All Will Be Revealed

THE SUMMIT MUSIC PROJECT - 2010

(My Glorious Failure and Other Uplifting Tales)

Note to the reader who cares (and the ones who don't):

I have always been the type of artist who lives, eats, drinks, and sleeps my work. There is a semi-permeable membrane between my personal and professional life. So, for this blog entry, and a few others, you will find not only information on this project, but also the personal topics that affected it.

My apologies for such a long void between now and my last entry.

When last I left off, I told you I was about to attempt Mt. Adams;

some of you may have even thought that I died up there or whatnot---understandable. I suppose the rest of you actually

know me even better than I do, but don't assume that that makes

me the Boy Who Cried Wolf or anything. ;) I "Never Cry Wolf"

unless I really think one is there, and an accident may still occur

on one of these mountains/excursions, sooner or later, minus the

ability to cry at all; just being a realist in light of the risk these climbs entail, but no worries. ;)

Also, I think it's important that I make you aware of something else before I continue on with what is, essentially, a story

about utter - yet temporary - failure. There are very good reasons

for everything that has happened, and not happened, thus far.

The thing is, I'm doing both of these projects to constitute two motion picture films that I plan on producing in the not-too-distant future. I once thought, "there's no better subject matter a

person could possibly be a better authority on than something they themselves are doing." "Yes, Dean." I answered myself back, "I like that. F-ck it. Let's do it!"

Thus, as the plan goes...

Travels Rendered will be my first film, which is a documentary about my musical travels through the American West and elsewhere. This will be fairly easy to produce, I just have to travel a little more. But (film title TBA), which I just returned from after attempting to summit the Cascade mountain range, will be the next film, and will involve a lot more than just a music based documentary.

Other than being the result of a variety of film techniques, it will also be ladened with what seem to be exclusively conceived

philosophies that I've never expressed in any public fashion---considering how I've never been much of a soap-box guy (and whether or not they've actually been previously conceived by countless others without my knowing it). At this point, I will be using the mountains to "elevate" my philosophies, or maybe just my confidence for sharing them. Either way, it is more work than

one can imagine, and considering how many failed attempts I have behind me now, I may actually skip making the Travels

Rendered documentary so I can focus on the bigger film and the greater triumph. Also, continuing to run a label and release music as a recording artist, which I have every intention of doing until the day I die, will be tricky enough to juggle with just one lofty ambition.

So, the reason that The Summit Music Project has been so difficult to achieve, thus far, is because I'm not just hiking up a few mountains to make music at the top and film it, I'm trying to summit four major U.S. volcanos in order to film a very complex motion picture---all by my lonesome. It's a near impossible task when one considers:

The music -- on-location inspiration for ideas, and sound checks at the base camp of

each mountain so that music fidelity in the middle of freezing wind at the summit is not too atrocious.

The script -- on-location inspiration to write down the proper wording so that any common

threads I'm tying between scientific/historical facts about the mountain and my own

philosophies, while on the mountain, are clearly expressed and understood.

The filming -- taking time and care enough to film the best moments possible, at the best angles, every step of the way.

The equipment -- all of the survival equipment needed in high-altitude ranges, and all of the properly charged music, video and audio equipment nessessary for making this film, down to the last detail.

With all of this in mind, it's no wonder I've had so many difficulties with the project.

However, realizing this fact has taken me from feeling totally depressed about my failures, to

being totally understanding and even patting myself on the back for the magnitude of what I'm trying to accomplish. Plus, I've gotten so good at doing all of this now, that I'm %100 confident I will have %100 success with the Summit Music Project

next year, whether or not I actually do. Even so, I'll be in

Washington for the entire summer to make sure it happens.

Like everyone else, friends have come and gone in my life, so through the years I managed to maintain only one good friend in the Seattle/Tacoma area. Luckily, on this last trip, I made a couple of future friends, so staying with more than just one won't be as much of an issue throughout the season next year.

Regarding this entry:

The photos and text I'm posting on here are a chronology of everything that happened from the point of my trip where I last posted up until now. Also, I take both you and this blog seriously

enough that I'm not going to lie to you or provide you with all-American-courtesy small talk.

There may actually be some readers (or friends) out there who think that this blog is a "feel-good" blog, or something for self help, but I can't even express how wrong that is. I keep this blog solely for the purpose of sharing and archiving my

honest experiences with these two projects, and anything that ties to them. I will write about anything that I think creates the story I want to tell, or that keeps a record I want to keep. I think I may have actually lost a couple of friends recently because we finally had it out after I realized that all they ever seemed to want to hear from me, regarding my life, was a bunch of one-sided, blind optimism, even when it came to blogs like this. That's not what I'm about, and never

have been. It's about the whole picture for me, the whole experience.

And perhaps it was an even deeper dilemma than that, considering how, unfortunately,

lack of patience with the issues of one's fellow American does seem to be what this culture is about, among other modern hang ups/evasions. So, as you all know in your varying ways, it's

not always easy living in America. And, if you happen to be experiencing the same exact annoyances as I am here - e.g. people's inability to value sincerity and emotion in other beings unless it has something to do with cruel and/or stupid humor - then call me. We should get together and go bowling. I'll probably throw all strikes with that kind of inspiration.

Before even heading out on the road for this trip, I had been contacted by my aunt, on my father's side. She owns the house where I keep my studio and have lived with my west-coast cousin, being my aunt's daughter, for the past 10 years. My aunt gave me a month-long deadline to move out because she knew I had recently found another place to live/work, and because I have not always payed my rent on time. I had made my own bed, but man, right now sure was an inconvenient time to have to lie in it. I was in the middle of taking on a huge goal, and the pressure to move was adding another 100 pounds to the weight of my pack. And mega-bless Lisa's heart for helping out with that as much as she did, and for her undying support.

Mt. Hood:

So, as you may have read on my last entry, after my Mt. Rainier attempt, I 'chillaxed' with my old friend Dave Israel and his family in Tacoma, and worked on my Rainier report/entry a little too long before heading out to Mt. Hood for an attempt there.

Basically, I didn't succeed on Mt. Rainier because the team was climbing too fast for

me and my weight; but I didn't succeed on Mt. Hood because I'm such a space cadet sometimes that a storm I had been hearing about rolled in sooner than I thought it would (as well as some rock fall risks I didn't consider). The risk on a mountain like that is just too great. Literally, the day before I arrived there, the authorities found two dead bodies that had been on Hood's glaciers for months. That kind of thing happens there often.

I was already clear on my narrative for this mountain, so I could've left early enough in the morning to beat the coming storm---if I hadn't still needed to come up with my music idea for the summit, as well as sound check it. Dowww!!!! Damn paces! I rushed anyway, hoping it would make a difference. After my late start, I hiked into the grey on Mt. Hood and soon turned back, having gotten a decent work out; this was good enough for me, regardless of the overall disappointment.

It's always good to have my life. And as far as my years of stupid-risk taking and near-death experiences go, they're hopefully long gone.

Still, "Next Year" was now becoming my motif on this trip,

without even realizing it.

