Author: zingblog

Summer Warmup

The weather last weekend was actually hot for the first time. Really feels like summer. Saturday we had a birthday party for Michelle, and Martin, Kathleen and Charlie came down for a visit on Sunday and it was up in the 90’s and we had a good ol’ barbeque. Last night we had a pretty heavy rainstorm, and today it’s hot and steamy in the city.

Over the weekend while we were enjoying ice cream and birthday cake out in the ‘burbs, some nutjob parked a bombwagon literally right under my office window. Luckily the thing fizzled and no one was hurt.

Spring Outing With Origami

We had another fantastic spring weekend. The weather has been great but that means we’re having an early allergy season this year. My hay fever has been going on for a couple of weeks and is peaking right about now, so I can expect them to diminish soon. Compared to other years it’s not that bad. I never had pollen allergies until they year 2000, but then last year they were a lot less severe and this year the same. Weird.

Saturday we helped Lizzy with her project for her school’s science fair. She was wondering if heavier things fall faster than light things (like a rock compared to a feather) and designed an experiment to test her hypothesis. She and a classmate filled out several water bottles with different materials: sand, water, cotton balls and empty (air), and dropped them out of a window two at a time, and observed which landed first for numerous trials, basically recapitulating Galileo’s classic experiment. To her surprise, they all pretty much fell at the same speed, except the empty one, which seemed to be slowed down a bit by the air. This got us into a whole discussion of weight vs. air resistance and shape, and turned out to be quite a good experience for her. She’s already thinking of ideas for her next year’s project. I’m trying to convince her to build a Tesla coil.

Sunday was an origami Special Sessions event at the Museum of Natural History in the city, and I volunteered to teach a class. We made the day into a family outing with the kids. Took a walk thru Central Park to Strawberry Fields (Michelle’s request in keeping with her current Beatles obsession) and to the Belvedere weather station. In the museum Lizzy asked to see the hall of minerals, which was a very cool thing to see, and something we usually overlook when we’re there.

The model I taught was my Turkey, which I developed over the winter. I have not diagrammed it yet and it had been a few months since I folded it, so I was a bit concerned if I needed to be more prepared. It took me a couple of minutes to remember the first few folds that set up the geometry for the whole model, but once I got that we were off and running. The folding sequence for the feet is pretty complicated, but I remembered that as I went and it worked out fine. The tail and head were a bit tricky. I never really worked out a single best folding sequence for either; it’s always a bit improvisational. The class turned out to be a success, but I feel like I should drill down on these details and nail down the best way to do the sculpting. This will be necessary when I get around to diagramming it anyway.

Meanwhile the girls took a class to fold flowers out of ribbons. After the class we headed back into the museum and checked out the marine hall under the life sized whale replica.

Today I used my new library card for the first time. The real library (where all the books are) is across the street from the main library. I have a long list of books I want to read, but I soon discovered the card catalog system there is kind of a mess. It’s all computerized and the listing mixes books from the two buildings. So in the end I just walked over to the fiction section and borrowed a bunch of books from authors whose names are in the S – Z range. Mostly 100 year old science fiction: Shelly, Stoker, Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, with some Steinbeck and Terry Southern thrown in for good measure. I told Jeannie I borrowed seven books and she said “You’re just like Lizzy. Make sure you remember the due date.” Heh.

Spring Brake

The mild spring weather continues and we spent most of the weekend outdoors. Jeannie and I (mainly her, since my back is still recovering) did another big round of yard work, weeding, putting down mulch under the hedges, and starting with the season’s lawn mowing. The kids on our block, led by Lizzy and Michelle, took it upon themselves to clean up the trash down at the and of the street, where there is a strip of no-man’s-land lawn outside the fence to the local school athletic field. Jeannie and I were impressed with their effort and helped them out with gloves, trash bags and some tools.

