final project

I recorded 3 songs.  They are songs that I have been working out for a few months.  The Jim Jones song was conceived during my sound class last semester, but it was only half written.  I finished writing it and wrote the other two more recent.  I'm planning to further this project and already have some people who want to be a part of it.  I started recording these on thursday night and finished them on sunday, while taking breaks to go work some long shifts.  Now I can give my people demos to get familiar with and start practicing to go get some more professional recordings.  I am tying these all together with all 3 concepts.  The fear of trying something and failing has kept me from going after what I really want out of life, like playing music and chasing my dream.  I am 37 and still don't have an album out.  I'm am about to put out a retro metal album by the end of the summer.  This new project though, is what I am going to really go after.  I don't feel like there is enough of this shit!  There are a ton of metal bands, and I love metal, but this music is so fun and the people around me seem to dig it a lot more.  My identity is shining through in every part.  I love blues music and early rock and roll, my feelings for a girl I dated for 2 years are in "how you don't want my love".  I am not kidding in that song.  The "jim Jones" song is a song that sets the stage for a jonestown runaway.  But it started with the chorus, "pray and shake like some of them".  I wanted to talk about my turning away from christianity but at the same time I don't want my mom and dad to hear it and feel like I'm cutting them down for being believers.  So I masked it with a scenario of being at jonestown and seeing through a lunatic's bullshit.  I think there is hidden beauty in my playing as well.  At the heart of all these songs is a fingerstyle guitar track,  they were the basis for the rest of the music.  Guitarists will hear it but most people won't think anything of it.

take away 8

I feel ok with saying I don't know how I know anything and there is no way to prove anything. In order to move on and live for the art of life, I start to trust and rely on things based on their characteristics and definitions.  I was kidding about what I thought about Iraq.  I have a strong sense that in every country there is a large population of people trying to raise families and go through the day without seeing bloodshed and violence (outside of a sporting context).  9/11 made me want to join the army.  Then I saw the t.v. program that said it was an inside job. 

take away 7

I mentioned in class that I struggled with owning up to being an artist.  There is some part of me that shuns the idea of seeking fame and exposure while another part of me wants to be recognized for accomplishment.  Even though none of my work has gained attention from a major label I feel that I am just getting started in my musical endeavors.  In a few months I will have my first full length album pressed.  My goal is to put it on vinyl and get it in amazon to then get it on pandora.  It is retro metal.  I'm starting a country blues/early rock and roll band as well.  No distortion.  I plan on starting to record those songs by the end of the summer.  I seriously could not say, "I am an artist", until I was 31.  It's was so weird growing up with dreams and not being able to tell anyone, and being in the closet as an artist for a long time.  It's like living two lives and personalities.  It made me angry as well as scared.  Now, my art spills into everything I do, which makes everything seem a lot funner.  Like, school, websites, all this stuff.

