Creative Projects

I try to make time to let my creative side explore and express.

Textures of my Life

After walking the same streets for four years, I decided to capture all the beautiful detail I have learned to appreciate. I call them the textures of my life.

Buddha Around Town

I made this when I got my iPad using iMovie. The pictures are taken along the route as the close-up photos shown above, see if you can spot any of the same locations.

Animation Farm

Here are some silly animated GIFs that I have created, I have many of these tony little widgets, but mostly for my own entertainment.

Kirtan Percussion Accompaniment

After years of traditional training in contemporary ensemble-based percussive arts, I have recently transitioned into a much less rigid musical form known as kirtan. For me it is a folksy, acoustic jazz with audience participation. The structured improvisation and adjustments made for audience involvement really challenge me as a musician and help me to maintain a sense of appropriate response in my relations with the world, it is my therapy. I have had some really fun times playing around the Riverside area with my friend and collaborator Kathy Bolte. Here are some videos which I made from one of our shows. Our style is to start each song very slowly and quietly and to gradually increase the tempo, rhythmic complexity, and volume; we then return to beginning of the song to allow the audience to compare and contrast how they feel at the end to how they remember themselves feeling at the beginning, therefore my drumming picks up mainly in the middle of the piece.

Anusara Invocation

This is the mantra used to begin yoga classes taught in the Anusara style. I am always impressed at how quickly people can mimic and integrate a string of nonsensical syllables when they are put to a catchy melody. 
To hear me drumming skip to about the 7 minute mark.

Jai Maa Durga

Celebrating the women who never back down and push us to become everything we can. Thank you Mom! 
I start really going at about the 8 minute mark.

High School Indoor Drumline

In high school I was part of an award-winning percussion ensemble. We completed across the country and were consistently in the top of our division. This experience not only gave me great training in percussion technique, it also taught me how to effectively work with a large group of people to accomplish a goal. I was a student leader in the group and developed a great appreciation for example-based learning. Here are two of our shows. This was before the time of youtube and HD everything, so the video quality is a bit low, but I was very excited to discover them uploaded by Krazie316 (thank you for making these available).

"Puzzles"

As far as obsessive attention to technical details is concerned, this was a horrendous show. However, in enjoyment and complexity it was off the charts! This was a fun year because I was marching with the second smallest bass drum.

"Opportunities"

This was my senior year and I certainly had the time of my life. Still wondering if it is I who create my own opportunities. This was my favorite year because I got to lead the tenor/quint section, the guys running around with five small drums strapped to their chest, I am the one in the middle.