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.
I’ve been stopping by one of two gyms at Cornell on my daily walks, after discovering that my emeritus status gives me access to basketballs, lockers, uniforms, towels, etc. Most importantly, my retired status gives me lots of discretionary free time — I only saw one other person shooting hoops at Barton Hall today (the other gym is in Helen Newman Hall) during what I thought would be prime time for pick-up games (noon).
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).
Last night, I stumbled upon this rectangle of light on the Cornell Arts Quad and wondered if it was an art installation or just the random result of an open window with a projector running in Goldwin Smith Hall.
Update (Nov. 26, 2024): The Cornell Council for the Arts confirmed today that “what you captured was an unplanned, serendipitous art happening as far as CCA is aware. But we think it’s very cool!”
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!
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.
