Chasin shootin stars
08-07-2011
, 09:24 PM
08-07-2011
, 11:40 PM
08-08-2011
, 01:50 AM
08-08-2011
, 03:20 AM
08-08-2011
, 06:55 AM
08-09-2011
, 03:38 AM
08-09-2011
, 06:38 AM
08-25-2011
, 07:31 PM
In Chicago i settled into a pretty good routine of heading into the studio during the day where i'd intermittently do stuff like take out trash, empty cigarette trays, sit in the control room trying to absorb knowledge through osmosis, go out to buy diet snapple for up-and-coming-hipster-rockstars on their expense-accounts (you mean i have to use your labels card? its a snapple dude!- and yes, i know touring is expensive and this probably adds up SHUT YOUR GOD DAMN MOUTH PEANUT GALLERY) etc. There was plenty of good stuff as well though. Just being able to sit in a recording studio playing a grand piano when everyone was leaving was great. So was picking most the other, more deserving interns brains re: stuff i should have probably already known (how a patch bay works for example…).
At night i'd usually go eat somewhere then head to B.L.U.E.S. bar or Kingston Mines on my own, where i would recklessly pound long necks of Anchor Steam while hitting on tourists with the carefree abandon of an inebriated wrecking ball.
You can have quite a lot of success with this approach when there is no fear of derision from those who you may have to invite to a future wedding or make business with. At one point, while enjoying a platonic bump and grind with a young lass of a wee 62 years, i noticed a growing tremble in my loins. It seemed my lower half did not want to go with the plan of 'wouldn't it be a nice thing if this lady got to get down and party like it was 1969 for a song?'.
As the amplitude grew to the upper Richter limits i thought about how unlikely this event was to occur on a day that i was simultaneously going 'Special Ops' downstairs due to an inability to accurately schedule laundry into my interning candle-burning lifestyle. Unable to realign the axis of this growing evil, as this would lead to my **** (yes, thats what we've been talking about) being in plain view, i just hoped things would be kosher but that she wasn't hungry. Eventually it was too much; noticing the pyramidic outline of my pants this lady expressed a thought that could only mean she was looking for a different type of tourism, one that didn't involve a visit to Giza (perhaps she wasn't even a tourist!). She looked at me with eyes of horror and expressed what had been coming all along; "I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU DO IT IN AUSTRALIA, BUT IN CHICAGO, YOU TUCK THAT!". Without the luxuries of a paragraph of metaphors I realized it would be impossible to explain the situation eloquently so did the next best thing and went to buy another beer.
I tell you this story because it was extremely important in understanding my growth as an artist. Really.
Anyway… Most the people i met were very friendly. The first longer term project to come in to record was a group of Italian musicians who arrived with their possy of like 8 people and immediately went into the kitchen to cook everyone lunch. That was pretty sweet. Then they setup some **** and played some heavy rock guitar solos and such. Its a nice thing to think about, that these guys are rockstars in Italy and the first thing they do is cook an intern lunch. Perhaps they intuitively know that not being an A****** fills more than peoples belly's.
Steve runs a poker game that features a varied cast of characters whose main connection seems to be a knowledge of obscure music, so i had been eager to play that. I was downstairs playing the piano as the game started, figuring this would be the best time to play since no one was using the studios (it was probably 7-8 pm) and this guy Brandon came down just as i was finishing. Unsatisfied with this apparently, he said 'so you play the piano?' and i said sure, and he asked me to play him something which was probably the most pragmatic way someone has ever actually asked me to play them something.
As i started to play some music he said he really liked what i was doing and that was that. We had a good chat and went back to the poker game where he 5 or 6 bet shoved with some kind of AT style hand preflop against me to bust his stack. We parted ways but continued talking over the course of the month about music since it seems like we were both feeling the 'time is running out' crush.
As my trip to Chicago came to a close i increasingly needed to get away and go digest at home. Some nights had got a little TOO crazy for my liking. I decided enough was enough and that i'd cut my trip short by 2 days. Needing some personal space immediately i checked into a hotel while i waited for the next flight to leave. Since it was just going to be a night and max 2 i figured i'd stay somewhere nice and remembered that Brandon used to work at a swanky hotel called the Drake. I figured it would be a nice play to stay. Often swanky hotels have grand pianos lying around the place so i thought maybe that would work out.
