I woke up with three plans for the day: to check out Flatstock, the annual poster convention hosted by SXSW, catch a couple of international acts and get my face melted at a punk show. So I donned the backpack I acquired the night before and headed to downtown. As I was wandering the streets in the early afternoon, I was handed a flyer by a representative of Café Bustelo with directions to a site serving free Cuban coffee to festival attendees! I was simultaneously excited and dismayed at the prospect, as I was foregoing coffee (specifically espresso) for Lent. My temperance was quickly rewarded, however, as I turned a few corners and found myself at a booth giving away free Chick-fil-A sandwiches! God is good! After downing a pair of lightly breaded deliciousness, I would later visit the cafecito just to have a peek. I may not have been able to enjoy any at the time, but at least I could bring back some souvenirs for the other members of the office coffee break crew.
SXSW Music has finally begun! At the start of the day I had only two things on my agenda: attend a live podcast recording in the afternoon and catch a free music showcase in the evening. To kill time in the early afternoon, and since I had a hankering for some Tex-Mex, I headed to a food court that housed Burrito Factory. Feeling sufficiently carbed-up, I walked through the grounds of UT at Austin, which was on spring break that week. I had seen advertisements on banners and the sides of buses about a special 90's-themed exhibition at the school's art gallery and thought I'd take a look. I entered the Blanton Museum of Art and spent some time looking at pieces not only from the 90's but also from ancient Greek, medieval, Renaissance and modern periods. I could have spent all day surrounded by awesome paintings and crisp A/C, but I needed to get to the Lustre Pearl at 3:30pm and I was cutting it close with my departure time.
When I retell the story of a significant experience I typically lean more towards TMI than FYI because I see details as really important to setting the tale apart from others and to giving the listener more aspects to identify with. So what I'm going to try to do is recount my experiences from this year's SXSW (South by Southwest) with the dual goal of giving my circle of friends due respect in letting them know what I was up to for a week and of hopefully inspiring music lovers who happen to be reading to attempt a trek to Austin, Texas for a future SX.
Saturday 3/12
I'm glad I never felt the pull towards a profession in sales because as I was telling friends of my intent to go to this music festival in the months leading up to it I simply got a bunch of "I've heard of that" and "That sounds interesting". So knowing I would go about it solo I went ahead and booked a flight (~$500) and an Airbnb room (~$500) roughly two months before the event. Although things were getting pretty pricey pretty quick, I wasn't deathly concerned because I felt comfortable with the times and locations of the above reservations. Moreover, I had convinced myself by reading testimonies from people who had gone to previous SXSW festivals without the official wristband (~$200) or badge (~$800-1800) that I can still attain a memorable experience by foregoing the same.
Packed and ready for adventure, I was chauffered to the airport by a generous friend and made it to Austin in the midafternoon without a hitch. I then took a half-hour Uber ride from AUS to the Airbnb residence, and since I had a promo code for $20 off my first ride it came out to be an incredible $0.35 charge! The homeowner Sam greeted me at the door and as he showed me my private room and other amenities he also informed me that he was slow-cooking pulled pork outside that would be ready that evening! Content with the bed-and-BBQ I had landed upon, I retired for a 2-hour nap followed by dinner and socializing by the backyard firepit with the other guests followed by a 8.5-hour dormition.
It's that time again... the time when I say I'm too busy to keep this blog updated. Not that it's too much of a surprise if you've been following me (or nagging me), but now it's official. I won't go into detail on the reasons why I'm busy because excuses are excuses.
And as always, this is not an end all be all. I'll post some posts when I get the chance, but it will most likely not be on a monthly basis. In any case, I have a back catalog of interesting entries that should keep any newcomer entertained for a while.
But I won't leave you all totally hanging. I did promise to make at least one post in the month of September and so I'll leave you with the stylings of an artist who just won't stop being awesome: Audrey Assad (you can check out a little blurb about her at the end of this).
Last March, I wrote a post in honor of my father's birthday. It featured the world-famous "Mi Querido Viejo" by Piero and I though it apt to revisit the song for this special day. Albeit beautiful, it's a pretty tricky song to play and even trickier to find adequate tutorials.
After due diligence, I discovered effective resources and I'm happy to share my findings. I'm pretty tone-deaf, but I find that the chords from La Cuerda match the song really well. And this was backed by a short how-to video by Señor Carliros shown below. I also find it really great to play on a nylon-stringed acoustic guitar.
