Somebody Slap Me!!

Democrat…..Republican….Independent….I could give two (*^^ a’ (*^%^. The thing human beings existing on this earth need to realize is politicians in any country, of any party, and of any belief are not there to represent you. These people represent an idea………..an idea that normal everyday humans have nothing to do with anymore. The waves of time have distorted power and amplified it to such an extent that corruption and greed seem as intricate as breathing itself. I have nearly stopped caring.

Growing up I was excited by the possibility of causing change. I have carried this excitement into my adulthood, mutated though it may be, this excitement has a purpose. So many members of my generation are afraid to speak up, convinced there is no reason to change what works……….somehow convinced that what we are doing today will work forever. Sorry Generation X, but what we are doing to the world will not work long at all. Your ability to enrich and secure the lives of people other than yourself and family is a gift, though at times it may seem a burden.

Should God be in school? Should Abortion be Legal? Should we cut taxes? What’s going on with government spending? Is Global Warming Real? Is the Apocalypse Upon us? Should we blow up the world before they blow us up first? Daunting isn’t it. I had a conversation with my wife and mother recently and came to this conclusion thanks to their help. Government should not tell me what to think. Government should not be in my Bedroom, Household, or Business. Government should not be so much about Morality and Christianity and Freedom. Government should run the country plain and simple.

I have been trying to watch the beginning of the debates and come to an extremely scary conclusion. These politicians are not different from American Idol Contestants. They might as well be Pop Stars, or Reality TV divas, or on the cover of Teen or Gossip Magazines. Our society is becoming such a joke, and what do we do, re-elect and watch intensely for what these dumb (&*^% do next season. "They want you to answer like this, say something about this, comb your hair the other way, wear the black suit it makes you look more powerful, smile, kiss your wife, hug the special kid, act strong, show your hip youthful edge." Soon Hilary Clinton will shave her head, check into rehab, and steal Brad Pitt from Angelina Jolie. John McCain will walk into the debates with 50 cent rapping “Wankstas” like he is Mayweather ready to challenge Terrorists to a cage match. Obama will make a cameo appearance on TRL promoting his new Pop Single “Paris Hilton’s Jail House Love Affair” a duet with Mary J. Blige. Somebody slap me!!

I need my elected officials worried about U.S. and world Economics, not Gay Marriage. I need my elected officials to make quick decisions in times of crisis, not answer every question based on what the surveys say. I need my politicians to fight for justice, not revenge. I need my elected officials to improve health care and the quality of life, not bicker over Abortion, Church, Morality…I mean what a joke like any of these politicians have real Morality. I don’t care what you care about Democrats. I don’t care what you care about Republicans. I don’t care what you care about Terrorists. Because you have forgot the most basic of truths………you need to care what I care about first. And not based on a survey of Caucasian Middle Class Males in my age range who are married to minorities and listen to Hip-Hop music. This doesn’t work when you are dealing with living breathing human beings. Knowledge is Peace. Peace is Knowledge. When the Media crumbles so will your corruption. 1

What's The Reason?

