howdy, been awhile eh?
for the uninitiated, my birthday was on the 26th of last month... and.. i turned 26.
Aside from being more crabby and hort fused, i don't feel a tad different. Actually last night i flicked through my old pics.... i sure have aged a lot... not in a bad way... but at certain times... i look waaaay older then 26... maybe i need to relax more..
I've been busy over the last few months working on a soundtrack for a stageplay called "Infinity", which you can find in the facebook groups listings. It's an interesting work, with a somewhat interesting score... including chinese/japanese music, native american music, persian music, generic movie score type cues, and electronica.... all in the same soundtrack no less.
It's been interesting, and something of stretch from the kind of scoring work i've done in the past, which has mostly been background/soundbed kind of stuff. Ultimately i've always wanted to go fully pro with the scoring thing, but nowdays it really is not an option. The market is saturated with people looking to break in and get into the elusive circle of elite that handle 70% of hollywoods blockbusters.
I give credit to Zimmer and Co., they're doing some incredible work, and he never fails to suprise me... many a time i'll watch something and say "i liked the score... who did it?" look at the credits and find Zimmers name... most recently being the incredible "Kung Fu Panda" score... really is an amazing score that one....
having turned 26 i can't help but wonder where i'll be in the next 10 years, since 10 years ago i was in a place so different from now.... my previous life seems almost like a dream....
A large part of me regrets that i became a musician, i say became because i don't think it was a choice i made, it was something that wether i wanted to or not was going to happen. Part of me wishes i'd gone into computers or graphics, something were i could lead a fairly normal life.
But that's how it goes... i'd bet good money that if i did get into computers.... i'd be blogging about how i wish i went into something more cool and fun, like music........
It just gets very tiring in this business.... it certainly has declined to a staggering level, i can't even remember the last time i bought an album by a commercial artist.... i'm not even sure current music is even listenable.......
Plus trying to open doors has become impossible.... people are so corrupt nowdays.... it's ridiculous..... For example, i cannot get the famous Guitar9 distribution company to even LISTEN to my album... yet shredders who are producing god awful wankage get interviewed, reviewed and talked about...... go figure. Funny because they built themselves up from nothing, and now they've acheived status... they're acting just like a regular label (no manager, no marketing, no service).
Unfortunately at this point i almost couldn't care... i don't know wether it's age or just accepting the situation... i never used to be like this though. In the past i'd always find a way and get to the goods... maybe i'm just tired of fighting the good fight.....
on a more positive note though, i'll be releasing the Infinity soundtrack on Itunes, and many other online distribution sites, which hopefully might help turn things around abit.
I'll post more about that when i know more about it. The soundtrack should be done by middle to late september, with an almost immediate release i guess.
Oh, and i start work early september, new semester, new campus, new students, new problems.
ahh.......it's...allllll........good.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Saturday, May 31, 2008
The End of semester
Thank the good lord... it's finally over...
Spring semester 2008 is over and i'm done teaching. The finals and exams went how i'd anticipated... which is both good and bad.
Quite few students put forth the effort and got an A... and about half the class has to settle for a C grade (and few B's here and there).
For those who read this: Congratulations on your A.. and for those who got a C... study hard... you should not take your time at the university for granted. Many people do not get to further their education, and for allot of you.. you're wasting a crucial point in your life: The time to better yourself and prepare for the years to come... in the real world.
Admittedly most of you are spoilt rotten by your parents and don't take any real responsibility for your actions.. all i can say to you is that you better grow up... because nobody likes an asshole.....
Anyways, now that the semester is done and dusted, i can get to work on all my projects that i've been neglecting to make sure i was doing my job properly. First and foremost i'm going to work on new material to release later in the year, then there is the possibility of some fusion playing with some good players, some production work, some scoring work, maybe some clinics / workshops, and finally, some good hard practise.
more to come when it comes...
Spring semester 2008 is over and i'm done teaching. The finals and exams went how i'd anticipated... which is both good and bad.
Quite few students put forth the effort and got an A... and about half the class has to settle for a C grade (and few B's here and there).
For those who read this: Congratulations on your A.. and for those who got a C... study hard... you should not take your time at the university for granted. Many people do not get to further their education, and for allot of you.. you're wasting a crucial point in your life: The time to better yourself and prepare for the years to come... in the real world.
