General – Zing Blog 2

In the Dead of Winter

We finally got some snow over the weekend, and then it turned really cold the last few days: in the teens in the daytime and single digits at night. Looks like the snow will stick around a while. Of course this meant we got to go skiing for the first time this season. We went Monday, which was a day for for me and Jeannie, and Michelle’s last day at home before going back to school. We got up early before sunrise, went up for day and got home again sometime after sunset. It was a good time, and we all had a good days skiing after getting used to it the first runs. The snow was mainly good, even great for the northeast, with just a little bit of icy patches here and there, easy enough to avoid. Only trouble it was pretty crowded, and by mid afternoon there were alot of kids taking lessons zigzagging all over the place, so we decided to call it day. All in all we skied ten runs, over four hours. Next time Jeannie and I are gonna play hooky from work and go up when the kids are all in school.

All our wintertime projects are coming along. Maintaining good health and good focus. I finished a major chunk of cleaning out my studio over the weekend, clearing the way for new origami and other projects (more on that later). Only downside is Michelle went back to school before we had a chance to watch Return of the King. The Bills are in the playoffs and have advanced to the ACF Championship (once again against the Chiefs, after beating the Ravens in an intense, high-drama matchup), so that’s cutting into our TV time. Ah well, I guess there’s spring break.

Aside: my friend Robert Lang, one of the most accomplished and creative origami artists of all time, lost both his house and his studio in the recent fires in L.A., including a lifetime of literally priceless artwork (much of it has been exhibited at galleries all over the world), all of his tools and his supply of high-end origami paper (I read that Michael LaFosse is coming out of retirement to make a new batch of origamido paper just for him.) and literally everything else except his pets and one origami cuckoo clock. My heart goes out to him and his wife. Amazingly, Robert seems pretty upbeat for the situation, or at least resilient and determined to get thru the current tragedy and rebuild.

Back here where things are more stable, our D&D campaign continues. True to their chaotic neutral alignments, the party decided to open a half-dozen doors at once at the end of the last session, revealing a captive dragon and whole host of goblins. Next session should be fun. I hope they figure out a way to get the dragon to attack the goblins, or that they can run fast. Also they’re on the verge of having enough XP for second level.

I’m also helping Charlie set up a Minecraft server on Martin’s linux box in the cloud. It turns out this is not exactly straightforward, since he wants a modded version, but we’ve made some good progress, and we’ll probably get there soon.

Most of the rest of the stuff I want to talk about has to do with music, and I think I’ll cover that in a separate post.

In the Year Twenty-Five Twenty-Five

The new year has arrived and we’re settling into the winter routine. I’m feeling pretty good for this time of year, I guess I finally found the right combination of vitamin D, activity and rest. I’m working out at full weight, and actually went out biking five days in a row last week in a spell of mild weather. I used to think fifty degrees was about as cold as I’d feel comfortable riding, but I got some gloves and a warmer base layer and now I’m good down into the forties. Today it was thirty-five when I got up and I thought I’d try that, but by mid-morning it started snowing and the temperature dropped. Ah well, maybe that means we can go skiing soon!

We also got out ice skating this weekend, which was fun except for the rink was rather crowded and people were skating in all directions, making collision avoidance a nonstop concern, with very few chances to get up to a good speed. We’re gonna check out the other rinks around here to see what they’re like. In other fitness news, Jeannie has decided she wants to run a 7k race in April and asked me if I wanted to join her. So we’re gonna figure out how to start training for that.

I’m back to work and off to a good start. Meanwhile at home I’m trying to beat back a long list of random tasks and new project, after slacking off for the holidays. Making steady progress and checking things off one by one. A big one we need to do a big round of organizing the house and throwing things away. This was set into motion when Jeannie asked me to into my closet and pull out some old legos for her to used in the toyland town she set up neat the Christmas tree. Things got jumbled up and there was no way to put everything back and make it fit, so there you go. One thing leads to another since we only have so much closet space.

