Scoring a Revolutionary War-Era Drama. Plus...

...a testimonial, some fun in the studio, and recommendations

If you’re local to Scranton and looking for a co-working space, hit me up! I’ve got an in on a really cool space in the newly-renovated Lace Village.

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Cooking my steel-cut oats for lunch. Mmmm.

I’ll begin this…what should I call these? posts? articles? Substacks? I think of them as letters, but that sounds weird…with a little report/testimonial.

I wrote last week about my commitment this year to leaning more into what is real and tangible, both in my personal life and professional life. I removed social media apps from my phone last December. With the extra time and mental sobriety, I’ve been reading more, putting more time into creative exploration, exercising regularly, and, best of all, hanging out with people face-to-face more.

In just the last week, I’ve gone to a live music show, had breakfast with a friend, had dinner with my piano professor from college, hung out with a friend for an hour at his house, and had a couple long phone conversations with other friends from out of town. I’m feeling happier, less anxious, more clear-headed, and more creative than ever in my life. All that from such a simple decision. Why did I wait so long?

In the Studio

Work-wise, I’ve been busy on commissioned work for Piano Day on March 29th. It’s a piano solo piece that I think turned out really nice. Can’t wait to show you that - hopefully next week!

I’ve also been working on a film score. It’s actually some residual work from a pilot I scored last year for a Revolutionary War era drama series. It was my first orchestral score and required my creating a theme by borrowing from early Christian hymnody. I realized recently that I never shared that with you all, so I made a little video about it:

And here’s a fun little peek into my creative time this last week. I was playing around with my Sequential Prophet synth on a song and came up with a part that made me happy:

Also, wool. Wool makes me very happy. Maybe you noticed the GLORIOUS wool sweaters in these pics/videos. I love this time of year.

Recommendations

Videos

Along the lines of what I shared in my last post…

Also, in response to my last post, a friend, feeling the need for more positivity in my life, sent me this gorgeous video:

Books

The Beartown Trilogy by Fredrik Backman. I read the first book (Beartown) years ago and loved it. Read several of his books since then (Anxious People, A Man Called Ove, Britt-Marie Was Here). Finally got the other two in the trilogy (Us Against You and The Winners) at Christmas and decided to go back to the beginning and read them all back-to-back.

The first book is awesome, the second book was just ok, but the last one is probably his best writing. Such profound insight into humanity. Flawless pacing. And the ending was both painful and beautiful at the same time, more so than any other book I’ve read.

Music

I’m on an organ funk kick. Here are three albums of this kind that I’m loving:

Article

I’ve been saying this ever since 2016. It was my greatest discouragement when I worked in churches, it was the reason I left evangelicalism in 2020, and was eventually one of the biggest reasons I left the church altogether.

America's Churches Are Radicalizing Themselves

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