Admittedly most of you are spoilt rotten by your parents and don't take any real responsibility for your actions.. all i can say to you is that you better grow up... because nobody likes an asshole.....
Anyways, now that the semester is done and dusted, i can get to work on all my projects that i've been neglecting to make sure i was doing my job properly. First and foremost i'm going to work on new material to release later in the year, then there is the possibility of some fusion playing with some good players, some production work, some scoring work, maybe some clinics / workshops, and finally, some good hard practise.
more to come when it comes...
Monday, April 21, 2008
Rock Bottom
what a shoddy couple of days....
The AUC talent show was a total joke... rigged being the keyword. the worse singer won... which makes absolutely no sense.....
add to that the show itself was pretty boring.
I'm finally on spring break, which is good... i could use the time to relax and get my act together. Working out, sorting out my diet, working on new musical ideas... and generally trying to pull myself out of this funk that i seem to be in.
I've been fairly reclusive, but ultimately that's down to the fact that people here suck. Most people only call or meet up with me when they need something... and as such i don't think i'm able to tolerate this attitude anymore... quite frankly i don't care who likes it or not, since those people can go fuck themselves.... Selfish self centered and completely transparent.
Ultimately it's not healthy, but it's all about integrity.... which i'm not willing to compromise.
Anyways, more to come in the next few days....
The AUC talent show was a total joke... rigged being the keyword. the worse singer won... which makes absolutely no sense.....
add to that the show itself was pretty boring.
I'm finally on spring break, which is good... i could use the time to relax and get my act together. Working out, sorting out my diet, working on new musical ideas... and generally trying to pull myself out of this funk that i seem to be in.
I've been fairly reclusive, but ultimately that's down to the fact that people here suck. Most people only call or meet up with me when they need something... and as such i don't think i'm able to tolerate this attitude anymore... quite frankly i don't care who likes it or not, since those people can go fuck themselves.... Selfish self centered and completely transparent.
Ultimately it's not healthy, but it's all about integrity.... which i'm not willing to compromise.
Anyways, more to come in the next few days....
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Work Tommorow
In a few hours i have to get ready for work, teaching at the A.U.C.
Not particularly looking forward to it, since i marked quiz's and papers this weekend and was pretty shocked to see really low results. Most of the students got an F on their papers. I asked them a hypothetical question... one which they couldn't really google and had to research and think about... which is probably why the high no. of failures.
It's pretty scary to see how that people no longer study, and just copy things off google and wiki and submit that as their own thoughts and work. I noticed students doing that in their first assignment, which is why the second paper was set to be on hypothetics rather then fact.
Personally, i couldn't care less wether students choose to work hard or not, the thing that i am not looking forward to is the nagging and whining, they're really spoilt some of them, and more importantly, i don't think they realise that the A.U.C is supposedly a university.. not a college.
Ultimately i know how to deal with them, i just would prefer it if they would ACTUALLY study and actually try and learn something... it wouldn't kill them... although i will if they don't stop being a bunch of lazy spoilt good for nothings.
Well... i won't kill them... just give them a big fat F.
We're going to be talking about the transition from the 80's to the 90's tommorow which should be interesting... albet i think i'll be doing most of the talking... as usual.....
Not particularly looking forward to it, since i marked quiz's and papers this weekend and was pretty shocked to see really low results. Most of the students got an F on their papers. I asked them a hypothetical question... one which they couldn't really google and had to research and think about... which is probably why the high no. of failures.
It's pretty scary to see how that people no longer study, and just copy things off google and wiki and submit that as their own thoughts and work. I noticed students doing that in their first assignment, which is why the second paper was set to be on hypothetics rather then fact.
Personally, i couldn't care less wether students choose to work hard or not, the thing that i am not looking forward to is the nagging and whining, they're really spoilt some of them, and more importantly, i don't think they realise that the A.U.C is supposedly a university.. not a college.
Ultimately i know how to deal with them, i just would prefer it if they would ACTUALLY study and actually try and learn something... it wouldn't kill them... although i will if they don't stop being a bunch of lazy spoilt good for nothings.
Well... i won't kill them... just give them a big fat F.
We're going to be talking about the transition from the 80's to the 90's tommorow which should be interesting... albet i think i'll be doing most of the talking... as usual.....
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Today was the last day for Rami and Raquy here in Cairo. They head back to New York city in a few hours.