Mt. Adams:

I worked my way back to Dave's for another spell with the Israel

family. During my visits with him, Dave shared his new-found talent for creating electronic music. I had to admit, I was impressed, so large amounts of my time there were spent

encouraging him and his efforts, balanced with working on my

blog. Soon, the fun ended when I caught another glimpse of a

gloomy and lingering forecast. I rented more ice climbing gear and headed back towards Portland, this time to then go east, deep into the Cascade wilderness, and attempt Mt. Adams.

There was "NO WAY" I was going to "screw this one up," were the famous-last-words in my head. I could swear I had left early

enough to summit this mountain. Adams was supposed to be the easiest Cascade Volcano to climb, and it was just as important to my project as the other peaks

were. Well, that knowledge didn't help me one bit. I got there late in the evening because I had ran out of gas on the way; then, I basically had to write out my script - also inspired by the mountain - thus finally getting to bed at 4am when I was

supposed to be waking up to climb.

And it was the first time narration for a mountain took me that long to write.

The next day, a fellow hiker suggested I use the extra time to see Multnoma Falls - an Oregon landmark - instead of "wasting the day" at the base of Adams. Multnoma was about an hour and a half away. Feeling as cocky with time as I tend to get, I figured I could actually go there to make some music, and still make it back to base camp with time enough to come up with an on-

location musical idea, as well as sound-check it before getting an early night's rest. Friggin' LOL, buddy!!! I don't even think I need to go into detail about how bad a decision that was, but I will say that I made some fairly interesting a-cappella ambient

music at Multnoma Falls---on an extremely crowded bridge.

If you could imagine me making live ambient music while waiting on line for a ride at Disneyland, that's exactly what this was like. It was an extremely unworthy reward for such a great sacrifice, considering that by the time I got back to base camp and finished sound-checking, it was early the next morning again.

Refusing to try climbing a Cascade mountain with little sleep, I slept, and then headed out, mid-day. I met some very cool people on the way up, but exchanging numbers would not help me in this situation. After a long and beautiful climb, ending with altitude sickness at little over

10,000 feet, I realized that it was too late in the day to make it to the top by sundown. On top of that, the storm was suppose to roll in for sure by that evening, bringing a foot of snow to the entire Cascade range. It was a mystical time of day to be up there, but man... not a fun circumstance. So, I pondered what this meant while working my way back to the car at night, and soon got more lost than I've been in a really long

time. I almost spent the night under a tree in the approaching storm, fearing for my life and mumbling to myself for hours. (It's always funny when one survives to laugh about it.) I finally returned to the camp and to my car (Shangri'La), and then the pondering truly began, for days.

Just like the year before it, I had now lost my weather window to climb any of the northern Cascades, by a single day. Just like the year before it, the first storm of snow season rolled in hours before I could make it to the top of anything. I had been in Washington now for almost a month, and didn't even summit a single mountain. Looking at this pattern, I blamed myself, heavily, for not even wanting to succeed in

the first place. All of my past self-loathing were raining on me like the storm itself. But soon, as I stated above, I realized the magnitude of what I've been trying to accomplish, and just how massive an undertaking it truly is.

This was a relieving thing to realize on my own, without having to call Lisa or someone else for moral support. ,'-)~ I'm obviously getting better with that.

I licked my wounds at Dave's again for a few days, and focused on encouraging his music even further by offering to have an ambient

jam session/recording session with him somewhere out in the Washington rainforest.

He eagerly took me up on the offer, and my last day staying with him was spent out in the rainforest, making live ambient music.

Dave and I have known each other for an extremely long time. We were close hiking partners many years ago, and through much of that we even shared similar taste in music during our

ventures. To finally make tranquil music together out in the wilderness was a surreal turning point for the both of us, and we relished it as such. Also, what made this possible was

that Dave's method for making electronic music is kind of a new-found, "portable discovery" that I will talk more about in another entry.

Mt. Shasta:

After leaving Dave's, I stopped in Portland one last time, this time to visit my friend Howard Givens.

After he spent an afternoon spoiling me rotten with Portland ales, I headed east again, this time to visit a friend of a friend who lived in the beautiful, small town of Mosier, outside of Hood River. His name was Nigel: a fascinating man, with a fascinating family, in a fascinating town, and living in a beautiful house. Good times. The moment I arrived in Mosier, at twilight, they

took me to a party that was jollier and funky-er than most of the ones I find in LA---when I'm looking. I stayed with them for two nights in their guest house with a view of the country side, and because Nigel suggested that I record a track there, I did. I used my acoustic guitar. There was a kinship I felt with Nigel and his family, and they were a well-timed decompression.

Upon leaving their house, I decided that hope was not lost for the year. I would drive east and then cut south, through Bend and the scenic rout (seeing some highways I'd never seen, and the Oregon Cascades for the first time), and then cut west past Klamath into the Mt. Shasta area. There, I would make my last summit attempt for the season, having failed on Shasta one year before. It was an epic, open-road drive, including a brilliant twilight, and during which I recorded some epic, on-the-

road, music-collection mixes that sadly corrupted and went bad. (Two of them survived.)

I arrived in Shasta with perfect weather, and the 5-day forecast

called for increasingly sunny skies---now that I was an entire state away from the northern Cascades.

This was the southern

Cascades, totally different. I stopped in town, got together what equipment I needed, and started towards the Shasta trailhead while listening to boatloads of Tangerine Dream for nostalgic inspiration. My sound check, this time, was brief. By now, I was so in shape that I practically flew up what had been a manhood-challenging mountain climb the year before it.

Everything was moving along innocently well, and I even got an early night's rest after concocting a flimsy tent between trees in a wind storm. I awoke at Shasta base camp around 3am and started my ascent towards the top. My first-light climb was smooth, and aside from another lone hiker, there wasn't a single soul on the mountain. Regardless of the desolation, this was proving to be a guaranteed victory. My altitude sickness at 11,000 feet wasn't even bad. I was on top of the world, figuratively; this was the exact occurrence that I needed for my spirits to start rising to the occasion again, and it seemed as though I had it in the bag.

Upon reaching eleven thousand feet, and around 1:30pm, the nightmare began. Somehow, against what the forecast "guaranteed" would be a day of sunny skies, a freezing storm rolled in out of nowhere and covered the entire top half of Mt. Shasta. I kept hiking, hoping it would lift, but two hours and twelve hundred feet later, I realized it wasn't going to. I was submerged in it.

The frustration was unthinkable. I screamed at the sky, as I sometimes do. Then I screamed at the mountain. I managed to get a signal up there and I filmed myself talking to Lisa about this on my cell. All of my respect for the mountain, and every mountain, had gone out the window in one foul swoop.

I got off the phone and filmed an even worse conniption, cursing the mountain as though it were the corporate perpetrator of some broad, social injustice. After starting my long trek back down, I cried, thinking about how close I had gotten to every summit, and how long a year felt now--just to wait for another chance. As it was, I was being evicted from my home of 10 years, who knew what else would happen in a year's time?

Honestly, I still don't know, but whatever. So, after wiping that sh-t off my face, I stopped and took out my laptop to create an extremely quick, loop-based, vocal ambient piece in honor of the storm and the attempt. My disappointment obviously affected my ability to innovate, a little too much. The music was interesting, and kind of heartfelt, but I'm not sure I would play it for anyone. Regardless, as I descended, the beauty of the furious storm clouds entranced me, and won me over after the bitterness I was previously holding on to. It was a beautiful hike.