I got Lizzy a new bike over the weekend too. She’s big enough now for a full size bike, with 24 inch wheels and gears and shifters and all. We went first to the big bike shop up in Scarsdale, and it was all high-end bikes that were more than I was looking to spend, and moreover the place was super crowded and there was no one to help us. So we went to Toys’r’Us, which was a much less hectic scene and they had a good selection of reasonably priced bikes. I encouraged Lizzy to pick a Schwinn, but she didn’t like the color (red and black, too “boy”) and instead picked a pink and white model from a brand called Rallye. It was a good deal less expensive than the Schwinn, and in most respects looks like a pretty good bike. Mountain bike frame with eighteen gears. The shifters and brake handles are made of plastic and look a bit flimsy, so it remains to be seen how they’ll hold up. Also the back brake doesn’t seem to grip as tight as it should. I adjusted it but am not really satisfied. I’ll try again before next weekend, but it’s an important part for safety, and if I can’t get it right we’re going to have to return it and keep looking. Probably hit the bike shop in Pelham next.

I also took a nice long ride (5 miles) on my rollerblades Sunday, which felt great.

Concert — Emerson Lake and No One

One evening last week Jeannie and I saw a rather unique concert. Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, of Emerson, Lake and Palmer played a show of mainly unplugged material, interspersed with stories about their songwriting and touring and that sort of thing. More intimate and laid-back than polished and high-energy, but it definitely had a few special musical moments. Most of the songs were altered or adapted to fit the format. They opened with “From the Beginning” which featured an expansive jazz intro by Keith. Next came an adaptation of the King Crimson classic “I Talk to the Wind”, played in a similar style. Quite nice and surprising. Then Greg switched from guitar to bass and it was on to “Take a Pebble” with a piano solo that segued into a mainly solo piano rendition of Tarkus. I think I preferred it to original. You could hear the piano ideas a lot more clearly, and it didn’t sound so bombastic or repetitive, and I think they tightened it up a bit and dropped a solo section or vamp here and there. Toward the end Keith fired up the Moog and did a combination keyboard and knob-twiddling solo, which left the machine in a state of generating automatic weird noise to ride out the song as he returned to the piano. Very nicely done.

The second set included a versions of “Ces’t la Vie”, “Bitches Crystal”, a semi-successful jam that took off from Blue Rondo a la Turk, a rendition of “Pirates” not quite as good as Tarkus but admirable nonetheless, and even a bit of “Benny the Bouncer” (which Keith claimed is his favorite ELP song), and of course closing the show with “Lucky Man”. At one point they opened the floor to questions from the audience and woman requested to lie down on the stage under Keith’s piano for a song, so he indulged her and spun out a fantastic improvisation for a few minutes. It was nothing I’ve ever heard before but it was reminiscent of several of his compositions, and fairly structured in its use of ostanotos, rising and falling lines and stabbing chords, and I feel like I have some new insight into “how to sound like Keith Emerson” now. All in all an interesting and enjoyable experience. I wish them the best for their plans for a reformed ELP tour this summer!

Origami By Children 2010

Once again it’s time to submit entries for Origami by Children for the OUSA annual convention. This year both Lizzy and Michelle came up with some cool stuff. Lizzy made an original pureland Fancy Picture Frame and folded the Octahedron for John Montroll’s Plethora book. It’s an interesting model in that that it’s unlike most of his later polyhedra, which optimize for size and clean surface layout, this one goes for easy of folding and the general approach echoes the classic waterbomb model. Michelle folded a classic kite base Cat (I have one that I folded years ago but can’t remember the creator; maybe it’s Yoshizawa) and a Candle from Montroll’s Christmas book.

Dual Color Stellated Octahedron

Here’s an idea I’ve been working on for a while. I’ve seen this kind of thing done as modular and thought it was doable as a single sheet, and I figured I’d go for it. Single-sheet stellated polyhedra are pretty advanced, but the color change brings it to a whole ‘nuther level of complexity. It turns out to be a very rewarding shape to fold, and the design is replete with all kinds of interesting symmetries.

