Founder of Apple, Steve Jobs Dies Today

I just read that Steve Jobs, the Founder of Apple, just died today.

He was truly an innovator with vision and a knack for marketing intriguing products that have changed the way we use computers.

Here are some  excerpts from the article I read:

Jobs dropped out of Oregon's Reed College after one semester, although he returned to audit a class in calligraphy, which he says influenced Apple's graceful, minimalist aesthetic. He quit one of his first jobs, designing video games for Atari, to backpack across India and take psychedelic drugs. Those experiences, Jobs said later, shaped his creative vision.

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future," he told Stanford University graduates during a commencement speech in 2005. "You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."


"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do," he told the Stanford grads in 2005.

"If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on."

Here is the entire article:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/us/obit-steve-jobs/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

It's interesting to find out that he was adopted as a baby, just as I was along with my fraternal twin sister.  Psychedelics also helped shape his future and the creative vision.  I also COMPLETELY agree with finding your passion or passions in life...and Follow Your Bliss.  Master your talents...or get real close.

I have enjoyed working on MACS for graphic design and music, but I also like the flexibility of the PC.  Both computer platforms have their pluses and minuses.  I can appreciate BOTH operating systems equally.

I love playing the time travel game where you look back in your own life and then look ahead at all of the experiences you will have with your future self.

If you are living your life correctly, you will notice how everything connects in a way that you can't perceive as it is happening.  Even in the last six months, I have seen extraordinary situations present themselves that are setting up the future connections that, only in hindsight, will be completely appreciated as part of the BIG picture.

Pink Floyd

I have been a HUGE Pink Floyd fan ever since I was introduced to Dark Side of the Moon back in High School.  To me, it is still a perfect concept album.  The engineering is exquisite and it is like the audio equivalent of a Moebius Strip: It loops back to itself.

EMI just released a 16 disc box set called "The Discovery Set" this past Tuesday.  Sonically, the albums have never sounded better.  I have owned all of the versions throughout the years.  What I really like about these remasters is that they are not overly compressed.  There is actually some audio headroom and you don't suffer from listening fatigue, unlike the Genesis re-masters, which are just too loud, abrasive and have absolutely no subtlety.

And the best part, is that there will be multi-channel surround versions of Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and The Wall!  I have fallen in love with SACD and DVD-audio Surround mixes, when they are done right.  They absolutely rival the stereo mixes and breathe new life into the recordings you already know and love.  They make it better than hearing them for the first time, every time you listen.

I have almost finished listening to all of the albums, in the order of release, and have realized how much the music has influenced me over the years.  Pink Floyd was an original in almost every aspect.  The melodies are amazing and think they captured "the intangible" in all of their music.  The were definitely pioneers of an ambient approach to songwriting. Some say their sound is nihilistic and depressing (yeah, The Wall isn't a pleasant walk in the park) but I feel the themes are more along the lines of audio surrealism.  

Maybe it has to with Storm Thorgerson's mind bending dreamlike visuals that accompany their musical work.  As an artist, I can attest to the power of imagery paired with music to compliment what you are listening to.

Being a keyboardist too, Richard Wright's keyboard wizardry, to me, is nothing short of astounding with it's understated simplicity. David Gilmour's Bluesy well-defined guitar licks are so carefully chosen and unique to him.  Roger Water's lyrics are filled with an abstract quality and his Bass lines are restrained, but perfectly placed along with Nick Mason's  impeccable yet never "flashy" drumming style.  I will never get tired of listening to Echoes...and I am still blown away by the "funkafied" jam section in the middle of the 23 minute epic suite.

Overall, I still love ALL of their music, imagery and uniqueness that still has an incredible presence and vibrancy after all of these years.  

If you haven't seen the film Pink Floyd: Live in Pompeii, I recommend it HIGHLY.  To see Floyd playing in the ancient ruins of the roman coliseum amphitheater is priceless.  I will never forget stumbling across that video back in the early 90's, when 7-11 still rented videotapes.  I had know idea what it was, took the chance because it was Pink Floyd, and became immersed in it for the next 90 minutes while watching it with a good friend of mine.  I have never regretted that decision.

Shpongle

Man, I LOVE this band!  I first heard this "duo" back in 2000 while sitting around a campfire with good friends. Someone put on the "Are You Shpongled?" album.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing as it became the soundtrack to the rip snorting fire we were all staring at it like it was a caveman television set.

I asked my friend what in the world were we listening to?  He said "Shpongle".  I said "What?".
He made the "Shhhh" sign and added "Pongle" to it :)   I had discovered something NEW for my ears.  I loved it ALL!