Kickin' it off in Eureka:

I shook off even more of the disappointment after going back to the town of Shasta to get a good meal and ponder the magnificence of the project. I caught up on some emails

and contacted my friend Eli, an experimental, indie film maker I've known for years, who, with his roommate Robin, was waiting for me to visit him in the town of Eureka, on the coast.

In what was epic storm weather, at a ground level, I set out for Eureka. I even made more great on-the-road mixes---that corrupted again. ,'-( To get there, I had to drive through the Trinity National

Forest, one of the most dense and preserved rain forests in the country, and a region I hadn't visited since I was eleven years old at camp. I hadn't even seen Eureka since then. Guess I figured the surfing couldn't have been that great. Blasting through

the past and out to the ocean, I arrived in Eureka where my two friends and their alternative lifestyle greeted me ever so stylistically. I stayed for 4 days and it was an extremely reviving experience after everything I had just gone through. Eli and I even filmed ourselves making live music on the Eureka shores. Yeah yeah, we had plenty of humble mutant festivities.

Not to mention there's a short ditty he once did, which mildly summed up how I felt about my project at that point. Eli was in an especially pessimistic mood when he did this one, and just bare in mind that his budget has always been a consumer-level camcorder with some minor editing software:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvKQ43fXi94

But here's one that always makes me crack up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHqbQ4Tcgm4

The Move:

Soon, expiring what time I had left on the trip, I reluctantly zig-zagged my way back towards So Cal, during which I experienced various dramas over the phone regarding my moving

situation. It turned out that, during the course of my trip, the pressure to move had now shifted from my aunt, to my cousin. Not only that, but the eviction turned out to be mostly her idea the whole time. This bewildered me (for some reason). I mean, everybody in my family knows that this specific cousin is nuts, but what had I done to her lately? other than problems we once had in our past, at the house? They were old conflicts that were bad at one time, but those were long since over, and I could have sworn we had been forming a close new friendship for years---somehow. At least, she acted that way. Silly me. So I called her to ask her about this and she acted very cold, repeating the motif that she was afraid of me. If that were the case, she definitely fooled me into thinking otherwise, for years, which turns out was the case.

Apparently, she had been holding a grudge from old conflicts the whole time, and was waiting for an opening to pounce and get some kind of revenge for them. I told her that this hurt, because I was trying to forget old abuses the same way that I thought she was. She wasn't. And

after I told her that what hurt the most was how, in the end, I was trying to forget the past and just love her, she coldly responded with "So what day are you going to be out by?" I definitely felt like the King Of Fools at that moment, but that's okay, because it's not the first time, or the worst time, I've been betrayed by someone. Also, it took this person showing her dishonesty for me to finally realize my own; I was living next to her for years in that house, and lying to myself about being content with it. It was a great house and work space, but I was never truly at peace sharing it with someone like her, whether or not I was trying to salvage our friendship. My cousin was, essentially, a cat lady, and sanity was a tricky thing in that environment. When I had first arrived at the house ten years ago, I was in a slump and a major life transition. My cousin and her house were supposed to be temporary, but things got worse before they got better. They did get much better, but I still managed to put myself in a trance trying hard to avoid having to relocate my entire studio. I didn't even realize how unhappy I was there, and for years this seriously effected my productivity, beyond my awareness.

So now, basically, I've moved out! :) My friend Darrin and my friend James helped me tramendously during this uneasy shift. Considering how nostalgic I get sometimes, the move was hard, and it forced me to look at huge chunks of my life that went long neglected, but just being able to look at them has allowed me the clarity and control required to start redeeming them, almost with ease. It's been a slow process over roughly a month and, somehow, the sensation that this was a blessing in disguise is overwhelming. It's so great to be away from oppressive vibes like that, and to be living among the living again. I am now renting out a killer office where my studio and my label are based, and it's part of a community of fellow film makers. Outside of

that, I'm basically living in three places at the moment: my father's house, because he's one of my best friends and has more room than he knows what to do with; Lisa's apartment, which I was practically living in already; and my friend and fellow musician Jim Goetch at his condo. Also, most likely, there will be many trips and travels I can take, for years to come, given the new mobility that technology allows with the "modern studio." It may sound funny, but it's the Gospel to me. I guess one can even say I now live EVERYWHERE, MAN. EVEN IN YOUR MIND, BRO.

But seriously, aside from a great new mobile life, I will definitely be spending most of my time buried with work in my new office/studio many months to come, so if you continue to have a hard time reaching me, that will probably be why. Pardon me in advance. ;)~

In light of all of this, I don't know if you remember, but I was actually scheduled to take one more trip this year so I can finish recording and shooting at the rest of my Southwest locations. Well, because of everything that's happened recently, I'm now a month and a half late for that. Big surprise. Although, I will be on my way practically the moment I finish these last few sentences.

I'll be gone for a month and will try to create a few rough/short blog entries while on the road. My first stop will be a week-long project I'll be doing on the Navaho Rez, where native flute player D'Von Charley and I will be taking off with some friends throughout Canyon De Chelly to produce the first full-length ambient music CD recorded throughout the canyon, from start to finish. This may even be some kind of separate short film when all

is said and done. We'll see. In the meantime, the priority will be the music.

Also, obviously I have not had time to edit or produce many video-clip segments from locations that I've done all year - spanning everywhere from the Southwest to the Sierras to the Cascade trip I just took. When I return from this next Southwest trip, hopefully I will find time to edit some of those, sooner than later, and post them online. Most of that footage is really great, and I know much of it won't make it to any big film or project, so the short films/segments will be key for that stuff to be seen at all. I'll keep you updated on their progress, from this trip into the future.

See you at the canyon rim,

Dean

Managing my Drive Through Storms

At first, I arrived at Mt. Hood to find that I was a month too late to climb it safely; this was a month into rock-fall season, and I could see the very large bolder-skid tracks on Mt. Hood's main slope all the way from the Timberline Lodge. If a bolder had dislodged on that slope, and started heading towards me, jumping out of the way would mean sliding down the mountain right next to it. Never the less, I would have tried it anyway ;), except that the storm I had been hearing about then covered the top as I was climbing towards it.

So I waited out the storm at my friend Dave's, while catching up on Internet work, and apparently during my elation over working on two Internet jobs, I waited a day too long. Now I have one more day left - tomorrow - before a huge, week-long storm rolls in and covers the mountaintops with snow. There is something about multi-tasking that, regardless of "my super-human ability to concentrate," I don't seem to be getting. Perhaps, with a little luck and a Hell-of-a-lot more time sacrifice, I will get it before having to do all 4 remaining mountains as soon as climbing season roles around again next year. I just want to say that I hope the flack I get for this, from those I know, will be at a minimum. ,'-) I'm going to need even more strength then I did this year, as I am very behind schedule at this point.

Anyway, I'm off now to attempt the only mountain that is practically a guaranteed success this year---Mt. Adams.

Below are some really awesome comments that some of my friends and family left me after my last entry. They were moving enough that there was no way I was going to keep from sharing them. Really.

