Well that’s taken care of. I did it – I graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a 3.2 GPA (HA!) and a Bachelor’s of Arts in Music Composition. I can’t believe I actually did it. I know I’ve said this so many times before, but I really never thought that I would go to college. I was always a terrible student in grammar and high school (primary, basically). But, I did it.

And I still can’t believe it – and it’s all thanks to the generous donations of everyone around the world – all 150 of them, raising at total of $6,605.51 for my last semester of school.

Now, it’s on to non-school oriented things. You may have noticed some changes to the website as I’m slowly trying to fix it up to be a little more professional, but still maintain some kind of style so as to present just enough of an image. It’s time to really start working on a music career and I’ve honestly decided that I’d like to compose and produce music for various kinds of media productions… the main goal, of course, being console and computer games.

I’ve always had somewhat of a personal connection, deliberate or not, to the gaming world. I grew up with video games, always loved video games and I’ve especially loved the music… so that’s what I want to do. That’s why I’m always such a big fan of YouTubers and indie developers using my music in their projects… it’s so wonderful to have anything to do with that community and it’s what has always made me happiest in music (aside from making it, of course!)

My next step is to create somewhat of a resume or a one-sheet and put it up here on my site. I have some kind of idea as to what should go on it, but I’m still working that stuff out. For now, I know it has to be short, sweet, diverse and descriptive… Either way, it’s time to start being “more professional”.

I just want to be able to make music every day. To look at something, to see how I relate to it… how it fits in with my life and my experiences and how I can make its music so as to be the perfect emotional frame for it. That’s what it’s always been about, whether it was an idea, a feeling, a moment in time or an homage… I just want to do that every day for the rest of my life.

Then I’ll be happy.

My good friend Nicholas Young filmed, edited and mastered this official video for a track I did called “Lift” (available for free, of course, on SoundCloud). Please check it out, and remember: study hard!

In less than a month I will begin my last semester at Columbia College Chicago in the BA Music Composition program and immersed in over a hundred thousand dollars in loan debt. This semester will be spent mostly figuring out what kind of connections I can put to use to see what kind of professional music career I can muster together. I’m remaining hopeful because looking at it any other way will just be corrosive.

I’ve been speaking with one of my favorite professors at school, Nate Bakkum, about an individualized directed study program. Basically, it would be a heavily documented and well thought-out fight to bring the Creative Commons doctrine to the front of Columbia’s attention… the last stand, the last fight. This would be my last chance to leave a mark on Columbia the way I had intended the day I walked through the door.

If this directed study were to take place, I’d be posting videos quite regularly, possible doing interviews and then making a small documentary out of the footage at the end. It would be relatively low-quality video, but the point would be gotten across somewhat nicely – regardless of the outcome.

Oh yeah – my buddy Ramova and I just finished putting together what we’re calling the “SATBEP”, a collection of four tracks by our group name “Dirty Thirty-Two”. Basically we just make dance music… but it has a sense of humor to it which I’m very happy with. It’s going to be… promoted by?… Trax Records here in Chicago. It’s a huge honor to have such a legendary label back such a sophomoric effort. I’ll have more details for that as time goes on. Be sure to follow my Facebook page to stay in touch with the stream of madness, as well as news about shit like this… and shows, etc.

In other news, I’ve seen the surfacing of a few awesome YouTube videos featuring my work… check this stuff out!

It’s always an honor when folks use my stuff in their work… makes me feel like I somehow had a little hand in someone else’s art. Thanks for reading and stay tuned… there’s more to come for sure. Also, having my whole site in WordPress is pretty bad ass… there’s a lot of room for improvement, so there will be added functionality as time goes on.

Thanks again, and study hard.

This took an unreasonably long time to create, but here’s my new site. It launched today in the morning before I went to work… which ultimately made me kind of late for work. It’s almost 1:00 AM right now and I’m quite exhausted… I just came to say:

Welcome to my new site… the social links up top are your friends… send me an email if you’d like. I always love to hear from any of you kind folks.

Oh yeah – They posted this remix I did for Howard Drossin from the “Splatterhouse” OST… Wikipedia credits him for having done the music for “Sonic & Knuckles”, “Sonic The Hedgehog 3″ and “Sonic Spinball” all on the Sega Genesis… and I had all these games growing up. It’s an incredible dream come true to do a REMIX for this guy… assuming that what Wikipedia says is true.

Since this whole site is in WordPress, I get to do cool things like throw in SoundCloud widgets here and there or add pages really easily… so this will be cool to have a more interactive site – not to mention one that I built and styled myself (with a little help from Dan Costalis, as well as giving credit to Adam McAmis for the work he did on my last site – to whom I both owe a debt of gratitude.

Honestly, I’ve had a few drinks. Thanks for reading and I’ll be sure to make more blog posts! As I always say! And never do!

I’ll make this very quick as it’s already pretty late here…

This Friday marks the end of this semester and the beginning of working full time as a web developer at Dom & Tom Inc. It’s a fantastic job, hopefully a fantastic career, and involves tons of awesome and forward thinking people. It’ll be a great environment to be in instead of school… and will also allow me more time to work on music and hopefully land some freelance gigs while I’m at it. Perhaps a remix, an original track here or there, and working on my latest album (however slowly).

I’ll whip up something more substantial on my next train ride out to the suburbs this weekend. In the mean time, study hard, wish me luck – and check out my SoundCloud account. It’s got everything I’ve ever done up there!

I’ve realized over the last few months that I’m, in one sense or another, living a dream. In a lot of ways it didn’t turn out the way I expected, but they’re all good ways. As for right now, the biggest challenge and the toughest thing to cope with is time management. Holy shit do I have a lot on my plate – and I don’t play the victim in this: I know it’s all of my own asking. It’s all exciting work, though… that’s for sure. Here’s a list of the upcoming stuff that I’m working on:

1. 2 minute commercial “jingle” or theme for a men’s facial lubricant… which… ya know. That pays. (due in two weeks)
2. Remix / arrangement of a track from the “Splatterhouse” remake soundtrack (due in two weeks)
3. Finishing up the collaboration between myself, Akashic Grenade and Royb0t (due the in two days)
4. Arrangement of the William Karlins “Graphic Mobile” piece for the Electro-Acoustic ensemble at school (due in two weeks)
5. Finishing up the arrangement for the “Athene’s Theory of Everything” soundtrack (luckily I pick my own due date for that)
6. Finishing tracks for either an upcoming EP or just starting an entirely new album.
7. Practicing, arranging and composing for the new band I’ve joined with some friends from back home – it’s a lot of fun and very rewarding, but unfortunately is one of many things I’ve got going on.

I can’t decide if I should learn to just cope with this kind of hectic lifestyle or if I should eliminate some of this from my plate. In the next few weeks two big projects will be gone, but who knows what’ll happen between now and then.

I’m not complaining, at least I don’t think I am. I still feel like a stupid kid in a lot of ways. As long as I get to keep making music… but not just any music – my music.

Stay tuned for the stuff I’ve mentioned above as just about all of it will be published on line by yours truly.

Thanks for reading and study hard.