identity theft

I am Daniel Evan Snyder.  I split my time growing up in two small towns; Upland; and LaFontaine.  I spent my age 3-12 in Upland and 12-19 in LaFontaine.  In Upland, I found my first loves; Ratt; Ozzy; AC/DC; Van Halen; Twisted Sister; Scorpions; Judas Priest; Krokus; Great White; Motley Crue; Kiss; Dio; Alice Cooper; Led Zeppellin; Def Leppard.  If dudes weren't wearing make-up, earrings, long hair, leather pants, or spandex, then I wasn't into it.  My parents took us to see Van Halen at Market Square Arena in 1986 the day after we got out of the third grade.  We were so stoked!  I'll alway remember being in the car after the show and how bummed and exhausted I was when it was over.   I could barely hear anything for hours after the show.  I used to have asthma attacks.  They sucked.  Couldn't sleep, couldn't breathe, they were frustrating.  I got an earring in the fourth grade.  I can remember wearing pink Chuck Taylor shoes, ripped levis jeans, rock t-shirt or pro wrestling shirt, and a stonewashed Lee jean jacket.  I always carried cassette tapes in my pockets.
  LaFontaine had a population around one-thousand people.  I started skateboarding at 13.  My life changed.  My musical tastes finally opened passed hair metal into punk and new wave.  I still liked metal though.  My attitude changed too.  I stopped fucking with kids around me.  I stopped getting into fights and name calling.  Not that I was a bully but I was kind of a little asshole at times:)  I played sports until the 10th grade like football, basketball, and wrestling.  I was always bribed by my parents with a new skateboard to play sports.  From age 6 to 12 I was forced to be a wrestler.  I hated it and liked it at the same time.  I was good but didn't really care about it.  So after the 9th grade, no more school or AAU sports.  I skated and got into smoking grass.  I got a job at a Ponderosa steakhouse at 16.  At 17/18 I was writing song lyrics to songs that were already written.  I realized that from the time I was little, when I read assignments and books I would start singing the words to songs in my head.  I liked to sing and sang in choir during jr and sr. high.  I decided to take up the guitar at 19 to understand music a little only to compliment my singing.  I was hooked on it.  I let go of skateboarding for the next 11 years.  I was an alcoholic from the beginning of college until I was 31.  I started skating again a month after I quit drinking.  It's kept me from going back to drinking.  It seems like anytime my life started or starts to head down the wrong path, skateboarding has got and gets me back to the land of the living.  I owe a lot to that sport.  I would be dead without it.  As for music, I got into country blues and blues at the age of 25.  I love playing guitar like that.  I spent a lot of time drinking beer and playing guitar by myself.  It was great:)  I had to quit drinking because I was experiencing serious withdrawal at least once a week.  I can remember having the shakes at 24.  That shit was tormenting and harrowing.  It's hard to go from doing crazy skateboard stuff and then cutting it out of your life.  It seems that most of my skateboarding friends turned to art and alcohol after skateboarding.  But I got sober 6 years ago and continue to skate and play music whenever possible.  I can't wait to get out of school so I can skateboard more than once a week again!

I think identity is predetermined and experience mixed.  Identity does change.  I love in Fight Club when Brad Pitt says, "you are not your past".  I feel like a person can change who they are.  Anyone can fall into mental illness.  Being well is something that I must work for to achieve.

In a Twisted Sister video, a teacher yells at a kid and asks what he wants to do with his life.  The kid says, "I wanna rock."  That is why I am here.  I wanna rock. 

take away 6

I played guitar on the front porch with my roommate Ari and my brother Dustin.  We put amps out and plugged in at 22nd and Central.  One could hear us all over the block.  My brother played guitar and Ari played a keyboard.  A neighbor came by and played some guitar as well.  It was a blast.  We played some blues songs that I have been writing.  Everyone who walked or jogged by dug it.  After about four hours of that, we went and played an open mic at lizards.  It was kinda lame.  Some friends of mine were playing so we decided to crash it.  Monday night jamming!  Shhwelll!

Bliss

The things that make me happiest are playing music and skateboarding.  When I skate, I have songs in my head and I think about certain voicings and melodies to make them stronger.  It totally helps to be not playing music sometimes to come up with new material and inspiration from sources outside of music.  Music is an expression based on experience, reaction, and inspiration to me.  So to be outside of it, skating, putting my life on the line, getting the fire stoked is so appropriate toward creating music in my head and building the emotion I want to present to relay that message.  These dudes pictured here are some old skate homies from the day.  We all skated together back in the early 90's.  We all met up on sunday.  We hadn't been together in sixteen years.  Love these dudes.

