Save the Drag Queens and the Whales and the Badgers

But not the musicians.

There's a new dramatic uproar on Facebook over the plan to wipe out the profiles for countless drag queens.  I have no idea how many drag queens that might be, a shitload, I guess.  So, Facebook is going to wipe out a shitload of drag queens.

This has singular poignance after the ever-so-convincing drive toward embracing sexual diversity when they gave human sexual lifestyles more different titles than Baskin Robbins has flavors of ice cream.

Just kidding.  We didn't mean it.  Get those perverts out of here.


Facebook has been doing this to musicians for years.  If you live by your professional name then you must be smashed, spindled, and mutilated into the Facebook peanut butter machine.  They have done it countless times which means a shitload, I guess.

So.

No-one said anything about it with musicians so, whatever a drag queen is worth, musicians are worth less than that.

Now you know.

Get those perverts out of here.

(Ed:  drag queens or musicians?)

It seems clear to me that Facebook regards both as perverts.



Left-handed masturbators,
next we come for you.
As no matter what you're doing
we think you're a pervert too.

We'll kill your pervert profile
We're erase your pervert name
We have the power to ensure
no Candy Crush in your game.

- DJ Zucky Zuck

High-Order Dementedness and Time Traveling

The iPad contains a back track for "Wind on the Waves" that I recorded over ten years ago.  I'm advised of associations with the song about which I was not aware as what I see in it is exactly what's in the video.  The wind pushing waves toward someplace they never really get is a delicious existential framework and the sailing about within that gives a poignance I like as both, despite all the huffing and puffing, never really go anywhere.  The delight is that you can do all this without going anywhere.

This may well be "The Paradise Song."

Instead of using the iPad as an input to the mixer so I can play another guitar line along with it, the time travel aspect is through plugging it into the looper to capture it.  In this way, 2004 or so adds with 2014 in the guitar line on the looper.  The recording is digital so the capture is the same as if it happened when I first did it.  There is enough memory to absorb it but then how does it go when the song clearly starts and ends.

This is not to do a Voodoo on it as adding instruments gratuitously would be insulting to him.  The additionals are important to demonstrate why this specific locus is or is not Paradise ... but without saying that in words.  If I do not use the instruments then it is something that could have happened in Hell, Michigan, for all the difference it makes.  (There really is a Hell, MI.  They get off on that.  I imagine they get a lot of 'Wish You Were Here' re-post requests.)

This is really thin but possibly the song repeating itself is an example of the tide.  There is already a wind voice within it so conceivably a longer voice builds a wave motion that contains the entire song and bridges it to repeat.

Then it is possible to add more tracks (as permitted by remaining memory).

This might even work.  Maybe there's a Big Storm between iterations of Wind on the Wave and that gives reason to add bass since the waves get a bit bigger and whatever needs to be in there.

Only thing left is to experiment.  That is impossible right now but later today.

"Abandoning Paradise" In-Flux

The last story I consider complete is the one about the Belly Buster Bistro and the people who ran it.  There are multiple subsequent stories but all are under review at once for balance, sequence, etc.  Months are compressed to days, comparison of Scotland or America to anywhere is in the toilet, and the objective is to make the point of miserable suffering awfulness without going on about miserable suffering awfulness.  This needs to hold up for consistency and presence relative to, for example, Bussana Vecchia which was only one story plus a few mentions as I approached.

There really isn't so much that happened in Edinburgh except a lot of time passed so there is no reason it should expand to stories simply for the purpose of showing time passes.  There are good stories to be told as right next to Belly Buster was a shutdown storefront.  Over a month or so it came to life and became a bicycle sales and repair shop that was obviously run by highly-enthusiastic young artisans.  That was like being Rod Taylor in that really horrible movie version of "The Time Machine" and I do remember the hot blonde was Yvette Mimieux so maybe my mind isn't completely destroyed yet.