Why is it that every producer I talk to recently is so anti-Reason? I personally have been using this program for years now, and when combining budget with functionality believe it to be the best Bang-for-the-Buck in the Biz right now. I create almost all of my tracks mixing Reason with outside instrumentation and loops in Rewire Mode (a mode that allows Reason to be combined with your Pro-Tools Session via an invisible virtual snake) It adds far more functionality and room for creativity than 16 tracks on an MPC or Triton. Not to knock these amazing machines, which I use also, but why make your songs with one method? Every producer has there own personal opinion of what works best, most of it based on habit, and availability. This is just my opinion, based on conversations I have had with several producers in the last couple of months, and should only be considered factual information if you are a producer and musician of the same school as me.
How do producer’s opinions form? Gossip? I do know one thing for sure, nearly every producer I have spoken to about Propellerhead’s Reason has stated that the sounds are thin and the program is too complicated. Several of these producers later admitted to never using the program. Thin sounding and too complicated……….Makes sense if you run off of presets and don’t know much about signal flow……but then what kind of producer are you? I guess I’m sick and tired of producers who buy Bangin’ Dirty South, Timbaland and Dr. Dre kits for the MPC and walk and talk as if their drum kits are the best thing since sliced bread. Like they just got a call from Jay-Z for a beat they made yesterday (their second beat ever by the way). Like their beats knock so hard god opens the door to see who’s there. Come on…Try designing something unique and different sounding, some of my favorite dub records have very thin sounding drums which adds to their character. If you want thick, punchy, or trunk rattling drums, reason gives you the base and capability to design them, it just doesn’t pre package them for you.
People always misjudge what they do not understand. Reason’s creative platform is significantly different than the one used by any other software, and may be daunting at first. However, remember, just because Kanye West uses an MPC doesn’t mean you can’t make a Kanye beat using other hardware or software. Reason has samplers also, and synths, and drum machines, and matrix sequencers, and effects units, and a vocoder, and graintable synthesis, and the combinator, and Dr.Rex for loops, and a Mastering Suite, ReWire and much more. Learn what all of these do, and how to operate them properly, and Reason may not sound so thin anymore. Don’t forget you can also fatten up your tracks with Pro-Tools Plug-Ins in real time. Maybe Reason is just too much for some to handle. Maybe Not. I’ll sign out with this…………………..The practice of copying other producer’s style and creative process is slowly killing our music….believe your ears, not the Gossip! Peace and knowledge……….Bear the Astronot. If “The Source” and “XXL” jumped off of a cliff would you jump too?

The Artwork: An Opening Statement.

(Cover Art for Turntable Kachina "Sound is Matter Vol.001" Wait until you see the "Cricket Songs Artwork"........AMAZING!!)

Ian Castruita and I started our friendship when we were both under 4 feet tall. Everyone has a friend that they did everything with, the only difference, I stayed in touch with mine. We were in the same class in school, and shared one thing in common, imagination. We built forts, drew pictures, and pretended we were ninjas. Neither one of us had a great grasp on reality, and maybe that is why we always got along so well……we created a world to suit our own liking.
It began when Ian invited me to his house, which was right across the street from our elementary school, to play Kaleico Vision one afternoon. We played “Popeye” for hours. At this time in the evolution of gaming Popeye was basically the same concept as Donkey Kong, a series of latters and angled shelves, and if you got past Bruto, a kiss from Olive Oil. We tried for hours to climb to the top without being barreled down in the process. Nothing much has changed. Except the barrels are bigger, and less relenting.
Ian was always an excellent artist. He would draw intricate designs of spaceships, flying skateboards, and magical weapons, that we would use to develop role playing games. I remember eating his parents’ excellent Menudo and Tamales, and losing hours of time trying to pass Legend of Zelda in record time, or defeat Mother Brain. I would bring over mixtapes I concocted by removing the commercials from radio shows on Power 92.3, and while they echoed in the background, Ian would draw up the blueprint to our plan. A secret plot to takeover the world.
Time warp…….and now it’s 2007. Both Ian and I are now over 4 feet tall, and I don’t know about him, but I still build forts, and swear to my son that I am a trained and skilled ninja. Ian, just like me, passes time at a day job to pay the bills. Both of us have been starving artists for years. Ian is an extremely skilled sketch artist, comic fanageler, and paint brush percolator (whatever that means.) I’ve been battling the beastly music industry for years, and finally have found the light at the end of the tunnel. Several albums ready to release this year, and guess who did the artwork for all of them, and all of my photography…my best friend…..Ian Castruita.
Rejection becomes part of an artist’s life. A good artist is often rejected over and over….fails time and time again, and has to find a way to create even while facing the intruding possibility that…..he/she may never make it. By make it I mean “Make A Living As An Artist,” not be the next tabloid in People Magazine. I always have a lingering feeling that Ian and I face this possibility together. That we travel in tandem, silently dodging the sharpened blade of the “Society Norm Samurai.” Whose blade can sever a man’s creativity and dreams in a split second………The killer of Art………but could he ever catch such well trained Ninja? Not in this story.
The artwork to an album is a story within itself. A glimpse into what the artist felt, how the artist looked, and where he was when he made the music. My story is a story of triumph, hard work, and struggle. The fight to make music, even when every aspect of society and principle of life has drilled me with the oft repeated “It’s too late! Why don’t you just make it a hobby?” Ian’s story is the same. But in the end, this artwork is a personal story; it is a story of friendship……one friend who banged on pots in the kitchen……one friend who drew on the walls….two friends who will continue to help each other far into the future. For more info check out Ian’s stuff blog which includes a link to his portfolio @ en-blog.blogspot.com Enjoy Earthlings.

