Live, learn, leave
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!
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.
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!
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.
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!
It’s coming up a year now that I played a gig with Erik, sparking me to rekindle my interest in playing live music. I just got off the phone with the coffeehouse where we played last summer and they want to have us back, so it’s down to picking a date.
Meanwhile, we’ve been able to get together a few times to jam the last few weeks. We’re continuing to work out new material. We’re up to eight originals, and some of the covers we’ve recently learned include Cinnamon Girl by Neil Young, Karma Police by Radiohead, and Don’t Know Why by Norah Jones. These last two were chosen because of the piano/guitar arrangements. I chose Don’t Know Why because we finally have Heat Wave worked out to the point where it’s playable and musical. I said to Erik half-jokingly “If I was a better songwriter I’d have written a simpler tune. Maybe I should learn some Norah Jones songs to play simpler.” It turns out, however, Don’t Know Why is not a simple song at all, but full of subtle jazz chords. Thing I want to be able to do, however, is carry a song with that light, minimal touch. Old country songs are great for that, and she has a heavy country influence.
Learning new songs is an ongoing process. Before I got my digital stage piano last summer I mainly practiced on an upright piano I got when Lizzy was a baby. Songs would go in and out of rotation, and over time I tended to be more interested in instrumentals that pop songs with vocals. I seemed to collect songs that were interesting enough to make my own. I arrived at a point where I had a set of songs that were my standard set. And while they were all great songs, I felt I had plateaued. But now I can see it’s a really good foundation and covers a variety of styles including stride, modern jazz, and prog rock. Some of them have gone down from playing the full song to just a run thru of the parts, skipping send and third verses, and I’ve joined them into medleys. For the jazz numbers I’ll often play thru the head and not improvise, but sometimes I do. Some are hard enough (mainly the Keith Emerson numbers) that I can only really nail them when my fingers are in good shape. I still try and play thru this set last week. It takes about an hour. I played last night – first time I’d played my piano in a while – and it sounded better than ever.
…
East St. Louis Toodle-Loo – Duke Ellington
Powerhouse – Raymond Scott
Pannonica / ‘Round Midnight / Epistrophy – Monk
When I’m 64 / Lady Madonna / Martha My Dear – Beatles
Because / I Want You (She’s So Heavy) – Beatles
Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear – Randy Newman
You Got a Friend In Me – Randy Newman
Got A Match? – Chick Corea
Cantaloupe Island – Herbie Hancock
Josie / Hey Nineteen – Steely Dan
I Wish / Sir Duke – Stevie Wonder
Miami 2017 – Billy Joel (intro) / Take A Pebble – ELP
Karn Evil 9, 2nd Impression – ELP
Digital Man – Rush (intro) / The Endless Enigma – ELP (intro)
Letter From Home – Pat Metheny
It’s been a busy few weeks with real life. It’s been a very rainy month of May. Seems like rain every Mon thru Thurs the last three or more weeks. I haven’t been able to take the Mustang out on any day I’ve worked at home all month. At least the last couple weekends have been warm and sunny, and teasing that summer is right around the corner. I haven’t been able to skate much either, but I put new wheels on my rollerblades last weekend, which makes a big difference, and finally had the chance Sunday. This Friday is the start of summer Fridays at my office, so I get a much-needed break. If the weather’s good I might get the mustang down to the body shop for an estimate.
Last night was the spring band concert at my kids’ school. Both Lizzy and Michelle played, on flute and clarinet. Michelle was thrilled, as it was her first concert. It was a big band, about sixty kids. At the old school it was a dozen or maybe twenty. The week before that was the art show at the school. This was a cool thing that I’d never seen a school do before. Basically they turned to cafeteria into an art gallery and put up all the best stuff from the year’s art classes. Some really nice stuff. Got to mingle with the other parents and listen to the kids beg to go out for ice cream.
I’ve been making progress on music and recording. Last weekend I laid down the lead vocals for Black Swan as well as Michelle’s new song “Now”. It’s a sweet and simple song, yet at the same time deep, in a Lydian mode.. For this one Michelle wrote the music on piano and came up with most of the arrangement. There’s going to be a clarinet solo on it. I told her if she has a third song we could make it into a suite for my next record.
