Louque Documents 1....

Vintage concert poster by Mac Premo 

Congrats to Mac Premo....

We had a nice time at the NY Emmy's our project winning 3 out of the 4 we were nominated for.  Good news for future projects together.  This is me and Mac Premo accepting one of the awards.  This is a long way from the stickball games we played in the east village.  Hollyhood!

Resident Alien...

"Life was a funny thing that happened to me on the way to the grave."

Quentin Crisp

When I first moved into the East Village, NY in the summer of 1997 I hung out in the diner on the corner of 5th St. and Second Avenue.  I remember the feeling of being in the city and wanting to discover the real me, I had no idea of what I was about to discover and there was a crowd of individuals walking the side walks.  I sat in this diner many hours reading books on music theory, art, and acting looking around at the folks coming in and out.  There was a frail, gentleman in there daily with a few young folks everyday eating and having his coffee.  He always wore lipstick and a scarf around his neck with a huge hat.  I remember wondering who he was but never wanted to bother him.  I could tell he was someone but it was NY, there were a lot of someones.  

After moving to Brooklyn in 1998, I remember seeing his picture in the paper after he died.  That's where I learned who he was and what he had done with his life.  What a man of great character and conviction.  He lived his life as he saw it and trusted the voice inside of himself, even as a child wearing makeup and dresses.  

Crisp allowed his telephone number to be listed in the telephone directory and saw it as his duty to converse with anyone who called him.  For the first twenty or so years of owning his own telephone he habitually answered calls with the phrase "yes, Lord?"  His openness to strangers extended to accepting dinner invitation from almost anyone.  Dinner with him was said to be one of the best shows in New York. He said that provided one could exist on peanuts and champagne, one could quite easily live by going to every cocktail party, premiere and first night to which one was invited.

Just as I remember him.  Quentin Crisp (born Denis Charles Pratt, December 25, 1908- November 21, 1999), was an English writer and raconteur. He became a gay icon in the 1970's after publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant.

Good Fortune....

Last Thursday was a beautiful sunny day in New Orleans, one of those days with an optimistic crispness in the air.  You know the kind where everyone you meet is a friend and you have one of those portals of light shining on you allowing you to see clearly.  

My dear friend and collaborator, Mac Premo, gave me a call and said, "hey man, you still own a tux right?" I said, "yes, why"?  "You're nominated for an Emmy for best music composition".  "NO WAY", I said.  "What the Hell for"?  I didn't even remember what piece of music I had written that could merit a nomination of any sort.  So I'm feeling really good now, wow I needed some good music news.  So many days are spent writing and rewriting music and falling in love with new songs.  There's always a battle though, on one shoulder there's the guy who thinks everything is great and the path of creativity is lined with roses and that I'm noble for braving the path of integrity.  The other guy thinks I'm an idiot and sees no value in creating and wants me to show him the money.  I'm always ignoring this little fucker or shooing him away, so Mac's phone call really put him away for good.  

I've never been a fan of award shows, until I was nominated.  I guess you get pissed over time watching everyone else validate their creative selves.  Win or lose, this was a confidence builder for me to keep making the music that comes to me in the middle of the night singing in my bathroom.  The funniest thing about all this is that Mac and I met in the East Village, NY on the stick ball field.  We never talked music, art or anything but balls and strikes until one day we realized that we were both artists.  It's so funny years later what a stick and a ball has brought me.  Much joy today along the path of integrity.  Small steps! 

Endurance and persistence will be rewarded!

Pygmy Lush...

One night in the middle of it, I woke up hearing some noise in the neighbors back yard and it was them belting out a song along with an acoustic guitar.  My immediate reaction was to open the window and yell at them but stopped to listen to the song and realized how great it sounded and didn't want them to stop.  The sound was an honest, joyful noise and I didn't want to disturb their screaming in the middle of the quiet night.

The next day I approached my neighbor and told him that I thought the song they were singing in the middle of the night was special.  He laughed embarrassingly.  "No", I said "really".  We sat and had a beer and he played a record of the band that was touring through New Orleans and I liked what I heard and ordered it in the Amazon used bins.  On my hands and knees finishing the tile work, I began to listen and track after track was as lovely noise, much like my neighbors Nocturne.  I'm in love with a new record, maybe I can let Sun Kil Moon rest for a bit.

Yann Tierson...

On Saturday, we went to see Yann Tierson play a  show at Republic.  Yann is a French composer and multi instrumentalist.  The music/musicians were very good but more suited for the theater.  Most of the songs were instrumental with Yann on guitar or violin.  I can see why he was chosen to record the soundtrack for Amelie.  His music is very cinematic and dreamy.  

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet chanced upon the largely accordion and piano driven music of Yann while driving with his production assistant who put on a CD he hadn't heard before.  Greatly impressed, he immediately bought Tierson's entire catalogue and eventually commissioned him to compose pieces for the film.   The soundtrack features both compositions from Tiersen's first three albums, but also new items, variants of which can be found on his fourth album, L'Absente, which he was writing at the same time.

Jaguar XJ6 Series I...

The Jaguar XJ is a luxury saloon sold under the marque. The XJ was launched in 1968 and has served as Jaguar's flagship model for most of its production span which continues through to today. The original model was the last Jaguar saloon to have had the input of Sir William Lyons, the company's founder.