Amado Ohland

The moment of awakening is at the beginning of the song; it's the moment you consciously realize that you're happy. Danger! Upon realizing your happiness, you may try to chase after it, savor it... which may engage your intellect, which may then try to identify it, pick it apart, and put it in context. There, it has a tendency to blow away in the breeze, leaving behind only a wistful memory of hap...

It's a moment. Which moment? The moment of realization. Realization of what? ...that your quintessential future self isn’t ever going to show up, which forces the role to fall upon the understudy, the gawky kid for whom nothing is easy, who spent years mouthing their lines in the wings before being shoved into the glare of your life, which is already well into its second act. http://www.dictionary...

Shrug off the ballast of your own weight, and ignite the fuel tank of unfulfilled desires you’ve been storing up since before you were born. http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/16844950603/mahpiohanzia

"...the instinctive trance of a campfire in the dark, spending hours roasting and watching as it settles and sinks into the ground like a heap of shipwrecks whose sailors raise their flickering sails trying to signal that the prevailing winds of your life are about to shift, that the edge of the Earth is real and looming just a few years ahead, and that your marshmallow is on fire." http://www.dic...

...the moment a conversation becomes real and alive... http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/6950733136/flashover I need as much "up" stuff from this dictionary of "sorrows" as I can find.

Title of this song taken from http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/49792543182/silience , which see. You are such a buried jewel; you may not be flawless, but you are still somehow perfect.

Song title from http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/36505968156/monachopsis Have you been half asleep, and have you heard voices? I've heard them calling my name. Is this the sweet sound that called the young sailors? The voice could be one and the same. I've heard it too many times to ignore it; it's something that I'm s'posed to be...

From the Dictionary of Uncommon Sorrows by John Koenig: La Gaudière - the glint of goodness inside people, which you can only find by sloshing them back and forth in your mind until everything dark and gray and common falls away, leaving behind a constellation at the bottom of the pan... See his website. The word and it's definition are probably his IP.

n. weariness with the same old issues that you’ve always had—the same boring flaws and anxieties you’ve been gnawing on for years... The word used as the title of this piece may be the intellectual property of John Koenig at http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/101336431208/altschmerz so check it out. My dang iPad is spazzing out while trying to make/save recordings, so this one got cut...

"Hey, I heard you missed us, we're back! ...I brought my pencil! Gimme something to write on, man..." With thanks to John Koenig and his Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows at http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/ -- if I understand his website correctly, the word used as the title of this song is his intellectual property. John, if you see this... I'm thinking about singing another 20 songs on you...

It's bound to happen. A year-long song cycle is going to have its start, and its end. A daily commitment to a personal practice is going to have its effects on the practitioner. And the fondest hopes for the most epic and bang-up of finishes will be met with the realities of our gooey, imperfect bodies/instruments. Much thanks for those who came along for the ride. It's done. I will be back in Sep...

I think it's another case of trying too hard. But here is a response to a Prompt for the SSS that I haven't Prompted out yet, something about returning to the Real World after your trip to the Spirit World and trying to tell the Sober Minds there of all that you have seen and learned. It's the penultimate song of the year-long song cycle, so, like all the songs I've made this week, I want it to be...

I'm large. 6'4", 240ish lbs (and it's not all muscle), long limbs, big head, big mouth, you get the picture. And my size is off-putting to some. I can very easily suck all the air out of a room. I have to watch out for that. So when someone says I've got a big ol' spirit, well, that means something to me. It makes me sing like this. So again, thank you.

I only realized later that it was a cut-funk (not "funky" per se) 4x6 rhythmic matrix. All I knew was, I wanted to play with the downbeat and keep it sparse, for a while.

This track is a reply to “SSS Prompt 29: Circlesongs.” More on the Society for Spontaneous Singing at http://singthis.org/ As this daily project has progressed, I've learned ways to use the resources in Loopy HD to create musical experiences with certain features that I gravitate towards. Today I re-learned that the actual options are actually far broader than that. It was good to settle into a co...

Even days when you're inclined to say "eh, **** it" are days when you must sing. If nothing else, sing "eh, **** it." That's not what I'm singing here. But I did need a day not to make it so hard on myself, just to try to remember what that felt like, and where I was with that kind of day (now that I've made 240+ sketches).

A day for moving. A day for occupying my new music-making space. A day for wondering why I'm not singing with 150 singers in my circlesinging community. A day for changes.

Thinking about my Circlesongs friends today, and the recurring fantasy I have of standing in the center of the circle with you and singing some variation of THIS. SONG. HERE. Love you, as much as voices can sing.

What if a men's choir from the British Isles met a bass singer from a Jazz Vocal Choir and a novice vocal percussionist, and they were joined by some Motown backup singers and a three of the members of Ladysmith Black Mambazo... and they decided to do a Blues tune? Guarantee you one thing, it wouldn't sound like this. But I tried!

My three criteria for pop music: [1] surprise me, a little [2] be about something non-trivial [3] take me on at least something of a journey, with a reasonably impactful climax. I'd been skipping rule [1] for a few songs now. So, I tried to be surprising and interesting. Not sure I got there. But it's got a vibe, so, that's something!

A cool idea that did not get realized nearly as well as I had hoped. Too long, bad arrangement, fun words perhaps but sloppy singing... and I was tired as hell, so I forgive myself the poor performance. Filing it away. Next!

The story goes that there is a particular kind of dragonfly that returns to a particular kind of spot every August, and it's a favored spot because it's a sunny spot. Good to keep in mind: sometimes, you gotta go back to your sunshine.

So I tried to remember, it's possible to sing with the intention that every note contain the meaning and the magic of a whole song full of notes. Tried. Occasionally, the magic was recalled...

long day, ended with a hard stuff. but i can take it. really. oops, owch, got somethin' in my eye...

There's more cleverness than wisdom in this piece; more contrivance than inspiration. Onward!