…
Now
by Michelle Szinger
Now is now
Now is the present time
Now is everything
Now is here
Now is not the future or the past
Now is now
Now is now
Now is here
Now is new
Now is not old
Now is not the future or the past
Now is now
Now is now
It seems like for quite a while there in the late winter I was feeling under the weather, but in the last few weeks as spring has arrived I’ve been feeling more myself again. The last few weekends we’ve been spending a lot of time outdoors, doing the spring cycle of work on the yard, house and cars. Last Saturday it was warm and sunny and we washed and waxed Jeannie’s car. This weekend it was too cold to do my car, so we took it to the car wash instead. The kids were thrilled. We’ve also done lots of weeding, trimming, lawn mowing, planting the garden, and putting down fertilizer and new mulch. Probably one more good session and the spring cycle is complete.
But the weather has been inconsistent, so we’ve been doing stuff indoors too. Last Sunday it was cold and rainy, and I was working in my studio with Michelle on her new song “Now”. She wanted to play the piano part on my new synth, so I had to do some re-patching. This led to all kinds of problems with wires, hum and noise, gear not working, and finally furniture breaking. Michelle was a great help dealing with that stuff, but we never got any recording done that day. That night I was working on laying down a bass part on Black Swan, but the groove was just not happening.
I decided I needed to tear down and rebuild my entire studio. The main motivation was the need to move my rack cabinet so I could access the back. This cabinet is basically an open shelf with some x-braces, one of which snapped. It used to hold our TV, until Jeannie got a new TV a few months back, and I swapped it for my old rack cabinet as the new TV stand. The thing is, there’s tons of wires, and I just lifted my rack onto the new cabinet, and ever since there’s been a hum and occasional noise in the system. In order to move the rack cabinet I needed to move my studio monitors too. One thing led to another, and it was pretty much a full day of moving furniture and plugging things back in. Michelle was very helpful again, and in the end I wound up with a freshly organized studio, free of hum. Plus the monitors are now centered on my computer where I do most of my actual mixing work, rather than mixer, which was the center when I fist set up the space years ago, In their new orientation the speakers sound better and fill up the room better too.
As for my bass, that needed some attention too. At one point I was thinking of giving up and shopping for a new bass, but then I figured if John Paul Jones and Joco Pastorious can get an amazing sound from a Fender, I should at least be able to get a decent sound. That’s the kind of sound I’ve been going for all along anyway. Plus my bass has always had good action, intonation and feel. I’d never taken apart a bass before, so I knew I was in for some fun. Among other problems, there was noise in the tone and volume controls, and the strings sounded really dead. Someone once told me you can boil bass strings to bring them back to life, so I thought I’d try it. Then I removed the pick guard to clean the volume and tone controls. I discovered that the nuts that held the potentiometers to the pick guard were made of plastic, and broken, and the knobs were just kinda floating in place. I cleaned the pots and used rubber bands to hold them in place temporarily. Today I went to the music store and got some replacement parts including metal nuts. Meanwhile last night I put everything back together and tried it out.
It was a world of difference. The strings were shiny and sounded amazing. Good bright attack and sustain. Also, cleaning the pots got rid of the noise problem. I was able to turn up the gain on my MBox and record a hotter signal too. So the result was excellent, and I now have the bass part down for Black Swan.
Back in the day when we used to play D&D online my friend Nick set up a pretty comprehensive wiki that included character information, maps, and campaign notes. For a while he even recorded audio of our sessions and made them available as podcasts. I’m not doing that, but I am keeping campaign notes. Tonight was the first night we played in a while, and it’s nice to go back and see the story unfold. So here are my notes so far. I’m continuing to flesh out the world, but it’s funny because at the beginning I had all these big plans for backstory and stuff, but now that we’re into it I’m at the point where I have what I need in my head and I pretty much wing it from session to session.
…
The World:
Europe in the Dark Ages, historically and geographically grounded (So I don’t have to make very many maps) with a fantastic D&D twist.
The Players:
Joy Holly (Mich): H W; orphan witch, good with potions
Emma (Eliz): H W; orphan witch, good with scrolls. E&M are like sisters
Zoë (Jne): H R; rogue w/ a heart of gold (CG)
NPC’s (so far):
Grimli Redshirt: D F, LN; stout and dour, grey beard red hood
Glumli Redshirt: Dw F, LG; quiet and brave, black beard blue hood
Chumli Redshirt: Dw F 1, NG; round and jolly, red beard green hood
Perrywinkle: Half-elf Druid 2-3, NG; acolyte of Ehlona, the Unicorn goddess
The Back Story:
Emma and Joy are orphan witches, being raised in an orphanage for young witches. One night the orphanage is burned down by an angry mob. The girls are out on their own in a cruel, cold world. But they can get buy on their wits, some magic, and some help from their friends.