I implore all music experts to correct me where necessary, and everyone to thank your fathers and father figures. =D
"Mi Querido Viejo" by Piero
Am E Es un buen tipo mi viejo F C Que anda solo y esperando E Am Tiene la tristeza larga E Am De tanto venir andando
G E Yo lo miro desde lejos F C Pero somos tan distintos E Am Es que crecio con el siglo G C E Con tranvia y vino tinto
E Am Viejo mi querido viejo G C Ahora ya caminas lento E Am Como perdonando el viento E Am Yo soy tu sangre mi viejo E Am Soy tu silencio y tu tiempo
G E El tiene los ojos buenos F C Y una figura pesada E Am La edad se le vino encima E Am Sin carnaval, ni comparsa
G E Yo tengo los años nuevos F G C Y el hombre los años viejos E Am El dolor lo lleva dentro G C E Y tiene historia sin tiempo
E Am Viejo mi querido viejo G C Ahora ya caminas lerdo E Am Como perdonando el viento E Am Yo soy tu sangre mi viejo E Am Soy tu silencio y tu tiempo
Yup... it's been over four months since my last post. I've been itching to get back, but along with all the responsibilities of a senior engineering student and intern I just haven't been listening to music as often (I've gotten too busy even for that!).
I have a huge post in the works and I'm only four paragraphs away from finishing, but that also means I'm about four hours away from finishing (it's the bane of my OCD...). And I was going to work on it some more tonight, but then I was distracted by a YouTube video of a friend's cover. Then I got to appreciating all my musical friends and how much I admire their presence and influence in my life.
So in their honor (and without their consent), I'm showcasing their talent to my Internet friends (I call you friends because who else would be this patient with me). All the featured songs are covers, which is of no surprise (if you don't know me by now...).
"Jayvee's So Last Summer (Taking Back Sunday Cover)" by Taking Back Jayvee
I remember when I first met each of the performers for the first time. I first heard of Sherwin Rio as the guitarist of the Jacksonville alternative band Dancell, and I was as excited as a Japanese schoolgirl when I got the chance to be the first to show him around UF! Humble to the extreme (which is a characteristic of all of these artists), I'm amazed at the depth of heart Sherwin portrays when he plays music, especially when he plays for others.
I also heard about Kathryne Lopez before I met her, but when I actually heard her for the first time I was blown away! She and her family were sitting behind me during Mass, but when she sang the Responsorials it sounded like she was in front of me. I scouted for the owner of these resonding pipes to no avail, only to meet her face-to-face afterwards. Kathryne has a way of enveloping the listener with the beauty of her voice, but the true beauty lies in her realization that this Grace is not her own.
A year ago, a good friend of ours, Jayvee, was leaving us to start his carrer in Texas. At a going-away get-together, the dynamic duo of Sheryne dedicated a cover-parody of Taking Back Sunday's "You're So Last Summer" to send him off right.
As I discussed a while back, Christian music is not as cookie-cutter as some people make it out to be. Therein lies a great diversity, and that's where Dy-Verse comes in. Upon arriving to UF, Nick Torres had no aspiration to be the talented Catholic hip-hopper that he is. But as a result of various golden thread circumstances, he was led onto a path of artistic expression to convey his lack of fulfillment in earthly pleasures and his restless pursuit towards a greater purpose.
A few months back, Nick entered an MTV contest to remix a Juanes song for a chance to meet the man himself. He submitted his revision of "A Dios Le Pido" ("I Ask God") and won! But putting aside all the temporary glamour (which is easy to do), it's finally great to have the song live up to its name and not have its meaning confided to a single stanza as before.
(Update: Dy-Verse joined the rap supergroup FoundNation and their debut release Univeral is out! Get it here, here and here!)
"If It Means A Lot To You (A Day to Remember Cover)" by Amy Rigby
Facebook makes it really easy to be a creeper, even when I'm not trying (hmm, I'm not sure if that came out right...). This video popped up on my Newsfeed and I was surprised because I didn't know Amy Rigby played guitar. Granted, both of us have always been busy with our respective majors and were left with the occassional "Hi! How have things been?" as the extent of our communication. But I know her well enough say that she is friendly in that she embodies the definition of "friend" given by C.S. Lewis in The Four Loves.
I was really glad to come across this other side of Amy, but it's a little bittersweet. Although she nails this unplugged cover of "If It Means A Lot To You" by A Day to Remember, it's so good that it almost makes me want to take down any recorded attempts I have at singing and playing guitar.
