JJ Abrams' Mystery Box

JJ Abrams is now one of my new favorite people. I've enjoyed some of his work (specifically "Lost"), but after watching this lecture, I've found that he is an energetic, intelligent, and brilliantly creative fellow. Check it out!

http://www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box.html

Jennfier Egan

I just came across this website after reading about it in the New York Times this morning. Very cool and very interesting in regards to writing. Egan creates short, spirited narratives that (surely) serve as the germination for longer stories. Good stuff!

http://jenniferegan.com/

Beautiful Things

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Hilarious and heart-wrenching.

http://www.minimiam.com/en/goen.html

Skip the intro, click on "gallery," and enjoy.

FAWM 2010

So, here it is again: February Album Writing Month (FAWM). I've participated in this challenge three times before, and each year I produce better songs, so I'm excited about FAWM 2010. The challenge: Write and record 14 songs in 28 days -- one song every two days for the entire month of February. I will post my demos (very rough demos) on My Space at http://www.myspace.com/kjasonroberts

I welcome constructive comments.

UPDATE: Damn, this is difficult. So I've written and recorded three "songs," so I'm on track, but, man, they kind of suck. Good little elements in each, but overall, they just don't come together. Anyway, I'll post them soon.

Project Song on NPR

This is really cool. Heard it on NPR yesterday. If you're into songwriting at all, it's worth watching (or listening).

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113659105&ps=bb2

300-Word Story

I assigned a 300-word story to my fiction writing class. I told them I would write one, too, so here it is:

The Last Time
She carefully sifted through his sock drawer to find the pack of cigarettes she knew he hid there, the two broken fingernails on her right hand like little daggers, catching between the fibers of his dirt-stained athletic socks. Lifting the pack of cigarettes from the drawer as if it was a ticking bomb, she walked to the French doors, opened them, and stepped onto the redwood deck outside, the new fall rain puddling in the wood’s striations. She sat on the first step and lit a cigarette, a mist of rain swirling in the evening air. Delicately she touched the reddening bruise now rising around her eye, the blood on her fingers sticky against her face. The orbital bone is cracked, she thought, running her fingertips over the skin, feeling the heat of the contusion, comparing its discomfort to the others. After several long drags, she flicked the cigarette into the soft, wet grass under the purple dusk light and watched as it billowed smoke like a tiny wreckage. Standing, she pulled the white door handle, noticing her cracked fingernails, the blood like a tattoo on her pale hand. Never again, she thought as she carefully shut the door behind her, wondering why she still moved timidly. A smile cracked her face, and she placed a hand over her mouth. No, she thought, then listened to the silence in the house, the stillness, absorbing the odd calm. She eyed the body on the floor, its forceful frame, its girth, its unbridled power now empty, the hilt of the kitchen knife jutting from its chest. Her heart filled and quickened as she stepped over the body – the sole of her white tennis shoe leaving its imprint in the puddling blood – picked up the telephone, and began to dial.

© Jason Roberts, 2009

Old SXSW kudos

I just found this while cleaning out my email inbox. It's a brief review from our 2008 South-by-Southwest appearance. I stick it here because I'm mentioned specifically, although not by name (I'm the lead guitarist). I don't often get press or kudos, so what the hell:

43 Songs About 43 Presidencies
(Sacramento)
standardrecording.com

My first big find of the fest: These guys are indeed billed as you see here, but according to their label's Web site, the "band" itself seems to be called: Of Great and Mortal Men. Yet according to Pitchfork, the project they're plugging (still to be released, apparently) goes by the full name: Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs About 43 Presidencies.

Tonight, we get a total of 6 guys playing 8 songs about 8 presidencies, some with the band's introductory explanations as noted: "Rutherford B. Hayes" (mostly about his beard), "George H.W. Bush," "Zachary Taylor" ("he had the most face"), "Andrew Jackson" ("he was a jerk; he was, like, a genocidal f---wad, so f--- him!"), "Warren G. Harding," "Benjamin Harrison," "Ronald Reagan," and one of the generals who became President, though they don't say (and I can't catch) which one.

