  Here is a shortened version of the song, "sanctuary" (full version posted on 5.28.08) combined with images from Japan to Wisconsin intended to evoke that elusive search for a little time and space to escape the daily grind. 

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June already. It has taken me this long to collect my thoughts and images from a trip last Fall to Japan where we stayed again with my wife's sister-in-law in Misaki, a small fishing town on the tip of the Miura Penninsula about an hour and a half South of Tokyo on the Keihin Kyuko Line.  The line winds down from Sengakuji, where the 47 loyal ronin are buried who revenged their master and followed him in ritual suicide, through Shinagawa, Yokohama and the US naval base at Yokosuka to Misakiguchi at the end of the line.  It's a peaceful, even boring place, a bit off the beaten track, where you can escape the bustle of Tokyo.   We stayed in a remodeled home, half modern and half traditional, in the Shiroishi neighborhood, an older part of town perched mainly on bluffs overlooking the harbors where small fishing boats still come and go daily, but the days dominated by big tuna boats are pretty much over.   Town leaders are apparently  trying to reinvent the local economy, partly with daikon and watermelon.  

Misaki Blues

Humbletree

I took daily walks along narrow winding lanes leading down to the harbor, and captured a lot of images some of which are posted in this flickr set:  Misaki blues set.   I used the color highlight feature in my little Canon SD1000 for many of the shots to focus on the many shades of blue because the color was so common, from the roof tops to the ocean itself.

Now, after all these months, I finally settled on a simple blues pattern, which somehow seemed to set the right tone to match the images with some words to remember our last visit, and remember my wife's elder brother, who passed away a year ago this month.  He traveled the world as a freelance journalist on assignments for various publications, but always enjoyed coming home to Misaki. 

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This one had been sitting around half finished for a couple of years when I decided to pick it up again and see where it might go now.  Originally I had in mind a physical place as sanctuary from the world of work and worries, but this time around it has evolved into a pure mental escape, with a not too subtle link to meditation through the resonant chanting of the "sacred syllable" Aum or Om, sampled here from a handy web site.  I am not an expert, or even a part time practitioner, but I like the idea and respect those who can find a little peace of mind, or even some form of enlightenment with practice.  For more information, there is always Wikipedia.

Sanctuary

humbletree

V1: There's a place I go when I need to mend

where the world stands still and all my worries end

C1: sanctuary

give me time and relief

give me hope, give me peace

V2: I can take you there if you want to go

just close your eyes let your heart beat slow

C2

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Just got an email notice from the NY Times and found a link to a new songwriting blog called Measure for Measure, featuring Andrew Bird, among others, and thought I should share it, if anyone else out there is interested.  His fairly detailed description of his own creative process left me a little ashamed of my own feeble efforts, both at blogging and songwriting, but also inspired me to try a little harder next time.     

Andrew Bird songwriting blog

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wag more

Captured this bumper sticker on my afternoon trek to the cafe for a caffeine fix and it seemed like a good thing for an old dog like me to keep in mind.  Who knows, maybe there is even a song somewhere in that message.

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Waiting for a Train

humbletree

Trains always seem to provide good material for songwriting, whether about coming or going, or the journey itself as in Steve Goodman's classic, "City of New Orleans".  

This one verse song started with a common chord pattern finger picked in A, and the idea of a boy standing on a platform noticing a girl, but too awed or afraid to approach, so he lets the moment pass, she boards the next train and is gone, leaving him behind with only a haunting image and lost opportunity.  I think there should be another verse out there somewhere but guess I will have to wait for it to arrive on another track.

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Cranes in the backyard

Maybe I was too quick to give up on Spring in my last post.   Two days after another record setting snowfall, we just looked out our back window to see a pair of sandhill cranes, back from their winter vacation for another summer in the marsh beyond the park behind our house.  Such is the changeable weather in Wisconsin at this time of year, but you learn to take the signs of promise where you can find them, and this is surely a good omen.  

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My last post was a simple declarative statement of hope and promise that "Spring will come", eventually.  After getting hit hard with a major snow storm Friday ("Good Friday", by the way) you begin to have doubts, but in an effort to find something positive in this temporary setback, I decided to capture it in a Flickr set.  Here are a few of those shots.

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The first day of Spring will be upon us this week, and none too soon.  Its been a long, cold winter with record snow in Madison, leading to a bad case of cabin fever over the last several weeks.  As we waited for a break in the weather, I decided to see if there was any chance a new song might be ready to germinate along with the first signs of Spring.  It also gave me a chance to try out a couple of new toys including a new banjo I picked up, and a new portable recording set up through a refurbished Dell laptop with an M-Audio direct input box.  This is what came out.

Spring Will Come

humbletree

Old man winter's been here too long

I'm getting cabin fever trying to write this song, for you

been 4 long months of mostly gray and white

the days run short into long cold nights, feeling blue

Spring will come and its almost here

Spring will come and the skies will clear, for you

took a walk outside and felt a gentle breeze

but the weatherman said that tonight will freeze, again

but the sun gets stronger and extends the day

old man winter's grip will melt away, my friend

Spring will come and its almost here

Spring will come and the skies will clear, for you

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Seems like I have hit another dry spell probably brought on by the depressing winter we have been having this year here in Madcity.   Record snowfall for the season already, and no sign yet of the Spring that Jimmy the Groundhog promised us back on February 2nd.   While I waited for a break in the weather and some songwriting inspiration,   

Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles

Geoff Emerick

I started on  a book my son recommended as a fresh perspective on the Beatles and their music. It was written by Geoff Emerick (with some professional help), who was there at EMI studios to witness and help record much of their music from the beginning through Abby Road, their last album together.  As they grew as recording artists, he grew as well as a recording engineer.   His insight into how many of their songs and albums came together is fascinating.  Even the technical stuff was useful for an amateur like me trying to capture better sounds in my little home studio.   So, if you are suffering from cabin fever and need a diversion, I recommend this bit of music history even if you have already read a ton of Beatles books and articles.

 .       

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