Stills

Stills from a new project:

Initiate movement by falling with tailbone recovery

Forward motion through falling is a funny thing.

Today I got a bump about my opera.  Rather, a cosmic(k) poke that said "Hey, remember me?  I'm a project you love(d) and need to finish.  In Seattle.  Now."  My choreographer called me today and asked about the opera material.  He's trying to book a space for a 15  minute excerpt of the project in Seattle for a festival next summer.  It's a major dance festival, and I am a bit a)overwhelmed and b)excited.  

Today I received many emails about the movement workshop I am running in Lanzerote, Spain in two weeks.  I cannot wait, and it will be lovely to be there, provided the equipment that was ordered for students arrives at the Villa.  Perhaps I should work out a virtual fire spinning program in Jitter today just in case, and bring a video projector and speakers to work out a compromise.  

Yesterday my website was relaunched.  It looks lovely, and I can't wait to put on the new materials over the next few weeks. 

And finally, ANR is coming along well.  It will be a 'pillow music' event.  Turns out that listening via bone conduction is easier with surface contact.  

Four Days and Two Weeks Ago...

It's been over two weeks since I played the show with my coworker and his drummer.  Today I finally got to listen to the session, and wow!  It was really great.  The show seemed so strange when we played it, very surreal.  Somehow, we managed to become a very trio of studio musicians.  Not quite Air Supply, however, we did manage to have a really awesome powerhouse of rhythm section going on. 

I've still not seen  nor heard the new work for box, hopefully that will come out soon.

Creative energies are high this week.  I played with a friend tonight, and, it was definitely a strange little set we did, but totally fun and totally worth it.  I feel like my music is becoming more 'solid' and am very happy to be getting back into a regular practice of playing.  All of that aside, I am finding my limits a bit quickly, and need to fix that- either by pushing the limits of the "expanded Box" or by getting something else to play.  I'm highly tempted to return to oboe playing.  Though it has been almost 7 years, I'm hoping to start up again soon- will ask to see if I can borrow one from work until I can find a new one to play.  Really, I miss playing notes, or, at least, miss being able to 'chime in' on riffs and such.  Then again, it is nice to have my total autonomy.  I always did best in the rhythm section, you know?  

The box continues to eat me alive.  I have no more finger nails, and they are worn off behind line where the free edge of my finger nails meet the nail plate.  I need to walk down to the pet store and get the accessories I need in order to play the box properly— I have another rehearsal on Friday.  I love it.  It is a wonderful release.

Prep for the concert next week is this Wendesday.  It will be fun.

Forward Motion

This has been, to say the least,  very productive weekend.

Friday night, after the recital with the Box, I did the write up for my upcoming concert on October 29th.    Originally, I wanted to title it "City Mouse",  but found after doing a web search on the name that there were just too many groups called City Mouse.  Sitting there thinking things over, I had the perfect name for this project, well, all of the projects I'm currently working on, really, and settled on the name "Autonomic Nervous Response".  Yeah, I know, it is terribly mid to late 90's noise sounding, but it seems to work.  It may change, and it probably will simply become the bracket for the project.  In any case, it seems to work for now.  

The project write up for the concert in two and a half weeks:  

Autonomic Nervous Response (ANR) is an ongoing project that explores extreme states of body interaction with sound.  In this "open door" concert/installation, ANR explores the limits and boundaries of sound for the listener by bypassing the hearing mechanism listening experience by pushing sound directly into the body using frequency control and volume.  

The concert focuses on body induced hearing.  Should be fun!

2 am post show update...

It is 2.36 am, and I got in from my show a little under a half hour a go.  The box, as usual, was a hit.  As soon as I get the documentation back, I'll share it.  And, as usual, I am ambivolant.   Moments of joy:  wardrobe malfunctions.  Moments of badness: not taking the show 'far enough'.  No, that isn't related to the wardrobe malfunction, just that I wasn't all into the performance tonight.

But, I did decide something tonight.  I want to start a tradition of people coming to my home for post-show ethiopian and/or vegan fare.  I made some kick-ass ethiopian food after getting back home tonight, it was amazing, and was sad to have few to share it with.  I need to get my food reputation back, for things other than cupcakes (I'm trying to cut down on the amount of deserts I make per month).  

I'm going to offer that tomorrow night, who knows what the fare will be.  If you are around, join me!

Autumn

It finally has turned to autumn.  It is cool today, beautiful and gray.  I love days like this.  They are perfect for making music or hiking alone.  They are also good for cooking- something I did a fair amount of today.

Having spent all day writing a Max patch- it took a lot of time to get one little aspect working, and now I am onto the next portion of the patch I need to write.  I am realizing that though I am enjoying playing noise lately, I will be playing something quite 'pretty' this coming Friday.  I look forward to it very much, though I must admit intentionally pretty music makes me overly self conscious.  I prefer my traditionally beautiful music to be buried under layers of noise, or, barring that, interrupted by it often.  

I played in a concert on Friday night, and when I get the video documentation back, I will make sure to post an excerpt of it here.  It was a wonderful show, and I am grateful to my friend who played with me that evening to set it up.  It went well, and, the feedback I have gotten has been entirely positive.  

I suppose the last thing to say about autumn is that it is one of my favorite times of year because it is the time when I get a little more creative, and get to take my time working on things, creating new music and playing shows.  Soon it will be winter, and I'll be back in full production mode.  Cold weather influences my work quite a bit.  This winter I do hope to be able to make some really good quality recordings of snow falling.  It is one of my favorite sounds, to be sure.

Critical Listening Evening.

Duo(Duet) project is going well.  We managed to try some stuff last week that may or may not be 'good' but it was fun to make and lots of fun to listen to.  Commodification of an improvisatory practice is a bit, well, difficult.  How do you take something that is supposed to be about the moment and extend it into a 'snapshot' and give it a concrete identity?

Recording is a lie.  I looked at the sound file while listening (bad idea) and thought "Oh, I can cut that out, nip here, cut there" and voilá!*  we have a product worth keeping.  Of course, with careful editing I am sure we can make this a great 'product'.  I hate commodification.  I hate music that is nothing but lies, unless, of course, the point is to be a lie.   Perhaps that is the clue I am to have here?  It is the point to be a lie.  "when we lie, we lie together all the time" (Anything box... maybe they meant lay in bed and not lie as in this is all a lie. Whatever.  I have never been good at narrative).   The point in all of this being, maybe we are supposed to lie in this project/product.  Why not lie?

Maybe it will be like  my show this coming Friday, where I will be "glitzed out" and in my show clothes.  Ah... show clothes.  This year, there will be a feature of some kind of boot (yes, yes,  typical) and who knows what else.  I promise a club pix spectacular, though I can't beat last years "Wife beater suprise".  Me in anything showy is a lie.  I do love a good lie.  

Or maybe I should just call it fictional narrative?  

*in honor of you, Mr. Roads, I do that for you...