Author: Zingblog 2

Wild and Scary

We usually put our Halloween pumpkin out on the front stoop. The local critters nibble at if for a while, and then sooner or later there’s rain and it starts to turn mushy and we have to get rid of it. This year we haven’t had any rain, and the squirrels have really be having a feast, so it’s looking, uh, really interesting.

In other news, Lizzy turned 13 recently. Yes I am now the parent of a teenager. She’s also now 5’7”, having really shot up the last few months. That’s a few inches taller than her mother. Wow. We had a party for her at our favorite local restaurant, the Oriental Palace. It was in the post-hurricane period and feels like a blur to me. After her birthday party Lizzy went on a shopping date with her friend Ella, who shares the same birthday, and bought lots of clothes. They were very excited.

Meanwhile, Erik and I resumed jamming. At this point we’re a little rusty, but it feels good to get back in it. Like I said, now that my book is done, getting back into playing music is a major goal for the winter. This includes doing a few more live gigs.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Jeanne’s parents house. Not thinking about work for a few days. Mary and Lou were there. They’re in the middle of putting a second story on their house. Looks like they’re off to a good start. It only took a week get the walls, roof and windows up. Lou wants to record and EP of some more of his songs and asked my to produce it It sounds like a fun project.

Michelle is all excited about a new Nintendo thing she wants to get.

Diagramming is Done!

I’ve hit a major milestone on my book. Make that *the* major milestone. All the diagrams are done. Twenty-two models, almost 900 drawings. That’s 123 page without the intro or the photos. Wow and woo-hoo. If I weren’t so tired I’d be all in the mood to party.

It was alot of work and it seemed to take a long time to finish. My publisher was very patient. The last model turned out to require more diagrams than I’d estimated. The American Turkey ended up at almost 100 steps, by far the longest model in the book. I’d figured on 70 or so. But it’s totally worth it. It’s a very popular model; I’ve taught and exhibited it before and it always gets a great response.

And I must say, I’ve gotten alot better and faster at diagramming over the course of working on this book, especially in the last few months.

All that remains now is to write the intro. That should be an easy task by comparison. Soon I’ll be able to get back to working on music, upgrading my we site and a bunch of other origami ideas I have that aren’t part of this book.

Late Halloween

Jeannie went into the city today and said the trains weren’t bad, but buses and bridges are still a mess. I bought gas; long line. We’ve heard back from enough of our friends now to know that a few of them in Brooklyn and on Long Island have suffered serious damage to their homes from the flooding. Trying to see if there’s anything we can do to help. Either way our hearts are with them. And again our home was full of neighbors and kids today looking to warm up and recharge.

Everyone has cancelled Halloween because of the storm, and rescheduled it for the weekend. We finally got around to carving our pumpkin tonight. It was a big’un, too: thirty-five pounds. The theme this year is mustache. Ask Lizzy. Hope this lightens your mood.

More Origami

I’m getting to the home stretch on my book. I have all the models (22) designed and folded and all the photography done. I came up with three new models for the book in the last few weeks. Two were the Cuttlefish and Giant Squid, to create a Cephalopod group along with my Octopus. I tried and tried to design a spider but never came up with anything I liked.

For my last model I designed a Lean-To, to go with the Canoe and Adirondack Chair. I really wanted one more intermediate model. This one clocks in at 34 steps, but most of it is pre-folding and it only takes 10 or 15 minutes to fold. And I got the diagrams done in two evenings! I guess I’m finally getting faster.

I went over to Bob’s one night last week to finish up the pictures, and they came out great. I have only two more diagrams to finish now, the Squid and the Turkey. They’re both more than halfway done but they’re complex models, so they have a lot of steps. After the last drawings, all that remains is writing the intro and the basic steps.

In other news, our big Q4 release of my software at work is in QA now. Really looking forward to taking a break.

Went up and saw Martin and Kathleen yesterday and picked pumpkins and apples and grapes. This seems to have become something of a fall tradition.

