June 30, 2008

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At Last -- So here it is, the final composition. To celebrate, I've created a collage of endings.

It's hard to believe that this year is over. It's been an incredible experience composing a complete piece every day.What began as an idea about composing for the internet became a lifestyle. Everything in my life became an idea for a new piece. I was creating everyday and people were listening everyday. It was fantastic.

Thank you for listening.

June 14, 2008

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Trapped -- not literally... cinematically.

June 10, 2008

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Staying -- It's been a while since I've made a sample-based piece. So I grabbed Bjork's Debut and made this little collage. Enjoy...

May 26, 2008

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Memorial -- Today is the day that we honor those who have bravely fought for our country.

The trumpets you hear are from a piece I wrote a few years go after Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen. The various explosions are from Freesound user ERH.

May 24, 2008

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Trombone Please -- More silliness today. When my sister was little, she and her friend Alexis formed a band with my uncle (whose work was recently featured on this podcast) called The Squishy Lagosis. They recorded only one song together, Please Trombone. Since the original included no trombone I've added snippets from a recording of The Blue Bells of Scotland, the ultimate trombone show-off piece.

Please Trombone lyrics:
Please trombone, please trombone,
     Don't get up my nose.
Please trombone, please trombone,
     Don't get up my nose.
Well you can shake and shimmy and rattle your toes,
     But don't get up my nose.
Oh my!

Please repelican, please repelican,
     Don't get up my nose.
Please repelican, please repelican,
     Don't get up my nose.
Well you can drink dishwater and dance with an otter,
     But don't get up my nose.
Oh my!

May 23, 2008

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Old School -- My standard answer when asked about how I began composing goes something like this:

"In high school, our drama club only had enough funding to produce a musical every other year. During the off years we would instead produce a play, but everyone always preferred to do a musical. So one year, the music teacher who advised the club found a play called "Voices From the High School" which allowed for the addition of music (either found or original). She decided to recruit students to create music for the production and a friend of mine and I ended being the only two to take up this challenge. Under the very patient guidance of this teacher we created a score for the play. The experience of presenting our music in public was enough to hook me and I've been composing ever since."

That teacher's name is Connie Zweifel and she started something that changed the course of my life.

Tthe problem with the way that I tell the story is that the friend in it had, in fact, composed before. When we worked out the music, especially the initial pieces, he was guiding and training me too. So now, publicly, I'd like to acknowledge Peter Lamos for his influence on my early craft. As best as I can remember the two maxims I gleaned from him were:

1. You can never have too much trombone


2. When in doubt, insert a drum solo

Today's piece is a collage of the very first piece we wrote for that very first show. Enjoy.

May 19, 2008

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Rhythm -- Tonight I found myself thinking about a piece I wrote in 2004 called The Rhythm Variations. It's a series of variations on George Gershwin's I Got Rhythm for solo piano. It occurred to me that this 60x365 is not my first exploration of short forms. One variation lasts only 20 seconds.

So I pulled out that variation (cleverly titled The Shortest Variation) and made three quick recordings of it. These are heard back-to-back over a collage from another piano recording of mine. Enjoy.

(If you are interested, you can see a score and read more about The Rhythm Variations here.

May 18, 2008

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Meditation -- hum along.

May 10, 2008

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Meeting Mudd -- Today's piece, the final in my Uncle Skip Loses His Mind series, introduces the final voice on that tape: my grandmother (who was affectionately known as Mudd for reasons I don't quite remember). You'll hear her doing what she did best, giving Skip a hard time.

May 8, 2008

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eieio -- my third installment in this little series of pieces using an old family cassette recording.

May 7, 2008

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Row Your What is another piece made sampling from an old cassette recording of my uncle, my brother and me, made years ago when I was only 5 or 6.

We were not able to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" as a round, so I've layered the recording to add that effect. Enjoy.

May 6, 2008

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Upside Down -- Years ago, when I was only 5 or 6, my uncle came to visit us and he brought his guitar with him. He taught my brother and I some songs, and played around with us. We had a tape recorder that we loved using to record all kinds of stuff, including the different songs he sang with us on that visit.

That tape has survived all of these years, and is labeled simply "Uncle Skip Loses His Mind". I recently gained possession of this tape and am mining it for source sounds for this podcast, so stay tuned. In today's episode, my voice is the first that you will hear. Uncle Skip and my younger brother Daniel ("Danny") are also featured.

Enjoy.

