the bast...in The Living Room

When I wrote this song years ago, I thought the emotional content came from stories of my past…and realized later it was real-time living in a tumultuous state that I drove away from ala “Thelma and Louise” in 2018.

Flying off cliff after cliff, caught mid-air each time by magically appearing “solid” ground of new plateaus for me, I became accustomed to drastic landscape changes…and repeating cycles of metamorphosis.

This song has served as an anthem of sorts, and today I honor the legacy of “Wait”, again “waiting” a bit, forward facing now with full energy in creating a sustainable music life [read, I’m werkin’ on the positive cash flow, folks ;) ] but sidelining less immediately energy-producing passion projects.

While I adore The Living Room, and the soul-feeding creative expression in this substack, I’ve diverted attention to more mundane aspects of a “musician life” - booking gigs, session recording work, capturing immediate revenue opportunities….

So in ways, even with the focused flurry of action on fronts invisible to you, I am again “waiting”. And you are with me in that limbo-field, I think.

Not so much until the pain lets me go, as gratefully my fear-filled valleys have transformed into canyons of grace, but until the car has a full gas tank again, and I can drive to more destinations.

“Til’ my heart lets me know, what it feels like to be free again….”

I’m there now….

“Til’ the love in my soul, can hold everything - I feel everything…”

Yep, made it.

“So I just have to Wait.”

From this vantage point, I’m ok with that.

The ride so far shows me, it’s worth the Wait.

© 2023 Lux Productions, LLC / the bast

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So many ideas…way more than time to make manifest in 3D…or?….

At some point, I trust that the bazooka-blowout in this stack will coalesce in a predictable and orderly set of distinct projects….

Who am I kidding!

Yes, I have The Living Room Podcast with guests, music, and until they get edited… this portal opens to music - demos, releases, and now a peek into the Sessions on the bast’s YT channel.

Eventually, I hope to create playlists for ambient piano, OG the bast piano and vocals, and covers.

This is more of a trial run than a “first run”, and you get the link if you want to check out the channel on YouTube - the video is unlisted.

© 2023 the bast / Lux Productions, LLC

P.S. all feedback is welcome and appreciated…and I am aware this is not my most fluid work, nor did I gain stage properly enough to avoid clipping on the original piano recordings. Ah, well…it’s a start ;)

P.P.S. I love you more than algorithms 🤣

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Hey! Have I told you yet today how much I love you?!

More than my de-esser, which I have yet to figure out….

As always, let me know what your story is - random art poetry podcast fun? or no?

Watch out for a new tune next week…and if you are curious, today’s poem:

Pierce the veil

Mend the rift

This current, now

this… is the gift

A solemn vow

to see the pain -

feel as one’s own

Create again

Arise, anew

Stand in your light

Speak out your truth

Receive your sight

Pierce the veil

Mend the rift

This current, you

You are the gift

thumbnail photo credit sccnn

©2023 Lux Productions, LLC / the bast

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebast.substack.com/subscribe

Hey there!

Def not jumping into the Holiday spirit with this one, more like haunting spirits….

I’m running like a reindeer on Christmas Eve tryna manage strings of 12hr doc shifts and mom-mode rn, so choices for The Living Room are not great - unedited podcasts, raw snippits from leftover time at the keys, or…the vault.

This tune was written for a sync placement, and produx shelved a while ago. That means it’s a demo of sorts.

I like the vocals for the most part, the lyrics, the tune…the tone is a bit somber ngl.

I’m still in a post-Thanksgiving carb coma, rushing off to another doc shift, so whether it’s caffeine, sugar, nicotine, or loverman time…those addictions for me aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

In the three-ring circus of my 3Dnow, I’m more like clunky clown pratfalls than the cool guy with the unicycle on the high wire….

Balance. Sounds like a Sunday Rabbit Whole in the making🤣

Love you more than sweet potato casserole…and pecan pie. See how I left ya with something sweeter?

Balance….

photo credit moddb.com

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebast.substack.com/subscribe

Yes!

Here’s a share from the land of Goldilox (goldilocks paradox) where I work…which is play…I guess “work” still, one definition being “physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something”.

“Work” word origin essentially “to do, take effect”…I like that simplicity.

Last week I jumped into the work of learning the final frontier of music production - putting the special shiny sauce on digital audio “works” - called MASTERING.

No coincidence I am attempting to “master” my daily life, having found gold in “effortless mastery” approach to piano and vocal performance.

When I dove in, I found immediately that the objective tools I was putting in the musician/recording artist/producer toolbox were so much more than another socket wrench set from Home Depot.

All of the “not knowing what I don’t know” of the last years learning recording and production skills fading, and incredibly decisiveness, efficiency and effectiveness delivered to my “work”.

So, this week’s podcast is a sample of an already released track, in three versions - three different MASTERs.

My goal to see what you hear, in sonic differences. Not the tech details, just how the music hits you - terms like “clear/muddy”, “warm/bright”, or “the drum sounded better on B” etc.

If you listen to A, B, and C masters of “What A Wonderful World”, and comment below, thanks in advance for joining the experiment.

Thank you also from my fellow mastering student who submitted 2 of the tracks as “practice” - the community of souls in the program I joined is another gift…unlocking more gold in this world of paradox, sharing more truth and beauty in discovering “mastery” together.

PS, soon to come is substack chat - interactive threads for this community through the app…sounds just right to me!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebast.substack.com/subscribe

Soooo….supa ninja! Jeremiah and I started chatting…prior to the Podcast “interview”…and he is such a super-smart-smartie-pants he started recording our rabbit-hole diving on the fly.