Beauty

Beauty is something that can be experienced from all of the senses; the sound of a voice; the scent of a perfume; the taste of crab legs dipped in butter; the feel of a porcelain lamp, the look of smooth lines on handmade furniture.  Beauty can also be expressed in actions like helping people and working for the cause of good will toward all.  Ideas and concepts that strike me, influence my idea of beauty.  Music, open source software, free wi-fi, the iPhone, women with short hair, women's feet, necks, breasts, arses, legs, arms etc.  We males are attractive too because we are badasses in a whole different way!  I take notice of the smoothness of my Fender Jazzmaster every time I pick it up to play.  And the sound of it takes my appreciation to another level.  I would consider myself easily turned on.  The smoothness of the cement bowls that I skateboard have beauty and are a testament to mans progress.  In one of the videos we watched, a dude said something to the effect of "hygiene being an entertainment of fascism."  I disagree, hygiene is a testament to achievement and progress that allows us to transform ourselves from stink to pretty in a matter of minutes.  Hygiene also can be a creative process in choosing how to smell and look.  One could deconstruct hygiene and smear diarrhea on ones face in place of perfume but it would be more of a social statement expressing the contempt for one of the first rules that everyone learns.  Don't play with your shit.

1. what if I detune my guitar
2. what if put it in the oven
3. what if hit it with a bat
4. what if I do it tomorrow
5. what if it sleeps with me
6. what if I paint it black
7. what if I paint it red
8. what if I record it
9. what if I video it
10. what if I put it in the trunk of my car
11. what if I wrap it in silk
12. what if I give it as a gift
13. what if I bury it
14. what if I put wheels on it
15. what if I put strings on it
16. what if I put lipstick on it
17. what if I act like it never happened
18. what if I treat it like family
19. what if I give it a name
20. what if I get high and look at it
21. what if I stay straight and look at it
22. what if I put wings on it
23. what if I play it music
24. what if I make it play music
25. what if I give it to God
26. what if I try and communicate to God
27. what if I don't care
28. what if I care too much
29. what if I kick it
30. what if I lick it
31. what if I stick it up my ass
32. what if I stick it up my dogs ass
33. what if I just give him a treat instead
34. what if we both have a treat
35. what if I kill him
36. what if I pet him
37. what if I play the music faster
38. what if I slow the music down
39. what if I turn it up a notch
40. what if I keep it low
41. what if I yelp.com it
42. what if I go off on yelpers
43. what if my first love was here
44. what if I never would have drank
45. what if I could have married her
46. what if I never have kids
47. what if I have too many
48. what if I leave
49. what if I leave with my beauty and don't finish this last one
50. what if?

Take Away 5

Not sure what the meaning of the ending was.  I think Pi was trying to say, "whatever story you choose, it's still God."  Being a non-believer, I still think it's bullshit but I enjoyed the movie, and I'm glad to have seen it.  I was raised Christian and believed in it until around the time I turned sixteen and started trying to figure things out for myself.  Jesus and the Devil didn't seem to fit into the equation for me.  I always liked the idea of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.  Energy doesn't die, it transforms.  That makes sense to me in a simple way.  Great movie, if I ever have kids, I'll show it to them.

take away 4

It was really hard to understand the contemporary art by the dude who wrapped silk around the island.  I'm glad you summed it up by saying that wrapping the items like the telephone makes people see a different object with a new purpose or utility.  Because I was looking at and wondering how much money that must have cost and, "was he born to wealth in order to carry out his artistic endeavors?".  He may have saved a small village in Sri Lanka by employing them to make all that silk.  I guess I like art that matches the flooring more than the couch and a song in my head as I'm looking at it!

altered book

This is a picture of my niece, Clara.

