Alan OW Barnes

I’m wrapping up the 7th of 8 tunes for Gestures today. I’m really looking forward to getting out of my ‘recording brain’ and getting back to ‘writing brain’.

The track I’m recording today is called Balance…and it’s in 15/8 (for those of you who care) and it’s really, really hard to play.

Thankfully, the last cut on the recording is a techno piece…so these are the last acoustic instruments I’m recording for this project. After this I can escape the Bat-Cave (my wife has taken to calling my recording studio ‘the Bat-Cave‘, which I do like better than VSA Entertainment, though I think I may have difficultly securing the trademark on ‘the Bat-Cave‘…but who knows, if Batman wins their law suit anything is possible).

Here’s a teaser…the first track from Gestures: Faces

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…if I should write about my failures as well as my successes on this Blog.

I’m behind on Gestures, and a couple of the musicians I wanted to use on the recording have postponed so many times, I’m about to sequence their parts instead of waiting further. To make matters worse, I was let down by a possible distributor for the Damnation Girls…very frustrated at the moment…but I’m sure things will get better as long as I keep working.

Georgia Perimeter College is where I did my first two years of undergrad schooling. It has a remarkably good music program. Why do I say that? Because it is basically a 2 year community college.

But they have Susan McEwen, a great common practice period theory teacher, and an amazing ear training teacher.

I was invited back to GPC today to talk about my career and play Destiny Manifest.

The students seemed highly receptive, and even asked to watch the first minute of the Damnation Girls (also on the DVD I played today).

Everyone there was remarkably kind, and I hope I get a chance to play my work for them in the future.

Those of you who know me are about to start rolling your eyes.

I think the main reason Obama won has to do with frustration, disgust, and anger toward the Republican party (Jim Cowart is right about that). How can anyone live up to the expectations we have put on this guy? He’s supposed to balance the budget, fix the economy, reform health care, save the country from terrorism, put an end to corporate greed, and re-instate the freedoms we lost over the last 8 years (gay marriage, patriot act, stem-cell research, etc). When he fails/falls short, what will become of the Democratic party and this amazing win for African-Americans?

Despite what liberals feel at the moment, Obama is not a super hero.

I want him to succeed. I hope he surrounds himself with the right advisers.

There has been a lot of chatter online about Jeph loosing his job. Most of the chatter is negative. Everyone seems to have an opinion that Heroes ’sucks’, Jeph’s non-Tim-Sale books ’suck’, etc.

And yet, Jeph’s books are consistently on the best seller list.

Is that because he (coming from Hollywood) gets to play with the iconic characters more than most?

I don’t think so. Icons always sell well, but they don’t always sell in the top 20, like Jeph’s books.

Jeph has worked on Smallville, Lost and Heroes…arguably three of the best genre TV shows of the decade.

The truth is, I’m not a big fan of Jeph’s writing, but it isn’t because I think he’s a bad writer. I think he is very smart. I think his books and screenplays are well thought out and based on interesting premises. I just have different taste from his.

I like long, epic runs on stories, like Bendis’ DareDevil, or Brubaker’s Captain America, or Gaiman’s Sandman. I like stories with lots of meta themes (again, Sandman is a good example), I like stories that say a lot about the human condition and its connection to creativity like Brian K. Vaughn’s Y the Last Man.

These just aren’t the kind of stories Jeph tells. He tells great episodic mysteries like The Long Halloween or Hush. He tells wonderfully simple, fun, ‘blockbuster film’ style stories like Jeph’s Superman/Batman book (which has never enjoyed success without him). He tells small human experience stories guised in genre fiction like Teen Wolf, or Superman for All Seasons.

When I have to write a story like one of these I will probably look to Jeph’s work for inspiration and structural concept because he is a great writer.

I’m bummed for Jeph, because it seems he is taking the blame for something that isn’t his fault. And possibly the blame for something that cannot be different.

Heroes did really well in the ratings 2 years ago. But did it do so well because it is a great show? I don’t think so. I think it did well because there wasn’t much competition. I think that it is the kind of show that should expect to have about 8 to 9 million viewers. NBC wants 11-12 million viewers. This is at the heart of the decision to fire Loeb. Is 8-9 million viewers a low number? Most shows would kill for those numbers. Unfortunately, Heroes cannot sustain itself with numbers that small because its reach has exceeded its grasp. There are more characters and plots than can easily be managed. And the stories call for more than a meager special effects budget.