As is tradition, we’re watching The Lord of the Rings movies again. I’m also re-reading the books, which I haven’t done since the aughts (I used to read it once per decade, but skipped the teens cuz I was busy). This time around I’m appreciating how much the filmmakers actually drew from the book in terms of dialogue and plot details, even if things were generally sharpened up and condensed for the movie. Also remembering how much lore and backstory there is, and how many songs in the book that got cut. So far my favorite was the one Frodo sings at the inn in Bree, an epic retelling of the classic Hey Diddle Diddle.

Also deep into some new music projects. More on that soon, I swear, but it will take more than one post to explain it all.

Hot Time Summer in the City

Just some quick updates here, major news in the next post. The hot weather continues. In the 90’s pretty much every day since the second half of June.

We went to Medieval Times last Friday with Denis and his family. Lots of fun. I haven’t been in about ten years. Last time Michelle was in middle school. How she’s old enough to drink. I tried to get everyone in our group to bet on who would win. The black and white knight looked he was a singer in a Van Halen tribute band, and so I picked him. And as luck (or however they determine the outcome) would have it, he won the day.

Been doing more biking, mainly in the mornings and evenings. This weekend we went to Jones Beach. I biked 18 miles along the trail there, all the way up to Cedar Beach and back. Jeannie did 13 miles, out to Gilgo Beach and back.

The Mustang needs work on its brakes. Last time I drove it they felt soft, like you had to press almost all the way to the floor. I looked at the owners manual, and there’s a few things it could be, but probably nothing I want to try and service myself. Unfortunately, it’s been so hot I haven’t really had a chance to check it out further in the daytime, but I’d like to get it taken care of before it gets worse. Ah well.

And lastly, the OUSA convention coming up next weekend. Been working on the model I’m gonna teach, hoping to have the time to get around to some others. Crunch time!

Tinsel Town

The new year is off to a start. Everything is going okay I guess. I’m getting things done and having some fun, but everything feels very slow and tiring. This is natural because it’s the wintertime, and there’s still lots of cold and dark. The days are starting to get longer, but there’s been lots of rainstorms and wintry mix. We’ve finally stared to get some snow. First time last week, but it all melted after a few days, and now last night into today. Hoping we can finally go skiing this weekend. We’ve been going ice skating as a local alternative, a good way to move the body when you can’t do much outside.

Working out has been actually been going well. Often it can be really tough in the winter, but I’ve add weight to my workout at the start of the year, and so far so good. I’ll probably put on a few more pounds again soon. Meanwhile I’ve dropped some body weight, which is also counter to the usual wintertime trend.

Of course winter break is over and it’s been back to work the last couple weeks, so getting anything else done requires planning around that to have a few hours of focus time on the weekend or at night. Just as I was getting into the rhythm of being able to do what I want when I feel like it. Ah well.

I’m trying to migrate my web site to a new host, but there’s just a ton of picky details to attend to. We wanted to get this done by the new year but had to let is slide. Next sub-project is migrating my blog. So soon you may be reading this at a new url, at least temporarily.

And I finished my new song Head Downtown. More on that in another post.

This last weekend we had a sort of make-up xmas, since Jeannie was down with Covid on Xmas day. Lots of good food, games, more legos, music and movies. Mary and Lou came over along with the niblings. And the Bills are in the playoffs, which is pretty exciting.

Visions of Sugarplums

We had a very nice and relaxing holidays this year. Well mostly anyway. Michelle came home mid-week after her finals, and started baking the cookies the next day. So far so good. Thursday I went into the city for an Innovation Lab holiday lunch. That was lots of fun and it was good to see my colleagues face to face. Ben, Ginny and I spent alot of time hanging around talking afterwards.

Lizzy was supposed to come home Thursday, but got into a fender bender pulling out of her driveway leaving Buffalo. She flew home the next day. Jeannie was delighted to see her. That evening we went out to dinner and played legos. I finished my Porco Rosso fake lego airplane. The design was kinda structurally unsound, so I had to improvise some reinforcements. Later we watched the Charlie Brown, Grinch and Rudolph specials.