So I don't want to waste space on stories that don't need telling as who cares what flying monkeys do, we already saw that movie too.  That bicycle shop was cool, tho, and very much a  part of living vibrancy as opposed to shock & awe corporations.  Motivated kids encourage me and give me hope.  Yah, these ones will carry it.  They do it already.  So I don't mean to chuck stories worth telling and there's a pause even though the stories I'm reviewing are accessible.  There's a very high probability the most recent ones will change and I'll make an update when that's cleared.

Some stories in orbit around this:  there was a lovely market just around the block from where I lived and I was shocked at how many times people tried to shoplift in it.  They had nothing but food so this wasn't theft of beer, liquor, cigarettes, etc.  In America and someone steals from Wal-Mart, you might offer to help the person carry the stuff to his car but this wasn't America.  It was just some small-time theft to get something to eat in a country which is highly-attentive to its dole.  The problem almost certainly comes down to drugs, gambling, or other bad decisions but still it comes to the need to steal food.  To cover one aspect of the story while dismissing the other doesn't sit well with me.  I never saw anything close to this in Greece or anywhere else.

The socialist aspect screams for mention as NHS was a fail, people stealing food is a fail, etc.  That doesn't mean socialism is a failure but rather the UK sucks at it.  The US is socialist to the bone as well and the Interstate highway system is a shining example of it.  Some taxes are collected from people who could afford to pay them and these were re-distributed through construction of the Interstate system to those in greatest need.  That everyone happened to be in greatest need of a decent highway system is irrelevant as the process by which it is achieved is what is of interest.

The states argue incessantly about socialism but most can't even organize a dogfight.  The Fed which is overtly socialist built one of the largest socialist construction projects in the world's history.  When socialism actually works they call it a demonstration of the efficacy of democracy.  Of course, call it whatever you like.  The fact is that it was a clear example of the fundamental philosophical principle of the greatest good for the greatest number.  This thinking is Seventeenth Century, long before Marx  (e.g. John Locke, John Stuart Mill, etc).

In fact, what pisses people off right now is not that America becomes socialist but rather that it doesn't.  That's global as you can hear the 1% chant anywhere.

But what does that have to do with Paradise except in the context of staking some claim that well-managed socialism is the Utopian future.  Maybe that's true but it's still science fiction and it's not my purpose to write science fiction.


There's also the matter of the Guitar Soliloquy followed immediately be The Rescue.  Even for Hollywood that sequence is too obvious.  That's really what happened but the time compression makes it seem ludicrous.


That should about do it for scratching notes.  I like to use garam massala also and the question is when you need it and when it's just an affection to make something seem Indian.

On Farting Rainbows

Yes, it is probably true that you have to be able to fart rainbows before I will write about you.  I know there are people out there who can do it other than those about whom I have written already but I haven't yet heard them.  I would write about them if I did or at least I would try.

There are all kinds of people getting all angry faces on each other, blowing shit up, and just being complete blazing assholes ... but ... here's this cat over here, man, he can fart rainbows.  Serious.  Check this out.  Watch him.  See that.  He farts rainbows, man.

Yah, I'll write about that.  It's kind of my job these days as how would you ever hear otherwise above so much reckless, meaningless noise.  Part of listening is that it makes me a better musician but the other part is that it's so cool to find people who can fart rainbows.

Many people say they can and they talk and talk but all the while you know, man, that guy never farted a rainbow in his life.  That show is going to suck.

It's the ones who don't say it who will surprise you.  They will often be farting rainbows in a corner somewhere but they don't tell anyone.  People look around every so often and go, holy mackerel, that rainbow is so beautiful.  What made that.  The rainbow maker in the corner just smiles but doesn't say anything.

So when I find one I will tell you.  Rainbow makers don't need a crowd but a crowd is still fun and what better thing to do with a rainbow than share it.  What else can you do with one and that makes it all the more a wonder that they do it at all.

Voodoo Shilton Slams It Into the Next Universe at Cat's Art MusikCircus

Cat Boucher says she loves experiments at Cat's Art MusikCircus and truly she does as she has been giving far more than she tells anyone to keep experimental and progressive music alive in Second Life.

