This was an unusual week for me - hard in some ways, and unstressful in others. Sunday last I edited a video that turned out rather well.
And also this week I went above and beyond the call, to give teachers as much support as I could with their summer school students, using networked Chromebooks and Moodle. It was hard - getting 210 some odd students to navigate wireless network login, Chromebook login, and Moodle login is hard. Also, I had to set up the Moodle course and copy it out into sections for individual teachers.
So it was a busy week, but I'm feeling twice as good about my job as I was earlier, for several reasons: 1) working hard is an antidote to worry; 2) working hard makes me feel valuable, and makes me feel less disposable; and 3) giving service to teachers and students directly is very rewarding. Being in the same room with the people I serve is wonderful (most of the time :). Also, I learn so much from the successes and failures in the classroom. Usually I'm far away, in my little office, and things that seem simple in my office can wind up being really hard in the classroom, when unforeseen problems happen.
And this coming week, I'm helping out at a special summer program where kids put together Raspberry Pi computers and do projects with them. That should be fun. And, I'm responsible for audio & video at a teachers' event with a really good presenter. I have to handle sound reinforcement, shoot a video, and capture digital audio for the video. That should be fun.
And I'm going to become a Canvas admin. I need to move quickly on that.
It's nice to not think so much about scary things, like being unemployed, and more about how I can help people at my job.
Also, my wife is recovering nicely from having fractured her ankle. She's improving every day. No surgery necessary, thank God...
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Monday, June 1, 2015
4 against 1, 2 against 2, and improvisation
My work on this book details four-note chords, and by detailing omissions, there are notes that can be freely played by the other hand. So, a right-hand four-note chord could be supported by a bass line, or a melody in the upper register. Or a left-hand four-note chord could be accompanied by a melody above or below, as many of the left-hand chords are playable quite high up on the neck. Once a player becomes familiar with this method of play, improvisation is natural.
But what intrigues me more is 2 notes against 2 notes. The possibilities for four-part counterpoint really shine there. I think that will be the core of my third book. (The second book will be three-note chords with approach tones, dissonance handling, and such, and should take a year to write). The Bach chorales sound right for this kind of play, but especially the chorale melodies with figured bass. Those have soprano and bass, with figured bass instead of tenor and alto parts, which would give the maximum freedom to a Chapman Stickist to supply moving voices, as the layout on Stick is quite different from a keyboard.
Ultimately, I want linear improvisation a la Lennie Tristano, with a style, a method, and a core of study. It doesn't have to be blues-based, although that is probably a good idea.
This is rest-of-my-life stuff.
Why, you ask, why don't you just play and compose? There are so many reasons. 1) I can't stand the idea of playing dumb, of just letting my fingers do stuff, although that can be wonderful; I need that mental superstructure - that or silence. It's just my personality. 2) Practicing around my family is difficult, and I don't like using headphones. I often play my Stick with no amp, which is extremely soft, and only works because I'm doing this very early in the morning; 3) I need a method, and although there are many fine Stickists out there who teach, I'm instinctively distrustful of anything too simple (thank you music school, for ruining my sensibilities :), and much of what they do is quite simple. Ironically, the man who plays the most complex harmonies is the inventor, Emmett Chapman, the one with little time to play, because he's so busy running his business and working on Sticks.
So, there are so many Stickists who can do what I cannot. I just want my little corner of the world where I do things they cannot. Ego? Yes, yes. My ego is getting battered everywhere else. I can wear a crown in this little area.
People may buy my book and outstrip me quickly. That's OK - that's a victory condition.
I worked on the book today. It's amazing how many errors there are - chords are described, and the wrong chords are put down. Synonyms are detailed, and they are wrong. Chords are outlined and voiced, and there are already synonyms written down and fingered elsewhere in my work. Often I just put a mark on the wrong place for an intended note.
This is no different than the many math errors I made in high school. I was only a B student - never got an A from my favorite teacher, Andre Cloutre. Wow that man could teach. I got more from him than my grades ever reflected. Also, he was my homeroom teacher for four years. Lucky me, as a friend of mine is fond of saying.