I am interested to see how this plays out.

My recent post: ‘I hate Politics’ performed in the opposite way I intended.

I actually got more e-mail from my conservative politically active friends.

Today, someone is going to feel like they lost, and I hate that.

Perhaps a better way to talk about these ideas would be to focus on our similarities rather than our differences… I feel a reminder about what we are trying to accomplish is in order.

I believe Americans want the same things, we merely differ in terms of execution.

We want to pay fewer taxes. We want to see wealth amassed for ourselves and our (in my case, hypothetical) children. We want the budget balanced, the national debt lowered, the GDP increased, thus increasing the value of the dollar.

We want to feel safe from war and/or terror.

We want everyone in our own country and everyone in the world who is just trying to raise their family to feel secure, to know their children will do better than they did, to find a way to better themselves and the world around them.

We want the world to respect us as Americans for helping, or for trying to help in a wide variety of ways.

We want to trade with other nations, we want them to get a good deal as much as we want a good deal.

We want to help foreigners  enter our country legally so that it benefits us as much as them to be here.

We want to know that those who employ Americans are out for the best interests of their employees, rather than only their own personal interests.
We want to develop renewable, safe, energy sources that reduce the world dependence on oil, which is a finite resource.

We want a health care system that allows people to get medical attention when they need it that does not over-burden those who do not.

We want to be free to live, love, and worship in anyway we choose so long as that way does not infringe on the rights of others.

So what are Republicans and Democrats fighting about? The way we should achieve these goals…that’s crazy!…Stop it. I think it is easier to gripe than it is to do the hard work of solving the problems.

…and I thought the line at Starbucks was long…

It was a 3 hour wait.

…came up in conversation this morning, so I thought I’d share it.

As an adolescent I was once visiting a friend when there was a knock at the door. My friend’s mother (Mrs. Williams) answered the door discovering two smiling Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“Hello” one said. “We’d like to talk to you about God.”

Mrs. Williams, without hesitation, replied “Sure! What would you like to know?”

…is the name of my wife’s walking team. They are walking 60 miles in 3 days to raise money for breast cancer research.

My mother-in-law discovered she had breast cancer this year. She learned this about 4 months after her husband past away.

My wife Kim felt convicted to do something, and this was what she came up with.

I have participated in a number of ‘walk-a-thons’ growing up. I am, after all, an Eagle Scout, and you just can’t get there without walking a few dozen miles for some cause or another.

But this walk is much more than I expected. Both in terms of the number of participants and in terms of the excitement level.

These teams created more ‘punny’ breast t-shirts than one should ever endure. But I am happy that the 5000 (+/-) women and men have found a way to contribute.

On the flip side; I read a book by Warren Ellis recently that left me feeling even more cynical than usual. Between this 3-day walk, that book (A Crooked Little Vein), not to mention the current election season, I find myself wondering if there were a cure for breast cancer that was simple an affordable would we ever hear about it? I mean, as I watch and listen to the political back and forth I wonder if anyone in power (both the politicians and the CEOs…in this case… of pharmaceutical companies) really want to help anyone other than themselves?

Actually, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy toward Bill Gates, Bono, and Sting when I consider how much they have individually done to raise social consciousness. It makes me wish I liked/trusted windows (which I can’t ever since my first powerbook G4)…or for that matter, that last Sting CD (Sacred Heart…not the lute CD which was pretty good!), though I did buy a copy of Sacred Heart…

Anyway, it’s a good thing there are people out there, like my wife, who do what they can in spite of cynical bastards like me trying to steal their joy and their self-created power over adversity. Once again, to quote Brad Meltzer: ‘ordinary people change the world’.

Kim, I am very proud of you. Go kick ass!

I’ve been inundated with messages from friends and family about the coming election.

Some support Obama, some support McCain.

The reality is: these guys are saying the same things…it is merely their methods that differ. Both adamantly oppose the ideals of the Bush administration in terms of economic policy, energy concerns, health care, and foreign policy. And who wouldn’t looking at his colossal failures over the last 6-7 years.

Both of them are heroes (I’m stealing this line from Brad Meltzer) One of them actually fought against tyranny with his bare hands, the other; a symbol of hope for half of the country, and the rest of the world. On a recent podcast an Australian fellow said that just by nominating Obama America has demonstrated its willingness to rise above its mistakes.