Unfortunately, Jeannie came down with Covid the day before Christmas eve. The three of us tested negative and went to the family Xmas party on Long Island, this year moving into a new generation of cousins as hosts, at Megan and JJ’s house. Good to see everyone and catch up. They have a bar in their house, and JJ is into different kinds of rum. He’s also into different kinds of alternative and independent music, and wants to help me get set up on Bandcamp.

Xmas eve Jeanne was mostly sitting around or in bed napping. Lizzy was exiled to the sofa bed in the family room so Jeannie could isolate in her office, which was also Lizzy’s old bedroom. The girls did the last of the shopping and Michelle baked while I did the household stuff and we all did the wrapping. Listened to a bunch of Xmas music, best of which was Ella Fitzgerald.

Xmas day just the four of us; we had to un-invite Mary’s and Jeannie’s folks. We all slept in. Lots of legos, I got a pirate ship, Michelle got a zen garden, and Jeannie got an a-frame camp house. Lots of other gifts too. My new favorite game is Ticket to Ride: San Francisco. By afternoon Jeannie was feeling better, and supervised as the girls made Xmas dinner. Roast beast, very nice.

Boxing day morning Jeannie was over Covid but still testing positive. The three of us tested negative and decided to go up to my parents in Buffalo b/c Lizzy had to work the next day anyway. Martin and Kathleen and their kids were there too. Lizzy rented a car and went back to her apartment. She came back at dinner time with her boyfriend Josh. After dinner we opened gifts and facetimed in Jeannie. Afterwards we drank some wine, sat around and talked and played games.

Wednesday was very mellow. I talked to my mum awhile and took a walk around the lake in the morning and went shopping with Martin and Kathleen in the afternoon. In the evening Lizzy and Josh came by again and we all got pizza. Thursday Michelle and I went home. On the car ride we listened to a bunch of new music including Hozier and Noah Kahan, both of whom I liked alot. I turned Michelle on to the new Peter Gabriel record I/O, and some classic records including Chicago and Bowie. This led to me figuring out Lady Stardust on piano, a forgotten gem. I tried to listen to Cortez the Killer but Neil Young is still boycotting Spotify.

We got home in time for a four-day weekend. Unfortunately, Michelle came down ill, though not as bad a Jeannie. I tested positive for Covid too, although I never had any symptoms. So we didn’t get to see any friends, but it was relaxing to hang around, build legos, work on my song, play games and watch movies, and things like that. I’ve been reading alot. Before Xmas I read Geddy Lee’s autobiography My Effin’ Life, and Howl’s Moving Castle, which I like better than the movie. I’m in the middle of two other books now, recommended by Martin. One is about Columbus, John Cabot and Amerigo Vespucci, and the whole discovery of the new world thing. The other is the first of the Discworld series, which is alot of fun, sort of halfway between The Princess Bride and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

A Season of Darkness

It’s been a few weeks since my last post. Nothing really exciting going on. Been getting ready for the holidays. Put up our tree, sent out our Christmas cards. We saw the new Miyazaki movie. It was amazing but he’s totally lost his mind. Lizzy was home for a visit for a couple weeks ago with her new boyfriend. They saw my origami elephants at the tree in the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. Both girls will be home for the holidays soon. I’ve been trying to wind down work for the year, and been thinking about old friends I miss, and how I’d like to make the time to see people. Luckily, the plan for the end of the year is pretty laid back, so it looks like there’ll be some time for that.

It feels like it’s been dark all the time the last few weeks. Only a few hours of tepid daylight before the sun sets in the mid-afternoon. At least the weather has been mainly pretty mild, even warm, and there’s been a handful of sunny days mixed in with the cloudiness and rain. Been trying the get psyched up for skiing, but it’s not time yet.

