Kirk Hamilton Dot Com: Recent Episodes
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A couple years ago, I decided it would be cool to put all my Kotaku articles into a single post and update it regularly. If you want to look through a list of highlights from the last few years, you can find them here. This list now starts with my final goodbye post from December 2018 … Continue reading A Bunch Of Articles I Wrote For Kotaku
Hello, friends. Long time no see! I’ve been busy in my Kotaku-cave (Kotakave?) for the last couple of months, and have been doing so much writing that I haven’t had much time to do any blogging here. Today, that changes, and with what else but… a post about Kotaku! Despite the fact that I’m writing … Continue reading A Week in the Life of a Kotaku Writer
When I was in music school, I was in a few saxophone quartets. At the University of Miami there is usually a freshman quartet, with the four freshman jazz saxophone principles assuming the four chairs in the group. It’s a great way to focus on intonation and blend. I’d never played in a “proper” rehearsing … Continue reading Shadows and Whispers
In addition to being able to carry more music with me in general, a side-effect of having increased portable music-player storage space is that I can finally take my entire They Might Be Giants collection everywhere I go. No more weighing various albums, going with older volumes just because they’re classic, cherry-picking songs from records… … Continue reading My Favorite They Might Be Giants Lyrics
This past Sunday, my band at The Urban School of San Francisco gave our Spring concert, and it was, by all accounts, a crashing success. The group I direct there is the beginning group, dubbed the “Lab Band” – the idea is that students develop their skills in my band before graduating to the Advanced … Continue reading Arranging: Writing for Student Ensembles
Part 1, detailing the gear in my looping rig, is here. I’ve recently been working on becoming more self-sufficient as a performer. One of the great things about The Exited Door was how many brilliant musicians I got to contribute, but the flip side of that is that it can be difficult to perform the … Continue reading Anatomy of a One-Man Band Pt. 2: Electric Melodica-loo
I’ve spent a good amount of my life fairly certain that somewhere out there exists an evil version of me. It goes back to when I was in school – while at UM, just about every guy in my group of friends was assigned an “anti” version of himself. Anti-Kenji was this fratty Asian dude … Continue reading The Evil Version of Me
This week, I got to do something fun and different – my sister is getting her masters’ in counseling at the California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS), which is a very groovy counseling/therapy institute located south of Market. I heard through her that a group of CIIS students were looking for a musician to accompany … Continue reading Anatomy of a One-Man Band
“Crampons” Crampons are outdoor footwear that include pointed metal parts and are worn on boots to provide traction on snow and ice. General-purpose crampons designed for most mountaineering and glacierice climbing. For ice climbing, specialized crampons that provide better support for front pointingwelted boots to ensure proper fitting. travel are not well suited for vertical … Continue reading Unlikely Words That I Like
After over a year of recording and rehearsing, writing and ranting, working and waiting, my first-ever solo album, “The Exited Door,” is finished and in-hand. What’s more, as of today it’s available for purchase online! In honor of that, I thought I’d devote a post to sharing links to all things Exited Doorian. If you’ve … Continue reading The Exited Door