So, most people I know who are in favor of McCain have sent me information about one of three anti-Obama messages:

1) Scare tactics…Obama is ‘in league with terrorism’…that is nuts, and those of you who are propagating this myth should seriously re-evaluate yourselves and your motivations.

2) Economics…if you elect Obama the economy will get worse…that’s also nuts. The fact of the matter is that current Republican economic policy is what got us into this mess to begin with. The idea that we can live on credit is a Republican ideal that has directly or indirectly caused every recession we’ve seen in the last 20 years (maybe more, those are just the ones I’ve lived through).

3) Obama supports big government…the government is bigger than ever thanks to the Republican led executive and legislative branches, specifically, Bush has initiated more government programs than any Democratic president...EVER…and he cut taxes to do it (wait…something seems wrong there, I’m going to slash my budget, then pay more money…I don’t know, can’t quite put my finger on it…)…the democratic house hasn’t been in office long enough to fix this even if they could or would….(one more thought: several die-hard Republicans are quick to say “cutting taxes doesn’t mean cutting revenue…we cut taxes to bolster the economy…when the economy does well, we make more money in taxes”… trouble is, this doesn’t work. That’s why the Republicans have ALWAYS run the country on a deficit…when the democrats are in office we have a surplus…and I personally have paid more in taxes under Bush than I did under Clinton with the same total income)

The Obama fans are just as guilty. They have all sent me one of three anti-McCain messages:

1) Scare tactics…I actually received an e-mail claiming Al Queda is supporting McCain for president. According to this crap misinformation Al Queda’s plan all along has been to force the US into a global war on terror thus straining the economy….what!? If only the terrorists were that smart or forward thinking…then they might reason through what they are doing and realize that there are other, more powerful ways to initiate change than strapping bombs to themselves and hoping for 72 virgins in the afterlife.

2) Energy/environment…McCain wants to destroy the world by drilling oil, he has no intention of supporting alternative fuels based on these bills he voted for a million years ago….blah, blah, blah. Again, this is stupid. While I wish Bush had been more aggressive about alternative fuel research (as he promised to do in 2000) I believe the current energy situation may have finally proven to the conservatives (here I use the REAL meaning of the word ‘conservative’ as opposed to the bastardized meaning the political thinkers have placed on it…the word ‘conservative’ means ‘cautious about change or innovation’) that we need to change our attitude about alternative fuels.

3) Economics…If McCain gets into office he’ll continue to support the Bush agenda of giving tax breaks to large corporations and giving corporations incentives to move their production plants to foreign soil. This one is tricky…full of half truths. I believe McCain would give tax breaks to large corporations (he has said as much), but hopefully he would undo the mess Bush has gotten us into by generating incentives to promote foreign labor for American products thus bringing jobs back to the US.

So, who am I voting for? I believe that the republicans do some things really well (military, tax relief, etc.). I also think the Democrats do some things really well (Foreign relations, balanced budget, etc.).

I believe that we need to rotate which party is in office to get the benefits of both (though I wish there was a party that actually did everything well). Right now I think we’ve had too much Republican influence in our Government for too long…which is a shame, because McCain may be the best Republican candidate to come along in…well, EVER. Obama may not be the more experienced of the two, but he is forward thinking, and I believe we need to develop a new model for how to govern ourselves in this rapidly changing world. (side note: several McCain supporters are quick to point out McCain’s experience, but these are the same guys who turned a blind eye to W’s lack of experience eight years ago. That guy said more naive crap during the debates with Al Gore than Palan could ever dream of)

I think the heart of our problems in Iraq stem from our military fighting a 20th century war in the wrong millennia. I think our economic problems stem from too many people being concerned about their own money instead of realizing that if the world is in good shape financially it’s better for everyone in the long haul. I think that this country was founded by people who wanted the freedom to live and worship as they wanted (If not, that’s still a beautiful idea, isn’t it?), and I cannot support a party that would tell people how to live…I also cannot support a party that would knowingly redistribute the hard earned wealth of another….conversely, if that wealth was stolen by misrepresentation and deceit, I hope those thieves are stripped of everything they have.

As a result, I will vote for Obama. But not because I believe in him, but rather because our government is broken (4 more years of republican economics, energy policy, and social tyranny will kill us), and I believe that for right now, he is the lesser of two evils. In 8 years I will probably be saying ‘4 more years of democratic economics, military ineptitude, and social anarchy will kill us’…but we’ll see).

What is the solution? The founding fathers created the constitution so the government could change when necessary…is it time?