HOPILAVAYI PROJECT

Hopilavayi Project
Kykotsmovi, Arizona-- The Hopi language has always been an integral and vital part of Hopi culture. It is the wellspring of Hopi ceremonial life; it expresses kinship and clan relationships; it holds our people's history. It is the foundation of creative expression and cultural continuity that stretches back at least one thousand years. Currently, there are approximately 10,000 individuals enrolled in the Hopi Tribe. Approximately 11,000 people live on the Hopi Reservation in 12 independent villages. Here, the Hopi people maintain their tradition of dry farming, food preparation, ceremonial life, and storytelling in an ancient tongue.
In recent times, however, the continuity of that tradition has been threatened. In a variety of public forums and in private conversations, many Hopi people have expressed the fear that the younger generations were losing the ability to speak Hopi, and with it, the centuries-old heart of the Hopi way of life. In 1997, with a grant from the Administration for Native Americans, the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office conducted the Hopi Language Assessment Project (HLAP). The goal of the project was to quantify, fo rthe first time, the current status of Hopi language fluency in the community. This data was then used to develop a comprehensive plan for preserving the Hopi language.
The Hopi Language Education and Preservation Plan calls for a comprehensive, reservation-wide language instruction program. The survey results and community input show that the Hopi people believe that Hopi should be taught at home and in the villages by knowledgeable fluent speakers. They also want school-based programs for their children. They want assistance, training, and teaching materials so they can teach their own children and grandchildren how to speak Hopi. They want this home and village based instruction to be supported and reinforced by the educational system.
By developing, implementing, and evaluating pilot programs in different settings and among different ages, the Hopilavayi Project will give the community and school system the experience, resources and flexibility to design grassroots programs for language revitalization that fits their own needs.
For more details on the project, please contact the Hopilavayi Project at the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, (520) 734-3754.

Turntable Kachina

Bear the Astronot is Turntable Kachina.........

February 12th, 1980 in the mountains of Flagstaff Arizona a child is born to Daniel Cole and Kathleen Gallagher. This child is named Running-Bear. He is called little "hoonaw" by the Hopi, and shash by the Navajo (Dine). He is raised beneath the towering ponderosa pines of Grand Canyon National Park. He spends many hours watching the sun (Hopi:Sun=Taawa) set throwing colors in some kind of Jackson Pollack fit across the jutting cliffs of the canyon, and many nights beneath the glowing moon (Hopi:Moon=Muuyaw) On nights such as these, as the Sun sleeps and the moon takes position midway in the sky, a symphony of crickets and nocturnal creatures join force with the wind and trees, and together they sing until morning. These sounds, the sounds of the canyon, were embedded in young Running-Bear's head.

Jet forward years into the future.......Bear is now the text book starving artist. Years of gigs, and nights spent commanding dance floors, have faded into ghost images across dimly lit photographs. He was a DJ when vinyl actually mattered, he began as an MC when Chuck "D" still mattered more than cough syrup. Stacked and cluttered in the corner of a tiny two bedroom apartment, Bear has built an operational project studio. Here he concocts a pulsing brew of Hip Hop, Electronic, and Future Rock tracks. The song of the canyon has been well muted by roaring combustion engines, electric buzzes, and the industrial static of the city. Now, Bear the Astronot, searches for meaning and peace in an alien world.

