Ottmar Liebert – Tour Schedule: Benefit Concert for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
OL + Luna Negra at Popejoy Hall in Albuquerque on September 30th.
You can buy tickets here – select “Search by Event” field and scroll down to Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra.

From Matt Callahan’s Flickr stream.

Marginal Revolution: Spontaneous order on the road
Here’s a video of a small town in Britain that turned its traffic lights off.  Order ensued.

More excellent photos by Matt, from his Flickr stream.

Yesterday I changed the set list again, and it was quite an improvement! Everything flowed much better, and our performance at Humphrey’s was a blast. A full house, a guitar that stayed in tune, a great audience, a well-oiled professional venue, the improved set list, and a band that stayed creative throughout the concert. Great fun! It was our twentieth anniversary of performing here, as we opened at Humphrey’s for the late Michael Hedges in the Summer of 1990.

I love this shot by Matt:

You can find more pics from tour in Matt’s excellent Flickr photostream.

Yesterday’s set list was:

New Untitled
Cedar Smoke
Dancing Alone
Santa Fe
Empty Fields
Tokyo After Midnight
Snakecharmer
(Intermission)
Garden at Dusk
Heart Still/Beating
Sixteen Hours
On the Road to Shiraz/2 the Night
La Luna
Backwards Firefly
Jump
(Encore)
Future Green
Barcelona Nights

[aiming a video camera] …at anything doesn’t collect what is meaningful to me. I need someone to gather it in with all their senses, mix it round in their head, and make it over into words.

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

This year we celebrate Santa Fe’s 400th Anniversary:

Grand Ball Celebration
The Grand Ball celebration will be held at the historic Bishop’s Lodge Resort & Spa. The evening celebrations start with entertainment by the internationally known guitarist, Ottmar Liebert. Followed by dinner, dancing, silent auction (art pieces by 12 of Santa Fe’s well known santeros and santeras) and finally, the raffle drawing of the Rev. Msgr. Jerome y Alire’s vintage 1967 Restored VW Beetle with 2nd prize: 2 nights at Bishops Lodge, 3rd prize: original painting by artist Greg DeLucca, 4th prize: white cultured freshwater pearl necklace by Carrie Lynn Korzak. Tickets are $125 each and may be purchased by contacting Wanda Vint @ wanda.vint@cbsfa.org or 505-989-9102. ONLY 300 TICKETS WILL BE SOLD.

I decided to do this performance on August 7th with the band.

Mono and low-bit-rate, but full-lenth previews nonetheless:

More info about this album can be found here.

Our new album Petals On the Path was released today.

Information about the album

Journal about the process of creating Petals On the Path – with rehearsal recordings and photos

ListeningLounge (our own mp3 download store)

iTunes – Petals On the Path

Amazon – Petals On the Path

You can find the HD FLAC (24/88.2) version of Petals On the Path at HDTracks

SPECIAL SHOW – The Best of Flamenco + Arabic Pop
For the last show of Flamenco + Arabic Pop on WYBC, I culled through the sixty shows which came before it for the best songs we’ve ever played, and the ones most representative of the Flamenco + Arabic Pop spirit. It wasn’t easy, turning over sixty hours into almost two and a half, but I’m happy with what resulted, and I think it leaves Flamenco + Arabic Pop on a good note. It also featured a world premiere of Backwards Firefly, a song from Ottmar Liebert’s upcoming album, Petals on the Path; thanks so much to Ottmar for allowing us that opportunity.

Release date is Tuesday, June 15th.

Tickets will go on-sale Friday May 14 at 10AM through this web site:
OCJazzSeries.com

Dear Friend,

How to produce a sound, draw a melody from the strings, is a constant question. You can hold a guitar comfortably, which may choke the sound a little, or you can hold it a little less comfortably and produce a finer tone. Somewhere in between those two extremes lies the perfect way to hold your instrument.

In Flamenco, when the guitar was mainly accompanying singers or dancers and when volume was an important concern in the days before amplification, people often balanced the bottom of the guitar on their right leg. The advantage of this position is that the guitar is loud and sings. Unfortunately the guitar isn’t very stable in this position and has to be held up by the left hand, which is not free to move about the neck.

In the last fifty years most guitarists favor this position: cross your right leg over your left leg. Rest the cut-out of the Flamenco guitar on your right thigh. Lean over so that your body is collapsing on the guitar to a degree. This will put your right hand in a good position to strum the strings and your left hand in a great position to play the neck.

Actually, I haven’t done that during concerts for a couple of years. I have been using a footstool, but while classical guitarists put their left foot on the stool and rest the guitar on their left thigh, I put my right foot on the stool and the guitar ends up in the same position as if I were to cross my right leg over my left leg.

