A-Z of the Lightning In A Bottle Line Up-A.Skillz, Aaron Snapes & Acid Pauli

A. Skillz mixes up some rap, funk and break beat and your head starts bopping the minute the first track hits your ears.  It was fun to listen to a few songs before looking up Adam Mills' bio.  When you do you'll be surprised to find this white, English boy.  Dude has serious soul and righteous raps.  A.Skillz mashes up traditional old school fuck, electronica that tastes like the 70's but uses ingredients of modern technology to get there.  It will be interesting to see where he is scheduled time-wise during LIB because I was feeling an after-lunch dance party with these sounds.

Aaron Snapes is another UK import bringing some crazy house music to Lake Skinner.  Snapes grew up in the London scene searching for the sounds that fed his soul.  Trance, Garage, drum & bass along with traditional hip-hop are in his original mise en place.  Today he just wants to make people dance.  He admits he doesn't take it too seriously and by not doing so, he is pumping out beats that just seem to make the whole body want to move.  So bring your best body roll to LIB it's going to get a work out for sure.  Honestly I'd ove to wake up to this, do some dancing with a coffee style in hand...like I'm doing right now.

Acid Pauli mixes up mostly chill, mellow electronica. I was left on my own with this German artist as even his website doesn't contain any bio material.  Thankfully there is a lot of his music on Spotify so you can get a feel for this musician.  There's some sound experimentation that goes on in certain tracks.  I always like an artist willing to work outside the box, well at least if they can find the right combinations.  The mixing of different textures and tempos within the same recording is really interesting.  "Farewell Fred" I heard the coffee perking, reading your horoscope before moving on to the crossword puzzle after the coffee is poured, tapping the pencil on the table...a great morning song.  I could do late afternoon writing, editting or napping to this music.

Tomorrow I'll review Andreilien, Black 22s and Blackbird Blackbird

Check out everything LIB at http://lightninginabottle.org/ and http://thedolab.com/  All these great folks can also be found on Facebook and Twitter so friend them and follow them.  Hope to see you all in Temecula in July.

Brave! - unexpected inspiration and revelation

I'm a sucker for Pixar movies. Not gonna lie.  And when one of your children says they'll pay for your ticket to go see one of their usually exemplary animated flicks, then that's even more reason to go.  I will say though that I had every intention to see "Brave" after seeing the previews for it a while ago.  I have become very closely connected to my Celtic heritage over the last decade especially spiritually so besides being told a story about strong women, the fact that they were strong Celtic women was even more enticing.

Let me start with just a general movie review.  Most of you have noticed that what we are getting from Hollywood over the past 20 or so years, for the most part, has been 1) subpar 2) lacking intelligents plots and/or 3) repetition of the same story movie after movie.  Sometimes I think we all wonder and worry if there are any truly good writers left in the world.  But then a director comes along who has found a very good, if not excellent screenplay and convinces a studio and producers to actually sink some money into making a decent motion picture.  Jerry Bruckheimer is a producer who usually is a good bet for investing his money and time wisely.  Interesting that one studio who trusts him is Disney. So it shouldn't surprise that "the mouse" has also found a great partner in Pixar.  Some of the best investments Disney has made with the animation geniuses are the entire Toy Story series, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo and most recently, UP.  But Brave was a big risk.  It is not necessarily a child's movie.  I would like to warn parents that bringing kids under the age of 10 is probably not advisable.  There are parts that are genuinely scary in the violence depicted.  However, for the middle school crowd up through adults that violence is not superficial.  It is a necessary part of the storytelling.

Someone once told me there are seven basic plots for fiction.  This is the one about trying to change ones destiny but having it backfire because your motives are purely selfish.  Yes, just like the lyric from Beauty and the Beast, "a tale as old as time", Brave is that story...but it is also that plotline, within the plot.  Our heroine sees first-hand how horribly her wish could have gone wrong.  There are also a number of subplots within this script that make it "not just your average cartoon movie".  It is indeed a hidden treasure and one that deserves award recognition but probably will not get it because "it's just a cartoon".  Sadly it probably won't be recognized for the amazing quality of the art work in it either.  My hat's off to the animators who, even though done digitally, successfully pull you into a world that is so realistic down to the blades of grass.  This rendition of the ancient highlands is gorgeous.

My experience with Brave is, most likely, very different from the average person who will see this picture.  It spoke to me on an incredibly deep and emotional level.  Recently refocusing on remaining humble and holding on to childlike wonder, this story grabbed my key and said "lock away pride and ego".   Destiny is something that must happen organically.  One must follow the path, adjusting their pace for the terrain.  Resting when necessary.  Taking time to find food and nourish one's self.  So many times I have wanted a shortcut.  I've considered dropping names or calling in favors to speed up the process.  But then I look at where I have been.  All the things that it took me to get here and I cannot discount a single person, place or event.  Pride and ego are not only the destroyers of creativity, peace, and joy.  They destroy love.  Without love?  None of this is worth anything.  I can have all the accolades in the world.  People will know my name.  But I will have lost the trust and the love of the people who mean the most to me.

To my family, my friends, my artists, my creators...I commit to keeping ego and pride under lock and key.  I commit to unlocking humility.  I give you all permission to call me out when I fail at these.  I'll also work on getting trust to unlock its door from the inside.  It pokes its head out occasionally but it's still kind of scared.  Thank you all.  I may find it hard to show it, but I do love you.   Now go see the damned movie so you don't think I'm completely nuts.  Thanks.