A night of deadlines complete, foraging through paperwork inventing release strategies for his new Hip Hop Album Cricket Songs, Bear the Astronot scratches his chin.....apparently he needs a shave. He asks himself, "Where am I" and as he does deep in mental reverb echoes a Talking Heads loop of "How did I get here." "How did I get here?" "How did I get here?" he asks himself. As he ponders, out of his peripheral vision a kachina appears as almost a slamming of particles and matter at that very moment. It stands in traditional dancing form, holding a well crafted wooden snake, casting a shadow across the turntable atop which it sits. He scans his surroundings. Dusty zig-zagging stacks of vinyl topped with the Hopi "Badger" Kachina. A "Mud Head" Kachina with cylinder eyes footed on the corner of a silver Korg Triton. A weathered Digi 001, on top of which sits a 2' "Snake dancer" and at it's feet a family heirloom "Thunderbird" necklace. The story goes that this necklace was made by Navajo's who after the long walk were given vinyl records by the U.S. government as gifts. These records were rendered useless because not many hogans have any source of electricity, probably zero hogans at this time. The Dine used these records to make jewelry, and sold them back to the biliguana's.

"This is how I got here," a voice whispers in his ear. It must have been the wind. Clear as the night sky over the Grand Canyon a name dances just like the traditional Kachina into his head. On that night tucked snugly into the dining room of a two bedroom apartment in Phoenix, Arizona "Turntable Kachina" is born.

The rest is legend.

SUN'S ATMOSPHERE SINGS

Astronomers have recorded heavenly music bellowed out by the Sun's atmosphere.
Snagging orchestra seats for this solar symphony would be fruitless, however, as the frequency of the sound waves is below the human hearing threshold. While humans can make out sounds between 20 and 20,000 hertz, the solar sound waves are on the order of milli-hertz--a thousandth of a hertz.
The study, presented this week at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Lancashire, England, reveals that the looping magnetic fields along the Sun's outer regions, called the corona, carry magnetic sound waves in a similar manner to musical instruments such as guitars or pipe organs.
Making music
Robertus von Fay-Siebenburgen of the Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Center at the University of Sheffield and his colleagues combined information gleaned from sun-orbiting satellites with theoretical models of solar processes, such as coronal mass ejections.
They found that explosive events at the Sun's surface appear to trigger acoustic waves that bounce back and forth between both ends of the loops, a phenomenon known as a standing wave.
"These magnetic loops are analogous to a simple guitar string," von Fay-Siebenburgen explained. "If you pluck a guitar string, you will hear the music."
In the cosmic equivalent of a guitar pick, so-called microflares at the base of loops could be plucking the magnetic loops and setting the sound waves in motion, the researchers speculate. While solar flares are the largest explosions in the solar system, microflares are a million times smaller but much more frequent; both phenomena are now thought to funnel heat into the Sun's outer atmosphere.
The acoustic waves can be extremely energetic, reaching heights of tens of miles, and can travel at rapid speeds of 45,000 to 90,000 miles per hour. "These [explosions] release energy equivalent to millions of hydrogen bombs," von Fay-Siebenburgen said.
"These energies are plucking these magnetic strings or standing pipes, which set up standing waves--exactly the same waves you see on a guitar string," von Fay-Siebenburgen told SPACE.com. The "sound booms" decay to silence in less than an hour, dissipating in the hot solar corona.
Solar physics
The musical finding could help explain why the Sun's corona is so hot.
While the Sun's surface is a steamy 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,538 degrees Celsius), plasma gas in the corona soars to more than 100 times hotter.
"How can the atmosphere above the surface of the Sun be hotter if nuclear fusion happens inside the Sun?" von Fay-Siebenburgen said. If astronomers can get a clearer picture of what's going on inside these magnetic loops in the Sun's atmosphere, they have a better chance of finding the answer.
Another recent study using images from Hinode's telescope revealed twisted magnetic fields along the Sun's surface, which store huge amounts of energy. The magnetic fields can snap like a rubber band; when they do, they might release energy that could heat up the corona or power solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections, the researchers say.