April 14, 2008

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Older -- Tonight's piece is a little late, I was out celebrating a friend's birthday. It occurred to me on the ride home that I hadn't yet made a piece sampling from They Might Be Giants, which is strange considering how much their music has influenced my own ideas about music.

So I present a little collage of Older, their song about aging. Perfect for a birthday...

Happy Birthday, Amiti!

March 4, 2008

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Autodial celebrates Primary Day in Ohio with a collage from recent messages on my answering machine.

February 5, 2008

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Fat -- Happy Mardi Gras!

January 16, 2008

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Rockin' Piano -- my favorite moments from Johnny Rivers' recording of Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu were always the piano fills.

January 5, 2008

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20x3 -- I've been working in the 60-second format for a while and have begun to wonder about the possibilities for even shorter pieces. Today I present three 20-second pieces. Enjoy.

December 29, 2007

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60x365 -- Today is piece number 183. If you're good with numbers you've already realized that this means I am halfway through my year. To celebrate this milestone, I have created a station ID for this podcast project.

Thank you all for listening.

December 26, 2007

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Susan Loves Paul -- Today we celebrate my mother's birthday. Like so many people in my family, she is a fan of the Beatles. As a young girl, she had a crush on Paul McCartney and would write "Susan Loves Paul" on her record sleeves. For today's minute, I've made a little collage of some early Beatles tunes, focusing on love.

Happy Birthday Mom!

December 25, 2007

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Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2007

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Ole Red Nose wishes you a Merry Christmas Eve!

(Only one more shopping day...)

December 19, 2007

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Night Before uses the instrumental interludes from an old recording of a musical version of The Night Before Christmas. If you think it sounds familiar, you're right. I used samples from this same recording to open Electric Christmas In the Window, last year's audio Christmas card.

December 16, 2007

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Carol -- Wow, this is the latest I've posted a piece yet...one hour to spare. (We spent a good portion of the day in the car, travelling on some very icy roads.)

Anyway, today I continue my 12-part holiday series with the ambient choral offering. Enjoy.

December 15, 2007

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Free Speech Ôø‡Ôø‡“â€Ôø‡ Today is Bill of Rights Day. Celebrate our rights while we still have them.

December 13, 2007

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Is That You -- Day Three of my holiday series asks this simple question:

What if Santa Claus lived in Kansas?

December 11, 2007

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First Day is the first in a series of twelve pieces launching a podcast assault on the holidays. It's not that I dislike Christmas, I just can't stand the Christmas season. The constant barrage of Lexus commercials encouraging me to give the best gift possible (therefore winning...what?), the omnipresence of Santa (buying groceries, chowing down on Honeybaked ham, abandoning his trusty elves to shop at the Verizon store), and the never-ending musical cheer oozing from every orifice of virtually every public space drive me to distraction.

So... I begin this 12 Days celebration with my own version of a song that is the epitome of Christmas Camp: Sleigh Ride as performed by The Ventures.

December 8, 2007

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Contact -- On Wednesday, composer Karlheinz Stockhausen died at the age of 79. Love him or hate him, his music has had a wide and lasting impact. For today, I have made a one-minute version of his piece Kontakte. The original is well worth a trip to the library to hear. Also, you should check out Stockhausen's Hymnen if you can find it.

December 4, 2007

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No Sense.

Umm...so this is what writer's block sounds like.

December 3, 2007

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Cigarettes uses audio from an old commercial for cigarettes. Believe it or not, this commercial was made to run at movie theaters before the feature began. You could make your way to the lobby for popcorn, soft drinks and a little tobacco. I found this little gem at the Prelinger Archives.

November 29, 2007

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Gray Guitar is a suggestion from my brother Dan. He suggested that I revisit the concept behind the infamous Grey Album, replacing samples from Jay-Z's Black Album with samples from Metallica's Black Album. Enjoy.

November 28, 2007

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Variations is a suggestion from composer Jay C Batzner of the Unsafe Bull Podcast. I have created 5-second variations on twelve previous posts. There are four different variation "formulas" present, each applied to three different pieces. The results are arranged chronologically according to each pieces orignal posting. If you want to listen to the originals again, they are:

1. Brass


2. Peanut Break


3. Mellow


4. Gl!tch (tar)


5. Invasion


6. Eulogy


7. Elegy for Ollie


8. String Cheese


9. Guitar Dream


10. Joyful Noise 3


11. Scrub


12. Scanner

November 27, 2007

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Lebowski's Rent is a suggestion from friend and composer, Jeremy Ribando. For those of you keeping score, I featured my own reworking of Jeremy's music on August 23, 2007. Here is his suggestion:

Here is a suggestion for November considering your love of the Broadway Musical - not. The Big Lebowski vs. the musical Rent. It's like two great tastes that will taste horrible together.

