Month: October 2010

Origami Walrus and Elephant Seal

I just completed a new set of models for this year’s origami tree at the American Museum of Natural History. I’ve been working in the space of arctic marine animals, and designed a Walrus and an Elephant Seal. These animals are featured in dioramas in the museum. Both are new designs and I’m pleased with how they turned out. They’re relatively easy to fold too: less than hour and maybe 20 or 30 steps. I’ve been striving lately to create less complex models that still capture some sculptural essence of the subject and think these are pretty successful in the regard. As a bonus I folded a Rocketship and a UFO. All the models were folded out of 12” (30cm) paper, the marine animals out of Canson and the space vehicles out of Tant. While a was taking photos I also included a balloon I folded recently, also of 12” tant. Next up: origami narwhal.

Buzzy Tonic on iTunes

Face The Heat, the new album from Buzzy Tonic is now on sale on iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/face-the-heat/id398782886

My friend John already wrote an excellent review, which includes song-by-song commentary. I’ve never heard Jeannie described as “non-Yoko” before. Ha! Just for the record, on the Who Can Fool Me, the opening riff is stolen from Thelonious Monk and the main groove is inspired by Duke Ellington’s East St. Loius Toodle-oo, but in 7/8 and with a flat 9 in there.

So go over there and buy yourself a copy, and a few to give to your friends. Write some more reviews and help build the buzz. While your at it, go ahead and pick up a copy of Buzzy Tonic’s first disc, The Brothers Zing.

Indian Summer

It’s fall in New York, and Indian summer is upon us. The weather’s been very nice so far, generally warm in the days and cool at night, with a few stormy days. The kids are back in the school groove, and after finishing my record, I’ve been able to start planning the next music project, as well as get back into my origami book. Diagramming the frog this week.

My work situation continues to improve. We got our release finished off a few weeks ago, and it was met with enthusiasm from our customers and managers. Now we’re sort of back to normal as far as the level of pressure and the general vibe. We have a follow-on release coming up in November. Finally getting tot he point where all the well-structured, modular, reusable code I’ve been writing is starting to pay off by actually getting reused. In related news, our corporate overlords did some shuffling of chairs recently. My team lost our nice corner shared office, as it’s going to be converted into a conference room. I got my own office right next door, which is a reasonable tradeoff. View of the Marriott wall, but at least it’s a window. The other guy in the room got sent to cubicle purgatory.

We did get a Prius a few weeks ago after all, and so far we think it’s pretty neat. Good roomy size, good futuristic looks, good handling, reasonable power and of course the hybrid synergy drive is a radical, cool technology. It takes a bit of getting used to. The controls are all electronic. Instead of a gearshift it has a videogame joystick. The car is black and completely silent at low speed, so my friend Erik nicknamed it the Stealth Car. Meanwhile the kids have dubbed it Princess Priia. So far we seem to be getting about 47 mpg. We’re gonna take it on a drive out to country sometime soon for some hiking and pumpkin picking.

Eric Joisel

International origami master Eric Joisel passed away over the weekend. I was a big admirer of his work, truly some of the most detailed and expressive origami ever created. Eric came to paperfolding from a background as a sculptor in clay and wood, had a highly developed style both thematically and aesthetically, and was particularly adept at human figures, faces and characters. You can see some of the best of his work at: ericjoisel.com.

Buzzy Tonic on CD Baby

Face The Heat, the new CD from Buzzy Tonic is now on sale at CD Baby at (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/buzzytonic) So go over there and buy yourself a copy, and a few to give to your friends. If you already have a copy, do me a favor and review the album and help me get some word of mouth going. While your at it, go ahead and pick up a copy of Buzzy Tonic’s first disc, The Brothers Zing (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/brotherszing).

I also update my music pages to link to teaser versions of the songs, just the first minute or too, to give all y’all further incentive to go and buy the CD.