The trick, then, lies is finding a balance between holding the guitar securely and thus enabling both of your hands to move freely, and holding the guitar lightly, so that the instrument isn’t choked and can sing. Similar to many relationships, isn’t it? Hold your lover tightly and set them free – at the same time. How do you do that? With care.

Don’t forget to practice.

The fine art of dampening strings, or specifically stopping particular notes from ringing and thereby colliding with the other notes that you do want. I learned much about this by watching Jon play bass. The fingers of both of his hands are constantly refining the sound that comes forth from his instrument, adding a slow vibrato here and dampening a string that would otherwise clash with the next harmony.
You can observe this constant vigilance in classical guitarists like Julian Bream. While one finger of the left hand goes to a fret to define the next note, another finger is poised to dampen the string that rang the last note.

I recommend renting a DVD of Bream playing guitar as it is most interesting and educational. (((You might also observe how he bends certain notes to create harmonies that are in tune… the well-tempered scale is a compromise, especially on a guitar, and you will notice when you play an E major chord followed by a C major chord that the G-string, if tuned for the E chord, will sound off when playing the C chord and vice versa.)))

And the faces he makes while playing guitar are very entertaining, also.

This, of course, is most important when changing keys, but is always a good idea because even strings you haven’t plucked or struck with the right hand will ring sympathetically. By dampening those strings you focus more attention to the notes you are playing. Things become clearer, as if a fog has been lifted.

He who seeks Truth
Shall find Beauty

He who seeks Beauty
Shall find Vanity

He who seeks Order
Shall find Gratification

He who seeks Gratification
Shall be Disappointed

He who considers himself as the servant of his fellow being
Shall find the joy of Self-Expression

He who seeks Self-Expression
Shall fall into the pit of Arrogance

Arrogance is incompatible with nature
Thru the nature of the universe
and the nature of man
we shall seek Truth

If we seek truth we shall find Beauty

- Moshe Safdie, Architect

A Key Concept for Neurodiversity: Niche Construction
When I suggest that neurodiverse individuals, such as those with autism or ADHD, might have been labeled gifted in other times and in other cultures, the quick retort is: “Well, we don’t live in other times or cultures. People have to adapt to the culture they’re in right now.” So what does the person who is a round peg have to do to fit into a square hole? Answer: Shave off enough of its wood to fit, uncomfortably, usually, into the square hole. That’s one solution. The other solution is to round off some of the square hole so that the round peg can stay a round peg and still fit in. That’s niche construction. In other words, I’m saying that people with neurodiverse brains can create special niches for themselves where they can be their unique selves. An example would be a person with ADHD in a job that requires novelty, thrills, and creativity. Instead of suffering in a 9 to 5 desk job (an example of poor niche construction), they create a career for themselves that allows them to be who they are. Another example: a person on the autistic spectrum who has keen mathematical skill working as a computer programmer in Silicon Valley, instead of wasting away in a group home somewhere. Niche construction is what animals have done for eons: the bird building a nest, the beaver building a dam. They’re modifying the environment to suit their unique needs. We need to make niche construction a key tool in improving the lives of individuals with autism, learning disabilities, ADHD, mood disorders, schizophrenia, and other neurological conditions. Yes, there will always be the need to adapt to the way the world is, and there are medications, behavior modification programs, and other adaptational programs that can help accomplish this. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that we can also help neurodiverse individuals be who they are and still fit in.
(Via Neurodiversity – The Book)

Temple Grandin spoke brilliantly on that theme at TED. Check this out:

From Neo Bohemia:

neo bohemia – bicycle

Two bicycle sticker designs that I have been working on. Clear stickers with the kanji in either black or white with my red stamp. Thought that they should be presented today.

And here is what the sticker looks like on a biycle:

I get up a little before 4AM and start to get ready. While I shower this comes into my mind:
Whatever you want, this world has it.
If it is greed and ignorance you are looking for, we got that.
Selfishness and inflated egos, yes, got that.
Hatred and violence, yes, plenty.
but also…
Poetry and wonder, yes.
Love and care and gentleness, yes.
Beauty, creativity and awe, yes.
Disliking greed and ignorance does not make it go away. Instead we notice more of it.
Hating violence and hatred doesn’t make them go away. It amplifies them and we see hate and violence everywhere.

Sure, we may know this. But, it slips my mind all the time.

All that and a marvelous moon!

We are adding more dates to our Spring and Summer schedule – with more to come.

Spring – East Coast

Summer – West Coast

A different way to play guitar. Or, playing guitar is for the birds:

Thanks Y.