Music Room Reno

Finally getting around to posting before and afters of the music room reno! 

It all started when I was held up in my "music room" and just couldn't take the outdated wall paper and the lack of space anymore and just started ripping the paper off the wall...

                          

Before: (I kinda forgot to take pictures before I started ripping but you get the idea...)

During:

and FINALLY after:

Absolutely NO regrets going red. I made the speaker shelves, desk and storage bench myself out of pallets! Recycled our old couch cushions for the bench. The total cost outlay was only in my primer, paint and screws. :) I am planning on adding a shelf or two under the turn table and perhaps one under the desk as well later on.

Just a Journal Entry

Just a Journal Entry

August 1st, 2013(at an ungodly hour)

  © K.Taylor

Music is a journal

holding the stories of 

life's ups and downs

and even though most pages are blank 

if you listen close enough 

they'll tell you more tales

than could ever be held 

on a flimsy page.....

So don't stop listening

everyone has a tune

they either dance or cry too

So don't stop listening

to what's going on

in the lives around you

what makes them laugh

what makes them cry

if you don't know

perhaps your not listening

to the music 

that's playing around you

There's always more there

than just what you see

and if we'd just listen

we would hear it perfectly

it may be pain

it may be fear

but with all this noise 

how are you to know?

So don't stop listening

to the music that is playing around you


Shabbat Shalom!

Just Chillin....

Yeah so I am just sitting here at the computer chilling...rockin some new music I downloaded today*. When you can put on your headphones and just kinda stare into space you know it's good stuff :]. So since I kinda have a thing about promoting the small time artist....you need to go check him out! www.jacobmoon.com

My first introduction to Jacob Moon's music was a few years back when I was shown the following videos.




Playing RUSH and Peter Gabriel music solo is just crazy cool man!


Rock out


*What I am listening to right now........don't be cheap, leave a tip! Musicians work hard.
http://noisetrade.com/jacobmoon/landing-2-the-10th-anniversary-concert

His Eyes are On it Continually....

Nightfall is descending upon the day...the 10th of Tevet.  The anniversary of the day Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem...leading to the destruction of the Temple(9th of Av) and the 70 years of captivity in Babylon.

The Sages explain:

  “Every generation for which the Temple is not rebuilt, is as though the Temple was destroyed for that generation.”

That make's you think.

Close your eyes and imagine the whole story for a moment*. Imagine being there...perhaps you have been pricked by the words of the prophet who has foretold HaShem's punishment if Israel didn't mend her ways and have finally seen the corruption. Perhaps you have fasted and prayed, repented from your own misdeeds and have desperately taken the message to other's as well, hoping and praying that they will repent and HaShem will turn from His plan and spare you all. There are a handful that do perhaps...but most mock you and slam the proverbial "door in your face". Then one fateful day you are awakened by a great trembling! Thousands of Babylonian soldiers are marching up to Jerusalem...you know this is just the beginning...and your heart sinks to your feet.

Now that entire exercise is actually quite pointless if we don't use it as a reminder. We are not above the folks of the past...in fact you might almost say we are more responsible having had their example to learn from...it makes me think of these words to the Hebrews:

"Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." Hebrews 2:1

and again

 "Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children..." -Deut. 4:9

I am only giving you a smidge here...but the point is we need to be diligent to guard(shamar - 8104) the way of the L-rd, hastening the day when Mashiach will return and set up the Sanctuary once again.

The days we mourn for the Temple(or rather lack there of) and it's destruction are sad days yes. However they are also seen as opportune times as well. Times to repent, to do what we can to align ourselves again with the Holy One and hasten that joyous day when Mashiach, the Son of David will be Leader over all Israel! May it be soon and in our days!


Shavua Tov

..."They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 

"My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. 

They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever.  

I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  

Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore." Ezekiel 37:23-28

*figure of speech...you probably found out it's hard to read with your eyes closed :P

Enjoy the music...it's a little different.

Struggle

Well it's been a pretty productive night. There I go again, just when I start stressing about all my struggling G-d is faithful to grant me one (or a few!) little victories. Yeah I don't think it was all due to the fact that I was playing barefoot(...I think it does help a little bit though :)

Five weeks ago I had played some really great stuff off the cuff(whoa whoa rhyme alert!!) which was, thankfully, recorded...albeit not on my handy dandy little Playbook, meaning it isn't organized!! I know I know...it is practically impossible for any musician (good or bad) to be organized...I still try though. Anyhooldes, tonight I was trying recreate a couple of those pieces so I could keep "trying to be organized" ha ha. But it is a whole different thing trying replay history...because honestly that's what my music is. It's the moment and the moment is generally fleeting...how in the world are you supposed to get back to the same level of sound with music like that?? I am not bragging on my music (at all if you know me at all I am my worst critic) in fact this is where it would pay off to be just a little mechanical....yes yes just a little would be nice. I think I succeeded though, after about ten trys ha ha, I will know better after I have a chance to go through each one and disparage over the inconsistencies. Oy vey.

The bonus of the night was some flurry of writing activity...which hasn't happened, genuinely, for what seems like forever. I was starting to feel like I wasn't going to make it out of the "desert" then bam! Inspiration hits at the oddest of moments while uploading a piece I had called "Struggle" and I didn't stop til I had run it dry, yep I got a second one out'a the deal....but I am holding back on that for now ;) can't give everything up at once you know.

It never ceases to surprise me that I can be so surprised when the Father brings me to a point of un-inspration..less-ness(gimme a break it's late), lets me pull a little more of my hair out in frustration and then coyly drops something pretty darn awesome in my lap....it's a pretty consistent happening. But hey it keeps you humble and it keeps things interesting. I think I'll have a wig made though....just in case.

Enjoy! Lila tov, good-night....or perhaps it should be boker tov, good morning?

Struggle

K.Taylor - December 18th, 2012

Whether small or great

we all have them

some hide inside

don't know when

the next one's coming

it's not a gamble

maybe not even fate

---It's a struggle

    the push and pull

    of struggle

    give and take

    bend and break

    am I ever gonna win this

    struggle struggle

I go straight

end up goin' round

I get up I get knocked down

Well thank G-d

I haven't fallen from grace

cause I'm eatin dust

and I'm flat on my face

just when I think I've

pulled it across the line

I loose my grip

and now my feet are

beginning to slip

like fighting against gravity

is it even a possibility?

no no I won't let go

no no I won't let go

no no I won't let go

until you bless me

until you bless me