Kevin Ludlow is a 45-year-old accomplished software developer, business manager, writer, musician, photographer, world traveler, and serial entrepreneur from Austin, Texas. He is also a former candidate for the Texas House of Representatives.
Please take a moment to view his complete resume for more information.
Note: the entirety of this website was architected and developed from the ground up exclusively by Kevin Ludlow.
I've recently been doing some experimenting with a violin bow after a friend of mine started teaching me some basics. Granted she is playing on an actual violin, but it translates to guitar fairly well.
The result was a harder sounding back beat with a nice wah-wah tick and a deep swell from the violin bow. I was basically just forming an E-chord and running the bow over the strings with heavy distortion to get the effect.
Having only had my Telecaster for about a month now, I wanted to try recording something that had an acoustic-sounding background loop and then layer the Tele over it. I had the volume a little low and lost the timing a few times, but this was the result.
As part of my wonderful experience of getting to see Carly's band (T-Bird and the Breaks) open for Sting at the Moody Theater, we also had the pleasure of meeting Sting's band backstage.
Vinnie Colaiuta is one of those guys that you've probably never heard of - unless you're a drummer. Needless to say, T-Bird's drummer, Oscar, is a huge fan of the guy. I had the pleasure of filming the two of them meeting and thought it would be nice to put a little video together for Oscar.
I released it just the other day and thought it would make some good website content too!
MIA half-way through her set on Saturday night. One of her dancers looked to be about 12 years old.
A lovely friend of mine was able to get me a pair of backstage passes (playfully known as "Homie" passes) to this year's Fun Fun Fun Fest. Having never actually gone before, I thought this would be the year to check it out. My good friend from São Paulo, Brazil also happened to be in town and so naturally he and I took advantage of the access.
I'm undoubtedly the furthest one can be from caring about celebrities and all of that, but it's still kind of amusing to see the artists hanging out before major performances. Day one was especially amusing. I really only went backstage because there were private bathrooms available, but was directed over to the trailers with Snoop Dog and company (or Snoop Lion - whatever four-legged creature he may be these days). If I'd come prepared with the proper organic ingredients, I'd have walked right over to him just to say it happened. But alas, I am not that cool.
We left the show early enough to walk to the State Theater and saw Kyle Dunnigan, Doug Benson, and Sarah Silverman. I think Doug was actually my favorite of the three.
Day two was pretty cool only because we got there early enough to see a number of bands backstage from the "Orange Stage". We also accidentally ran into Craig Robinson (from the office), but didn't actually get to see him at the Mohawk later that night (it was absurdly to capacity with a line wrapping the block - namely due to Tenacious D). We stuck around for most of MIA's show having bribed the backstage attendee with beer thus ensuring we kept a great viewing spot. Outside of playing with the band, I don't think we could have gotten any better seats.
As part of my recent visit to Grand Rapids, Michigan, we took a 2-day road trip to northern Michigan. It was just me, my dear friend Mark, and a new friend Felip. We explored the Sleeping Bear Dunes, Traverse City, countless wineries and cider shops, and perhaps most interesting, a piece of real estate for sale known globally as The Symphonic House.
The house was incredible. The house was beautiful. The house was unique.
It was constructed with countless forms of recycled wood, glass, and metal, and was simply wonderful to experience. Every room was built to serve a function. Certain windows were designed to catch the sounds of the wind through the nearby pine trees. Others were designed to echo the gentle sounds of the waves from Lake Michigan. The back steps of the house led to the private beach, a lagoon-like cove of the Great Lake. The house was only 6,200 square feet. It may seem large, but not with a price tag of roughly $4.5 million. The costs were due to the house being an architectural dream.
Beyond all of that, the most fascinating part of the house was that it was built to be playable. I know it sounds a little crazy. Essentially the architect had installed various sets of brass strings roughly 30 feet in length in various rooms. The most prominent ones were accessible from the second story and ran over the main living room area. They were attached along two structural trusses in the house with wooden sound boxes set behind them to catch resonating strings. With rosin-laden gloves, the house could literally be played.
And how could I not?
Even better is that we had the added benefit of getting a personal "behind-the-scenes" tour of the architecture from the architect himself, David Hanawalt. Mark had spoken with him a few days earlier and managed to set it up. It was a truly unique experience for all of us!
I've been going up to the UT School of Music for years to play on the pianos. I've never been a particularly good pianist, but I thoroughly enjoy playing. I went up there about a week ago and was disappointed to find all of the practice rooms locked; I thought they had instituted a new policy.
I went back yesterday to check on this and was happy to have been proven wrong.