See you at the top!

Dean

P.S. Read the last entry if you find yourself somehow lost.

SUPPORTIVE COMMENTS FROM FRIENDS:  

"Maybe the ultimate determination of whether you "succeeded" or "failed" is not going to be what peaks you scaled, but what musical results you came up with during this project...... and how this experience might positively affect subsequent musical efforts." -Jim Goetsch

"Don't worry about how your trip is going, or what others may think. Those who really believe in you will never question what you are doing!!! I personally am so jazzed about what you're doing. I get excited reading about it!!! I wish I were there with you!" -Fred B. Jones

"Your work is brilliant, however don't forget to look at it--musically or artistically." -Rene Ramirez

"Your work just can't stop to amaze me, Dean! It's always something new, smart and different! I am with you man, trust me! All the good luck!" -Branislav Gelevski

"I once played with a trio where we improvised some music about, as one audience member requested, "The Road Less Traveled". I believe that much of the emphasis of your project is to be inspired not only by the majesty of high places but also of the atmospheres present in an infinite number of places, places that would be considered "The Road Less Traveled". Many have the tendency to put their attention toward summit peaks, and not so much on the even more mysterious and fascinating places that lie in between the valleys and the peaks. When we went up Slate canyon, we were in one of those places between the valley and peaks. For this reason, I don't think it matters whether you made it to the top of Mt Rainier. Your project is also about "The Road Less Traveled". That means that an almost infinite number of places between the valleys and the peaks are fair game for work places. How many gold mines do you see at mountain summits?" -Nyle Steiner

"Please have faith in yourself and your passions, and your goals. They really are special and wonderful, and will translate to the world in incredible ways. I truly believe this will happen. It should happen. Actually, I think feeling constantly misunderstood is quite universal, so I really hope you don't take it too personally." -Lisa Claire

"You are making the Summit Music Project. The attempts at reaching the summit are all a big part of it. I/we as onlookers are fascinated with your every day details, friendships, environment, travels, thoughts, and feelings. That's what makes it a human experience. If everything went perfectly as you had wanted, it would probably not be as interesting to us. We share your lows, highs, and regroupings. Watching you create your Cambient music on Mt. Rainier is fascinating. I'm surprised it was so clear and out of wind range. There is humor in what you call failure. There is no failure. It's all a learning experience and change of venue. Will anxiously await your next blog and video about the four summits in the Volcanic Arch." -Dean's Mom

Sure, Failure Is Always An Option

I headed out at night last Monday, and my whole drive north was a two-day speed marathon and frantic rush to gather rented and bought equipment.  Even ended up at Wallmart in the middle of the night, which actually almost saved my project again.

But regardless, it turns out that I have indeed failed.  I failed to reach the top of Mt. Rainier with my guided team.

  

I skipped climbing Mt. Hood first so that I could lock down the last of my equipment for Rainier, but apparently still lost way too much sleep in the process.  Basically, after many months of training, I was still too out of shape to handle a mountain like Rainier with a mini music studio thrown into my pack, and with or without enough sleep.  It was only ten or so extra pounds above the climbing equipment, but apparently made all the difference, and I'm even wondering if that would 

have mattered, considering how much more worn I felt than the other team members by the

 time we hit Camp Muir.

I might have been able to do the summit by leaving my laptop there, but that would have kind of defeated the idea of this project--to arrive at the top of a mountain, and while there, record and produce some music inspired by it. 

 

And hiring someone to carry your stuff for you, or renting

 yourself a chopper flight to the top to make EXTREME MUSIC up there would not cut it either.  

This project is as much about the conquest as it is about the artistic principal.  It is a complete concept, and executing it with 

compromises would render it a totally different concept.

Even so, at least I'm not negative enough to give up and call it "destiny" or some BS like that.

  Luckily, my life doesn't depend on whether or not I reach my goals right away, even though it

 looks and feels as though it does.

  

There were some good aspects to this week's experience, aside from gaining new respect for Mt. Rainier and learning the total magnitude of what climbing it will entail.  

I made some Cambient music (vocal ambient music) at Camp Muir, which is what I'm planning for every mountain top.  During this session I learned that I was far less musically ready than I had thought.  I will now practice extra hard for Mt. Hood so that the music won't totally bite, essentially.   ;)

Also, I gained the support and curiosity of the RMI guides who headed the climb---Jake, Thomas and Eric.  Jake, the team leader, was a very serious and passionate guide who busted my butt every step of the way, yet his deep understanding of my philosophy and his overall enthusiasm for the project have inspired me in ways I did not plan on.  Among other people, I will be hearing his voice in my head during the coming months, helping to drive me forward.

  

Thomas and Eric were also very interested and inspirational figures.  Thomas, having a mind for literature, made even the deepest sides of my intellect feel embraced and appreciated.  I hope we continue to stay in touch in some way.  And I hope I can find a way to re-approach Rainier with that same selection of guides next Summer.

Having to wait another year to try again is far more ominous than it looks; God knows what may happen by then, especially with everything else I'm trying to accomplish, and with my rapidly depleting resources.  I would not even wait another year if I had the money to attempt Rainier again this season, but I will now have to raise it.

Suddenly, I no longer have blinders on about how finishing this project, and it's accompanying film, is far off on the horizon.  This project is actually still in it's starting phase, and after everything I've done so far, that's hard for me to believe.

 In all honesty, I am at a point in my life where finding support and understanding for my radical and seemingly fruitless idea(s) is growing scarce.  

Many friends, and even my family now 

find it hard to be patient with my absence and my ill-matched

 neediness.  From the outside, it just looks like I'm being my same old "selfish self," and I suppose that's not altogether untrue.  

Unfortunately, in life, selfishness seems to be required to achieve one's goals and/or visions, or to simply make one's own dream come true.  They never teach you that in children's books, or lecture you about it in Optimism 101. 

 

Ultimately, I suppose the real question becomes, "Is completing my goal going to end up being something that serves a useful purpose to others, at all?"  One would say "...if the answer is yes, then it must be a worthy goal," but considering how many great accomplishments throughout history have been achieved through pure self indulgence, and without any knowledge of the outcome, I'm not sure that that's an accurate evaluation method.

But I'm just using my blog as a therapeutic sounding board at this point.  My rantings and inner-most thoughts will not change the fact that over the next couple of weeks, here in Washington, I will summit four mountains of the Cascade Volcanic Arch, unless something else randomly significant gets in the way. 

 

Each summit will be a momentous achievement, and I will report them one by one.  Right now I'm staying with my friend Dave (whom I climbed St. Helens with in 93) and his family in Tacoma.  Good, old friends.  Today I plan on returning my gear to a store in Portland, OR, and then driving to the Timberline Lodge where I will head out on the trail for Mt. Hood summit the next morning.  I should be back in Tacoma a few days from now.

Also, I recently found a lot more info about Mt. Olympus then was made available before I left, and I'm realizing that I won't be able to climb that mountain either.  It turns out to be a class 4 technical ice climb, and requires a partner, a team or vast experience.  I don't have the money right now.  When I learned of this, I researched the possibility of climbing Mt. Baker instead, but as I suspected, it's the second largest in the state to Rainier and thus demands the same requirements.