The weather has been really warm thru the end of September, to the point where we still have our air conditioners in. But there’s also been a lot of rain. Warm and humid. Until yesterday, when it got cold all of a sudden. Now it’s only getting up to the 50’s and we’ve had to turn on the heat.

Origami Cuttlefish

I’m in the home stretch on my book. I folded a whole bunch of new models this weekend to try and round of the list of photos. In particular I’ve been getting sets of models that go together well for the group shots. I also have a few new designs to complete. One of them is for a Cuttlefish, the enigmatic cephalopod famous for its ability to change the color and pattern of its skin. This has been on my list for a long time. When we were in Florida last month I saw some cuttlefish up close in a tank in one of the aquariums we visited, and I feel like I got a really good sense of what this creature is about. I’d been thinking about how to fold a cuttlefish for a long time, so when the time came the design came together quickly, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. Properly C’htulluesque. It’s a nice intermediate model. Nothing too complex in the folding sequence or diagrams. I folded a few out of different color papers. This one out of an 8” square of Wyndstone. He’s resting, just being monochromatic. I need to find some crazy paper that will change colors once folded!

Froyo Gig

Here’s an announcement that we will be performing live next weekend:


The John Szinger – Erik Blicker Duo

Saturday, July 21 at 1:00 PM.

Beanberry’s Cafe & Frozen Yogurt Bar
265 Huguenot St., New Rochelle NY

Lots of good stuff, classic rock, blues and a good mix of old and new, covers and originals. Come out if you can. This is a family-friendly venue. Hope to see you there!

OUSA 2012

This week it’s been really hot, in the upper 90’s. Yesterday we had a barbecue with family and friends, which was great fun, but by the end I was pretty beat from the heat. Today I’m sitting in the A.C., hoping the temperature will get below 90 before it gets dark, so I can at least go out and skate. Any kind of outdoor work is right out.

Last weekend was the Origami USA convention. This year was an especially good time. I had six new models in my exhibit this year, and feel like my work is getting to a level where it’s among the best out there. I finally perfected my Five Banded Armadillo and my American Turkey, and folded one of each out of a 19” square of Marble Wyndstone paper, which now available in States again. They came out awesome. The only problem with the Turkey is that it’s a color-change model and Wyndstone is the same on both sides. So I’m going to fold another, and am thinking of ways do the color either by painting the paper on one side or laminating a layer of tissue.

I also folded a Fox from a 12” sheet of scrapbook paper, which worked pretty nicely. Also I had three new tessellations: a Penrose Tessellation, a Penflower Tessellation, and a Pent-Pent Fractal. The Pent-Pent is not a true tessellation because it won’t tile the plane without distortion. It would however, tile a quasi-spherical surface and make an interesting 60-sided polyhedron composed of all pentagons. Ah well, put that in the future file. I rounded out the exhibit with some of my best models from previous years. Got a lot of good comments, and lots of people asking me to teach my models.

I taught two classes, one of intermediate animals and one of complex animals. Each was five recently diagrammed models for the book that I wanted people to test fold. It went quite well. The models are very foldable and I got great feedback as far as minor typos and drawing mistakes, and a couple fold sequences that need clarification.

I bought a lot of new origami paper this year, because I’m looking to re-fold every model for my book to take photographs. This year the Source was selling Wyndstone in 50 x 70 cm sheets so I bought a lot of that in different colors, plus a few large sheets of semi-sparkly paper, one of which will be used to fold my Zeppelin. I’ve decided I’m thru with thin paper. It totally doesn’t work with my design style. I tried to fold my Armadillo of some Origamido-style paper, and it wouldn’t hold together.

Of course seeing people is the most fun part of the convention. Many of my usual friends were there. Lots of good eating out and hanging out folding and talking. John M. is in the middle of several new books including one of Stars, one of simple dinosaurs, and one of (intermediate to complex) mammals, and one of horses. Each set of models is excellent and fascinating in its own way. The dinosaurs in particular show a high level of refinement, well beyond your typical beginner fare.

