Even those twisty, windy, curvy, up and down hill roads, too! The Path of the Dragon. There can be diversions along the way, but ultimately, as long as there is intention to get to some other space...I am finding more and more that there are innumerable ways to accomplish any given task or objective.
Take modern web production as an example... Nowadays pages are much more flexible, dynamic, and faster and flashier than ever. Designs with higher resolution, high color depth, animations, info popups and mouseovers abound... As I am approaching the planning process for many projects, the styles of production are beginning to overlap more and more... For example, nowadays we can use javascript for animations and dynamic elements, or we could use Flash. We can use HTML & CSS to format styles and build beyond the boundaries of yesteryear... Our tools are becoming much more powerful, flexible, dynamic and agile... PHP, XML, DHMTL, Python, MySQL, Drupal, Magento or Django or any number of other technologies and platforms for production and integration, that it is becoming infinitely more important to understand truly what one is trying to accomplish, and then in some ways after choosing an appropriate direction based on those goals, to float within the boundaries of that flowing river, because it, too, is flowing to Rome, and most likely you will get there eventually.
Another current of ever fluctuating means lies in the realm of Music. Specifically, production and live performance. There are so many tools out there for each, software packages with virtual instruments, digital audio workstations (DAW), hardware synths, soft synths, MIDI controllers, plug-ins and other such contraptions and whatzits that it's hard to truly evaluate how something can truly be constructed...or de-constructed. I just saw a presentation by New Zealand electronic live act Pitch Black (
pitchblack.co.nz) last night--which was awesome by the way--about how they set up their live set and controllers for a performance.
Having started producing my own music by working on live PAs, their descriptions enthralled me and stretched my mind as to how I could accomplish similarly functional workflow methods of organizing songs and mixer strips with my current gear. Even before last night, I had been really contemplating and experimenting with various ways to resurrect my old Yamaha RM1X groove box and Korg Electribe ER-1 for a newly inspired live set, if only to contribute if not drive the show anymore as it used to in my first live electronica performances as The Loomii (
mystikluminate.com/theloomii) with my brother and now Mystik Luminate (
mystikluminate.com).
Not to diverge too far into audio fanaticism, but suffice it to say that there are just about as many ways to produce music and perform live as there are musicians and live performers... Of course, just as there are as many opinions as people on the planet.
Ultimately, what that means to me is to use every means possible or appropriate to accomplish something. That may include a lot of experimentation and inevitable challenges as obstacles come up, however if we have enough persistence to surmount those obstacles--along with great determination to succeed and accomplish my goals--than the way will present itself through the various experiences and choices we make to accomplish those goals. And, we too, will wind up in Rome.
