a go to land of chic

Thank you to Jennifer for the garden gnome, Cornelius Canderfield the Third, proprietor of the Automatic Teller Machine #7846

When I was a little tyke and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I am sure that I answered in a manner that indicated I would be a sports star. Now that I closer to the time where one is considered a "grown up" (maybe I should go buys cigarettes just to see if I get carded, that always helps) I realize that I am an artist, a composer none the less. So what does that mean, in terms of "what I do"? I would love to get a 5 year old to answer that one. What it means for this summer in Chicagoland is that I work from 9-5 in front of a computer creating a digital composition and that I scheme on how to finish other pieces that I have begun as well as how to get to Graz in October for an avant-garde seminar on listening. All that said I spend most of my day looking at this
and this
Imagine that, and wearing headphones all day, listening to the same 6 minutes of music over and over, making it a little better here and a little better there. I love it!
The other great part about summer is that I get to read. I read good paper on Cellular Automata and Multi Agent Systems which is serving as a jumping off point for sound synthesis. And then the books, Microsound and Noise Water Meat (still). This along with a research study and visits to museums and family means I am having what amounts to a sabatical. This is perfect.

A bit of the backlog...
After Billings/Bozeman it was on to WI for a week in Cedarburg with my sister and brother in law. We had a great time and wrote a great 4th of July song, I should have a recording in a couple of weeks. It is great to play country music. While in WI we went to Summer Fest and I got to see Bob Wier. It was so great to just dance to all the good 'ol GD tunes and hang out with the hippies. Actually, my favorite part of the night was just dancing through the crowd and happening upon some spinning dancing girls who stops, looks at me and says "You're a beautiful person" We then proceed to dance and I spun off into the night. It was fun to be the person that was not in one place for more that 30 seconds, just "goin where the wind goes, bloomin like a red rose." For the 4th of July J, Josh and I went sailing at Pike lake where I lost my sunglasses to the lake gods. (Limnades) I haven't had that much WI fun in a while. Then moving into our Hyde Park apartment and then off to Buffalo!

Buffalo was in honor of my Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. It began with Jennifer, Josh, his father and myself driving all night to get there. It was an enjoyable ride and I made my first road mix on the tophaPod. It was as much fun as a radio show only a bit more meditated. I still found room for some interesting stuff. The gathering of the Jette clan inevitably means a very large golf tournament. Now there are only about 3 people who can play golf decently the rest of us are hit or miss, rather literally! So 3 parties of 4 enjoyed 18 holes and fun was had by all. The actual event for Carl and Tootie's 60h was fabulous. Pictures...

I love the facial expressions in this one, while there are other pictures where they look better, there are none where they look so..... (you use your own word here)

Here they are in the church where they were married 60 years ago, gotta love downtown Buffalo.


Finally, there was the Rauen family night at the bar, where we met a fellow from WI because, well, his car had horns on it.

I think the pictures say it all.


Props to Josh for organizing the pictures.

Summer 2007

It seems that the academic year and my desire to over extend myself took a toll on me. Hence the three weeks of respite and a quarter of academic life without posts. Since leaving Santa Barbara I spent two weeks in Billings Montana and one in Wisconsin, this blog finds me at our summer residence in Hyde Park Chicago. It is nice to get back to work and be spending my days writing music again.

Billings is was an interesting place to visit, as was Bozeman. Once you get out into the mountains you quickly learn why people live there, as the city life is more like small town life. While we went to Yellowstone and went on several hikes.....

The real highlight was a driving to Bozeman and then wandering out into the wilderness to take in the big sky and then returning to civilization only to impale the rental car's tire with a screwdriver...


Those images are the real thing! The screwdriver must have been kicked up by the front tire and then miraculously lodged in the back tire, then it broke off once inside. But that did not slow us down because there was a rodeo in Big Timber that night, so we just fixed the tire and went to the rodeo. Needless to say, we were dressed inappropriately, apparently a rodeo is best observed with Wranglers and a button down shirt. Apparently I missed that memo. It was quite amazing none the less.


Montana was an interesting adventure and a beautiful place to see.