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Showing posts from February, 2014

New England, New Album (Day Three & Four, Recording)

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        Welcome back true believers!  Where were we? Ah, yes, we have been staying with our friend, my collaborator D.o.drent and if you haven't downloaded his free project on bandcamp yet, you ought to. it's not the most polished work but it has so much heart and raw potential and passion, and it is based on this and knowing how he could affect the people of the world and that he sincerely desires to, if only he were to cultivate his talents more so, that drove me to attempt to work with him and provide any sort of help I could.  On "All With Good Intentions" he is reaching hard to make a statement and a difference, to embrace his alternative Straight Edge culture and his unorthodox and open support of the LGBT community, which is refreshing and admirable.  Additionally, for every download, regardless of if you contribute money, he donates a dollar to "Get Equal Ohio" an LGBT activist group started by his friend Autumn. The Studio (Sunday 2/16/14)

New England, New Album (Day Two, Writing)

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Welcome back to the continued chronicles of my Massachusetts trip, album recording adventures with North Attleboro's own "D.o.drent" my travel host/album collaborator and friend! Feel free to read the account of the prior day of arrival HERE ! Turn (Snow?)Pitfalls To Windfalls (Feb 2/15)   I woke around 6am and started my day as I always do, reading.  Then I began working on some of the writing I was doing (for this piece "Flesh" for an avant garde sort of ep I've been writing on and off for a while).  I found that I wake much earlier than Owen and, in his words: "My friends say I've got an overbearing amount of energy but you're on another level from me even, I don't know how you do it.".  I think I'm just really hard on myself about relaxing so I'm sort of frantic and hyperactive, it certainly isn't always a good thing!  Regardless, I started my day as I always do, reading.  There was snow on the ground and, according

New England, New Album (Day One, The Arrival)

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Hey AllOne Family I've got great news! My new album with D.o.drent "Creative Differences: A Split" has been entirely recorded (at Format Audio by Ryan Stack in Amesbury Massachusetts) and just needs some mixing and design work and to be pressed and we are on schedule to release it in May!  I stayed with Owen from Friday February 14-18th (tuesday)! Here is an overview of the trip in a series of thoughts and anecdotes... Connecting With People Old and New (Friday 2/14)  The night before I left, I stayed with my Grandma, so we could spend time together and I could leave my car there and she could bring me over to the train Friday morning.  She has been living alone since my Poppy passed,the one I wrote "Pennsylvanian Patriarch"  for, and I can't imagine how difficult that must be to suddenly have your life switched over like that.  We talk and tell each other stories and eat all sorts of homemade food and listen to music and comment on silly television sh

Love, Travel, and New Music!

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Happy Valentines Day!    Whatever that means to you! or whether the holiday is a primarily capitalist venture pressuring couples into spending money on each other as opposed to time or genuine humble appreciation whenever/wherever they feel like it, that is besides the point.  I want to wish you all days and lives filled with love and sincerity, be it romantic love or love for your friends and family or passion for something intangible like art or a hobby or a career.  I can't help but feel we as a culture undervalue vulnerability and the necessity that it is to express affection to one another.  I don't mean you have to be all mushy and lovey all the time, but just remind people why they're important to you.  I make a habit of letting people know when I think of them, and if I reminisce about them, I reflect on how they've affected me positively or what they've taught me.  This could be a symptom of my ever-wandering brain but I think our thoughts stray to people

Super Poem Sunday (my first Slam Poetry Contest)

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Hey AllOne Family...Yep, that's me, Steven T. Licardi and Kathaleen Donnelly, with 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place positions (respectively) in a SLAM poetry event, the first one I'd ever attended!  In short, be sure to always challenge yourself and bring yourself into new situations, the worst thing that happens no matter what is you have a new experience!  My new motto...(no, not "Y.O.L.O.") "Compete with yourself, you'll always come out a winner" Here's the story:     Being as I'm not a football fan or follower in any capacity this past Sunday, (February 2nd) I went to a function called Super Poem Sunday at the Walt Whitman Birthplace in South Huntington.  During this event the main entertainment was to be a SLAM poetry contest, where upwards of 40 poets would share a poem that was 3 minutes or shorter and would be judged, winning awards and nominal amounts of money.The event was set up by The Bards Initiative ,  The Long Island Poetry Collecti

The End Of The Tour//Return Home//Departure Anniversary

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Hello my AllOne Family! Today, February 2nd, 2014 marks a year since I left for the little piano//BIG MOUTH tour with Alexa Dexa.  I can't believe it, what a year!  I've missed the road nearly everyday, and a lot has happened.  We have reached the end of our chronicles, it seems appropriate to close out our accounts on the anniversary of our departure....  2014 is going to be an important year in my life and I'm excited to use this space as a way to keep you up to date and involved in the various adventures and progress being made! The Importance of Family     Alexa and I hopped on our last Megabus to NYC.  It was surreal to see New York City again after all of our travel.  New York city is foreign to me despite the fact that I live so close.  A funny assumption that happens to people around the country is if you say you are from new york, everyone assumes you spend all your time in the city!  admittedly, I've probably only been to the city two or three dozen times

2 days in Pennsylvania. Finding new friends, losing old ones.

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So we are a day away from it being a year since the tour, and I'm unbelievably just finishing this journal now! Steven Minissale (the loss of a mentor and friend.)      Our experience of Pennsylvania was only two days and each day was spent in a different city.  I will give you the details of these events as they are but they were sort of stagnant and cheapened by the surrealism I felt from a loss of a friend I'd suffered.  Around this time, on the ride into Pennsylvania, where he is/was from, I found out that my friend, a talented an ambitious blues player, Phil Minissale , whose father Steve was a hero and a dear friend to me had passed away.  He was a young 50 years old.  I hate the feeling of this serving as some sort of eulogy, even nearly a year later, and the pressure to represent the vibrancy of a live and beautiful person, and to attempt to convey the inspiration he inspired in me and the closeness I felt as a friend despite our age difference, makes me sick.  He ha