We did go ice skating the other day, which was lots of fun, and good exercise. I haven’t been on my ice skates in years, and neither has Jeannie. It’s good to know our skates still fit and we remember how to skate. We’ll have to do that again soon, hopefully when it’s less crowded. It seemed like I spent all my time maneuvering around a kid who fell over in front of me, pretty much every lap around the rink.

Even though my energy level has been up and down, my strength is up these days. Usually the winter is a difficult time for weightlifting, but it’s been really solid since we got back from California. My elbow, shoulder and back all feel great, and I just went up in weight on my last few sets of exercises, and I’m going to up on the rest in the new year.

I’ve been trying to lean in to the season by getting more sleep, and although I must say I’ve never been good at going to be early, I find it easier these days. But try as I might, I remain very busy at work right up to the end of the week, which makes it hard to slack off too much. We’re into a new planning season, and things are always in motion. I compare myself to water seeking its natural level as I slosh around to the most needful tasks from day to day. Good news, I may have just gotten approval to add another engineer to my team.

And, just in time for the holidays, The Global Jukebox 3.0.1 is now live. This release was basically a hardening of 3.0, with numerous bug fixes and usability enhancements, an a beautiful new splash screen when you enter the app.

I’ve also been working on a new song, called Head Downtown, and there may a Spacecats record in the offing. More on that next.

New Song – All of the Above

I started this song a while back, when I was in a phase of writing singer-songwriter style things on guitar. The original idea of this one was an uptempo boogie shuffle number in the mold of Can’t Get Enough by Bad Company. As I developed it, it became slower and bluesier and a bit less glib, since I’m not so young anymore and my relationship goals aren’t that same as a teenager’s. So it’s a bit more retrospective, looking back on young love from a distance.

Musically, it’s alot more pop than my last song, but still with some interesting twists. The meter shifts from 4/4 to 6/4 throughout, but is more easily expressed as 2/4. I had the basic arrangement of guitar, piano, bass and drums, with the bass kinda channeling Geddy Lee in the verse. But I felt it needed something more. To finish it off I added a horn section of tenor and bari sax, and an ’80’s style lead synthesizer. It took a little while to get the tone and dynamics right on the synth. Lastly I added some real cymbals, played with mallets, to the intro and outro to support the guitar and bring some warmth into supplement the midi sample drum kit.

I now have six complete songs for my new album, whose working title is Plutonium Dirigible. That’s about twenty-eight minutes of music. I have another close-to-ten-minute epic about halfway tracked, and one more song to record after that. Hope to have the record out by the end of year.

Here it is, enjoy!

https://zingman.com/music/mp3/bzvr/AllOfTheAbove33.mp3

…

All of the Above

I wasn’t lookin’ for a true love
I was just lookin’ for a new love
I wan’t lookin’ for a long love, strong love
Yeah yeah yeah no, none of the above

I seen you out dancing last Saturday
Monday you’re in my class in chemistry
Now I’m thinking ’bout you and me
Let’s get together for some history

If I invite you backstage tonight all right
We just might dance and party all night
Okay day by day into brave and new love

Now I ain’t waitin’ on no old love
An’ I ain’t wastin’ time on slow love
Tonight I’m wakin’ to some fresh love new love
Yeah yeah yeah yeah, all of the above

And maybe if the love grows who knows how it goes?
A few more shows electric glide power slide
Side by side into a tried and true love

So now I’m sowing seeds of strong love
Maybe grows into long love
It all started with a fast love new love
Yeah yeah yeah, all of the above

So tonight it’s fast love new love long love true love
Yeah yeah yeah yeah all of the above
Oh fast love new love long love true love
Yeah yeah yeah yeah all of the above
Hey fast love new love long love true love
Yeah yeah yeah yeah all of the above

– JFS 7/19

The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down

First of all, it’s been incredibly rainy the last week. It rained the entire weekend starting Friday afternoon thru Sunday night, alot of the time sustained heavy downpour. The pond in the neighbor’s yard is in effect, and there’s still puddles everywhere. I left a wheelbarrow outside over the weekend, and now it’s full of a good six inches of water. Needless to say I didn’t get any yardwork done, and the lawn is getting desperate for it’s first mowing.