Horrible indeed....

November 26, 2007

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OK is a suggestion from Matthew Saunders, Director of Bands at Oklahoma Panhandle State University (go Aggies!) and a former colleague of mineÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡we studied at The Ohio State University together. He wrote:

My suggestion for a piece is... here in Oklahoma, we just celebrated the state's Centennial (Admitted to the Union November 16, 1907). Can you do a piece in recognition of the 46th state? Can you do it without using the obvious musical source?

I took the state waltz (Oklahoma Waltz) and a song about Oklahoma from a different Broadway musical, threw them in the blender, and whipped up a frothy little number. Enjoy.

November 23, 2007

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Xma$$ale celebrates good ol' American capitalism with a trip to the mall on Black Friday. The idea for this piece comes from a suggestion by composer Alex Shapiro. She suggested I make an update of the passage in Charles Ives' "Three Places in New England" that layers different marching tunes on top of each other to simulate standing on a street corner as a parade passes. My version replaces the marching bands with canned Christmas music that you might hear at the mall during holiday shopping season.

I sent this along to Boris for this week's danceaday.com collaboration, and he took to the malls.

Check out Alex's blog - Notes From the Kelp.

November 22, 2007

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Shoveling the Turkey -- To celebrate Thanksgiving, my wife JoLayne suggested I make a collage using audio from her favorite turkey-themed movie, Home for the Holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 16, 2007

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Relativity is this week's danceaday.com collaboration with Boris Willis. The video he sent for this week shows him dancing on and around a statue of Albert Einstein in Washington DC. I did a quick search of "Einstein and music" that yielded this document.

One of Einstein's favorite composers was JS Bach. One of my favorite composers is also JS Bach. I particularly like Glenn Gould's interpretations of Bach's music. Today's piece samples Goulds recording of Bach's Two-Part Invention #2 in c minor. Enjoy.

November 15, 2007

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Carmen -- Today's listener suggestion comes from my friend Anna Mack. She appears regularly with the Grand Rapids Opera Chorus and thought that I could use a little more opera in my life. To that end she asked that I make a collage using selections from Carmen.

Astute listeners will recall that I am not a fan of opera. While listening to a recording of Carmen to prepare for this piece I recalled another recording of the same material. It comes from a source I've been looking for an excuse to use for a while.

Enjoy Homer and Bart's trip to the opera.

November 14, 2007

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War Prayer III concludes my series on Mark Twain's War Prayer. Today we hear a collage identical in form to yesterday's piece. However, here the words and sounds have been twisted to reveal a dark truth lurking in the pastor's prayer. This is not a literal setting of Twain's words, only my own artistic reaction to them.

Now that the series is finished, I would to mention that Twain refused to publish this piece in his lifetime, saying, "I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead men can tell the truth in this world. It can be published after I am dead."

If you haven't taken time yet to read Twain's War Prayer, I recommend that you do. My uncle, who suggested this series, recommends the print version illustrated by John Groth. After a quick trip to the library, I wholeheartedly concur.

November 13, 2007

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War Prayer II continues a series of pieces on Mark Twain's War Prayer I began yesterday.

The first installment set the tone of the town Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ patriotic, proud Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ and provided an introduction to the church service with an Old Testament reading and some organ music. Today we hear a musical collage inspired by the pastor's prayer. He asks God to protect our troops in battle and to deliver victory to us.

Tune in tomorrow to hear the conclusion of this series with the prayer of the old man.

November 12, 2007

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War Prayer I is today's listener suggestion. It comes from my uncle Edward "Skip" Morneau, who also suggested the two "Paul is Dead" pieces. He suggested that I take a look at Mark Twain's War Prayer and make a series of pieces about it.

Briefly, the poem sets the scene in a small American town, bursting with pride over it's young men in uniform who are going off to glory in war. There's flag-waving and a parade. On Sunday morning, the townspeople gather at church to worship and to ask God for victory on the battlefield.

