Madeshop Max is more cute than can be resisted.
and Joe couldn't resist.

The first time I met Daniel Gordon-Levitt in person was last year at Sundance. I remember stumbling into the REC room and noticing his larger-than-life smile and his warm greeting. A greeting one usually reserves for old friends, but one that he had generously just given to me. I suspect that was how Dan greeted everyone, based on the way he carried himself that week. With so much going on, most of the Hit Record team worked nearly around-the-clock without much thought of food or sleep, but Dan would consistently show up handing out sandwiches, drinks, and smiles as if it were his personal mission to look after the whole crew.

As I’ve thought about Dan’s life and death, one memory from that time at Sundance has jumped out in particular. I was using a recently gifted melodica for the main melody in the developing score for Morgan M. Morgansen’s Date With Destiny. One evening (or morning - who knows), Dan popped in to see me with a question about the melodica. He disappeared with it for a while and soon returned with the proud discovery that it could be played using circular breathing. Circular breathing is what wind instrumentalists (or didgeridoo players, I suspect, in Dan’s case) use to produce a theoretically endless note. The idea is that you breathe in through your nose while simultaneously pushing built-up air out of your mouth. Recently, a saxophonist set the world record for a 45-minute sustained E-flat. As you can imagine, it is a rather tricky endeavor.

So Dan excitedly asked if I wanted to learn, and although I was pretty sure it would be a wasted effort, I agreed. I once had a homemade didgeridoo in high school and I already knew that the circular breathing trick wasn’t easy, no matter how excited about it Dan seemed to be. I know many people have been struck by Dan’s belief that anyone can be awesome. He seemed to believe that anyone could accomplish anything they set out to do. What I am struck by is that for Dan, this wasn’t just a hollow platitude. It was backed up by his innate gift as a teacher and his ability (and availability) to help or teach you to do what you didn’t think you could.

So there I stood with Dan offering me the melodica and sort of smiling and bouncing in his shoes.

In the three minutes that followed, Dan proceeded to give me the only clear, concise tutorial in circular breathing I’ve ever heard. And then, in the following minute (and to his great delight), I actually surprised myself. Thanks to Dan’s explanation, I immediately (and finally) understood exactly how to move my muscles and when to breathe in. I can still picture that glint in his eye - the one I imagine was there every time he successfully taught a teenager or a businessman how to spin poi or play with fire.

He was someone who loved seeing people become more than they thought was possible, and more importantly, someone who was ready to help out wherever he could along the way.

This is poem dan wrote for the Teafaerie, to be said when wishing on the Last Star.

You gotta make sure you can only see one - sometimes there are two for a while and then you lose em both - but if you get it it's more magic and more honorable than First Star, because you have to made it through the night of adventure - or get up pretty early - to catch it. It was kind of a little romantic secret, but I think he'd like it if I/we passed it on.

Thanksgiving 2008 dan RECorded me playing this. Now I mostly like it for his gentle "thank you" at the end.

He found it sort of incredible when I told him just how much music throughout space and time is all built around the same three chords. And, in fact, that the intervals of those chords' harmonies are suspiciously similar to the same golden intervals found in a snail's shell or the Milky Way's spiral.

For the origins of my -- and our -- attraction to that extreme and mean number known as Phi, here's ESCARGOTS ~~ http://hitrecord.org/records/9667

Well, he was determined to acquire a natural sense of said same three chords, and so, two years ago, before the holiday's family festivities began, he sat me down on his couch and asked me to play them. The teafaerie was there too; you can hear her camera beep at the end. It's no studio recording, and the guitar's not exactly in tune, but dan actually had a pretty high-quality portable audio recorder, and he couldn't hear small differences in pitch anyway ;op

After that, he listened to these couple minutes of audio more repetitively than I've ever seen anybody listen to anything. Especially when he was busy coding the v3 website for hitRECord. On his iTunes "playcount", where most songs have one or two "plays", and the second-highest song boasts a couple hundred, this record has several thousand.

thanks again <3

I met dAN at Sundance almost a year ago. He was so nice and friendly and made me feel welcome right away. He seemed to be everywhere those few days, always seemingly with a camera on his shoulder and a smile on his face. I just wanted to put together something to say "thanks, dAN..." He's a great guy and always an inspiration...

Last night I had an incredibly vivd dream of Dan spinning fire. It was one of the most realistic dreams I've ever had. He was alone in a field on a beautiful night. There was a full moon and a sky full of stars. The landscape was illuminated just enough so that you could make out beautiful green rolling hills that seemed to go on forever. I was close enough to feel the heat of the fire, I can’t recall having a dream where I actually felt heat before, I also remember being able to feel the cool night breeze. I watched as Dan spun and was in complete awe because the fire he was spinning was not a deep yellow/orange but a full spectrum of colors like a rainbow. I didn’t know Dan in life but I can’t help but feel that in his transition from this life to the next he has somehow gained his true superhero powers. He is able to reach alI of us. I know that a lot of us have had similar experiences and I’d like to believe that this isn’t coincidence. I feel he is still with all of us hitRECorders and wants us to be the best that we can be. I feel honored to have had this experience on this day. Thank you Dan, thank you Joe and thank you hitrecorders :o) Happy 11-11 everyone!

It was 2003 and I had offered up my home for Dan to throw his birthday party. All our parties had themes back then (still do, come to think of it) and Dan's party was no different. In Dan style, it was a pun.

I hosted "Dan's Party USA!" and people came to hang out, eat cake and watch Dan do this thing that he wanted to do. I didn't know what was going to go on. I don't think any of us did. We knew there would be fire. We'd seen people eat fire. We'd seen people breath fire. He told it wasn't that. It least it wouldn't be that way on purpose.

I went diving through my hard drive and found a video from that night. This was the night he brought us fire. We had no idea... I doubt that this is the first ever recording of Dan spinning fire, but it certainly is the first time I ever saw anyone spin fire. It is fitting that he was the one to teach me six years later.

Everything move Dan does in this video is something he taught me in his Poi 1 class. Watching this warms my heart and my memories of him are full of love, wackiness, and- not to overuse this word- awesome.

There is a lot of fire spinning that happens in my back yard these days. And I think this is a tradition that will continue for a long time to come.


Please forgive the crappy video quality of this record. It was shot on my point-and-shoot Canon Digital ELPH in 2003. The music playing in the background is "Heather Graham" by this awesome A Capella group DaVinci's Notebook.

"the most valiant thing you can do as an artist is inspire someone else to be creative."

one of my favorite quotes by Joe. I saw this picture, and I knew I had to remix it someway.

This is also my 100th RECord :D how exciting! Thank you so many REComendations and for featuring this! :D thank you thank you thank you!!!!

The beginning of the v4 Re/Relaunch saga (don't panic - it ends in Victory Ice Cream)

from January 4 2010:
We are busy making the change from hitRECord.org v3 to v4. To make sure that goes smoothly and completely, you can no longer hit RECord on v3. No new user Registration, no new Remarks and no new RECords can be Released.
hitRECord v3 is now more like hitPLAY.

Dan took truly amazing photos. He has some of the best photos of me spinning fire (I framed one of them). It's fitting that one of my favorite photos of him is one I took of him taking pictures. This was from Fire Drums (2008).