1137516

Well out of the two, i decided to go with 1337 Records!! Problem is; my parents don't like the name too much, and are beginning to talk me out of it. Arg. So here i go to find another name =P if nothing better comes along, i'll keep this one, but i'd love to find one that means more to me than 1337 Records. I thought about a few options, Black Hat Records (Taken) White Car Records (Lame) Howdy Dowdy Records (Just plain funny) and then i think i /might/ have a winner with this one: 5:16 Records. It flows well, and it means something to me... it's relating to the verse Matthew 5:16, which says "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven". It's the same verse i got LightShineDesigns from, and before that, LightShine Art And Cards (before it became Nathan Dowdy Fine Art) and it means a lot to me personally. At the same time, ehhhhhhh. Something doesn't feel /quite/ right about it. Talk me into it? Talk me out of it? Either way, i need your feedback on it. Any new ideas you might have? Tell you what: if you come up with a name that i like and use, i'll give you an awesome prize!!!! ...Not sure what that prize would be, but be assured of this: it WILL be awesome. Yes oh yes it will.

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HELP!

I'm at a loss here. I'm finally getting the chance to get the graphic design work done for my little label, but i can't decide whether to call it 1337 Productions or 1337 Records. I can't call it 1337 Production Studios yet because my studio isn't ready to actually bring clients in, and it's barely big enough or good enough for me to do work here myself... i'm leaning towards calling it 1337 Productions, so i can say that i'm the engineer and producer, but at the same time if i don't call it 1337 Records it doesn't designate it as a label. Agh what to do... thoughts, anybody? Please? Pretty please?

Well today i topped 100 fans on my solo music project's fan page!! I'm pretty psyched, because now i get my custom fan page URL, and i can share my music high-quality with everyone outside of facebook!

www.facebook.com/nathanaaronmusic

(you can also check it out at myspace.com/nathanaaronmusic and purevolume.com/nathanaaronmusic, but Facebook's music player quality is the best, you can listen to the music how it's supposed to sound like)

For those of you that haven't ever listened before, my music could best be classified as "Indie". I love every single musical style (except for mainstream/pop of course, but that's not really a musical style haha) and it's apparent in the music i make. I only have two songs up now (one, a very unique electronic/violin fusion version of O Come O Come Emmanuel, the other, an alternative acoustic song called "Satisfy" written by myself and one other) but more is very soon in coming. I'm working on an indie/progressive EP right now that will be mostly instrumental, and i have about 5 collaboration projects simmering on the burners as well that will soon be coming to fruition in the next few months. Please take a minute to take a listen, take a second or so to click "become a fan" and then take another moment, if you really like it, to suggest it to those who you think would also enjoy it ;-) Here's the link again, just because i believe in overkill =P

www.facebook.com/nathanaaronmusic

And here it is again, because i can. Hehe:

www.facebook.com/nathanaaronmusic

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The Paradox

Happy St. Patty's Day everybody!! I hope you wore green, or at least pinched someone. I did both of course, and someone almost kissed me, (I'm Irish) but that's a story for another time. I made a couple people lucky, researched some of my Family Tree with Lou, (who is also very much Celtic, so i had company in my greenness), and, pulled out my Irish accent. It was all epictacular of course. Here's a rather stereotypical Irish picture:

Ha-ha. I love how i get to be so racist, and no one can say a word because I really am Irish ;-) Of course i shamelessly bash all other races too. It's just what i do. I love everybody though. Really, I do. That does NOT mean i like everybody though. Ohhhh no, actually I

Well, let's just move on. Shall we? Yes we shall. (i love not giving you a chance to respond. It's my blog, i'll move on whether you want me to or not and there's not a doggone thing you can do about it, other than stop reading. Teehee ;-) ...Which you very well could do. But then i wouldn't like you too much. [See above.])

Anyway.

I was also informed of something very interesting. Lindsay searched my family name, and found this from www.houseofnames.com/fc.asp?sId=&s=Dowdy+ :

The history of the name Dowdy dates back to a time before Irish names were translated into English. The original Gaelic form of Dowdy was O Dubhda. The first portion of the name comes from the word dubh, which means black, while the second portion is probably an obsolete Irish personal name. First found in county Mayo where they held a family seat from very ancient times. The family can be traced back to the ancient King Niall of the Nine Hostages, who in turn could be traced back to the Heremon Kings.