Last night Voodoo Shilton said he was going to go out to the Universe with this next number and, baby, he didn't just go on to this Universe but the next one besides.  Meet you in the next world, don't be late.

This was the most brilliant performance to date in a series going back well over and a year in which Voodoo Shilton constantly seeks to make more of the incredible music he was already making.  Making more is one thing, making it different is another and this is an extraordinary part of his genius as he has an uncanny ability to weave the sounds of diverse instruments into a coherent whole in which all the parts make sense together and add to each other.

In the early listening with Voodoo, he was something of an instrumental purist in that he used diverse instruments but all were analog (i.e. real instruments, zero computers).

Add the passage of time and, well, it must be almost two years now I've been listening.

Last night Voodoo added in big synth sweeps and those are the sounds from when the artist plays a chord and it doesn't only play, it grows and swells ... and fills the Universe with butterflies.  This is the type of sound that fills concert halls and people gasp in wonder.

So, what does that have to do with an acoustic guitar playing flamenco.  Only everything in this Universe and the next one besides.   Even as he tries some things which already would have been considered outlandish, he says, hmm, Silas loves experimentation so let's push this out there.  He did. Way out there.

But.

It wasn't quite far enough to reach Cat, except in spirit, as I know now Internet troubles prevented her from coming.  Everyone looks for her when they come as she IS the MusikCircus.  I could hang out there for another few years maybe but still it would be the same as I'm not the MusikCircus, I'm the guy who helps the MusikCircus.  I often tell people I just hang about to dance and play once in a while.  There's much more to it than that but nothing that needs to be known.  I'm quite happy to be the dancer although no poles on-stage, please.

All through the set I was thinking, oh man, Cat did NOT want to miss this one.  Of course she doesn't want to miss any of them but last night be brought an even newer Voodoo and I had not heard him before, not like this.

This retelling might be quite a tragedy for Cat ... except for one detail.  I bought the recording of the performance.  Get this, Voodoo sells them for less than €5.  He only sells them to people in the audience so there is no re-sale offer here or anything of that nature.  I mention it specifically to let Cat know she is covered, she will hear the concert, but I also say it to you that these recordings are never the same.  His concerts are always hugely more than playing his set lists in a different order or some such.

If you're a cook, you may know garam massala is an ingredient often used in Indian food.  Chefs in India constantly seek more sophisticated combinations of spices to make their food more exotic and compelling and garam massala is one of them.  Voodoo does the same thing musically as he knows garam massala is great for Indian food but what happens if you put it into, say, some Texas chili.  Maybe it explodes and everybody dies.  How should he know unless he tries it and you bet he will as I may overstate the risk of explosion.

The ability to masterfully blend diverse ingredients is the hallmark of the master chef and is in a very similar way it is also the hallmark of a master musician.  Maybe all this diverse sound creates the impression of a death rock band in which they play everything at once so you can't tell the chords anymore, you have no idea what the singer is doing, and your head hurts.  No, this is not that.

Despite all the instruments Voodoo manages to weave into a piece of music, the deftness of his approach is immaculate.  It must be immaculate or it couldn't possibly work.  The genius isn't so much the precision as that's the craft of it and not so much the inspiration, the genius is thinking of it in the first place.  Visualize the mind of the artist as he listens to a piece he has written and thinks, no, man.  This needs garam massala.

In some ways, the best part of a show can come after it is over as I talk sometimes with performers and this acceptance of a one-to-one relationship with me is an exceptional time as hardly anyone knows of me as a programmer.  We spoke of the music and that came to what comes of me.  That was not my intention but Voodoo is a highly-empathic soul.  This is when questions are such lovely conversational devices as they are so good at making the conversation about someone else and my purpose isn't to tell about the content ... except in one regard.

Voodoo asked about my use of MIDI and that really isn't talking about myself so much as kit so here's an overview of background.  In the dual-car garage days, mine was filled with hardware and one rack contained nothing but synthesizers, MIDI-driven effects, or synth drums, all with an Opcode MIDI controller.  The net result was hundreds and hundreds of potential channels.