take away 3

Paul Mcarthy's ideas of creating something and deconstructing the creation is helpful especially the part where he seen breaking the mold of his sculpture with a pipe.  It would have still been art if he hadn't damaged the sculpture.  In some cases it may have been better, but that is not the idea he was going for.  Sometimes the hard work of making something look great can be  sacrificed to the overall idea and outcome

class take away 2

I think it is an exciting time to be on the planet.  Fashion is cool, music is cool, skateboarding is rad.  I think Mr. Schwartz has a good argument, but I don't think he takes into consideration that we make informed decisions at a fast rate.  Like when he was talking about getting a pair of jeans.  He is out of touch with how the world of jeans has changed.  I know what I'm looking for most of the time through all of the overwhelming choices I have.  That goes for just about all products.  I have a computer to help me educate myself on the decisions I make.  I like the idea that you tube has given a platform for everyone who has a talent.  It seems like everybody on the planet has something that they are exceptional at and worthy of posting a video on you tube.  Knowing what to look for and and where to look is important to not get overwhelmed with footage and product info that is a waste of time.  I agree with lowering expectations.  Even though I'm not a rock star, that doesn't mean playing music is not fulfilling to me.  I didn't start playing music to be anything but expressive and learn cool music.  Everybody needs to keep on finding things they love and enjoy and grow with those things.  And we need to start farming organs on people who open fire on others.  Those killers should be organ donors and kept alive to take parts that can help other people who need a kidney or arm or eye or skin.

rules Is gOOd

Rules are good.  They help establish a foundation for creativity and expression.  The song I played is based on ragtime music which has a strict rhythm and chord progression.  Within those constraints I still improvised the solo, chose a vocal melody, and chose the words I wanted to say.  I feel like a lot of modern music is lacking the discipline and skill that older music has.  I learn older music by using the rules already laid out for me and then put my own modern approach to it, whether it be retro metal, bluegrass, or blues.  I feel free when I can play something structured and find my own way through it.  Even when I disagree with rules in front of me, it feels good to break them and go against the grain. So, speaking in a creative sense of what rules mean to me; I think they are a good thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byUlk-mn2S0

class take away

When we were discussing rules and freedom I thought of an example but didn't have time to share it.  I play blues music and most of the songs are very formulaic.  This may seem to be restrictive to creativity but I find it to be inspiring as well as evocative of freedom.  Having rhythm and song structure that is strict and disciplined allows me dance and open up in the expression of the formula.  I find this to be true of the banjo as well.  It takes a lot of discipline and pattern repetition to roll pick and make it sound like it is soaring.  The payoff is in the ability to soar.  It takes a lot of patience and time and frustration to get to the point of being free but it sounds great when you hear it.

Eggs are awesome.  When I saw that you were giving us eggs, the first thing I thought of was, "I'm hungry."  I read an article in GQ years ago on pasta carbonara.  Being a big fan of eggs and having a history of eating them raw, I was stoked to find that using a raw egg for sauce was an acceptable form of cookery.  It seemed every person I knew was grossed out when I told them I liked raw eggs at times.  Rocky did it.  Me and my brother drank raw eggs when we were younger to be "real men" like Rocky.  Then later on in adulthood, a raw egg was something quick and easy to compliment a fast lifestyle.  The article had a little history lesson on the origin of the meal and more complicated ingredients.  I've used bacon, jowl bacon, lunch meat, canned ham, and pancetta.  Anything that leaves a little grease behind is fitting.  I've also used fresh mushrooms, fresh spinach, red peppers, green peppers, and diced onions in this dish too.  It's good to saute the veggies in the animal fat and stir it in after mixing the pasta and egg mixture.  This dish leaves a lot of room for creativity.  Cooking is an art, everyone does it different, and wasting food is a sin!

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2008/01/buona_sera_spaghetti_carbonara.html

My video recipe

I expect to get some songs recorded and some video's shot.  I write songs and play guitar.  Songwriting is all about growing and learning for me, so I would like to apply that to this class.  There are plenty of chances I could take that I have not taken with song writing such as writing a soul song or something like a ballad that leaves me exposed and vulnerable.  I'm open to anything, but I don't want to fake art or emotion that isn't in me.  I'm also down for doing something different, like making pies.  I don't enjoy video games, I don't watch t.v., I don't watch movies often, I like checking out the news.  I watch video's on you tube of skateboarding and musicians.  I learn songs and different styles from watching talented people.  I expect to learn from the people around me and to give some effort toward growing.