PETER  HAZEN
writer, musician, artist
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One year of haiku: Happy Anniversary to me!

5/19/2014

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I've been writing haiku for a year straight. On my blog, there is a haiku for every day from last May to this one! Phew! Go back to the beginning and read them all:

http://www.peterhazen.com/haiku-blog/archives/05-2013/3

It actually began last March when I was invited to write one a day for a month; I had so much fun that I just didn't stop after that. Keep on the look out for the publication of my haiku collection - coming soon!

I think I'll give myself a break for a while. Maybe I'll start up again with a different style, tanka or sonnets or limericks.



The best way to build
a time machine is to have
already built one.
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Chew on this: "Blades Plural" is a hypnotic gem

5/9/2014

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    It was three or four years ago when I was working the front counter at Local Sprouts Cooperative and doing some of the booking for live entertainment, and Ahmad Hassan walked in and asked if he could play our piano. I had lobbied hard to get that piano into the cafe, and I was pleased to find a pianist of this caliber drawn to it. He laid his hands on the keys and quickly displayed a deep understanding of the instrument's history, moving seamlessly between classical, jazz, and a more modern sense of rock and hip-hop. I invited him back as often as possible.
    These days Hassan is working his harmonic magic with
DJ Moore, Andrew Scherzer, Tyler Quist in the band Jaw Gems. Laid atop a bed of masterfully crafted electronica beats, his melodies have never been more at home.
    On Facebook, their genre is listed as "psych//soul". Their brand new album has the high class of a martini - shaken, not stirred. Blades Plural is as cutting as the title suggests. This is exactly the kind of music that I actively seek out in order to make my life better. This is the kind of music I put on to help me relax, to stretch to, to cook dinner to, to play in the background while I'm working, writing, gardening, making out on the couch, or walking around town with my headphones on. Put it on and let it take you where it may.
    The release party for this album is tonight, 8pm at Bunker Brewery down on Anderson St. in Portland, ME. If you are in town, you might want to consider being there.
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Crow Folk ; singing is good for the soul

5/6/2014

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     The Setting: Kellogg St. is up on Munjoy Hill in Portland, Maine. On the third floor of this house at the bottom of the street, you can see the ocean from all of the east-facing windows. Like living in some retirement magazine, we can see a few lighthouses without moving from the kitchen table. The picturesque illusion breaks apart as a giant cruise ships float in, blocking the view and inducing the blowing of loud foghorns. The seagulls chatter back at it.
    I'm staying here with my old friend, Sarah Crow. She might have other names, but that's the name that most people know her by, and I don't bother to pry. We've known each other for over ten years, sharing many of the same experiences, memories, friends. Although we have very different perspectives on those times in the past, our shared history invokes a kind of magic that I don't find with most other people. Traditionally, the way I become closest with others is through music, specifically through singing together. There's a special kind of connection that happens when your voices join together. (I actually read an article recently that showed that our brainwaves synchronize.) I make a lot of friends beside the campfire. Once you've got a really solid harmony down with somebody, the kind that just pulls at your heart and your stomach and makes people around you go “Oh!” – then you know you've got a friend for life. At least that's been my experience.
     It's getting late, as it does almost every night, because the children are feeling wound up and pushing to stay up past their bedtime. They've just put on a dance-show for us, or maybe a magic performance, or a series of comedic skits. Sarah makes sure their faces are washed and their teeth are brushed. While she reads out loud from a chapter of a book to help them fall asleep, I tune up the guitar and banjo in the office and set up the microphone. My laptop computer is almost ten years old and a little worse for wear; when I boot it up it sounds a bit like a airplane taking off. I wrap the back of it in a towel to try to dampen the loud whirring sound from it's broken fan.
     Finally the house is quiet. (Quiet except for the muffled roar of my computer.) These peaceful moments are few and far between. We sit across from each other, on either side of the microphone. We crack some beers and try to catch our breath. Then, we sing.
     To start things off, a nice laid-back acoustic version of Living With Lions, replete with Sarah's sweet harmonies and banjo accompaniment. Next, our interpretations of four of my favorite traditional folk songs (passed down for so long there's no known origin): I Know You Rider, John Barleycorn, The Lakes of Ponchetrain, & St. James Infirmary.
     Listen and enjoy. Don't forget to sing along; that's what folk music is for!
     This is just a sampling of what we can do, bound to be the first of many, so stay tuned. I have a bunch of new songs that need to get recorded. Combined with Sarah's original songs we'll have another record in no time! If you want to support the release of our next album, please donate here:

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Portinsula: mellow acoustic guitar by Christopher Pulsoni

5/2/2014

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    My good friend, Christopher Pulsoni, released his first full-length all-original album in December of 2013. He's been playing music as long as I've known him, and his expression has gone through several transitions. I remember going to jam out in his mom's basement where he had a whole recording set-up, and hearing the remakes he had done of classic Beatles songs. Chris is one of the only people I have successfully co-written a song with, and it's still one of my favorites. I promise to dig up the old recording soon, or go visit him on Peaks Island and do a fresh take.

Years ago, I heard on the street that Pulsoni had sold a bunch of his electric gear and purchased a steel resonator acoustic guitar. When he got back from Hawaii, he was playing slide guitar and Woody Guthrie covers and old blues tunes I had never even heard
.

When he got back he started Resurgam Records, the idea being a collectively owned record label of local Maine artists. It's worth checking out:
http://releases.resurgamrecords.com/

A quick listen to Portinsula will reveal a traditional Appalachian blues sensibility. You can easily picture these notes falling from back porches out among the pine and birch forest. Meditative and melodic, Pulsoni's subtle and sometimes joyous songs are perfect for a rainy day, or laying around on the grass in the sunshine.

The guitar licks are executed with both precision and sensuality. If you're like me, and you like instrumental music to set the mood for reading or working, give this a listen.
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Music For Good

5/2/2014

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I just signed up for the "Music For Good" program with my Reverb Nation profile. Now when you purchase my tracks via Reverb Nation, 50% gets donated to Oxfam.

Oxfam does great things like raising awareness about poverty
and taking action against injustice all over the world. Here's what they have to say:

"Around the globe, Oxfam works to find practical, innovative ways for people to lift themselves out of poverty and thrive. We save lives and help rebuild livelihoods when crisis strikes. And we campaign so that the voices of the poor influence the local and global decisions that affect them."

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    Peter Hazen is a writer & musician from New York State. He lives and works in Portland, Maine.

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