Happy New Year! I’m about to start a new project. For now it has the working title 2020 HORIZONS. It is going to be a piece of music inspired by different landscapes: Sea-Woods-Sand-Ice. In addition there will be a fifth element yet to be determined. Below is an excerpt of a first trial. Enjoy!
Soft Landing
Here’s the best performing song from my SOUNDCLICK site. I recorded this latin-infused piece some years ago using GARAGE BAND and my BLADE JM4 guitar. Enjoy.
Blade Guitars: http://www.bladeguitars.com/
Some of my music on SOUNDCLICK
If T-Shirts could talk (3)
This T-shirt is from Singapore. I got it in 2004 on the occasion of the Steve Vai Tour of Asia. My good friend Yasu Oshitani and I had got VIP tickets to the concert and an after-show meet and greet at a downtown bar. I absolutely wanted to get some autographs so before the concert I went into a sports shop and got the shirt as well as a silver permanent marker.
It goes without saying that the show was phenomenal. Steve Vai is one of my all-time guitar heroes and his band was like a layer cake of prime ingredients with Billy Sheehan (Bass), Tony MacAlpine (Keys and Guitar), Dave Weiner (Guitar) and Jeremy Colson (Drums).
During the after-show meet&greet I indeed managed to get autographs from Jeremy (top left), Tony (middle) and Billy (top right). Steve was unfortunately surrounded by bodyguards and girls so I had no chance. Dave was unavailable as well but I’m thrilled I could get that shirt signed.
On popular request Steve later went up on stage and jammed with the local house band. An unforgettable evening! Rock on!
Steve Vai: https://www.vai.com/
Billy Sheehan: http://www.billysheehan.com/
Tony MacAlpine: https://www.tonymacalpine.com/
Dave Weiner: https://www.facebook.com/daveweinermusic
Jeremy Colson: https://www.facebook.com/jeremy.colson.315
Bar NONE, Singapore: http://www.focussingapore.com/singapore-entertainment/fine-dining/romantic-dining/orchard-road/bar-none.html
Just published a new story titled: MONSOON You’ll find it in the menu or under TOM’S TRAVEL TALES below.
I also published the same story as part of INDIA NORTH TO SOUTH on: https://www.wattpad.com/user/TomBrockmann
If T-Shirts could talk (2)…
From 2002 to 2008 I lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. During that time, I had a little band going with myself on Guitar (and occasional vocals), Mosh on Bass and Yasu on drums. We were a truly international outfit with me coming from Germany, Mosh from Malaysian Borneo and Yasu from Japan. Our preferred rehearsal place was the Guitar Store in Desa Sri Hartamas, a suburban entertainment district of KL. We spent entire weekends there playing music and hanging out with the staff.
I fondly remember Fadily, a formidable blues player and a great guitar tech who expertly upgraded my Yamaha Pacifica guitar with Seymour Duncan pickups and new electronics. It is still my preferred guitar to this day. Thanks, Fadily!
…and I will never forget my good friend Mosh. He was a gifted bass player and a great buddy. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with colon cancer and despite a swift intervention he never recovered and passed away in 2010 at the age of 32.
RIP my dearest friend!
If T-Shirts could talk…
On Christmas 1991 I went to Chichijima in the Ogasawara Island Group. The islands are governed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government but located about 1000 km south of the Japanese capital. There is no airport so the journey by the weekly supply ship takes about 28 hours from Tokyo, one-way! Most likely, for this reason, I was at that time the only tourist on the island.
As there were no hotels, I had arranged my stay with a family in Omura, the only small town on the island. Exploring the small community I made the acquaintance of Eiji Tanaka.
He told me that he used to be a broker at the Yokohama Commodity Exchange, however, one day he decided to change his life and consequently moved to Chichijima. Initially, he lived in a self-constructed treehouse in the jungle near the village but the townspeople were not at all thrilled about his living arrangement and gave him a small plot of land. He described how he used wooden packing crates to build the little house he lived in and from where he sold his self-produced souvenirs to the odd tourist. I bought some bars of lemongrass scented soap and the red T-shirt.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichijima
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonin_Islands
Roma Moderna – Never yield
As seen in the skyscraper district of Roma EUR.
Roma Moderna – MAXXI
Would you visit Rome to see modern architecture? Most likely not. Yet, in my view, there are quite a number of architectural gems around town that I believe would be well worth being put on anyone’s must see list while in the eternal city.
Modern Art XXI century – MAXXI
Having lived in Rome for almost ten years it’s absolutely embarrassing to admit the I can count my visits to local museums on the fingers of one hand. So my recent visit to the MAXXI museum of modern art was an unusual break in my Sunday routine.
Zaha Hadid’s remarkable masterpiece of swinging curves and straight lines, embedded and intertwined with the surrounding traditional neighbourhood beckons to spend an afternoon between the modern and the classic.
claque⊙net 