pure imagination

MP3: Pure Imagination (2.6 mb)

This entry's mp3 was written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Jeff Booth and I recorded this version of the song at his studio for the LittleWalks New York children's video, and I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep it up here but I thought it would be nice to make it available at least for a listen.

Besides being a great guy on all fronts, Jeff's an amazingly talented musician and someone that I'd like to nominate for sainthood right now for all his patience with my never-ending struggle to find the "right note." (Check out Jeff and his brother Dwayne's music here)

My favorite part of this song is the instrumental break. After we figured out the backwards guitar lead and Jeff kindly let me play it, he added a beautifully complimentary guitar part using the e-bow. I couldn't be happier with the way the melodies snake around each other. Excellent.

For those interested in the playing credits: I played a couple of guitars, Jeff played some guitars, bass, tambourine and drum programming, and Tim Shea played some drumstuffs. I can't remember if we lifted the organ intro from my original demo or if Jeff played that fresh for this version. Oh well. Enjoy....

dreams never end

MP3: Who's Been In Your Dreams? (2.4 mb)

Several months ago, I had a dream that I was having a telephone conversation with the very funny comedienne Amy Poehler, the details of which are documented in this entry's MP3.

It got me thinking again about the people that populate our dreams: usually they're people we know, or occasionally celebrities of some sort, but many times people that aren't familiar to us make appearances of varying degrees of note. Often I'm sure they're huddled in the background, bit players in the performance, but sometimes they play a more dominant role - such as the unknown man who sold doughnuts in many of my childhood dreams. Paging Dr. Freud. Who are these people?

My first guess is that their faces are ones we've seen somewhat peripherally during our waking hours, whether on the street or maybe even in magazines or on television. But what if - sometimes - they were real people who happened to be having their own dream that got cross-referenced with our dream?

For instance, what if Amy Poehler actually had a dream that she was speaking with a stranger on the telephone while she was eating Chinese food, and that stranger was me having the same dream but from my point of view? You see, I would be a stranger to her since she doesn't know me, and because of that the dream would probably offer little reason for her conscious mind to remember it. But - it was me on the phone, whether she knew it or not.

A simple movement or rhyme
Could be the smallest of signs

Don't you just love early New Order? I like to think Amy Poehler does too, but that's probably just me dreaming....