During the pastor's extended prayer, an old man in white enters the church and ascends to the pulpit. When the prayer is finished, he steps up and says that he is a messenger of the Lord. He goes on to say that every prayer asking for a blessing is actually two prayers, one spoken and one silent. The old man recites for them this second silent prayer, asking God to crush their enemies, to destroy their land, and to make widows and orphans of their people.
Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡

It's really much more powerful in Twain's words. You should read it for yourself. If you prefer not to read online, any library should have it.

I've decided to make three pieces from this poem. Today's sets the scene in the town with a parade song, an Old Testament reading (Ezekiel 25), a response to the reading ("May God continue to bless America") and an "organ burst". Tomorrow we will hear the pastor's prayer and on Wednesday we will hear the old man's prayer.

November 11, 2007

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Gauge -- Last Tuesday, a review of this podcast appeared on Lime & Violet's Daily Chum. In it, Michelle compares my process of daily creation to knitting gauge swatches:

We can learn a lot from a gauge swatch. We can:

see the behavior of a yarn under a given set of circumstances;
change those circumstances in order to impose change on the fabric;
satisfy all sorts of curiosities and Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡what ifsÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡;
use our observations to plan an entire project;
decide what we thought might work? Just. WonÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡t. Work.

Such is the beauty of the gauge swatch. And such is the beauty of David MorneauÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s current project, 60 x 365. Since July, heÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s been composing one 60-second electronic piece per day - the ultimate exercise in musical gauge swatching.

She also wondered what a piece about knitting might sound like. Today's piece provides one answer to that question. I found this pattern and translated the stitches to sound. There are just two stitches here, the knit and the purl. Each one was assigned two short sounds, these were then paired (knit-purl) to represent two different yarns (not part of the pattern, but it makes the result more interesting to hear.)

Each row has 15 stitches / sounds in it. Row 1 plays. Then row two is added and both play. Then Row three is added and all play. Et cetera. Eventually the rows begin to drop out so that the texture retains some clarity. Enjoy.

November 7, 2007

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Two Notes is today's listener suggestion. It comes from Boris Willis of Dance-A-Day. He asked me to use:

the beginning of In Da Club by 50 Cent, which has a staccato two note thingy, and Hot in Herre by Nelly, which has the same thingy, mashed.

While pondering these two note thingies, I recalled an old piece from the Animaniacs television show: Wakko's Two-Note Song. It seemed to be a natural addition.

I would also like to give a shout out to my uncle Rene "Brud" Morneau, who turns sixty today. Go Rene, it's your birthday.

November 6, 2007

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Miss Him continues to explore yesterday's theme: the mysterious clues surrounding the supposed death of Beatle Paul McCartney. Today's piece uses excerpts from two tracks on the legendary White Album, I'm So Tired and Revolution 9.

In Revolution 9, there are several clues. The number nine may refer to McCartney, the only band member with a nine-letter name. A voice can be heard saying "thrust between his shoulder blades." Another voice can be heard saying "so the wife called, and we better go see a surgeon". When played backward, the voice saying "number nine" seems to say "turn me on, dead man." Plus there's the noisy sound of an apparent car crash, complete with a voice yelling "let me out".

At the end of I'm So Tired there is a mumbling voice. When reversed it seems to say "Paul is dead. Miss him, miss him, miss him." Decide for yourself.

Like yesterday, this piece comes from a suggestion by my uncle Edward "Skip" Morneau.

November 5, 2007

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Wednesday Morning is today's listener suggestion. It comes from my uncle, Edward "Skip" Morneau. He suggested that I make a collage of references to the urban legend alledging the death of Paul McCartney. According to the legend, McCartney died in a car accident and The Beatles covered it up, replacing him with a look-alike named Billy Shears. Of course all of the evidence for this cover-up can be found hidden in their album art and lyrics...

This collage collects some of the lyrical references to the alleged death that appear on their Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. (The fatal car accident was beleived to have happened at 5 am on a Wednesday morning...)

Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡

She's Leaving Home
Wednesday morning at five o'clock
As the day begins

Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡
Good Morning Good Morning
Good morning good morning
good morning good morning
good morning, a

Nothing to do to save his life
call his wife in....

