|| default || § ¶Planetary Alignment and a Quiet Sun
This weekend three planets should be visible at sunset. There was a time when this sort of thing was the portent of something bad (or good -- it depends). The other interesting item on the spaceweather.com website is the quiet sun: no sunspots. This means really poor propagation this weekend. That's most problematic for this weekend's Field Day ham radio activities.
|| default || § ¶Making Music for Chocolate
The new dance collaboration with Kate Mitchell is taking shape! Yesterday I got to see a rehearsal of the first tableau (there will be four) of Kate's new work, Chocolate Box, that I'm creating the sound design and music for. And I was very impressed. It is amazing to see something that just a few months ago was a vague outline on paper come alive on the rehearsal floor.Chocolate Box will be in four tableaux, and so far I've completed the music for the first and second. The first tableau will be showcased as part of the West Wave Dance Festival at the ODC Theater on July 12 in San Francisco.
The music will be a mix of my own electronic music (see entry below) and recordings of early Spanish and Italian music. And the piece has vaguely something to do with chocolate. I'll have more to say about that at a later time.
|| default || § ¶Working on Music Again!
I've been working on the music for another collaboration with choreographer Kate Mitchell. The new work will appear at ODC theater in San Francisco in October. It's still too early to say what it's about or what it sounds like. But I can say that it is in four "tableaux" and I've got drafts done for the first two.This is our second collaboration. Last year we produced THREADS. An hour's worth of music created on my Mac G4, and delivered on a CD.
This time I'm using REASON again, but now version 3.0, which has some great improvements. And I'm creating the final mix using Apple's Logic Express and Soundtrack Pro.
The music is still in draft, and the choreography for the first tableau seems nearly ready. It will be workshopped at ODC Theater in July. The way we collaborate is like a series of iterations down to the final version. But I could spend days upon days working with this software and discovering all that you can do. I've just scratched the surface. Stay tuned.
|| default || § ¶Bloomsday
Today is Bloomsday once again. It's the day when, in 1904, James Joyce's Ulysses takes place.
Have you read Ulysses yet?
It must be a movement then, an actuality of the possible as possible. Aristotle's phrase formed itself within the gabbled verses and floated out into the studious silence of the library of Saint Genevieve where he had read, sheltered from the sin of Paris, night by night. By his elbow a delicate Siamese conned a handbook of strategy. Fed and feeding brains about me: under glowlamps, impaled, with faintly beating feelers: and in my mind's darkness a sloth of the underworld, reluctant, shy of brightness, shifting her dragon scaly folds. Thought is the thought of thought. Tranquil brightness. The soul is in a manner all that is: the soul is the form of forms. Tranquillity sudden, vast, candescent: form of forms.
|| default || § ¶Boulez at 80 - Friday 11pm KALW
It's possible to have many opinions about Pierre Boulez, about his work as a composer, conductor, critic and writer on music, adminstrator, promoter of new music. Ignoring all the side isses, I've always been impressed with (most) of his music. (I don't like the pieces that combine computer control and live acoustic instruments... the use of the computer is never totally justified.) But his orchestral and chamber works I find fascinating. They span over 50 years of very productive work.If I had to say what Boulez's music was like in just a few words, they'd be: agressive, energetic, technical, dramatic, and curious.
And I'd hasten to add that I mean this in the best sense of those words. Particularly the "curious" part. Because while listening to a Boulez piece I become instantly curious about where it's going, and how it is constructed.
On this week's MUSIC FROM OTHER MINDS, I'll be sampling some new releases of music by Boulez, including recent orchestrations of early piano pieces, Notations, from the late '40s. Also Rituel and Messagesquisse. Friday night (June 17), KALW 91.7, 11pm PT.
|| default || § ¶Blogging - The Early Years
While meditating about my history, I realized that blogging was something I started a long time ago. Even before the internet. The form was a little different, but it probably amounted to the same thing.Back in the 70's, my office at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab computer center was right opposite the elevator in the north wing of the main building. The lab director's office was above, on the 5th(?) floor. And outside my office was a long, blank, wall.
Early on during my 13 years at LBL, I started posting interesting things on that wall, with thumbtacks, or push pins. Some of it was technical, results from some programming examples, output from strange programs, newspaper articles about strange things, magazine photographs of even odder things. And some graphic arts pieces by some avant garde graphic artists. At one point I even had a copy of a page from the score of a piece of music by Karlheinz Stockhausen. On Beethoven's birthday I'd put up a copy of the Heiliger Dankgesang from one of his late quartets. Stuff like that.
The wall became quite popular. I even saw the Lab's director reading a few items while slurping on an ice cream bought from the machine down the hall. I even noticed people letting their elevators go by, not wanting to be interrupted from reading some juicy topic on the wall. I did some self-editing and stayed clear of any political items. (I left those in my office, like nasty cartoons of Nixon!).
One day I came into work as usual only to find a Lab workman removing everything from the wall. I started to sputter and was about to call the ACLU, when he calmly explained that the management had decided to put up a real bulletin board in that spot. Which he did. Cork board with a regular frame. My non-virtual blog had become mainstream.
I was pleased when one day I discovered that someone had attached a note claiming the board to be the best bulletin board at LBL. I guess that's why blogging seems so natural. I had an early start.
|| default || § ¶The UN-Cyclopedia!
Now here's a website you can waste hours if not days wandering thru. The cleverness and creativity of the cyberspace community sometimes overwhelms me. The Uncyclopedia is a "wiki", like the more legitimate Wikipedia that it parodies, which means that just about anyone can add content.And while sometimes it borders on the sophomoric, there are some gems worth digging for. And, if you do or don't like what you see, you can add your own.
The Uncyclopedia is also self-referential, which is always interesting.
|| default || § ¶Friends Don't Let Friends Go To Starbucks
Here in Berkeley/Oakland, we have a saying: "Friends don't let friends go to Starbucks". We go to Peet's instead.So it was very reassuring to see this article in today's New York Times about Peet's Coffee, positioning the coffeemaker as the Apple Computer of coffee.
Of course, long time Berkeley/Oakland/Albany residents remember when Mr Peet opened his shop on Vine and Walnut in what was to become North Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto. Peet's was part of the community, and for those of us who didn't know what real coffee was until we came to Berkeley, that original store was an opening into great delights.
One of the selling points in our move from North Berkeley, where I lived from 1968, to here in North Oakland in 1999 was that there was a Peet's on Piedmont Avenue. In fact, Piedmont Avenue is rich with cafes such as Gaylords, Rooz, and, yes, a Starbucks. Which gives working from home a special flavor since the avenue is a short walk from the house.
By the way, Peet's delivers! Check out their online service.