Ember and Ash

Much can happen in the span of five years.

Off on a new adventure... I am an artist in all things. Whether painting on canvas, viewing the world through a camera lens, or expressing my view of the world in the written word, visual art is nothing more than arranging bits and non-bits before the eye. Music is the same for the ears. It is all positive and negative space. A few months ago I was gifted a midi keyboard and with music software on the computer, I can now illustrate music. I do this under the guise of Ember and Ash.

Ember and Ash is less of a band, and more of an artistic construct. The original idea was to have a repository to release previously unreleased songs, or to give over production of unfinished remnants of songs to another E&A member to complete or repurpose. It is that, but has evolved into something much more, as now new music is being composed under the E&A banner. Along with David Carr, Jr. and my son, Christopher Ryan Hunter, and the occasional guest musician, I am creating musical compositions. Originally, my only intent was to play around with the remnant compositions from David and Christopher, but as I became familiar with the music software, I found that I could compose wholly new music of my own. I play no musical instrument with any proficiency. I hear a melody or a beat, play a few keystrokes on the midi keyboard, and then edit visually in the key editor until I hear what I see or see what I hear. I call these compositions “Hand-Crafted Audio Designs,” rather than songs. I may at some point add vocals to the music and create songs, but for now I am composing instrumental works. The key take away is that as with all my art, the journey is at least as important, and sometimes more important, as the destination.

Ember and Ash music may be by one or another member, or two, or all three. Each member’s talents are different in compositional style and instrumentation, and each member brings a distinct perspective to the music. David Carr, Jr. [AKA 5step] is the most seasoned member, performing for over 50 years, with his first full album released in 1995. Christopher Ryan Hunter [AKA lcn1] is the youngest member, but still with more than 25 years behind him composing and recording music. As of this writing, I have only been composing music for a few months. If you visit the Ember and Ash YouTube channel, you can hear the distinctness of each individual member, as well as the distinct blend when a couple of us join together in the composition. Much of the music is instrumental, some ambient, some breakneck rhythms, but Ember and Ash is not a cover band, and every composition is original. The compositions may fit in one genre or another at any given time, or fit no genre at all. It’s all about the art.

Thanks,

John Lee Hunter

EMBERANDASH Publishing (ASCAP)

Over a year...

It has been over a year since my last post. There isn't much to say about the past year that everyone doesn't already know. It has been quite a ride, and it has not been a sleigh ride to the country fair. It has been a roller coaster ride, and not a fun roller coaster ride that makes you laugh at the thrill, but the sort of roller coaster ride that makes you want to hurl all over your new shoes. Still, some of us did not make it through the past year, so those of us left have a duty to make the best of 2021. As with each new year, we want to dive in and splash about. Maybe for 2021 though, we should tread lightly to the water's edge and first dip in our big toe to see what it is like.

Something for today.

Hopefully you are being true to yourself. You should be the person you were born to be, and not the person others expect you to be. Meeting the expectations of others is a hollow pursuit. It is one thing to set about to be pleasant to someone, or even please that person, but never deny yourself in the process.

The same, only different.

A friend of mine made a BLOG post.

[You can read it HERE.]

He brought up some interesting points (GO! Read it.) about evolution and generational changes, and so on and so forth. The bottom line is change.

 

“Change is the only constant in life.” ~Heraclitus

 

Personally, I am reluctant to change, but I am open to it. I was raised Presbyterian, and the Presbyterian motto is, “But we’ve never done it that way before.” Presbyterians stereotypically on the surface live up to their nickname of, “The frozen chosen.” Those of us who do not dance are not limited by religious dogma, we just have a sort of stiffness to us that makes it difficult for us to move in a fluid or rhythmic fashion.

 

But I digress, I set out to speak of change. I am not reluctant to change simply because it has never before been done that way. It is because I am a big fan of the adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This is where I find myself in opposition to change. Change for the sake of change is pointless. Now I am not talking about painting something a different color. By all means, paint the thing a different color, or move it to the other side of the room. But when a system is functioning well, don’t change it. The important thing is to recognize when a system is no longer functioning well. This is where the next generation comes in time after time, and where my whole argument breaks down. We cannot know if a system is working well if it is not periodically tested against external forces. I dislike communicating via text messaging. It is cold and impersonal. However, it is succinct, but that brings up another issue. I feel it is to diminish our communication skills by not typing whole words and dropping punctuation and grammar. This I fear will not change in me. But it doesn’t have to change in me. I however must bring myself to not shun those who use these methods, and as necessary, I must comply. I do not have to type “u” for “you” or “L8” for “Late,” but I will have to learn to read the code and understand the meaning. There will still be communication issues with different generations, and there will be always. But for the love of my children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and perhaps another generation after that, I must be compliant and open to this expediency. It may simply be the natural evolution of our species.

 

So let us return to the concept of, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” There are circumstances when a system works quite well, and is in no need of repair, but those in charge of that system set out to make changes anyway, sometimes with disastrous results, occasionally intentional. Technology is changing our lives. It is neither good nor bad. It is a simple fact. As technology evolves, we will see change. And technology is evolving. It is no longer that we as a species are making technological advances, but technology itself is making advances. I am not referring to artificial intelligence, although that is coming too. I am talking about that fact that technology is a machine unto itself that is moving forward on its own. We created this binary machine, but binary replication once started is difficult to stop. It is as though technology is using us, rather than how we perceive it as being used by us. Once we rubbed the lamp of technology, we let out the jinn. It is a matter of logical steps. We began with that first integrated circuit in 1958 and soon discovered the nature of binary revolution. We started halving things and doubling them simultaneously. Looking back, the first breakthrough is always profound, but the evolution of the thing after the discovery is relatively simple. It all begins to make perfect sense. It is natural. Yeah, I used the word, “Natural.” Technology is a natural thing. It is part of nature, and I don’t mean the nature of Man. I mean the nature of nature… the Universe. Technology is not an invention, but rather is a discovery of the intricacies in the fabric of the Universe. Mankind, the human species, tends to pervert everything when it tries to dominate and rule. Technology may become our safety net. Technology may evolve into our natural mother, if we do not first manage to pervert it to some use that utterly destroys us.

 

So, I may have wandered off topic a bit, or not. I am not really sure as I have no idea where I was planning to go with this discourse anyway. Thanks for reading.

 

Bye bye, and buy bonds.

The Reality of Art

Art is a fiction, and a leap of faith to utter disappointment.

Team Dishman: Welcome to the Portal

Team Dishman: Welcome to the Portal: We now have a BLOG.

of endings and beginnings

We come upon the end of another year. It is an arbitrary thing, this time observance, this out with the old and in with the new. This observation of our existence as a linear thing is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a double edged sword in that we can become trapped by the notion that we are able to simply slough off the less desirable things said and done in the same way a snake sheds its skin. A linear perspective makes us mindful of our limited existence; our mortality, but it can also lead us to forget the past as we constantly think we are moving forward, when in fact we are cycling. Time, as is each and every other described thing, is just a label. It is simply the way we label reality from our perspective. Science can assign attributes and non-attributes to a thing, or describe a thing based on its relationship to other things. Science deals in quantifiable absolutes; conclusions drawn from observed facts. But what of that which is not quantifiable? Monday, winter, afternoon, week, month, year... my age as recorded in legal documentation is based on a point of origin; the day I was born. None of this matters in the grand scheme of things. How we describe the Universe does not matter at all to the Universe. The Universe is oblivious to our existence, and yet we are part of the Universe. We are composed of universal stuff. I thought I was writing about time. What time is it? I've wasted enough time with these musings. I'd better get on with my day.