Dizzy O'Brian

My Recent Interview with Aleah Fitzwater on Blog Fusion I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Aleah Fitzwater who is a musician, writer, artist and blogger from the midwest. She runs a blog called Blog: Fusion  so, when she happened upon me while surfing the internet she thought I would be a great fit since I happen to be a fusion music composer. She is also a fusion artist, arranging pop-punk songs for flute choir. Flute is one of her main instruments and she says that most people find arranging pop-punk songs for flute choir a little strange. Obviously I don't, although I admit how surprised I was when she contacted me and I found out how many similarities we have as artists. Working in the fusion of classical and pop music elements, you often feel you are alone on a wide-open frontier.The nice thing about it, of course, is it tends to hit across many musical genres, as far as listeners are concerned. I was also surprised to hear how similar our formative experienc...

 Music As Culture Music As Culture There can be no doubt that music parallels culture. One only has to look back through time to find the connection between music and the society of that time to see the connection, so it is certain that we have always had music as culture. One can find a connection not only in the dancing of the time but also the fashion and even the very language used. Idioms and slang began noticeably appearing in the United States way back with the Beat Movement with words like ‘cool,’ ‘square,’ and ‘DaddyO.’ The fashion was very distinctive and identifying with black turtleneck sweaters and bangs. It was an artistic culture and people hung out in coffee shops, painting and composing poetry on the fly. We follow it into the sixties with tie dye, bell bottoms, sex and drugs. The real question, I suppose, is which came first; the chicken or the egg? Does music culture reflect changes already going on in society or is it a catalyst? An interesting question, since m...

Listen to Within City Limits Podcasts If you like to listen to podcasts and would like information about podcasts to listen to, check out the following information about a podcast called Within City Limits, created by Guillermo Delgado. Guillermo Delgado hosts and produces a podcast promoting and discussing music in Austin Tx. It’s very new and very up and coming.  The podcast is called Within City Limits, and can be found on Spotify and other popular platforms. Every episode features local Austin musicians for an interview and a general music discussion. Its aim is to strengthen the musical community and keep live music alive however we can this year! It is certainly one of the best podcasts on Spotify and one of the best podcasts to listen to! Here are a couple of examples; Episode 10 was with Emay Holmes. He is a veteran with a great voice who found success in the Navy culture after writing his original guitar ballad “Deployment Song.” He now lives in Austin, performing when he ...

 My Life Online; The Culture Underground We have a couple definitions of the word ‘underground.’ The first is; “A group or movement organized secretly to work against an existing regime.” "I got involved with the French underground" The next one is; A group or movement seeking to explore alternative forms of lifestyle or artistic expression. (Definitions from Oxford Languages) The next one is a bit more detailed; “A genre in music and other forms of media intended for an elite audience, that is often characterized by its high levels of originality and experimentation, and does not conform to typical standards, trends, or hypes as set by the popular mainstream media. The mainstream media has a tendency to steal new ideas from the underground.” by Essix April 16, 2005 ( https://www.urbandictionary.com ) Obviously, referring to The Culture Underground, the last definition is the most applicable and also we’re not talking about ‘a group or movement organized se...

The Independent Musician Serves No Master Some time ago, I ran an internet radio station and I interviewed various musical artists for the show. One, in particular, had a very interesting story of how she went from label to independent musician. She, at one time, had a contract with Capitol Records and she said that one upon a time, they had a division for just about every musical genre; Pop, Jazz, Motown, Rock and so on. Well, they changed management and all of these divisions were shut down. Why was this? Well this was the beginning of record companies deciding that it would be much easier to offer just one or two acts and build up the hype artificially, rather than try to give people too much of a freedom of choice over what they wanted to hear. Like the Pied Piper, they would call the tune and decide what people should listen to. Freedom of choice came down to deciding between the cute black kitten with the white stripes and the cute white kitten with the black stripes. But a socie...

What Is Essential? We hear a lot, these days, about what our future is going to be like and we’ve already been told what’s essential. Obviously what is essential is a bare-bones kind of survival and we accept this on account of the media’s unrelenting effort to keep us in fear. Without debating whether or not this pandemic is real or staged or going in to ideas of what might be behind it all, I just want to point out how easily we came to accept that basic survival is essential and are now positioned to do whatever is demanded of us in the future.  We have been on this same downward spiral for some time, only now it has been greatly accelerated. Think about it, we have been given one single definition of essential that we are expected to go along with. What sort of frame of mind does this put us in? What’s the next thing we will be willing to do without? Let’s talk about quality of existence. What is essential about existence, just hanging on in quiet desperation...

Social Distancing And 1984 Some have pointed out how ‘social distancing’ is a divide and conquer tactic and I have made mention to how odd the names given to these things are. AIDS, for example; just whom does it aid? Now I know it’s an acronym for Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome, but who acquired it? Here we have ‘social distancing,’ not  ‘physical distancing.’ Why? Physical only has one more syllable in it.  But what is wanted is more than physical distancing. The pictures of the Italians with their wine glasses on the ends of large poles, clinking their glasses together in a toast from their balconies show that they understand. Of course they lived through Stalin. It’s wanted that people should be less friendly and less able to communicate. They should fear the other person; they have a disease they are trying to give you. You are in competition with them for toilet paper.   Anyone who hasn’t read the book 1984 should do so, while they’re in lockdow...