Before I go, one more thing. I've been working on my first book since Thanksgiving, and multiplication problems are becoming easier to visualize. I'm solving problems in what seem like a very short time to other people, but it's easy for me, because I can "see" the solution. I'm no idiot savant, at least not yet. I'm waiting for that blow to the skull to set me free...
But what intrigues me more is 2 notes against 2 notes. The possibilities for four-part counterpoint really shine there. I think that will be the core of my third book. (The second book will be three-note chords with approach tones, dissonance handling, and such, and should take a year to write). The Bach chorales sound right for this kind of play, but especially the chorale melodies with figured bass. Those have soprano and bass, with figured bass instead of tenor and alto parts, which would give the maximum freedom to a Chapman Stickist to supply moving voices, as the layout on Stick is quite different from a keyboard.
Ultimately, I want linear improvisation a la Lennie Tristano, with a style, a method, and a core of study. It doesn't have to be blues-based, although that is probably a good idea.
This is rest-of-my-life stuff.
Why, you ask, why don't you just play and compose? There are so many reasons. 1) I can't stand the idea of playing dumb, of just letting my fingers do stuff, although that can be wonderful; I need that mental superstructure - that or silence. It's just my personality. 2) Practicing around my family is difficult, and I don't like using headphones. I often play my Stick with no amp, which is extremely soft, and only works because I'm doing this very early in the morning; 3) I need a method, and although there are many fine Stickists out there who teach, I'm instinctively distrustful of anything too simple (thank you music school, for ruining my sensibilities :), and much of what they do is quite simple. Ironically, the man who plays the most complex harmonies is the inventor, Emmett Chapman, the one with little time to play, because he's so busy running his business and working on Sticks.
So, there are so many Stickists who can do what I cannot. I just want my little corner of the world where I do things they cannot. Ego? Yes, yes. My ego is getting battered everywhere else. I can wear a crown in this little area.
People may buy my book and outstrip me quickly. That's OK - that's a victory condition.
I worked on the book today. It's amazing how many errors there are - chords are described, and the wrong chords are put down. Synonyms are detailed, and they are wrong. Chords are outlined and voiced, and there are already synonyms written down and fingered elsewhere in my work. Often I just put a mark on the wrong place for an intended note.
This is no different than the many math errors I made in high school. I was only a B student - never got an A from my favorite teacher, Andre Cloutre. Wow that man could teach. I got more from him than my grades ever reflected. Also, he was my homeroom teacher for four years. Lucky me, as a friend of mine is fond of saying.
Before I go, one more thing. I've been working on my first book since Thanksgiving, and multiplication problems are becoming easier to visualize. I'm solving problems in what seem like a very short time to other people, but it's easy for me, because I can "see" the solution. I'm no idiot savant, at least not yet. I'm waiting for that blow to the skull to set me free...
Friday, May 29, 2015
another afternoon at the cafe
I have no idea what I'll write about. I'm not as sleep-deprived as I was last time, so I feel more self-possessed.
My external life: I have a wife with a cast on her foot, a child in middle school, and a boss who either wants to fire me or is otherwise exasperated with me. I have compassion for them all.
I am resolved to react with neither anger nor fear, and I am trying to be as helpful as possible to all around me, within the limits of my life, and that of my artistic desires.
Speaking of that, I have reached a milestone with my book. I have written down all of the chords. Lots and lots of chords, and now they are all written down. About 156 pages. I began during Thanksgiving week, and now it is almost June. Next comes the fingering (more than half done), and the cross-referencing (not as far along). Then, a plan for the structure of the book - the four note chords (the substance of the book), a chapter on beginning technique, and some commentary. I'll make about five sample pages and work on formatting them. I want it to look a little like a Wolfram alpha calculator page. There will be the chord diagram, alternate fingering if possible, Stafftab notation (in Sibelius, not Finale), figured bass, alternate chord name(s), synonyms (a la Ted Greene), possible resolutions, two or more different scales that support the chord (ghosted in on the diagram), omitted notes (which can be played by the other hand), positions along the neck where the chord, or the fingering, is easiest to play; and finally, the intervals, all six of them, that characterize the four-note chord, drawn as beautifully as possible.
