Musician interviews, New Age music reviews,
music trade information, and photos of my life and friends on Orcas Island, WAWhat's new for 7.9.04
(Now these things are called blogs, I hear.) I still live in Mountain View, CA, caring for my 84 year old mother. I still miss Orcas and all my friends horribly. I COULD still write reams about this situation here -- family dynamics! -- but will not due to privacy concerns. My mother improves all the time (even after her broken hip last fall), but in increments you might not appreciate unless you've been a full time caretaker of someone who was just a tad above a turtle, consciousnesswise. Who would have known there was the possibility of improvement all along...and she has, even though getting older.
I do not review music any more, as New Age Voice went under, but work on only a few graphics jobs, among them KonaViews magazine, with my old Orcas friend Tovi Daly. She now lives in Kona, HI, and I work out of my home via ftp and email.
For Wendy Carlos fans, I got to visit her a second time, mid-February of 2003, during the huge anti war demonstration and then for that wonderful blizzard. We spent about four late evenings together, and she played endless hours on her new rig, which she calls the Wurly II. Here's a photo I took of her playing, which she posted to her site.
I apologize for the broken links on this site, which used to be 100 pages. I moved the site to Comcast and had to grossly hack a third of it to make it fit. There's still a lot of meat on the site here, but I haven't done anything to clean it up. I now live in "another world."
What wuz new for 9.16.02. Last Easter, I left Orcas Island to take care of my 81-year-old mother. I now live in Mountain View, Calif. I miss Orcas and all my friends horribly. I COULD write reams about this situation here, but will not due to privacy concerns. My mother is improving slowly. I review only 3-4 albums per month for New Age Voice.
What wuz new for 1.7.2002. Here's a no-holds-barred interview with guitar/vocal duo Tuck and Patti, which originally ran in New Age Voice magazine, with pictures I took of them when they played on Orcas Island last summer. I've designed the website of storyteller Laura Simms, and I visited her in New York City in December. She's created a storytelling booklet to help kids in crisis, while I was there, she worked with Staten Island school district's fifty storytellers (mostly librarians) on how to use these stories to help the kids heal. I believe 200 children in the district lost a parent. That was the REAL DEAL.
What's new for 1.2.2002.Okay, here's an important article I wrote from New Age Retailer from this last summer. They cut one of the hearts from it (mine), but even with their editorial cuts, it was a powerful article. Here it is uncut: A Simple Thought--Music and Meaning. Read interviews with spacemusic composer Constance Demby, spiritual composer Iasos, electronic music composer Wendy Carlos, soundhealer Tom Kenyon, and vocalist Susan Osborn...about what both makes music meaningful, and what destroys the meaning.
Speaking of Wendy Carlos, I FINALLY met her face to face in three meetings on a trip to New York City at the start of December. We didn't pay attention to taking photos, and the night we were going to take some "for sure," she wasn't feeling well. We hung out at the AES convention for an afternoon (mostly at MOTU's booth looking at the demo of the update for Digital Performer...awesome!). We rushed for subways, spent an evening dragging out "toys" in her music studio, listening to awesome demo of her works in Surround Sound, and on the last night, sat quietly petting Brree the dog and her two cats as she nursed her headache. With luck and liberal applications of Bondo, we might be friends until the dawn of the next millennium. Go visit her website and get to know this remarkable woman and assorted critters. And NEWS, Disney will finally release the digitally restored soundtrack to Wendy's TRON soundtrack at the end of January. (Yes, they did!)
What's new for 9.26.2001. Here are several photos from Suzanne Ciani's visit to Orcas Island. She played a concert at The Living Room on Sept. 8. I don't know know we did so much on that visit, but time seemed to stop and miracles sprouted. Some nice photos of pianist Christopher Peacock and his wife Jaylin, who were Suzanne's gracious hosts. Suzanne left the day before 9/11, returning to a pressing deadline on an album, and no way to fly production materials back and forth.
What's new for 8.24.2001. Read this personable, in-depth interview with electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos. (All three of my interviews are grouped on her site.) The most recent "Only Human, Touching the Significance" was expanded from my New Age Retailer article about music and meaning. Wendy's piece, "Only Human," captures her Philosophy of Life and Art. It's hard for any artist to pull off a soulsearching piece like this without sounding preachy. But I think we succeeded. I hope you enjoy the sincerity of "Only Human" by the most personable, genuine, talented, and witty person I've ever known. (This is RARE: I'm the almost only one to interview her in nearly two years. She was interviewed for the Stanley Kubrick documentary and by music historian Thom Holmes.) Oh, my second (4th) Wendy Carlos interview is posted at the http://www.bn.com site. Search for Wendy; you'll find it.
What's new for 06.12.2001. Music-wise, I've just interviewed the extraordinary guitar/vocal duo Tuck & Patti. The interview won't run until September in New Age Voice, but til then, check out the photos I took of them. Eventually, I'll post the article to this site. Locally, I've helped create the main sun parade piece for the Orcas Island Summer Solstice Parade. Here's a photo essay about the first half of the art process and some "finished" shots by Jon Block.
