Living "La Vida Lisbon"

Imparting Some Portuguese and Moroccan Flavor to LYRE's Debut

With the main VIP in my life spending most of the past 4 months in Europe it has become increasingly difficult to maintain the kind of relationship we both seek to have. And since The Babe's planted in Lisbon until who-knows-when I decided to re-enlist the cat sitter, throw 150 pounds worth of clothes, recording gear, and instruments into bags and flight cases, and move tracking and mixing duties to the Tivoli Oriente Hotel in Lisbon.

Travel was pretty uneventful except for the airlines loosing the one bag with all my clothes, toiletries, a MIDI keyboard, and some fairly expensive microphones in it. That pretty much set my schedule back by a day as I scampered around the mall buying enough stuff to get by and trying to remain positive. The case did make it to the hotel this morning with just a broken zipper and all the contents in tact. I can't wait to see what kind of positive thing ends up being attached to this rather negative experience. I did become suddenly aware of and grateful for the fact that this is the first time in a lifetime of travel that I've ever had a bag misplaced. Seems I'm doing way better than the industry average.

With jet lag subsiding I'm turning once again to work on the album. I'll be posting to the LYRE Notes Blog almost daily and giving out links to some new Flickr albums while in Europe. I'll be making the most of this time by getting out to experience as much live Portuguese music as I can. I also plan to do some surfing and make a musician's pilgrimage to Morocco to see what north African tones and rhythms I can soak up.

Cheers for now,

Dave

Power To Your Purpose!

It's all Around You

Flying into Lisbon, Portugal last week I couldn't help but notice a number of huge modern windmills; the kind used to generate electricity. With their towering white profiles they really stood out against the surrounding geography of the area. Later in the week I was making a two-hour long overland trip to the Atlantic coast to try for some surf action. I was barely out of metropolitan Lisbon when I began to notice the huge benevolent giants again; sometimes juxtaposed right next to an antique example of the kind of windmills used in the area for centuries.

Later, at the beach, the surf was rather small by Portuguese standards with waves only 1 to 1.5 meters high. Still, there was awesome power contained in each one. I was reminded of this fact more than once when I was caught off-guard and sent swirling through the surf as if in a giant washing machine. Here was another example of a persistent, consistent force in the universe that contains incalculable power. Some forward thinking companies, like Ocean Power Technologies, are beginning the important first steps toward using the ocean's power to light whole cities.

On the trip back to Lisbon that evening my mind drifted on the subject of power. I thought about how both the winds and oceans are abundant, inexhaustible, and completely ours by right of birth on this planet. It kind of blew my mind and here's why.

If you know me or read this blog then you know that I'm always beating a drum about finding your purpose in life, getting a vision for how to fulfill that purpose, and then setting goals and taking action to make it all happen. One of the many challenges to making all that happen is finding the power to propel it all into reality. Powerful physical and mental energy, powerful relationships, powerful finances. When you really get down to basics everything we need can be broken down to energy and the power it provides. There's a lot more to this subject than I can even skim in this post, but I hope you get this concept: Wind and waves are just two very obvious forms of power available to each one of us. There are many more forms of power and energy that are just as available and free if we are willing to the understanding to use them.

We are each surrounded by a sea of energy; more than we could ever use in our lifetimes. You, me, and everyone else on the planet has all the power we need to take the next step in front of us today to turn our dreams into reality, achie our visions, and fulfill our purpose.

Cheers,

Dave

Mixing Music European Hotel Style

It Ain't So Bad, Besides There's No Room Service Back Home

I just wanted to give you an idea of my situation for mixing in London and Lisbon. About the hardest thing is getting used to wearing earbuds for hours on end and knowing I'll have to leave all EQing until I'm back home with accurate monitors. Still, I can compose and even use my travel keyboard to record midi tracks of things like synth, piano, organ, and drums.

 All in all I think it's working well and it does seem inspiring to take breaks and go on a mini adventure in the

 hotel's neighborhood. The only thing I really miss is my guitars. I really like to record guitars when the mood hits and they do tend to be my musical security blankets.

More later.

Cheers,
Dave

Oh, I almost forgot...

I saw a werewolf with a chinese menu in his hand

Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain

He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fook's

Gonna' get a big plate of beef chow mein.

Aioooo, werewolves of London...

London: Like I Was Born To It

Whirlwind Hop Across the Pond

The stars aligned in a rather sudden fashion over the past couple weeks and I found myself quickly saying yes to a couple weeks in London - my first trip.

I'm having all kinds of fun exploring and just generally soaking everything in. Another great benefit is that I had already been planning to play a short pub/club tour somewhere in Europe later this year so I'm getting the details on booking and playing clubs in the area while here.

This really is a great town. I feel so comfortable with everything that it's easy to envision myself spending a good amount of quality time here. I'll try and post a few more times this week and let you know what I'm up to, but for now I'll just leave you with a couple more photos and sign off.

Cheers,

Dave