OMA’s Milstein Hall: skateboards and broken bubbles

From my book, OMA’s Milstein Hall: “Just as abstract programmatic adjacencies are confused with circulation systems in the design of Milstein Hall, there is also an implicit conflation of a type of performative athletic movement—whether featuring trained dancers, ‘free runners,’ or skateboarders—with the type of movement in and around buildings that constitutes useful circulation.”

You can read my free, open-access versions of OMA’s Milstein Hall and Building Bad on the web, or download free PDFs.

Just another bad dream

I went to the Nocturnal Cafe open mic in downtown Ithaca last Wednesday, and played three songs accompanied by my classical Goya guitar (my first guitar, purchased when I was 12 years old in 1964). It’s an interesting place — very low key, in part because they don’t have alcohol but rather serve things like elixers, expressos, CBD infusions, juices, tea blends, and kava. Here’s a song from the open mic that I wrote in 1980, called Just Another Bad Dream. The iPhone video was shot by Susan Schwartz and I “enhanced” the iPhone audio using Logic Pro X.

Check out the original “studio” recording of Just Another Bad Dream, as well as all the other songs and videos on my music homepage.

So Far Away, twice…

As part of my ongoing project to record covers of songs that were influential in my musical development — one for each year, without repeating any artists (with some exceptions) — and having chosen Dire Strait’s “So Far Away” to represent the year 1985, it occurred to me that Carole King had also written a song with the same title on her Tapestry album in 1971. So, I decided to record both songs.

The Dire Straits version was written by Mark Knopfler, who also does the lead vocal and adds his characteristically amazing electric guitar. Carole King, on the other hand, accompanies herself on piano. Naturally, I decided to do the opposite: the primary instrumental voice on my DIre Straits cover is a Yamaha digital electric piano, played live and input directly into my Focusrite audio interface (without making use of the keyboard’s MIDI capabilities); whereas the primary instrument for my Carole King cover is an acoustic Ibanez guitar. Click on these YouTube links (DIre Straits or Carole King) or watch the embedded videos here:

 

I shot the Dire Straits cover with my iPhone mounted on a tripod, with a green screen behind the piano, allowing me to inhabit an imaginary world inside of Cornell’s now-gutted Rand Hall. Both the piano and guitar parts were recorded live. The Carole King cover was shot by Susan Schwartz on a pier at Cass Park, Ithaca, NY. I recorded both songs using Logic Pro X, and edited both videos using Final Cut Pro. I sang all vocals and backup vocals, and played all the instruments, some real (e.g., guitar, digital piano) and some software instruments played live on my MIDI keyboard (e.g., bass, drums, organ).

Find links to all my music and videos on my music homepage.

More songs at the Ake Gallery Open Mic

I sang three songs at the Ake Gallery Open Mic in Cortland, NY, on June 19, 2025. My first song, a cynical take on “Graduation Day” (© 2011 Jonathan Ochshorn), has been uploaded to YouTube and embedded here. The iPhone video was shot by Susan Schwartz; the audio is “enhanced” using Logic Pro X.

You can check out the studio version of “Graduation Day,” which features a guest appearance by Bill Clinton and some lead guitar by brother Kurt. And all my songs and music videos are linked from my music homepage.

Live at the Coffeehouse Plus

I played two sets at the Coffeehouse Plus in the basement of the Universalist Unitarian Church in Cortland, NY, on Saturday evening, May 31, 2025. Yes, the show was in direct competition with Game 6 of the rekindled Knicks-Pacers rivalry — which, sad to say, the Knicks lost, ending their playoff hopes. Susan captured the performance with her iPhone, and two of the songs are embedded below. The audio is just what the iPhone captured, so it’s not ideal, but really not that bad, all things considered.

 

Check out the “studio” versions of these songs, along with all my other songs and music videos. And there’s more information about the Cortland performance, including the complete set list with links to the studio versions of all the songs I played.

I’m playing again at the Coffeehouse Plus

Once again, I’ll be playing at the Cortland Coffeehouse PLUS in the historic Unitarian Universalist Cobblestone Church (3 Church St., Cortland, NY; use side entrance on Elm Street) on Saturday, May 31, 2025, starting at 7:00 PM (doors open at 6:30 PM). The first time I played there, in September 2024, I did a guitar-oriented set; the second time, I brought my Yamaha digital piano. For the May 31, 2025 performance, I’ll do one guitar-oriented set and one set with piano: but all “new” songs (i.e., songs that I haven’t performed before, including my latest composition, We Only Had a Few Good Years).

GIf animation performance poster for May 31, 2025 gig at the Coffeehouse Plus

More live performance videos from Cortland Coffeehouse Plus

I returned to the Cortland Coffeehouse Plus on Feb. 22, 2025, playing two sets of mostly original songs* in the basement of the historic Unitarian Universalist Church of Cortland, New York. Unlike the Sept. 2024 performance, which was guitar-oriented, all the songs in this performance were played with my Yamaha digital piano. Here are two iPhone videos recorded at the performance (with the audio also taken directly from our iPhones).

* The full set list, with links to “studio” versions of the songs, can be found here.

And, of course, you can find links to all my original songs and covers on my music homepage.

Performance at Cortland Coffeehouse

I’ll be playing at the Cortland Coffeehouse PLUS in the historic Unitarian Universalist Cobblestone Church (3 Church St., Cortland; use side entrance on Elm Street) on Saturday, February. 22, 2025, starting at 7:00 PM (doors open at 6:30 PM). I did a guitar-oriented set at the Coffeehouse last September; this Saturday, I’ll be bringing my Yamaha digital piano, and playing all new songs (i.e., songs that are different from those played in September).

Poster with animated gif image of Jonathan Ochshorn playing piano, advertising concert for Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, from 7–9 PM (doors open at 6:30 PM) in the Unitarian Universalist Church at 3 Church St., Cortland, NY.

Find more information about the performance here.

You can sample my original music (and some covers) here.

We Only Had a Few Good Years

I started writing “We Only Had a Few Good Years” in July 2024, and completed it a half year later. Three months after starting the lyrics, I came across Elizabeth Kolbert’s New Yorker piece, and incorporated some quotations from the article into the song’s “long digression” — a rather unusual bridge between the second and third verses that I always thought of as being the pop-song equivalent of Melville’s Moby Dick (which also famously contains some rather incongruous digressions).

We Only Had a Few Good Years
Words and music © Jonathan Ochshorn 2025

1. Much has happened to us Hominins since we’ve been around
We started in the trees and now we’re on the ground
But with the water rising we’re more likely to be drowned
As we watch while the coastline disappears
Looks like we blew it cause we only had a few good years

2. Everyone wants a scapegoat — someone they can blame
But time is running out in this idiotic game
They’ll tell you they can fix it as they stand up and explain
All the while throwing sand in the gears
We definitely screwed it up big time cause we only had a few good years

BRIDGE:

To avoid misunderstanding I provide this long digression
My point is — we’ve always lived with constant warfare and aggression
So when I say we’ve had a few good years I’m just talking ’bout the weather
We’ve had 12,000 years in the Holocene to get our act together (let me explain)

Hominins emerged in a long ice age, the Quaternary Glaciation
Within which was an interglacial period called the the Holocene formation
When global temperatures began to warm and glacial ice receded
Giving human civilization the conditions that it needed

But instead of production based on science and cooperation we build fences at our border
Eat or be eaten, beat or be beaten — nothing’s changed in this new world order
The Holocene gave us opportunities we’ve consistently been squandering
All those wasted years, blood sweat and tears — that’s the subject I’ve been pondering

Now Elizabeth Kolbert* wrote in the New Yorker that it really is no mystery
Why (and I quote) “this is the period that includes all of recorded history
A coincidence that, presumably, is no coincidence,” she writes, since in that span (and I quote again)
“Temperatures settled down and a time of relative climate tranquillity began.” (end quote)

Instrumental verse

3. Our economists adore property and competition
And so we live with war, poverty, and superstition
Always under threat from more bombs and ammunition
Designed by our brightest engineers
People we blew it cause we only had a few good years3. 

Outro

Production notes:

Music arranged and produced by Jonathan Ochshorn
Recorded with Logic Pro X software
Vocals: Jonathan Ochshorn
Background vocals: Jonathan Ochshorn
Real instruments: Jonathan Ochshorn’s leg-slapping intro drums
Software instruments played live on midi keyboard: Jonathan Ochshorn (drums, bass, piano, organ, electric clav)
Recorded at home in Ithaca, NY, February 2025.

I made the video using Final Cut Pro, with my lip-synced simulations recorded on my iPhone, placed on a tripod in front of my portable green screen (except that the final “outro” video was recorded live; hence the headphones and mic). The underlying video background is a live screen-recording of the Logic Pro X interface (with the Logic Pro transcription of the electric clav solo superimposed).

Links to all my songs and music videos can be found here.

* Elizabeth Kolbert, “Letter from Greenland: When the Arctic Melts, What the fate of Greenland means for the rest of the Earth,” New Yorker, October 7, 2024.

Live performance: Ran Through My Mind

This is a live version of my song, Ran Through My Mind (© circa 1980 Jonathan Ochshorn) that I performed at the Cortland Coffeehouse Plus on Feb. 1, 2025 as an unplanned and unexpected guest of Colleen Kattau — bilingual vocalist, award-winning song-maker and dynamic performer of Latin-influenced progressive eclectic folk — who was performing that night at the Coffeehouse.

Find my original music video of Ran Through My Mind from March 2008 here. And, of course, all my original songs and covers are linked from my music homepage.