Leading the festivities is Christian Kiefer (at left in photo), who wrote the songs with Matthew Gerken and Jefferson Pitcher. And the songs are great. "Hayes" is hard Americana, "Taylor" breaks into a spirited hoedown, "Reagan" comes across like a truly touching Steve Earle song (I kid you not), and "Jackson" — ooooo, this is the best, a real scary thing, like the Coen Brothers taking over A Prairie Home Companion. The band is ragged but right, with a remarkable lead guitarist. By all means, track down the three-disc boxed set whenever it sees the light of day.

Yay, me!

Richard Price, Lush Life

I just finished Richard Price's novel, Lush Life. In one word: aggravating. It begins well enough. Price details New York City and its people with a gritty clarity ("gritty" is how we all describe urban crime novels, by the way). His dialogue is great, and the story he begins to weave is intriguing -- it's centered around the homicide of a young man, witnessed by his two friends. But after only a quarter of the novel, Price tells us who shot the young man (in retrospect, it was pretty clear even earlier), yet the novel is 455 pages long, so the story just keeps going with no real prospect for a decent or interesting pay-off. I kept going, holding on to the hope that he will surprise me.

Nope.

Now, like I said, Price delivers with his keen eye for detail about NYC and its characters, and the story of the protagonist is compelling, but he's not someone I was particularly rooting for. And Price does present an idea by the end of the unending cycle of crime in NYC and how the NYC police waffle between disdain and ineptitude for the constant crime cycle. I just don't think it's enough to justify 455 pages.

So, I'm on to Philip Roth's Zuckerman Bound.

Recession Fallout: Fewer Women Having Kids

Recession Fallout: Fewer Women Having Kids

This article is from Time magazine. I think it's an interesting example to which we can apply the Tipping Point theory.

The D.C. Show on YouTube

The fellow who filmed our Presidents show in D.C. posted a nice clip on YouTube (that's me on the left, hiding in the back).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4GHsT-VthI

Songwriting!

I signed up to participate in February Album Writing Month again (I completed the task in February 2007, skipped it in 2008). So far, in 10 days, I've written and recorded four songs. I'm relatively pleased with the songs, but not necessarily the recordings. I have a bit of trouble singing. I'm sing moderately well, but it's definitely my weakness. I'm trying to write simple songs and focus on vocal melody, my other weakness (you may ask, how in the hell are you writing these songs in the first place?).

So, it's a process, and as many people know, I dig process. I have definitely improved since 2007, so it's nice to grow as a writer and artist. However, the greatest challenge is finding my own voice. I listen to my favorite artists and emulate to them to a degree -- or maybe I emulate too much. It's a difficult distinction to make, really: Where does influence end and originality begin?

Washington D.C.

Some photos from our gig in D.C. It was a great show for about 460 people. Christian Kiefer, our fearless leader, kept us working most of the time, so we didn't get the opportunity to see many of the monuments, but our host, John Marsh, gave us a tour of some Civil War sites in Northern Virginia near Great Falls. In fact, our hosts were the most hospitable people I've ever met. Great wine, great discussions, and a great place to lay our heads.

Gasp! A New Post!

Since a new semester is beginning, I thought I should update my blog. While I assign blogs for my students, I'm actually pretty bad at updating my own. Since our son, Jude, was born last October, I've been busy updating his blog (http://jasonnicoleandjude.blogspot.com). He's damn attractive, so he needs his own blog.

What's happening? Music. One of my bands, Nice Monster, has released its second record and we're celebrating with a CD release show at the Fox and Goose on January 10th. The other music project I'm involved with -- Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs about 43 Presidencies -- has a show in Washington D.C. on January 17th. This will be the biggest gig I've ever played, so I'm excited. NPR is running a story on the show and project (we hope) on Friday, January 16th, probably on All Things Considered. After that show, we will perform the same show at Marilyn's in Sacramento featuring an all-star Sacramento musician freak-out. Then, in March, we're off to Austin, Texas, for South-by-Southwest.

Then, sleep.

Ooo! A Review!

So, Jackson Griffith wrote some nice things about my band's debut in this week's Sacramento News and Review. Check it out:

"Next up was the Jason Roberts Band. Fortunately, the electric guitar-bass-drums format, with local music writer Roberts alternating between clean minimalist lines and skronky, psychedelic soloing on his Stratocaster, supported by Chad Wilson on bass and Greg Aaron on drums, came as a nice counterpoint to the more Byzantine folkish prog of Bold Robot. The trio’s sound was like a welcome blast of cool, monochromatic basement air, akin to hearing Television hampered by a delightful cough-syrup buzz. At one point, Roberts mentioned that it was the lineup’s first show."