At the time i was using one of my friends credit cards for my internet purchases since my credit card has a $500 limit, so i booked my hotel with his card. I didn't really think anything of this at the time since i had booked my flights with his card, but as i would come to realize, a hotel is another type of beast.
As i arrived looking rather shell-shocked at the Drake reception, i told the man behind the desk that i was looking at expanding into their territories for the evening. What name was i under, he asked, and after telling him the rooms name was under "Kevin" he asked to see "Kevins" ID.
"Oh, I'm not Kevin" i responded.
"Well you can't just stay in Ke.."
"Egh, i booked it on my friends credit card but i can see why you couldn't just give me the room now" i replied in my calmest hungover voice.
"Why don't you cancel the booking and i'll just make a new one in cash".
"He has to call us to cancel".
"Ok i will get him to call you and i'll make a new booking now".
"Ok, card?"
At this point fumbling through my wallet to see if i had enough to pay straight up for it, my bank card fell out of my wallet.
He reached for it.
"Oh, that's not my credit card" i said.
"Thats not your credit card either? Sir this is…"
"Thats my bank ca.."
"Highly unusual, the rooms not on your credit card, this isn't your credit card, whose card is it? sir we are going to have to ask you to leave"
"rrrrd".
"Thats my bank ca.."
"Sorry we won't have you at the Drake; there are many other hotels, but you can't stay here".
"Ok well would you recommen…"
"Sir you are not welcome at this hotel please leave before i call security".
So i left and stayed at the millennium knickerbocker across the street.
That night i was feeling rather dejected and it turns out the closest restaurant was Spaggio, a michelin star Italian restaurant with what looked to be a delectable tasting menu. I decided that i would nurse my self-inflicted self-indulgent woes with more self-indulgence. Everyones always telling me the Italians are role model drinkers so pasta and Red Wine seemed like a very healthy alternative to seeing if i could wax the hotel minibar in an evening of porn fuelled regret.
Suiting up i headed over there and got a double digits tasting menu with wine pairings. It was pretty good and the location, high with a giant window overlooking chicago was healing in ways that are hard to describe (maybe birds are less depressed? because of the higher viewing point i mean…).
Invigorated, i returned to the Drake Hotel to find a piano to play. The knickerbockers piano was under lock and key and besides was for more qualified pianists. I figured the Drake was the sort of hotel that would just have a piano sitting around in a conference room like a piece of furniture. The Ritz does this **** all the time. It's awesome but kind of depressing to think of dormant things in general, and especially those that turn keyholes to fantasy soundscapes in the right hands. Tonight, i decided those hands would be mine, although i must say that without the confidence of wine i would have pondered using more modest words.
Anyway, i wandered around the hotel until I found a piano in a hallway somewhere off to the side. Just sitting in the hallway. I started playing some stuff on it, kind of Jazz/Impressionisty stuff that sounds pretty nice. A couple people walked past and stopped for a second or too but i was probably closing my eyes and just going with the flow of the improv so didn't really notice much until i noticed an indian dude in a suit and tie standing watching me carefully.
Suddenly aware of his presence i snapped to life and apologized for playing the piano, and that it had just been a while since i got a chance as i was traveling currently.
"Thats ok, i have just been listening from my office, the music, it is very nice what are your plans?"
"i'm not sure right now"
"well i'd be happy to provide you with a meal and some wine if you played in the main dining room tomorrow evening"
"Sure, that sounds good, but i don't really have the repertoire for such a thing"
"you can just play what you're playing now, that sort of thing"
"OK"
"Ok, your attire is good, i'll see you at 5 until 7 tomorrow".
From kicked out to playing in here
So i went home and had a laugh about how i had got kicked out of the hotel in the morning and got offered to play that same night and went to sleep and then woke up again and headed off there at 4:30 and i played for a while and some old people said they liked my playing but mostly the dining room was quiet and the indian dude asked if i knew how to play Take 5 and i was like 'nope' and he was like 'hmm i see' because maybe he thought i was kidding when i said i didn't have the repertoire of a Bellagio entertainer but whatever the case it was a good experience.
He skimped out on dinner but he brought me a glass of champagne and some olives to snack on and that was that.