So how cool is that?? This is the part of the fairytale story where i find out i'm adopted and my immensely wealthy nobleman parents come and we have this big tearful reunion and triumphant classical music plays. Haha. Thank the Lord we don't live in a Disney movie, eh? But yes i thought it interesting that again i find that i'm of royal blood. That's right, again =P My grandmother's maiden name on my Father's side, MacDougal, was the ruling clan of Scotland for hundreds and hundreds of years. We even have a castle to prove it, actually ;-) My grandmother's maiden name on my Mother's side, Virgo, was the ruling family in Germany, in the province of Volkengen, which was dissolved in World War I, and my great great great great Aunt, the Countess of Volkengen, was forced to flee in the middle of the night from invaders attacking her castle, with nothing but the clothes on her back, her young son, and three immensely valuable diamond rings. She fled to a ship, and bought passage to America where she perished before she even made it to land, from the shock and despair of it all. Her son, Karl Marx (No, not /the/ Karl Marx) survived her and his daughter took the name Virgo, in marriage. Also, my mother's maiden name, Abernathy, was brought over on the Mayflower. Not proudly, (The first Abernathy in the New World was a prisoner of debt, he came to work a plot of land to pay it off. Maybe that's where i get that from =P) Not proudly, mind you, but still. I'm definitely proud of my family history, ask me about it and i'll tell you a hundred other stories - I'm not the only one in my family with a crazy life ;-)

Now to skip back to another part of the text i quoted. As you read, i found out today that the name "Dowdy" in it's original Gaelic means "Black". Let's pause for a moment.

Aaaaahahahahahahaha in your face Elijah.

Ok i just had to get that out. Anyway, I got to thinking how interesting of a paradox this is. See, the first part of my name interestingly goes along with this: "Nathan" means "God's gift" and "Aaron" means Light. My family always capitalized on the fact that my name means "God's Gift of Light". Well we left off the last bit... My name actually means "God's Gift of Light, Black." Certainly a darker twist on my name for sure.... 0.o Rather than expound on this i'm going to end it here, rather abruptly wouldn't you sa

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Co-written

http://www.playlist.com/searchbeta/tracks#hurts%20like%20teen%20spirit

That is a song co-written by Johnny Cash, Nirvana, Blue Oyster Cult, and New Order.

That's right.

An unknown genius producer apparently got ahold of the masters of "Smells like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, "Don't Fear The Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult, "Hurt" by Johnny Cash, and a song i don't know by New Order, and arranged them into one absolutely brilliant song, combining Blue Oyster Cult's haunting guitar riff with Nirvana's bass line, New Order's acoustic guitar, and The Man In Black's plaintive unmistakeable vocals to get a blend of music spanning from 60 years ago till now. This is a true fusion, of both music and meaning. These songs, to me, are old friends... and yet to me they stood apart, in their separate meanings, and their separate musical genius: their separate entities. Incredibly, this radical new mix has taken these haunting classics and fused their distinct meanings to create it's own fresh meaning: in effect, a new song has been born from these past whispers of passion from great lost souls spanning these many generations... THIS is what i love about music: that even though the men who wrote these four songs that serve as this song's base lived completely different lives and experienced radically different joys and sorrows in days lived far apart from one another and completely separated and alienated from one another, their songs, the outpouring of their soul's deep wells of emotion and the window into their perceptions all mesh perfectly into one another to create something new and fresh, and, current. It shows that our generations truly are not as different from each other as we perceive them to be: we're all similar when we get down to it. We breath the same air, feel the same passion, love the same, grieve the same, fear the same, hurt the same, weep the same, exult the same, and worship the same. Our soul's fabric is woven from the same cloth: we are after all, made in our heavenly Father's image; every single generation alike. Only Time separates us, and what is Time? Simply a marker, an idea to look forward to and back on. In Heaven there is no time, and there will be perfect communion between believers regardless of generation or race or gender. How sweet it truly is to have a foretaste of that here in this world!! For me, this song represents unity. Unity between the past and present, unity between our ideas, unity between our passions. Are we any different than those that have gone before us? If you listen to this song, you will find it hard to disagree. All our experiences, all our lives, like this song, are co-written: Are we truly that different from those gone before us?

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Raining at Sunset

I love this song, when i'm most discouraged, the bright sadness and excruciating beauty of this song help me so much... you should listen to it while reading this post ;-)

http://www.playlist.com/searchbeta/tracks#raining%20at%20sunset

Well. after 2 funtastic posts i think it's time to settle down into a serious one finally... As many of my dear friends who know me well will tell you, i'm not really the wide-open guy i appear to be... i'll let you in on a little secret: a lot of times i act that way so i don't become a "fun-killer" with my strange introspective conspiracy-theory rants and brooding seriousness, which is most of the time who i really am. I do like to have fun of course, but i value good fellowship and deep thinking a far better way to spend time in life rather than goofing off constantly. Life isn't one big laugh, people. Make an effort to make your conversations go deeper, it'll serve you well. I tell ya, most times i laugh because i know that if i don't, i'll cry. And i know many of you are the same... Our lives are so complicated and so extremely frustrating and intensely stressful most times, if we don't take time to both talk out the issues, and then also laugh about them best we can, we'll go insane. Now of course, the best thing to do is go to God first with it all. There's no substitute for Him. But, so many times he provides other avenues as well for our consolation, specifically sweet conversations with a dear friend, laughter, and also music to show us His love and care.

