Expect big news from me shortly

Well, an idea for a podcast I have had in my head for quite some time has taken a huge step forward in coming to fruition. John LeMasney, my friend and former colleague at Rider who is also a very talented artist and instructional technologist, and I have arranged to collaborate on this podcast, which I think is going to be very engaging and informative for all those who work with technology and art in all its forms.

Once we are ready to launch, I'll put an official announcement up on the ol' blog. For now, enjoy what might be the theme song for the new endeavor. It's a short, instrumental number...sorry about the closing sound cutting out like it does. The final version will have a cleaner fade out, but I didn't get a chance to fix it yet.

Enjoy...

TechArts (Theme #1)
Written, arranged, performed and recorded by Brian Kelley.
© 2006 Brian J. Kelley. All rights reserved.

Ryan Howard wins NL MVP!

Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard has won the 2006 National League Most Valuable Player Award, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced Monday.

Howard, who turned 27 on Sunday, earned the MVP award in the season after capturing NL Rookie of the Year honors in 2005. Of the 32 ballots submitted by two baseball writers in each league city, Howard was listed first on 20 and second on the other 12 for a total of 388 points, based on the tabulation system that gives 14 points for a first-place vote, nine for a second-place vote, eight for a third-place vote and on down to one for a 10th-place vote.

The Phillies' slugger led Major League Baseball in home runs with 58, runs batted in with 149 and total bases with 393 while batting .313 for the Phillies, who were knocked out of playoff contention on the second-to-last day of the season.

Howard's 58 homers set the Phils' franchise record for home runs in a season, topping Mike Schmidt's 1980 record of 48. Howard also equaled Jimmie Foxx's Philadelphia baseball record for most homers in a season. Foxx hit 58 for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1932.

(Photo credit: Rusty Kennedy/AP)

Sort of new songs and other things

Well, here's an update on things.

First...I am no longer working at Rider...and I don't plan on going through the whole thing again here.

Second...this was a very bad sports weekend for me...Rutgers football loses at Cincinnati, ending the Scarlet Knights' perfect season and national championship dream...and the Eagles lose to the terrible Tennessee Titans while Donovan McNabb suffers a torn anterior cruciate ligament and will be sidelined eight months to a year.

However, the free time has allowed me to work on a couple of musical ideas...

Never Too Far (demo w/ partial vocals)

This is an update of a song I originally wrote when I was 18 or 19 years old. The first version was a synth-based, "new age" piece featuring pan flute and calliope sounds. This new version features piano, but I included a more traditional flute sound in a nod to the original. The bridge section has also been changed...hopefully for the better. I tried my best to remember the lyrics. The first verse and the choruses are intact, but I couldn't remember the words to the second verse so those are still incomplete. The lyrics in the bridge are obviously improvised and will be changed at some point.

The other musical idea (from post above)

Here's the second of the two somewhat new songs I mentioned in the post above (I decided to split up the songs in individual posts for podcasting purposes)...

Untitled 2006-11-16

This is an extended version of what was "Happy Birthday, Katie." Even though I wrote that little song in a few minutes, I kept on listening to it and thinking that I could do something more with it. So I added a bridge the other day and came up with this. I don't have any lyrics for it yet...and I'm obviously not going to keep the "Happy Birthday, Katie" lyrics.

R! U! Congrats, Rutgers Football!

Yes, I'm a Rider alumnus, but Rutgers is the State University of New Jersey and it has a football team, which Rider lacks...so I have always rooted for Rutgers...even when the Scarlet Knights sucked.

Well, tonight's huge 28-25 win over No. 3 Louisville to remain undefeated at 9-0 is one of the greatest sports thrills of my life. Go Rutgers!

R! U!

(Photo by AP/Tim Larsen)

It's official: Genesis "trio" to tour in 2007

As I said in the previous post, Genesis had announced it would hold a press conference today to make an announcement (yep...one of those "let's announce we're going to announce something" press conferences...love those).

Well, today, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks announced they are indeed reuniting for a tour of Europe and select U.S. cities next year.

The promising thing is that Tony Banks mentioned that one of the reasons for the reunion is that Genesis is usually only mentioned in the mainstream press for its more commercial material of the 1980s and '90s, and that the band wants to remind people that there is another side to the band...

"Genesis has a rather more complex side of music to it," said Banks. "One side gets slightly more attention than the other. We are trying to reacquaint people. Genesis is not particularly a group that is mentioned very much these days in the papers I read anyhow and I just like to remind people we did do a lot of things."

This article from E! Online also includes this paragraph...

The three musicians have already spent two weeks rehearsing in New York for the tour, which will see Collins also get behind the drum kit at various points during a show that will draw on all eras of the band, particularly songs and instrumentals dating back to 1973, delighting hardcore fans of their early sound.

Hey...as long as I don't hear "I Can't Dance" or "Jesus He Knows Me," I'll be OK with that.

Also, as I said in my earlier post on the Genesis reunion, I'm still holding out hope that Peter Gabriel and guitarist Steve Hackett get on the bandwagon and join Phil, Mike and Tony on the road in 2008. This whole reunion talk started with the five members getting together in a series of meetings to discuss going out and restaging the "Lamb" tour. But Peter backed out because he wants to finish his solo CD and tour on his own next year (which, in itself, is awesome news) while reserving the right to change his mind after 2007.

Once Peter passed on the reunion, Steve would have been the odd man out because he had only been with Genesis for two albums after PG left the group. So it was just decided that Phil, Mike and Tony would get back together.

However, the other part of all this Genesis reunion news is that EMI is reissuing 14 Genesis studio albums...but note the release schedule...

To coincide with the Genesis tour, EMI Records will be re-issuing 14 Genesis studio albums in three stages during 2007. All the releases will be SACD/DVD double disc sets featuring newly re-mastered 5.1 surround sound and stereo mixes. The release schedule is as follows:

March 2007: A Trick Of The Tail (1976), Wind & Wuthering (1977), …And Then There Were Three…(1978), Duke (1980) Abacab (1981)

June/July 2007: Genesis(1983), Invisible Touch(1986), We Can't Dance (1991), Calling All Stations(1997)

Late 2007/Early 2008: Trespass (1970), Nursery Cryme (1971), Foxtrot (1972 ), Selling England By The Pound (1973), The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway(1974)

Hmm? I wonder why the early 1970s stuff including Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett would be released in late 2007 and early 2008. I really think there is a good chance of the classic, five-man version of Genesis reuniting and touring in 2008.

Fingers crossed.


(Photo and "Turn It On Again Tour" graphic courtesy of Genesis-Music.com.)