Each young witch has a magic amulet, one in the shape of a sun, the other a moon. The two fit together. Although they don’t know it, they are related, the last survivors of a once powerful house of Wizards that was split in two by jealous infighting and powerful dark magic. The girls were hidden away as infants, and its their destiny to reunite the family and restore the rule of good magic to the kingdom.
But that’s a long way off. Right now they have survival on their minds.
…
Campaign Sessions:
10/29/11 – Joy and Emma are driven from home, the witches’ orphanage by an angry mob with torches and pitchforks. The orphanage’s headmistress, Anniella is captured. Joy and Emma run away. They meet up with Zoë and get out of town. After a couple of days on the run they encounter a merchant’s party coming back from the Keep on the Borderlands, to the northeast. The party hears tales of treasure and adventure and decides to venture out to the Keep.
11/5/11 – Party encounters 4 goblins on the road the keep. Killed three, 4th ran away. First combat.
12/27/12 – Party arrives at KotBL. Meets company of Dwarves – Grimli Redshirt, son of Groin, and his kin Glumii and Chumli. Spends a night at the Inn of the Drunken Duck. Sets out for the Caves of Chaos the following morning. Arrive at the caves in the late afternoon. Decide its too late to go a-dungeoning and spend the night camping nearby. Return to caves the following morning. Enter cave “D”.
1/21/12 – Party enters cave D. Encounter wandering Goblins – killed all six. All three Dwarves wounded in combat. Chumi drinks his potion of healing, Grimli too. End session with Gri: 13hp, Glu: 7hp, Chu: 6hp. Treasure: 24 sp, 5 sacks of food (12 person/days worth). Goblins from areas 17 and 18 heard the melee and will rush out to attack next turn.
Party Roles: J – treasure, L – initiative, M – maps
1/28/12 – Encountered and defeated Goblins from room 17 and 18 (6 each), plus the Ogre from 22. One Goblin from 17 escaped. Used up 6 more potions of Cure Light Wounds, only two remain. Treasure found: 250 GP on dead Ogre, 17 SP & 33 CP on Goblins, magic dagger, magic short sword. Party current HP: Grimli: 16, Glumli: 10. Characters awarded 1050 xp; everyone goes up a level.
2/18/12 – Explored Ogre lair, discovered treasure incl. gold, a keg of brandy, some cheeses, and a scroll w/ 3 spells. Encountered and defeated 10 goblins in room 19. Women and children ran away. 30 sp. 250 XP @.
2/25/12 – Hid treasure in Ogre cave. Zoe scouted ahead, encountered 4 Goblin storeroom guards; killed them. Encountered and killed Goblin chieftain and 3 bodyguards. Let the women and children go. HP: Zoe 4, Grimli 20, Chumli 3. Treasure: 18 gp, 2 pp, 36 ep, 284 sp, 321 cp, silver cup (90 gp), tapestry 900 gp. Returned to Ogre cave. Met the Elves Perrywinkle and Elvis (and a pony). 250 XP @.
4/14/12 – Went back with Elves to their camp. Elvis taught Emma and Joy some new spells, and identified the spells on the scroll (Burning Hands, Flaming Sphere and Fireball). In the middle of the night, Otterbears try and steal their cheese, party fends them off. The next morning Glumli and Elvis go off, but Periwinkle joins the party. They take the pony and treasure back to the Keep. Party returns to the Caves of Chaos, and enter cave “A”. Chumi and Emma fall in a pit and six Kobolds appear.
As you may already know, I’ve been working on my origami book. I’ve made a lot of progress in the last few months, largely because I’ve had interest from a publisher. Now we’re in contract negotiations, and it’s been going back and forth. There’s a bunch of points, none of them huge but all need to be worked out. It’s a bit frustrating because in general they’re slow to respond, so I’m just kinda waiting to hear back. I’d like to get it all squared away because once we have a deal, the first thing I want to do is go out and buy a nice camera so I can do the photography.
Meanwhile I’ve been doing lots of diagramming, since that’s the major part of the work. Since the new year I’ve diagrammed my Inchworm, Fox, Walrus, Elephant Seal, Frog, and I’m more than halfway thru my Narwhal and Armadillo. I’ve finally perfected the Armadillo. The key detail was the head, particularly the ears. I have only a few models left after that, but one is my Turkey, which maybe my most complex model. I’m teaching this coming weekend so I can test all the new diagrams. I hope to be done the rest by the end of June so I can bring them to the convention.