Also, a short chapter on scales and arpeggios the way I play them, the way I finger them. And an explanation of my rationale: Many Chapman Stick tunings (and that of other tapping instruments) have a set of strings in fourths, and a set in fifths, regardless of what side of the instrument they happen to be on, or the tuning relationship between the two sets. For instance, there is Classic, Baritone Melody, Deep Baritone Melody, and Matched Reciprocal. All of them are differentiated by how the treble strings are tuned, not the bass strings, which are largely based on a C-G-D-A-E setup.
So, separating the treble and bass sides, and not referring to one when I am diagramming the other, frees me and the reader up, by taking one side at a time, so I don't have to make a different edition of the book for each tuning.
Each four-note chord is oriented by bass note. From the specific bass note, a group of "lieutenants" emerge: tenor notes nearby that can serve to build a chord on. From there, the alto and soprano can be selected based on what lies under the hand. Thumbs are included, which multiplies the possible chords. Color tones are included as possible bass notes. The usual terminology of root-position, first inversion, and so on, can be used, but a number system works better: each bass note is specified by number, outside of parentheses, and the tenor, alto, and soprano is inside of parentheses, e.g. 1(3 5 7).
The selection of chords is by bass note, and from there, combinatorial math is used. The Wolfram Alpha calculator app on the iPad has been helpful to sort that out. The chords themselves have been visualized by the FretBoard app, again on the iPad. That is an invaluable tool, but my method goes farther, in that it serves up playable (and some not so playable) chords. The combinations (not permutations) have proven that I've covered my possibilities thoroughly.
I plan on using the Neck Diagram software to actually create my diagrams. At first they will be blank: no roots will be specified, nor numbers - that way a diagram can serve as a basis for many chord synonyms (and my God there are a lot of them). Once I commit to the diagram, I can put in roots and numbers for the chord.
I think I"ll have a short chapter on visualizing intervals too. That's so valuable, because they can help a Stickist to sort things out quickly, but also, the enharmonics need to be sorted out as well.
Too many Stickists use the same chords over and over. Simple triads, and not even diminished ones at that. There are some technically accomplished players who are just as boring as they be. And others have good fingers, but can't think of what to play in an imaginative way. I want to give them something beautiful. I want them to be able to think on their chosen instrument.
Other topics to be covered later: dovetailing arpeggios to create scales between the two hands; figured bass in a Baroque sense, and for jazz harmony; the intersection of Messaien and Ted Greene; the two- & three-part Inventions and Sinfonias by Bach; Scarlatti sonatas. Bach's arrangement of the Violin Sonatas & Partitas for Lute; the Lute music by him as well; Villa-Lobos guitar music; and another grimoire for three-note chords with dissonance and resolution. And then compositions: my own improvisations worked up for Stick solo, and perhaps a Stick concerto with orchestra (Mozart-sized, or Beethoven-sized). Perhaps a Stick trio? Oh: an one thing; a second edition of my book for the Grand Stick, with 12 strings instead of 10 (but not until I get one).
I also want to mention Marshal McLuhan, with his notion of hot and cool media. Mine will be very cool. The Stickist will have to bring a lot of himself to this work.
I want the player to be able to think: about notes, intervals, fingerings, resolutions, bass lines, melodies, and scales. I want them to be able to compute on the instrument, so implicitly that it won't feel like thinking. I want there to be a seamless interplay between musical knowledge and musical beauty.
Later, a book of etudes, which use the chords as a point of departure.
My external life: I have a wife with a cast on her foot, a child in middle school, and a boss who either wants to fire me or is otherwise exasperated with me. I have compassion for them all.
I am resolved to react with neither anger nor fear, and I am trying to be as helpful as possible to all around me, within the limits of my life, and that of my artistic desires.