The result of such a system is experimental potential that is dazzling as I could mix sounds from different synths, make them affect each other in various ways, and generally make all these electronics bark at the Moon.  (Yes, we did play out with this stuff.)

But.

Keeping it working is only for someone who likes sleeping on a bed of nails and often enjoys putting ice on his private parts to help himself think.  Add as many torments as you like as after a while it just ain't that much fun and I was spending more time with the computers and the synths, etc composing things than I was actually playing.  Since that time, my drive has been in full-reverse from that and a 'computer' isn't used for anything except an iPad serving back tracks.


Voodoo's approach is going the other way, from a state of virgin purity to the dark burning hell of computer-augmented music synthesis but, in balance and moderation, everything can work.  That's the marvel as he does make it work and to hear him it sounds effortless.


Voodoo should be forewarned, however.  Even now my electronic excesses continue to haunt as I fell to sleep pretty quickly after the show last night.  After some long sleep time in which time goes forwards, backwards, all the stuff it does in sleep, I heard a beep like it was Skype.  It didn't wake me completely but enough to think this can't be happening as I know the computer is off, it must be a dream.  Dreaming I hear Cat on Skype isn't so unusual as it wouldn't exactly be the first time.

But this time it really was happening.  When I did finally awaken, I discovered what had happened.  It really was Cat and there really was a beep ... but it came from the iPad as rust never sleeps and, neither, apparently, does an iPad.  Judging by the incredible rate of Voodoo Shilton's musical evolution, I can't imagine how he finds time to sleep either.

Thinking About "The Paradise Song"

There is no reason for any huge secrecy as "Abandoning Paradise" is not a detective novel.  The link is to a story about Chimneys of Edinburgh and, no, it's not really about chimneys but it does have some really interesting ones.

The guitar soliloquy goes here as this is hitting rock bottom.  I really was thinking this has got to end but the only way I could figure to do it was to turn on the gas jets ... but that would have blown up the whole building eventually.

This is not something momentarily depressive as this is being hungry for years, etc, etc.  Unless you're an alcoholic in the gutter, there's nowhere lower to go.

And I look at the Galaxy Guitar.  I never went swimming the entire time I was in Greece or anywhere along the way to Scotland, all for the same reason.  Above all the guitar must be secure.  If not then it must be guarded.  It's not that all people are bad but rather it's a stupid temptation when some are.

All through life, it has been the same as there are countless things I didn't do because I either wanted to play, work on the kit, or protect the axe from harm.

So here we are, Galaxy Guitar, there's nothing else left.  Was I worth it?


That just might be the soliloquy in leaving it with a punchline as what measures a lifetime of sacrifice any musician will have to make.  Unless it's the instrument telling you that you played it well, what other measure matters.


But then there's The Rescue.  Lotho and the Queen Bee fly me out of there.

The medical situation immediately tanks ... but ... there are instruments all over the place.  It's not such a deep point that I try to keep a mystery the point is Paradise is wherever you find it, make it, etc so, specifically using these instruments I could not reach previously, what does "The Paradise Song" sound like.  These ones have to be in it or the impression would be I could have done it anywhere and that's not true for multiple technical and physical reasons.

There was lots of boosting to get out and do this or that but my breathing was restricting the whole time.  I knew I was in trouble before I left Greece.  That's why I left.

They have to be in it without it being so grandiose it pretends to be a symphony.  Barring some incredible change in behavior, the drum machine can't be in it.  I hate it. Everybody hates it.

ML or maybe it's just like you heard in that snippet.  That's what I think in 'playing like Hendrix' as that's the touch I have always admired so much.  Playing a billion miles an hour doesn't matter as everybody does that but few have that touch.

Perhaps Paradise is the simplicity I have always loved and the other instruments are arbitrary inclusions.

That will be the wrap and it comes pretty close.  I'm almost through Scotland but it requires thought  in going beyond the personal commitment of what went before.  There will be a touchdown in The Netherlands as Schiphol has a bizarre control tower and I shot a pic of it while I was there.  That will give a thin segue to some pics of the previous visit to Utrecht.

