May the Force be with Me - The Happy Accident

I went to Disneyland on Monday and ended up having a scalding cup of hot chocolate spill all over the front of my shirt. OUCH! Not only was it painful, but now I had a big brown splotch shaped like Zimbabwe on the front of my prized white Cabo Wabo T-shirt! No worries though. I decided to quickly run over to the souvenir shop to get buy a dry shirt to wear the rest of the night. As luck had it, the force was with me and I found the gem pictured below!

Electricity Rocks!

I'd like to take a moment out of my day to acknowledge electricity. This stuff is amazing!! I've been working in the studio for the past week feverishly learning and programming a set of songs for a Leana, a singer from Sweden who'll I'll be performing in Los Angeles. As I sat here working, the thought hit me that if the power went down for even a day, I would be screwed! So here's a big, fat, hangin' thanks to electricity and all that it allows me to do. And while I'm at it, I'd like to express my gratitude to indoor plumbing too! Thanks big guy!

Comment from PRO-collector Jazz Fan

This is one of my favorite comments from a buyer of Ceremonies! Edward B......ian enjoyed the CD enough to mail back the response card and sign up for my mailing ist.

"this not pro-Piano. I'm PRO-collector Jazz music. in most of the music Armen Just accompanyments only with the Duduk and he does not include piano."

And now, I invite you all to give a listen to my non-pro-piano music.

My New Toy

I miss the older-style synthesizers that had knobs that you could turn and tweak to manipulate the sound so easily. This made for some really cool "happy accidents" while recording and performing. Korg put out this model just a few years ago in line with the retro-craze. Now I have one in my studio and I'm diggin' it!

"Destiny" According to Bob Dylan

"...the picture you have in your mind of what you're about will come true." ~ Bob Dylan in his June 12 interview with Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes (CBS)

...and the Earth Shook!

Wow! Here I am sitting in front of the computer about to post something as the earth started to shake right under me! I can't say I "hate" earthquakes, but I certainly don't love them either. It would've been quite unsettling had I not grown up in Los Angeles. My wife, being from Connecticut, is still a bit shaken (pun intended) from the experience. The speakers in my studio (see photo on May 23rd post) were swaying from left to right as if we were on a boat, but they didn't fall off. Whew! The blinds were swaying as well. The water in the pool looked like someone had been swimming and just got out. No water splashed out of the pool though. Now, if I had only had a martini in a shaker... hindsight really is 20/20.

Update: The news is saying it's a 5.6 quake in Anza, California (about 130 miles southeast from me). They're usually a bit off in their first estimate of scale and epicenter, i.e. the "Northridge" quake ended up being bigger than first reported, and the epicenter was actually in Reseda, California, not Northridge. Some info regarding the size of earthquakes: The Richter scale is a logarithmic scale. So using this scale, a magnitude 5 earthquake would result in 10 times the level of ground shaking as a magnitude 4 earthquake (and 32 times as much energy would be released). Yikes!!

Never been in an earthquake? Here's what they feel like according to the Geological Survey of Canada:
M=1 to 3: Recorded on local seismographs, but generally not felt
M=3 to 4: Often felt, no damage
M=5: Felt widely, slight damage near epicentre
M=6: Damage to poorly constructed buildings and other structures within 10's km
M=7: "Major" earthquake, causes serious damage up to ~100 km (recent Taiwan, Turkey, Kobe, Japan, and California earthquakes).
M=8: "Great" earthquake, great destruction, loss of life over several 100 km (1906 San Francisco, 1949 Queen Charlotte Islands) .
M=9: Rare great earthquake, major damage over a large region over 1000 km (Chile 1960, Alaska 1964, and west coast of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, 1700.)

Kick the Can Old Man

My oldest brother turned 50 today. I asked him how he felt. He replied, "When I drop something now, I don't even bother bending over to pick it up. I just keep kicking it until someone comes along and asks if I want them to pick it up for me." At least you can still kick! Happy birthday George. Susan Sarandon said that 50 is the new 40.

Crying While Eating

I wanted to share one of the weirdest websites that I've ever seen. It's called Crying While Eating. It contains – as you would've guessed – photos and videos of people crying while eating. Afshin, pictured below, is my favorite crier.