Speaking of that, I have reached a milestone with my book. I have written down all of the chords. Lots and lots of chords, and now they are all written down. About 156 pages. I began during Thanksgiving week, and now it is almost June. Next comes the fingering (more than half done), and the cross-referencing (not as far along). Then, a plan for the structure of the book - the four note chords (the substance of the book), a chapter on beginning technique, and some commentary. I'll make about five sample pages and work on formatting them. I want it to look a little like a Wolfram alpha calculator page. There will be the chord diagram, alternate fingering if possible, Stafftab notation (in Sibelius, not Finale), figured bass, alternate chord name(s), synonyms (a la Ted Greene), possible resolutions, two or more different scales that support the chord (ghosted in on the diagram), omitted notes (which can be played by the other hand), positions along the neck where the chord, or the fingering, is easiest to play; and finally, the intervals, all six of them, that characterize the four-note chord, drawn as beautifully as possible.
Also, a short chapter on scales and arpeggios the way I play them, the way I finger them. And an explanation of my rationale: Many Chapman Stick tunings (and that of other tapping instruments) have a set of strings in fourths, and a set in fifths, regardless of what side of the instrument they happen to be on, or the tuning relationship between the two sets. For instance, there is Classic, Baritone Melody, Deep Baritone Melody, and Matched Reciprocal. All of them are differentiated by how the treble strings are tuned, not the bass strings, which are largely based on a C-G-D-A-E setup.
So, separating the treble and bass sides, and not referring to one when I am diagramming the other, frees me and the reader up, by taking one side at a time, so I don't have to make a different edition of the book for each tuning.
Each four-note chord is oriented by bass note. From the specific bass note, a group of "lieutenants" emerge: tenor notes nearby that can serve to build a chord on. From there, the alto and soprano can be selected based on what lies under the hand. Thumbs are included, which multiplies the possible chords. Color tones are included as possible bass notes. The usual terminology of root-position, first inversion, and so on, can be used, but a number system works better: each bass note is specified by number, outside of parentheses, and the tenor, alto, and soprano is inside of parentheses, e.g. 1(3 5 7).
The selection of chords is by bass note, and from there, combinatorial math is used. The Wolfram Alpha calculator app on the iPad has been helpful to sort that out. The chords themselves have been visualized by the FretBoard app, again on the iPad. That is an invaluable tool, but my method goes farther, in that it serves up playable (and some not so playable) chords. The combinations (not permutations) have proven that I've covered my possibilities thoroughly.
I plan on using the Neck Diagram software to actually create my diagrams. At first they will be blank: no roots will be specified, nor numbers - that way a diagram can serve as a basis for many chord synonyms (and my God there are a lot of them). Once I commit to the diagram, I can put in roots and numbers for the chord.
I think I"ll have a short chapter on visualizing intervals too. That's so valuable, because they can help a Stickist to sort things out quickly, but also, the enharmonics need to be sorted out as well.
Too many Stickists use the same chords over and over. Simple triads, and not even diminished ones at that. There are some technically accomplished players who are just as boring as they be. And others have good fingers, but can't think of what to play in an imaginative way. I want to give them something beautiful. I want them to be able to think on their chosen instrument.
Other topics to be covered later: dovetailing arpeggios to create scales between the two hands; figured bass in a Baroque sense, and for jazz harmony; the intersection of Messaien and Ted Greene; the two- & three-part Inventions and Sinfonias by Bach; Scarlatti sonatas. Bach's arrangement of the Violin Sonatas & Partitas for Lute; the Lute music by him as well; Villa-Lobos guitar music; and another grimoire for three-note chords with dissonance and resolution. And then compositions: my own improvisations worked up for Stick solo, and perhaps a Stick concerto with orchestra (Mozart-sized, or Beethoven-sized). Perhaps a Stick trio? Oh: an one thing; a second edition of my book for the Grand Stick, with 12 strings instead of 10 (but not until I get one).
I also want to mention Marshal McLuhan, with his notion of hot and cool media. Mine will be very cool. The Stickist will have to bring a lot of himself to this work.
I want the player to be able to think: about notes, intervals, fingerings, resolutions, bass lines, melodies, and scales. I want them to be able to compute on the instrument, so implicitly that it won't feel like thinking. I want there to be a seamless interplay between musical knowledge and musical beauty.