What's new for 05.12.2001. I was a judge for best cover design (See my comments here) for the AFIM Indie Awards. Luckily, right after judging, I created a page with my comments about my top 20 choices. Only two of my top nominees made it into the finals for AFIM, but I agreed with the ultimate winner, Bill Evans: The Practice Tape. If you are a designer (these days, who ISN'T?), take a look. Sorry if I was so literal minded that I wanted to be able to tell what kind of music to expect from looking at the cover. That's terribly old fashioned, isn't it?
What's new for 04.10.2001. A bit of departure for me, as I'm only a cog in the cosmic wheel of Art here. Artist Jerry Wennstrom of Whidbey Island presented an art show on Orcas Island last summer. What breathtaking sculptures! Anyway, there's been a video made of his life and art (In the Hands of Alchemy) to be soon published by Parabola, and Jerry's written an article called The Journey of the Holy Fool. He sent it to me for my comment. My comment? "I think you're an earthquake masquerading as a cherry blossom!" He loved that I said that because not only did the essay have an earthquake it it, but as soon as he stopped writing the essay, the Seattle earthquake happened. I offered to post the essay on my website so others could see it, then one thing led to another and his site is growing like a weed. Please take a look at it at http://www.handsofalchemy.com. (Note, my website was eventually completely redesigned by his wife's niece Angela, however my site attracted a publisher for him.) Jerry's an amazing Being. Take a look, I think you'll agree!
What's new for 03.4.01. Little to post in the way of reviews and interviews since the changes at bn.com. However, I am working on polishing another interview with Wendy Carlos, which we both think will be one of the best done with her. I first interviewed her for New Age Voice in 1999 regarding the re-release of her Switched-on Boxed Set. This interview is posted on Wendy's site but Jay at the Synthmuseum.com site recently picked up the interview and did a nice job presenting it for the "magazine." I innocently volunteered to do a bit of an update to cover Wendy's rereleases of her groundbreaking albums Digital Moonscapes and Beauty in the Beast. As Wendy would say, "Yikes!" We talked for three hours. I've whittled it down to 15 pages so far. Stay tuned. Also working on an article about "music and meaning." This will be a very chewy article, believe me!! It will appear in New Age Retailer.
What wuz new for 02.8.01. I found a free Windows program called XENU that scanned my website for bad links. Fixing them will take time. To download this nifty program, go to Xenu. Also created the top type/art gif at a free, easy-to-use online program at the Adobe site. (I've done several...see my samples.)
What wuz new for 01.17.2001. What a treat to sit in on a recording session with singer Susan Osborn and organist/pianist/ and composer Paul Halley. He was organist at Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NY and organist with Paul Winter Consort. Susan was with the Consort for many years, too. I snapped photos of Halley between tracks at a classy hilltop recording studio on Orcas Island.
What wuz new for 01.12.2001. FIREWALK! Every New Years Day, Orcas hosts a firewalk. Yep, Hot coals, bare feet. Pictures aren't enough to satisfy any skeptic, but you can get a feel for it. Posted also a full page of photos capturing another Orcas Island tradition, the Sunday Concerts in the Park, summer of course. In December, I visited Marin County's top New Age music pioneers Suzanne Ciani, Steven Halpern, and Iasos. See photos of Jana, my photo processing queen, in a sad moment. My sisters and I tried to recreate a Santa photograph from 1954.
What's new for 12.29.2000.ENYA! Some people you never think you'll never get to interview...and Enya's one of them. She's probably the last of the New Age superstars I hadn't interviewed (okay, so I haven't interviewed Tangerine Dream and Kitaro)...and actually this interview for bn.com was conducted via fax. When I tried to research Enya, I found NO real interview with her posted on the internet, so this may be about as close as you (or me) will get.
If you like this chatty approach, then go to the More What's New page.Contents page
Contents page has more listings, but is out of date.List of sample Napra ReView feature articles -- available by fax or mail to editors Music articles and musician interviews New Age music reviews New Age music resource lists and related links Music education page (just intonation, synths, etc.) Books, trade associations, conventions, and resources about the music industry A Tirade about CD Cover Design, with tips for good design and typography Concert and PR Photography: The Good, the Bad, and the Extraordinary Honorary Wise-Ass Society (kinda funny responses to my website) DRIB: Don't read if busy. Those priceless gems worth saving and passing along. My Orcas Island photo album index My masks and artwork
What about the masks, shown above? (See Mask Page) These three masks of mine were shown at the "Masque Macabre" show, Halloween of 1999 at The Living Room, an Orcas Island, Washington, gallery and performance salon in Eastsound owned by vocalist Susan Osborn and her husband (painter, metalworker, and wood carver) David Densmore.© 2004, Carol Wright
Email Me