Sure, this is all mildly frustrating, but I'm continuing on with

 those parts of the project that are within my control, and perhaps I'll be able to approach Baker or Olympus next year when I do Rainier.  Whether I do or not, it may not make much of a difference.  Olympus is not a panoramic view, and Baker is an extremely unpopular mountain.  Perhaps these things should not detour me, but I have to consider the footage and the project principal.

Here is a short film of the Rainier attempt.  I almost didn't post it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ipTM-xS5IM

Meantime, upwards.

Talk to you after Hood.  And yes, I'm still excited about that.

Dean

P.S.  Here is some of the music I've been listening to, and that I always bond with, deeply, in this part of the country:

Talk Talk

Sun Kill Moon

Radiohead

Tangerine Dream

Mark Isham

Ian Boddy

Loaded Coil

Jeff Pierce

Jon Hopkins

Ulrich Schnaus

Dntel

Cathrine Feeny

Even some:

Portishead

Lamb

Massive Attack

And have been discovering:

Helios

Album Leaf

Tycho

More soon...

Last Moments Of Sunlight

Well,

I've been training for the Cascade Mountains all Summer, and the last moments of sunlight have finally arrived. My Summer window is ending, rapidly, so I'll be leaving for Washington state within a few hours.

Juggling my training with a collaboration between two web designers was lame, and has made me late, throwing off my itinerary, but I'll be dipped in boiling nuclear waste before I wait another year for this. (Ouch. umm... maybe not.) Luckily I'm in the best shape of my life, so climbing all 6 volcanoes before the Summer completely ends might still be doable.

They are:

Mt. Hood

Mt. Rainier

Mt. Adams

Mt. St. Helens

Mt. Olympus

Mt. Shasta

Still, I'm late enough that the thought of any kind of tight schedule has now been cast to the wind. I will do whatever I have to do to climb these things. Even been watching the Weather and Discovery channel to get more in the zone. ;)

I do have some other killer news though:

Last Sunday I trained by putting some extra weight in my pack and climbing a well-known CA mountain. At the top I made ambient music with a laptop and a guitar. (Sounds so American.) Check out the clip below to find out which mountain it was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZcQlxzHQIk

I may have Lisa send photos of this to the Times. There were some other dudes up there (partying) as well, and they got footage, but have been having problems sending it online. They seemed to like what they heard.

I was hoping, over this last month, to fill in some journal entries and videos from the last Southwest trip so I could keep a record of what happened, but I lost time. Luckily, I don't think I'll be forgetting what happened any time soon, even if I was in a daze through most of it. ;) I will finish the Southwest post on here later (hopefully before the Southwest again in Fall), along with a great session I did earlier in the year at Mono Lake. Anyone who loves Mono Lake will dig that.

For now, I'm going to concentrate on Washington and Oregon, which is a far more involving and important venture. This will be a monumental accomplishment in my life, if I can pull it off.

I will post up short entries and at least a few photos for every mountain I climb. Going to attempt Mt. Hood first, this Monday. Already alerted musical friends in Portland. On the 17th, the day after Mt. Hood, I will join the team for Rainier and we'll start training for the summit on the 20th.

So, it looks as though I will not be posting another entry, or contacting anyone, before I reach the top of Rainier as well. This is it. If all goes well, my next post will be to show-and-tell the experience of those two summits--which is kind of my life's conquest, thus far.

And believe you, I shall "flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye."

Wish me luck, and I'll see you at the top.

Dean

P.S. And yeah, I promise to have plenty of fun with this also.

"Ambient Travels" And Putting The Southwest On A Shelf

(Excuse any spelling errors.)

Hello everyone!

So, you are now reading what could possibly be my last current blog entry, ever.  :(   ;)   I'm realizing that, as much as I try, I just can't seem to keep a decent blog while traveling. If you know me, you know that I rarely half-ass creative endeavors---at least the parts of them that I am conscious of controlling. I see my blogs and websites the same way.  They are not some note pad for me to scribble and dribble on.  They are something I create for people to look at, and are something I use to communicate what I am experiencing.  Yeah... call me weird.

Anyway, this has been nearly impossible for me to do during trips, as they usually have a time-sensitive, and packed itinerary, and now with an involving music project to boot. In return, attempting to do the impossible by working on the blog everywhere I stop has been taking time out of that schedule and thus complicating it, changing it, and generally holding up the project. I'm not afraid to say this so that others may learn from my mistakes, but--I have failed to finish my project because I was bothering with my blog. And, I've failed to keep a good blog, too.  VICTORY IS MINE!

Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware that most of this was due to my extremely involving video entries, so that will definitely

cease as something I do during trips. But knowing my perfectionistic nature when it comes to anything I post, it probably won't make sense for me to even enter text and photos during trips anymore either.  It's just too risky.

With this in mind, I would like to start using these blogs for another novel concept that's really cool. I know the "blog craze" is based only on what's current and what's now-now-NOW with people, but there is far more potential for these pages then most realize.  They can be used as a powerful outlet for memoir entries, and should be, at least until there is some kind of "memoir page craze," which I could use right about now.

So if I can't use blogs as a journal during projects that are this important to me, then I will most def be using them as detailed memoirs and/or records.  Fo sho!  My only hope/wish is that, before these blogs become something for more than just friends, you all keep reading it even though the entries will be past tenths.  I may even end up writing and entering one in your living room, but I would still want you to check it out as though I were writing on location.  This is the essence of a memoir, transporting the reader to another moment and place.

Also, I know I will have a fair amount of literature about this project on the web sooner or later anyway.  Just remember, any literature about this project made available in the future will likely incorporate much of what's on these blogs, as well.

THE TITLE:

Something that I recently realized probably needs my attention, is that this project needs it's own name.  I can't keep attaching it to the Summit Music Project as though it's the same thing.  They are more different than they are the same.  The Summit Music Project is the act of climbing high, established mountain peaks and making music at the top.  That is a very specific thing, and once at the top, one can only make music in a specific spot.  The rest of the overall project--like what I'm doing right now in the Southwest--is more of a broad and general concept: the act of visiting locations, possibly around the world, just to make music there.  I'm in deserts now, but I just as well could find myself doing this at locations in cities, temples, caves, boats, trains, planes and automobiles.  So, as you can see, it's a different project, or at least a branch of the same one.  [And for anyone who wonders why I would want to do that: again, this project is an impressionistic experiment.  The music is a collaboration between the musician and the surrounding environment, because if the musician were not at that spot/location, then that musician would probably make a different type of song.]

But I'm only calling the overall project what it is, I'm not trying to take anything away from the spirit and essence of the nature-based project I'm working on right now.  That remains in tact.  The title is just for a more all-encompassing categorization.

So, for now I'm just referring to this project as Ambient Travels, being as ambient music seems to be the only kind of music that is easy enough to start and finish, professionally, within a few hours of computer-battery life.  It is also my preferred form of expression for natural settings.  