The first challenge was to work out how to achieve the arrangement of alternating colors. Once I’d worked that out the resulting (flat) shape would serve as the base for the 3-d phase. I needed two corners to come to the center like a blintz, but offset. Working out the amount of offset for the grid to be the right size was the key problem. It turns out the key angle is 67.5 degrees, which is 3/4 of 90 degrees and easily derived. It also turns out the angle has a slope of 3/2, which is also easily derived from a square grid. From this I was able to work out the arrangement of the squares in the inner rotated grid and the outer triangular grid areas, which correspond to the blintzed flaps. The 3/2 slope made was convenient because the grid is has an integer relation of the unit the whole. Each square of the grid has a length of 2/13 the edge of the paper, as you can see in the crease pattern. Neat, huh?

Another interesting property of the model is that once you’ve made the base and put in the color change squares, the easiest way to deal with the leftover paper on the two remaining corners is to flip the model over and do the same thing. The result is the pattern is the same on both sides, although made with opposite colors, and either side can be used for the outside.

The finished model fold together well and looks really good. I went ahead and made a few.

As an added bonus Lizzy and Michelle were folding bowls and picture frames, so here’s one.

Trouble with the Trees

The first part of March was pretty mild, but all that changed on Saturday. We had a major rain and wind storm that lasted the whole day and into the night. Trees fallen over and down power lines all over town, and lots of ‘em. All day long the trees out our window swayed menacingly, but we were pretty lucky. Every couple blocks a major tree is down, having blocked a road, taken out a power line, destroyed a car or damaged a house. I went for a walk Sunday and everywhere was the roar of chainsaws. Our whole yard is strewn with branches, our patio furniture, and a even few shingles off of our roof, and the neighbor’s yard is a pond. Today the kids had no school because the building had no electricity. Two days later and everyone is still getting back to normal.

My physical therapy was cancelled today because the clinic also was without power, but my back is improving. I’ve taken to pacing around the room during meetings at work, which seems to be tolerated. I’ve introduced some weights to my workout again, which feels good, even though it’s only about half the exercises (still have to avoid some kinds of movement) and about half the weight.

Dreaming About Summer

As the winter continues to wind out its dreary way, I’ve been passing the time preparing three new photo albums from last spring and summer. Ah, look at all the greenery and sunshine. All caught up thru mid-July.

http://zingman.com/fotooz/
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2009-07/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2009-06/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2009-05/index.html

These are in the family and friends gallery, so contact me if you need the password.

Cold Turkey

Now that some things with the weather, work and the recording project have been sorted out, it’s time to get back to origami. My turkey has been sitting half-folded on my desk fro weeks and I finally had the chance to finish it off. Good thing too, I’m teaching it this spring, and need to get all the details worked out.

Daylight Again

Well we’re moving into the second half of winter. It’s still plenty cold, but at least the days are getting longer and it’s the daytime again when I get up in the morning, which is helping with the seasonal blues.

We went ice skating this last weekend, which was a fun time. We had planned on going skiing but Lizzy had to have a tooth pulled on Friday (baby tooth hadn’t started to get loose yet, but the tooth under started growing and pushing up), and wasn’t feeling up to by Saturday evening, so we decided to skating instead, since it’s closer to home.

Been making progress with the music. Last week Erik and I went to do another mixing/mastering session at his studio, but his car broke down on the trip into the city, so that was kind of a bust. Still, I worked on my own on “Green Glove”, on of the two songs that still needs to be completed. This was originally supposed to be a quick, almost throwaway song, a fun little idea to round out the record. But then there were problems with the arrangement, so I’ve be brining a new level of detail and precision to it. I redid the bass part and added rhythm guitar, and then I changed the horn arrangement and retracked the vocals. One important thing I did was to pan the backing vocals to one side and the horns to the other. This gave the whole mix a lot more space and clarity. So it’s getting there. Hope to get it finished next weekend.

We watched the movie “Anvil: The Story of Anvil” over the weekend. Inspirational odyssey of a starving artist. The band is from Toronto. A couple scenes of the film took place in McKellar, Ontario, on the shores and waters of Lake Manitouwabing, where I spent I bunch of time as a kid.

As for other random tasks, I’ve even gotten back to making some progress on my origami book, although not as fast as I’d like. And now that I’m done with the updated music player, I can concentrate on the next cycle on the Foldinator. I still haven’t made any progress on the winter home improvement agenda, but then I guess getting the new appliances can count toward that and other projects deferred.