Anyway.

Right now, i could use a conversation with a good friend. Although, most of them should be in bed at this hour (2:15 am) as should i be. (i have a good reason for staying up: i'd LOVE to go to bed, i'm exhausted, but i can't yet) Anyway, this blog will have to do.

Today was a rough one. For those of you that don't know, i'm a music producer and mix/tracking audio engineer, i work at 4 different recording studios in Uptown Charlotte, Lake Wylie, and North Charlotte, and i work /for/ about 7 different producers, several of which are high-caliber music legends. I've been very fortunate to get in with that crowd quickly, simply be being at "the right place at the right time" and i've enjoyed the opportunity to work with the biggest artists, producers, label executives, and the like, on some truly great material, at some truly incredible world-famous studios and great live venues... I've been blessed to experience some of the wildest joys and extreme mind blowing excitement over the fulfillment of my passion in music over the past months, and i'm continually humbled to be so blessed with the opportunity to be present while history is being made in the studio and in those tiny rooms away from everyone, the only people there being the forerunners in the new face of music, and myself... i've watched as the face of music is changed and the course of it all been decided... i've been there. I do not say all this to brag, because what am I to deserve this, and what do I have that is not from God? ...Now, along with the intense joy, there is an equal amount of intense frustration, pain and incredible stress to go along, and sometimes more of the latter. Along with witnessing firsthand the advancements in music, i've also witnessed the backbiting, the slander, and sometimes the downright viscousness that these men can portray... Like the mafia, these men are "businessmen" and don't really care if they ruin anyone's career, or if anyone messes up, because they know they have 100 men ready to jump in and fill that one's position. "Nothing personal, it's just business". I've seen young men like myself do just one thing wrong, and seen the producer lean over to his assistant and say "get him out of here" and that young man will be literally kicked out of the studio and locked out, permanently. I live with this stress daily, always conscious of every little thing i do that i don't make a mistake. How i word things even, i have to watch. There are also many things that go on behind the scenes that i am not at liberty to share that add to the burden that i carry... And guys well it just gets to me sometimes. Today was one of those days... And, I feel like also i'm one of the only people left in this world that actually cares any for the work i do, making sure i do things /right/, even though no one will notice or know besides me and God. Nobody does that anymore, and frankly it has me irritated and increasingly angry at the apalling display of apathy i constantly see all around me everywhere i go. Everyone uses everybody else, and the only people that try not to use people are the ones that get used the most and are increasingly drug down into the dirt and beaten down in this horrible sinful desolate world.

BUT

God is so good, everyone. During the course of this post i actually talked to one of my very dear friends who encouraged me with this verse:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

- Romans 8:28-30

And then my friend immediately followed that by quoting the additional chorus to "It Is Well":

"no matter what this life my bring, no matter what my needs may be, no matter that I am so weak, it is well"

And you know what friends? It IS well!! This is not our home, and even though we may experience joys and sorrows here, we can look forward to everlasting Joy in heaven, our TRUE home!! If you have been struggling with depression, i hope these verses help you as they have me... God truly is so good, my friends. Let's all rest in that fact :-)

I promised Lindsay this would be my next post.

And, i think Marissa gets the next one last i remember. I can't remember. Haha.

Anyway, Lou thinks i should cut and dye my hair this summer, and that i'll look like this:

No no not the random black guy in the back (though WIN on the photo bomb there, random black guy) but the legendary Shia labeouf there in the foreground. Yeah, i think it's a risk worth taking... i'm going to try it i do believe :-D But according to Lou i'll have to dye my eyebrows too, and i already have a scary propensity to look like a slightly cooler Joe Jonas, and his eyebrow, and apparently if i dye my eyebrows they'll be more distinguishable. Oh boy. Well we'll just have to all be in suspense to how this will ultimately turn out. Myself included.

On other notes, i have sworn a bitter and lasting hatred to my last unfortunate cell phone company, the horrid Virgin Mobile. I cut the cord on them last night, but nothing could have prepared me for the eternal horrors i experienced while accomplishing this task. But i have conquered, and i will never again look the devils in the face again. I am putting them behind me and am currently on a quest to seek a better phone company before Friday. May the Lord go with me on this journey.

-Nathan

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