The Underground Mentality Part II

There it is, the treacherous choke hold, inevitable quip of the "Underground Music Snob." The grasping rebel consciousness that turns hours of jaded rhetoric in to some stance to topple the "Giant" man. In my opinion turning actual success as a musician into some kind of open wound where the fans who loved and got you there, will cauterize and screw you. I will do my best to bring this epidemic to light....being a text book "Underground Music Snob" myself.

You can almost smell the flesh bubbling and searing as a young woman in a Neko Case T-shirt throws 12" vinyl sleeves at a barbecued carcass. She wipes the soot from her coke bottle thick glasses, and yells in tongues something profound. Something prophetically high school kid"Deep, man," that if translated would refer to the death of "Clear Channel Radio" and "MTV Devils!" The ever classic burning at the stake of so called "Sell Outs."

Let us start here. Music does not matter to everyone. Some people spend their whole life collecting stamps. Spreading protective pages over a perfectly perforated portrait of Abraham Lincoln or a rare Bald Eagle holding the Alabama State Flag. To these people stamps are art. To these people stamps should last forever. To these people no stamp will ever top the rare 1959 Frank Sinatra tribute which was only printed 250 times by an antique press in Winchester, North Virginia. These people are "Stamp Snobs." I'm not. I find the cheapest stamp I can, barely look at the front, lick the back, and send it off to a bill collector. Stamps don't matter to me.

Sadly, good music doesn't matter to more people than you would think.

Average people are not music fans, they are consumers. They buy that new album they saw in a magazine add, play the single over and over, and maybe skim the rest of the album once or twice before they get the new "Kelly Clarkson" for their birthday. I mean Kelly Clarkson must be what music is about, America chose her to be the next American Idol...Right? Some people actually fall for that bullshit."
Not the "Underground Music Snob." This almost extinct breed spends hours fingering dusty CD shelves in Independent Record Stores for that one thing that is the complete opposite of what is popular. They separate and question record store clerks, in bad cop movie fashion, if there are any new releases on the obscure 2 person Norwegian Death Metal label "Sodima-nation" based in Chicago (believe me....I used to be one of these record store clerks) The "Underground Music Snob," is often sucked into oblivion despite starting this obsession with completely good intentions, and starts to judge music on how obscure and different it is, instead of how GOOD.

When have "Underground Music Snobs" gone too far?

Is when they disown the band that they reared from birth, the group that they saw 5 times in one year at a local bar, because they got a spread in "Billboard Magazine?" Or is it when they splatter emails and blogs hatefully across the infinite reaches of the internet, condemning a great and talented musician, for releasing a new single produced by, god forbid, "Kanye West." I am guilty of both.
Hello, my name is Bear the Astronot, and I am an "Underground Music Snob." How scary is that, when you are an "Underground Musician" as well?

MUSIC SAVED MY LIFE

Music Saved My Life, It's dreamy escapes reminded me I had life within me, MUS-I-CAL-Lee

Joy-e-full-ee, Me.

Music Saved My Life, I spun downward like oil drilling megolomaniacs never striking anything striking anything similar to Life. LIFE-LESS

Living among the LIFE-LESS.

Music Saved MY Life, from me the worst part of every song that contorts frequencies into my regrets of me choosing waved, forms, of dragon breasted bottom feed. boom-bip-boom-bat

Music-Boom Saved-Bip My-Boom Life-Bat, it pounded out a puzzled trail to heaven in the fleeing.

I remember now my Boom Box entoxicated dreaming, lonely nights riding rhodes to nowhere but up. Music is in the SEA-ING.

Music Saved My Life, from drug addled limps to Circle K for cigarettes and coffee. From car crash cymbal crashes, BASH-BAM-BASH Head Gash Bullet shots. Snare CRACK!!!!

SAVED ME!

Music Saved My Life from SEE-ING and FEEL-ING.

Mus-i-cal-leeJoy-e-full-eeMe.

Music-Boom Saved-Bip My-Boom Life-Bat.

Boom-Bip-Boom-Snare Crack!