I may change this title before I go public with the project, but there's no rush.  I also didn't mind the title Scenic Stages, and might use it instead; or perhaps I will call the overall project Scenic Sessions and have branches of it such as Ambient Travels and The Summit Music Project.  Mostly, to be totally honest, of the 15 some-odd title candidates that me and others came up with, nothing has fully described what this project really is.  So, if you have any ideas for titles, please let me know, even though I should warn you that my standards are pretty steep, regardless of the title I've settled on.  (And jokes won't be considered ,'-)

Another thing that my good friend Loren Nerell reminded me of

 was that there is no rush in making this project presentable to the world 

yet. 

 I have no sponsorship for this and no external deadline to meet, so while I'm working on other, more pressing things, I will be devising just how I want to go public with this.  It's presentation may not change much, but still, there's no need for that pressure right now.  Sure, I've already started giving it a little publicity already, but not a lot.  Eventually this project will get as much priority as every other Fateless endeavor I promote, if not more.

ENTRY:

So, onto the rest of my current blog entry:

I plan on being back home, in LA, in roughly a week and a half.

I'm in Moab, Utah, right now.  I've made a lot of progress on this trip/project but unfortunately I will have to head back home

 before I can hit most of the main locations: The Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, Capital Reef, and the Escalantes. (And I've had to put off meeting my friend John in Yosemite, for 2 months.)  

But that's okay. One way or another I am determined to get back here by early Fall to finish the job. Turning this part of the Southwest into a separate trip will help to air this whole thing out anyway; it's a bit concentrated as it is.  

And I will have to take that trip after I've finished the Washington State portion of this project, in August.

My reasons for heading home I'll have to share with you 

individually.  They are a little too personal to be posting on the web.

Also, I will try two more locations on the way back home, Antelope Canyon and Meteor Crater.

It has taken me over two weeks to make this last video, mainly because after I realized that I wasn't going to have time to create a video per location, I began a montage of all locations up to that point.  This turned out to be--not much easier.  Also, "that point" was basically a month ago, so I've done a lot more ever since the spot where this video leaves off.  Plus, of course, half of it got done in my car in the middle of BF desert while hitting the other locations, which didn't help it's production along either. But it's done and I'm happy with it. You can check it out at the bottom after you've cleaned your plate and finished reading.  ,'-)

You will have to excuse me if writing these long-winded-yet-sane passages on here is making me feel better.  It's almost an exorcize in something.  It's reminding me that I'm still coherent and haven't lost my mind yet.  The frustration and spirit-breaking amount of perfectly-timed obstacles I've experienced on this trip lead me to such emotional acts as striking my equipment, flipping off small town folk (driving), screaming at the sky, screaming at God (whether or not there is one), and generally not taking care of myself.  It became outrageous when I think about it.  But what can I do?  My heart is for both perfection and intricacy, and they are a bad combination.

But there is no way I could live with making this sound like it was all bad.  No way.  There were some truly miraculous and 

expansive (literally) moments out there, and some really interesting and heartfelt music that was created within hours, sometimes minutes.  The highlight of my trip might have been driving to Provo, Utah, to meet up with Nyle Steiner--inventor of the EWI--where we then recorded live, cinematic, ambient music in the mountains near his home.  

But I don't know.  I sure met up and performed with some excellent artists out there, including my brother Brian, when we recorded at Lake Tahoe, and Native-flute player D'Von Charley at Canyon De Chelly.  And some of the artistic things that transpired on the Navaho rez... I just can't ever describe.  

Of course, seeing my mother graduate probably takes the grand prize here.

:-)

It was awesome.  And someone graduating, radiantly, at 71 is not something you see every day.  (Take that, mom!)

These are all great things for me to remember at this moment.  I can use the cheering up.

ONWARD:

I have been on the road, living in my car for logistically two months now, and have been away from home for over three.  I know... kind of crazy and definitely not planned. There were many conditions and delays on the road after I finally left the Phoenix area, where I had been hovering for over a month.

I had actually started a detailed list of what happened at each location just now, but then I realized that the whole reason I went through all of this trouble to video tape the project was so that I would be able to chop it into a story later.  This is relieving.  ,'-)  I don't have to write all day now.  

And no matter how much more poetic, conceptual and descriptive the medium of writing is, film still makes things more real and official than writing does.  All medias are give and take.

As originally planned, I will later make a short film for each location I've recorded at. Perhaps a documentary will be made about all of my Southwest excursions, but more likely they will be to feed a bigger, separate project, so I will probably create a website just for Ambient Travels (permanent title TBA).

BTW:

Someone recently asked me how I manage to find the time and money to do this.  To answer this, I have two sets of three words each: "save up money," and "live in poverty."  Explanation: when I say that what I am doing is hard---I seriously mean it.  (Aside from the creative task.)  I would say that, if you're based in a town as far as LA, it takes saving up about a minimum of 3 to 5 hundred dollars for gas, cheap food and video tapes (or hard disks), and then living in your car for weeks on end in natural settings without showering until you find a river.  The funny thing is--I'm being dead serious.  ,'-)

Even so, if one's heart is totally in it, then something like this is

 obviously doable.

And what's left of the taken measures I would be happy to explain to you in more detail, if you are someone I know.

In the meantime, I hope that that answers any questions anyone might have had about it. 

THE ROUT:

For now, I'll just give you a quick run-through of the rout I took. 

After leaving Phoenix I went up central AZ rout 17 and then cut across to Chinle and the Navaho Nation.  From there I headed as far north as Valley of the Gods before cutting down through the Hopi Rez to Tuba City and back to Flagstaff.  By then, and just before I could get a chance to do the Grand Canyon, it was time for me to drive to Reno, Nevada, so I could make it to my mother's college graduation (something that obviously couldn't wait).  After cutting across Nevada and seeing her graduate (hours after arriving), I hung out with her and my brother, edited video, and composed at locations near there for over a week.  After that I headed back to the Southwest, crossing Nevada on the 80 and seeing the Salt Lake Desert for the first time before arriving at Nyle's house in Provo, Utah. After a couple of days with him I went strait to Moab, a town situated at the heart of canyon country.  I've been here ever since.

Yep, this was a far cry from my original rout, but it goes to show that even when you have something written down and calculated, "The best laid plans..."

But also, it's always wild doing something like going from the freezing could snows of Tahoe to the dry heat of the basin desert and Moab on the verge of Summer, within a day or two.

There is obviously plenty still not yet told about this story, so I will let my latest and last video explain some of it.  Enjoy!  It took me a month and several locations to finish.

I have one last thought in an attempt to feel much better about this whole thing: if I'm not making any kind of "external" world history with this project, I'm definitely making some significant personal history with it.  :)  Definitely.

Talk soon!

More below...