Thanks, Jackson!

What's Happening with Movies?

I watched Iron Man the other night and I decided that I'm tired of sequels and remakes and movies based on comics (The Dark Knight is an exception). The list of the highest-grossing films over the last eight years or so is dominated by sequels and "franchise" movies (The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Spider-Man, Shrek). These are just the most successful; there are many that simply suck (Fast and the Furious, the Scary Movie franchise, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Rocky VI, Rambo IV, Ocean's 11, 12, and 13, and so on). Where is film as art? Genre films, like the above, lack quality. The movie studios and producers understand that their main audience is 18-25 year old males, so explosions, "flash," and sex abound.

I liked Juno. I liked Little Miss Sunshine. I liked Million Dollar Baby. These were all nominated for Best Picture Oscars (Million Dollar Baby won), but they are not atop the highest-grossing film list. It's the difference between art and entertainment. Curiously, I think The Dark Knight is so successful because it is able to bridge a gap between art and entertainment, explosions and philosophy. I'd say the same about The Matrix, but The Dark Knight is far more serious.

Debut!

So, my band's debut last night was successful. Good crowd, good response, and my band played exceptionally. To quote the Silversun Pickups, I've been waiting for this moment all my life (not all my life, but a long time). I've feared playing my own songs and singing my own songs, so last night was monumental for me, and now I feel that I can move forward with more confidence.

The Presidents Project

For the last year or two, I've been involved with my friends in recording this massive project, a three-CD set of songs about each of the 43 Presidents of the United States. Nerdy, you say? Absolutely, but these songs are good, too. So, today, the Sacramento News and Review gave the project a nice boost: a cover story. Read about it here (my name is mentioned somewhere):

http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=797425

Also, check the website:

http://ofgreatandmortalmen.wordpress.com/

It's good stuff, I think.

Week One

Soooooo, this is my blog. I'm using it for my courses, but it's existed for a couple of years now. You'll see that, in the past, I've rarely posted, but I expect that to change. I posted a few new photos of my wife. She's cute.

I hope to achieve a few things here. First, I'd to maintain my original intent, and that is to write about my interests. I hope that my students find this at least somewhat entertaining. Second, I intend to discuss issues directly related to the courses I'm teaching and post interesting articles and images that relate to the course. And, maybe, the occasional rant. Yay, rants!

Poking the Belly

I'm trying to teach my unborn son how to count. I poke my wife's belly once and say, loudly, "One." Then I wait for one kick. Then, I poke my wife's belly twice and say, loudly, "Two." Then I wait for two kicks. So far, we haven't moved past two. We've got "one" down pretty well, I think.

I've also begun placing headphones on Nicole's belly and playing music for my unborn son. Currently in the rotation: Pablo Casals performing Bach cello suites; Debussy's Suite Bergamasque; Glenn Gould performing Hayden; and Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me". OK - I'm kidding about the last one. Sometimes I do offer him Miles Davis' Kind of Blue.

I've been reading Goodnight Moon to him, too, but tonight we begin with Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Why? Why not!

In other news, I'm planning to implement Blogs into my courses for the fall, so I intend to produce more blogs and generally make the site more interesting. Yay! 21st-century learning styles!

What Just Happened?

Ohmygod, my whole world just shifted. But first, I'd like to send a little shout out to everyone who doesn't read this blog -- mainly, my students. Yes, yes, although you forget about me the moment you leave class and attach your cell phone to the ear without the iPod earbud, I continue to wonder about you and your progress. The spring 2008 semester is over, and again I find myself actually wishing I had more time with my students. This semester, I taught American literature for the first time. It was fun. I enjoyed a wonderful class of students: Julie, Aaron, Melissa, Jessie, Michael, Will, Gabby, Lila, Laura, Sierra, Sarah, and even Cody, just to name a few. We discussed many important literary, uh, things, but most important was the discussion about Marlon Brando's "hotness" in A Streetcar Named Desire. Certain students found him intoxicating, I think. Anyway, it was a great class.

Now, in my own life, I recently bought a house and found out that I am going to be a father. Holy crap. You work toward these things, then they happen and you're prone to think, "What have I done?" But I'm thrilled about the house and I'm ecstatic (and a little nauseous) about the baby. I just hope I don't break it.