People running 'round it's five o'clock
Everywhere in town it's getting dark
Everyone you see is full of life
It's time for tea and meet the wife

Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡

Within Without You
We were talking - about the space between us all
And the people - who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse of truth - then it's far too late - when they pass away

November 1, 2007

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Fenway Memories -- I'm kicking off Listener Appreciation Month here at 60x365 with a piece suggested by Susan Morneau (my mother). She grew up north of Boston and is a huge fan of the Red Sox. Since they just won the World Series (again!) she suggested some music that is regularly played at Fenway Park:

Since they just won the World Series, and it is SUCH a big deal to us Boston fans, maybe you could do something with this. The song played at Fenway during every single game, in the 8th inning, is Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond. There is even a "Fenway Version" in which game sounds and fans singing the song (and fans do sing it every single time) are interspersed throughout the song. Another Red Sox song is "Dirty Water" by the Standells. This song is played immediately following a home victory. In fact, when U2 played in Boston in 2005, they put a little of that song into Vertigo.

Today's piece uses these two songs, along with some memorable audio from their 2004 World Series Victory. Enjoy.

October 31, 2007

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60" Mourn compresses selections from Mozart's Requiem into a one-minute meditation on death. Fitting for Halloween, no?

Happy Halloween.

October 28, 2007

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Orange Cheese is made using more sounds I sampled from a CD titled Scary Sounds of Halloween. The guy who made the original called his track Scary Invitation. It's so corny, I love it...

October 25, 2007

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Zap is another in what has become a mini-series of famous and familiar voices. Today's piece use audio of Frank Zappa talking about problems in the music industry, tastefully set against his own Nasal Retentive Calliope Music. Enjoy.

October 24, 2007

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Gro$$ -- Today is Take Back Your Time Day, an initiative organized by The Simplicity Forum. Their position is that Americans work too many hours without being given adequate time off:

The crushing demands of a workplace out of control have long been a private anguish of quiet desperation. But that's not true anymore. During the 2004 presidential election, pollsters suggested that surveys and focus groups found that "lack of free time" was one of the most significant concerns of so-called "swing voters", many of whom are mothers with young children. This is no surprise to us. The U.S. has the longest working hours in the industrial world. The average European puts in nine fewer weeks on the job each year than Americans do. While the Chinese have a mandated three weeks of paid leave, Australians four, and Europeans 4 to 5 weeks, the U.S. has no minimum paid leave law.

American public policies protecting our family and personal time fall far short of those in other countries. A recent study released by the Harvard School of Public Health, covering 168 of the world's nations (www.globalworkingfamilies.org), concluded that "the United States lags dramatically behind all high-income countries, as well as many middle- and low-income countries when it comes to public policies designed to guarantee adequate working conditions for families." The study found that:

163 of 168 countries guarantee paid leave for mothers in connection with childbirth. 45 countries offer such leave to fathers. The U.S. does neither.

139 countries guarantee paid sick leave. The U.S. does not.

96 countries guarantee paid annual (vacation) leave. The U.S. does not.

84 countries have laws that fix a maximum limit on the workweek. The U.S. does not.

37 countries guarantee parents paid time off when children are sick. The U.S. does not.

America can do better. We believe there is no compelling reason for the world's richest country to lag so far behind in so many areas when it comes to work/life balance. It is time for the United States to join all other industrial nations in guaranteeing that our nation's tremendous productivity be used to allow Americans freedom from overwork, stress and burnout. Such stress relief will make Americans happier and healthier, and reduce the pressures on our health care system, lowering costs for all. It will also make us more productive. Studies show that job performance goes up after breaks and vacations. A healthier workplace will save money for American business, too, which loses $300 billion a year in job stress-related costs.

We are not against work; meaningful work is essential to the good life. But we need to work more wisely to taste that life, as part of the pursuit of happiness that is our inalienable right as human beings. We want to work to live, not live to work. We need time to care.

October 24 is nine weeks from the end of the year. According to John de Graaf, National Coordinator of Take Back Your Time Day, Americans work nine weeks more per year than anyone else.

October 23, 2007

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Bleeping is an alternate version of yesterday's collage of a Casey Kasem out-take. In 2004, NPR's Wait WaitÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ Don't Tell Me included a question about this out-take in one of their quizzes. Carl Kassel read a modified version of the original. In addition to his voice you will hear host Peter Sagal and regular panelist Paula Poundstone.

The original audio can be found here:
http://www.empty-handed.com/archive/2004_01_11.html

October 21, 2007

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Boys & Girls After hearing an interview with RX Music on Some Assembly Required I was inspired to make another piece using samples from The George W Bush Public Domain Audio Archive. As it turns out, Jay C Batzner had the same idea for his Unsafe Bull podcast....

October 18, 2007

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Entropy -- another drum and bass deconstruction.