TO SEE A LARGER, BETTER QUALITY VERSION OF THE BELOW VIDEO, GO TO THIS LINK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mJBJhvYZCM

Before I continue:

I also wanted to acknowledge a few more music discoveries on the road that were memorable (cinematic material, and some electro, that goes well with desert travel):

RE-DISCOVERED CDs:

"Triptych" - Ian Boddy, Markus Reuter & Nigel Mullaney

"Amber" & "Tri Repetae" - Autechre

"The Zen Kiss" - Sheila Chandra

"The City" - Vangelis

"Context" - Thought Gild

"Spanners" & "Temple of Transparent Balls" - Black Dog    (indescribable)

"Double Figure" - Plaid

"No Roots" - Faithless

"Lifeforms" - FSOL

"Point Of Arrival" - Loren Nerell

"Propagation" - Robert Rich

"Light Fantastic," "Structures from Silence," "Quiet Music" & "Life Sequence" - Steve Roach

"Song for the Americas" - Jonathan Alias

"Ambient Works Volume 1" - Aphex Twin

"Life is Full Of Possibilities" - Dntel

"Symetric" - Thomas Ronkin  (intense for everywhere)

"Phaedra," "Firestarter" and "Force Majeure" - Tangerine Dream (and for any mountains/forests)

"The Lovely Sound Of Thunder" - Harold Bud

"M'Ocean" & "The Storm" - Michael Stearns

"Galaxies" - Kevin Braheny  (great ambience but be careful of the cheesy-er tracks)

"Aqua Donna" - Vic Hennegan  (everywhere)

"Places In Arizona" - Mr. Soon    (and good in places other than AZ)

"Euphony 2" - a newer compilation I was on (great for other places as well)

"Ambient Time Travelers" - an old Cleopatra compilation I was on

"Indigo" - Patrick O'Hearn (mainly in the mountains/forests)

"Castalia" -  Mark Isham (mainly in mountains/forests)

"On The Shores Of Heaven" - Jeff Pierce (and partly in mountains/forests)

"Mythic Dreamer" - R. Carlos Nakai (and great to mix into other things ;-)

Also, Voices of Kwan's second CD.  I can't remember the name at the moment.

So I know I'm leaving some out but maybe I'll name them later.  There is also more I will get to on the next trip, because there is more that I wanted to re-connect with yet didn't have time. 

Also, I've been doing a lot of mixing on the road: I leave ITunes on random shuffle and then leave another program on over that (playing a drone-ish playlist) and then listen as I drive.  Some very cool and coincidental moments emerge.  So, I have to correct myself about something on the video; a girl was asking me if I also DJ during this trip, and I said "no."  That's not exactly true.  I make original music at a specific location, but as I drive I let experimental DJ sets record on my laptop.  I've got some great ones to show for it.

NEWLY DISCOVERED ARTISTS:

Saul Stokes (really great)

Sleepy Town Manufacturer

Badloop (so brilliant)

Resonant Drift

Vir Unis

The Circular Ruins

Abfahrt Hinwil

Recue

Planet Bolex

There are at least five more that I can't think of.  I remember the music, well, but not the names.  Again, later...

ALSO, BEFORE I FORGET, BELOW IS A LINK TO MY CLIFF SESSION WITH D'VON CHARLEY AT CANYON DE CHELLY.  IT WAS A GOOD PERFORMANCE AND YOU CAN CHECK OUT A SHORT CLIP OF IT AT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS4CdGF-KMg

All the best!

Dean

Phoenix to San Carlos - Friends, Deserts, Creative Decisions

(FYI SIDE NOTE - those of you who were curious about my Mt. Shasta attempt in a previous entry: yes, that was a failed attempt to the summit.  But, I am scheduled to climb it [completely] this August, along with Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood and with a team up Mt. Rainier.  Now for the entry/update at hand...)

It's going on my fourth unplanned week in the vacinity of Phoenix, due mainly to bad internet 

connections and the time spent on editing these video entries.  I really am going to have to 

start skipping them.  Plus, juggling that, along with the process of communicating with web 

designers and people at home helping me renovate my professional life, is just not an option at this point.  I have also been doing a lot of helping of friends in troubled times, but considering that most of them were once there for me in my time of need, it's pretty much a no-brainer.  And before I start ranting, unknowingly, I think I'll just run down what's happened since the last entry instead...

After visiting my good friend Doug Miles in a Phoenix hospital, for a brief operation he had, and then leaving Alma and Alexis, I went and visited Joe Jakub (Mr. Soon) for almost a week.  That one was my fault.  I enjoyed catching up with Joe so much that I just stayed and stayed.  

After prying myself away from him, I stuck to my original plan and visited Doug at his house in San Carlos, where he was recovering from a few things.  San Carlos is about 70 miles East of Phoenix and is right next to the town of Globe.  We enjoyed that but we were both concentrating on our individual delema's at that point, so it wasn't the usual "let's-get-buck-wild-and-take-a-road-trip-to-Santa-Fe" visit there.  I stayed long enough to record a live session at the Upper Salt River and at Coolidge Dam in San Carlos Lake.

If you look at the videos you can see both sessions.  Compared to other sessions thus far, they were flawless and the music was sweet, deep and appropriate for these areas.

Both of those sessions were supposed to be a couple of brief, extra locations I fit on the side of the main location in that area: the lower Salt River Canyon, which is like a next-size-down Grand Canyon in Southern Arizona (The Grand Canyon being in Northern Arizona).  The first day I tried to make it to Salt River Canyon to record, I got there at night.  I worked on instruments for a song there and then stopped before driving back to Globe the next morning. I figured it was time to get to work without being a burden to households, or being distracted by them.

Well, after then spending 3 days in a Globe coffee house to edit the previous footage, and another two days there moving around to try and get a decent wireless connection that could handle uploads (and living in my car the whole time so I can afford all of this), I finally left Globe failed and pissed.  

But taking it back a little: before leaving, I went back to Salt River Canyon again, where I was again late.  I continued working on what was now two songs there, during twilight: one ambient instrumental piece and one trip hop-esque piece with vocals (homage to how much of that stuff Doug and I used to listen to driving through there on our way to Santa Fe).  

I recorded the vocals during twilight and then the next morning I finished the ambient piece.  Due to all of the complications combined, I think the 'trip hoppy' piece came out better and more raw, but the ambient piece did have a somewhat "chasmic" sound that felt good to make as I was hovering over the overlook of a canyon that was a couple thousand feet deep.  I then left Salt River Canyon and stopped off at a small, unpopular canyon/wash along the highway outside of Globe that I call Teaser Canyon; it has some running water through it, like an oasis, and I hiked a short way up it to stop and make some very dry and intimate ambient music.  I then left the area of Globe in pretty much total frustration, aside from the little good I experienced.

I was never the kind of person to be angered by small towns and remote countries until I joined the present-day internet revolution by trying to keep blogs current on my trips.  I've always known how slow things get when you leave the city, but for some reason I didn't think this would be a problem.  Of course, it's probably just as much the fault of our state-of-the-art as it is small towns.

It turns out that, when it comes to wireless, we are still pretty much in the stone age.  I suppose we still have a ways to go before we overcome piracy to the point where signal-tap systems can be developed as a universal technology?  I don't know much about that.  But I do know that small towns are practically servivalist when it comes to wireless signals ("Get off 'o' my property!!").  Even so, I suppose I would/will be, too, whenever I retire there.  ,'-)

So I basically came back to Joe's, where I was embraced again, and am here now, writing.  I am having such a great time with Joe and his roommate Fabio that I can easily see being more irresponsible and staying indefinitely (we want to publish a cookbook about how to cook certain celebrities)--but now...  ,'-(  I have to go.  I am over three weeks late, late enough that I no longer will be able to go back to LA before heading to Reno for my Mom's graduation.  I will have to drive there from Provo, Utah now.  My mother's graduation probably only happens once, and at her age, I see no other achievement quite like it in my life at present.

