Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie » creativity

Get Rid of The Crappy Stuff

Samuel Febres — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 22:05:35 +0000

Nike CEO receives advice from Steve Jobs in his new post. A great idea for all companies, organizations, and individuals.

Humbly I’ll Fall, a Sammy J Original

Samuel Febres — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:53:28 +0000

I recently finished up recording a song that I wrote. The title is the title of this post (minus the Sammy J Original part… however… hmm). Anyway, would love for you to check it out. I hope you like it.

For those interested, I recorded the song entirely in Logic Express using my laptop. I used my lovely guitar Betsy (who turned 11 years old this month) for all the electric guitar parts, through a small Epiphone Valve Jr. amp; Stella, my acoustic guitar joined the fun on the chorus parts of the song.

I would like to than Ryan Flemming, who helped me with the bass guitar. He adds so much awesomeness to this song with his funky fresh groove. Thanks Ryan!

Hope you like it. I’ve embedded two version of the song below because I can.

Enjoy.

Humbly I’ll Fall by Samuel Febres

Guitar Riffs United: Just Add Drums

Samuel Febres — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:15:57 +0000

So I was playing around in Ableton Live and put this together rather quickly. It was fun, I thought it sounded neat, so I’m sharing with you. I hope you like it. I’m trying to use Ableton for songwriting and ideas when they hit. The way it works makes it very easy to do so. I hope to be able to possibly take this idea further than this small little loop (the original riff I played is hard panned to the left), but I wanted to share it cause I love how all four parts fit and sync together without being too much of a mess (at least to my ears).

Melding Riffs Idea by Samuel Febres

Musical Birds on a Wire

Samuel Febres — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:55:27 +0000

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

From the creator:

“Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn’t the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.”

Come See Me Play: Acoustic Ovation on Saturday night

Samuel Febres — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:15:22 +0000

Tallahassee folks, come on out to Acoustic Ovation this Saturday night, October 17th at 7pm. I’ll be playing some of my original tunes (about 10 or so) for the evening split up in the middle with poetry by local artist Elaine Anderson. Cost is $5 (equal to a cup of Starbucks coffee which you don’t think twice about purchasing) to support local Tallahassee artists.

Ok, I didn't design this flyer so no threats on the design, but I did take that photo of myself. They found it on the internet. True story.

This is probably not the place for this, but let me vent a little. Folks like to complain about ‘how there is nothing to do’ in Tallahassee and how it’s ‘boring.’ Well folks, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is. Here is an event that is not cost prohibitive ($5!), will allow you to check out and discover local talent you might not even be familiar with, and get out and have a good time and shared experience with some friends. In other words, something to do. And, if you’re reading this, you probably know me and we’re what you might consider FRIENDS, the least you could do would be to show up to support me and the music I’ve been writing and working on.

Tallahassee is a gold mine of creativity and artistry. Stop looking else-where for it and to be entertained. You have no right to complain about there being ‘nothing to do’ or that you’re ‘bored’ when local events like these are put on and NEVER CHOOSE TO GO. Turn off the tv and be a part of the local community that you live in. It doesn’t matter where you’re from. You’re HERE now. Get involved. If you don’t support it, whatever grows out of it, if it doesn’t die, will move on and go elsewhere where it can and will be supported and grow.

Look where you’re lying and get involved. Ok, rant over.

That out of the way, I would love to see you guys come out on Saturday night. I know it’s short notice, but I know the majority of you usually have no plans and Florida State isn’t playing (as far as I’m aware). Those of you who come out, we’re gonna have a good time.

Make it Facebook official that you’re coming.

It Really Is a Small World After All

Samuel Febres — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:14:16 +0000

Found this video on the the Disney Parks Blog. They created it using a technique called Tilt-shift photography.

Because of the way the photo is taken, the subjects look like toy models, but they’re not. They’re actual cars and trains and people walking and moving around. Pretty neat stuff. Enjoy.

Language is No Barrier to Telling a Story

Samuel Febres — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:48:11 +0000

This is so amazing creative, touching and beautiful. I hope you enjoy it.

[Youtube link for mobile viewers]

It Might Get Loud

Samuel Febres — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:45:26 +0000

Rarely can a film penetrate the glamorous surface of rock legends. It Might Get Loud tells the personal stories, in their own words, of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos – The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Jack White (The White Stripes). It reveals how each developed his unique sound and style of playing favorite instruments, guitars both found and invented. Concentrating on the artist’s musical rebellion, traveling with him to influential locations, provoking rare discussion as to how and why he writes and plays, this film lets you witness intimate moments and hear new music from each artist. The movie revolves around a day when Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge first met and sat down together to share their stories, teach and play.