October 17, 2007

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Joyful Noise 3

Joyful Noise fading
backwards into memory,
distant vibrations

October 16, 2007

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Joyful Noise 2 -- here's another collage made using an old cassette recording of a music group I helped create while in college. In addition to the sentimental attachment I have to this piece of sound, I am drawn to the lo-fi nature of the recording. The tape hisses and warbles, the instruments are unbalanced, odd background noises creep into the sound.

We live in a world that often seeks the highest fidelity in recorded sound, trying to achieve the effect of having the band right there in the room with you. To me, an old recording like this gains from its imperfections, transporting the listener to the time and place where it was made -- we are now in the room where the band once played.

October 15, 2007

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Joyful Noise 1 -- In college my room-mate and I formed a four-piece music ensemble with some friends that travelled to local churches to play music for their services. We called ourselves Joyful Noise. Because of our peculiar instrumentation (voice/piano, clarinet, trombone, and tuba) there was no music available commercially for us to use. I had the opportunity to develop all of our arrangements, which turns out to have been good experience and preparation for the life of a professional composer.

Recently, an old cassette recording of our group was rediscovered. I'm planning to sample from it for a few postings this week.

Joyful Noise was: Erin Beute (voice/piano), Barbara Lovely (clarinet), David Morneau (trombone), and Jonathan Schnicke (tuba).

October 12, 2007

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Monster Mashup -- more fun with Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers.

Don't forget to stop by danceaday.com to watch this week's collaboration with Boris Willis. I posted the music earlier this week as a birthday greeting for Boris.

October 11, 2007

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Ah Belding - yesterday I visited Belding High School in Belding, Michigan. I was invited by the band director, Jonathan Schnicke (also an old friend), to make a presentation about my music to his Music Appreciation class. Afterwards I attended the marching band rehearsal. Jonathan often records these rehearsals.

Today's piece uses samples from yesterday's rehearsal recording. The recorder was high atop a tower, giving the band a distant sound. This inspired my treatment of the samples...

October 10, 2007

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Building a Basket Case -- I wanted to make one more piece in response to the Jammie Thomas case (she's the woman who was recently fined $220,000 for illegal file sharing). I'm bothered by the extreme position of the RIAA. More than that, it bothers me that they justify their actions by claiming to be looking out for the musicians, who often profit least from their own work.

Anyway, I looked at Jammie's playlist and compared it to the music I had sitting around the house. Today's piece combines Green Day's Basket Case with Sarah McLachlan's Building a Mystery, both songs from her list.

October 9, 2007

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Birthday Boris -- Boris Willis of danceaday.com celebrates his birthday today. What music is appropriate for guy named Boris who is celebrating his birthday in October? Hmmm... this thing almost wrote itself. Tune in Friday to watch Boris dance to this abomination.

Happy Birthday Boris!


(Thanks to the Illegal Art collective for including a recording of Happy Birthday to You on their Copyright Infringement Advisory compilation.)

October 8, 2007

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100th -- Today is my 100th minute. To celebrate I took equal parts of the first 99 songs (600 milliseconds each) and arranged them in chronological order. Those of you keeping score will notice that this brings the total length to 59.4 seconds. Since this project is 60x365 and not 59.4x365 I took those 99 slices and compressed them into an additional single 600 millisecond burst. This was added the the end, making for a 60 second recap of my first 100 minutes. Enjoy.


(By the way, the idea of using parts from each previous post came from my wife, JoLayne. This gives me a chance to remind everybody that November will be "Listener Appreciation Month". For that entire month I will be making pieces based on listener suggestions. If have an idea that you'd like me to try, send it along...)

October 7, 2007

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Do It is another illegal Disney collage. Enjoy.

October 6, 2007

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Awkward Romance -- The news has been filled with the case of Jammie ThomasÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡the woman fined $220,000 for illegal file sharing. I have mixed feelings about this case; I don't condone piracy, but I also feel that current copyright law (and its enforcement) is too broad and restrictive.

So I chose to respond with a little willful copyright violation of my own in the form of this Disney collage. Enjoy.

(My concerns with copyright are not unique. Check out these essays to learn more: Protecting Mickey Mouse at Art's Expense, Plunderphonics, Changing Copyright, Fair Use, and the book Free Culture.)