So, due to this change, my whole rout has changed.  I will now be zig-zagging directly north, instead of up and down, the way I had originally planned.  Below you can see my old rout marked off on a map.  I will be covering almost the same territory now, but in a different order.

Plus, I have locations that I was planning on filming music at in the Reno area, so this music-making trip will no longer be separate from the next one.  This will be a Canyon Country/Basin Desert/Sierra's trip, and I will not return to LA until late May----lots of living in my car to look forward to...  

 

(GOD. Showers are nice!)

But I don't want to make this all sound negative.  There are obviously many moments of serious magic, and among other things, I feel very thankful to be hiking around here during a season when everything is in bloom and, despite the intense heat, the land is extremely lush with life.

TO SEE THE BELOW VIDEO EXTENDED, AND WITH A BETTER QUALITY, GO HERE (SOUND IS LOW. HAVE TO TURN IT UP):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=793WENLv8to

SMP Phase 2 - "Friends and the Upper Salt"

As I said before, I will have to stop doing great edits of these video entries in order to be able to succeed in finishing the trip, so one of these videos is edited and the other is not.  The first one is, and the second one isn't.  You will notice them like night and day, and unfortunately, the day (the one that is not edited) is a taste of the videos I will be posting from now on.  Again, I appologize for that, but hopefully the magic and novelty of these places I'm visiting will fill in for any lack of production.

The first film was of the Upper Salt session, this one is for the Coolidge Dam Session.  The next entry will include the video of my Salt River Canyon session, the up-coming Weaver's Needle, and Sedona.  

Also, I will soon include links to the Native American charity that this project will be aligning with.  Stay posted for that.

There is a little more text after this video...

TO SEE THE BELOW VIDEO EXTENDED, AND IN A BETTER QUALITY, GO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN9r8nr2IYQ

SMP Phase 3 - "Coolidge Dam Session"

And I want to list some desert-associated music discoveries on my trip so far:

Older albums I've been re-discovering:

Daryll Dobson - "The Mind Electric"

Kit Watkins - "Labyrinth" (beyond brilliant)

A Produce - "White Sands" and "Land of a Thousand Trances"

From Here To Tranquility (compilation)

Autechre - "Incanabula"

Thomas Ronkin - "Within/Distance"

Newer albums I've been RE-discovering:

Anthony Wakman and Mr. Soon - "Points of Origin"

Steve Roach - "The Lost Pieces"

Robert Rich - "Electric Ladder"

NEW ARTISTS I'VE BEEN DISCOVERING:

Little Dragon (so great)

Badloop

Saul Stokes  (never gave him a try until now - amazing artist)

Lusine

Kettel

Phoenix and The Lost Dutchman

My first 2 weeks of the trip were spent here in Phoenix, Arizona.  Tomorrow I hit the road again.

Excuse this delayed entry.  I have been doing nonstop things like visiting friends and doing charity work, of sorts, and all while trying to finish a decent edit of my video blog.  I'm letting you all know right now that I think I'm going to have to cancel the great editing jobs on these video entries.  They just take WAY too much time to do and I'm supposed to be concentrating on the destinations.  From now on I will post very rough videos, and I apologize if I have spoiled anyone with these present ones.  

The charity work?  Lol, well, I have been mentoring people who desire to be musicians.  Some of these are ex-musicians and some are not.  Some I know and some are fresh acquaintances.  On that note, obviously if you are a friend of mine, never hesitate to ask me for help with anything creative or music related.  If I have the time I'm usually game for it.

So I first arrived here to my life-long friends Alexis and Alma, in the town of Mesa on Easter Sunday.  They are mother and son.  The day I arrived, it was too late to comfortably record, so we all just went for a day hike at the Superstition Mts.  While there I realized that the foot of the main mountain, The Lost Dutchman, would be a good enough location for our first recording session.

Two days later, we went back to a similar hiking spot and recorded.  It was an interesting session for something so on-the-fly.  I had taught Alexis some of the basics of my software.  He has had an amazing musical talent ever since we were in Jr. High together.  

During our session at the Lost Dutchman, Alexis was able to play chords and do fairly decent cross-fading of rhythms while I played flute, but even though he was new to this form of music, his talents extend far past it, as do mine (as addicted as I am).  Alma took pictures and footage during the session.  It was a beautiful feeling, doing that with them there.  Alexis and I could have gone deeper into the mountains for this session, but it was important for me to have Alma's presence and her creative knack.

After leaving them, a week later, I joined up with my good friend and colleague, Joe Jakub (known as recording artist Mr. Soon).  I've been at Joe's for almost a week as well, in his awesome, eclectic-minimalist apartment in northern Phoenix.  Joe and I relate about a great many artistic 'issues,' and I'm sad to have to leave, but I'm scheduled to hike to Weaver's Needle in the Superstition Mts. tomorrow before continuing on my trip.

From there I will drive to the San Carlos Appache Rez where I always visit my good friend Doug miles, and I'll record the singing voice of his daughter Grace (possibly).  I saw Doug here in Phoenix almost a week ago, but that's a story for the next entry.

Also, a mention: Joe and I were talking about this project and he made me realize that since I've done projects in the past that tie into a charity, I should make this project the same.  When I tie into charities in this country it is always for Native causes, so thus it will be again.  I will use World Book Aid as a conduit and will start providing that link after Lisa and I situate the program a little better.  We will be juggling that with another program we are in the middle of.

Meantime, here's the video for the session with Alexis and Alma.

Notice: try to bare in mind that these videos are for the purpose of showing some friends and fans the project, and keeping a record of it.  They are not meant to be serious cinematic achievements of any kind.  You can continue offering suggestions if you like, but the software I am using on the road is very limited, and thus what you are seeing is the result of it's maxed-out capabilities.  I know---that's limited, but it still does the trick and makes for some webisodes the people seem to be responding positively to.  But I'll fix that...   ,'-)

To see this video as a better quality:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF9ScEJ2G8E

To see an extended version of this video that is funny and basically ridiculous:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpxA5Q2Hzis

Dean De Benedictis

VIDEO OF LOST DUTCHMAN SESSION

Shasta Attempt, Later That Week

Regarding our Mt. Shasta climb last September, 2009:

Ordinarily I would write, but I realized that this video footage is pretty classic and says it all better than I ever could, regardless of some questionable sound quality.  I've got it posted in two places.

I also received a request to start cutting these videos shorter.  That may be difficult sometimes but I will definitely try.  Just as much for entertainment purposes, the entries and footage on this blog are a sole means of documenting the events of the project.  I will definitely do what I can, but I wish I had more time to edit these rough posts.

Whether swift or not, I can easily say that this video is entertaining at the very least!  (below)

All the best,

Dean De Benedictis

"I don't think the world knows how much my heart extends to them, regardless of what the rest of my body is doing." --anonymous

TO WATCH THE BELOW VIDEO WITH BETTER RESOLUTION, 

GO HERE: http://vimeo.com/10649061 

OR HERE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX5rLqAlEZ4