The biggest editorial decision is the heroin event was a major incident and not simply because I got so sick from it.  The question has been demanding answer all my life.  I believe it's significant that I would make such a decision at that time rather than some other.  However, it also makes the book something that will freak Mother right out.

It is not my purpose to freak out Mother.  The incident gives understanding to motivations of others, why I did not do various things, etc and answers a question to me but the editorial question is whether the story of it does anything substantive toward any theme of Paradise.  Beating again the artificial paradise of the junkie dream world has no particular value.  I have not included it and I don't believe I will.

Reefer is also under a political correctness advisory.  Obviously I like smoking reefer but I did sometimes in Scotland.  It was just very rarely I could afford any and only early on.  There hasn't been any particular reason to mention it but I do feel some concern that this plasticizes things to some extent.

In general, I'm not seeing any reason to mention reefer.  It's not paradise, it's focus, a tool, etc.  People can call my thinking political correctness if they like but they, well, they can kiss my ass.

Where the Hell is Steve McQueen

Where are the cool guys riding Husqvarna and being bad-ass for no particular reason but not going around smashing anyone's face and thus winding up with hot babes in near proximity on a very regular basis.

There was the guy who jumped out of the balloon from outer space or whatever that was.  That was pretty fookin' cool but what does he do now.  He's kind of screwed for cool unless he attaches rockets to his ass and goes flying around the Moon.  It's a bitch for this guy as what's a thrill for him after that.  Sure he does it for the science but you know he gets off on that Holy Shit as he goes out the door.

All kinds of people running around being all AK-47 bad-ass but a woman can do that.  This kind of thing is just not going to get my machismo respect going into outer space orbit if you hear what I'm saying.

Besides, Steve McQueen didn't have an AK-47.

So there's your explanation for the musical malaise induced by conservative influences and compounded by a profound dip in cool the human sphere.  It's Gaia's biorhythm of coolness which varies with tension and desire for Totino's Pizza Rolls.  Welcome to the Ministry of the Internet.

Scotland and its Stand

Some days ago I said independence would not be such a good idea for Scotland and I'm glad they have chosen to remain a part of the United Kingdom.

What I admire is that there are many ways to take a stand against the Tory control of quite a bit of the world.  You can go to Facebook and change the world ... or at least a few electrons.  Or you can do like Scotland and take it to the street.

Pundits can argue at will at what consequence there may be from this stand and I will choose at will to ignore all of their boundless bollocks.  We will live the consequence.  That Scotland did it gives reason to observe and that's the point.

As to Facebook, there's no reason to observe anything ... except more Facebook.  Cocaine works very much the same way.  Robin Williams said that.  Very smart man.  Very sad.

(Some geeks may notice that was paraphrased from "Independence Day."  I'm so ashamed.  I'll have myself murdered ... or try to get a job with Robin Thicke.)

Touchdown at the Belly Buster Bistro

There is all manner of whirling in the revisit to Belly Buster Bistro in Leith, Scotland.  That story has just gone into "Abandoning Paradise" so you can now reasonably I assume I survived the Sheep to Suicide Scotland Run.

The contention it was a Sheep to Suicide Run were a bit overstated.  In other words, nothing stops crazy.  It also doesn't stop the book as there is a devious plan to wrap it and that's one more chapter.  It has to have the wholeness, the Om, all eight pieces of the pizza, all those things.

The is a major re-write of the telling of the time in Scotland.  Any reference to a singular source of toxicity has been eliminated as it gave him vastly too much power to over-shadow the beauty of the country and particularly lovely people like the ones at Belly Buster.  Wojtek wasn't Scottish but everyone who went in there was and the vibe was a delight ... except ... 

yes ... 

except for one thing.

Miley Cyrus

This is where I came to loathe her more than sitting on a leather seat in a car that's been baking out in the Texas sun. Hearing her annoying voice every day on the TV in Belly Buster while she took her black treatments that just weren't fookin' working and she still wasn't cool and that voice went on and on and on and on.