We went to a party on Long Island on Saturday; Jeannie’s cousin’s daughter’s first communion. It was great to see everyone on that side of the family, especially since we missed the family Christmas party this year due to having covid. A bunch of us ended up hanging out in the party tent in the backyard long after things had begun winding down. It took over an hour to say goodbye to everybody.

I’ve been reading alot lately. First was a book on the Italian Renaissance, focusing on sculpture, architecture and painting, the whole historic and cultural context, and the threads of development among the various famous masters.

Next was a book called The World in Six Songs by Dan Levitin, a famous music brain science writer. I used to work with Dan back in the ’90’s at Interval Research, and has a story in his book about the psychic research going on there to make a point about how hard it can be to design as study to produce verifiable claims in the social sciences. That was fun, I’d forgotten all about the psychics there, and it inspired my to dig out an old song I wrote from those days call Paul Allen’s Limo Driver. Anyway the book was really interesting, all about the purpose of music in terms of its origins in human evolution, and the different roles it plays for individual people and human society.

Then it was a book about the famous John Coltrane album A Love Supreme. Everything you could want to know about the record, its writing, recording, and various reissues. Of course it had alot on John Coltrane himself and his various phases of musical exploration and development, his relationships with Miles and Monk, and the coming together of the classic quartet that was the group for the record. This led me into a deep dive into listening to Coltrane, which is something I hadn’t done in a while. After all this time, it’s still a challenge to grok his later stuff. In addition to A Love Supreme, I listened to Crescent, Ascension, and Live at the Village Vanguard, and with one of my favorites The Gentle Side Of. For all his high energy playing in all keys at once, he sure could shift gears and deliver a killer ballad.

Big Wheel Keep On Movin’ Along

Spring weather has finally arrived. Ah, lovely. At least some days, others are stormy, windy and rainy. Ah well. Michelle was home for spring break last week, which was fun, but pretty low key. She went out with her friends a few times, did some homework and studying, and did some baking. We had game night a couple times, and watched Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part II, which was pretty funny and held up to the tradition of the original. Probably the funniest bit was when Jesus thinks he’s John Lennon.

The season was well begun by spending time outside. I raked up half the yard and filled up my available cans. Need to get some yard bags so I can finish the job. Also got the Pilot washed waxed and vacuumed on the inside, cleaned all the mud and salt off from the winter.

And, I had some time to continue with origami. I completed a model called Dimpled Dodecahedron II, which resembles a soccer ball, and made good progress on my stellated icosahedron. I had done a few studies on that one, but the paper I chose was too small or too soft. Now I’m doing a nice large one out of elephant hide and medium sized on out of skytone paper.

Here Comes That Heat Wave

It’s late July. It’s been really hot out all month. Almost every day over ninety degrees, many close to a hundred. I’ve been watering the lawn most every day, and trimming and edging continues unabated. We went to the beach last Friday. It was a good time, despite warnings about sharks attacking swimmers, and the ocean being unusually rough. It took alot of effort just to get past the breakers and swim for even a few minutes. Luckily no one got eaten.

In other news, Lizzy got a raise and promotion at her job, and went out and bought a new car, a VW SUV. She got pretty lucky and found the exact model she wanted, available and at a reasonable price. So I bought back from her her old car, a Toyota Camry that she drove thru high school and college, and that I’d given her as a graduation present. Now Michelle has a car to take to school.

I’ve been trying to schedule another gig for my band, but everyone is going to be out on vacation a different week in August, so it’ll have to slide into September.

I’ve been working on music in the studio. I have two songs, Slope and My Ol’ Brokedown Truck, that are close to finished. I recorded real drums for them last night, since I can’t re-create the sound of brushes with midi and samples. Sounding real good.