First time i've ever received anything material for performing though! WHAT A MILESTONE!
Then it was off to bed and back to Montreal, to keep the train moving forward, the fear ever present that if you stop for a second you won't be riding the train, you will be a sleeper beneath it.
BTW FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHEN I UPDATE THIS MY NAME IS @ALEXEIMARTOV SHAMELESS WHORING ETC. HERE IS A LINK!!! http://twitter.com/#!/alexeIMARTOV
At night i'd usually go eat somewhere then head to B.L.U.E.S. bar or Kingston Mines on my own, where i would recklessly pound long necks of Anchor Steam while hitting on tourists with the carefree abandon of an inebriated wrecking ball.
You can have quite a lot of success with this approach when there is no fear of derision from those who you may have to invite to a future wedding or make business with. At one point, while enjoying a platonic bump and grind with a young lass of a wee 62 years, i noticed a growing tremble in my loins. It seemed my lower half did not want to go with the plan of 'wouldn't it be a nice thing if this lady got to get down and party like it was 1969 for a song?'.
As the amplitude grew to the upper Richter limits i thought about how unlikely this event was to occur on a day that i was simultaneously going 'Special Ops' downstairs due to an inability to accurately schedule laundry into my interning candle-burning lifestyle. Unable to realign the axis of this growing evil, as this would lead to my **** (yes, thats what we've been talking about) being in plain view, i just hoped things would be kosher but that she wasn't hungry. Eventually it was too much; noticing the pyramidic outline of my pants this lady expressed a thought that could only mean she was looking for a different type of tourism, one that didn't involve a visit to Giza (perhaps she wasn't even a tourist!). She looked at me with eyes of horror and expressed what had been coming all along; "I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU DO IT IN AUSTRALIA, BUT IN CHICAGO, YOU TUCK THAT!". Without the luxuries of a paragraph of metaphors I realized it would be impossible to explain the situation eloquently so did the next best thing and went to buy another beer.
I tell you this story because it was extremely important in understanding my growth as an artist. Really.
Anyway… Most the people i met were very friendly. The first longer term project to come in to record was a group of Italian musicians who arrived with their possy of like 8 people and immediately went into the kitchen to cook everyone lunch. That was pretty sweet. Then they setup some **** and played some heavy rock guitar solos and such. Its a nice thing to think about, that these guys are rockstars in Italy and the first thing they do is cook an intern lunch. Perhaps they intuitively know that not being an A****** fills more than peoples belly's.
Steve runs a poker game that features a varied cast of characters whose main connection seems to be a knowledge of obscure music, so i had been eager to play that. I was downstairs playing the piano as the game started, figuring this would be the best time to play since no one was using the studios (it was probably 7-8 pm) and this guy Brandon came down just as i was finishing. Unsatisfied with this apparently, he said 'so you play the piano?' and i said sure, and he asked me to play him something which was probably the most pragmatic way someone has ever actually asked me to play them something.
As i started to play some music he said he really liked what i was doing and that was that. We had a good chat and went back to the poker game where he 5 or 6 bet shoved with some kind of AT style hand preflop against me to bust his stack. We parted ways but continued talking over the course of the month about music since it seems like we were both feeling the 'time is running out' crush.
As my trip to Chicago came to a close i increasingly needed to get away and go digest at home. Some nights had got a little TOO crazy for my liking. I decided enough was enough and that i'd cut my trip short by 2 days. Needing some personal space immediately i checked into a hotel while i waited for the next flight to leave. Since it was just going to be a night and max 2 i figured i'd stay somewhere nice and remembered that Brandon used to work at a swanky hotel called the Drake. I figured it would be a nice play to stay. Often swanky hotels have grand pianos lying around the place so i thought maybe that would work out.
At the time i was using one of my friends credit cards for my internet purchases since my credit card has a $500 limit, so i booked my hotel with his card. I didn't really think anything of this at the time since i had booked my flights with his card, but as i would come to realize, a hotel is another type of beast.
As i arrived looking rather shell-shocked at the Drake reception, i told the man behind the desk that i was looking at expanding into their territories for the evening. What name was i under, he asked, and after telling him the rooms name was under "Kevin" he asked to see "Kevins" ID.
"Oh, I'm not Kevin" i responded.