They come every year around winter time to spend two months of the year here in Cairo, teaching at the AUC, and performing their amazing percussion shows around Egypt. Since i only just started working at the AUC last semester i didn't know of them, but had the distinct pleasure of meeting and getting to know these two extremely talented and cool individuals.
It's always great for me to be around music and musicans which aren't related to anything i do, usually because it's very humbling to see styles, time signatures and theory which i am completely ignorant to. Naturally i enjoyed being exposed and being able to absorb some great new material and concepts (although i doubt i could ever play in 14/3 or 7/5!) but it was geeting to meet and know these great guys that was the most fun.
Being the artisic type, we tend to neglect the social aspects of our life, but ultimatley Egypt isn't the best place for making long term friends here, especially if you have foreign ties.. people want to use you and exploit you, rather then genuinely be your friend, so it was really a breathe of fresh air being around good people (and good food!).
It's extremely rare for me to meet people that i get on with so well, and whom generally enjoy my company.. i dunno, i tend to think people get sick and tired or fed up with hanging out with me, but the time i spent with Raquy and Rami was truly allot of fun and really felt like home.
Now that they're flying back to N.Y, i can see myself falling back into my old routine, of basically just going to work & and the Gym, and more or less spending the rest of my time indoors. Admittedly i have allot of projects i want to work on, so that will be good in some ways, but i guess fairly negative in other ways too, since i really did not seem to get out enough in the past few months.
Two more months and th spring AUC semester will be over (thank god). I've enjoyed my work, but alas it has been fairly frustrating and time consuming, and i'm looking forward to not working and just trying to focus on my career as a musician and artist.
On a brighter note, my old man might be comin for a short visit soon, which will be nice.
They come every year around winter time to spend two months of the year here in Cairo, teaching at the AUC, and performing their amazing percussion shows around Egypt. Since i only just started working at the AUC last semester i didn't know of them, but had the distinct pleasure of meeting and getting to know these two extremely talented and cool individuals.
It's always great for me to be around music and musicans which aren't related to anything i do, usually because it's very humbling to see styles, time signatures and theory which i am completely ignorant to. Naturally i enjoyed being exposed and being able to absorb some great new material and concepts (although i doubt i could ever play in 14/3 or 7/5!) but it was geeting to meet and know these great guys that was the most fun.
Being the artisic type, we tend to neglect the social aspects of our life, but ultimatley Egypt isn't the best place for making long term friends here, especially if you have foreign ties.. people want to use you and exploit you, rather then genuinely be your friend, so it was really a breathe of fresh air being around good people (and good food!).
It's extremely rare for me to meet people that i get on with so well, and whom generally enjoy my company.. i dunno, i tend to think people get sick and tired or fed up with hanging out with me, but the time i spent with Raquy and Rami was truly allot of fun and really felt like home.
Now that they're flying back to N.Y, i can see myself falling back into my old routine, of basically just going to work & and the Gym, and more or less spending the rest of my time indoors. Admittedly i have allot of projects i want to work on, so that will be good in some ways, but i guess fairly negative in other ways too, since i really did not seem to get out enough in the past few months.
Two more months and th spring AUC semester will be over (thank god). I've enjoyed my work, but alas it has been fairly frustrating and time consuming, and i'm looking forward to not working and just trying to focus on my career as a musician and artist.
On a brighter note, my old man might be comin for a short visit soon, which will be nice.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Friday morning blues
well, it's 3 am as usual, i'm workin, and Friday is upon us. Like most artistically inclined people, sleep doesn't mean much to me, and i find that i am at my best during the hours that most normal people sleep in.
It's not a nocturnal thing (unless i was a vamp in a former life?), i'm just a night person..... or in this case early morning person..... hmm.... dunno.
Anyways, my "work" machine is busy rendering, so i thought i'd blog and kill some time. I've been focusing more and finding more direction... music wise i've been looking to open new doors and horizons for myself to keep growing and improving. One thing i'm definately going to do is get my old uber strat sent here, and rip out the frets from the board, fill the gaps (like jaco) and turn it into a frettless...
I've been wanting to play frettless for some times now, but ultimately i didn't see the justification in buying a guitar which i may or may not end up playing, and would probably struggle to sell on if i didn't take to it. This is cool because if i don't like the frettless thing, i can just change out the neck for a normal one.
