Well, it's about time! After cashing in coins I've been saving up for the past few years, I realized I had enough money to buy a new pick-up system and have it rush delivered in time for last Saturday's gig!
After looking around for guides to install a K&K Pure Mini, I found one that simplified the process significantly. Here are a few pictures I snapped during the process. Enjoy!
The patient and the pick-up.
Masking tape Band-Aid to make sure the drilling is clean.
Taking inspiration from my buddy Carl of Spoil Yo' Self! I decided to try making photo slideshows of my impromptu culinary concoctions I treat myself to every once in a while.
Here's my first one. I haven't given it a name yet (I'll leave that to you guys), but it was quite filling and very yummy though the crispy bacon ruined the consistency and made it a little bit difficult to cut into cleanly. I'd probably just crunch them into bacon bits next time.
It's been an incredibly productive past few weeks holed up here in my Batcave. My EP is ready to be released for purchase and download this week! I'm wrapping up some finishing touches before releasing it for anyone to buy. Physical CDs won't be in for another few weeks however, but once they are on the way, I'll resume playing shows!
Car all packed up in Burtonsville, MD.
Of course, I have the Grounds for Music festival right here in my home town coming up this Father's Day weekend as well as a private birthday party in Philly followed by a recording session in Washington DC for a jazz group. I've also begun work on recording demos for my keyboard compositions! If all goes as planned, it'll be released after my second EP which also is in the works!
My 6-year old laptop functioning as my recording studio.
Unfortunately, the boring administrative stuff still isn't over, and I'll probably be spending more time on the computer keyboard than the musical one as I still have a lot of stuff to write-up and plan, but it's all going toward moving forward!
Aliens playing on the monitor there + both kinds of keyboards and the tablet.
Well, time to wrap-up my night with some mindless video games, feed my brain some books, and fall asleep to a documentary. Gotta rest up for the week ahead!
The end of May saw to a healthy amount of gigs taking me to Philadelphia, Rockville, Bethesda, Ellicott City, Washington DC, and Baltimore. I've been playing with a lot of great musicians which made all of the shows a lot of fun even despite illness. As much as I enjoy solo work, my true love is in ensemble work. That said, I've been writing and refining much of my piano ensemble work for release in the future. A handful of the people I've been working with are pushing ahead to get a jazz/funk quartet going. Should be fun!
Believe it or not, I've been working on yet ANOTHER website that looks SO much more professional than the one I currently have. It's been expensive and incredibly time-consuming getting it off the ground, but by the time it launches, I'll have a decent infrastructure upon which to lean and do more performances!
Additionally, I've been spending a lot of time with my sketchbook, drawing pads, and watercolors to come up with a new logo after reading up on several articles and a couple of textbooks on the principles of graphic design and digital art (I'm pretty old school when it comes to art). It's been a difficult process picking it up as I go, but the last few designs have been pretty cool!
This week will be a lot more time spent on my non-musical keyboard (the one that's connected to this poor computer) completing the transfer all the stuff from the old website to the new while working on new content. Friday will be a video recording and photo session for the new jazz group.
That all said, I leave you with these videos from yet another DC-based jazz-fusion group I've been playing with and a video from one of my old tunes I haven't recorded for my website. Enjoy!