Yah, so that's where that happened.

The story in Scotland is not complete as there is a guitar soliloquy, the Baby, you're all I have left talk.  If you think that means it is depressive then you are not following what abandoning Paradise means.  Where is it exactly.  Where is it only within the context of the story.   But don't expect me to tell you.  My job is to tell you what happened.

Visualize:  the scooter is gone due to Scottish magic and that is how I will explain it.  I really do not have anything left except what remains of the clothes after the crash, the guitar and devices, and the computer.  It's very damn cold and there's nothing to eat with no prospect of that improving any time soon.

I don't mind omitting the toxicity as that was someone else's psychopathy and I have no time for it nor is there time of yours to waste on it.  However, the actual event of being that screwed, cold, hungry, etc is a lie to leave out and covering it in a way that satisfies me is true to what happened may take a bit yet.

Of marginal interest is the narcissism in gee, look at me.  That's understandable but that's not how I see it.  This series of unusual events took place and I write about them.  That I am in them isn't a high level of relevance as what I see is whether the story is interesting, the pictures are good, etc.  That it's about stuff I did doesn't really matter.  It's just the story I know best.  In defense of non-narcissistic motives, the only way the percentage of pictures with me in them will go over at most 1.5% is if I put some in an Afterword.

So, get on with it then ... type.

The Non-Trend of Acoustic Guitar Playing

Last night I was advised the preference for acoustic guitar playing is the modern way and electric guitar playing is old.  This logic makes sense if you believe dinosaurs evolved from humans.

There is no trend in acoustic guitar playing (i.e. unplugged, etc) but rather it's the absence of a trend. Example trends are disco, Miley Cyrus and Arkansas chic, religions that endorse killing, or wasting Arabs with drones when there's nothing else happening on a Friday night.

The problem with the absence of a trend has nothing to do with music but rather the absence of a trend anywhere.  Conservatives haven't had a trend toward anything beyond bashing Obama in almost eight years.  Not likely you will find much inspiration there for you unless your dream is to break rocks.

Obama bombs the shit out of places conservatives would have liked to bomb themselves.  If that is a trend, it's one hell of a bad one.  He's not a President, he's nothing more than a Lockheed Martin cheerleader.  What he does is so gutless that you can't even get much of a protest song out of it.

But those aren't trends.  They're just passing amusements for second-rate leaders to make it appear they actually do something.  Fifty years from now, American will have again forgotten how to find Iraq on a global map.  Many probably can't find it now.  At least they remember disco.

The global malaise is generally attributable to conservatives who have not only dragged down the expectations of the world but also its dreams (e.g. slashing NASA and boosting the Pentagon).  The first things to die were the frogs, then the honey bees then the Monarch butterflies, next apparently the music, and this will continue until someone stops them.

Scotland put it square in the Tory's face yesterday.  It stops or we are gone.  If music will start again anywhere, I'll be looking to Scotland.

Special Events from Cat's Art MusikCircus

There were articles for some while in which I reported on every event every time at Cat's Art MusikCircus and for a while that's informative but over a longer period it wastes your time and mine as, even if you like the artist, you probably won't read it.  Why would you ... if you already like the artist, you'll find where this person is playing and not waste time reading things.

Therefore, in the interests of information and time, I'm focusing strictly on anything that really stands out as brand-new.  The article tonight on Naga Flow was good to write as it was his debut and he did well with it.  OK, that's news.

I'm sure Naga Flow will be invited to play again but then it won't be news unless he does his set riding on a porpoise or some such.  What the hell, it could happen.

Keeping articles informative is one aspect of the drive and the other is saving my time as I never stop working ... ever.  Where the time goes is a very big deal to me.  For example, I want the book finished before the results of the CAT scan come back on the 9th.  Inasmuch as Facebook is the worst productivity destroyer since fermented alcohol (i.e. firewater for white people), any contact with it will inevitably prevent that from happening.