October 2, 2007

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Haunted Loops is the first Halloween themed post of the month. I used some electric piano samples and some haunted house sounds I found online at the Freesound Project (Electricity.wav, Heartbeat.wav, Moan.wav, and Owl.wav, all created by Johnc)

September 23, 2007

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More Cowbell - another collage of Spike Jones. The tracks I used for yesterday and today's pieces are: Morpheus, The Sheik of Araby, Barney Google, Black Bottom, Cocktails for Two, and Jones Polka. Enjoy.

September 22, 2007

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Spiked
One musician who had a tremendous influence on my early work is Spike Jones (not to be confused with the director, Spike Jonze). If you don't know it, his music is a zany cacophony of cowbells, gunshots, hot jazz, vocal effects and more. Its humorous energy is what attracts me to this music, and is something I try to emulate in my own music from time to time.

Today's piece revisit's a typical Spike Jones gag in a straightforward collage. Stay tuned for tomorrow's piece, which will further develop Spike's samples.

September 15, 2007

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SAR - In August, Sing (from my composition Lifedance) was presented on my favorite podcast: Some Assembly Required. Jon Nelson hosts this Minneapolis based show that deals exclusively with audio collage. In my excitement I conceived of today's post, using Jon's voice.

To hear the show I'm on, follow this link:
http://www.some-assembly-required.net/blog/2007/08/episode-183-some-assembly-required.html

September 13, 2007

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Banwasjum
The King meets 60x365. Enjoy.

September 10, 2007

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Armed is a one-minute tour of Elvis Costello's 1979 album Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ Armed Forces.

September 9, 2007

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Haell
I found a recording of a sermon while searching for something else entirely. There's something about the preacher's cadence that caught my ear, so I used it for this.

September 7, 2007

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Prayer is today's danceaday.com collaboration.

September 4, 2007

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Black:Encore is the third installment in my mini-series of pieces sampling the acapella version of Jay-Z's Black Album. Today's piece comes from the track Encore.

September 2, 2007

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Black:Problems is the second in my mini-series of pieces sampling the acapella version of Jay-Z's Black Album. Today's piece comes from the track 99 Problems.

September 1, 2007

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Black:Thug
18 months ago, inspired by Dangermouse's Grey Album, I purchased the acapella version of Jay-Z's Black Album in order to try my hand at my own mash-up album. I never have found the time....

So, to kick of September here at 60x365, I'm creating a mini-series of three pieces from tracks on the acapella album. Today's offering samples from Justify My Thug. Enjoy.

August 25, 2007

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While listening to one of my first compositions in preparation for today's minute, I had the strange sensation of not remembering the music at all. I remember working very hard on this piece, a brass quintet titled Something Suite for Brass (cute, yes?). I remember being very proud of it when it was performed, but I don't remember the actual music. I've tried to capture that sensation with today's composition: Faded Memory.

August 23, 2007

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Violent Peas was the name of my first composition recital. My friend Jeremy and I chose that name as a pun on his imaginatively titled "Violin Piece". Today's composition is a collage of that piece. Tune in Saturday, I'm planning to revisit one of my own works from that concert.

August 21, 2007

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25:17 is the result of hearing an interview with Samuel L Jackson on the radio last week. If he had a church, I'd consider going...

August 20, 2007

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Rush is assembled from clips of a famous radio personality searching for just the right words to stick it to "lefties". The source files and more can be found at The Rush Limbaugh Excellence in Babbling Audio Theatre. Enjoy.

August 19, 2007

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Paulrus -- My father, Paul, likes to tell people that his theme song should be the Beatles' I am the Walrus.

(you know:
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly.
I'm crying.

Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday.
MAN, you been a naughty boy, and let your face grow long.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus,
coo coo c'choo
)

I never believed him until I heard John Lennon confirm it in Glass Onion.


Happy birthday Dad!

August 18, 2007

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Pianos is another birthday greeting, this time for my wife, JoLayne. Coincidentally, today is also my father's birthday. I will be posting his birthday song tomorrow...


Happy birthday JoLayne!

August 16, 2007

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btdt - some days it's difficult to make a new piece for this project; I knew it would be when I started. Sitting down to work, I often feel that It's All Been Done Before. Then I remember that it's not the idea, but the execution of an idea that's important, so I take an existing piece and add a drum track to it....

August 15, 2007

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Choir Etude 1 is part of a larger project I'm working on with my uncle. He's in the process of recording his second CD and has asked me to contribute some audio collages. Today's piece is constructed from a choral recording of Samuel Barber's Adagio. It's not in its final form yet, but I like this iteration and wanted to post it.

