Steve Ball

Night Wall - 13

Evening Work: Night Wall - page 13 (2.0M mp3).

"Julie quickly locked all the doors and windows. Then she called the contractor and said firmly, ‘The wall doesn’t work. We’ve got monsters in our backyard. You’ve got to take the wall down – tonight!’ There was a pause. ‘Okay, then first thing in the morning. I want that wall down!’

Sarah stayed close to Julie while the creatures surrounded the cabin.

‘It looks like a circus out there,’ said Sarah, taking a peek out the window. ‘Do you think they’re real?’

‘Of course they’re real.’ Julie answered. ‘You see them, don’t you?’ "

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MS Company Meeeing today, back at Safeco Field. Today was a sort of a milestone for me as well as the beginning of a countdown to this time next year when the world will be surprised by what is in store in the coming line of life-changing products. A rather inspiring day, all in all. On a good day, it really is amazing what is possible if you align the hearts and minds of thousands of hyper-intelligent people behind one vision.

Also, a trip to the allergist in the late afternoon reveals, as suspected, I'm allergic to a few tree pollens, but NOT allergic to dogs, dust mites, or feathers.

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Weekend ahead: catching up on correspondences, including Duncan and Bill, among many others. And preparation for a quick trip to visit Digidesign on Tuesday.

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Gunshot Seattle

From the Archive: Gunshot Seattle (1.8M mp3) from Blue Orb.

This photo includes SB, Hernan Nunez (backrow, left to right) and Fernando Kabusacki, Christian de Santis, and Martin Schwutke (front row, left to right.) At a certain point, this configuration divided due to philosophical differences centering around my strong wish to record and perform our 'Los Gauchos Alemanes' repertoire with a drummer. After spending much of 1993-1996 working with Los Gauchos Alemanes as a Crafty guitar trio, I was hungry to re-energize our rather "low-energy" ambient writing with some serious rhythm support. The Electric Gauchos projects were born out of this division, and Fernando Samalea joined us for recordings and shows in Argentina, while Bill Rieflin joined us for rehearsals and performances in Seattle.

Those who know me know how much I enjoy working with excellent drummers (and I've had the priviledge with working with some wonderful players over the years including Pat Mastelotto, Bill Rieflin, Jarod Kaplan, Brock Pytel, and Dan Moore.) Since my early days with the League of Crafty Guitarists, I've felt that a League of guitarists is interesting from an educational point of view; but a League with drums and/or percussion is very interesting from a musical point of view.

A brief Electric Gauchos article and photo is in the current Guitar Player:

Special thanks again to Barry Cleveland and Patrick Wong at GP for spreading the word.

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A very busy week ahead with more opportunities for public ridicule, uh, I mean feedback, about recent work just around the corner.

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Night Wall - 10

Evening Work: Night Wall - page 10 (1.6M mp3).

--> click the image above to see the full page <--

"Sarah ran outside and Julie followed. Swinging their brooms wildly, they
screamed at the creatures, 'GO AWAY! SHOOO! GET OUT OF HERE!'

They managed to chase the creatures away from the wall, or so it seemed,
for when they got back inside the cabin, they looked out the window, and..."

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New Electric Gauchos site

Evening Work: new Electric Gauchos site to coincide with upcoming Guitar Player article. Special thanks to Barry Cleveland and Patrick Wong at GP for spreading the word.

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