making way

Twelve hours of work, 2 max patches,1 SuperCollider patch and I have an extended version of PaperWorks. I am happy with the progress, but there is a great deal more to be done and it will take some time. But in contrast to Arduous (see the player on the side bar) this piece will not suck because I didn't use good monitors. No, I have been at school working with the Event 20/20's. I don't use the really good ones until I get it into decent shape, then master tweaking. Here is a bounce of the latest.

Also, I burned all the Wladorf Statlir Cd's so not it can actually be sold! I will put up the info and a paypal address, so the masses can indulge.

In CA news, I hear that Keith Kirchoff will be moving to LA in Sept (his wife Erica got a gig with the LA opera) and Yutaka will be back for the year working as the CREATE shop keeper. Should be a great year. Especially if I learn to program C++ before the academic season begins.

continued sounding

Today resulted even more work on the PaperWorks as I call them in my mind. These pieces (or piece?) are all created from sounds of paper being handled, torn and crumpled. I made the recordings then segmented them and compiled my segmented and processed sounds with Irin. (Thank you for a great program Carlos). After that I mastered each of the four tracks in Logic. Each of these pieces took me about ten hours or so.
Pw1
Pw2

progress happens

In less than 2 weeks I will be in Montreal for the Orford Academy's Sound Art workshop. It is exciting to start getting ready for this. I have long been planning that I would make a new electronic piece this summer and write a viola piece. It seems they are both happening currently. I take this as a sign that I am finally relaxed from the school year and staying up until 3 am to make sound experiments is happening again! So it seems that progress is happening. On the downside my studio has turned into a very cluttered space, which makes it appear messy, which is probably not an overstatement, but it is so great to just dig in and MAKE. Here is a snipit (pun intended) of my new electronic piece based on paper sounds (so far atleast). It has long been a plan of mine to make a sound and video piece based on paper, maybe that will happen later. For now, simply some sounds.

And here is a good healthy dose of Midwestern Americana (brought to you by Mark Becker), I thought it best to record the speaker of my cell phone with a contact mic.

And to top that all off, the first album of Wladorf Statlir is done!!! The music is great, the artwork was a challenge, although in the end it worked out pretty well.

Speculative Fiction & Literary Genera's

I just watched this lecture by Neal Stephenson about the notion of literary and indeed cultural genera's. His definition of Geeking out around minute 28 is fabulous as it rings true. Ironically, this truthiness that he speaks of is present, for me, in his definition. But I must argue the notion that the populace's Veging Out is limited to television is conspiculously narrow sighted. In fact, as he points out around minute 30, that the tweaking of statistics to produce a best seller list that does not refelct what is actually selling the best, may be the same sort of morally reductive reasoning applied to speculation. Also, it strikes how the notion of folk wisdom is very similar to the expertise (or maybe is one example of..) geek expertise.


Also, I have to say that I really love this player interface, not very intrusive, besides the annoying logo. But the pop up code and email button is fabulous, no navigating away!

Gap Fire

Yes the sky was that color!

Who knew that living in Goleta would put one in line for the number one CA fire emergency. The Gap Fire seems to have eased up today. After having moved the irreplacable's to a friends place, who is in Santa Barbara which is not threatened, it has been a wait and watch. It is amazing to look out at the hills at night and see the smoke illuminated by what are very large and I am sure hot walls of flames. On the upside, it did point out, as many people knew, that the Independent is the only worthwhile newspaper in town, as they were actually disseminating information, while the voice of the overstuffed, the santa barbara news press (no link available!!) had nothing for people who were not willing to pay. Also, the local radio station KCSB, did a great job of getting the information out, via the radio and phone. Here is a great article on them in the Independent.

A firery line in the distance (about 4 miles away give or take) . This is the view from our neighborhood.


The same view before the sun sets and looking more to the north. All those specs that reflect the light of the flash are ash that has been and is floating in the air.


This is the same view, facing more to the south and with a snippet of the flames. This picture is zoomed into one of the 10-20 odd spots in the first picture.


Here is about half of the line that is scene in the first picture, but during the day.


The edge of the smoke cloud that hangs over Goleta. The sun gets darkened during the day so that it is akin to dusk.


The sun on the edge of the smoke cloud during sun set. While this picture is pretty close, it doesn't represent how amazing the color actually was.