Later, a book of etudes, which use the chords as a point of departure.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
coming back
I've been off the blog for the past few years, because I wanted to spend more time playing Chapman Stick. Well, I did so - playing for a band that had me so sleep deprived I almost went psychotic. That band's been on hiatus for awhile.
As I write I am shell-shocked with sleep deprivation, so whatever I typed is going to be pretty much stream-of-consciousness.
It's 2015, and I have less than a year to retirement. A pretty minimal retirement, but it could be added to another salary which could earn me some more retirement. I'm thinking about going into video production. It's more fun than IT work, and I'm better at it. I have ten months and three weeks to make something happen there. I've got feelers out to an advertising company. Gore Vidal said that TV commeriials were America's only original art form (he left out demolition derby), so maybe there's an artist in me wanting to come out. A whorish kind of artist.
Y'know, I keep hearing about these emails & ads saying "Find your true passion" and so forth. Follow this or that method and you will find your passion. I've found mine, at the age of 11. Music makes me feel like nothing else, and the study of music is something I'm driven to. And I have very little time to do it.
So, what I"m doing right now is writing this book. It's about playing the Chapman Stick, and I might have a publisher interested. There will be a chapter on basic, beginner's technique, but mostly it's all about four-note groupings of chords, three-note, four-note, five-note, and six-note chords, using combinatorial math and orderings by bass line. It's actually a scientific book. It's exhaustive. I started in Thanksgiving, and I'm almost done. I was thinking of putting a lot of false notices in it, like "Mr. Verges, in the publication of this book, has just purchased his ticket to the insane asylum" and so forth. None of the Stickists on Stickist.com are remotely interested, but I'm feeling like Boltzmann here. I'm providing them with an intellectual superstructure that they aren't aware they need.
Next, big project: three note chords each with one dissonant note, resolved, above & below, with fingerings. But first I have to publish the first project. It's over 150 pages, handwritten, right now. It's basically writing itself.
There. That was a fun blog entry. Now, for a 5;00 date with my daughter. Her socker practice was cancelled, and we're going to have some fun for a little bit.
As I write I am shell-shocked with sleep deprivation, so whatever I typed is going to be pretty much stream-of-consciousness.
It's 2015, and I have less than a year to retirement. A pretty minimal retirement, but it could be added to another salary which could earn me some more retirement. I'm thinking about going into video production. It's more fun than IT work, and I'm better at it. I have ten months and three weeks to make something happen there. I've got feelers out to an advertising company. Gore Vidal said that TV commeriials were America's only original art form (he left out demolition derby), so maybe there's an artist in me wanting to come out. A whorish kind of artist.
Y'know, I keep hearing about these emails & ads saying "Find your true passion" and so forth. Follow this or that method and you will find your passion. I've found mine, at the age of 11. Music makes me feel like nothing else, and the study of music is something I'm driven to. And I have very little time to do it.
So, what I"m doing right now is writing this book. It's about playing the Chapman Stick, and I might have a publisher interested. There will be a chapter on basic, beginner's technique, but mostly it's all about four-note groupings of chords, three-note, four-note, five-note, and six-note chords, using combinatorial math and orderings by bass line. It's actually a scientific book. It's exhaustive. I started in Thanksgiving, and I'm almost done. I was thinking of putting a lot of false notices in it, like "Mr. Verges, in the publication of this book, has just purchased his ticket to the insane asylum" and so forth. None of the Stickists on Stickist.com are remotely interested, but I'm feeling like Boltzmann here. I'm providing them with an intellectual superstructure that they aren't aware they need.
Next, big project: three note chords each with one dissonant note, resolved, above & below, with fingerings. But first I have to publish the first project. It's over 150 pages, handwritten, right now. It's basically writing itself.
There. That was a fun blog entry. Now, for a 5;00 date with my daughter. Her socker practice was cancelled, and we're going to have some fun for a little bit.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Today's post
I never know what I'm going to write when I start these things. I get a cup of tea and just start typing.
