Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

Big Noise From Winnetka

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

krupa ball of fireI’m running a little late this morning and thought I’d fill today with a little music.  It’s a great piece of film from legendary drummer Gene Krupa and his trio doing Big Noise From Winnetka.  I’ve been a big fan of Krupa since first seeing him perform the very swinging Drum Boogie in the Barabara Stanwyck/Gary Cooper movie, Ball of Fire.  Avery flamboyant and strong presence on the stage, he was more famously known for his work on the classic Benny Goodman track, Sing, Sing, Sing, which is the anthem of big band swing.

Anyway, give a listen and watch for some of Krupa’s famous showmanship.  It’s just good stuff and a great way to kick off a tired Tuesday morning.

Read Full Post »

Time Has Come Today

Posted in Music, Video, tagged , , , on March 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

PunchingTimeClockNot a big fan of Daylight Savings Time.  Oh, I don’t mind the falling back part of  “Spring Forward, Fall Back.”  Anything that seems to give me another hour sounds like a good idea.  But to suddenly be erasing that hour at one appointed time in the spring puts this morning person on edge.

Oh, I know it’s a small thing, that it is only the appearance of losing or gaining time relative to a clock and that I will probably waste well over an hour today alone.  I can’t dispute that.  Maybe it’s that this image of losing time is a reminder of our short time here.  I am at an age where I have crossed that line where I see time as a finite and quickly dwindling resource as opposed to those days in my youth where time seemed to be a vast and infinite ocean of never-ending moments.

Time seems to matter a bit more now.

I thought for the Sunday morning music selection this week that I would stick with this theme of time.  To that end , here’s the 1967 classic Time Has Come Today from the Chambers Brothers.  It is real symbol of the feeling of that time and maybe any time where there is a call to action.  Plus it just has a great sound.  I don’t know if it was produced by The Bruce Dickinson but it has plenty of cowbell for all of you out there who need more cowbell.

Have a great Sunday and spend your  time wisely.

 

 

Read Full Post »

Ball of Confusion

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , , , , on March 1, 2015| 3 Comments »

Ball of Confusion- Artist Jerry Thompson

Ball of Confusion- Artist Jerry Thompson

Hard to believe it’s March first.  With the snow falling and the cold temperatures, it definitely looks to be following the old adage where it comes in like a lion.  I am hoping the lamb is not too far away but this year, who knows?  We might be saying the same thing for April.

Crazy world.  Which brings me to this Sunday’s musical interlude.  I’ve been doing this blog for about 6 1/2 years now (which is hard to believe, as well) and have played a lot of different music over that time.  But for some unknown reason, the one and only Temptations have never made an appearance.  How I could have waited so long is beyond me but I will fix it today.

For many folks, the music of the Temptations could well be the soundtrack of the 60’s and 70’s.  Motown at its very best.  If you grew up in that time frame, their music most likely was part of your life in some way.   My Girl, Just My Imagination, Papa Was a Rolling Stone, Ain’t Too Proud to Beg, and on and on.  I mean, come on!

So today, with another blast of winter weather confusing this corner of the world and the rest of the world in a constant state of chaos, I thought I’d share the tempting Temptations’ Ball of Confusion.  If the world is indeed going to hell as some fear, at least let it go with a beat laid down by the Funk Brothers, Motown’s incredible band of  musicians who performed the music on this and so many other immortal hits.  Have a great Sunday!

Read Full Post »

Jazz

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Motivation, Music, tagged , , , , on February 22, 2015| 2 Comments »

Blues Twilight Cover Richard BoulgerMost  mornings in the studio I will click on to the Pandora site for a little music while I write the blog.  Normally I will choose the  Chet Baker channel which is a blend of his music along with many others in a wide variety of jazz styles.  I find that it’s a great sound to drive my thoughts without overpowering them, energetic and moody at once.  Being able to step in and out of the music while I am thinking make it a great soundtrack to work by in the morning.

Listening to this has exposed me to a lot of artists and their music that were unknown to me beforehand.  Can’t say I know much about jazz or its history, primarily a few of the better known tracks from the legends.  But I try to keep an open mind and don’t turn myself off to it because of my own lack of knowledge, an attitude I hope a lot of folks who say they know nothing about art will maintain as well.  Try it on– maybe it will fit you better than you might think.

