Chris Wesley in 360 Degrees

Hmmmm…not the best turnout I’ve had for a gig. And yet, the NOHO Poetry Spectacular turned out to be worth my while. Along with my poetry read, I acted in a one act play with Writer/Director/Actor Radomir Luza. It all went well. I don’t have much else to say about that right now. The music feature by James Piquinot absolutely rocked. He could have performed for another half hour easily and kept my attention. He doesn’t sound like any other artist in particular, but I could see him on a bill with Radiohead or a band like that.

And that, my friends is my last gig for the next few months. My heart right now is focused on writing my book. I finally have a hold on the short story I’m writing for it to accompany all the poetry and I want to at least knock out the first draft of that story by the end of March. With that in mind, there isn’t much time to put together the live show I want.

My upcoming CD is also taking form. I have finally decided on the foundation of the sound: Electonica. With that, I can infuse all of my Hip Hop ideas, guitar and piano solos, intense drum and percussion work and long form song construction ideas without jumping too far off the map. I can’t do that if Hip Hop is the foundation, so that is that.

Posted in Live gigs
Tags: James Pequinot, Live gigs, Radomir Luza

For whatever reason, January seems to be upgrade studio month. Some of the upgrades were due to newer versions of software that for my own reasons, I don’t want. So I had to pick up the tested versions of a few pieces of software while it was still available. One of which I got the last copy Sweetwater had.

Since I’ve ranted in the past about the crappy service I’ve received by some companies, I thought it might be nice to give a shout out to those that kick ass in the customer service department beginning with my sales engineer Mac Hatton at Sweetwater.com. We’ve never met in person, but it’s like having a buddy that just happens to work at a music store. He has saved me money by speaking to my contractor when I was building my studio by being honest about a solution that wouldn’t work that cost him a sale that day. Of course, as a result, I have bought things from him since then when I’ve seen it cheaper elsewhere, but let’s be real. If I have a problem, Mac has had my back in the past when I have had tech issues and that kind of service goes a looonnng way with me. He has earned a degree of loyalty. Plus, he is great to talk to. It isn’t unusual for it to take 20 minutes to order something because we get to talking about music, engineering, gear, how our Christmas and New Year’s was. Yeah. It’s like that. While your mileage may vary in the conversation department, the service won’t, so hit him up at extension 1358, if you want to make a purchase that is backed by a company that has hired humans to take your call.

Posted in great customer service, Mac Hatton, Sweetwater
Tags: great customer service, Mac Hatton, Sweetwater

This past week I sat in a room of black people watching the inauguration of Obama when one of them mentioned how Obama managed to get elected to some extent by not knowing his place. In America, you can only set your sights so high, and really, unless you rap or play sports, you shouldn’t expect too much. That person’s mother, who was there and a retired doctor, argued against that notion noting that when she went to college, women as a sex weren’t supposed to think about higher education, let alone a Black woman. I, of course,
argued against the notion of accepting one’s place as well siting my own life where my artistic nature was under constant bombardment for almost twenty years, before the people who ‘knew better than me’ gave up trying to change who I am.

I made plenty of sacrifices along the way and had my courage decimated at times, but the fact is, I spend much of my time doing the things I love and feeling fulfilled in a way that simply making money by any means can’t. Just getting a job or having a career that holds no interest beyond the paycheck doesn’t really qualify as a purpose and depending on the person, can eat a person alive. There are some fundamental truths in the movie “Revolutionary Road” and that was one of them. So for the sake of your own sanity, it is best not to ‘know your place’ if it is based on what others think. Your dreams are worth more than that and if you think you can’t, well, there were plenty of people who thought they knew Obama’s place as well.

So what is your’s? Your passion and/or purpose? You don’t have to tell me (although I’ll listen if you do), but I hope you can answer that one for yourself. If you can answer it, the best of luck to you. If you can’t, it’s not too late to look inside yourself and find it. Yes, you will only find it in YOU. No one else can figure it out for you, all they can do is muddy the waters you’re trying to swim in. This path is hard enough without that. Just don’t let the threat of how hard the journey can be deter you. In spite of it all, the pleasure you’ll get out of pursuing your passion will far outweigh the pain.

I look forward to more people showing the world where their place is rather than the other way around.

Posted in life's passion, Obama, Obama inauguration

Tonight to cap off MLK Day, I’ll be acting in an anti-racism play in a private performance for the board of the Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theater. In the play, a white man antagonises me, the black man, until I challenge him in a way he hasn’t been challenged before and the white dude realises that there is more to being black than what stereotypes suggest.