... I must report that I will be taking a hiatus. It's been just a month since the start of my senior year, and I have not found the time in my schedule to keep this blog updated.
It started as a hobby and a source of release, and I had loads of fun doing this. I didn't mind the amount of time dedicated and energy invested (nocturnally) to keep this going. But as of late, it has become a chore, and also sort of a job. Now I have to listen to music and have to discover new topics to discuss, instead of it being just for kicks.
There's still a bunch of ideas for future posts buzzing in my head, but until I find the grace to manage all the rest that life throws at me, I will set these drafts aside for a while. If this bums you out, then I'm sorry for making you feel this way. If you don't really care, then I'm sorry you don't feel otherwise. =P
So, I got into the music scene a little later than most folks. I remember one day in my high school freshman Engineering period a fellow classmate asked me what type of music I was into. At that point, I wasn't into anything except the adult contemporary my parents played on the car radio (and that was passive listening). So I just blurted out something random: techno. Needless to say, said fellow classmate never spoke to me again...
In any case, that summer (2005), I visited Nicaragua with my aunt and cousin for two weeks. Around the second day, I met my cousin's cousins (my second cousins?) whom were teens like us. When I entered their room, I saw "Be Yourself" playing on the TV. I ended up spending the majority of the trip making up for lost time alongside MTV Latin America.
Not too long afterwards, I saved up the earnings of my 15th birthday and went to Best Buy to purchase a cheap Durabrand CD player, From Under the Cork Tree, American Idiot and Demon Days. And now, almost 6 years later, I'm here updating a blog about my not-so-secret passion.
Because it's so close to when I first began engrossing myself in music, I have to say that my favorite year in music is 2006. When I started out, I watched music videos like it was nobody's business. But after a few months of that, I got tired of just singles and delved into the albums of my favorite artists, discovering the gems no one cared to search for. Below are a few of my top picks...
A young, lonely, pop-punk listening Hispanic teenage boy was eventually going to come across this CD. It was one random day at my other cousin's house that I saw the video for "Narcisita Por Excelencia" on MTV Tr3s. I was instantly hooked by the sound and energy, and I also had an ear catered to "emotional" music. When I picked up Amantes Sunt Amantes, I became a fan overnight. What I liked most about the album (and still do) was the unconventionality of the composition, characteristic of post-hardcore. I wouldn't know it until later, but their previous release, Para Ti Con Desprecio, was the product of heavy plagerism. Panda writes some pretty catchy tunes, but sadly these are songs to slit your wrists to (and unfortunately the band doesn't make that a subtle point =///).
So I've created a YouTube account associated with this blog. I had one before, but I wanted to change the username and thus had to create a new account (the videos from the old account are now gone with the wind...).
I don't have much on there now, but I will be uploading more vids as the future becomes the present.
Link to the account page "NocturnalInvestment"
[http://www.youtube.com/user/NocturnalInvestment]
I've described my method of making mixtapes in the last post. Today, I'd like to give an example of what I consider to be an okay mixtape. This is the 9th mix I compiled (circa January 2010).
Like I said before, when you give out a mix it's a gift from one admirer to one apple-of-their-eye. Therefore, reusing the same mix is bad protocol on the mixer's end. As such, you can consider this mixtape as a gift from me to the Internet and the members therein (especially my loyal readers... all 5 of you...). =]
I hope you enjoyed it! And that you're inspired to create some mixes of your own!
(Edit: Per somebody's smart suggestion, I've compiled these songs into a YouTube playlist so as to better get the feel of listening to an actual mix CD. You can listen to it here and it is also embedded below.)
... and you like her, right? Like, a lot. A lot a lot. I mean, you two hang out a lot (sometimes with a number of friends, sometimes with not so many), you make each other laugh, you think the other person's soooooo cool... and you both have the same taste in music!!!
At least... you think you do. But it's a pretty good hunch. You're 98.3% sure of it. You can just sense it. In any case, you're really into music. You don't consider yourself the cut-from-the-same-cloth radio listener. And you want to share that part of your life with her... as a first step to sharing more of your life with her.
OK, so for a change of pace, I'd like to share one of my favorite original band names: Last One Out.
The story behind the name is muti-faceted. One of those facets is the fact that whenever I'm volunteering at an academic or social event, more often than not I find myself expending way more energy and logging in way more time than I had expected. In most cases, I have no problem with it and I'm glad to help, but it's just interesting to note that I'm usually the "last one out."