I can’t wait to see it.

Take a Few Photos, Make a Music Video

Samuel Febres — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:05:51 +0000

Fat City Reprise – Long Gone from Cesar Kuriyama on Vimeo.

Using Logic Produces ‘Trip-Hop’

Samuel Febres — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:30:18 +0000

Wanting to get into recording, songwriting, and having more power and flexibility for what and how I record lead me to purchase Logic Express 8 a few months ago.

Opening up the program you can see that it’s incredibly powerful and even overwhelming with all the amount of stuff available to do. As much as I like to tweak around and figure things out on my own, I thought it in my best interest to actually get a how-to book for Logic, especially if I want to have an understanding of what I’m doing, how it does it and why.

I decided to go with the Apple Pro Training Series: Logic Pro 8 and Logic Express 8 by David Nahmani.

I completed lesson one last night, which is titled Make Music with Logic Now!

The objective of the chapter is getting you used to the Logic interface and navigating around the program. I learned some really great keyboard short cuts that are going to come in extremely handy and I can already see that this book is going to be extremely beneficial in getting me up to speed not on just how to do things, but how to do them efficiently.

By the end of the first chapter, you create a finished track made entirely of the included royalty free Apple Loops and export it as an mp3 file.

Even though I was just learning to navigate through program, I had a fun time learning how to do things and tweaking things around. I’m looking forward to working on Chapter 2: Recording Audio.

In the meantime, I would like to share my final work of art from chapter 1. A little trip hop piece called New Day.

[RSS Readers, visit the site to listen to the song]

Also, if you’re interested in recording or learning Logic, this book seems like a great place to start. If you click on the link below and purchase it, you’d be hooking me up with a little kick back.

Where? Down in My Heart

Samuel Febres — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:40:40 +0000

A Critical View of Life and Art

Samuel Febres — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 20:32:55 +0000

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and theirselves to our judgement. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.

But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the ‘new’. The world is often unkind to new talent; new creations. The ‘new’ needs friends.

Last night I experienced something new; an extra-oridinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core.

In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau’s famous motto, “anyone can cook,” but I realize only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.”

- Anton Ego

Who Would’ve Thought… a Wah and a Nylon String Guitar

Samuel Febres — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 01:01:55 +0000

Rodrigo and Gabriela… Beautiful… even for acoustic guitars.

Keep watching and you’ll hear different songs. A whole concert is being streamed in the above video.

Fabchannel have recorded and webcasted Rodrigo y Gabriella’s show at
Paradiso, Amsterdam on November 29th, 2008.

Sketches and Drawings

Samuel Febres — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 07:01:30 +0000

For whatever reason when I came home tonight I really wanted to do a quick self portrait. So I brilliantly (and by brilliant, I mean completely retardedly) grabbed a box of crayons cause they’re so easy to use (more sarcasm) and decided to draw my face. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it could be better. I’m not quite sure where the desire to do this came from. Maybe it came from watching the animation in Waltz with Bashir, I dunno. So I did a crayon drawing and then I started on a self portrait with some colored pencils. The colored pencil was starting to look pretty good I thought, but I picked the most uncomfortable position imaginable to do it, so I didn’t quite finish since my back started hurting. I thought I’d share what I got. Maybe I’ll keep doing these if I can find a more comfortable position.

Just for kicks, I scanned some self portraits I did from way back in the day. It’s been quite a while since I’ve sat down to draw. Thoughts?

Crayon Self Portrait:
This is the first one I’ve done in a long time. Using crayons? Dumb.

Black Colored Pencil:
Self portrait #2. My back started hurting because of the weird position I was in. Didn’t finish this one. I might try again later.

The following are ‘historical self portraits.’ I did these ages ago but really liked the way they turned out then and even now. I might try more like these again.

I like to call this one my Steve Urkle Sam sketch.

Crazy Sam Look:

Flat Line Sam Look

The Edge Waxes Poetic on His Guitars

Samuel Febres — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:01:21 +0000

Part I: The Edge’s First Guitar

Let’s give it up for the anti-solo guitar player.

Part II: The Story of the Guitar and its Mysterious Ways…

um… I think I need an ‘infinite guitar.’

HT: Lance Crawford

So, Who’s Gonna Get Coke Machines in the Cafeteria For You?

Samuel Febres — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:38:09 +0000

Today is the big day. After months and months of he said, she saids, and High School I’ll give you extra 15 minutes of lunch time and coke machines in the cafeteria, it will all come to an end later this evening (hopefully… I live in Florida, we have a history).

In honor of the winner and loser this evening, a little video I’d like to share with you. It’s from Expression 08 and my sister is a dancing in it. I think the title of the song is quite fitting for a day like this.