It kind of reminded me of my favorite Ethnic Psychedelic Space Rock band Ozric Tentacles, but very different.  By the time the Terence Mackenna samples floated in, I knew that this was going to one of my  favorite bands.  At some point during that initial listening, all reality seemed to fold in on itself taking me deeper and deeper into myself.  It actually became kind of scary.  Things were beginning to shift.

The band consists of Simon Posford and Raja Ram.


Posford is generally responsible for the synthesizers, studio work, and live instrumentation while Raja Ram contributes broad musical concepts and flute arrangements. Raja Ram stated in an interview that "Shpongle" is an umbrella term for feeling positive and euphoric emotions. Shpongle's music is heavily influenced by psychedelic experiences and frequently makes use of sonic textures that approximate psychedelic states as well as vocal samples relating to consciousness expansion, hallucinations, and altered states of awareness. The track, "Divine Moments of Truth," for example, contains a vocal sample of Raja Ram describing the effects of Dimethyltryptamine.

Even though they were hard to track down, I managed to get all of their releases, each very different but cut from the same musical cloth:

• Are You Shpongled? (1998)
• Tales of the Inexpressible (2001)
• Nothing Lasts... But Nothing Is Lost (2005) 
• Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland (2009)
• Untitled Fifth Album (2012)

Just recently, I discovered their latest venture called "Ineffable Tales from Shpongleland" from 2009.  Storm Thorgerson (the artist behind Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and countless other album covers) designed their album art.  He is a HUGE artistic influence in my art and has been for the last 25 years.  The album is amazing! The production is outstanding and it doesn't disappoint.  All of the world influences, trippy soundscapes and crazy samples along with incredible drum loops that are the most organic I have ever heard. That is why I like them so much.  Everything sounds so natural and unnatural at the same time.  A complete fusion of surreal sound textures filled with psychedelic attitudes and ever shifting, multi-dimensional morphing patterns to tickle your medulla oblongata!

Are You Shpongled, Yet?

The Orb

As a keyboardist, I listen to wide variety of music spanning many decades of styles and musicians.  I have always been a fan of electronic and ambient music.  Early Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd's spacey instrumental sections have always sent my mind into those special places and have been soundtracks to the creation of my art over the years.

But, I have recently rediscovered how The Orb has played a pivotal place in my musical listening tapestry throughout the last 20 or so years.  I remember buying The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld back in the early 90's on cassette.  I had never heard anything like it.  When Live in '93 was released, I had to have it - since it was a compilation of those tracks from Europe but really extended versions of the songs.  It really took you on an incredible aural journey into another dimension...and it was completely LIVE!

The real turning point was when Orbus Terrarum was released in 1995.  It is by far their most cohesive textural ambient album out of everything they have ever released.  I have listened to it actively since it came out and I never grow tired listening to it.

When Orblivion was released in 1997,  it was yet another amazing journey into the electronic world of these ambient master textural artists - weaving a mind bending adventure for your ears and brain to embrace.  The thing that really freaked me out was the hidden bonus music after I thought the CD was over.  I happen to be in another room doing something and all of a sudden, it seemed as though another dimension of sound had ripped through my reality and forced me to run back into the room to see what in the world was going on.  I just stood there with my jaw on the ground and a smile on my face.  "Those kidders", I thought to myself.

Recently, I picked up The Deluxe Edition 2 disc sets of The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, U.F.Orb and Orbus Terrarum and they have completely blown me away with their newly remastered sound and bonus tracks.  If anything, I have realized how much I still love their music and can listen to these classic albums as if they are brand new and I am hearing them for the first time.

Zombies!

I just got a call this morning from my friends Ben Ward and Rendalee Singleton asking in what capacity I wanted to be involved for their latest short film trailer about Zombies!

Without any hesitation, I said: "Of Course!"

I will be an Actor/Zombie and also score the soundtrack for the film.
Great Fun!

Yet once again, how often do you have someone asking you to do something like this?
So, you say 'Yes'.

Clement Moore, Abraham Lincoln, Depression and Fear

Sometimes, I find it hard to know what actions to take when depression or fear have overtaken me.  I have felt almost paralyzed.


Lately these days, I have been so busy with creative work that it just doesn't arise.  And, believe me, I am grateful to be needed for my creative skills.  They are the gifts that keep me alive and truly present in both spirit and mind.


Here are some inspiring words from Rev. Michael Piazza that I could relate to:


Clement Moore was a professor of Oriental and Greek literature at Columbia University for 29 years. He traveled in very elite academic circles and worked very hard to build his reputation as a scholar. He wanted the world to remember him for his scholarship. His hobby, however, was writing poetry. His family tried to get him to publish his poems, but he was ashamed of them and afraid of what people would think if they ever read his poetry. One day, a friend who was a publisher accidently saw a poem that Moore had written for his children. He secretly published it, and now, 150 years later, the only reason we remember the name Clement Moore is because he wrote the words:

‘Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring
Not even a mouse.
What he feared had the power to give him exactly what he was looking for. That which we fear often comes to us with a gift in its hands.

