Right now I'm at the Portland International Airport getting ready to board a flight to San Jose. A couple incredibly nice, albeit obviously CRAZY, kids are flying me out to play two house-shows for them. I will give you the full weekend report on Monday.
I thought 2005 was the year that the world grounded YACHT and I would remain at home for most of it. Turns out that was just some sort of elaborate hoax.. I'm touring a ton this year too. If you haven't check it out, check out my touring schedule over in the live section. I'm excited to be in Europe for almost the entire summer, but also super-bummed that I'll miss out on Portland summer; my favorite part of living in Portland. Luckily Portland summer has been growing and growing in length thanks to either global warming or the much less depressing theory of "magic." Either way, I'll be back in August and I'll be curating CATCH THAT BEAT pt. II; a micro-festival in my hometown of Astoria, Oregon. This year I'd like to invite everyone attending the festival to have a big sleep-over in the park followed by a pancake breakfast in the morning. I'll provide more details and stuff as they become available.
So we talked about Flickr. I haven't decided how to, or if I want to, implement some sort of union between this site and my Flickr page just yet. I don't love the flash "daily zeitgeist" flash-thing as featured on Mike's blog, but I remember seeing some sidebar things that looked good. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, check out my photo set for this idea I have.. how about we stop wasting paper and start doing stuff with it? This is hardly a new idea, but I wanted to start talking about it with you nice people here on this site.
Lastly, The Ultimate Blogger thing has been really intense. We received over 300 applications from all over the world. We printed them out and Mike and Steve held a casting party to select the 12 contestants. I did a little preliminary casting when I was in town, but I bet the party was really fun. I've been working on all of the video stuff for the game and I'm super-pumped to get it going. It's going to be fun to watch.
Truly,
Jona
how do you make such dope beats, would you give a blog lecture, or would that break the 4th wall?
man that movie Palindromes is like being raped from a race car.
you rule, but how can i make beats like that? protools? or do you write programs?
First off, Ritchey is totally telling the truth. (Plus she's funny as all heck and I totally love and respect her). Jona may be able to explain to you how he "makes such dope beats" via a lecture or blog, he'd actually be pretty good at it, BUT. You can listen to Jona talk all you want, you can buy Pro Tools, or write your own programs, or what ever. But here's the thing: Even without any of those incidentals, Jona is, as Marriana so eloquently stated, "made of phat beats". I know this to be true because I have seen it. I own Pro Tools, I own a nice Sampler. I own whatever the fuck I want, but I will never be "MADE of phat beats". Jona is. Anyways, good morning to all of you, I'm not gonna ruin the story, but Jona, you are a damn trooper for all you have endured this weekend. You are an artist, and you are made of phat beats.
Mad Respect,
Joel Conrad Bechtolt
i think to make fat beats you just make beats in beat making programs and make them sound interesting and new and different and dont use the preset sounds unless you are very aware you are using them and maybe change them anyway. use effects and samples of lots of weird things. collect samples and soon enough you will have quite a palette to work with
then sequence the beats, make them into files, put them into a program like protools or live or whatever and cut them up so they have life and new meaning. keep on using effects and layer the fuck out of it all and soon enough you will have a beat and a song all of your own that will sound like no one made it but you
repeat this process a few hundred times, keep changing things up, keep working at it, keep rocking it hard and most of all enjoy life!
maybe?
i am not jona
this is adam
this is not my blog
and yes tell us about your weird weekend in sf bay
and post some video of me doing kareoke in new york
that shit was funny
I agree with all of Mr. Forkner's comments. But I believe that the point is being missed. I am a firm believer that, at least in the the arts, nature rules ove nurture. Jona is still, and will remain, made of phat beats.
Not Dissin'
Joel
i didnt read your entry in its entirety yet. i got as far as catch that beat and checked the date and want to cry. i believe the tentative date to be much too late in august to provide for my attendance, a fact that saddens me significantly.
Look Jona! Thats me!! http://flickr.com/photos/nacho/11582096/