Oneironautical soirée

Jimi Hendrix was born on November 27, 1942. Exactly 28 years later would be the eve of my own birth. Jimi had died two months prior, on September 18, 1970, and so we weren’t exactly “on this earth” contemporaneously. I was inside another person’s body when Jimi’s soul left his, an ocean between us. All of this signifies nothing, of course, but it’s simply my weird way of framing the following cover of May this be love, which is one of my favorite Hendrix tunes. This is the first music I’ve recorded using my new home studio set-up, and every step of the process was experimental. If there was a reason I chose this song – and there probably wasn’t a reason – it was because it’s something I can usually play from beginning to end without noticeably fucking up. Hopefully I will be inspired to keep at it and put some work into developing my own music.

I also found myself fooling around with making a video for the song, and in the process remembered that I have several videos on Vimeo. Watching them was a sentimental trip down the spiral staircase into past versions of myself, and a complex mix of emotions were pumped through interior duct work. If I recall correctly, I put the cover song videos on Vimeo because YouTube was giving me shit for copyright crimes against humanity. Given that YouTube is starting to feeling a little gross, perhaps I’ll give the ol’ Vimeo account a little action going forward.

Red House: Jimi Hendrix, New York Pop, Randall’s Island, 1970

Every several years I rediscover this version of Red House, which features some of the best guitar soloing I’ve ever heard in my friggin’ life. It starts with Hendrix saying, “Fuck off man, let me talk…”, and then he and his guitar have a serious conversation about the birth and death of the universe. Eric, Jeff, Doug and I sat together many-a-time in our living room on that fifteen-seater couch spinning vinyl, getting ready to hit the town, or coming back from a night on the town looking to take the party to a new level, and we’d drop this Hendrix compilation on the turntable:

jimi hendrix concerts

Then came the “Fuck off man, let me talk…”, then the respectful, reverential shifting of attention into full focus, then this:

Random (yet awesome) stuff I stumbled across this week

First up, “Last Day Dream” by Chris Milk. A very short film simply described as “A man watches his life pass before him.” Produced for the 42 Second Dream Film Festival, Beijing China 2009. Thanks to Ze Frank for the heads-up. Something about death moves me. Loved Six Feet Under, loved this video.

Last Day Dream [HD] from Chris Milk on Vimeo.

Next, a song. On YouTube, but no accompanying video footage. Not to worry. Jimi’s extended guitar solo is well worth it. In fact, in my opinion this is the best guitar solo in the history of rock music. That’s right. The best ever.

Finally, a talk given at Google Headquarters in 2007 by Jon Kabat-Zinn. If you have an hour and the interest, this is one of the best introductions to mindfulness meditation I have ever come across. Brilliant.