User:Kevinmarrese

Link to Tape: Link to Beats:

Always Wanted To Schedule

 * Topic

I'm attempting to put together a mixtape/ep with around 8-12 tracks of rap and perhaps instrumentals in order to gain a larger presence in the seattle music community.


 * Research Component


 * week 1

Find everything I'll need to record. At the bare minimum, a rough list of beats/instrumentals, people to assist in the recording process, and equpment to record on.
 * week 2

Sift through the selected music and slim it down to a rougher list by brainstorming songs and intent, in turn creating a     rougher track listing. I don't want 400 songs on my plate, but I'd like a good selection to write to.
 * week 3

Start writing 16 bars, good or bad, each bus ride. Continue this up until week 11.
 * week 4

Prioritize songs. Start to think about which ones I'd really like on the tape and start finishing those. The others can be finished in between recordings.
 * week 5

Promote/let people know it's coming. Spread word by mouth, online social networks, blogs, etc. Start to find elements needed for finalizing the project, such as, art, a presser, and other materials for producing a hard copy of the mixtape.
 * week 6

Record songs/finish instrumentals. Honestly evaluate the material, then re-record or scrap the ones that don't sound up to par.
 * week 7

Press copies, package, and distribute.
 * week 8

Finish

Why Do I Like What I Like?
I chose to try and make myself like the Eagle sculpture by Alexander Calder. I began by looking at his other works, trying to separate the ones I didn't like from the ones I did, hopefully spotting a common thread which would help me identify what I dislike/like about his sculpture, and work as a whole. He had some interesting works, but for the most part it all shared his strong style, a style that didn't appeal to me much. I went back to the park and looked for sculptures that I enjoyed, and compared Alexander Calder's Eagle to those, still looking for a common thread in what I did and didn't like. I found that the sculptures I liked most were the more angled, pointy sculptures, while the others sort of fell into the background, not garnering any real response for or against it. This helped me understand my dislike for the Eagle a bit more. It's a huge, obnoxious pile of curves jutting out of the ground, not leading my eye anywhere but away. This made me think of all the similar statues in my hometown of Anchorage, AK. The exact same style of abstract, curved explosion, with some reference to animals. The same blaring red color. I despised these horribly, and they were inescapable. It even kind of annoyed me that a little piece of that hometown hideousness had followed me to Washington. So, I sort of came to terms that I wasn't gonna erase a lifetime's worth of hatred with a week of trying to understand my distaste for that style. Once I figured this way wasn't going to work, I tried to trick myself into liking the sculpture. I went and did fun things with my friends all day, and ate lunch in front of the sculpture. I thought it'd help to just have the sculpture be a part of my great, sunny day. We ended up talking about how the sculpture sucked. So later that week I took a girl to the sculpture, thinking maybe somehow things in my brain would get cross-wired and maybe feelings of affection from another source would somehow attach itself to the statue and make it a little bit more enjoyable by association. We did homework, ate lunch and smoked under the sculpture, and I came out of it all feeling pretty much the same about the sculpture, but appreciating it's shade. At this point I'm not sure if I'm going to like Alexander Calder's Eagle.

How Am I Manipulated?
I think the biggest thing I realized in this class is no one's going to want you to accomplish something anymore than you yourself do. The class was extremely laid back, and in that sense, self-motivated. I could see a lot of kids not taking the class seriously, and I wasn't taking it very seriously either until I realized our one real assignment in class was to better ourselves. Our final project was, I feel, like a complete reflection of the person presenting it. So I didn't want to reflect that I was a half-ass.

The whole experience of doing my project's also taught me that people not wanting you to succeed more than you yourself do, also works the other way around. Even if you're an okay kid, doing okay things, if you're really into whatever you're doing, for some reason or another, people really dig that, and are usually more than willing to help. Even if they just want a piece because they think they might benefit from you one day, just recognizing that people believe in you for whatever reason, is a huge motivator and really helped me in staying focused.

I think I could've participated in class a lot more, and I think I need to stop worrying about rubbing people the wrong way. Not to say anything about the character of any of the other students, but by the end of the quarter I was sort of wondering, "why was I so apprehensive about saying something to these people?".

Overall, I walked away from the class with a better understanding of my work ethic, and ways to motivate that work ethic, as well as a knowledge of how to use the skills I already have to better the skills that aren't so sharp.