We covered human territory from childhood trauma to Santa Claus (is that the same thing?) to roasting marshmallows on the fire of witches burning.

In between, gotta say, the language is not for the kids. And the sirens in the background are totally ignored by the 2 humans enjoying the chat.

Sharing the paradox of vulnerability/courage, and the bizarre perfection of the journeys…flowing out of the patterns we picked up in our youth to the story of who we know ourselves to be now.

I think the language - F-bombs and all - is a placeholder for the telepathy we will continue to expand in our realization of Oneness.

Links:

Ali Loncar-Bridges Artist + Calligrapher

The Wakanda Ball 11/12/22 presented by The Chain Fund

Human Design

Patrick Teahan, LICSW super practical childhood trauma resource

Codependent to Interdependent relationships

Charlotte’s The Farm at Dover Vineyard

Here’s the quote Jeremiah was laughing at…yes, bring marshmallows for the big Burn.

Almost last but not least, “theelings” = thoughts and feelings, concept shared by Rory of the Medieval Musings.

And the finale….”Liar, lawyer, mirror show me…What's the difference?

As always, I love you more than ramen.

I mean, really good ramen - legit ramen. Not that Santa Claus styrofoam cup stuff.

thumbnail photo credit Christian_Fletcher

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For those of you who checked out the Extra Blessings last week, or the podcast live recording of God Bless the Child, this is an example of the stages a song goes through…volume balanced and rough mix sent to JazzyZach…next step integrating the saxophone lead.

Getting there….wherever there is.

The radio edit will likely be shorter - for sync licensing in tv/film, the longer version gives more material to work with.

Mixing this is more fun than editing The Living Room chats, but barely, so more to come ;)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebast.substack.com/subscribe

AUDIO: 10/14 late night at the piano, testing the mix readying new recording project…voice a little worn from the hours of grieving what we have lost, and mixture of feels since I will get to see my daughter tomorrow for the first time in 24 days.

So I was this many years old when I got this song…I mean really got it.

For me, music is about this palpable essence - a totality of message that some part of me doesn’t receive, but shares…communes with, really.

All songs that hit me have that effect, and the ones that don’t, I can see cool aspects but it’s like a technical “well done” without the gut punch of “ok - you got me”.

So this song has sat on the edge of the black hole of my musical soul for years, teetering at a standstill place of “super cool…what does it really mean though?”

After my daughter was placed in a situation I knew she was terrified to be in, unprotected by the authorities she believed would guard her little body, I was faced with “momotions” to sort.

What was realistic fear? extra-precautious momma worry? worst-case dread? And why was she set adrift by the folks that were “supposed” to give her safety? So frustrated and angry…. How could I be so helpless, powerless? Grief, despair, apathy.

Pride that she had taken a stand to voice her distress and confront the one hurting her, tell the guys in charge, seek help…and disbelief that she was denied - invalidated again and sent back to the one place she feared most.

What did it all mean? I mean, on the grand scheme of life, I could envision a billion much worse scenarios…yet her circumstances were devastating, I knew to her, even if the ones choosing “in her best interests” thought she was “safe”.

She never said she was safe.

This song came to mind, and I heard the rumblings of the music, felt the rhythm in my guts. Played around with the sound on the piano, and tried out the chord progression. Looked up the lyrics.

Holy soul punch.

And so, for days, through the brutal waiting for her evaluation by doctors, telling of her story, and finally placement in “safety” this song tells me what I am to do.

Know that what I have, what I can give, who I am in this world - is me.

That’s all.

What my beautiful daughter, rocky path from birth uphill and slope increasing for so long…what she has, is what she makes herself and her life to be.

What my fierce, brave, astoundingly creative youngest child has brought to her life, from the depths of a wiser than years soul, is her own.

And “mama may have”…

“Papa may have”….

But now I get it, like it or not, “God Bless the Child” who’s got his own.

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Relative lull in the Force…loads of uncut audio for podcasts and no time in the studio to produce…so here’s a nod to raw.

Me, my piano and a digital recorder in my Living Room. Sharing a new co-write “The Story We’re Sold”, a little “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Saga of Harrison Crabfeathers” noodling, and arrangement of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” I’m working on.

Some contemplative remarks on life. Pretty boring, really.

A little compression/limiter on the whole track before exporting to mp3, otherwise no effects - to me, a failed experiment in the simplicity of using a digital recorder to capture live piano/vocals audio, but now I know.

Kat says we need a new word for “failure” - I suggested “feedback”, and without comments from the world, I continue to be the arbiter of what sounds “good” to me.

This sounds ok - ha!

And ok works for me today…in The Living Room.

Here’s the links:

Tom Brislin

Hurry Up And Smell the Roses - an incredible album - check it out!

Kansas

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So I heard my bestie Kat last week in her time and space of loss, and need, and I came to her, to Key West, to BE with her.

This is an impromptu “Living Room” visit, uncut since I’m on the road, got a little music in here so we’re moving towards the vision of the real “The Living Room” podcast…

Kat is beyond - for real - a Cardiac Critical Care Nurse by training, interior designer/architect/travel agent/social butterfly BEAUTIFUL ONE - always the life of the party and the smiles unending.

And Kat is a friend - true friend - with me through dark and light, holding me when I have been out of resources.

Our sharing last week, realizing the need to voice our need, broke us both open in ways that make us better, more whole humans.

Kat has most recently uncovered her artistry, and passion for creating that fills her days and nights now with urgency and joy.

So here’s another story, weaving our stories together….in The Living Room.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebast.substack.com/subscribe