#charity | MidiMike

Posts Tagged ‘#charity’

Update and Appreciation

Posted: July 16, 2015 in My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #audio, #charity, #create, #creative, #creativity, #family, #fire, #gofundme, #guitar, #inspiration, #loss, #love, #lucky, #lyrics, #music, #musician, #performer, #performers, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #thanks, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

I wanted to give everyone an update on my musician friend John (whose house was damaged in a fire). Lots of effort and a lot of good news, even in this sad event. John will be in town soon and will be able to look over the damage and take inventory of the surviving furniture and gear. Until then Alisa has organized the gofundme project http://www.gofundme.com/johnvaneaton which has raised $10,000 so far in less than a week. I think that is going to make a big difference in the next few days and weeks.

There are a number of people still working on cleaning and restoring items that were rescued in the search and recovery phase. Once John gets to look at the various projects, he will have a better idea of how to get back on his feet. We hope to have information from the team that is working on organizing a benefit soon.

https://midimike.com/2015/07/11/please-help-spread-the-word/ this is the original post about these events.

I’m also in the process of writing a song about the events using some guitar chords my wife was playing with recently and a little jam I was working on. Thank you all for getting the word out and helping as much as you can. I have come home from those salvage missions and realize everything that I have could be gone in moments. I am not rich, but the music and memorabilia would be irreplaceable. I will need them when memory loss really kicks in!

This song is for John, everyone who donated money and time to help him and all of you really cool bloggers. I’m going to post the lyrics first while I polish the song, but it will be up shortly.

“A Very Long Night” © 7-13-2015 Lyrics MSK Music MSK/ELK

Traveling for business

He is often out of town

From country to country

One city becomes the next

It wasn’t until he got the text

With pictures from the news

That he knew this was the beginning

Of a Very Long Night

He wasn’t home when the fire started

Everyone says it could have been worse

As we watched, broken hearted

Each tear became another verse

Unable to return any time soon

All my friend could do was watch

Phone calls and e-mail

The news from home was grim.

Some say it was best for him

Being out of town.

Some say it was best for him

He didn’t see it burn down.

Some say it was best for him

Not to see the damage from the flames

Some say it was best for him

As all that water did the same

It was a good thing he wasn’t home that night

It was a good thing he wasn’t home all right

It was just the beginning of a Very Long Night.

Sharing Loss – Please Help Spread The Word!

Posted: July 11, 2015 in Opinions and Observations
Tags: #charity, #daughter, #family, #fire, #gofundme, #guitar, #help, #life, #loss, #music, #musician, #personal, #piano, #signal, #story, #studio, #studioengineer

I have shared a number of experiences that have been about loss. Unfortunately, when you get older, you have more experiences watching the achievements of a life’s work and loves dissolve. There are many types of loss and a personal friend of mine has been going through a very difficult time. I just needed to share my experience and thoughts. Over these posts I have often mentioned working at local music stores and the benefit of knowing some awesome people. One of the friends I worked with for years and formed a great partnership “co-owning” the music store with all those years ago has had a devastating loss. As social media is …. he found out from friend’s texts and e-mails that while he was traveling, his house burnt down. His job is demanding and a lot of people depend on him to be there. He could not get home and as we all need to do from time to time; he had to rely on his friends and family (many times they are the same thing). He is still away and has not seen his home other than on the news and through social media.

I would like to let you know that we have successfully completed the ‘search and rescue’ mission. We got anything we could out of the building during the days of rain with holes in the roof. It was a scramble with trusted friends. We hauled ass and a bunch of other things. Some musical instruments are damaged beyond use or repair and some have hope of restoration or managed to remain untouched by the whole thing! He is a musician and like me has an insatiable love for art, music, friendship and making the world better than it would be without us in it. This has got to be devastating. For me, carrying out each old and precious instrument or piece of gear, had a deep impact. Others worked on his art and personal belongings. I have heard their stories and all have a deep sense of loss. No one was hurt. Many things can be replaced. But as the fire and then the water took their toll, a lot of his life’s work did dissolve.

We are working now on cleaning and saving as much as we can. As my daughter Alisa, who runs my blog, practically grew up in the music store and all my friends, she has known John Van Eaton almost her entire life. She is creating a positive use of social media and spreading the word through this and other avenues. We will have a number of benefits to raise money and support to help him work through this until he is able to come home and the resources he will need once he returns. I will post more info as details come in and thank you – fellow bloggers – for letting me share this with you. The sharing allows healing.

For more details or to contribute to his fund, see below. MIDIMike

http://www.gofundme.com/JohnVanEaton

Everyday Lessons of a Musician

Posted: March 10, 2015 in projects
Tags: #audio, #band, #charity, #digital, #dreams, #fan, #guitar, #journey, #keyboard, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #lyrics, #Midi, #motivation, #music, #musician, #performance, #Queensryche, #recording, #runningsound, #Shootingstar, #singer, #song, #sound, #soundman, #stage, #studio, #studioengineer, #TheWho, #yes

I have always been into helping charities and volunteering for good causes. I entered a few tunes from a local cover band I was in (Euphoria) for yet another battle of the band contest sponsored by habitats for humanity and a local radio station. The bands would play in Eden Park at the very-cool Seasongood Pavilion. At first it looked like we might not even play, then the dust settled and we would go on to play last. The other bands were interesting and pretty good. We were hi-energy progressive rock and we played our short set really well and had a great time. We even made the goof of mentioning the wrong radio station’s call letters! Agh! I thought on that alone we might get overlooked. But they might not have heard the comment and in all modesty we were really good. We won a trophy – some unknown band member still has it hidden safely in some underground bunker – and recording time at a recording studio! For me, this was like candy.

We were awarded the prize and a limited time to go into the studio. We decided to use the recording time of three hours (yeah, kind of a tease and they probably figure you will run over and have to pay them for additional recording time) to record a band demo. Eventually we got a list of songs we wanted to do and had some discussions on what parts of the songs to feature.

As the time got near, it became more and more difficult to arrange schedules of the various band members (and lets NEVER forget the schedules of the family of band members!). So I told the band guys that this weekend was it. This is the deadline and if we do not go in a few days we will lose this opportunity altogether. After the whining and complaints, we agreed to go that Saturday, the last day before the deadline.

There are two reasons I bring up this story. A couple of good lessons keep this fresh in my memory. The following is the first;

Sometimes you have to lie. I knew we had another two weeks to record, but I also knew if I left it up to the band to schedule, it would never happen. Everyone wants to do it and everyone SAYS they will, but other things always happen and conflicts crop up at the last minute, and it is too late to save the project then. I knew how the band put things off and I did not want to miss my time at the ‘candy store’.

The second lesson was learned by the studio recording engineer. I will share that in the next post. Here is a bit of the demo we did in the studio so you can get an feel for the mix.

Journey – Separate Ways

Black Crowes – Hard to Handle

Yes – Long Distance

Yes – Changes

The Who – Can You See the Real Me?

Shooting Star – Last Chance

Queensryche – Jet City Woman

MidiMike

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Posts Tagged ‘#charity’

Update and Appreciation

Sharing Loss – Please Help Spread The Word!

Everyday Lessons of a Musician

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Available on iTunes and CD Baby

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Posts Tagged ‘#charity’

Update and Appreciation

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Sharing Loss – Please Help Spread The Word!

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Everyday Lessons of a Musician

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