So, for this week’s Sunday music I chose a piece from a musician that was totally unknown to me not too long ago, Richard Boulger.  His horn work is beautiful and his compositions flow really well.  I heard this piece one morning and was totally taken by it and now find myself listening to it once or twice a day now while I paint.  It just fits me well.

Here’s Miss Sarah from Boulger’s 2008 album Blues Twilight.  Hope you’ll enjoy it and have a great Sunday.

 

Read Full Post »

Two Angels

Posted in Music, Poetry, tagged , , , , , , on February 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers Two Angels 2001It’s Valentine’s Day. I went back through the blog archives and discovered that I sometimes don’t post anything on this day or sometimes post something  off the subject of this day.  One year, it was baseball.  Well, I do love the game so maybe it was a Valentine of sorts.

I thought I would post something this year, a poem that I posted several years ago.  It’s an anonymous verse from India that strikes just the right chord of love and devotion for me without turning to pablum.

Although I Conquer All the Earth 

Although I conquer all the earth,

Yet for me there is only one city.

In that city there is for me only one house;

And in that house, one room only;

And in that room, a bed.

And one woman sleeps there,

The shining joy and jewel of all my kingdom.

    —Anonymous, Ancient India

Also, below is a song from Peter Case, Two Angels,  an elegantly simple song that is a favorite of mine and also on subject for the day.  Surprisingly, it is a fairly little known song though I understand it was used on an episode of True Blood.  If that doesn’t scream romance, I don’t know what does.

The painting above is an oil on panel, 10″ by 58″,  that I did back in 2001.  I cannot find or recall its title at the moment but am calling it Two Angels for today.

Read Full Post »

Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Painting, tagged , , , , , , on February 13, 2015| 3 Comments »

GC Myers 992-141-small1It’s another cold day here in the northeast,  -5° this morning when I walked out the door.  By the time I got over here to the studio after my short commute ( a stroll through the woods) I was ready for a little heat.  Turned on the computer to look up an old piece and immediately came across this small triptych from 2002 which was always a favorite of mine. It’s a little anomaly comprised of three small squares, each about 4″ by 4″.  I always liked the surface of these pieces — they had a smooth, almost burnished look that I haven’t used in many years.

Seeing this piece made me want to revisit that surface treatment once more, thirteen years later.  It also made me want to feel that heat in the form of a very distinct song.  Fire from Jimi Hendrix.  Talk about going back in time.  Are You Experienced? in 1967.  This song will be fifty years old in a couple more years which seems crazy– it’s timeless heat.

So, Jimi, on this frigid morning, let me stand next to your fire.

 

Read Full Post »

Hasten Down the Wind

Posted in Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , on February 9, 2015| 3 Comments »

GC Myers-Hasten Down the Wind smThis is a painting  that I finished over the weekend.  It’s 10″ by 30″ on canvas and is titled Hasten Down the Wind.  If that sounds familiar you probably remember the old Warren Zevon song from the the 70’s most famously covered by Linda Ronstadt on her album with the same title.  It was a pretty big album at the time.  I just always loved the imagery in that phrase– hasten down the wind– and thought it fit well with this piece.

The song is about the end of a relationship, where the girl recognizes that nothing is working for them any more and the guy finally grudgingly admits it as well, telling her to leave , to go hasten down the wind.

I see this in this painting with the Red Tree reluctantly holding onto those leaves as they struggle to depart on the wind even though it knows that it has to be this way, that they must leave.  There is something bittersweet yet liberating in this idea that sometimes things are just not meant to be.  We often hold onto things–people, ideas and hopes and dreams– that don’t truly fit with who we are with the thin hope that things will somehow change to match our perceptions.  But recognizing that this is not meant to be and letting these things go allows us to perhaps find our truer selves.

In short, we sometimes have to lose things to reveal who we really are.

Read Full Post »

Rumba Nostalgica

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Video, tagged , , , on February 8, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers- The Song We Carry smIt’s a gray winter morning and what better way to shake off the cold blahs this Sunday than with a little flamenco guitar music.  I am featuring a performance by guitar master Juan Martin of a piece titled Rumba Nostalgica that has a little heat to warm any old bones.

