While I’ve been working on a new (original) song, I’ve also been listening to Taylor Swift’s “Tortured Poets Department” album, and learning one of the songs, loml, on guitar — Swift’s sings her version accompanied by piano. I’ve transposed it up a few semitones — from the key of C to the key of E. Yesterday, I decided to just set up two mics and record the song live, using Logic Pro. I did add just a bit of Login Pro software instrumentation (cello and piano) at the end of the song, played live on my midi keyboard. And I balanced my iPhone on the bookshelf over my computer to create the live video (edited in Final Cut Pro).
I was the inaugural performer for the opening of the Cortland Coffeehouse Plus, playing two sets of original songs in the basement of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Cortland, New York, also known as “The Old Cobblestone Church.” According to the Church website: “The building was placed on the State and National Register of Historic Buildings in 1993. The ‘Old Cobblestone Church’ is now the oldest building in Cortland County and is one of only two such cobblestone buildings in the country.” Here are two videos recorded at the performance.
Links to my original songs, covers, and videos can be found here.
A number of years ago, I began recording covers of pop songs that were influential in my musical development (or that I just liked). My self-imposed rules were (1) to pick only one song for each year; and (2) to never repeat any artist or group. Well, I started with Surfer Girl from 1963, and I’ve just made it all the way to 1984 with Cyndi Lauper’s hit single, Time After Time.
Some fun facts about the production: I’m playing the keyboard live in the video; I added the vocal, backup vocal, acoustic guitar, harmonica, bass, and drums later. All in Login Pro X. The video was shot in two parts: first the live piano (in my house); second, the background in the Trader Joe’s parking lot in Ithaca, NY, while I was waiting for Susan to finish shopping there. This was assembled in Final Cut Pro. Everything shot with my iPhone.
I presented my latest book, OMA’s Milstein Hall, at Cornell AAP’s joint book launch event, called Launchpad, on April 17, 2024, at 5:30 PM. Details here. Because I was in Madrid for the 2024 ASHRAE International Building Decarbonization Conference, my presentation consisted of a 7-minute music video. I was thinking of adding something like, “Be there. Will be wild!,” but will resist the temptation. Bad taste.
The video was released on YouTube at the same time as the book launch event. Why not subscribe to my YouTube channel to get notices of such things!
Who says architects can’t do archival research? An email conversation got me thinking about a Persuasions concert from 1973 that I saw at Cornell when I was an architecture student (they opened for Stevie Wonder). Being at Cornell’s Olin Library to return a book, I decided to check out the trove of concert posters in the “Rare and Manuscript Collections” held at the Carl A. Kroch Library, an underground addition to Olin Library designed by Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott that opened in 1992. Once there, I was presented with two large folders containing a sample of Cornell’s collection, including posters for at least two of the concerts I attended—not only Stevie Wonder and the Persuasions, but also Joni Mitchell playing with Tom Scott and the L.A. Express. I should note that Stevie Wonder and the Persuasions played at Bailey Hall, so the acoustics were great; whereas Joni Mitchell played in Barton Hall, a large field house that’s great for lunchtime basketball or watching track events, but horrible for music.
I made a webpage containing photos that I took of samples from Cornell’s larger collection, from September 1972 (Elton John) to April 1975 (Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock).
Concert poster for Stevie Wonder and The Persuasions, playing at Cornell’s Bailey Hall March 30, 1973 (Ticket prices: $3.00–$4.00).
In preparation for my upcoming “Greatest Hits Vol 4” album, I remixed my 2021 song, “Puzzle of the Heart,” by adding drums, bass, organ, and a touch of back-up vocals — starting at the second verse of the song.
This entailed straightening up the free-form, and somewhat uneven, tempo of the live performance, not only for the new Logic Pro X audio, but also for the new Final Cut Pro video. Having made those subtle modifications, I was able to re-use most elements of the 2021 live video for this 2024 version (with the new 2024 soundtrack).
I wrote the chorus to this song when I was in high school, but only got around to writing the verses and bridge about 50 years later, i.e., just before first recording it live in January 2020. This is a new recording with a bit more orchestration and back-up vocals.
For those interested, the Sartre references are based on a cursory reading of Being and Nothingness (no, not the book; just the Wikipedia entry):
“From Sartre’s phenomenological point of view, nothingness is an experienced reality and cannot be a merely subjective mistake. The absence of a friend and absence of money hint at a being of nothingness. It is part of reality. In the first chapter, Sartre develops a theory of nothingness which is central to the whole book, especially to his account for bad faith and freedom. For him, nothingness is not just a mental concept that sums up negative judgements such as ‘Pierre is not here’ and ‘I have no money.’ Though ‘it is evident that non-being always appears within the limits of a human expectation.’ the concrete nothingness differs from mere abstract inexistence, such as the square circle. A concrete nothingness, e.g. not being able to see, is part of a totality: the life of the blind man in this world. This totality is modified by the nothingness which is part of it.”
The idea that “man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have” is from Sartre’s “Temporalité,” in Situations (1947, 1949).
Celebrating Time‘s 2023 “Person of the Year,” here is my cover of Taylor Swift’s mega-hit from 2014, Blank Space. The song was re-released as “Taylor’s Version” in 2023.
The background image, visible in the thumbnail above, if of the Palau de la Música Catalana (Catalan Concert Hall) in Barcelona, which was built at the beginning of the 20th century. In my cover version of the song, I do all the vocals and background vocals, piano, electric guitar, organ, bass, and drums (other than the guitar, the rest are actually “software” instruments played on my MIDI keyboard). I recorded the song using Logic Pro and made the video using Final Cut Pro.
Only true Swifties will understand the portion of the video where I’m in bed with my guitar. Hint: see this early Taylor Swift video.
I’ve finally written a new song, called “Count Me Out”!
Thanks to brother Kurt for advice on the arrangement and mix; and to daughter Jennie for additional background vocals. I made the video using Final Cut Pro, with my iPhone either mounted on my bicycle seat (for the moving view of 6-mile Creek taken from Giles Street in Ithaca, NY) or on a tripod in front of my portable green screen. The dancer and the bit of smoke at the end of the video were found with an internet search for free downloadable green-screen-enabled clips; they are credited at the end of the video. The drummer is me in front of a black background from a 2011 video I had made for an earlier song; because I was wearing a black cap, the cap disappeared into the black chroma key void, so I added in an image of a hat worn by Neil Peart, the late drummer/singer for Rush, also found on the internet.
I play all instruments and sing the vocals and background vocals (with added background vocals provided by daughter Jennie). Except for the electric guitars, all other “software” instruments, including drums, bass, piano, strings, and synth, are played on my MIDI keyboard. I mixed the song using Logic Pro X.
1. Count me out I don’t need those pointless invitations Tell your friends I can’t be bothered with their vapid conversations Whatever I told you just print it out and shred it It don’t prove a thing I’ll deny I ever said it Tell it to your lawyers they’ll bill you on your credit or debit card Life is hard Count me out
2. Ah cause you don’t need me hanging out with you There must be lots of people that you know with nothing else to do What about Dmitry just wake him from his trance I know if you call him he’ll jump at the chance And if you determine that your circumstance is unfair I don’t care Count me out, count me out, count me out
[Bridge] Me, I had enough for one night In fact, I had enough for one life I don’t want to discuss it no more I don’t need this strife
Instrumental half-verse 3
Second-half verse 3. Do us both a favor let me off the hook Maybe I’ll just hang out and curl up with a book Order up some take-out so I don’t have to cook here tonight Wrong or right Count me out
4. Ah baby cause you know I never had the patience for this stuff I’ve wasted too much time already can’t you see I’ve really had enough Text me when it’s over call me when it’s through Tell me that you missed my caustic point of view Look it’s nothing personal I’m waiting for you here my friend But till then Count me out, count me out, count me out, count me out
Chad Randl and D. Medina Lasansky organized a book launch event in Trumansburg for their recently-published edited volume from MIT Press called Playing Place: Board Games, Popular Culture, Space. Medina asked if I would perform my board game song — “Squints on a Triple,” which was the winner of the 2008 BoardGameGeek contest for real board games mentioned in songs. Unbeknownst to me, my performance on Sunday, September 10, 2023, was recorded on a cell phone by Jenni Minner, our colleague at Cornell, who was gracious enough to provide me a copy.
I put the cell phone’s audio track into Logic Pro and did some minor tweaking with some added EQ, reverb, and so on, but I couldn’t do much to balance the vocal and guitar. I then changed the aspect ratio from portrait to landscape in Final Cut Pro, and added some transcribed lyrics and other titles.
So, it is what it is, as they say. The original “studio” version of the song is here.