The writer/director Radomir Luza asked me during rehearsal if I saw any change in my character’s perspective concerning white people and I had to say ‘no’. I brought in a general sense of “the Black Experience” as I know it to the character and based on my experience and comfort in being Black, not to mention having some of my best friends being white, a single incident isn’t enough to color my view of white people. In conversations with my other Black friends, when other races aren’t present, the tone usually seems to remain the same. I think a lot of that has to do with living in L.A.. There are plenty of racists around town, but there are also quite a few people who have evolved enough to see people as simply people. Yes, we have a long way to go, but at least we seem as a species to be moving, if vaguely, in the right direction.

Posted in Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theater, Martin Luther King Jr., Radomir Luza
Tags: Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theater, Martin Luther King Jr., Radomir Luza

Last night, my wife and I went to see vocalist Ingrid Powell perform. Now, Ingrid has done vocals once before for a rapper that I was producing and she was all Aces then, but last night she absolutely commanded the room. Sharing the stage with heavy hitting jazz veterans Thom Rotella on guitar, Edwin Livingston holding down the bass and Paul Kreibich, it would be easy for any vocalist breaking hard on the scene to get overshadowed by the sheer artistry and experience of their backing band, but that wasn’t the case at all. They were the embodiment of the quartet, fun, free and brilliant. As many current jazz artists do, they performed some classic jazz songs, making them their own, but thankfully among the many standout cuts they laid down, were some original songs written by Ingrid and her guitarist Thom Rotella.  The packed room at the Sheraton in downtown L.A. couldn’t get enough of her three sets, mostly because as good as Ingrid is in the studio, her live performance in nothing less than an experience. To find more info about Ingrid and where she will be performing next, go to http://www.myspace.com/ingridpowellmusic. You owe it to yourself if you are a lover of jazz.

It was also nice that with the place as packed as it was, I got to hang a bit with and talk to another artist friend, Chris Valenti, whose wit and songwriting is nothing less than amazing. If you aren’t politically correct, feel that you and/or the people you are dating are romantically dysfunctional and can use a good laugh about it, then check Chris Valenti out at: http://www.chrisvalentimusic.com/. You will never look at dating the same and hell, you just might find a new theme song for your love life. I know I still quote “Passive Aggressive” on occassion.

Posted in Ingrid Powell, Live Shows, Others
Tags: Chris Valenti, Edwin Livingston, Ingrid Powell, Paul Kreibich, Thom Rotella

I’ve been quiet again. Frankly, I got bored with my own performances. The way I had been doing it, my poetry performances didn’t have the fire and energy I expect out of a live performance. Emphasis on the word performance. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I was putting people to sleep, there is a place for more sedate performances, but that’s just not me ALL THE TIME. Sometimes I want to make a hell of a lot more noise and want well, action.

My response to this can be heard in the first two of the new samples I put up on my website, www.chriswesley.com/samples. I still have some ideas that aren’t realized in even those recordings yet, that being me reintroducing the electric guitar into the mix. I have a performance coming up at the end of January. Perhaps that will be the debut. More news on this coming.

Posted in Live Shows
Tags: www.chriswesley.com/samples

How many AT&T customer service agents does it take to help me cancel the DSL that was supposed to automatically be canceled when I went Fiber Optic so I wouldn’t be double-billed like I have been getting? One person and I’d give her a raise if I could.

To get to that person, I was transferred seven times, hung up on once; twice, I had to hang up because I couldn’t wait on hold any longer, at one point I was left on hold so long that it rang back to another person who transfered me to a department that had already transferred me to his department and so on and so on and so on. Stupid me. I thought I was going to be mixing today. I knew what needed to be done on the next song of Kelsey Lynd’s that I’m mixing and have been looking forward to getting on the job, instead, I got to hang out on hold with AT&T for the better part of the day. This crap makes me want to see these people out of work. They aren’t doing their job anyhow. It’s like welfare, but with someplace to go five days a week. I’d say they could kiss my ass, but I’m afraid some of them would try and put some tongue action in there. When they introduce themselves when they finally pick up the call, why not just be honest with me and instead of saying “How can I provide you with excellent service today?” just come out with “I’m Bill and you’re about to get serviced so you might want to take your blood pressure medication now.”

Posted in Kelsey Lynd, Uncategorized
Tags: AT&T, Kelsey Lynd