"Well you can't just stay in Ke.."
"Egh, i booked it on my friends credit card but i can see why you couldn't just give me the room now" i replied in my calmest hungover voice.
"Why don't you cancel the booking and i'll just make a new one in cash".
"He has to call us to cancel".
"Ok i will get him to call you and i'll make a new booking now".
"Ok, card?"
At this point fumbling through my wallet to see if i had enough to pay straight up for it, my bank card fell out of my wallet.
He reached for it.
"Oh, that's not my credit card" i said.
"Thats not your credit card either? Sir this is…"
"Thats my bank ca.."
"Highly unusual, the rooms not on your credit card, this isn't your credit card, whose card is it? sir we are going to have to ask you to leave"
"rrrrd".
"Thats my bank ca.."
"Sorry we won't have you at the Drake; there are many other hotels, but you can't stay here".
"Ok well would you recommen…"
"Sir you are not welcome at this hotel please leave before i call security".
So i left and stayed at the millennium knickerbocker across the street.
That night i was feeling rather dejected and it turns out the closest restaurant was Spaggio, a michelin star Italian restaurant with what looked to be a delectable tasting menu. I decided that i would nurse my self-inflicted self-indulgent woes with more self-indulgence. Everyones always telling me the Italians are role model drinkers so pasta and Red Wine seemed like a very healthy alternative to seeing if i could wax the hotel minibar in an evening of porn fuelled regret.
Suiting up i headed over there and got a double digits tasting menu with wine pairings. It was pretty good and the location, high with a giant window overlooking chicago was healing in ways that are hard to describe (maybe birds are less depressed? because of the higher viewing point i mean…).
Invigorated, i returned to the Drake Hotel to find a piano to play. The knickerbockers piano was under lock and key and besides was for more qualified pianists. I figured the Drake was the sort of hotel that would just have a piano sitting around in a conference room like a piece of furniture. The Ritz does this **** all the time. It's awesome but kind of depressing to think of dormant things in general, and especially those that turn keyholes to fantasy soundscapes in the right hands. Tonight, i decided those hands would be mine, although i must say that without the confidence of wine i would have pondered using more modest words.
Anyway, i wandered around the hotel until I found a piano in a hallway somewhere off to the side. Just sitting in the hallway. I started playing some stuff on it, kind of Jazz/Impressionisty stuff that sounds pretty nice. A couple people walked past and stopped for a second or too but i was probably closing my eyes and just going with the flow of the improv so didn't really notice much until i noticed an indian dude in a suit and tie standing watching me carefully.
Suddenly aware of his presence i snapped to life and apologized for playing the piano, and that it had just been a while since i got a chance as i was traveling currently.
"Thats ok, i have just been listening from my office, the music, it is very nice what are your plans?"
"i'm not sure right now"
"well i'd be happy to provide you with a meal and some wine if you played in the main dining room tomorrow evening"
"Sure, that sounds good, but i don't really have the repertoire for such a thing"
"you can just play what you're playing now, that sort of thing"
"OK"
"Ok, your attire is good, i'll see you at 5 until 7 tomorrow".
From kicked out to playing in here
So i went home and had a laugh about how i had got kicked out of the hotel in the morning and got offered to play that same night and went to sleep and then woke up again and headed off there at 4:30 and i played for a while and some old people said they liked my playing but mostly the dining room was quiet and the indian dude asked if i knew how to play Take 5 and i was like 'nope' and he was like 'hmm i see' because maybe he thought i was kidding when i said i didn't have the repertoire of a Bellagio entertainer but whatever the case it was a good experience.
He skimped out on dinner but he brought me a glass of champagne and some olives to snack on and that was that.
First time i've ever received anything material for performing though! WHAT A MILESTONE!
Then it was off to bed and back to Montreal, to keep the train moving forward, the fear ever present that if you stop for a second you won't be riding the train, you will be a sleeper beneath it.
