Alex Cornell

Japan V.2

Tomorrow I leave for Japan. This will be my second time to Tokyo (last time was in 2008). I you were a reader of the blog then, you’ll remember I wrote about the trip extensively; each day and each night was given a report and a few pics. I plan to do the same thing this time. We’ll see how that goes — I’ve gotten significantly lazier when it comes to writing for my own blog. But I will try! 

Right now I am staring a full suitcase, lots of camera batteries charging, and a sauce-less bowel of pasta (I threw away most everything in my fridge prematurely). I leave for the airport at 5am tomorrow and am planning the rest of my night. Gym is involved, maybe the American Idol final. Definitely eating a ton of USA style carbohydrates. Look for the first posts sometime tomorrow or the next day (jet lag, time difference, who knows). 

It’s Not Mulholland. But it’s close

Another HD Electric Guitar Fun Time

The Wave Speech

I really love this 

by HST

Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era — the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run … but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant… . 

History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time — and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.

My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights — or very early mornings — when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder’s jacket … booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) … but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that… .

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda… . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning… .

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave… .

A New Shop Opens

My wee little online shop just opened up. You can buy a few prints (large format limited editions, so order soon to get low #’s) and a shirt or two. I will be adding some photographs in the coming weeks, so keep a look out. Check it out here.

Electric Guitar Finally Makes an Appearance

Sky Studios Day

Monday

On the occasion that I wake up hungover, I always want to go to the gym to clear my system. I picture my body being made of up a thousands of little workers that get two equally daunting construction projects passed down from above. In one case, they desperately trying to repair the damage from the previous night’s storm. They consider this a top priority. Meanwhile, they are being asked to begin an entirely different construction project elsewhere, one that is basically for beautification purposes. It would be like asking a hurricane cleanup crew to build a football stadium before they cleaned the streets.

I always wonder whether it’s better to match my music to my mood, or to try and use music to alter my mood. So for example, right now I am feeling blue. Do I listen to slow and pensive music and try and match the emotion as much as possible? I think this enhances your overall emotional experience and you feel blue more intensely, but for less time. There are benefits to this; you just have to be careful not to wallow for too long. The alternative is to try and listen to happy and feel-good music to try and excavate yourself from the blue mood. This is a risky approach. If it backfires, you set yourself back by a few days.

Sunday

A separate version was recorded for this ISO50 mix CD. That one has a guitar solo! More excitement.

As usual, all my MP3s can be downloaded here for free.

Time for a John Mayer Cover

Shuffle

For some reason, if I hit ‘next’ on my iPod one too many times, I can’t go back and listen to the song I skipped over. If I already know which song will come afterwards in the shuffle, I can’t get past it and I have to skip it to get back to a place where I have no idea what will be next.