I'll start with improvisation. Every morning, before I brush my teeth or even have a glass of water, before I'm really awake, I start up the digital recorder and start playing the keyboard, for between five and 45 minutes. Whatever happens is what happens. I try to have some chordal integrity, some melody, and that's it. I'd like to have more mental stuff going on when I improvise, but for now that's it. If I think too much I kill everything creative. It's like fishing - sometimes you don't catch anything, and sometimes you reel in a big fish.
Next - RazorLame.I load the mp3 into RazorLame and convert to WAV. It's really reliable, and it's free.
Then, Adobe Audition. I compress the WAV file (the Classical setting) and run eq on it, save it, and it's done. Back to RazorLame, where I convert it back to mp3, and it's ready for long-term storage and listening.
Today I installed the Amazing Midi program on one of my XP machines. I converted a bunch of the files back to WAV using RazorLame, and used Amazing Midi to convert them to midi sequences. I listened to some of them. They've been quantized, which means that all of the rhythmic grace has been taken out of them. But, the ideas can still be extracted with a music notation program, and developed.
What I haven't done yet is to install Keykit, and use it to run a Markov chain analysis on the midi files. That's next.
And, after that, I need to get ahold of a copy of Sibelius. That's my music notation program of choice. I could load midi sequences, Keykit Markov chains, or hook a keyboard up to the computer to improvise directly and develop any of these into compositions.
I just need to devote a corner of my house to this, and the requisite time. And break out that Samuel Adler orchestration book and start reading it again.
I really want to compose again. I 52 for Chris'sakes. I'm tired of putting this off. I've got no shortage of ideas.
I'll start with improvisation. Every morning, before I brush my teeth or even have a glass of water, before I'm really awake, I start up the digital recorder and start playing the keyboard, for between five and 45 minutes. Whatever happens is what happens. I try to have some chordal integrity, some melody, and that's it. I'd like to have more mental stuff going on when I improvise, but for now that's it. If I think too much I kill everything creative. It's like fishing - sometimes you don't catch anything, and sometimes you reel in a big fish.
Next - RazorLame.I load the mp3 into RazorLame and convert to WAV. It's really reliable, and it's free.
Then, Adobe Audition. I compress the WAV file (the Classical setting) and run eq on it, save it, and it's done. Back to RazorLame, where I convert it back to mp3, and it's ready for long-term storage and listening.
Today I installed the Amazing Midi program on one of my XP machines. I converted a bunch of the files back to WAV using RazorLame, and used Amazing Midi to convert them to midi sequences. I listened to some of them. They've been quantized, which means that all of the rhythmic grace has been taken out of them. But, the ideas can still be extracted with a music notation program, and developed.
What I haven't done yet is to install Keykit, and use it to run a Markov chain analysis on the midi files. That's next.
And, after that, I need to get ahold of a copy of Sibelius. That's my music notation program of choice. I could load midi sequences, Keykit Markov chains, or hook a keyboard up to the computer to improvise directly and develop any of these into compositions.
I just need to devote a corner of my house to this, and the requisite time. And break out that Samuel Adler orchestration book and start reading it again.
I really want to compose again. I 52 for Chris'sakes. I'm tired of putting this off. I've got no shortage of ideas.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
regression
I guess I can only improve my life so much before it starts slipping back. I stopped doing yoga over a week ago, because my back hurts too much. I lost my concentration in one pose, and that was it.
My network studies are getting nowhere fast, because I can't stand not playing music. When I was making a lot of progress, back in '09, I wasn't playing at all, and was unhappy about it. Now I'm playing quite a bit, but not doing networking. Oh well, anyone working on a CCNA has no life, and anyone with a life isn't working on a CCNA, or has a heck of a lot of free time.
What else? I gained three pounds last week. Binging on chocolate Halloween night, eating starchy vegan food Thursday, and eating my work crew's food on Friday. By Sunday it was all over. I'm trying to reform my ways.