I was talking with someone at the Little Gems opening the other night who commented on the fact that I often show guitarists in my work.  I explained about how I thought the shape of the guitar and the way the player cradled it had a very sensual feel, something very emotional in the way the player’s hands almost stroked the instrument to create its music. Its form and the inherent emotional weight it carried made it a wonderful subject.

I think you’ll see this if you watch the hands of Juan Martin in this performance video.  I myself love watching acoustic stringed instruments being played– everything is right there for you to behold.  The movement of the hands.  The snap of the strings. The rhythm of the two hands working to create something quite extraordinary.

Take a look and just enjoy the moment.  Hope the rest of your Sunday is as bright…

 

 

Read Full Post »

Born to be Blue

Posted in At the Movies, Favorite Things, Music, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 1, 2015| 2 Comments »

GC Myers The Blue Cool This is another small painting that is part of  the Little Gems exhibit opening this coming Friday at the West End Gallery.  This is a little 3″ by 5″ piece on paper that I call The Blue Cool.  I guess that it arose from the current frigid temps that we are in here in the Northeast.  The sky here is in three blocks of an aqua blue color that has a transparency that makes them seem like thin slabs of ice.  I don’t know if this quality shows up on the computer screen  but when this piece was in the studio I always felt like holding it up to the light to see light shine through the ice that I felt like I was seeing.

It’s a simple meditative piece, what I like to typically see in these small works.  The small scale lends itself to simplicity.  Maybe this built-in restraint is one of the reasons why I enjoy painting these small pieces and why I feel they often work so well.

I don’t know for sure.  And I think that uncertainty or puzzlement  is sometimes a good thing.  It creates a sense of wonder and surprise and that is always a good thing.

I thought for this week’s Sunday music I would stick with the Blue theme and some blue cool jazz from one of my favorites, the late great Chet Baker.  The song is Born to be Blue which is also the title of a film currently in production about Baker’s life with Ethan Hawke portraying the gifted but tragic trumpeter.  His story reads like a screenplay– Golden Boy of jazz with movie-star looks loses everything to drug addiction and violence and tries to find redemption.  I’ve thought for years that it was meant to be a film and now it is, hopefully one that does the story justice.

When I listen to Baker’s music, I hear it with that same sense of uncertainty and puzzlement I alluded to above.  There’s just something natural and right in it that can’t be, or shouldn’t be, defined.  It just is.  Give a listen and have a great Sunday.

Read Full Post »

The Storms Are On the Ocean

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 25, 2015| 8 Comments »

GC Myers- Storms Are on the OceanI’ve been working recently on some very small pieces for the upcoming Little Gems show at the West End Gallery in Corning.  I’ve mentioned here before that this particular show is always  a sentimental favorite of mine as it was in this show that I first publicly showed my work twenty years ago.  It represents the first step on to the path that I now follow and that makes it special for me.  Plus I enjoy working in the smaller scale for a bit.  It allows for easily easing back into older themes and forward into newer ones.

One of these pieces that just finished yesterday is shown here at the top.  It’s a 4″ by 6″ painting that I call Storms Are on the Ocean.  I haven’t done a boat painting in some time and thought the smaller format would be the perfect opportunity to re-visit the theme.  I am always drawn to the motion in these pieces and the billow of the sail.  It reminds me of a fable or a dream in some way that I find appealing.

I thought this would be the perfect match for this week’s Sunday morning music which is the song after which this painting is titled.  It’s The Storms Are on the Ocean, a song first done by the legendary Carter Family back in the late 20’s.  This version is from June Carter Cash‘s last album, Wildwood Flower, which was released in the year, 2003, after her death.  Like the final recordings of her husband, the great Johnny Cash, this album shows her in a fragile state of health which adds greatly to the emotional impact of the songs.

It definitely comes through on this lovely song with its haunting chorus:
The storms are on the ocean
The heavens may cease to be
This world may lose its motion, love
If I prove false to thee

Enjoy and have a great Sunday.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »