Maine, yet

Last week my family and I returned to the downeast region of Maine, about midway up the Maine coast, to the island of Mount Desert, home of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. It was a place we almost moved several years ago and a place I hope I get the chance again. Though much more remote and rural certainly than the present world I'm in it's one of the most creatively stimulating places I've ever been. In the early 80's I was drawn there the first time when I went to nearby Rockport to study photography at the Maine Photographic Workshops. There was something so amazing about the light, the culture and texture of the land that just struck and inspired me. I went back two summers more to study further. When i moved to NY in the early 90's I got reconnected to the area.

During the recent trip I shot a ton of video and still images some posted here. In coming weeks I plan to produce a short film on the visit that will be posted on my Vimeo page.

With this visit once again I return to NY somewhat depressed, trying to separate the emotional content of being on vacation in a beautiful place and wait for the real feelings to surface. It is a special place and one I hope one day to call 'home'. Ciao for now.

Listening and new video, Canyon

Several catching up's. Of late I've been listening to a couple of recordings that have been really inspiring, the recently mentioned Ralph Towner solo concert on the ECM label and a fellow I had the pleasure of meeting at the 2008 NYC Fretless Guitar Festival, Neil Haverstick (a.k.a. Stickman). I've had his tunes from his CD Mysterious Female on my ipod of late and this is just an insane inspired collection of music from a guy who has od'd on fretless guitar - really moving material.

Also from the recent episode of my live webcast on uStream, Sunday Morning at 11, I pulled a piece on fretted 12 string from the set and edited the video Canyon shown below. I've been way behind on my editing and when I had the idea to do something more with this beyond the performance aspect I went back to some images made on a 2007 family trip to New Mexico on a hike through the Tent Rocks National Monument slot canyon, a very moving place.

Canyon from Jim Goodin on Vimeo.

Off to Maine this week. Long time since visiting and looking forward.

A nice surprise this evening

I just received an email from Vassar College radio station WVKR-FM host Scott Raymond announcing his latest Top 20 playlist for his show, Secret Music. My recently released solo CD Vertical was included I'm pleased to say. It was a nice surprise from a long day.

I've known Scott and his show for a few years now and he's been great to play my music from time to time. Additionally in the summer of 2007 when Daryl [Shawn] and I were touring our duo Chinapainting in the northeast, Scott invited us to come on his Sunday morning broadcast for an interview and performance. Here's a video clip from that show.

Scott is celebrating 22 years hosting Secret Music at WVKR this year. Congratulations on orchestrating and hosting a great show Scott!

WVKR-FM "Secret Music" Top 20 Playlist
May, 2009

1. Louis Landon - Solo Piano for Peace - Landon Creative, Inc
2. Ideation - Adrift - Ricochet Dream
3. Steve Roach - Dynamic Stillness - Projekt
4. Nunc Stans - Meridian - Dataobscura
5. Between Interval - The Edge of a Fairytale - Spotted Peccary Music
6. Mark Dwane - Other Worlds - Trondant
7. Jim Goodin - Vertical - Wood And Wire
8. Whitetree - Cloudland - Ponderosa Music & Art
9. John Duval - Cassiopeia's Playground - Earth Mantra
10. Steve Rose - Twin Earth - Steve Rose
11. Sonoprint - Planetary Motion - Sonoprint
12. Forastiere - Forastiere Live - Candy Rat
13. Dan Pound - Esoterica - Poundsounds
14. Philip Wilkerson - Early Works - Wilkerson
15. The Ideal Setback - How We Spend Our Days Is How We Spend Our Lives - The Ideal Setback
16. William Basinski - 92982 - 2062
17. Aaron Marshall - Magnificent Accident - Aaron Marshall
18. Max Goldston - Emancipation - Max Goldston
19. Erdem Helvacioglu - Wounded Breath - Aucourant
20. Bob Prince - Above The Surface - Bob Prince

For more information on Secret Music visit WVKR.

Jim

Lose thoughts and other promotion

It's gearing up to be a busy week with many thoughts and feelings continuing. Musically as indicated in the past entry I've been listening a lot to past influences which is refreshing in a sense as for the last several years I've kind of just listened to myself and other projects that I'm involved in with other artists. In this return of a blend from Michael's [Hedges] last work perse, i mean other packaging has been released since his death but the alluded Torched the artist was working on up to his tragic death. So returning to Michael's music even his last has been inspiring and a friend recently sent me a wonderful documentary centered around interview/performance on Michael titled Michael Hedges the Artist's Profile. I was forwarded a download of this that I can't publish but did find this excerpt on YouTube, chances are the remainder is now there somewhere. Great piece and includes some of Michael's work with Michael Manring as well as stunning performance of JitterBoogie and a nice ending of Ragamuffin.

Additionally Ralph Towner I've been rediscovering and finding new inspiration from through a live solo concert captured several years ago and released on ECM, Towner's label then but not sure now. I found myself listening over and over again this past weekend to Ralph's interpretation of the John Abercrombie classic Timeless, a piece I covered a few years ago. Listening to Timeless has re-entergized me to either find this piece or influence my improvisations this week.

Catch where I go on that by tuning in this weekend to my live webcast on uStream, Sunday Morning at 11. My bi-weekly series is an @40 minute live performance featuring improvisations and compositions on guitar, fretless guitar and oud. Tune in at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sunday-morning-at-11. Show times are 11am EST, 8am PST, 4pm UK, 5pm Europe, Midnight Japan.

I began the live performances on uStream a few weeks ago and this Sunday June 7th will mark my 4th one. Though this virtual venue is not a complete substitute for traditional music venues it is an amazing opportunity that has 'arrived' now thanks to broadband and the ability to stream live video, so I see this as a wonderful opportunity added to my performance palette to perform for friends and new fans at places in the world I may not have the chance to go to. So please surf over/tune in to my show page URL, http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sunday-morning-at-11, this Sunday morning June 7th at 11am EST. To calculate the time in your exact location visit http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html.

Coming up this summer I'll have several shows with my music partner Daryl Shawn in our improvisational acoustic guitar based/cassette tape looping duo Chinapainting. We founded Chinapainting electronically in late 2006 when we met by chance through email via the looping experimental music community Loopers-Delight. After defining our music through Internet technology for 8 months we took Chinapainting live in the summer of 2007 with a series of shows in the northeast. We have continued since doing 2 shows nationally a year. This summer we're performing at the Ingenuity Festival in Cleveland, OH, on July 11/12, ABC Norio in NYC, July 19 and a tenative scheduled show in Philadelphia on July 24th.

I'm a member of the experimental music community CT-Collective and recently produced a CD for the community representing 16 int'l artists doing pieces of music created entirely from things commonly thrown away or retired after one use. The CD titled ReUse is amazing. Check it out at http://jimgoodin.bandcamp.com as well as on My Space at http://www.myspace.com/CtReUse. I'm participating as a composer/performer/interpretator in another CT-Collective CD inspired by minimalist composer Terry Riley's work In C, to be called In D.

Total blog sidebar, saw Star Trek this past weekend with my daughter, amazing! Both captured memories of the original series that I grew up with as well as took us on a wonderful story that was as captivating as the by gone series.

More to come... good week. Jim