BTW FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHEN I UPDATE THIS MY NAME IS @ALEXEIMARTOV SHAMELESS WHORING ETC. HERE IS A LINK!!! http://twitter.com/#!/alexeIMARTOV
08-26-2011
, 02:45 AM
08-26-2011
, 04:41 AM
08-26-2011
, 02:33 PM
08-26-2011
, 05:14 PM
Hey man great post. For the last 17 years i've been a professional poker player, touring musician, and have done post production work as well. The lines have been so blurred through the years im not sure when I was what 
Anyway, point is, i've been successful at all of it and you can to. Music biz is horrid right now, but new bands continue to come out all the time. If your serious about it you can PM me and I can give you some tips. Hang in there.
Anyway, point is, i've been successful at all of it and you can to. Music biz is horrid right now, but new bands continue to come out all the time. If your serious about it you can PM me and I can give you some tips. Hang in there.
08-26-2011
, 06:29 PM
I'd venture a guess that almost all poker players struggle with it in other aspects of life.. sometimes being good at thinking can be a bad thing..
08-27-2011
, 12:15 PM
08-27-2011
, 01:15 PM
09-29-2011
, 12:39 AM
Well i'm going to jump forward to the present and then we'll flesh out everything in-between shortly.
I had a lot on my plate today. I had decided to create a solar system of chinese lanterns for the "Epic Space Hootenanny". The Hootenanny is something i will talk about the evolution of in the future but for now its important to know the name basically means 'party w/ music' and that even without the initial 'epic' it is still indeed an 'epic' way to spend some time. These "hootenannies" have kind of escalated again and again in size and it turns out that over 100 people are RSVPed for this one and i know many more who are coming. I think my apartment has a capacity of about 200 people since it is one huge room and is 1900 sq ft but there is a small amount of trepidation; you want it to be big; could this be... too big? People also tend to come in off the street since i am almost at street level access (small staircase off the busiest street in Montreal leads directly into my apartment; sometimes people come in randomly while we're playing and scream **** YEA!!!!' and then eventually realize this is where i live and are like, well have a good night!)..
Anyway I was really hungover and thought it would be a funny name for a party but somewhere in-between then and now i decided having 2001 space odyssey projected in blu ray on one of the walls while we rocked in a slight mist would be even more epic. Obviously we would have to introduce our set with the opening of the movie, i believe the piece of music is the Blue Danube or something like that but we decided french horns/strings on the synth and some heavy toms as a timpani would work just as well if we gave our really serious faces at the time.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT ONLY WORKS WITH TIMPANI!?
So we decided on that intro but once we decided on that the space theme it became quite an obsession of mine and being a little crazy decided to attempt create this solar system.
Despite the fact that we were still writing a lot of the music we were playing in 3 days, but no problems thats how it always goes!
A cursory look on my phone while i was in China Town lead me to having 2 blue lanterns, 5 orange, a kind of weird green one, a red one and a white one. Thats 10 planets but i got a really huge orange one to be the sun figuring if i put a red globe in it the combination would look kind of sun like. There's also no white planet but i figured with a black light i could get that lantern to glow kind of purply and even though everyone says pluto is a dwarf i like to think its still a planet.
PLUTO
DWARF
You are f ****** if you think these are the same.
So we needed 9 planets.
After falling off my ladder because i was too drunk to be rigging lighting, i decided the lighting could wait and bought some Ephemere a delicious apple beer (appletinis GUY STYLE) and decided to bang my head against the new reverb i had bought. The reverb was for vocals since the mixer i own doesn't have inbuilt effects so it took me a little while to work out how to get the two things to integrate but that was mostly a small hassle as opposed to the war of attrition that is getting technology to function at times.
After that i went on a quick run. I owned some black lights and had read that gatorade, mountain dew, vitamin d12, absinthe, and vasoline all glowed in the dark so i quickly acquired all these. It turns out none of them glowed in the dark. At least not the dark the 100w incandescent bulbs from the hardware store illuminated. It was clear stronger black light was required if the glow in the dark absinthe punch was to be achieved. I'm not sure it will be. That ones still on the cards.
Anyway, the bassist i play with called me up and we decided to rehearse again...
(and finish the composition we were working on for 4 hours last night) with his brother, our drummer today. That went pretty well although i have to say that rehearsing songs is a lot more tiring on my voice than actually singing in a show since you are just doing laps on the tough parts.
Then we rehearsed over songs for about 4 hours, talked about meeting up tomorrow, and that was that.
Smooth operator! This is our initial lighting setup although we clearly haven't integrated the solar system etc and gotta set the mist so it is subtle and sexy not Steven King style.