I hope you like it and enjoy it. My sister is wearing the orangey peach colored garb thing on the right as the video starts… she gets a few close-ups.

This Will Make Your Head Hurt and Blow Your Mind Away: levelHead

Samuel Febres — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:00:32 +0000

I don’t even know how to explain this, but it’s a game that you play with cubes. According to the creator, it’s a ‘spatial memory game.’ The game is called levelHead.

Here’s a bit more of a description from the creator’s site. His name is Julian Oliver.

levelHead uses a hand-held solid-plastic cube as its only interface. On-screen it appears each face of the cube contains a little room, each of which are logically connected by doors.

In one of these rooms is a character. By tilting the cube the player directs this character from room to room in an effort to find the exit.

Some doors lead nowhere and will send the character back to the room they started in, a trick designed to challenge the player’s spatial memory. Which doors belong to which rooms?

There are three cubes (levels) in total, each of which are connected by a single door. Players have the goal of moving the character from room to room, cube to cube in an attempt to find the final exit door of all three cubes. If this door is found the character will appear to leave the cube, walk across the table surface and vanish.. The game then begins again.

Alright, makes sense right? Now to see it in action, watch the video below.

levelHead v1.0, 3 cube speed-run (spoiler!) from Julian Oliver on Vimeo.

Amazing, yes?

Soundcloud Revisited: The Best Way for Musicians to Share Music online

Samuel Febres — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:01:50 +0000

I wrote about Soundcloud a while ago. You can read the review here. They are currently in a closed beta but according to a recent post by TechCrunch, they will be going live on October 10th. If you are a musician and are looking for an easy way to share music online, you should definitely check out SoundCloud.com.

Because of my last post, one of the guys from Soundcloud gave me a guestlist for readers all you wonderful readers than can be found at http://soundcloud.com/guestlist/samuelfebres if you’re interested in checking out soundcloud before it opens up to the public and if you’re more of a visual person, they have created a nice short video to help explain what SoundCloud is. I’ve posted the video below for your benefit.

If you or anyone you know are/is a musician who would benefit from having an easy way to share and trade songs and tracks, please have them check out SoundCloud.com.

SoundCloud: The Tour from SoundCloud on Vimeo.

Also, if you visit the Soundcloud vimeo page, they have more videos available if you’re still curious about how it works and ways to use it.

A Little Bit More: Check out my previous write up and review of Soundcloud.com.

Check out TechCrunch’s write up.

soundcloud.com, soundcloud, music, music collaboration,

No He Didn’t

Samuel Febres — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:57:47 +0000

Did you mow your lawn this weekend? Do you wish you would’ve done it like the above video?

Honored but Confused aka A Cosmo Search for The Next Female Music Star Looking for Me?

Samuel Febres — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:50:15 +0000

I got an email earlier today from an Amy at FanOrganizer.com letting me know that ‘Cosmopolitan Magazine just kicked off its first-ever StarLaunch national talent search on YouTube, sponsored by FanBridge, CoverGirl, Nikon, and Pantene.’

So, far ok, but the next line is the kicker.

Female fronted bands and solo artists will be able to upload a performance video of an original song to http://www.youtube.com/cosmostarlaunch for consideration. The deadline for submissions is October 6th.

Seems a bit mean to let me know about an awesome contest I could be a part of if only I had boobs (can’t stop talking about these I guess). Anyway, kinda mean to send me such a nice email and I can’t participate.

Oh well. For those of you who are eligible and might be interested in this competition, the deets are below:

Each video will be reviewed by a team of record label executives and producers who will make the first cut, narrowing the entries down to the top 10.

You can Win:

$10,000 cash

A 3-track demo created with a hit-making record producer

Prizes from Pantene and CoverGirl TBD

One-year membership with FanBridge (a premier fan list management service)

The 10 semifinalists will be revealed on October 21st. Readers and music fans will then have a chance to vote on their favorite artist online at http://cosmopolitan.com/starlaunch and narrow the field from 10 to 3 finalists, who will compete in a live ‘battle of the bands’ at Terminal 5 in New York City on December 5, emceed by MTV VJ Damien Fahey. The three acts will opn the show, performing on the same stage as pop superstar Natasha Bedingfield and special guest Solange Knowles.

For more info, and for how to enter visit http://www.youtube.com/cosmostarlaunch

Cosmopolitan StarLaunch™ Launch Video Presented by CoverGirl, Nikon and Pantene

Well, that’s it. Know anyone interested (or with the proper qualifications), please let them know.

contest, Cosmo, cosmopolitan, fan organizer, songwriting, youtube