I just finished a song and animation for the latest SpinTunes songwriting challenge. Animating this brought me back to my childhood dream of becoming a cartoonist. It also reminded me of how much The Far Side has had an impact on me; the baboon I drew seemed especially Gary Larson-style.
I wanted to write a love song for my special lady, in honor of us dating for 2 years. Coming up with the melody and chords? Not too hard for this one. Coming up with non-cheesy lyrics? Much more difficult.
My friends and I just finished an elaborate video using a technique called light painting. In ultra-slow motion (4 hours!), Maia Hamann played Bach's Fugue No. 2 in C minor, while I took long exposure pictures of our friends Oanh, Peter, and Pat "painting" with colored LED lights. I took one photo for Continue reading... 
Here's yet another sneak preview of our RPM Challenge album:
I started this track with the underlying synth chords, and brought it to Nick on Sunday to add some tuned percussion, including vibraphone, crotales, tubular bells, a gong, and glass shards. The final mix may end up with even more instruments.
This Continue reading... 
Nick and I got together again on Wednesday and recorded a trombone trio he composed for our RPM Challenge album. I wasn't totally convinced when he first played the idea for me on a MIDI keyboard. It sounded sort of interesting, but the harmonies seemed kind of random. As soon as we started recording Continue reading... 
Nick and I ended our session on Saturday by trying to co-compose some music for our RPM album. But it was kind of a slow and not-very-fruitful process, compared to our improv jams. So we came up with a new plan for our next meeting: we would each create a background music bed for the other person Continue reading...