Friday 30 it is.. Anyway. I got an Opera lesson tomorrow at 1 pm with my opera teacher and his little dog theodora who accompanies me on the more difficult lines, but thats another story and i best be getting some rest.
http://twitter.com/#!/ALEXEIMARTOV
As always you can and should follow me on twitter, sometimes i even make sense!
ALEXEIMARTOV -> OUT.
I had a lot on my plate today. I had decided to create a solar system of chinese lanterns for the "Epic Space Hootenanny". The Hootenanny is something i will talk about the evolution of in the future but for now its important to know the name basically means 'party w/ music' and that even without the initial 'epic' it is still indeed an 'epic' way to spend some time. These "hootenannies" have kind of escalated again and again in size and it turns out that over 100 people are RSVPed for this one and i know many more who are coming. I think my apartment has a capacity of about 200 people since it is one huge room and is 1900 sq ft but there is a small amount of trepidation; you want it to be big; could this be... too big? People also tend to come in off the street since i am almost at street level access (small staircase off the busiest street in Montreal leads directly into my apartment; sometimes people come in randomly while we're playing and scream **** YEA!!!!' and then eventually realize this is where i live and are like, well have a good night!)..
Anyway I was really hungover and thought it would be a funny name for a party but somewhere in-between then and now i decided having 2001 space odyssey projected in blu ray on one of the walls while we rocked in a slight mist would be even more epic. Obviously we would have to introduce our set with the opening of the movie, i believe the piece of music is the Blue Danube or something like that but we decided french horns/strings on the synth and some heavy toms as a timpani would work just as well if we gave our really serious faces at the time.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT ONLY WORKS WITH TIMPANI!?
So we decided on that intro but once we decided on that the space theme it became quite an obsession of mine and being a little crazy decided to attempt create this solar system.
Despite the fact that we were still writing a lot of the music we were playing in 3 days, but no problems thats how it always goes!
A cursory look on my phone while i was in China Town lead me to having 2 blue lanterns, 5 orange, a kind of weird green one, a red one and a white one. Thats 10 planets but i got a really huge orange one to be the sun figuring if i put a red globe in it the combination would look kind of sun like. There's also no white planet but i figured with a black light i could get that lantern to glow kind of purply and even though everyone says pluto is a dwarf i like to think its still a planet.
PLUTO
DWARF
You are f ****** if you think these are the same.
So we needed 9 planets.
After falling off my ladder because i was too drunk to be rigging lighting, i decided the lighting could wait and bought some Ephemere a delicious apple beer (appletinis GUY STYLE) and decided to bang my head against the new reverb i had bought. The reverb was for vocals since the mixer i own doesn't have inbuilt effects so it took me a little while to work out how to get the two things to integrate but that was mostly a small hassle as opposed to the war of attrition that is getting technology to function at times.
After that i went on a quick run. I owned some black lights and had read that gatorade, mountain dew, vitamin d12, absinthe, and vasoline all glowed in the dark so i quickly acquired all these. It turns out none of them glowed in the dark. At least not the dark the 100w incandescent bulbs from the hardware store illuminated. It was clear stronger black light was required if the glow in the dark absinthe punch was to be achieved. I'm not sure it will be. That ones still on the cards.
Anyway, the bassist i play with called me up and we decided to rehearse again...
(and finish the composition we were working on for 4 hours last night) with his brother, our drummer today. That went pretty well although i have to say that rehearsing songs is a lot more tiring on my voice than actually singing in a show since you are just doing laps on the tough parts.
Then we rehearsed over songs for about 4 hours, talked about meeting up tomorrow, and that was that.
Smooth operator! This is our initial lighting setup although we clearly haven't integrated the solar system etc and gotta set the mist so it is subtle and sexy not Steven King style.
Friday 30 it is.. Anyway. I got an Opera lesson tomorrow at 1 pm with my opera teacher and his little dog theodora who accompanies me on the more difficult lines, but thats another story and i best be getting some rest.
http://twitter.com/#!/ALEXEIMARTOV
As always you can and should follow me on twitter, sometimes i even make sense!
ALEXEIMARTOV -> OUT.
Last edited by alexeimartov; 09-29-2011 at 12:52 AM.