Abraham Lincoln struggled so badly with depression that there was a time when his friends could not leave him alone. They removed all sharp objects from the house lest he harm himself. On one occasion, he wrote to a friend named John Stuart, “I am the most miserable man living. If what I am now feeling were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell. I fear I shall not.”

Although he had to struggle all of his life against depression, Lincoln did get better. In fact, the sadness with which he struggled made him a man of such great compassion that, at the end of the most violent and deadly war in American history, he was able to write those famous words, “With malice toward none, with charity for all -”

The depression he feared shaped him into a gentle and tender leader. Some historians have suggested that if Lincoln had lived to lead us compassionately toward reconciliation, a century of racial hatred and bitter segregation might have been avoided entirely.

An old woman who was my friend loved to say, “Son, you don't drown by falling in over your head, you drown by staying under.” She was right. The very things we fear can teach us to swim, to run like the wind, or to soar like the eagle. Or yes, they may drown us, crush us, or destroy us - which happens is up to us

Follow Your Bliss Synchronicity

In the Fall of 2005, I quit my job as an Art Director for a Real Estate Brokerage company in Dallas.  I had worked there for over 9 years, the longest position I had ever had in my history of working.  It was killing me creatively, spiritually and on many other levels,  and I was filled with a general feeling of unhappiness.

I had nothing else lined up and really didn't know what I was going to do.  I just knew one thing, whatever it was, I wanted to draw, create and make music.  I had decided to (to quote the Visionary Genius of Joseph Campbell) "Follow My Bliss" and create my own dream instead of helping to facilitate someone else's dream.

That Friday, I went to my favorite music store and told them of my new adventure.  I told them I was "Following My Bliss".

Everyone was really happy for me regardless of where I would end up.  The manager of the music store then asked me if I was interested in creating a band poster for a mutual friend's band.  He loved my pen and ink work and said I could create anything that I wanted.  He trusted that whatever it was, It would be amazing.  He gave me $100!  I was stoked.  My first freelance assignment with total creative control.

I called my friend in Kauai, Hawaii, who had been telling me for quite a while that I needed to get out of that work environment because he sensed my unhappiness and frustration.  I told him I finally was "Following My Bliss".  The next day, I received a voice mail and all he said was: "Follow Your Bliss, Kistler!"  
I laughed.  What a great message - he knew that I had finally made the break into the great unknown.

That Monday morning, I woke up on my first day of freedom, casually walked downstairs and made some coffee.  I flipped on the TV to some public access cable station out of Florida.  The host was announcing that his next guest was going to be Jack Horkheimer, The Star Hustler.  I thought, cool.  I had grown up watching his show on PBS.  He was the guy in the Members Only jacket waking out out on the rings of Saturn and would inform you of what to pay attention in the night's sky for that week.  Well, I thought the interview could be enlightening at the very least.

The host came back after the commercial break and was sitting there with Dr. Jack Horkheimer and he introduced his guest to the TV audience.

Right then, Jack faced the camera (looking out into TV land directly at me) and said the following:  "I have three words for everyone out there...and that is Follow Your Bliss.  You need to find that thing or things in life that you are so passionate about that you can find a way to turn them into a career."

He then turned back to the host and explained how he has always loved science and astronomy ever since he was a child.  He knew that he wanted a career in the field so did everything that he could to make that a reality.

I couldn't believe what had just happened!  The hair was standing up on my arms.  I had realized that it was a message to inform me that I was on the right path.  The timing was too perfect.  Had it been 20 minutes earlier, I would have missed it.  If it was 20 minutes later, I would have missed it to.  I didn't even have to turn the TV on or it could have been on a different station.

I set the intention on Friday, received a freelance project immediately, received a message from my best friend repeating my intention to me and the deal was sealed after watching the interview explaining the intention I had set.  It completely blew me away.

I created my own company called Kistler Creative and started doing Digital Photo Restoration (another Synchronicity) and Band Posters.

In the end, I realized that timing is everything.  The messages are out there, the signposts appear and then guide you on the right path.

But, be aware that the timing isn't necessarily when you want it.  But, in the end, it is perfect timing when it DOES  happen and you are ready to effortlessly move into a new adventure in this strange thing we call "life".


Note - I just read that Jack Horkheimer passed away on August 20, 2010 at the age of 72.  I am so glad that I was able to catch that interview with him.