Well, I finally went and did it. Two things actually. I went to Amsterdam, and I went and saw the Cure play live (in Amsterdam). T'was amazing! Two glorious birds with one golden stone! Mr. Smith was looking (and sounding) especially ravishing. I was really surprised at how good he sounds live, and how well he has trained his voice since Disintegration (my favorite album). Of course, that album is from the late 80's, so that's probably a silly observation. As for the city itself, it is everything they say it is. There are lots of canals, cool old buildings, and art museums. And the red light district is surreal, but not shocking like I expected. All in all it was a nice mini vacation, and it was inspiring to finally see the Cure play live! :-D

I turned on my computer this morning and checked on my soundclick page, as I sometimes do, and found a funny bug of sorts in the charts listing. It said that my song "lie awake" was #999,999 in the goth charts, out of 876 songs (see attached screenshot). I had to laugh because, how bad must my song be to place #999,999 out of only 879 songs? Really bad, worse than all of the 999,120 goth genre songs that are non-existent on Soundclick! Has anyone else come across funny bugs like this one?

Dear 2016, I think we're going to be good friends. I witnessed your birth with drunken fireworks on a street corner in Berlin, surrounded by friendly strangers, clanging their plastic sparkling wine-filled cups together in celebration of you. It was lovely, magical, perhaps even surreal. Despite all the disturbing firework jokes, no one actually got their hands blown off by bottle rockets and roman candles. We danced into the night, and then into the morning, and had our first meal of the year in a Columbian restaurant, where we hungrily devoured the best Chicharrones I have had in my life. The first month of you hasn't even ended, and you've gifted me with many delightful presents: a new job, a beautiful apartment, and an enthusiastic attitude for my various artistic endeavors. 2016, I thank you for this fantastic start, and I look forward to see what other treasures and surprises you may have for me. Yours truly, KR

Rest in peace David Bowie, you will be missed.

Recently, while searching the web for free/open sound files for my new open-source DAW (LMMS), I stumbled upon this marvelous site called freesound.org. It is basically a place where you can download and upload clips, samples and sounds for free. It is completely legal and legit, equipped with knowledgeable moderators that check for plagiarism and tomfoolery. All you have to do is credit the user whenever you use a sample or clip from this site in one of your songs. Anyway, check it out and enrich your sound bank! http://www.freesound.org/