So, as a project to keep my mind off of what was going on, I decided to record an ambient experimental piece of music. I setup my computer to record and add a delay to whatever I decided to play on my guitar. I didn’t listen to what the computer was doing until after I had “performed” the piece. Once I finished, I let the computer continue “composing” the piece for another four minutes.

Once I had determined the tempo of the loop, I then pulled it into Mixman Studio to create the bass and beat parts. The last part added to the piece were the answering machine messages. I don’t remember why Jeremy left me that message, but it was hilarious! I added the second message about “not feeling so good” and then recorded the messages with a microphone.

I made this piece of music available on a website I hosted around the time called YL-Net. It has more recently been available on my MySpace page. This version sounds better and features updated artwork. I also changed my name on it to use my middle name instead of my last name. So, here it is…the first, but yet old, release by Neil Owen! ;-)

Ambient: Message from Joe – Neil Owen

During the time that I had my Amiga 500, I grew attached to a few select games. One of them, Sword of Sodan, holds a special place in my memories as having the silliest sounds effects ever. My friend Jeremy Kaye and I used to play this game often, and we would laugh continuously at the enemy death sounds in level 4. Looking at the game today, it seems incredibly lame, but it was pretty amazing for a home computer in 1989.

In those days, I pedaled all around Kokomo with my friend Jeremy Kaye. We mostly liked looking at CDs, so our destinations would usually be the music stores in Markland Mall and Kokomo Mall or a Karma store. However, on this occasion, we headed to Kmart.

At that time, a Kmart store was directly east of Markland Mall. We would need to cross US 31, which is a four lane highway through Kokomo. For a reason that I have forgotten, we did not cross the highway at an intersection that day. Instead, we crossed about a quarter mile south of the nearest intersection.

Jeremy crossed first, and made it to the opposite side of the highway with his bike in good time. I was a bit slower crossing to the median due to traffic, but I was not nearly as slow as I was crossing from the median to the other side of the highway due to a completely different reason.

A single candy bar does not, usually, cause people bodily harm. However, if the candy bar is traveling inside an automobile, tossed out of a window and carefully plotted to impact with a “tender place,” it is now a weapon—avoid impact if possible. Unfortunately, I speak from experience.

When I arrived at the median, I quickly lifted my bike to the other side. I then climbed over the median and stood up. It seemed to come out of nowhere. I doubled over immediately. Jeremy, who was still standing on the other side of the highway had not a clue what had happened to me.

I do not remember how long it took me to gain my composure, and I do not remember anything that happened after impact that day, except for Jeremy laughing.

Neesie and I did not intend to make a run here to Kokomo yesterday. In fact, most normal people would have stayed home given the weather conditions. The weather reports of six inches couldn’t have been far off. It is piled up outside again!

Alan Kaye

It was nice to see Alan do stand up again. Last night was the first time I’d seen him do it since 1991!

Jeremy and Tabi Slow Dancing?