FUTURE BLINDNESS

Hello, here are some unedited recordings of the sounds made when Harlo and I play together—some of them start out pretty raw, but there are parts in each file that certainly merit attention. Let us know what you think!
cookie sandwich
improv 1
improv 2
improv 4
improv 5
improv 6
improv 7

After three txt-msg blogposts, I need to break the streak and provide a proper update. Please do not think I will be txt-blogging less, though, as it makes an excellent threat when Company is around.

My second run of T-shirts went very well - I will be posting photos soon to flickr. The design was an AKA logo called Twin Eurofighters, and most of the shirts from the first run of 9 have been given away. Let me know if you’d like one, and I’m sure we can work something out. Screenprinting is great fun but a bit costly—so far I’m about $300 in the hole from supplies, the sink I had to buy and install, and shirts to print on. Clearly, this is a pursuit that must eventually be monetized.

I’m preparing a very small (but possibly noteworthy) presentation for the Dorkbot “Presidents Day” showing; it is called PissPoll and I’ll have more details soon. You may or may not like this idea. I am concerned that you might not like it.

I was in Harlem from this past Thursday to Monday working on Thenji’s film, which is coming along well. We were supposed to have finished by Monday but the deadline was extended and we’re finishing up next weekend. I hope. My most pressing concern is that I will finish the score and not have a chance to mix it on proper monitors, which neither of us own. Also, the diagetic mix is not yet final, which may affect some scoring stuff. It certainly will be exciting to see it screened, though! (no idea when that may occur).

Harlo was down in New York over the weekend as well; she was filming an interview with DJ/rupture for the premiere episode of share.tv, which airs on Feb 17th on CCTV. I haven’t seen the footage yet, but I’m sure it will come out very well. We went to Raggs of Harlem, a fine old bar, and had a nice evening talking with drunken locals who won money on the Superbowl.

In the last month I’ve gotten quite a bit done, and I have more on the horizon. It is a relief to have my time spoken for these days, and a delight that such exciting projects are on the roster. I will attempt to be brief.

The application
The application is in, and all necessary evaluators have responded. Hopefully, my application is as good as anyone else’s at this point. I am satisfied with my submission, and glad that it is out of my hands.

The Cameroon project
Delightfully, I met Andrew Sempere again recently and he has offered some insight on the chip problem I am having—the one I’m working with is proving difficult to debug. I’ve been working with Harlo on using this power source and looking at other chips that more easily facilitate pitchshifting. I’m considering just gutting this helmet and using it for a cheap pitchshift effect (I assume it can be hacked to change pitches).

The Syncwalk Digital Composition Interface
I’m chomping at the bit to get to the hardware/software part of this but I have committed to do the Cameroon project first. It’s nice, though, to continue to try to refine the operational flow as a background task while walking. I have a pretty complete model in mind now, and it can be implemented in several stages, which will help focus development work along the way.

South Africa Documentary
I’m heading down to New York to finalize the scored parts of Thenji Nkosi’s documentary at the end of the month—there’s also a new song called “Primary Loyalty” that you can hear here:
Primary Loyalty

Screen printing
Harlo and started screen printing this past weekend and had some modest successes.

A Bell
I received a very lovely bell for Christmas and it makes a wonderful sound. I will link to it soon.

I finally, finally found the VHS of an old performance I did with Teresa Marrin Nakra last week, and have now safely converted it to a .mov.

The music itself isn’t the most awesome thing in the world, but I certainly am glad that proof of this exists…I really need something from this to put in my portfolio! As I try to write more thoughtfully about this project, it becomes clearer how much this served as an introduction to the world of physical computing and, in a sense, the process involved in working with emerging technology.

The carpet itself was very cool but a bit buggy. Factors like heat and prior use would seriously impact the consistency of the output, and it led to some frustrating but now-familiar debugging issues. Other things, like Teresa’s imminent pregnancy and my own unfamiliarity with the medium made this a frustrating project at the time. Thankfully, Tim Ledlie was around to handle the software side of the debugging and help me retain a sense of perspective.

We only had a week from start to finish to make our performances, and the title of mine (DON’T WORRY ABOUT ME, I’LL BE FINE) comes from the sampleset I was using at the time. Snips from Disney’s version of “Peter and the Wolf” and R+H’s “South Pacific” combined with pretty abstract (and, upon later reflection, boring) drum and toneloops to make an endless, atmospheric performance that did not go very many places.

I think the best thing about this project was finally getting to just play the damn carpet. I spent many, many hypercaffeinated hours before that night pressing on the thing and listening for trouble, and even watching it reminds me of what fun it was to make sounds with something so malleable and strange.

I’m supposed to be somewhere right now but I’m posting this first—let me know what you think. It is, like most things these days, a rough unmastered/edited quickie recording done while working on “the woods”, a composition environment I’m working on in Max.
I’LL BE LATE

Friend, I have been absent due to a disgusting illness.

Nowdays I’m working on the following:

Respect to DJ C this week for posting a tutorial on how to make a standard dubstep bassline in Reason.

This isn’t the first tutorial his crew have posted, and I especially admire the step-by-step samples and images of the composition process. Earlier, Wayne and Wax’s “Crunk Geneaology” featured a tutorial in the same format followed by a comprehensive if nonchronological podcast.

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES AND YES. Great, thoughtful write-up for an amazing installation of the legendary Blogariddms series. I don’t like paraphrasing or re-posting, so here are the things:

lower end spasm

BLOGARIDDIMS EPISODE 29: “69 ALLSTARS”

I love you, lower end spasm, and I want to do dirty things with you.

I wanted to share with you a recording I did on July 4, 2007 in Somerville MA. I’m sharing it now because, to be honest, unless I’m recording these things for a specific purpose I often forget to put them in my listening rotation.

I quite like this, though, despite its being a bit formless and definitely still at the level of the sketch. The percussion is an early, flexible version of the macro-detune object I’m working on…I like its presence in the song, and I find it to be a more human, lovely timekeeper than the mallets: it’s time on the scale of breaths rather than seconds.
I made it in a Max performance environment I’m making called “the woods”. You can find screenshots on my flickr set.

AKA-Kinds of Flowers

Of course, if you want to see the latest stuff, you can always go to see the data. Please be nice here - if you take something and want to use it, ask me first.