There seems to be a lot of interest in publishing this year. I met my publisher Jon face to face after months of exchanging emails. He seems like a very nice guy, and I have a good feeling about doing the book with him, which is important. He gets origami as an art form, and knows a lot more about books and book publishing than I do. On Monday I was invited to participate on a panel about publishing. Other panelist included John Montroll, Robert Lang, and Yamaguchi, so I was flattered to be in such esteemed company. It was an interesting panel too.

So all in all a great convention. You can see my photo gallery of the exhibit here.

New Recording: Now

Here’s a rough mix of Michelle’s new song, Now.

And at the opposite end of the musical spectrum, I just picked up the new Rush album, Clockwork Angels, and I’m just blown away. Imagine if Rush made a concept album that picks up where Hemispheres left off, but incorporates everything they’ve learned in the last 30 years. This is that record!

Camera Eye

I recently acquired a new camera to do the photography for my upcoming origami book. It’s a digital SLR, a Canon Rebel, something I’ve been wanting to get for a long time but never quite was motivated enough to go out and get. I guess I’m glad I waited too, because the product field has evolved and matured and this camera is incredibly full featured. I have an old, old SLR film camera that was pretty much all manual, but the new camera has automatic everything, plus tons of control for every conceivable mode.

Yesterday we went up to visit my brother and his family in their brand new house. It was a very nice occasion because my Mum and Dad were up there too, and Martin and Kathleen felt they were far enough along with finishing the house moving in to have visitors. They have a beautiful place in the woods. I brought along the new camera and tested it out by taking a bunch of pictures.

Show Time

Major crunch time at work. I’d wanted to take a summer Friday but I had to work. I was waiting on another developer to check in code most of the day, so at least I was able to get a couple things done anyway. I worked over the weekend (a few hours only). Hoping to take this coming Friday off. Lots of stuff backing up. Finally got the Mustang out for a ride on a sunny day, but still haven’t gotten to the body shop.

Major crunch time for origami too. The convention is just two weeks away. Been folding lotsa new stuff and diagramming too. Made a bunch of cool tessellations last week, including a nice version of my penflower and also a true Penrose tessellation. Did another one I call the pent-hex tessellation, but I’m not sure how to finish it, and created a new one I’m calling the pent-pent. Both are fractals. Pictures soon. I finally got my book contract signed, and went out and bought a new camera.

Working on some animals. I want to do nice versions of my Fox, Narwhal, Armadillo and Turkey, since they’re all new models diagrammed for the upcoming book, and I’ll need to photograph them soon anyway. So I went and inventoried my paper supply and started thinking about which model will go well from what paper. The big problem is that three of these model have a color change effect, which relies on the back of the sheet being white, and most of the high-end papers are single color. So I’m thinking about custom making some sheets, or maybe forgoing the color change. If I get done with those, I still have some polyhedra I want to do, plus a new Zeppelin, and working out my Space Shuttle.

Among my random tasks I booked the first legit gig for my group. It’s at the Beanberry café, where we played last year, coming up in July. Two sets, two hours of music to get together. Meanwhile I’m continuing to play open mics to develop my originals. I played another gig at the Purple Crayon Friday night. Jeannie and the girls came out, and Jen was there too, and we all hung out afterward, so it was a good time. I played Get on Back 2 U and debuted Heat Wave. Good response. GOB2U was my second time playing it, and I’d gotten over the hump of worrying about screwing up the piano part and so was able to relax and concentrate more on delivering a performance, and on the vocal phrasing. Heat Wave is just on the edge of my ability to play, but came across strongly. The response was really positive, and a good boost to my feeling like its worthwhile doing this. A couple other piano players there (who were really good) came up to me afterwards. One said it was really refreshing to hear songs that use 7/8 and whole tone scales. The other asked if Heat Wave was a Zappa song, and was knocked out when Erik told him I wrote it. So my music has an appeal to at least some people. Hopefully next time I play it Heat Wave will be further along the not-having-to-think-so-hard continuum.

Meanwhile Michelle sang in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat put on by Young at Arts. The show was really good. Lizzy was helping out backstage, and is her own show next week.

And finals! And the kids have crazy half-day schedule coming up. Oy!