And now for the positive stuff. That vegan food Thursday was enjoyed in the presence of Julia Butterfly Hill, the famous activist who lived in a tree for two years to protest logging in the Pacific Northwest. She came up to visit Denton and various What's Your Tree people, one of whom is my wife, who was there too. This was after a visit to Cardo's farm, which I was able to videotape, and before a talk at an art studio near the Square, which I was also able to do. Very cool. It'll probably take me six months to edit this project.
JBH has gone so far out of her comfort zone to do something that was important to her, that we are practically defined by our failure to leave our respective zones to make our statement. She has paid in expensive coin for what she believes in, and many of us look rather contemptible by comparison. At least that's my attitude since I had dinner with her.
JBH has gotten into my head in an unusual way. I first made a video of her initial Denton visit back in '07, and it took months to edit. The event itself was wonderful - she spoke at UNT, and the evening was sponsored by UNT, the City of Denton Libraries, and Denton ISD. I had a crew (which is rare for me) and I got three video sources and four audio. It took months to edit, during which time I stared at her and listened to the wisdom she had painfully accululated during two years of isolation atop a redwood tree named Luna.
At first, she seemed very beautiful to me. Sexy, young, graceful, with a long neck, long black hair, and a beautiful streak of grey appearing from the top of her forehead. I'm guessing she was 33 at the time. But the more I listened to her, and absorbed her knowledge of spiritual things, integrity, and her treetop view of the sickness of the world and our society, the more like an ordinary person she looked. Then, after a year had passed, when I'd long abandoned the project (finishing was not an option - I could've spent years on it), and I'd forgetten many of her words, I looked at my edit again, and there she was, beautiful, again.
So here's the kernel of that phenomenon, which someone had to tell me (I can't take credit for this insight) - where you see beauty, there you see your heart's desire. My desire was not for her, but for her wisdom. She seemed beautiful to me because her wisdom made her look that way. Big lesson for me.
At the dinner last week, I didn't talk much with her. I'd spent so much time looking at her in my video editing software that it was almost dissonant to see her in person, in real life. It was hard to make eye contact with her. Oh well, I hope she wasn't put off by me. My wife & kid were really charmed by her, during the evening session, and she was kind and genuine with both of them.
My network studies are getting nowhere fast, because I can't stand not playing music. When I was making a lot of progress, back in '09, I wasn't playing at all, and was unhappy about it. Now I'm playing quite a bit, but not doing networking. Oh well, anyone working on a CCNA has no life, and anyone with a life isn't working on a CCNA, or has a heck of a lot of free time.
What else? I gained three pounds last week. Binging on chocolate Halloween night, eating starchy vegan food Thursday, and eating my work crew's food on Friday. By Sunday it was all over. I'm trying to reform my ways.
And now for the positive stuff. That vegan food Thursday was enjoyed in the presence of Julia Butterfly Hill, the famous activist who lived in a tree for two years to protest logging in the Pacific Northwest. She came up to visit Denton and various What's Your Tree people, one of whom is my wife, who was there too. This was after a visit to Cardo's farm, which I was able to videotape, and before a talk at an art studio near the Square, which I was also able to do. Very cool. It'll probably take me six months to edit this project.
JBH has gone so far out of her comfort zone to do something that was important to her, that we are practically defined by our failure to leave our respective zones to make our statement. She has paid in expensive coin for what she believes in, and many of us look rather contemptible by comparison. At least that's my attitude since I had dinner with her.
JBH has gotten into my head in an unusual way. I first made a video of her initial Denton visit back in '07, and it took months to edit. The event itself was wonderful - she spoke at UNT, and the evening was sponsored by UNT, the City of Denton Libraries, and Denton ISD. I had a crew (which is rare for me) and I got three video sources and four audio. It took months to edit, during which time I stared at her and listened to the wisdom she had painfully accululated during two years of isolation atop a redwood tree named Luna.
At first, she seemed very beautiful to me. Sexy, young, graceful, with a long neck, long black hair, and a beautiful streak of grey appearing from the top of her forehead. I'm guessing she was 33 at the time. But the more I listened to her, and absorbed her knowledge of spiritual things, integrity, and her treetop view of the sickness of the world and our society, the more like an ordinary person she looked. Then, after a year had passed, when I'd long abandoned the project (finishing was not an option - I could've spent years on it), and I'd forgetten many of her words, I looked at my edit again, and there she was, beautiful, again.