August 13, 2007

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Hit Me
Last night Lillian, a friend, had dinner with us. At one point she mentioned this song, singing a few bars for our amusement. Today's track is for her. Enjoy.


--
sample attributions
whip,slap,belt,punch.wav by scarbelly25
drunks fighting.aif by tigersound
Hit Me Baby, One More Time as performed by Britney Spears and by Trombo Combo

August 9, 2007

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Replundered samples John Oswald's seminal Plunderphonics album.

Oswald's music is built from the music of others. To create this tribute, I wanted to sample his work, which is just samples of other peoples' work. The challenge was to use large enough chunks of Oswald's music to retain his voice, without making them so large that my voice is lost.

August 7, 2007

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This is This uses my computer's speech reading utility to channel the spirit of Gertrude Stein.

July 30, 2007

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Unsafe Bull is a tribute to Alvin Lucier's experimental classic, I Am Sitting In a Room. I used a short sample of composer Jay C Batzner saying "unsafe bull" (also the name of his podcast). This sample was compressed using QuickTime's Qualcomm PureVoice setting. The resulting file was compressed again in the same way. This process repeated 14 times, each version becoming more distorted. The different versions (original and 14 compressed) are heard in sequence.

If you haven't ever experienced I Am Sitting In a Room, you really should find a free hour and give it a listen. Also, check out Jay C Batzner's Unsafe Bull Podcast.

July 29, 2007

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Pepper Mash mixes samples from all thirteen Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band songs into a dense, spicy paste.

July 24, 2007

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Ashley Pearson Believes in You is a phrase from the 2004 State of the Union address. As a refresher, Ashley Pearson is the girl who sent the President a letter about supporting US troops in Iraq. Bush read from this letter during the speech.

I'm not sure what it is about Bush's peculiar way of speaking that attracts me, but I find myself going to the The George W. Bush Public Domain Audio Archive a lot.

July 23, 2007

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Peanut Break
Many people have created many tracks using the amen break. I made two this month: Toss Me a Carrot and Invention 4.

Today's piece apllies some common amen-break techniques to a drum loop from another genre--swing. The drum loop is sampled from Royal Crown Revue's version of Salt Peanuts. The bass line is a manipulated Apple Loop.

July 20, 2007

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late night is this week's collaboration with Boris Willis of danceaday.com.

darkness. crickets sing.
a moaning wind moves the trees.
distant tv sounds.

July 18, 2007

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Hot

I apologize, there's really no excuse for this.

July 16, 2007

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Brass begins this week with an algorithmic fanfare. Using MaxMSP I created a program that automatically and randomly samples and layers bits of a recording (in this case, the opening fanfare from Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress) to create a new piece. After some fine tuning, I ended up with today's minute.

July 13, 2007

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Hare Christna is the third collaboration with Boris Willis of Dance-A-Day. I took the original audio from his video, cleaned it up a little and added some new loops and layers.

July 12, 2007

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msym2.1 is another experiment with compressing an entire movement of a symphony into a single minute. This time I used the first movement of Mahler's Symphony no.2 "Resurrection". Rather than deleting chunks of the music until only 60" remain, I cut the music into equal segments and piled all of them together so that the result is a dense swirl of Mahler.

July 10, 2007

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Oh expands a recording of a woman's voice saying "oh" to a full minute.

July 9, 2007

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Toss Me a Carrot was created from two samples: the amen break and Brian Wilson's Vega-Tables. It's an exercise in absurd contrasts.

July 8, 2007

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Leading was created using a single sample from the The George W Bush Public Domain Audio Archive that I manipulated using my favorite freeware, Sound Hack, and mixed in Logic. Enjoy.

July 4, 2007

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Cadence is an expanded version of a snare drum cadence used by marching bands.

Happy Independence Day, America.

Happy Wednesday, World.

July 3, 2007

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Here, I'll Play It Again is my submission to this year's 60x60 project. A single spoken phrase gradually comes into focus. This music was created using MaxMSP and is a byproduct of another project of mine: ImDM

July 1, 2007

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bsym5.1 was originally composed for the Vox Novus 60x60 project (a collection of sixty one minute works by different composers presented in concert as a continuous one hour work.) It was included in the 2006 Midwest Mix and presented on several concerts during the year. That project was a part of the inspiration for this one.

bsym5.1 compresses the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony no.5 into sixty seconds. enjoy.