Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Date Info

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. I know the holidays are rough for some people due to bad memories or bad family situations. My hope and prayer is that everyone finds strength and peace at this time of year.

Just a little "Date Info." Trevdiesel.com goes live officially on December 15th and the official album release date is Saturday, January 15th. There will be a cd listening party on that evening at a TBD location.

Friday, November 25, 2005

...after much anticipation...

Well, I saw it. Amy and I went to the late showing on Thanksgiving night to see RENT, and though I'm mostly impressed, I'm still not entirely sure what I think about it.

  • POSITIVES: The main messages of the piece (living for today, the glorification with the bohemian-artistic lifestyle, love and friendship are what matter in life) definately shine through. Most of the performances are great, and I appreciated the majority of the camera work and layouts of the scenes (seeing on-location action was really cool). Using the original broadway cast (with 2 exceptions) was also a brilliant decision. With Chris Columbus directing, I was sure they were going to pull out a lot of the objectionable content, but with the film's piece de resistance (IMO) - "La Vie Boheme" - there were certainly no punches pulled. That scene kicks major ass both on screen and on stage. How they got a PG-13 rating with that number in the picture, I have no freaking clue.
  • NEGATIVES: The flow of the film, however, seems a bit clunky and even cheesy at times. There were two "cringe" moments: Angel's "Today For You" (couldn't they have broken away from the silly singing and shown his story in action?) and Roger singing on top of a corny Sante Fe cliffy landscape - yikes. I'm also not sure if it will win any new "converts" - it may mainly be for fans of the production. I'm not sure. I'd love to hear someone's feedback that saw the film and has NOT seen the stage show.
Some good. Some bad. I'm AM pretty sure, however, that they did as well as they could, what with translating this stage show to a film. Go see it. If you can withstand a little bit of cheese, I'm quite sure that the Life-Affirming message will break through to even the coldest of viewers. NO DAY BUT TODAY.

Monday, November 21, 2005

Almost Ready

Putting the final touches on trevdiesel.com. Should be ready within a week or so - however, we'll be in South Carolina for the holidays from Wednesday to Sunday, so that may delay things a bit. Stay tuned!

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Dance Party

Tonight, Kalli was wildly dancing and clapping in the living room to the music of her electric piano. I then began cracking up hysterically when I realized that she was dancing just like Navin Johnson at the beginning of "The Jerk."

Hil - arious.

Maybe I need to find her some "whitey" smooth jazz and she'll start clapping right on the beat?

Album Update

The album is totally tracked! We begin mixing on Mon/Tues. Shouldn't be long now.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

"December 24th, 9 pm, Eastern Standard time..."

I'm like a kid that looks in his parents' closet for his Christmas gifts.

I read a spoiler-filled review of the RENT movie today. I think most people will be happy with it, however die-hard "rentheads" (myself included) will certainly find some fault. There seems to be much from the original production that is left out (but of course, it IS an adaptation). Of all that is lacking, this part (which seems to be one of the main points of the story) may be the most missed:

"One of the heavy hitters for the musical was the feeling that... WOW, a year has gone by...just like that...look at these people...look at what happened...look at LIFE... wow. Didn't get that from the movie." (Amy Hu's review)

Nevertheless, I'm quite certain it will be a great film. I highly recommend it on premise alone.

But of course, if you REALLY want to get the full effect, go see an actual production of it. You won't be disappointed.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Welcome to the Midwest...

YESTERDAY: Summer weather.
LAST NIGHT: Tornadoes.
TODAY: Snow.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Quote of the Week

I asked my friend Fritz if he would like to sing a 3rd harmony part on a couple of the lines in my album, so he was in the studio with me while I was recording background vocals last night. At one point he made a comment about how it sounded great with my melody and high harmony and himself doing the 3rd of the chord in the middle. To which I replied:

"Yeah, Fritz is like the meat in a Diesel sandwich."

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Going Live in 5... 4... 3...

TREVDIESEL.COM has gone live! The site should be fully functional in the next few weeks and will be the official home for trevdiesel music and the soon-to-be-released album: "The Parachute EP."

Thanks for your support everybody!

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

The Artist

"The reader will recall the story of Prometheus who met with a cruel fate for stealing fire from the gods for the human race. Prometheus stole the fire of the gods and gave it as a gift to the humans who so needed fire to create civilization. When he did this, Zeus was outraged and condemned Prometheus to be lashed to a rock where a vulture would feed each morning on his liver. But his liver grew back again each night.

"Psychologist Rollo May interprets the Prometheus story to mean that the artist becomes utterly "beat" after a day's work and is exhausted at night. But during the night, his energy (his liver) grows back again for his work the next day.

"I would go further in examining the archetype of the liver. The liver cleanses and recycles. The artist, too, cleanses and recycles the toxins in a culture. Artists turn pain into insight and struggle into triumpth and darkness into light and ugliness into beauty and forgetfulness into remembering and grief into rejoicing. Artists add awe to awe and beauty to beauty and wonder to wonder. When the liver is healthy, the person is healthy. The artist is to the community or body politic what the liver is to the human body: a cleanser and recycler of waste and toxins."

[from the book "Creativity" by Matthew Fox]