Like I said before, school and just life in general has made me (relatively) VERY busy! But I didn't want to go all of April without a post.
Last Monday (April 18), I played a small set at the annual Catholic Student Fellowship talent show. Just a year (well, 364 days) prior was the first time I performed in public, playing "Birthday Gal" and another song (which I won't delve into).
Not only is today Friday, but it is also my father's birthday. This is one of his favorite songs (his top in the field of patriarchal exultation). Although I won't be able to see him today, the next time I do I'll be able to play this for him on the guitar (something I couldn't have done a year ago).
"Mi Querido Viejo" by Piero
Es un buen tipo mi viejo(My old man’s a good guy) que anda solo y esperando.(who goes off alone and waiting.) Tiene la tristeza larga(He has a long, sad face) de tanto venir andando. (from so much coming and going.)
Yo lo miro desde lejos(I look like him from afar) pero somos tan distintos.(but we are so distinct.)
Es que crecio con el siglo,(It's just that he aged with the century) con tranvía y vino tinto.(alongside the tramway and red wine.)
Viejo, mi querido viejo.(Father, my dear old man.) Ahora ya camina lerdo,(Now your stride is lame,) como perdonando el viento.(as if you’re pardoning the wind.) Yo soy tu sangre, mi viejo.(I am your blood, old man.)
Soy tu silencio y tu tiempo. (I’m your silence and your time.) El tiene los ojos buenos(He has good eyes) y una figura pesada.(and a heavy figure.) La edad se le vino encima(The years have come upon him) sin carnaval ni comparsa.(with neither a carnaval nor a krewe.)
Yo tengo los años nuevos(I have the new years) y el hombre los años viejos.(and he has the old years.) El dolor lo lleva dentro(He carries the pain inside) y tiene historias sin tiempo.(and he has timeless tales.)
Viejo, mi querido viejo.(Father, my dear old man.) Ahora ya camina lerdo,(Now your stride is lame,) como perdonando el viento.(as if you’re pardoning the wind.) Yo soy tu sangre, mi viejo.(I am your blood, old man.) Soy tu silencio y tu tiempo. (I’m your silence and your time.)
Yo soy tu sangre mi viejo.(I am your blood, old man.) Yo soy tu silencio y tu tiempo ...(I’m your silence and your time …)
Way back when, I had to take a course titled Professional Communication for Engineers. I thought I was done with all my English courses after surviving IB and taking a Gordon Rule class for Gen Ed. In any case, I'm glad it was required because it introduced me to the various forms of technical communication utilized not only in my future coursework, but also in industry. I even got the opportunity to interview actual engineers at the University for my group's final mock proposal.
One of our assignments was to write an instruction manual on "how to" do anything (anything of our choice). It had to be written in a way that "anyone" could be able to pick up the manual and do whatever is asked of them. So it was less on theories and definitions and more on objectives and execution. To no surprise, I chose to make it music related.
Unfortunately, I have an exam this evening that I am diligently studying for, but I still wanted to pass on my favorite song about the season: "Valentine" by The Replacements. There are several recorded versions of this song out there: the original studio, a rough mix on Boink!!!, countless live bootlegs...
My favorite version happens to be the studio demo on the 2008 reissue of Pleased to Meet Me. If you're musically inclined, you can try to learn how to play this song (more or less) and serenade that special someone on this special day.
Today in my Finite Element Analysis lecture, the professor was using the "what's in a name" approach to teach us the meaning of "isotropic." He used his own name as an example: Nam-Ho. He said that in Chinese "Nam" stood for "south" (like Vietnam), and that "Ho" stood for "tiger." So when you put it together, you get Southern Tiger.
Yesterday, whilst procrastinating, I had the spontaneous urge to learn "Just What I Needed" by The Cars. With the help of tabs, I learned all but half the solo and thought that be enough for one day. Then I decided to look up some info on The Cars from my #1 music-discovery resource, Wikipedia. As I suspected, the band didn't make it past the 80's and what followed their 1987 album Door to Door were a slew of compilation records.
The last record that Wikipedia lists is The Essentials from 2005. Then I thought I might as well check out what Wiki has to say about "Just What I Needed." To no surprise, it's a heavily covered song; I was already aware of the version by Poison, but was intrigued by one by a band called Replicants. What caught my eye was just their name: it had an edgy punk feel like Rancid while having a sci-fi vibe like aliens pretending to be humans or mercenary clones. Moreover, the album was self-titled, so I just had to check it out.