So here's the kernel of that phenomenon, which someone had to tell me (I can't take credit for this insight) - where you see beauty, there you see your heart's desire. My desire was not for her, but for her wisdom. She seemed beautiful to me because her wisdom made her look that way. Big lesson for me.
At the dinner last week, I didn't talk much with her. I'd spent so much time looking at her in my video editing software that it was almost dissonant to see her in person, in real life. It was hard to make eye contact with her. Oh well, I hope she wasn't put off by me. My wife & kid were really charmed by her, during the evening session, and she was kind and genuine with both of them.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Tenacious Music
I'm back at my favorite haunt, after a full day around the house. Tenacious Root is playing. This band has been around for at least 25 years, and they sound better than ever. I wish they had a sound man though. It's a little boomy for this coffeehouse. My bones of hearing are getting rattled.
I've had two beautiful mornings of improvisation. Yesterday was especially rewarding. I wish I'd recorded it. I'm going to have to get something set up to do that. This morning's improv was informed by a little educational video I watched yesterday, by Allan Holdsworth. He was playing a bunch of beautiful chords, and I tried to do something like that. It wound up sounding a bit like Stravinsky. It was exciting, to be able to work with voice-leading, and then abandon that and play widely spaced chords succeeding each other.
I finished sight-reading the first movement of Beethoven's Op. 31 no. 2, the Tempest piano sonata. Now in the middle of the Adagio. Beethoven's sense of humor is all over the piece. I wonder if the music wasn't funny to him sometimes. Could he have been serious? It's so pompous, and the rhythms are so stilted. He had to have been joking when he wrote this.
Well, I can't hear myself think, what with Tenacious Root playing. Why isn't there a music aesthetic devoted to playing as softly as possible, making the audience strain to hear it? Music that fades away as swiftly as it appears? Ideas that barely break the audible surface, with an implied existence before the notes that you hear?
Perhaps that music would be best for an opium den :) Really, my idea for a coffeehouse music would be all acoustic. Chamber music for six, maybe. Harpsichord, cello, flute, oboe, violin, and viola.
Tonight's weather is crisp and clear. People outside are dressed up in costumes, walking quickly in the cold. They seem happy. I should join them outside, and I would if I had the energy. I worked out twice today, and did lots of laundry & cooking.
Still, I'll be driven out soon enough.
Until next time.
I've had two beautiful mornings of improvisation. Yesterday was especially rewarding. I wish I'd recorded it. I'm going to have to get something set up to do that. This morning's improv was informed by a little educational video I watched yesterday, by Allan Holdsworth. He was playing a bunch of beautiful chords, and I tried to do something like that. It wound up sounding a bit like Stravinsky. It was exciting, to be able to work with voice-leading, and then abandon that and play widely spaced chords succeeding each other.
I finished sight-reading the first movement of Beethoven's Op. 31 no. 2, the Tempest piano sonata. Now in the middle of the Adagio. Beethoven's sense of humor is all over the piece. I wonder if the music wasn't funny to him sometimes. Could he have been serious? It's so pompous, and the rhythms are so stilted. He had to have been joking when he wrote this.
Well, I can't hear myself think, what with Tenacious Root playing. Why isn't there a music aesthetic devoted to playing as softly as possible, making the audience strain to hear it? Music that fades away as swiftly as it appears? Ideas that barely break the audible surface, with an implied existence before the notes that you hear?
Perhaps that music would be best for an opium den :) Really, my idea for a coffeehouse music would be all acoustic. Chamber music for six, maybe. Harpsichord, cello, flute, oboe, violin, and viola.
Tonight's weather is crisp and clear. People outside are dressed up in costumes, walking quickly in the cold. They seem happy. I should join them outside, and I would if I had the energy. I worked out twice today, and did lots of laundry & cooking.
Still, I'll be driven out soon enough.
Until next time.
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