This is a back-handed apology for stopping what I had been doing but I believe this will serve your art better in focusing on the best of it while also giving people a better reason to come back and read it.  They know I'm not repeating something I have written previously.

For example, Paris Obscur played a kick ass set last night but of course he did.  He's fookin' Paris Obscur and you know he kicks ass and Cat wouldn't have invited him to the MusikCircus if he didn't.

Something really not so much news but important to me was talking privately with Paris in musician-to-musician stuff and that makes me feel pretty fookin' good.  There's no huge revelation as this isn't Right Column material about who shows some side-boob.  It was cool talking straight-up and I appreciate the confidence.

Something Paris knows very well about the MusikCircus is people listen.  Maybe you do already but do you hear all the parts.  Some can do that naturally and some have to work for it but eventually you hear everything at the same time.  You did all along but the lead draws your attention, that's what it is supposed to do, but in time you hear more the pieces of what is happening around it.  For example, there's a hot guitar in there getting nasty but there's also a B3 organ.  The guitar sounds cool but the B3 has to sound cool too or it's senseless musically for it to be in there.  Is this bass clean and clear or is it just a dull thump in time with the kick drum.  You may consider it difficult or bothersome to listen at that level but you do it already, you just need to widen your focus.

Continuing with the above, your ear hears everything but your mind chooses the focus.  For example, it chooses to focus on the singer and let the band fall into the backdrop.  In this way, your mind is altering the reality of the sound and this type of alteration of perception is common, in a large way we make reality whatever we want.  The reality is the full spectrum of the sound and your ear did hear it, you chose not to listen to what it physically-heard.  Michael Jackson has that theme covered:  "Never limit yourself."

Naga Flow Gets Raw at Cat's Art MusikCircus - Updated

Naga Flow played his debut show at Cat's Art MusikCircus tonight and he was highly-enthusiastic about opening for Paris Obscur who is one of the most passionate singers you will ever hear.  That's a brave position to take and I had heard a bit of his music but wasn't so sure what to make of it.  For me, I really don't know until I hear someone live.  Tonight was the night.

Naga Flow delivers his lyrics as a poet more than a songwriter and his phrasing is very much his own.  There is a tremendous passion in it but not so much confidence as he started.  As he felt more the vibe of the MusikCircus, his confidence grew and he sounded stronger and stronger, projecting fully what he was trying to do.

Naga sounded a bit concerned about the show going into it as he was talking with a bit of question about originals to which I always respond yes, yes, yes.  It's not just me as everyone coming to the MusikCircus looks for musical adventures as that is what Cat built.  Originals can be heartbreakers because you need to find a receptive crowd or the audience may not even give you a chance.  This is what separates the MusikCircus as there's nothing we like more than originals.  The performer may take a few minutes to get used to it but then it comes.  It really is free here.

He was very smooth with his levels as there is a substantial dynamic to his work in that he goes from very soft to great strength on the guitar and the vocal, not exactly shouting but not far short.  Even though he pushes this very hard, it does not clip and distort so has a great quality sound throughout.  This was very impressive as it takes a lot of time to get that right and there were times when he was hammering it but with no distortion coming.

Polish would wreck him as his music would be all covered in Turtle Wax and the purity of it would be lost.  His lyrics are not always clear but come out stronger as his show builds.  The passion is unmistakable.  It struck me very much that there is a lot of magic in his phrasing as simple rhyming couplets are ok but he wants much more and he phrases his words in whatever way they need.  The content of the words in combination with that phrasing make his work unique.

It's not my purpose to compare Naga Flow with lefty Unplugged but it does no harm to note similarities, also with Sonya Jevette, on unique phrasing they will use for their lyrics and this is what moves that work from songwriting to poetry with music.

I'm sure Naga Flow will be asked back and it will be cool to watch and listen to how things go with him and his show.  I know I'll be there.

Meet Naga Flow on Facebook

Update:

See Naga Flow Artist Profile on the Cat's Art MusikCircus Web site.