The Underground Mentality

Let's face it Underground Music is being fed to our kids as a hip alternative to popular music culture. The problem with this Underground Music Mentality is that what is being pushed as Underground is actually Alternative. I know Hip Hop Heroes such as Atmosphere's Slug, Sage Francis, and El-P sometimes shy away from the label of Alternative Hip Hop, but that's what it is, and an excellent alternative at that. Underground Musicians are not going on European Tours. Underground Musicians are not selling 100,000 units. Underground musicians are not necessarily different than what you hear on the radio. Underground musicians are musicians that not many people have heard of, that do not have a large skale budget, and are not ever-ever-ever reviewed in Rolling Stone Magazine. Some Underground musicians are sold at local record stores, and treck in vans on week long regional tours. Some Underground musicians have 20,000 friends on myspace.

Alternative Music is what hip kids with angled hair cuts and skull T-shirts should be saying they listen to, not Underground. The Label Alternative has been utterly mangled however over the years. If a rock band were to say they were alternative kids would probably be waiting for Kurt Cobain esque vocal throbbings and text book drum rolls and chord signatures. Maybe it's time to drop the Underground Label. Maybe it's time to drop the Alternative monachre. I've never been a fan of the term experimental. We could label ourselves Indie, but really....what the f(*& does that mean. There are independent artists and labels pumping out commercial music every hour......They aren't Underground or Alternative or by any means experimental.....so what are they....Almost major label artists? Should Indie 911 and Broadjam have a genre specific Almost major label artist section? The only other choice is to mark yourself "other" which will never get your music looked at.................Anyone have a good term for Underground Independent artists that make alternative music to the main stream but do not want to be labeled experimental or other? I'd like to find one........Peace and Knowledge......Bear the Astronot.

Bear the Astronot "Cricket Songs"

Bear the Astronot's first solo album "Cricket Songs" is getting set for release. The album is a fresh new take on Hip-Hop, Rock, and Electronic sounds. An eclectic mix of straight forward Hip Hop Head Nodders, Hybrid Thrashing Head Bangers, and Subtle Spoken Mind Openers. "Cricket Songs" tackles large world issues like War, Economics, Democracy, Equality, and Political Injustice in an almost "Chuck D" fashion. Mixed throughout the everyday themes of love, aging, and relationships are brought cleverly into a new light through The Astronot's educated and rhythmic word play. The entire album was written, produced, performed, recorded, and mixed by Bear the Astronot himself. This makes it one of the few Hip Hop projects I have ever heard that feels almost like a "Singer-Song Writer" album. The Astronot's music is emotional and revealing, almost to a fault.
Upbeat and hypnotically danceable tracks such as "Things" "Get Back", and "Phoenix Arizona Hot" will keep your neck snapping and torso swaying, while "Hope You Brought Your Floaties", "Earth Goggles", and "God's Gifts" pound your senses and test your view of the world around you. Bear's flow is well controlled and rhythmic, and his singing voice is a perfect complement. Need a sweet song to sing your girlfriend "Good Man To Ya" fits the bill, and is reminicent of a sweet and well worded Common track. Just left a bad relationship "Breaking Up Is Fun to Do" is a perfect soundtrack for throwing an X's clothes off the balcony. "Broken Bottles" is a very strong and revealing track about the trials and tribulations of Alcoholism, and rides a very well produced Epic Orchestral Tear Jerking Beat. The title influencing track "The Cricket" is a dark ride through the mind of Bear the Astronot himself, and one of the most original hip hop tracks I have heard...well ever. Mix in Punk Rock Hybrids like "Revolution Starts Now" the Beck vs. Nirvana twist of "So Cliche" end it with a coming of age masterpiece "Action Hero" and you've got one of the most interesting albums I've heard in years.....and a solid musical album as well!
The production is fresh and eclectic, the rhymes are educated and original, and the song writing is amazing even if compared to non Hip Hop projects. Not something "Lil Jon" or "G-Unit" fans will be running out to buy, but maybe something that Mos Def, Bloc Party, NoFx, Andre 3000, and Public Enemy fans will have in common. Hip Hop has left the inner cities, escaped the suburbs, and shot through the cosmos into outer space....Bear the Astronot is bouncing it back. I'd recommend you get a copy once this album is released.

by:Michael Patrick