http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znyq0u3ViUE

Hello All,
It's been a busy month for me. As of last night, my band SCHEINING, with producer Jovanka v. Wilsdorf, has an internet presence. You can have a listen to our home recorded demos as well as a nice little video clip here:

SCHEINING Myspace

Also, last week, a good friend of mine Vince, of My Sister Grenadine released a remix album called "More Like a Snowflake // Remixes of Shine in the Dark" with a remix of his song "The Autist" done by me. It's available for download at AnalogSoul. Have a listen and enjoy!
Joe

Hello everyone,
I just put up a rough mix up of Psychlical and thought I'd tell a little story about the song. I wrote this back in 2003 while I was working in a guitar shop in Colorado. I had become obsessed with "Blond Redhead" and was figuring out some of their songs. I found out they were using a different tuning, 1 e-flat, 2 a-flat, 3 f-sharp, 4 e-flat, 5 a-flat and 6 e-flat. It was nice but I took it down to dadfad.

I had been playing with the idea of cycles and circles in my head, and how one can get stuck in them or use them like a bird uses the rising warm air of a thermal to gain altitude. I was obsessed at how spirals appear so much in nature and some of the ideas in string theory (see "The Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene).

One day I was at home playing the song and trying to find a name for it and took the word cyclical;

cyclic |ˈsīklik; ˈsik-|
adjective
1 occurring in cycles; regularly repeated : nature is replete with cyclic processes | the cyclic pattern of the last two decades.
• Mathematics (of a group) having the property that each element of the group can be expressed as a power of one particular element.
• relating to or denoting a musical or literary composition with a recurrent theme or structural device.
2 Mathematics of or relating to a circle or other closed curve.
• Geometry (of a polygon) having all its vertices lying on a circle.
• Chemistry (of a compound) having a molecular structure containing one or more closed rings of atoms.
• Botany (of a flower) having its parts arranged in whorls.
DERIVATIVES
cyclical |ˈsaɪkləkəl| |ˈsɪkləkəl| adjective (in sense 1) .

and put the prefix psych on it.

psych |sīk| (also psyche)
verb
1 [ trans. ] informal mentally prepare (someone) for a testing task or occasion : we had to psych ourselves up for the race.
2 (usu. psyche) [ intrans. ] Bridge make a psychic bid.
noun
1 informal short for psychiatrist or psychologist .
• short for psychiatry or psychology .
2 (usu. psyche) Bridge a psychic bid.
adjective [ attrib. ]
1 informal short for psychiatric .
2 short for psychedelic : : a rare old psych album.
PHRASAL VERBS
psych someone out informal intimidate an opponent or rival by appearing confident or aggressive : guys who try to lift heavy weights in a mistaken attempt to psych out the other guys.
psych something out informal analyze something in psychological terms.

And Psychlical was born.

Even now it is one of my favorite songs to play. It's become almost a mantra for me and I love starting a concert with it to psych myself up;)

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Joe

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have started recording my album at Popschutz Studio here in Berlin. It's been a really great experience so far. The Popschutz crew has been really great and am looking forward to the end result. I'm planning on having it done by summer. It will be released on Goldrausch Records. I'll be posting more info and pics in Feb. so keep checking in. Joe

Hello all, It took me a while to get around to posting this but the police found my guitar! The irony is that they found it the same day I was attacked and it took them over a month to notify me. So a big thanks to everyone who helped out with the new guitar. It is greatly appreciated. Love, Joe

Well, it's been two days and I'm feeling better. I can move my head like I should and my back isn't as sore but, I still have headaches and nausea from the concussion. If you can read german here's a link to the newspaper article about the night.
Berliner Morgenpost According to the Berliner Morgenpost I'm a tourist, hmmm.

Anyway, with all my money going into school, I can't buy a new guitar anytime in the next few years. So, I'm asking friends and family if they can make donations for a new guitar. Some friends of mine here are organizing a concert to help pay for a new guitar but I could use all the help I can get. Even if it's only five or ten dollars it'll help.

For all of you stateside, you can make donations through PayPal or send me an email at joe.czar@gmail.com and I can give you my US account number.

Thanks everyone in advance for your help,
Love,
Joe

So I was walking home last night after meeting Mike H. at WunderBar, about 3am, and as I crossed Prinzenstr. at the bridge, a group of 6 guys attacked me, and stole my guitar and my phone. All in all I'm ok I just busted lip, a few bumps on the head and a light concussion. But my beautiful guitar is gone...

Well it's been almost a year here and I have to say it's been productive, but in different ways than I had thought. I finally have the gear to start recording and have been having fun with it. I am sad that I didn't get around to playing out here though. I've made some good friends, grew closer to an old one, and grown even closer to my wonderful wife. I'm looking forward to these next 19 days and beyond.

We leave for Bern, Switzerland on the 24th. Hello Switzerland, see you later Seattle.

So, I've been in Seattle for a few months now. It hasn't been nearly as rainy and cold as I had remembered and this month was the wettest Nov. EVER! Berlin winters were deffinetly rougher. I don't have plans for any shows yet. I still don't quite feel up to it. I've been working hard slinging coffee, and getting the chops back up to par. Some really good news and something to look forward to though is the new recordings that I've been working on. I'm planning on having the album finished before I come back to Berlin. When that will be is still up in the air, but no sooner than spring. I'll be posting demo tracks regularly so keep posted.