With my new weapon, i can start playing all those insanely cool sounding micro tones which are a fundamental part of non-western music, and incorporate that into my style. I definately want to use more of that on my 2035 project... an interesting blend of ethnic, electronic, and industrial progressive ideas.
That and there's the vocal follow up to Silent Echoes, which i've already started work on. For me doing all this stuff, well, that's what it's about i guess.. it's one of the few things that gives me joy in life.. well, more purpose then joy.
Anyways, i'm ranting on. I'll have more interesting things to blog about in the next few days.
It's not a nocturnal thing (unless i was a vamp in a former life?), i'm just a night person..... or in this case early morning person..... hmm.... dunno.
Anyways, my "work" machine is busy rendering, so i thought i'd blog and kill some time. I've been focusing more and finding more direction... music wise i've been looking to open new doors and horizons for myself to keep growing and improving. One thing i'm definately going to do is get my old uber strat sent here, and rip out the frets from the board, fill the gaps (like jaco) and turn it into a frettless...
I've been wanting to play frettless for some times now, but ultimately i didn't see the justification in buying a guitar which i may or may not end up playing, and would probably struggle to sell on if i didn't take to it. This is cool because if i don't like the frettless thing, i can just change out the neck for a normal one.
With my new weapon, i can start playing all those insanely cool sounding micro tones which are a fundamental part of non-western music, and incorporate that into my style. I definately want to use more of that on my 2035 project... an interesting blend of ethnic, electronic, and industrial progressive ideas.
That and there's the vocal follow up to Silent Echoes, which i've already started work on. For me doing all this stuff, well, that's what it's about i guess.. it's one of the few things that gives me joy in life.. well, more purpose then joy.
Anyways, i'm ranting on. I'll have more interesting things to blog about in the next few days.
Friday, March 21, 2008
DFZ gets on the Blog Bandwagon
Greetings,
Usually i blog on myspace... but my disdain for using that site is growing ever rapidly...
I've been busy with work as always, the AUC sucks up most of my energy and time, but that's my fault for not keeping up my gym routine and finishing my work during the winter break... but my prioreties were focused all on finishing "Silent Echoes", my album which i released last december.
The album has reached around 3 thousasnd downloads which is pretty great, albet i've only had afew emails or responses, although they've all been very positive. I'm not entirely sure what i expected to be honest.. since i put the album up for free download.
I have some ideas which i will hopefully start working on soon, and hopefully release during the summer, via Itunes and whatnot. Also later this summer some scoring work is falling onto my lap, which might be a good thing. I doubt i'll be doin the summer vacation thing like last year... i seem to be happiest when i'm busy or working, doing something with the time that seems to slip by...
I'm heading out to Alexandria tommorow, Raquy & Rami have a gig at the Alex Library, which i plan to attend and record the audio for. I saw & recorded their performance at the AUC on wednesday, which was really great, so i'm looking forward to seeing them again, and spending some time in alex, since the atmosphere there is really great... compared to cairo...
Goin to spend the night at the Ramsis hotel, then head back on sunday & finish up my work for Mondays H.O.R class that i teach and the private guitar lessons i give.
No rest for the wicked...
Usually i blog on myspace... but my disdain for using that site is growing ever rapidly...
I've been busy with work as always, the AUC sucks up most of my energy and time, but that's my fault for not keeping up my gym routine and finishing my work during the winter break... but my prioreties were focused all on finishing "Silent Echoes", my album which i released last december.
The album has reached around 3 thousasnd downloads which is pretty great, albet i've only had afew emails or responses, although they've all been very positive. I'm not entirely sure what i expected to be honest.. since i put the album up for free download.
I have some ideas which i will hopefully start working on soon, and hopefully release during the summer, via Itunes and whatnot. Also later this summer some scoring work is falling onto my lap, which might be a good thing. I doubt i'll be doin the summer vacation thing like last year... i seem to be happiest when i'm busy or working, doing something with the time that seems to slip by...
I'm heading out to Alexandria tommorow, Raquy & Rami have a gig at the Alex Library, which i plan to attend and record the audio for. I saw & recorded their performance at the AUC on wednesday, which was really great, so i'm looking forward to seeing them again, and spending some time in alex, since the atmosphere there is really great... compared to cairo...
Goin to spend the night at the Ramsis hotel, then head back on sunday & finish up my work for Mondays H.O.R class that i teach and the private guitar lessons i give.
No rest for the wicked...
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