New Year's Update

A couple years have come and gone since the last post...it's about time for a new one.

I typically have a few songs growing in my head and, for space and sanity, I occasionally take the time to transplant them into digital waveforms stored on magnetically charged disks. This last holiday season I made a more deliberate effort than usual, going so far as to give the songs names. While these recordings are usually just for my personal reference, I'm sharing this project for those people who wish to hear what's going on in my head. As far as I know, all these songs are original and, if it's not apparent, the project is completely solo. (If you want to download an mp3 version, you can right-click the title and save it)

01 God Willing / Fiddler's Groove

:: I think this song's about Winfield

02 This Fog Below

:: I woke up with this tune in my head one morning, so I gave it some words

03 Tin Can Life

:: Previously posted

04 Sailing to Marana

:: A new recording of a previous post

05 Monsoon in D

:: During one monsoon season in Tucson I spent most evenings on the porch with a mandolin watching the storms move through the valley. The three themes in this piece came from those sessions.

06 Phantom Trolley

:: Inspired by Tucson's (still functioning) 4th Ave trolley; mostly, I just like ghost train songs.

There's even cover art! (in case you had a hard time deciphering the video stills)

Eighth and Final MVS Quarterly Report

Here's something of a portfolio of projects from the past year or so. If you have some time to spend, this is here for the taking.

Bike Art: one benefit of working at the Zuni Avenue Bike club is a seemingly limitless supply of funny little bike parts. Add that to a couple slow days, a wandering mind, and a wire-feed welder and you get the following.


My computer desk.



Leonard the elephant, complete with bounceable legs and wagging tail. Sure is a cutie.



A bike rack built for some friends, made of front forks and rims


Bike art goes gothic. This is Aberforth the candelabrum.


Here is a lifesize replica of the little bugger I found in my sleeping bag once while camping. Just kidding, I never actually saw a scorpion whilst in Tucson, but I'm told this is what they look like. The cool thing with this one is that if you boing the springy tail, it actually moves the pincers around so it looks like it's alive.


Speaking of making friends, this is Gregory the gargoyle. He sits and listens to me when no one else does.


Music: The two-to-three month monsoon season is a spectacular time to compose. Sitting outside with a mandolin watching the clouds move across the valley with the scent of dampened creosote bushes preceding the storm is definitely going to be one of my long-held memories of Tucson. Though I meant to record an entire album before I left, I was only able to fit in two songs, literally recorded hours before leaving Tucson, so if you're ok with quick and dirty production, you're welcome to listen. They look like movies, but that's the only way I could post them.

Sailing to Marana - written during the flooding of '06. Marana is a town/district near Tucson where Community Home Repair does a lot of work. This may be the first in a new genre of "home repair ballads" which will soon sweep the nation. Or not.



Tin Can Life - a head-shaking tribute to all those clients who are stuck on the underside of life, but still somehow manage to maintain hope. I don't understand it, but I expect they've got a better sense of the meaning of life than I ever will. The song is based on the stories of people I encountered through my assignment with Community Home Repair.




Movies: The feature we've all been waiting for. This was created by our unit as an introduction to ourselves at the annual retreat. Contains mild language and rude suggestions (but in all modesty I still think it's pretty fun). Also available on YouTube here.



Oh, and theater: For the annual church campout, the unit created a "Mennonite Soap Opera." May contain vulgar biblical references.